A to Z Challenge – Z

The letter Z …

I like where I live.  I’m in the Midwest where we have all four seasons.  I am in a city that is big enough to have plenty of activities to do, but small enough to drive across town in less than 20 minutes.  The neighborhood where I live has a lot of families and young couples.  There is a grocery store less than a mile away.  A gas station about five blocks away.  And only 3 blocks from the clinic I go to.  All of these things leave me grateful for the zones where I live.

 

From Animal Crossing to zones I have shared a bit of me with this A to Z Challenge of gratitude.  Tomorrow begins a new month, new things to be written.  I hope you will stay with me to see what comes next.  THANKS for reading!

A to Z Challenge – Y

The letter Y …

April is drawing to a close.  May starts on Friday and I look forward to a new goal.  I have such messed up sleep patterns with my fibro, that I am not setting the bar really high.  I want to start a workout a week until the 15^th then two workouts a week and I will try to keep that up for a while before I consider three.  Almost 2 years ago I got a morning yoga DVD that I did maybe twice before I opted for the pool.  Now with some of the covid19 shutdowns there is no pool time, so I NEED to get back into some sort of exercise.  Yoga done gently doesn’t usually produce a lot of pain the next day for the fibro.  I just will take it easy.  I am going to need time to get the movements right anyway.  I absolutely loved the yoga/pilates class I took years ago before my health decline.  I know I can’t do that intense of a workout but this gentle yoga I think I can do… slowly.  I will bid April goodbye tomorrow and be grateful for a yoga workout plan starting Friday.

A to Z Challenge – X

The letter X …

This is where the honesty comes out.  This is when you find out what kind of a person I really am.  I admit it.  I have a guilty pleasure most people roll their eyes at.  The year was 1980 and I was in junior high school.  A friend from across the street and I were over the moon for the movie Grease… the only movie (well, besides Rocky Horror Picture Show) that I have paid to see multiple times in a theater.  So, for two years we had been memorizing the soundtrack and recreating scenes from the movie when it hit.  Olivia Newton-John had a new movie.

Yes, with Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelley how could Xanadu go wrong.  Well, it kind of did.  It got bad reviews and was out of the theaters fairly quickly, but… I liked it.  I loved the music – ONJ, ELO and Cliff Richards.  I still need (Ok, want) the DVD but, every once in a while, it shows up on TV and I step back into my youth.

I loved watching Gene Kelley dancing; he just glides and makes it look so easy.  The roller skating was not the best part of the movie, but at the time roller skating was big so I put up with that to get to the music.

It is not a great movie, but it is my guilty pleasure.  I own the soundtrack for Xanadu and for that I am grateful!

(Here is a video of a mash up of music styles from the visions the characters have of the bar they are creating)

A to Z Challenge – W

The letter W …

There is a small little town here in Iowa that had a water ban placed on it last year, nearly 14 months ago.  They still are without drinkable water and have no clear date when they will have the problem resolved.  Flint, Michigan has had bad water for years.  I never take my faucets for granted.  I have clean fresh water to drink with just a slight twist of the handles.  There are places all over the world where clean water is far too scarce.  Places where it takes days to get water.  Places where they use the water anyway because there is no alternative.  I am very grateful to have clean fresh water at my disposal and hopefully always will.

A to Z Challenge – V

I have been writing for a long time.  One of my first poems I wrote for myself was a reaction to a book I read, No Language But A Cry.  I wanted to be a voice for this infant that was severely abused by her father.  She never spoke until her teens.  I wanted to stand up for those who did not have a voice…. I had big dreams then

In the nearly 40 years since I started writing for me the sheer volume of poetry I have written would be staggering if I took the time to count them.  I know in high school I had already hit 200.  The dream of me writing for a book would have to be issued in multiple volumes.

So when I write I don’t have any set pattern I follow.  I am a free verse writer for the most part.  I do occasionally dabble in lyric writing with verses and chorus.  And over the years since I have done the daily prompts I have expanded my vocabulary some.

You by now have figured out I am very grateful for the variety of things I have accomplished so far with my writing. Now If I could just be the victor of a writing contest.

 

A to Z Challenge – U

The letter U …

There is a lot going on in the world.  A lot of it revolves around a tiny little germ – the corona virus.  As I have mentioned before I have anxiety and this pandemic is not helping it at all.  Then the depression is intensified by the thousands who have died.  But I still go on.

My fibromyalgia is treating me pretty good today.  It hasn’t been too bad of a week even.  Really just sleep problems – can’t get to sleep, trouble waking up (that is due to medication to sleep I think), and the unexpected naps I take.  The aches are always there to some degree, but I am not curled up in pain, I can sit up and write, read and I have made it up and down the stairs a few times today fairly easily.  A shower did not completely wipe me out.  Bottom line is, I am upright and for that I am grateful.

A to Z Challenge – T

The letter T …

I was so excited when I turned 15, I have a phone line put in my bedroom and had my own independent number.  I could talk to my friends and not have to be in a room full of people.  I was in heaven.  Little did I know in a short 12 to 13 years later I would have my first cell phone as it was important for me to have one in case of a problem with our new daughter.  That phone was one of the first with texting, but you had to touch the key multiple times to get the right letter.  It was a pain to text.  And the phone was also a heavy wide phone with a flimsy antenna.  I upgraded to a filp phone and still had the texting trouble, but it was smaller.

Now a days, I use the camera on my phone.  Play some games on it and am a good friend with Google.  I can pull up maps and get directions.  I use the alarms and calendar reminders.  I can go to Facebook and WordPress and catch up a bit.  I have unlimited data and feel naked if I don’t have my phone with me.  It is a lifeline still to friends and family… I am so grateful for my telephone.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

A to Z Challenge – S

The letter S…

I never had a brother growing up but I always wanted one.  On TV big brothers were always standing up for their little sisters, actual big sisters doing this, not so much.  But I can see when she was a teenager she did not want her little sister always tagging along with her and her friends.  Kids grow up and change some though.  Now that mom and dad are both gone; besides my daughter, she is all I have except for one aunt and uncle in Nebraska and a small handful of cousins.

My sister has grown closer to me ever since my cancer diagnosis and the following divorce about 7 years later.  I was the “peace keeper” between her and mom, or at least I tried to be.  They were both alike, stubborn and set in their ways.  Later when I would take care of our dad in his failing health she wanted to put an end to me doing it as she could see the toll it was taking on me.  Caregiving is a physical and emotional draining action.  She was the one who suggested I take at least one night a week off.

Now it is just the two of us.  She is only about 4 blocks away in a house with her boyfriend of 18 years I believe now.  We stay in touch with email and occasionally I still get letters for Dad that I have her look at to make sure I am not throwing away something important.

My sister and I may not be as close as some, but I do love her and I am grateful she is in my life.

A to Z Challenge – R

The letter R …

One of the few things I would be lost without is my music.  That used to mean my transistor radio I won for selling Camp Fire Girls candy.  As I grew so did my radio up to a boom box in the 80’s.  Then there seemed to be a shrink back down in size to an MP3 player.  Of course, my car has given me many hours of music with my radio.  And when I bought my “new” used car I got a sample of satellite radio.  Lots of channels to choose from, especially off of my laptop!  But I am not going to pay to hear my music other than the occasional CD or downloaded album.

I am happy with my local radio stations.  And several of them are accessible through the internet as well.  I often let my favorite station play while I write.  I can listen to oldies, songs from my youth (70’s and 80’s), millennial hits, or todays favorites.  I listed to country, pop or rock.  But whatever music I am in the mood for, it can be found with my radio and I grateful for that.

 

And as an added bonus here’s an old track I bet many of you have not heard…

A to Z Challenge – Q

The letter Q …

This one is a silly thing, but it has saved my butt more than once.  In my years of playing Scrabble with my Dad (he would ALWAYS win) and now I am knee deep in games of Words With Friends and Words With Friends 2, I have not found a better way to use a Q without a U.  Today’s post is short and to the point.  I am grateful for Qi(s) and Qat.

From Pexels