Bfth's Boring Blog

Much of the time I feel like I live in a whirlwind.  I'm sure I'm not alone.  It's a world of go, Go, GO!  There is so much to do and remember.  Not that any of it is particularly vital, but at any given time I've got all these little items floating around in my mind.  Things to do; things to buy.  I make lists in my mind and then forget to write them down.  There's work, family, community...all part of my life and all grabbing for a piece of my time. I'm not saying it's bad.  Nor is it good.  But I let myself get run in so many different directions.  I think that's why I forget stuff.   And I need to slow down; take my time when I do things.  Rushing really doesn't move things along any faster.  I may think it does, but in reality it doesn't.  That's something we all need to learn. Nothing illustrates this point more than last weekend... It started early.  Friday was the last day of school (specific...

So God created mankind in his own image,      in the image of God he created them;      male and female he created them. Its old testament stuff; straight from the New International Version of the Bible. It's Genesis 1:27 if you're interested.  (Confession:  I knew it was somewhere in Genesis and I had to Google it to find the exact place.) I'm not a pastor, although I have been called to step into the pulpit a few times and each time it has been an honor.  And I'm not writing a preachy sermon on this page.  But in the light of recent events, the above passage came to mind. I like the version about because it uses the word "mankind."  That means all of us.  God created each of us in God's image.  That means when you look at me; you are seeing God's image.  When I look at you, I am seeing God's image.  When I take a minute to think about it, it's all pretty simple. ...

Yesterday was one of highs and lows for me.  The high was seeing my son "graduate"/ move up from elementary school and celebrating the future of the class as they head downtown to junior high.  The low was seeing our community planning board fail to listen to common sense and the pleas of residents and approving a project that will not only negatively impact the nearby neighbors, but the environment, the surrounding community and potentially the safety of the children who play on the athletic field just a few yards away. I had planned to attend and speak at last night's meeting, but ANOTHER meeting (which also impacts the local community) held me up and by the time I was done with that, the public speaking portion of the zoning board meeting, was closed. I had the following prepared to say:  I'm here to ask you to do the same thing I asked you the last time this applicant came before the board.  It's not to vote for or against.  It's to THINK. ...

Over the past few years I've had to do some painful purging.  Not biological (that would be too disgusting for even me to talk about), but the purging of physical things. In 2012, after my brother's death I did some purging of items left behind in his condo.  Then later in the year, after the horror that was known as Sandy, I helped to purge just about every item in my family's home at the NJ Shore.  Neither experience was easy. Recently, my husband decided it was time to purge in our home.  I have done many "mini" purges in the past (although it hardly felt mini); now was the time to do all full on purge and to stop our basement from becoming a maze of boxes, bags and general piles of junk.  It was a HARD project that for the most part of husband handled on his own.  It was a project that left many black garbage bags in front of our house on many different days. Before I delve too deep, let me say again, that we have a very small house.  ...

It's not why you think.    While it would be nice to win several million so that I could buy a bigger home, take a dream vacation or give it away to my favorite charity, that's not the reason why I need to win the lottery.  Why do I need big bucks?  Higher education. I know, he's barely out of Elementary school and I'm already thinking about higher education. Truth be told, I've thought it about it before.  When my son was born we did start at 529 for his education, but as he gets older and I hear from friends who have children going off to universities or start looking at schools, I get that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Financially, I just can't see how higher education fits into the big picture. I grew up in a middle class family; closer to upper middle class.  I went to college with the help of financial aid and parents and grandparents who helped foot the bill.  Back then something like that was possible.  Today tha...

I tried this morning.  I REALLY tried.  But in the end, my obsessive compulsion pushed me over the edge:  I washed my hair. I've seen the trend.  I've read the articles on line.  Hair washing is overrated.  It might actually be bad for you.  You shouldn't do it on a daily basis.  Shampoo strips your hair of its natural oils.  Shampooing makes your hair oiler.  Shampooing makes it dryer.  Try this new product that ISN'T a shampoo; it's better for your hair and see how strong and healthy the model's hair is.  (You KNOW what I'm talking about.  I KNOW you've seen the infomercial.  Even if you deny it, I know you've seen at least part of it.)  It seems that everywhere I look the message is:  DON"T SHAMPOO YOUR HAIR! An unsurprising confession:  I am obsessive when it comes to my hair.  I DON'T have great hair.  I have baby thin oily hair.  I've tried to make my hair thicker using dif...

In less than two weeks my son will be "graduating" from Elementary School.  I don't know how this is possible.  It couldn't have been 6 Marches ago that we walked him up to register him for Kindergarten and met the Principal.  I remember his small little hand in Mr. A's he introduced himself. I can remember that little boy nervously lining up that September morning in 2010 with the rest of his classmates.  I remember him running out at the end of the day and his father carrying him home on his shoulders.  How could we have gotten to June 2015 so quickly?  How is it possible that the little boy is almost as tall as me (hence, piggy back rides are no longer an option, no matter how much we want to give them) and whose feet are just a big as mine.  (And just to confirm that I slid my foot into his new deck shoes the other day and found them to fit quite comfortably.) So here we are at the end of Elementary School; the third generation to "graduat...

Summer vacation time is coming up fast.  I've got my son's summer planned out and he's going to be a busy boy. Hopefully he'll have a wonderful summer filled with memories that he will carry with him for a long time. As I get older, when I think back to my own summer memories, I mostly remember endless summers on the NJ shore.  But those summer vacations didn't until I was six years old, the summer that my brother was born.  Prior to that my family had traveled to Cape Cod, but being 8 months pregnant she didn't want to make the 5 + hour drive.  Can't say that I blame her. My memories of Cape Cod are very faint.  And sadly, the hotel that we always stayed at no longer exists.  The Melrose Inn on Rt. 28 in Harwich Port, MA was our destination during my early summers.  Today it is a retirement community and although on the outside it looks a lot like it did when we visited, it's not the same.  I know there are a few photos (somewhere) ...

Unless you've had your head buried in the sand for the past couple of days, reading my post headline/title, you know who I'm talking about.  It's all over the "news;" or what passes for news these days and Caitlyn Jenner will be on the cover of the next issue of Vanity Fair. All this is much ado about nothing; at least from my standpoint. Now I'm not saying that the issue is unimportant. I'm not saying learning about the facts and understanding is unimportant.  I'm saying that as far as it goes for me, it's not that big a deal. And it wasn't that big a deal when a friend of mine called me several years ago and told me she was about to become "John."  I thought it was a little strange and maybe even weird, but it didn't really matter to me.  I'm sure it was monumental for John and all that he had to go through; when I seriously think about it (and I really didn't) it must have been very difficult.  (Especially ...

I grew up at the Jersey Shore.  From the time I was 6, part of my summer was dedicated to that stretch of beach that ran from Point Pleasant to Island Beach State Park.  It might have been a week, a month or even a summer; I don't think there's a summer on record since that year I turned 6, that I DIDN"T spend time at the Jersey Shore.  And since I'm older than I care to admit, I've seen a lot of changes. When I was a kid (or as my son would say, "Back in the day"), whole days were spent at the ocean.  You went up in the morning (lifeguards were on at 10) and maybe you went back to the house for lunch (food not allowed on the beach; a rule that was once respected) and then you went back to the beach again until the lifeguards went off duty (or later).  Maybe you spent part of the day sailing on the bay (and you could even swim in the bay way back then; although you never wanted to put your feet down and touch the slimy bottom).  Or maybe you spent th...