Writings by Diane

I have noticed lately I have picked up a new interest: hand made soaps. There are two incidences that introduced me to this world. The first incidence was perusing YouTube and stopping at a thumbnail of a soap maker's reaction video. I clicked on it and enjoyed the humorous take of the soap maker. She was down to earth, spunky and informative at the same time. Then I clicked on her channel and was intrigued by the vibrant colors and decadent designs. It was a mix of being soothing and fun.  The second incident was a feed from a soap company that was on my Facebook page.  Their glorious photograph of a swirling black raspberry hand made soap defied what I thought soap could be. If I didn't know any better, I would have sworn it was a dessert. My mother would at times describe colors as being yummy and this soap fit it to a T.  What is it about this mundane item like a soap bar?   I wonder if it has to do with seeing all of the news about the importance of hand ...

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in my car outside of the hospital playing solitaire on my cell phone, waiting for my husband to receive some stitches. Typically, I would be back with him lending at least moral support. Now with COVID-19 precautions, the new normal required me to remain in the car. I must admit, I felt a bit annoyed, even though  it was a routine procedure and my absence was minuscule.   As I looked out the windshield, I reflected how I never thought I would live to see things like this happening--the reports of new cases, death tolls rising. I was amazed that my regiment for going out was donning a mask and keeping a healthy supply of hand sanitizer. This train of thought put me in an upset mood.  Then, my gaze fell upon a heavily pregnant woman walking along the path on her way to the hospital. The sight of her brought back memories of when I was pregnant. I remember how our friends and family were able to visit the hospital before the actual birth a...

One morning, I was cutting up radishes and I was suddenly reminded of my dog Trisha. Trisha was a Labrador Shar Pei that we lovingly called a LaPei.  When I would be prepping radishes, she would sit by my side, and look up at me with her limpid brown eyes. I couldn't resist and would toss her at least one radish.  She would chew it up and would even stick around for the wispy roots and short green stocks. With Trisha around, there was no waste of this vegetable. Sadly, she crossed the rainbow bridge over a year ago. I thought if I evoked even the tiniest of memories, I would immediately miss her  and my eyes would fill with jagged tears. I feared remembering Trisha would conjure up the images of the last days of her life, where her black fur was tinged with white and arthritis had changed her gait to a painful hobble.  However, as I stood in the kitchen, this memory washed over me in a comforting warmth.  My vision became blurry from tears, but these tears didn...

A few years ago, I wrote a blog about my hobby of growing roses. I correlated  pruning roses is like shedding old habits. I am adding an update to this example. We removed a few of our rose bushes a couple of seasons ago due to what we thought was weed rot.  I was sadly disappointed when I saw they were withering. Seeing the empty bed of dirt was painful. When the next spring arrived, we were surprised that a few strong rose vines started to grow again. This spring, they have graduated to rose bushes, with new buds starting to blossom. I was amazed and glad about their return.  As I write about this experience, I am struck that it is a literal example of my writings. I stopped writing in my blog a few years back. Life was happening, many new directions that I was extremely grateful for and wanted to give them my utmost attention. Now that these paths are secure, I had some random blog thoughts that popped into my head. However, I was gripped with some trepidation to go...

For the past couple of months, I have noticed in my shopping excursions, there are a plethora of adult coloring books.  Whether I was in pursuit of groceries, crafts or browsing, these paperback books filled with intricate black and white drawings are flooding the shelves everywhere I shopped.  One day, my curiosity was saturated, and I picked up a volume entitled Mindfulness. In my Graduate classes, this topic has been very prevalent and it’s been in the forefront of my mind.  I flipped through the pages and saw this book have elaborate drawings waiting for colored pencils to bring to life. I also noticed that there were quotes from a variety of luminaries such as Carl Jung and Socrates. Since I am a huge fan of sage and concise quotes, I immediately bought it. As I opened the book and absorbed the words, I found that this activity could easily lend itself to a relaxation experience. I am always looking for opportunities for self-care, so I decided to be very c...

A couple of months ago, my bonus son asked us when the mail usually arrived. My husband told him it usually comes in the early afternoon.  I found this inquiry different, since he had never shown interest in the mail delivery schedule.  He then informed he had ordered a Loot Crate. Each day, he waited patiently for the mail. When a box wasn’t delivered, he looked dejected.  I had no idea what a Loot Crate was-- it sounded like something Long John Silver from Treasure Island would speak about in low tones and a pirate accent.  Finally, his "loot" arrived and it contained a T-Shirt, figurine, and other fun items with a theme. I asked my bonus son what exactly is a Loot Crate and he directed me to their website . As I navigated through the site, I began to understand its appeal. Each month, they have a different theme, such as horror for October. When a person orders a box, they are in for a surprise when it arrives.  It’s been something I know I have n...

I woke up one morning with the tune “Misty” in my head. I was humming it as I fed my pets. The cats looked at me blankly as I crooned “I’m as helpless as a kitten up a tree.” After my concert to bored animals, I decided to look up on YouTube the professional singers of this song. I was aware of only two singers that performed “Misty”:  Johnny Mathis and Ray Stevens . I found it fascinating how Johnny Mathis could sing each high falsetto note meticulously. Though I enjoyed listening to him singing this song, it was not my favorite version of this tune. Ray Stevens’ bluegrass interpretation held that honor. I wasn’t quite sure why it was my favorite.  I did enjoy the uniqueness of the sound of his voice-- it has a yodeling quality to it. Or maybe it was the lighthearted and bouncy melody that the banjo and fiddle bring. As I scrolled through YouTube, I was very surprised to see that there were many other artists that performed this particular song.  I clicked on the v...

A few months ago, I, along with everyone else, fell in love with the movie Inside Out .  I also appreciated that one of the main story points was it is  okay to feel sad, sometimes it’s an emotion that cannot be avoided. It was nice to see a movie not sugar-coat tough emotions and show that memories can be shaded with a blend of feelings. I thought the writers were so clever to materialize emotions into characters that kids could understand. Again, I was overwhelmed by their inventiveness that there are little beings living in the main character’s brain. As I watched these colorful characters on the screen, I had a nagging reminder of a comic strip I had read growing up. It was in the British  comic book called The Beano .  Not to be confused with the natural remedy .  The Beano comic book has been going strong for over 60 years in Great Britain. When I arrived home, I looked up these characters. The cast that started me doing comparisons was The Numskulls ...

I have been very encouraged with the recent news stories about store Santas working with kids with autism.  The first story I heard was about an event that Autism Speaks manages called Caring Santa . They have a Santa that will provide the families an opportunity to have their children with autism has a picture with Santa without the fear of stares if their child has a fit to due over stimulation. When one boy didn’t want to sit on Santa’s lap, this kind hearted St Nick joined the boy on the floor and the boy’s parents were able to capture a memorable photo. The other story that really touched my heart was the boy who told Santa that he was afraid he was on the naughty list due to his autism. Again, the sage behind the Santa costume told him that he was in no danger of being kicked off of the nice list.  He told the boy the truth—his autism was not to be judged and that was just who he is.  Rightfully so, this encouragement has been shared over 500,000 times on Facebo...

In the past few weeks in the news there has been the saga of HitchBOT . It started as a social experiment to see how many people would pick up the hitchhiking portable robot and take it across the country. HitchBOT was a passenger all across Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands. The two professors and creators of HitchBOT decided to drop it off in Boston, MA and see how far it could go, its destination communicated through its screen was San Francisco, CA. Unfortunately, HitchBOT was not allowed to record the image of the Golden Gate Bridge. After two weeks, it made it to Philadelphia PA where it was torn apart and left in pieces on the street.   However, the story does not end there. A group of inventors named The Hacktory from Philadelphia saw this news story and did not want the conclusion to be that people only want to destroy things. They reached out to the Canadian inventors and offered to help repair HitchBOT.   Another item that has come about is PopeBot...

Months ago, as I was driving, I happened to noticed that Canyon Hearing Aid Center was torn down to make way for more parking for the next door convenience store. For some reason, I felt sad about this new turn of events. I should have been accustomed to this type of change of landscape.  Being from Las Vegas NV, I had seen many hotel and casino buildings disappearing off the face of the earth. For instance, I remember watching on television the implosions of the Landmark and the Sands Hotels. Years ago, I had been a guest at the Landmark , which was a fanciful building, true to its name. I also visited the Sands ’ kitchen facilities  when I was attending UNLV .  It was somber to see history be turned into dust.  At least these implosions made way for construction of larger hotels, supplying jobs and eventually more tourists.   Maybe the reason I was saddened by this destruction of Canyon Hearing Aid Center was that someone lost his livelihood. This land w...

Driving home from work, I was preoccupied with my usual thoughts—how slow traffic was moving, when would the traffic light change, what was that song that was playing on the radio? Isolated in the vehicle, I am in my own little world. As I turned onto Ten Mile, pinned on a light pole was a large cardboard sign. Written on its pink background were the words “You are beautiful.” Usually in my travels, the signs are the mundane—speed limits and street names usually clutter the scenery.  Sometimes, an advertisement will break up the monotony.  After reading this sign, I noticed that I was smiling. My thoughts lightened in my mind as they drifted to how it was a sweet idea for someone to pin this simple but truthful saying.  I also noticed that there was a website underneath the encouraging statement—so it was a clever advertisement after all! Nevertheless, these kind words struck a chord with me. How many times do we hear, “You are not good enough “or “You are too f...

For the longest time, I thought tending for roses was an extremely difficult hobby. After all, there are competitions for cultivating the most perfect flower. It wasn’t until I grew rose bushes of my own did I find that I could handle them and really enjoy the experience. Also, to me, the caring of these lovely flowers is a metaphor for life. When we first moved into our house, our front planter section had gone many transformations.  Unfortunately, it became a bane for living flowers.  Pansies, lavenders and hyacinths shriveled up and died a few weeks after being transplanted.  Just when I thought of raising a nice batch of river rocks in the front planter, my husband suggested planting roses.   At first, I was a bit hesitant, nothing seemed to flourish there. My husband assumed me that roses are hearty flowers. Then I remembered visiting the Julia Davis Rose Garden in Downtown Boise ID  and these roses seemed to thrive in the desert heat. Also, the...

A couple of weeks ago, my father passed away. Though he was in his eighties and lived a good life, it was hurtful to receive the phone call. He was a great father and grandfather and I miss him terribly. A few days later, I was in my bedroom, waking up from my afternoon nap. Usually, I’m not an advocate of nap time, but the past couple of days I hadn't been sleeping well.  I had been grim and teary eyed. These siestas were my way of supplementing my rest. A box fan was in my open bedroom window. I looked out at the sunny afternoon sky and wondered how could it be such a nice day after what had happened.   I turned on the television, looking for something to break up the heavy silence. A small object moved outside my window and it caught my peripheral vision. I looked out the window and saw a huge, electric blue dragonfly. It was hovering by the fan, its iridescent wings beating furiously. Its globe-like eyes seemed to be staring intently at me.  I watched as it dar...

As I was driving to work one morning, a dramatic struggle occurred right in front of me.  A mayfly was trapped in my vehicle. As it fluttered around the dashboard, it caught sight of the outside world through the windshield.  It started to fly towards the windshield, only to be met with the glass barrier. Nevertheless, it kept bouncing off of the windshield.  It was bound and determined to leave, though clearly its chosen path wasn't a way to exit. Feeling sorry for it, I rolled down my window, hoping that maybe it would feel the breeze blowing in and be drawn to the exit.  I couldn't shoo it in the direction of the open window, since I was still driving and wanted to keep both hands on the wheel. Finally, after a few unproductive minutes, the mayfly slowly made its way to the open window. In a zigzag motion, it slowly flew out of the window. How many times are we so headstrong that we keep trying the same way, ignoring the fact that we’re basically going now...

A few weeks ago, as I was looking through my Twitter follows, I was saddened to find that the first famous follower had unfollowed me. I remember being so excited that a comedian I had watched on VH1  had followed me on Twitter, but now was no longer. As the pangs of disappointment began to diminish, I realized that it wasn’t all that bad.  I have changed since I first joined Twitter.  I am more conscious of sending a tweet thanking people who are new to following me.  I do this to show my genuine appreciation. I am now finding that the newer followers I have gathered have followers numbering in the thousands.  Also, many of them have a check mark next to their name, signifying they are the person and not a fan page.  I don’t take it personally when I am unfollowed. I am reminded of a quote I recently heard by Dr Seuss “Don’t cry because it’s over,smile because it happened.” 

Finding inspiration can be fun and exciting—sustaining motivation from that inspiration is when it becomes tricky. The first time I saw the movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly , I was immediately touched by the sheer determination of Jean-Dominque Bauby. The movie chronicled this man going through an awful health crisis (a stroke that leads to locked-in syndrome ) and horrendous physical therapy challenges. He was trained on a way to communicate by way of blinking his left eye.  Through this new method, he was able to write his memoir by painstakingly spelling out the words one letter at a time. This fact has always fascinated me and I have used it as one of my motivators.  Sometimes I find myself not being as productive as I should be during my writing time. I let distractions have their hold on me. I then think of the image of Monsieur Bauby  lying in the hospital bed blinking furiously to create his work.  Here I am with all of my faculties, w...

Ever since I can remember, whenever I’m presented with a list of tasks to accomplish, I am prone to barrel ahead to get things done. I have the list in my mind, so there was no need to write down the exact things I was completing.  My opinion was why use up time for planning and list-making when these minutes can be used to just finish the job? Then, I saw something that changed my perspective. A few years ago I was watching Kimora Lee Simmons Life in the Fab Lane .  In the episode, Ms Simmons had a late night meeting about her clothing line.  If memory serves, I recall she made the announcement that she had many things to accomplish, including have dinner. Then, she proceeded to write this to do list on the palm of her hand, including the item get something to eat! I was fascinated that she wrote out that list. If it were up to me, I would keep these steps in my head. Then, I began to think of it another way. By her writing down the things on her biological Palm Pil...

Last week at my Toastmasters club meeting, we ran out of time for Table Topics. This segment of the meeting is when a club member is assigned to give the other members questions so they can give an impromptu 1-2 speech on that topic. Typically, the questions are related to the theme of the meeting.  Naturally, the theme of the meeting was Valentine’s Day. It was offered that next week these Table Topics could be used. Then it was shared that may not be a good idea, since the questions related to romance and “lovey dovey” stuff. I said “It shouldn't matter if we do this next week. Do we only have one day that we can talk about love?!” I have been thinking about this the day after Valentine’s. How much emphasis is focused on this day that it has to be super romantic? What about the people without partners? Isn't it cruel to exclude them from a basic feeling such as love? Also, as I grow older, I’m not a huge fan of all of the paraphernalia that is sold during this day. Sure,...

One of my favorite snacks is popcorn, especially the microwave kind. It was so convenient to place the bag into the microwave and in 3 short minutes, have a warm, buttery treat.  Also, there are other flavors of microwave popcorn. I remember there was a co worker of mine who would cook up an afternoon snack of Jolly Time Marshmallow flavored popcorn. The sweet aroma permeated the hallways that we left our cubicles to track down that delicious scent! Sadly, all that sweetness, salt and calories are not conducive to my conscious healthy eating. I decided to abandon popcorn. Then, one day on the radio, we were listening to the John Tesh Show and he mentioned that a cup of plain air popped popcorn is 31 calories . This is opposed to the microwave varieties, ranging from 60 to 120 calories . With that knowledge, I decided that air popped was the way to go. After purchasing the appliance and setting it up, I poured the measured kernels into the cooking chamber. I covered it with t...