Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge! Here are this week's questions, which you should answer on your own blog and then pop over to Joyce's blog (click on the graphic for the link) Wednesday to add your link to the party.
1. What gives you energy? What takes it away?
Fun times with positive people. It could be a lunch, dinner, an outing, a party, or really any type of social event where friends gather to enjoy each other's company. No drama, no gossip, no keeping up with the Joneses, just the type of event that you remember and smile.
Drama and gossip take it away. I have no time for either one. Always having a glass half-empty attitude is another downer.
2. How often do you shop for clothes? What accessory do you always wear?
Rarely. I hate shopping for clothes, so I tend to order online, hope they fit, and return them if they don't. I often find a top that I love so I buy it in several colors. My wedding rings need a resize so the accessory I always wear right now is my watch.
3. What's something free that you feel grateful for?
Love. The love of my husband, my daughter, my close family and friends. Remembering the love of my parents, my sister, I'm so grateful for all of the loving people in my life.
Wedding Reception 1993
Vic's return from deployment 1997
With my parents and sister 2001
4. Breakfast, lunch, dinner...which meal of the day do you enjoy most? What's your go-to comfort food?
Dinner - Mum's Macaroni Cheese. She would buy these scrap pieces of bacon from the butcher which would crisp up like a dream and the bacon part was English bacon, not the streaky bacon that we have here in the US. She made her cheese sauce from scratch (how I wish I had written down the recipe) and would pop it under the broiler to crisp up the top. Heaven!
5. This week the world remembers the tragic events of 9/11. Do you mark the day in any way? How do historical events shape your perspective on your personal challenges?
I mark the day by remembering where I was on that day - at work at the VA Medical Center in Illinois. When the first plane hit the twin towers, we weren't sure what was happening but when the second one hit, we knew something was very wrong. We went into lockdown, and I remember having to call in hourly bed counts in case a biological/chemical event occurred, and we had to take casualties. My good friend Ann took her children out of school and picked up Sophia as well, so I knew she was safe. We had all sorts of added restrictions, barrier checkpoints, no parking within a certain distance of a building, things like that. No-one felt they were an inconvenience; they were for our safety. I remember the surge of patriotism, the flags, the ribbons, the packed churches, and increased enlistments in the military.
9/11 had a major impact on my work life as I've outlined above but also on a personal level, as Vic was an active servicemember and I was never sure what would be next for him. Would he be deployed? To where? For how long? As it turned out, he continued as an instructor at the naval station, but when his follow-on tour was to a ship in Virginia, there was always the feeling that he could be in danger at any time.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
I found the coverage of the Coming-of-Age Ceremony for Japan's Prince Hisahito absolutely fascinating. The Japanese Royal Family is unlike any other royal family, steeped in hundreds of years of tradition. This young man has quite frankly, the weight of the Chrysanthemum Throne on his shoulders. Check out the short four-minute video here:
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