I was fourteen years old and bored with everything, not least of all, traveling with my mother. I do have pictures somewhere … I don’t think I’m in any of them because what bored teeny-bopper wants to have their picture taken with their mom? What I do remember about the trip:
My very first croissant. And boy, was I in love.
My first bidet. No, I didn’t try it, because ewww!! (I was fourteen.)
Stairs.
Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower through the window of a tour bus.
The prompt word, “Paris,” for today’s post is brought to you by Kelli! Thanks, Kelli! To find her “Paris” post, click here. And say hi while you’re there!
I love to explore, to discover the undiscovered. Whether it’s downtown Kingston, Ontario
or downtown Tokyo
I live to find out what’s around the next corner when I’m out and about, traveling. Unless, of course, I’ve been on a plane for thirteen hours and can’t find my hotel.
I suppose I’ve been lucky so far to not turn any corners that led to worse things than being hopelessly lost, alone, in the dark, in a country where any modicum of Japanese I possessed had fled my brain cells and been replaced by the need for sleep.
But lately, I’ve been coming across things that I’d rather stay undiscovered. For instance, I didn’t really want to know that my laptop couldn’t be fixed by Best Buy. Even if I’d wanted them to try, they couldn’t ship it to the place where they get them fixed, because the hinge won’t let us close it. And they wouldn’t ship it in the open position, even in a square box. So I’m now on my brand new laptop that’s smaller and less-fancy, and has a power button right beside the delete button.
I was on the verge of bringing it back–can you imagine working on something for an hour just to turn off the computer by accident?–when I realized I could change what the button does in the settings. Now I can safely press it and nothing happens unless I hold it down for a few seconds. Because I seriously don’t want to discover the alternative.
And then there’s Alex, who came home from his dad’s today sick again. I’ll try to get him an appointment with his doctor tomorrow, but I fear we’re going to end up back at the emergency again. Maybe even tonight. I just hope it’s not a new bout of pneumonia. He has a cardiologist appointment next week, too. And though I know it’s better to know sooner rather than later how soon he’ll need heart surgery again, I’m not looking forward to knowing.
On that miserable note, if you want to read a happier story, click the link under “can’t find my hotel” above. It’s a good one.
The prompt word, “undiscovered,” for today’s post is brought to you by Teresa! Thanks, Teresa! To find her “undiscovered” post, click here.
At the risk of sounding like I’m moaning–I never do that, do it?–Alex was home for the day again, still coughing even though it’s been almost two weeks since he came out of hospital with pneumonia.
I assumed they were going to give him his flu shot at school, like they always have, but they’ve stopped doing it. Now I have no idea whether he should get it or if we should wait until he’s completely better.
In all, it was one of those days where you wish you had a parenting owner’s manual. You know those days, right?
Should I send him to school or shouldn’t I? Should I cut him some slack because he might be misbehaving because he’s sick? Or is he pushing my buttons because he got out of going to school and now he’s seeing how much further he can go?
Ugh. Yeah, it was one of those days.
But now he’s at his dad’s, finally. First time since the first week of November. I’m feeling the exhaustion–it’s hitting me like a tonne of bricks. I think I might go to bed. And stay there until Sunday.
Have a good one, my friends.
The prompt “flew/flu/flue,” for today’s post is brought to you by M. Oniker! Thanks, M! To find her latest post, click here.
I’m going out on a bit of a limb with today’s prompt in that I’m stretching to use it.
It was brought to mind by a comment on Facebook concerning my misstep and my broken laptop of the last time I was carrying something precious and I did the same thing. What actually happened, both last night and that last time was I thought I was on the last step but I still had two to go. So when I took that last step, I realized I’d stepped out too far, thinking I was stepping onto the floor. I could have caught the edge of the bottom stair, but I made the conscious decision in that split second to try to take both. Catching the edge of the last stair would have caused me to fall, but I might have saved the laptop. As it was, I decided to save myself instead. All in that split second.
The brain’s ability to make such decisions in that much time is even more astounding than my mad Paint skillz.
I know you’re still wondering what all this has to do with a sunrise. I’m getting there.
The last time this happened to me, I was carrying this guy.
Except at the time, he was only a couple of months old. That time, again I had the presence of mind to make a decision: fall and save what I was holding, or save myself.
I ended up in the emergency room, he didn’t even wake up.
But he did live to see another sunrise.
The prompt word, “sunrise,” for today’s post is brought to you by Toortsie! Thanks, Toortsie! To find her “sunrise” post, click here.
I missed the last couple of steps coming down the stairs tonight with my laptop balanced on one arm and Alex’s feeding pump in the other hand. Guess what went flying?
I’m actually flabbergasted that it still works. The hinges are broken–it’s pushed almost flat–and the screen has come away from the case … I have a picture.
I’ll take it to Best Buy tomorrow to see if they can snap everything back into place, but I’m not holding my breath. So if you don’t see me around, you’ll know where I am …
I have a lady in a puffy sleeveless dress and a spiffy hat, made unintentionally from a poorly peeled-off sticker, on the side of my recycling box.
Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:
1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. I’ll post the daily prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5), every day except for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness (SoCS) prompt–you’ll find that one on Friday morning at 9:30am. That daily post (i.e. this one) will be where you leave your link for others to find in the comment section. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday.
2a. Since today is Wednesday, I challenge you to make your JusJoJan post a one-liner. If you don’t care to, or if you’ve already written your post, no problem. Remember, with One-Liner Wednesday you can write anything – it’s only a prompt to write one line, not necessarily to keep to the same theme as mine. The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
(i) Make it one sentence.
(ii) Make it either funny or inspirational.
(iii) Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.
(iv) Enjoy yourself!
(v) Use our One-Liner Wednesday badge.
#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/
3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will appear at the top.
4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
6. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of theday. You can link any kind of jot back here. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link or close to your pingback.
7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
Gah! I hate trying to write about myself. Which is strange, considering that’s basically what this blog is about.
But that’s not entirely true. The bulk of what makes up this blog is how I react to things that happen around me. How I feel about things doesn’t necessarily state directly who I am, though it gives insight into who I am. It would be so much easier to write a bio if all I had to do was write about how I dealt with someone who was rude to me. Or how I managed to get through a day with my kids.
The question “who are you?” is difficult to answer because none of us are just one thing. “Self” is a complex entity, always changing, always growing. Who we are depends on what we experience and how we age. What we do with our “self” depends on circumstances both of our own choosing and of completely random situations and also, where we come from.
Putting all that in a single biography, on a blog or on the cover of a book, isn’t easy.
That took a bit of a philosophical turn, didn’t it?
The prompt word, “self,” for today’s post is brought to you by the fabulous Ritu! Thanks, Ritu! To find her bio, click here. It’s a good one!
Mementos come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they?
In fact, some of them don’t come in physical form at all. Some are memories, whether shared or intensely personal. Some are music …
I am so insanely happy that Bohemian Rhapsody won at the Golden Globes last night. From the 70s when I first heard the song on the radio, to buying the album (which I still have, so I suppose I do have a memento) and listening to it in my parents’ basement over and over again, all the way to Wayne’s World and the new era of the song, it’s been part of my life almost since my age hit double digits.
I had the immense pleasure of singing “Love of My Life” not once, but twice, to Brian May’s accompaniment at concerts, and though I never saw Freddie, he was there in spirit, I’m sure.
My true mementos are my memories of this. And I’m so glad that the world hasn’t forgotten either.
The movie is amazing, even though they took a few liberties with the timelines for artistic purposes. That Brian and Roger have approved it is good enough for me. If you haven’t seen it, do. If you can, see it at the theatre. It’s well worth the money.
Rami Malek’s acceptance speech last night brought a tear to my eye. Watch it here.
No, I’m not talking about in the Seinfeld sense, so you can please just wipe that idea from your brain right away. I’m talking about my house. My home. The place that rather than hang my hat, I usually toss it on a piece of furniture because there’s some crisis or another taking shape the second I walk in the door.
Someone once said to me that a perfect house in which children live is a house with miserable children. I’m not sure that’s true–maybe there are parents who are just that organized. If so, and if you’re out there, tips are welcome.
Or maybe I just really need a hat rack.
This very short, very late post was brought to you by the prompt word “master,” given us today by Sadje! Click here to find her Just Jot it January post and say hi!
As I sip my morning coffee I wonder if maybe I’m a sap for thinking I could pull off a family supper tonight. Maybe I can find a sop to make it SEP.
Wow, that was a stretch. Bonus points to me! Thanks, Dan.
I had planned a family supper tonight but I don’t have any food yet. I had no idea that “sop” was a synonym for “bribe,” and of course if you clicked my link in the prompt, you’ll know “SEP” is an abbreviation in the urban dictionary for “somebody else’s problem.” Chances of making MY family dinner somebody else’s problem are pretty slim.
My eldest son, having developed an interest in cooking, has been making all our big meals of late, but he worked all night, so I assume he’s sleeping.
Our family supper was supposed to be on New Year’s Day, as it always is, but with Alex just freshly out of the hospital and still coughing, I didn’t want to take the chance that he’d pass something on to my mother who would take it back to her retirement home and thus make me responsible for an outbreak.
I’m terrified of doing this every time I bring her out. Because you never know what germs are lurking. You know, the sorts of germs that you pick up but you don’t know you’ve got until a cold settles in three days later.
It would be handy if we could get sick immediately after picking up a virus, wouldn’t it? It would help prevent the spread. But viruses are sneaky. They work with our bodies’ immune systems–take advantage of it for their own ends.
Okay, this post is going downhill, isn’t it?
Where did I start? Oh yeah. Coffee. Nectar of the gods. Time to pour another cup.
It’s never too late to participate in Just Jot it January! Click the following link to find out how, and see all the other participants’ links in the comment section. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/15/jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-15th/
