Soon I will have a website.
My brother James put me on to some free internet space, and I bought a name for ten dollars a year from GoDaddy. Mary told me about DreamWeaver software, which makes doing websites so much easier. Russ has the software and will install it for me. So, in a little while, I should be providing a dot-com address, in case you are interested in visiting my new website.
This website will be a kind of “scrapbook” of my favorite entertainments, a place to store images from my favorite TV and movies, and also make comments and gush about how wonderful they are. When I was a pre-teen I made scrapbooks about the Cowsills and the Monkees with picture I cut from Tiger Beat and 16 Magazine. (I still have one of those scrapbooks on my bookshelf, btw.) This will be like that…only more grown-up and sophisticated.
I still plan to keep up this LJ, as this is much more personal, but in the future, entries about shows, movies, books, and general artistic observations will go to the website.
In anticipation of this new venture, I just now perused the entirety of this LJ, to see if there were any entries I would like to bring to the forefront on my new website. It was an interesting trip down memory lane, going all the way back to July 2, 2005. That was almost three years ago!
Look how much has changed in my life over the last three years!
I have to confess: though generally I am very happy and excited about life, always looking forward to something new and wonderful, every so often (I guess it’s now that I’m getting so much closer to that menopausal age) I get into a little funk, thinking “I’m old. At least I’m older than I’ve ever been. So much more of my life is now behind me than is in front of me.” Thoughts like that can be depressing. I don’t DWELL on them, but as a matter of fact, I have to admit it’s true. I’m not a Spring chick anymore. This is the Autumn of my life.
So on the one hand…yes, it’s Autumn.
But you know what? Autumn has always been my favorite season. Especially now that I have developed an interest in college football!
Yes, I know that sounds somewhat flippant, but as a matter of fact, it’s not at all. In fact, that’s my point exactly! I’m fifty years old, and I have JUST NOW developed this new interest. I’m a little late to the game. But I’m here.
Where does it say that we always have to be who we were? Where does it say that there is an expiration date on the ability to change? We can always do something different, live in a new place, try new foods, listen to new music, have new experiences. Going over the last three years of my life in my LJ just now has made me realize anew how much life is always moving, always changing. It’s absolute foolishness to think that once you reach a certain age that’s going to stop. At least it shouldn’t stop.
Case in point: we rent our house from Russ’ great-aunt who is in her mid-eighties. She still has all her senses. She drives, goes out to lunch with friends, attends church, gets her hair done at the beauty parlor once a week without fail, has people over to play cards every Tuesday evening…and she gets very excited about college football!!! She and Russ have great conversations about football. It’s amazing to listen to. And it’s inspiring.
That’s the kind of old lady I want to be. Still kickin’. Okay, so I might be getting close to menopause, but, God willing, I’m certainly not close to the end of my life. And even when I am close to the end of my life, I want to be enjoying it, right up to the very last moment.
The last three years have been very eventful. I may not experience the same degree of excitement in the next three years (kids going off to college, meeting my soul mate, moving to another state, getting married, getting a new job, etc.) but it’s entirely possible that in the next three years I might:
Finally lose all this extra weight that’s been plaguing me for so many years!
Buy and move into a nice, new house!
Have one or more of my novels published!
Move up into a better paying job!
Take several great vacations!
See Alabama Football become a force to be reckoned with!
Yes, the future lies ahead. No matter how much future there may be, all of it always lies ahead. As I said…the game is not over yet!
(And btw, this just occurred to me: the fact that I have a desire to create a “scrapbook” means the creative juices are still flowing; the fact that I maintain more than a passing interest in “entertainments” means the film studies student is still alive in me somewhere; and no matter what my chronological age, I think that the pre-teen I once was has never completely left me.)
Hey Chrissy – it’s me again!! Have you guessed who I am from the last message I left? It’s Lori!! Anyway, I have a memory for you. Do you remember when you lived in Floral Park, there was that corner store that you used to go to all the time, and there was a really mean lady that worked there, so you were kinda nervous to go? I don’t know why that always stuck in my mind, but I remember thinking how cool it was that John was allowed to go there by himself. It was like a block away from your house. It will be interesting to see if that sounds familiar to you.
LJ
Hey, Lori! No, I didn’t guess it was you! I didn’t know who it was, so I didn’t want to make any guesses and insult anyone. But it’s good to hear from you. I hope everything is going well for you.
As for your memory, I think the store you are refering to was “Ollie’s” and Ollie herself was the “mean lady.” Only I don’t think she was really so mean. I was probably afraid to go in there because for a short while my friends and I (which may or may not have included your sister!) had become petty thieves and were stuffinf our pockets with candy we weren’t paying for. One time she gave us a look that let us know that she knew what we were up to and we had better not do it any more, but she never made us empty our pockets right there. Yes, come to think of it, I do remember that after that I did not want to go into the store, and when we were down at that end of the block, I had all my friends call me “Bernadette” thinking that if she heard us she would be confused and think I was somebody else. LOL!! Thanks for the memory.
The other thing I remember about that store was that you could get those 2-stick popsicles for only a nickel! And in the summertime, she always had interesting flavors like coconut and banana and pineapple!
Anyway, it was good to hear from you. Do you stay in touch with your sister much? You can get my email address from her and drop me a line some time if you want, I would love to hear from you. Also tell Donna I would love to hear from her as well. We kind of fell out of touch recently, but I love keeping up with everyone, whenever I have time.
Say hi to your mom and dad as well!
Chrissy
Ollies
Hey Chris, your brother John here… I saw this post and had to add my own Ollie’s experience.
I was about 6 or 7 years old, it must have been autumn as I was wearing a thick / heavy coat, and found myself at Ollies one afternoon after school. I can’t remember the specifics, but I know I went into the store specifically to steal a candy bar. This was my sole intent, not a spur of the moment idea, but rather a crafted plan.
I was in the store, bumped around (the isles where very small, even as a small child it appeared as a cramped tiny little place) and already having slid a candy bar into my pocket, I went to the front and took out a pretzel stick (2 cents) to pay for it. I knew I had to create a diversion to get away with the more expensive candy bar stashed away in my pocket.
Ollie was behind the counter with an older woman (her mother, I think) smoking a cigarette. Before she took my 2 cents she began to speak to her mother about how she knew me, the boy down the street. She called me by name, she knew I was John, Dorothy’s son. She went on… I was a good boy, not like those others who caused trouble and would steal. Dorothy’s son was a good boy.
She took the money, and didn’t say anything else.
I quickly left; I started to run, all the way down the street back to our house, never looking back. I had a sick, troubling feeling inside. Not so much because I had stolen, but because I had deceived someone about my true personality, I wasn’t the good boy she proudly proclaimed to her mother that I was; I couldn’t be trusted… In my mind Ollie thought I was someone I wasn’t, and this truly bothered me.
I look back now and I know she must have seen me take the candy. But, instead of calling me out right then and there, she let my conscience work on me.
I went back to Ollies probably a hundred more times after that, and I never stole from her again. She taught me a very valuable lesson all for the price of a candy bar.
Re: Ollies
Haha! What a great story! And very similar to what happened when my friends and I went in one time to steal candy. Our coat pockets were full of candy, and I remember that she looked at us when we bought our two-cent pretzel (or whatever it was we were buying to—as you put it—“create a diversion”)—and she said, “Is that ALL you’re buying?” And we said yes. And she said, “Are you SURE???” That was when we strongly suspected that she must KNOW what we had done, but she didn’t call us out on it. I think after that we stopped stealing candy.
So…it seems that Ollie was a very smart lady when it came to dealing with us minor thieves. Either she was highly perceptive, or we were TERRIBLE thieves. Or maybe a little of both, haha!
Re: Ollies
OK, Terry here -My turn to fess up on the Ollies thievery ring. Yes, I too will admit I took ( I will explain why I dont say steal in a minute) from Ollies store. The first thing I remember is that her front door was neither on the North or West side of the street. It was right on the corner which is why I always thought it was the “corner” store. I thought that was very awkward not having a “real” address. I thought it was cool though. The other thing I remember in retrospect was taking a note from Mom saying it was OK to sell us a pack of True Blue cigarettes for her. She always gave matches with that also. Yes the store was very small. I wouldnt even say there were aisles, just enough room to turn around in. As far as the candy- I didnt steal it for the fact that after I returned for a visit when I was an adult I believe I fessed up to her and paid for what I had taken as a child. Funny, I never knew that she knew that we were trouble.