Bfth's Boring Blog

We're in the middle of Holy Week.  Lent is wrapping up and soon it will be Easter and I can enjoy my chocolate and wine without guilt. I have not made this a very Holy Lent.  I usually TRY to be reflective.  I usually focus on the season and what it means (with various degrees of success).  This year...well I'm just not "feeling" it.  I've been going through the motions.  I haven't focused on the season; I've just gone through it. It probably has something to do with the fact that I'm feeling the loss much more this Easter than I have for other holidays; my parents have passed and my son will not be coming home for the holiday.  My father was always one to buy me a chocolate bunny for Easter; it was a given.  Last year when he was not well enough to even do so online, I bought him chocolate bunny ears in the rehabilitation facility that he was in at the time.  (I'm not sure if they ever got eaten.)  And this past Monday I attended a service where w

   Last week my cousin came from across the country for a visit.  We rarely get to see each other (living in different time zones is only part of it) and it was a treat to spend some time with them, especially since when we usually get together it's for a sad occasion.  (Their father and my father were brothers; both of which are now deceased.) This time that was not the case.  My one cousin had never met my son and the other had only met him when he was a little boy.  (He's not so little anymore!)  However, they were not just on the east coast to see us; they wanted to spend time with our respective father's remaining sibling.  And while we were all spending time together, we also did some organizing.  Because life gets away from all of us and getting organized and taking care of the non-day to day easily gets put off.  ( https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/take-care-of-yourself.html ).  It's something that we all do and while I'm trying to rectify it in m

 Spring arrives later today.  While much of March has felt like spring (temperatures have been above the norm), today is definitely feeling winter like.  (Did I see a flurry or two while I was waiting for the bus?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Neither would surprise me.)  I've got cold hands, cold feet...I'm feeling the cold. Nonetheless, I am wearing a green dress that is better suited for a spring day than a cold one like today.  I threw a sweater over it to keep me warm.  (Though it's not warm enough for me at this point.)  I would have been better off wearing a sweater and slacks, but I specifically chose this dress today.  I wanted to wear this deep green comfortable dress with my green  Vivaia  flats (note:  they are stylish and comfortable, but not AS comfortable as I would like; despite being wide width there is still some pinching on the pinkie toe of my right foot).   I know you are thinking that St. Patrick’s Day is past.  I didn't wear it in honor of the holiday.

Last week I wrote (again) about my ongoing issues with  Computershare  ( https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/computershare-ruins-day-again.html ).  With both my parents passing within a year of each other, I feel like the past two years has been a mess of dealing with certain financial institutions.  (Note:  Not all financial institutions have been a nightmare, but the ones that have really wear you down and exhaust you.  I am so grateful to the handful or organizations that have actually been helpful like TD Bank and RBC.)  As I see it (from an ordinary person's point of view), these gigantic organizations have two issues:    They are so large and you're so small that you can't get a customer service person to help you. They are so large that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. I realize that I am small and unimportant in their eyes.  (Sorry I'm not worth millions, or maybe I should make that billions, of dollars.)  I

I thought that Friday would be a good day.  My son is home on spring break (after acing one of his midterms -- we don't know about the other yet).  I delivered Boris Riab prints and a dozen or so Limoges pieces to an auction house who actually wanted them and thinks they can sell them.  (They have been lurking at the shore house for way too long.)  It was warm outside and mostly sunny.  Spring is in the air (for now), which makes everyone's spirits lift.  And then... I got yet another letter from  Computershare .  They REQUIRE "a Certified Letter of Appointment if you are signing in the capacity of an estate representative.  A Letter of Appointment must be certified by using  one  of the following two methods: 1.      An original court-certified Letter of Appointment date within 60 days of the request; OR 2.      A photocopy of the above document dated within 60 days, being an original Medallion Signature Guarantee Stamp." I don't have a court certified Letter of

This is a reminder.  You need to take care of yourself.  In order to take care of others, you need to take care of yourself.  Remember when you're on a flight and the oxygen masks drop down, you need to put on your own before you can help others.  Makes sense:  how can you help others if you are in no condition to do so.  You need oxygen so that you can make sure that others are getting taken care of. But we frequently forget that.  We put others ahead of ourselves.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we need to take care of ourselves. One of the reasons that I think (and I have no proof of this) that my mother developed so many health issues (which eventually led to her death) is because she was so focused on my dad and his health issues that she ignored her own.  My parents had live in help towards the end of their lives, but they really needed help sooner.  It took my mother being hospitalized in the fall of 2021 that made them realize that they needed additional he

  I know today is NOT a Friday.  It is; however, March 13th and I'm thinking (though I am not certain) that this may be the first March 13th that I've been in an office since 2019.   March 13th, for me, is the day that Covid became a reality.  I left my office (which was then in the marshlands of NJ) that day knowing that I would be working from home the next day, but I fully expected to be back in the office on Monday.  I had heard nothing different.  The reason that I wasn't coming in that Friday was because the schools were closing for two weeks (?) and my son had to get everything out of his locker.  It was a half day and wanted to be able to pick him up if he needed it.  (Note, he did not.)   I remember the day started out rainy.  My husband and I dropped our son off at school and then hurried to do our weekly shopping at  ShopRite .  We were later than usual (and "back then" the store didn't open  until 7 AM, now we are there before they open at 6) and t

  No, I'm not talking about that lion!  (It's a charcoal sketch that was done by my great uncle nearly 100 years ago.  He was quite an artist and during his brief life he did some wonderful sketches; many of which I have framed and hung in my house.  However that's a blog post for another day...a day that I need to get to soon!) I'm talking about the old saying that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Although this March has been sort of lamb/lion/lamb/lion...Or maybe it's more like  this .  Am I wrong when I say that March might be the most psychotic of all the months of the year? Today that March wind is ROARING.  And while I like a gentle breeze and some wind doesn't bother me, this whipping wind kept me up during the night.  It's the reason why I decided not to stay at the shore yesterday.  (That and the fact that there was flooding on area roads.  This time I did manage to get in and the house was fine, but getting off of the highwa

 A good  night's sleep (hoorah!) and a sunny day can do wonders for my mindset.  I'm feeling really good today and I'm not even at my "happy" place (at the shore looking at the water and wildlife).  I'm hoping this feeling continues on through the day and into the weekend (which is supposed to be wet). I'm thrilled that I've gotten good sleep over the past two nights (let's hope this is a trend that keeps up) and happy that the sun is out in full force.  Maybe if it gets warm enough I can even sneak out for a few minutes and get some "fresh" air.  (Or at least as fresh as it gets here.)  The temperatures are not as high as I would like them, but then again, it's still early March and spring is officially 11 days away.  (Although for some reason I keep thinking that it's the middle of March...why am I so confused?)  So my mood is high and I hope to keep it there. Some other things that are making me smile: I finally saw my

 For almost two years (come April), I've been riding the bus from my town to Newark to go to work.  Two years in and I'm still not thrilled with the whole process, but as they say, it is what it is. When I started commuting regularly (which would have been in the fall), I liked to take the express bus from my town that brought me right to Penn Station.  From there it was a quick walk (inside, thanks to the elevated walkways that lead from Penn Station to a variety of buildings in the area) to the office.  There were some downsides to the express.  The first being that it was a 20+ walk from my house to the stop (which is in the middle of town, where I live towards the outskirts).  When it's nice out, I don't mind the walk.  It meant leaving the house around 6:30 to walk WEST to get on a bus at 7:01 to go EAST (well, actually southeast) to the office.  Because I am an anxious person, the morning walk was often a course of apprehension as I didn't want to be late. 

 Rainy days and Tuesdays always get me down... That's not how the song goes, but... Tuesdays do tend to get me down since I don't have to physically go to the office on Mondays (for the most part).  So in a way, Tuesdays are my Mondays.  Or they are my commute Mondays, since I do work from home most Mondays.  Which means I can take a little more time in the morning as I am not packing up lunch and "preening" for work before running out the door to catch the bus.  (During which time any "preening" that I've done is destroyed...my hair is never going to look great if I'm waiting for a bus or the city subway.)  The fact that it's a rainy Tuesday does bring me down a bit and I'd definitely like to still be at home sipping coffee that my husband made (because he makes great coffee), catching the end of the first hour of  CBS Mornings  in more comfortable (and less "dressy") clothes before running upstairs to the "office" to sta

 It was four years ago...not the exact date (actually in looking it up, it was March 8th), but it was a Sunday and it was a warm Sunday, like today.  Surprisingly early in March to be so warm, but there you have it. I remember this because it was the day after the final performance of my son's first high school musical.  ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood , which I saw all 4 performances of and each was different and each was amazing.)  Yesterday, I saw the high school spring musical, without my son (who is now in college).  Many of the performers are friends of my son's.  "Kids" that I have known for 4 years or longer. It was strange to be there without him...either in the show or in the audience.   Before he was in high school I used to take my son to see the musicals...it started out because I wanted to see a particular show that was being directed by my former English teacher and I couldn't get a babysitter.  So we brought my son along and it became a tradition,