Thursday, March 28, 2013

Clumsy Day

I think it's going to be a clumsy day. I can tell by the feel of my feet as they move across the carpet and how my hands grasp the coffee cup. I tumbled my coffee over onto the floor this morning. It wasn't a long ways down; it got the couch first. "Jesus Christ!" I bumbled. My mother used to say that a lot. I don't say it often, but I wasn't in the mood to drop an F-bomb. I went calmly to the sink. I was just settling in with my keyboard, too, but had to stop to clean up my clumsy mess. I'm still enjoying my cup of coffee and am ready to brew another pot in the mini Mr. Coffee.

It started raining again. I felt it in my bones. Usually the pressure is first felt in my teeth and then it reaches my head: A human barometer. I know there are others out there. It's a strange thing.

Thanks to Nancy Brady's (Nan's) blog about postcrossing I have discovered this wonderful site that allows you to send and receive postcards from around the world. She previously wrote a blog about her discovery of postcrossing, but it wasn't until her blog, "Postcrossing and Irony" that my curiosity and memory was awakened, taking me to my youth when I used to have a couple of short-lived pen pals. Postcrossing, is not a pen pal site, but I like postcards and I know I won't be able to travel the world, so this is my little way to do that. So far I've sent a little over a handful and have received post cards from Germany, Russia, Taiwan and Norway.

Nan sums up the experience quite well here: http://redroom.com/member/nancybrady/blog/postcrossing

Read all about postcrossing at their website: http://www.postcrossing.com/

Today I will place postcards in the mail to Germany, Ukraine, Russia, and Republic of Belarus.

I stepped away to refill my coffee and the little round milk lid flipped into the coffee cup. It truly is going to be a bumbling, fumbling Thursday!

I've been reading The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. It's the story about a mother and son who start a "book club." Knowing that her life is coming to and end, they make the most of it by sharing their love of reading. I'm almost half-way through the book. I love reading books about books.

On a personal level, this book is offering me a missing perspective about my mother's experience with chemo-therapy. As a child, I went with her to many doctor's appointments and I saw her pain, but she also had a way of deflecting it, of acting out in anger to those around her. This book offers me a glimmer of something–my mother was a private person and she didn't discuss the details of her illness with us. I remember sitting in the doctor's office when she found out she had breast cancer. The doctor looked at me and then to her to ask if she wanted me to sit in when he explained to her about her illness and the prognosis. She left me sitting there. I knew this was something terrible. So many doctor's visits. So many other things. Even today, when I visit my uncle, he tells me my mother didn't tell anybody anything.

This book somehow connects me to my mother's experience, even though the cancer is different. It provides a little more closure and understanding of what she was going through, that my young self, all those years ago, couldn't completely comprehend.

7 comments:

Optimistic Existentialist said...

I have a clumsy day like every day :)

I am intrigued by the postcard idea.I hope you have a good Easter weekend Rebb!!

ZACL said...

What is a mini Mr Coffee?

We all have clumsy days. On occasion, it can be due to a vitamin or mineral level drop, like in pregnancy. Not that I am suggesting anything of the like here. Hormones can play the same tricks. Then again, it could just be a bad hair day.

Yesterday, I kept catching myself going to the fridge to put things in it that should have been in the oven, and vice versa, apart that is, from a milk lid that popped itself into a sauce I was whisking. :) It was a bit different to the rest of the reigning or prevailing nonsense.

Rebb said...

Everyday, Keith!? I don't know if I could get used to that. ; )I do notice as time goes on though, there are more clumsy days...I guess I just have to accept it with a smile. : )

The postcard exchange is fun. It's random an who you send to is not who you receive from, so it's always a surprise.

Thank you...Happy Easter weekend to you too!

Rebb said...

ZACL, Mr. Coffee is a brand of coffee machines and they have a small version, which brews four cups instead of 10 or 12. They even made a Mrs. Tea. Is there a leading brand of coffee maker in the U.K?

I think my hormones might have something to do with the clumsy day.

I've almost put things into the fried that shouldn't be there. You made me chuckle with your last comment, ZACL. : )

ZACL said...

There are various brands of coffee making machines, but, not Mr 'anything'... as far as I know. There are the machines that only brew with a capsule, (they're not for me). There's the semi-professional ones that grind and brew, then there's the hot water filter machines that create coffee according to your personal preferences from ground beans. There are various sizes of water reservoirs, from 4-12 cups. The cup measures are continental small ones; so, a 12 cup will make ~6 cups, depending on the size cup you use.

I use a water filter machine, with ground beans, and I also have a grinder above the machine. If I fancy grinding my own favoured brand/s I use those beans- ground as wanted-instead.

In addition, I have two small cafetiƩres, that give about two continental size cups to drink.

Optimistic Existentialist said...

I look forward to your next post :)

Rebb said...

Thanks for sharing about the different coffee machines, ZACL. I didn't know what a cafetiƩre was.I looked it up and I think I've seen them in the stores. We need a new coffee machine at work. I don't drink the coffee there, but the men must have their coffee all day long.

Thanks, Keith. : )