MS. CRANKY AND THE RAGE OF TV NAMES --- HAVE WE GONE TOO FAR?

 

 

Ms. Cranky has noticed a strange and possibly scary new trend, but, then everyone knows, Ms. Cranky is trendy beyond measure --- just look at her unmatched socks and cool ones at that.

But, this is a TV series trend that makes Ms. Cranky say --- “no wonder the world is in a miserable place” --- look what we’re watching? --- first there was REVENGE, then, DECEPTION, now new ones are popping up all over the place ---- lately promos for the upcoming BETRAYAL, so warm and fuzzy-sounding, and some others they keep pushing before Ms. Cranky can get to her beloved ‘mute’ button, what a great invention --- hooray for the mute button!

What does this say about our society, what does this say about how people view one another, what does this say about war????  Revenge, deception and now betrayal --- it’s sounding worse than the mayoral election!!!  What does this say about us???  And, why are we adding more and more shows with these names?  Aren’t the reality shows bad enough???

Ms. Cranky has some names to add for those producers always wanting to give us better and better TV, please just put the check in the mail --- how about dejection, rejection, discombobulated?  How ‘bout deplorable, unconscionable, innuendo (cranky actually likes that one) or implication or what a wild thought --- how about, decency, honesty, integrity, or just plain old affability.  I know, I know, Cranky is about to sound like a Mayoral candidate but, believe me, she is not and does not want to be.  Noooo way.

 

Ms. Cranky thanks you as always for stopping by.  It’s a pleasure to be read, it would be even better to hear from you, nice things best but,….

Have a wonderful after-Labor Day life.  Ms. Cranky rues the closing of her beloved city outdoor pools and vows to go to the indoor ones (okay, okay) even in the cold and rain, okay, okay, she vows.

MS. CRANKY GOES ON HER ANNUAL WRITERS’ RETREAT AND OTHER THINGS

 

Ms. Cranky came home from her wonderful Adirondack Mountain yearly writer’s retreat, sort-of vacation to find that 12-14 of her roses had bloomed in that one week while she was away, then, died.  But, there were three new ones waiting to greet her, all new fresh pink with pale yellow centers.  She felt bad missing so many blooms while she was in the ‘North Country’ and seeing them all now pale and hanging their heads but, hopefully, there would be one or two other bloomings before winter came, and, sometimes, even during winter --- rose against the snow is a wondrous thing to see.

Ms. Cranky hopes the community enjoyed them as it is a community garden and her rose bush sits right in the middle of it, by the wrought iron fence and behind very purple morning glories.

Ms. Cranky so loves the Adirondack Mountains, the scene of her youthful summers, those in another section of the great mountain chain, and now it’s her 11^th year at a writer’s conference with women she’s grown to love and brilliant teachers, those too she loves.  But, it is very strange to be in that area, it feels really scary actually, with all that greenery, high up in altitude and right on a lake, living in the midst of a usually cool forest, and to have the heat and humidity not that much different from the sweltering city she had left.  It feels so atypical especially up there where when she was a child, you prayed for the sun to come out and warm up the very chilly water and brought all your sweatshirts but no more, no more

Sadly, Ms. Cranky on the train on the way home, read an article from a commentator in an Oneonta newspaper, about the carbon dioxide levels being the highest ever and how they cannot be reversed and how if people keep using huge vans or whatever they’re called and fossil fuels, the levels will keep increasing ruining our climate forever.  Is Ms. Cranky in the minority worrying about this??? She wonders. She always wants to scream when people complain about the heat --- ‘then, why don’t you get a smaller car???  You’re doing it to yourself and all the rest of the world,’ the grand old USA always the leader, leading, sadly in this case, the pack in big cars and carbon dioxide pollution. 

Come on people --- stop having cute little babies you love if you’re going to give them this environment, think ahead (Ms. Cranky just cannot say the phrase ‘think outside the box,’ it’s a bit too over-used for her and everyone probably knows Ms. Cranky is a reverse or perverse snob and loves words and does not especially like anything ‘trendy’ unless it’s cupcakes though she’d almost always rather have a good old very crunchy cookie.)

And, speaking about cookies, Ms. Cranky had such a lovely week at her writer’s conference-sort-of-vacation with but a few, very few, kinks.  Not kinky, mind you, kinks --- get a grip!

Those kinks being, when someone complained about a class or the wonderful food the staff cooks up and presents to them all so lovingly or, if people started talking and blocked Ms. Cranky from getting to the coffee pot in the morning --- never doooo that.  Or, worse, much worse, if someone stood too long blocking the daily tray of homemade cookies (!), then Ms. Cranky reverted to her impatient sighing NY self.  Ms. Cranky’s motto is --- “Never get in the way of me and a good cookie!” 

But, those are minor problems in 7 days, minor though she does wonder if some people would complain about anything?  It seems so.  But, all was pretty fabulous, in fact, very fabulous, and on the last night, Ms. Cranky got so carried away thanking God for this blessed place that she knelt down on the beach by the lake in worship.  She thanked God over and over and woke the next morning with even more bug bites.

 

But, after a lovely ride down from the mountains with her wonderful friend and teacher, Pam,  Cranky got on a crowded Amtrak train in Albany and was happily drinking her water and torturing herself with the NY Times SATURDAY crossword (Saturday being a suicidal, at least thinking, crossword day).  Another fabulous woman  at camp bought it for her as she well knows Ms. Cranky to be too cheap (ah, err, frugal) to buy the NY Times in NY and much more so in a place where it is even more expensive.  So, Ms. Cranky was all settled in on the gorgeous Hudson side of the train when this woman across the aisle and two seats back started on her cell phone and her voice went directly into Ms. Cranky’s delicate ears, now used only to the sound of loons on the lake and the glorious sounds of laughter and singing by her friends. The voice was not only loud but complaining, complaining in a horrid nasal voice, a voice you wouldn’t enjoy hearing say nice things.  Ms. Cranky looked back and glared several times but the woman paid no attention, she was very focused on her complaining.  Ms. C. also noticed that though the train was crowded, this woman felt she could lay all her belongings on the seat beside her so that no one could sit down, but, then who would want to sit next to this less than uplifting conversationalist?

This went on for some time, and readers you’ll be proud to know, Ms. Cranky finally turned around and actually, she still can’t believe she did this, said “excuse me, excuse me,” --- and after several times, the woman looked up from her nasal complaints and Ms. Cranky asked --- “Could you please lower your voice?”Yey, yey --- usually Ms. Cranky can’t get up the nerve. 

The woman slightly, very slightly lowered her voice but not enough so Ms. Cranky went and sat in the ‘club car’ where there was no club, the food and drink bar was sadly closed.  She sat on the very edge of a seat of a booth where two nice men were sitting with a lovely looking bottle of red wine between them.  They even offered her some but she refused --- shock, Ms. Cranky!  What happened to you in those mountains??? She still wonders what kind of wine it was but did not feel right asking the guys to turn the bottle around so Cranky could read the label.  When the men found out why she came back to the last car, they said “Yeah, but we’re talking, won’t that bother you?” to which she replied “but you don’t sound whiny and nasal both” and so she went back to the pleasure-pain of the Saturday puzzle.

Ms. C. even fantasized about saying to the loud woman with all her things covering the seat --- “I would never think of throwing my personal conversation on you.”  She thought about it a lot but, in the end, she let it go and/or she lost her nerve.  And she wanted badly to get to her somewhat beloved home and to her truly beloved and very hot cat.

Thanks for stopping by.  Ms. Cranky prays you’re getting through this weather safely and remember that you simply can’t do all the heavy lifting and such that you might feel you want to do and she prays for our world and hopes that people see the light and vow to give up the luxuries that are hurting us all, including those who own them.  Just because you sit in a centrally air-conditioned home now, doesn’t mean that that can’t just go off --- like the electric, then what???  People would die or, at least, get very sick.

 

Love to everybody, this is Ms. Cranky’s favorite time of year so it’s hard for her to feel compromised in movement. And, she’s into heavy lifting as you might imagine.

And, if you ever have a chance to travel to the beautiful, un-ruined Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York --- run don’t walk! Take a bus, hop a train, rent a car or some people might have one!

Best to all.

Ms. Cranky

 

July 22, 2013, Monday

 

 

MS. CRANKY GOES ON HER ANNUAL WRITERS’ RETREAT AND OTHER THINGS

 

Ms. Cranky came home from her wonderful Adirondack Mountain yearly writer’s retreat, sort-of vacation to find that 12-14 of her roses had bloomed in that one week while she was away, then, died.  But, there were three new ones waiting to greet her, all new fresh pink with pale yellow centers.  She felt bad missing so many blooms while she was in the ‘North Country’ and seeing them all now pale and hanging their heads but, hopefully, there would be one or two other bloomings before winter came, and, sometimes, even during winter --- rose against the snow is a wondrous thing to see.

Ms. Cranky hopes the community enjoyed them as it is a community garden and her rose bush sits right in the middle of it, by the wrought iron fence and behind very purple morning glories.

Ms. Cranky so loves the Adirondack Mountains, the scene of her youthful summers, those in another section of the great mountain chain, and now it’s her 11^th year at a writer’s conference with women she’s grown to love and brilliant teachers, those too she loves.  But, it is very strange to be in that area, it feels really scary actually, with all that greenery, high up in altitude and right on a lake, living in the midst of a usually cool forest, and to have the heat and humidity not that much different from the sweltering city she had left.  It feels so atypical especially up there where when she was a child, you prayed for the sun to come out and warm up the very chilly water and brought all your sweatshirts but no more, no more

Sadly, Ms. Cranky on the train on the way home, read an article from a commentator in an Oneonta newspaper, about the carbon dioxide levels being the highest ever and how they cannot be reversed and how if people keep using huge vans or whatever they’re called and fossil fuels, the levels will keep increasing ruining our climate forever.  Is Ms. Cranky in the minority worrying about this??? She wonders. She always wants to scream when people complain about the heat --- ‘then, why don’t you get a smaller car???  You’re doing it to yourself and all the rest of the world,’ the grand old USA always the leader, leading, sadly in this case, the pack in big cars and carbon dioxide pollution. 

Come on people --- stop having cute little babies you love if you’re going to give them this environment, think ahead (Ms. Cranky just cannot say the phrase ‘think outside the box,’ it’s a bit too over-used for her and everyone probably knows Ms. Cranky is a reverse or perverse snob and loves words and does not especially like anything ‘trendy’ unless it’s cupcakes though she’d almost always rather have a good old very crunchy cookie.)

And, speaking about cookies, Ms. Cranky had such a lovely week at her writer’s conference-sort-of-vacation with but a few, very few, kinks.  Not kinky, mind you, kinks --- get a grip!

Those kinks being, when someone complained about a class or the wonderful food the staff cooks up and presents to them all so lovingly or, if people started talking and blocked Ms. Cranky from getting to the coffee pot in the morning --- never doooo that.  Or, worse, much worse, if someone stood too long blocking the daily tray of homemade cookies (!), then Ms. Cranky reverted to her impatient sighing NY self.  Ms. Cranky’s motto is --- “Never get in the way of me and a good cookie!” 

But, those are minor problems in 7 days, minor though she does wonder if some people would complain about anything?  It seems so.  But, all was pretty fabulous, in fact, very fabulous, and on the last night, Ms. Cranky got so carried away thanking God for this blessed place that she knelt down on the beach by the lake in worship.  She thanked God over and over and woke the next morning with even more bug bites.

 

But, after a lovely ride down from the mountains with her wonderful friend and teacher, Pam,  Cranky got on a crowded Amtrak train in Albany and was happily drinking her water and torturing herself with the NY Times SATURDAY crossword (Saturday being a suicidal, at least thinking, crossword day).  Another fabulous woman  at camp bought it for her as she well knows Ms. Cranky to be too cheap (ah, err, frugal) to buy the NY Times in NY and much more so in a place where it is even more expensive.  So, Ms. Cranky was all settled in on the gorgeous Hudson side of the train when this woman across the aisle and two seats back started on her cell phone and her voice went directly into Ms. Cranky’s delicate ears, now used only to the sound of loons on the lake and the glorious sounds of laughter and singing by her friends. The voice was not only loud but complaining, complaining in a horrid nasal voice, a voice you wouldn’t enjoy hearing say nice things.  Ms. Cranky looked back and glared several times but the woman paid no attention, she was very focused on her complaining.  Ms. C. also noticed that though the train was crowded, this woman felt she could lay all her belongings on the seat beside her so that no one could sit down, but, then who would want to sit next to this less than uplifting conversationalist?

This went on for some time, and readers you’ll be proud to know, Ms. Cranky finally turned around and actually, she still can’t believe she did this, said “excuse me, excuse me,” --- and after several times, the woman looked up from her nasal complaints and Ms. Cranky asked --- “Could you please lower your voice?”Yey, yey --- usually Ms. Cranky can’t get up the nerve. 

The woman slightly, very slightly lowered her voice but not enough so Ms. Cranky went and sat in the ‘club car’ where there was no club, the food and drink bar was sadly closed.  She sat on the very edge of a seat of a booth where two nice men were sitting with a lovely looking bottle of red wine between them.  They even offered her some but she refused --- shock, Ms. Cranky!  What happened to you in those mountains??? She still wonders what kind of wine it was but did not feel right asking the guys to turn the bottle around so Cranky could read the label.  When the men found out why she came back to the last car, they said “Yeah, but we’re talking, won’t that bother you?” to which she replied “but you don’t sound whiny and nasal both” and so she went back to the pleasure-pain of the Saturday puzzle.

Ms. C. even fantasized about saying to the loud woman with all her things covering the seat --- “I would never think of throwing my personal conversation on you.”  She thought about it a lot but, in the end, she let it go and/or she lost her nerve.  And she wanted badly to get to her somewhat beloved home and to her truly beloved and very hot cat.

Thanks for stopping by.  Ms. Cranky prays you’re getting through this weather safely and remember that you simply can’t do all the heavy lifting and such that you might feel you want to do and she prays for our world and hopes that people see the light and vow to give up the luxuries that are hurting us all, including those who own them.  Just because you sit in a centrally air-conditioned home now, doesn’t mean that that can’t just go off --- like the electric, then what???  People would die or, at least, get very sick.

 

Love to everybody, this is Ms. Cranky’s favorite time of year so it’s hard for her to feel compromised in movement. And, she’s into heavy lifting as you might imagine.

And, if you ever have a chance to travel to the beautiful, un-ruined Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York --- run don’t walk! Take a bus, hop a train, rent a car or some people might have one!

Best to all.

Ms. Cranky

 

July 22, 2013, Monday

 

 

MS. CRANKY --- DID THEY PAY FOR TWO SEATS ON THE BUS???

 

Ms. Cranky has been on her best non-cranky behavior lately trying to be forgiving and mellow, like sooo mellow but she can’t help but notice the growth, the preponderance of people now sitting on the outside seats of buses with not a clue to moving in so Ms. Cranky or anyone else can sit.  What is going on and why is this nonsense burgeoning?  It used to be a few people but now it’s often a whole row and they look up at you, when they bother to look up, like you just arrived from Mars as you hungrily eye the empty seat.  If you ask, they might let you inside to sit and Cranky always assumes that means that they’ll be getting off shortly and that’s why they’re letting you crawl over them to the inside seat.  But, no, no, they never get off, they stay on forever so that you, then, have to go ‘pardon me, excuse me, oh, I’m so sorry’ as you stumble over them to get off the bus.

Ms. Cranky vows to stop apologizing for crawling over them.  They’re the ones that should apologizing.  Did they pay twice for the two seats???  If so, they should wear a sign, show a ticket.

How do we stop this quickly growing phenomenon?  Ms. Cranky totally understands phobias, and, yes, someone could have a phobia about being in the inside seat on the bus but she does not think that this is the case.  These people aren’t, most likely, phobic, they’re most likely selfish thoughtless people.  Ouiii, this and the murky weather are getting to MS C.

And how are you??? And, thanks for stopping by, more shortly on the guy who ‘dove’ in front of me on a subway Sunday, then nose-dived into a seat.  But, Ms. Cranky even though the weather is getting to her, spoke up, oh, yes, she did.  More in a few days on that guy and the things she wished she’d said in hindsight.  Oh, hindsight, ouii.

 

MS. CRANKY YELLS “PILE UP” ON THE ESCALATOR AND WONDERS --- “WHAT’S WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE?”

 

 

Ms. Cranky was on her way upstate by train (she loves trains, you might know) to see her beloved relatives. It had been a long time and she was real excited, so much so that she ran to the wrong track first, not reading the destination correctly.

But, the one part of the train trip Ms. Cranky hates is going down the Amtrak escalator stairs to the train as some bozoo usually gets his or her luggage down, then stands there in a stupor while the rest of us are being quickly zipped down the escalator and about to fall over this person’s head with our luggage.  Ms. Cranky has before had to holler “please move out of the way” (‘there are other people in the world’, she’d like to add.)  Usually the person looks up in wonder but still doesn’t hurry away.

So, Ms. Cranky has taken, as she hates being hit over the head by a huge suitcase from behind, to waiting two or three escalator steps before getting on the moving stairs which she hopes will help the situation when she gets to the bottom.

But, not a week ago Friday on the #281 train to Niagara Falls when this couple got off with all their luggage and just stood there waiting for Ms. C. knew not what.  Ms. Cranky was still halfway up the escalator and not a total nervous wreck then but she well knew the guy behind her had a gargantuan bag with him.  So, as they got closer to the end of the escalator ride, a huge group of people was now blocking everyone’s way off the as the original couple had not figured out quite what they felt like doing and just stood there all goo goo eyes. 

So, that’s when Ms. Cranky started hollering, at first quietly, should one be able to holler quietly, and, by the end when she was about to tumble over this assembled group of people and the man behind her would pile onto her, she screamed full out (there were no ‘pleases anymore’, no ‘please move, please’)---- ‘GET OUT OF THE WAAAYYYYY!!!!!  WE’RE ABOUT TO PILE UP!!!!’  By then, the conductor had stopped giving directions to the-all-eyes-so-innocent looking couple trying to maim us and started shouting very loudly himself.

Ms. Cranky lives in a walk-up and cannot be hit by a 60 pound piece of luggage. But, Ms. Cranky, even if she didn’t live in a walk-up, would still not want to be hit by a huge piece of luggage nor to tumble over her fellow passengers.  Who would?  These were adults not three-year olds, capable of buying a ticket, planning a trip and packing a ton of stuff.  But, what was that couple thinking or not thinking?  And why does Ms. Cranky end up making a fool of herself (or, perhaps a hero??? --- yeah, that would be nice once in a while --- Ms. Cranky the hero!).

People, too many and these were mature people here and we are not talking bombs planted here, are lost in their own worlds and the rest of us can just fall all over the place and hurt ourselves till they figure which way they’d like to go --- ‘front or back? --- hoo, hum? Which way, ohh, I don’t know’ --- hey, there are only two options and you can always change your car or seat on the train if it’s not to your liking but you don’t always have a chance to not hurt your fellow humans.  Get a grip people!!!

 

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.  Ms. Cranky is back in her walk-up, flowers a blooming joyfully, cat purring away, very strong coffee brewing --- home.  She had a wonderful trip with her beloved cousins and thanks them all.  She came home with lovely old family pictures, beautiful eulogies to read from a treasured family member for two funerals.  Cranky cried a lot on the train home.  There were a lot of memories upstate, good ones, good people ones, she was lucky.  And, she was also lucky to get there in one piece by acting like a crazy screamer and she’s glad she did. 

Thanks again for stopping by, enjoy this God-given spring.  When Cranky walks a dog for her friends, they always stop at two yards full of, like full of, violets.

Ms. Cranky, April 29, 2013 --- who loves and cherishes Amtrak and its kind (and often cute workers like the guy in the Club Car on the way back--- yikes) --- Cranky could have spent all her money going back just to see his beaming smile.

 

Which reminds Crankky of her quote of the day ---

Some people make you feel so special and others make you feel invisible.  Cranky votes for the former.  Special is such a good way to go about the world.

MS. CRANKY’S MEMORIES OFTEN DEFEAT HER

BECAUSE IT’S HARD TO REPEAT THINGS MUCH AS SHE OFTEN WANTS TO

Ms. Cranky was on her way out of town to a conference, lugging her suitcase which is heavy empty (‘whatta you want for $40 and wheels that haven’t fallen off in 14 years --- Samsonite?’) and she was just at the bottom of the stairs near the subway when she heard it making getting-ready-to-leave sounds and Cranky began hollering real loud --- ‘Please hold, Please hold’ to two young women just boarding.  But, they both ignored Ms. Cranky like totally ignored her and she finally got on the train at the last second by hurling her suitcase through the subway door till she could get in.  She was flabbergasted that neither woman had paid her any attention when she looked down the aisle and saw a lovely woman in veil shaking her head sadly at Ms. Cranky, commiserating on how unresponsive the women had been.

Ms. Cranky wanted to holler to the whole subway car --- “Welcome to our world of now!!!” but, of course, she didn’t.  Instead, Cranky thought (kindly) --- ‘maybe those women had those things dangling from their ears and couldn’t hear Ms. Cranky, yeah, maybe that’s what happened.’  Ms. Cranky always tries to see the good in the world though that has caused her a lot of heartache.  But, when she looked to see if the women had those wire things dangling from their ears, they didn’t, and, in fact, one of the women was just inserting them into her waiting ears as Ms. Cranky looked on.

It made Ms. Cranky sad, like the people that read their phones while walking in front of her and move at a snail’s pace.  Read in the library, why don’t you???  Read at your damn kitchen table, not on the street and, surely, not going up the stairs from the subway when people are dying to get up and out. It made her sad that some people didn’t care about others, actually, lots of people, it seemed of late.  What had happened to her world???  The world that had been her playground?

Cranky tries to be helpful almost all the time, unless she’s in a trance which can happen, and this uncaring behavior hurt her soul.  If you care, your soul can hurt a lot but Cranky still thinks it’s worth it --- caring.

But, onward and upward --- when Cranky arrived at Penn Station with her heavy-even-when-it’s-empty suitcase, a young man asked if he could help her carry it down the stairs and Cranky was touched and, then, another man held the door for her and Ms. Cranky’s spirits quickly rose.  You probably know this already but Ms. Cranky’s spirits rise very easily with the smallest of kindnesses and consideration so she decided these two guys outweighed the two women back in Brooklyn.  It takes so little to make Ms. Cranky happy, so little, she feels lucky in that regard. 

In Boston, people were so helpful, Cranky almost couldn’t control herself.  They just jumped to help her with directions and very good directions at that which was lovely because Ms. Cranky, who thinks of herself as a great traveler and prolific with directions and maps, could not find her way around that city very easily as the signs left a lot to the imagination.  Ms. Cranky mentioned the problem she was having a few times to Bostonians who said that signage and directions were a real problem in their city which struck Ms. Cranky as sooo very strange because she thought that the Boston area had a university or college every other block.  So, Cranky assumed (and who wouldn’t?) that the area would be full of smarty pants people who would install good clear signs.  

But, instead, Ms. Cranky had to rely on the average most-helpful citizen for assistance and they were wonderful but they pay taxes --- shouldn’t there be good signs for out-of-towners so, maybe, they could be about their other business on any given day? Ms. Cranky wonders about a lot of things, things that should be so simple that are made unnecessarily not so.  Why muddle life more when it can be muddled enough on its own? --- she always thinks.

The conference trip was a frustrating one which Cranky wasn’t expecting for many reasons --- finding her way on public transit was harder than usual, a major snow storm came as soon as she arrived off the old BOLT bus and left streets and sidewalks overwhelmed with snow and freezing slush that went through Ms. Cranky’s only pair of shoes she had with her.  She had truly loved this conference a few years ago but this year it was so crowded that Ms. Cranky could not get near most of the sessions she wanted to get to in her wet clothes.  But, not to be daunted, Ms. Cranky loves to dance and there was a disco at night.   So, she ran up to the hotel with the dance the first night and found it too overly-crowded and, mostly, the dance floor was quaking beneath her and even though someone assured her that the floor could hold all the vibration, it put a damper on Ms. Cranky’s already damp spirits --- like her wet socks, shoes, hair and coat.

Ms. Cranky’s memories sometimes defeat her.  She is a hopeless romantic, very hopeless sometimes.  And, she cherished the memory of the other conference a few years back in another city, the first one she had attended.  It was in a smaller locale, she could get a seat to hear speakers and the dance floor surely didn’t shake and, in fact, Ms. Cranky and a new-found friend were the only people up dancing and then they pulled everyone up from around them and they all danced and hooted and hollered and laughed till Donna Summers (so sad Donna’s gone) sang.  People on the way out were laughing and happy and thanking Ms. Cranky and her friend for urging them to get up.  It was so much fun but it didn’t happen like that again.

And, at the ‘other’ conference, it did not snow --- well, a flake or two.  The problem with Ms. Cranky’s very powerful good memories is that they can make her miserable as she wants everything to be the same as it was that other time, when because of a job, she had only one day and one evening to spend but it was like miraculous, every bit of it.  She can recall each moment.

Ms. Cranky has the problem of always wanting to repeat things that she loves but that is hard to do.  She is like a five-year old child clinging to her dreams.  Ouii.  In time, Ms. Cranky couldn’t wait to get home on the BOLT bus with the lovely (and cute!) driver and knelt on the floor inside her door when she got home, by the eastern-facing window, and thanked God for letting her get home safely --- to start again. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day, sun's sneaking out here.  Ms. Cranky.  March 20, 2013

 

ST. PATRICK’S DAY, 2013

Ms. Cranky went out to hear music at her old local bar late on the afternoon of St. Patrick’s Day and it was nice except that it was the last day for a very old bar and it was to be closed and ‘refurbished’ and Ms. Cranky and most of her neighbors feared that meant like changed and fancied up and “only for upscale people, not the likes of you!” ---which most of the new food and drink places in Ms. Cranky’s once more ‘mixed’ area, now had become, for the gentrified folk.   

Ms. Cranky, and she has said this before in her columns, is still surprised that some of  the gentry in her area still cannot tell the difference between paper and metal recycling and, in fact, in her building, actually change it totally around???  She is amazed anew each time that if you are a person with a good job (or parents) to pay the vastly increased rents, and you be able to read the word ‘paper’ and know it doesn’t mean your old bean cans.

So, it was fun but sad yesterday afternoon but, then, Cranky remembered a place up the way that had FREE FOOD on St. Patrick’s and used to have people just drop in with musical instruments and play in this lovely rounded alcove area, so Cranky hiked up there and looked for her cat’s upcoming birthday present on her way.  But, though there was free food, always nice, there was no music at all, Irish or otherwise on this St. Patrick’s Day.  Apparently, the people had stopped coming by on Sunday nights to play music quite a while ago, she was told by the waitress which made her sad.

One of Ms. Cranky’s lovely memories of this place is the story she heard from the people who worked there.  They had assumed that after 9/11, which was on a Tuesday, that no one would show up for that Sunday’s evening of music-making --- but, that didn’t happen.  They told Ms. Cranky that, in fact, a huge crowd of people and more musicians than ever came in and played their hearts out that evening, that Sunday after the horrors of 9/11, trying perhaps to bring back our lives, however they could.  Ms. Cranky has long cherished that story and wanted to pass it on to you.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone and tomorrow is St, Joseph’s Day and Ms. Cranky’s beautiful cat’s 7^th birthday.  Cranky has always loved St. Joseph and felt he got short shrift in the PR department of the Catholic Church. Maybe the new Pope can change that one!!!

Thanks for, as always, stopping by.  ‘May the wind be ever at your back’, etc.

 Ms. Cranky, March 18, 2013