My Christmas Tablecloth

Each Christmas since the 1980's I have had a red tablecloth on my table. Each year I drew a Christmas motiff on the tablecloth...with the exception of the year of the terrorist attacks on the world trade center. That year I drew a picture of the twin towers. I had everyone who had dinner sign the tablecloth, and then my Mother embroidered what they wrote to make it permanent. My Mother has since passed away but we still sign the tablecloth each year in the hopes that I will finish it some year. I will give this tablecloth to my daughter when she has her own home and makes Christmas dinner.

Autumn's Splender

Here are some photos that I took on a wonderfully crisp fall day. Some are on my lawn and some very close to my house.

a poem that I wrote today

If you have read my list of 50 things that you may not know about me. You will know that my brothers, sisters, mother, father and best friend have all passed away.
In reference to this, the poem is about a place in my mind that I don't allow myself to visit very often.

Midnight Blue

Wandering in the midnight blue,
My unplanned thoughts return to you.
Heedlessly walking in the dead of the night,
My eyes behold a dreary sight.
Peering through the murky gloom,
I see your name upon the tomb.
I thrust my fists up in the sky,
Cursing the gods and asking why.
I'm all alone and thinking of you,
When I'm wandering in the midnight blue.

my beautiful daughter and I at the beach

A Funny Memory

We used to have this guy nicknamed Chrometooth who lived up in the country where I was brought up. He was a halfwit who had the reputation of being the best thief in New York State. My brother owned a junkyard and sold parts to the locals who needed them. If my brother had to bend over a car to get a part out while Chrometooth was there, he would make Chrometooth clap his hands continuously so he couldn't steal anything. I hesitate to tell you what happened when he stopped clapping. Needless to say he never stopped clapping again. I was a teenager at the time and I used to think it was hilarious.
One day the police got a tip that Chrometooth was going to break into a summer cabin.
Early in the dark of a rainy chilly morning the sherriffs deputies crept though the woods to stake out the summer home. They waited through the morning...cold wet and damp. The noon hour passed and still no sign of him. As dark approached the tired,hungry, wet and disappointed deputies took the long walk back to their hidden car. All they could think about was food and getting into dry clothes. When they opened the car they couldn't believe their eyes....Chrometooth had stolen their seats.

beauty

One of Life's most embarassing embarrasing moments

I was always a big garagesale person. When my daughter was little I used to give her $3 and we'd both go. This all happened whan she was about 4 or 5.
I went to this garage sale and looked around. I spotted a table off to the side where a very elderly woman was sitting. The only thing on her table was hankies. I went to look at them and they were some of the most beautiful handcrafted works of art that I had ever seen. I asked her if they were for sale and she said she didn't know. I started looking at them and I said how beautiful that they were. She preceded to tell me that her mother had made them (this lady looked to be in her 90's) She said that back them woman didn't work and they only way that they had to compete was in their cooking, canning and sewing. They used to make the hankies, all hand done some with embroidery to look like an entire scene, some with real handmade tatted lace, etc. They would go to church and hold them in their hand with the edge hanging over so everyone could see them. I'm telling you they were gorgeous. I talked with this woman for a good while and said I'm not going to buy them, they meant too much to her and I suggested that she might want to pass them down to someone in her family. She said she was married for over 50 years and as much as she wanted children they had never had them. So she had no one to pass them on to. I suggested neices, friends the historical society. She said she didn't have another living relative and she now wanted me to buy them. I said how much would you like. She said from you? 25 cents a piece. I said I couldn't give her that little for something which was so beautiful and meant so much to her. She said she just wanted someone who would appreciate them to enjoy them as much as she had. I asked her if she had any pets and she had a cat that was adored and she felt was her family. I asked her if she would mind giving me a stranger her name and address so I could either buy something for her cat or donate something to SCATS ( a volunteer society that takes care of stray cats). She said that would be fine. She probably had about 20 hankies. I told her that I would take only 5 so that she could give some to somebody else if she chose. I took the 5 and my daughter said to the lady...they are so beautiful. The lady said, You are one of the best behaved little girls I've seen. Your mother and I have talked for a long time and you never said anything and are very polite. Would you like to pick 1 hankerchief. my daughter said. YES! She let her pick out the hankie and then handed it to her. Ashley looked at it admiringly...then promptly blew her nose on it. OMG I was mortified.

some more art

A chunky book page...image my beautiful daughter dressed up for halloween.

yipee I can finally post photos

Here's an atc and an altered CD.

Art Photos

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Here's a cover to a deco that I made.

Tuesday was my lucky day

I had a large mass on my ovary which the doctors were VERY concerned about. It was large an irregularly shaped. So I went to the hospital to get operated on. I was pretty nervous about the biopsy. Well what they found out was that it was not a mass on my ovary but 4 aneurisms on my fallopian tube. They were able to remove it and thank god it didn't rupture...that could have been...bye bye Jane. So it really was my lucky day...no cancer and they found the aneurisms and removed them before any problems were caused. I'm in some pain...but not as bad as I expected.
Another thing that it accomplished was that I had all my affairs in order...something that I should have done long ago.
Bethemy came over today and we crafted off and on for 6 hours...sometimes I layed down and she talked to me...or we went out on the deck for some fresh air. She's ended up being a good friend. She's very kind hearted...a real gem of a person.
Now I can really look forward to my trip to Tennessee this fall. I can't wait to meet Lottie, Beth and Jill. I can just tell that Lottie is a real genuine person and I know we are going to hit it off in person as well as online. Actually I can't wait to meet them all!

Me in the giant sequoia tree

Here's a page for a chunky book swap that I made for the October swap.
I love moderating my group....such a nice group of ladies.

I'm going to copy Vicci and post 100 things that you never knew about me except I'm not as interesting as Vicci so I'm only going to do 50.

1. I was never goning to have children and tried to talk my gyno into tieing my tubes when I was 25.
2. Having a child was the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life.
3. Althought I'm very anti drug now...there wasn't very many that I didn't try in college.
4. I worked in a psychiatric hospital for 4 years. (and wasn't even committed)
5. I was a Vietnam protester in the late 60's and marched on Washington DC (several times) and on Griffiss Air Force base
6. The time photo of the year in 1970 was a picture of a student at Kent State (where the national guard shot and killed 4 students) pointing a finger at a National Guardsman after the killing. The guy pointing the finger was Damian Gillugilecci a very good friend of mine.
7. I met someone playing Scrabble on the internet, became very good friends with her and flew to California to meet her and people in our internet mail art group.
8. I've lied on every job application that I've every applied for except the job that I have now. I didn't do an application...just walked in and said I could do the job.
9. When I was 19 I used to hitchhike around the country and spent a night in the Subway in New York City. (I'd kill my daughter if she did that)
10. I once pretended that I had a bad trip on acid to ditch a blind date who was an idiot.
11. I grew up on a dairy farm. The closest house was 3 miles away and the closest town was 13 miles away. It had a population of around 500 people.
12. We lived so far away from a city that we used to order our school clothes from the Montgomery Ward catalogue.
13. One day at the end of a semester of school, I decided that I didn't want to live in the snow and cold anymore. So I got rid of all my stuff except what would fit in my car and moved to Miami...didn't know a sole there.
14. When I was 29 I got layed of from my job working for a construction company. I rented a truck bought a 2 man tent and traveled around the country by myself for 6 weeks. ( Best vacation I ever took by the way).
15. I've been whitewater rafting on the Colorado
16. I've been parasailing off the coast of Acapulco
17. When I lived in Miami I was working at a psychiatric hospital. I used to fly in a Cesna 6 seater plane every other Wednesday to the Bahamas to collect over due accounts in Freeport.
18. I had mild claustrophobia when younger. Now it is very severe. We're not talking uncomfortable here...we're talking terrified.
19. I broke the cat scan at the lab when I became claustrophobic and no one was around to get me out quickly. (Like right now)
20. My Mother, Father, 2 sisters, 2 brothers and best friend have all passed away. I have no siblings left.
21. The only family that I have (that I keep in touch with) Is my daughter and one nephew that lives in Tennessee.
22. I could have a family reunion and they could all sit at my kitchen table
23. Someone tried to mug me when I lived in Miami...2 women. I beat them to a pulp. I got my nose broke...but I had one of them on the ground face down and beat her face into a concrete curb. Justice
24. I just lost 28 pounds and plan on losing 32 more
25. I've never been on a diet before
26. I'm going to visit Lottie and Beth in November. When I do that means that I've met: Penny, Annie, Lotus, Charlotte, Deborah, Penne, Vicci, Lottie, Beth and possibly Jill.
27. When I was 12 years old I saw a picture of a car driving though a giant sequoia. I've always wanted to see those trees and I now have a picture of me standing in the archway of that tree. I finally saw it at age 54.
28. I love chocolate and have an unbelievable sweet tooth
29. I have my crafts in the bedroom...and it is such a mess that I won't let anyone go in there. It's so bad that I'm crafting on my bed. lol
30. When I was 24 I was the manager of a Ramada Inn diningroom and lounge.
31. I started working at the hospital as a file clerk and in 4 years had 7 promotions and was the manager of the credit department in a huge 5 corporation hospital.
32. I've been married twice.
33. I was engaged 7 times
34. I've owned 4 successful businesses
35. I got fired from one job. It was between semesters of college in a diaper washing plant. I worked with people who didn't even have a grade school education and most couldn't speak English. I had to lay one infant diaper one way...then lay 9 on top of it the other way...making a bundle of 10. It was so boring that I could only count for a short while before my mind wandered.....then I started guestimating...lol I got fired from a job that I only had to count to 10.
36. After the diaper job, I made up a false resume (I was 19) and claimed that I had a degree from Syracuse University and got a job managing an entire floor of Grants Department store in Albany, NY. By the time that they found out and fired me, it was time to go back to college. (one of those pesky applications again).
37. My first computer was a VIC 20...it has 20K of memory and was the most modern home computer at the time. You had to program it yourself and I took a class in basic so I could program it.
38. I met my husband in a bar...must have been drunk
39. I don't watch tv. I only watch American Idol and occaisionally the news.
40. I read the paper every day.
41. When I worked in the hospital we had to have a physical every year. When it was time for my urine sample...I had secretly hid a small bottle of pineapple and water in my bra. When I brought the urine sample back (ie pineapple juice) I said to the lab tech...you know when I was young I used to drink my own urine...he said shockingly, "YOU DID?" I said yeah it wasn't too bad....kind of salty...he said "OH" So I said you know I haven't tried it in years...I think I'll try it again...so I slugged down the "urine" and wiped my mouth and said, "Not bad"...He almost fell over....I walked out and never told him.
42. When I was working at the psychiatric hospital my girlfriend Kathy and I used to have a great time. There were 2 elevators and all the patients had to do was to stand in from of the elevators and hope that someone would come and visit. So Kathy and I would get in the right hand elevator and stop at every floor....and smile and wave at every body....then at the top we'd switch elevators and do the same thing on the way down. Then we'd usually grab a hat....but one time we had these pull on bald heads...so we put them on and each rode up separately in each elevator and laughed every time the door opened...wow it's a wonder we didn't get fired.....But I had great credential....all on my application.
43. Ok so I'm only going to do 43 instead of 50....so I'll put it on my next application.

Adventures

Well today I gave into the pressure and started a blog. I don't know how often I'll get to post but here I am.

I have a friend named Frank. He was a LazyBoy salesman. Every once in a while his boss would come down and ride with him for the day. Frank didn't like that one bit and so he thought of a scheme to end it once and for all. The boss always took the employee to lunch, so Frank went to lunch with him. That day Frank preceded to eat 5 of the most expensive lunches the restaurant had to offer. Then he ate 4 deserts and a total of 5 iced teas. The plan worked and the boss NEVER asked to ride with him again.
I'm in advertising and the owners of the company pretty much leave me alone to do what I do. But every once in a while the boss rides with me. So using Frank as an example I thought about what I could do to make him not ride with me again. I wasn't a big eater so I couldn't do that. And besides that my boss is a big eater and is about 100 pounds overweight.
One day the boss said," Jane next week lets take a ride up North together. You pick a nice strip mall, you take one side and I'll take the other and we'll see how we do. So the day before we were supposed to ride together . I went to the strip mall and canvassed the businesses. I did the entire left side of the mall and was lucky enough to get 4 new accounts. (getting 2 accounts from the entire mall would have been a good day).
The following day I met the boss at the office. We took a ride up North and I picked the strip mall. ( Yes the same one that unbeknowst to him I had been to the day before). I said, I'll take the left hand side, it has a craft store and a hairdresser in it...he says ok. It was a nice day so I plopped myself on a bench for a while. I got bored so I went to the Bagel shop and ate. Around 11AM I'm back on the bench and my boss spots me. He said, Taking a break already?" I said no, I've done my side, how much have you got done? He said,"About half of it. You couldn't possible be done. Did you make a sale? I said, I made 4 sales...Well he almost fell over. I said how many did you make...he says maybe one...a good prospect." Then he says, "Lets get some lunch," ( Remember I'd already been to the Bagely store) I said, Lunch? I dont' take lunch, that's how I make so many sales...Come on let's go to another mall. " To make a long story short...I didn't let him eat until 3PM...Poor guy...but he never rode with me again.!
Case Closed.
Jane