The Joy of Reading

There is an old Twilight Zone episode featuring Burgess Meredith as a hen-pecked, overworked bank teller who never has enough time to read.  One day he is hiding in the vault reading at his bank when nuclear annihilation strikes. He emerges from the vault unharmed to find all the other people reduced to dust but buildings and books intact.  He is overcome with joy at the possibility of unlimited time to read when the unthinkable happens.  Myopic to the extreme, he drops his eyeglasses and they shatter.  The camera fades as he laments aloud that he has the books and the time but now he cannot see to read them.

This program was filmed in the early 1960's and has a few plot points that wouldn't hold up today.
First, eyeglasses are no longer made of glass. (Besides he might have happened on an abandoned pair somewhere or maybe a magnifying glass.)  Second,  in a nuclear holocaust the earth would probably just be totally blown away.  Third, electronic books need power.  The poor guy would not be able to recharge his Kindle if there was no source of electricity.  His unlimited book orgy wouldn't last very long.

The classic Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 also suffers a world of diminishing value to books in print. Their society does not only want to eliminate the books but also the information they hold. (Sort of "Big Brother"only wants you to know what the government wants you to know) The story starts with firefighters going from house to house burning books.  All the buildings in this future time are fireproof so the fire department had to find something else to keep them busy.  There is a secret society of book people who are dedicated to saving books for posterity.  Instead of hiding the actual books each person takes it upon himself to memorize an entire book.  They are known to each other not by their names but by the title of the books they hold in their heads.  The title of the book is the temperature at which paper burns.  If that story were written today what would it be called?  At what temperatures do plastic, glass and silicon melt?

I have always been a reader.  I'd read with my flashlight under my blankets so my parents wouldn't know I wasn't asleep.  I read in the bathroom.  If I go to someones house that has no reading material in the bathroom I might just check out their medicine cabinet for something to read just to help me relax and get the job done.  (I'm not being nosy I just need a few lines of a cough medicine label or something)  I read the backs of cereal boxes.  I like to have two or three books going at the same time because I hate that empty feeling of finishing a book and not knowing what to read next.

Electronic books take all the randomness out of reading.  At work many of us bring our old books to share.  We just place them on a table in the locker room and browse.   I've found a lot of good ones that way.  For free yet!  You can't get rid of your e-books at a tag sale or donate them to a hospital or library.

My daughter complained today that her school wasted a lot of her time forcing her to learn the Dewey Decimal System which she feels will be abandoned soon.  We no longer have those old card catalogs at the public library.  Will the books be trashed as well?

I got on this subject from reading a blog of my good friend BASSO FOR HIRE.   http://bassoforhire.blogspot.com He participates with another blog called BOOKSELLERS WITHOUT BORDERS booksellerswithoutborders.blogspot.com who all seem as rabid about reading as I am, maybe more so.  I started thinking about just how much I enjoy about reading.  Not just the print but actually turning the pages, the heft of the volume in my hand, and seeing at a glance how much I have left to read.  Many of my books are cherished friends whom I'd never consider letting go.  I'd really rather not live in a world without real, paper, pulp, hardcover, paperback, leather bound, cloth bound, brand new or careworn books.

Love to all,
Marlena of Mohegan

p.s.  HAPPY READING!

A River in Egypt

De Nile!  Ha ha. Actually it was Mark Twain who said

"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."

 I've got a whole lotta denial going on about old demons raising their ugly heads.  Here is a partial list:

Denial that I need to keep track of my calories.
Denial that my snacking is getting out of control.
Denial that the "plateau" that I claim to be on is really my own doing.
Denial that I often eat when I'm not the slightest bit hungry.

My job has been really getting to me lately.  I don't feel as fulfilled as I once did.  The health care industry is so focused on cost and reimbursement that it is rare that I feel like my efforts have really made a difference.  There is so much more emphasis on saving money than making people feel better. Even rarer is the rush that we adrenalin junkies crave.  I'm usually so focused on documentation in critical situations that I don't get as emotionally involved.

 I may be using my stress for an excuse to comfort myself via my taste buds. I remember in the orientation materials I received prior to my weight loss surgery there was a whole section on handling stress.  I pretty much ignored it.  After all, I'm used to stress and I thrive on it.  I used to anyway.  These days I have a very  limited threshold for frustration.  I've got to make some changes.  I don't think I'll be able to hide my head in the sand much longer because I WILL NOT GO BACK TO MY OLD LIFE!!!!!!!!!

I'm very tired.  I should go to bed but I like being up when the house is quiet and my thoughts can blossom without interruptions.  Tomorrow will be here very soon. It will be a day fresh for the taking with today's worries flushed down the toilet heading for the ocean where they will be eaten by the bottom feeders.  SO THERE!.

Love to all,
Marlena of Mohegan

Not the Usual "Operacation"

It's time for another opera, Donizetti's Don Pasquale.  This time we're doing the comedy set in present day in the slapstick style of classic movie comedies and Loony Toons.  Bugs Bunny would not seem out of place in this production.  The chorus part of this opera is not very big so I decided to work my usual schedule during "hell week".

Last Monday toward the end of my workday my throat became rapidly scratchy.  I was croaking before bedtime and on Tuesday morning I could barely talk let alone sing.  Since my Sunday nursery charges are not too careful about where they spread germs I was afraid I might have strep throat.  I took the day off and saw my doctor who did a throat culture and put me on an antibiotic.  I felt even worse the next day so I stayed home again.  I'm glad I saved my voice because once before I had a case of voice strain/laryngitis that affected a performance.  That time I ended up seeing an ENT doctor who did a direct laryngoscopy and put me on steroids.

On Friday night we had a rehearsal/performance for an elementary school audience in Mamaroneck, NY.  I originally planned to work that day but found the call had been set at 4:30 p.m. about the time I'm just leaving work.  To get to Mamaroneck via the Hutchinson Parkway on a Friday evening during rush hour is really a stretch.  The "Hutch" can be a nightmare most any time of day so I felt the best thing to do was to take a personal day from work so I could make sure I could get there.  I lucked out and found another nurse to work my shift with only one phone call.  So I spent the morning with my fellow opera mates loading scenery into a truck then unloading it at the school.  It was a long day but the children really enjoyed the show even though many were too young to read the supertitles.  The visual humor along with the beautiful music was more than enough to satisfy their senses.

The next day we rehearsed at the same location then moved all the scenery pieces again to the main stage in Yorktown for the remainder of the performances.  I worked at the ER today then tomorrow the usual "hell week" schedule resumes.  I'll be working Tuesday and Friday and singing every night except Thursday when we have a daytime performance for schoolchildren.  

I'm feeling pretty good in spite of all the heavy lifting of the scenery and the crazy schedule of driving and performing.  Before my weight-loss surgery I was in no shape to handle all that activity.  I definitely appreciate being  a more productive person!  I did skip the gym this week but I feel I'm making up for it.  Since I haven't been to the gym my pedometer steps are less than usual but I'll just have to just pick up the pace after the opera is done.

I am so lucky to be part such a talented group of artists.  These days the grim economic climates threatens the arts on many levels.  I was never fortunate enough to have access to opera as a child.  I did, however, participate in music throughout my years in school with vocal, instrumental and dance groups.  I was surprised  when our high school band director gave us music that I recognized from classic cartoons, The Lone Ranger TV show and even the odd commercial. Only now are researchers finding that music education contributes to cognitive ability in mathematics.  I guess that's why I never had much trouble with algebra or trigonometry.

Even more than the cultural value of the music is the excitement of bringing something beautiful to new ears.  I enjoy being able to sing to the rafters with nobody telling me to be quiet.

Love to all,
Marlena of Mohegan

FRANTICALLY CHASING TODDLERS

For the past two Sundays I've had to drop everything and chase a two-year old escapee.  Since January I have been in charge of the nursery at our church.  We have three hours of meetings on Sunday.  The first hour is our Sacrament meeting and the families all sit together.  The second two hours are for various classes for both children and adults.  The children who are 18 months to 3 years old come to the nursery for me and my assistant Joy to nurture, teach, nourish and protect.

Last week one of my charges, Blake, decided he wanted his purple bunny rabbit.  He had not brought his bunny with him and I tried to divert his attention to something else.  (Diversionary tactics are recommended in the nursery leader's manual when children have trouble sharing or are missing their mothers.)  Blake would not be distracted from his desire for his bunny rabbit and went for the door at full speed.  I was amazed how fast he was completely out of sight.  Some bystanders had seen him and pointed me in his direction but he was gone.  I went from room to room searching with the help of some others never dreaming he could open the heavy doors to get out of the building.  His mother found him in the parking lot trying to get into the family car to retrieve his rabbit.  Thoroughly embarrassed at the breach of nursery security I apologized to his mother who then said SHE was sorry she forgot to mention that Blake learned to open those church doors and escaped from her earlier in the week.

I discussed with the church leaders options to prevent further jailbreaks.  I was told that I can't put a latch on the inside of the door in case of mutiny or a fire resulting in unconscious adults.  If no adult could unlock the door then nobody could rescue us.  I figured the only solution was to place myself at the door so anyone trying to escape would have to take me out to get by me.

Well this week I was told that some safety gates would be installed soon.  In the meantime a temporary solution was a latch usually used to child-proof a refrigerator placed on the door.  It was easy enough for an adult to override in an emergency.  Actually we had a similar latch on our refrigerator and my grandson Lorenzo knows how to open it so I'm glad he couldn't reach it.  We survived the two hours without anybody busting out.

As I was leading my grandson to the car he decided to rearrange the wood chips in the flower bed by the door to the chapel.  Then he decided to roll around in the grass.  All of a sudden he took off for the parking lot.  Laughing at me as I told him to stop he kept running full speed toward the driveway.  I dropped everything I was carrying and took off after him.  I caught him about a third of the way to the street.  I decided then and there that I am wearing sneakers to church from now on because I just can't get as much speed out of my cute shoes.  At least I remembered to wear my pedometer today.  Running is running the way I see it.

Love to all,
Marlena of Mohegan

I'm App to Forget

In the seventh hour of my eight-hour work shift today I noticed I wasn't wearing my pedometer.  I uttered a minor expletive and knew I'd forgotten to put it on this morning.  I keep it in my purse and usually I remember much earlier in the day if I have neglected to attach it to myself.  For those who have followed this blog you know I wear the pedometer for my employer's Virgin Health Miles program.  I log my steps and my exercise to encourage fitness.  In addition to better health there are also financial rewards.  At the end of one year in the program we will receive up to $500!  I will need to increase my efforts to get that much but I'm already up to $150. I'm sure I'll make the next level which is $325.  Today's memory lapse is a frustrating little setback.  I've been tempted to attach the pedometer to my two year old grandson to get extra steps but I would never do that.  I'm not a cheater.

We are becoming a people hooked on electronics.  I can't remember the percentage but I read somewhere that a large number of people rarely get three feet of distance between them and their smart phones.  I'd have to say that I'm rarely without mine. My I Phone is critically important  for the urgent trivia question, showing off pictures of my five grandkids, and googling unfamiliar medications or diseases I run across at work. I love Shazam to identify a song I hear when I can't remember the name or the artist.  I also use Shazam to tag good workout songs that I can download from I Tunes. I load all my exercise music onto my phone so I don't need a separate MP3 player.

Of course having a camera phone makes it easy to show everyone on facebook what your dinner at The Cheesecake Factory looks like. I have large boxes of pictures that I never put into any albums.  I don't see that my children will have that problem because we rarely get any hard copies of pictures of their kids.  They just load the photos into an electronic frame or a computer slide show.

I know lots of GPS addicts.  I never get to go far enough from home to get lost though.  I'm a little reluctant when I hear that some people have been misdirected into paths of moving trains with fatal results.  In the NY metropolitan area there are many "parkways" which are roads for cars only.  Rarely does a day go by without a traffic report mentioning a semi that "wandered" onto a parkway and got stuck under a low bridge.  My feeling is that there are two probable reasons for this.  One is drivers who can't read the signs due to illiteracy or non-English comprehension and the other reason is misguided GPS information.  Truck drivers are supposed to use commercial GPS but obviously compliance is not absolute.

Its funny to remember that I used to put dimes into my penny loafers in case I might need one to make a call from a pay phone.

  We used to wait for a week to see photos we'd taken.  Our  rolls of Kodak film had only 12 pictures and we seldom used all twelve shots in a whole day.  We've still got a closet full of vinyl recordings but we haven't played any for years.  I recall traveling with those crazy huge maps that the gas stations used to give away for free. (They were impossible to fold back to the original shape).  How did people get cash before ATM's?  I know I used to write a check at the grocery store and get an extra $5.  The only other way was cash a check at the bank.  When it was open.  Amazing.  Now I rarely even write checks.

Now I've just proved to everyone how old I am.  To my younger readers I should warn you that while I may seem archaic the rapidity of the changing technology means that your kids will be light years ahead of you.  2015 is only three years away.  I need a hover conversion for my DeLorean!

Love to all,
Marlena of Mohegan.

Just Keep Going

Success sometimes takes a long, hard, slog.  It isn't always a TA-DA and you're done.  The rewards may be difficult to notice when they add up by individual molecules instead of one great big trophy.

This past Monday evening the Planet Fitness was very crowded.  A wall of sweat slapped me in the face when I walked in the door.  I did 45 minutes on the elliptical that night but my knees were feeling it the next day.  We had a snowstorm on Wednesday so the knee pain could have been just my weather-predicting arthritic pain.  I decided I would stick to the bike on Wednesday night.

I had opera rehearsal on Wednesday evening.  I have a scene where I am supposed to pretend to commit Hara Kiri (a la Madame Butterfly).  My death drop needs a little work because I smacked my head on the hardwood floor loud enough that the director heard what he described as a hollow thump!  Hollow?  I thought my head had something inside it.  Driving to the gym after rehearsal I wondered if it was safe to exercise after hitting my head. I pictured myself going to ground and nobody knowing who I was since I don't carry my ID while I'm working out.  Fortunately I survived intact.  I have a small lump on my head and no symptoms of concussion.  

I'm still stagnant in the weight loss numbers.  I am doing more late night snacking than I should yet I keep hearing from friends that I look thinner.  I keep hoping that it is increased muscle mass that is preventing me from dropping weight.  I feel so much better than I once did I could be tempted to just stay at this weight.  One never stays in one place for long though.  I would surely go back up again if I stop trying to lose. 

 Job and family issues can sometimes weigh heavy on my mind.  Old methods of comfort are tempting.  I like go in my room with a good book (and a snack) to hibernate. Escaping into a book can take me away from my stressful world.   It is amazing though that exercise can be a better distraction.  I have a tooth which has been bothering me intermittently and my dentist has been away on vacation till next week.  When I'm really pedaling furiously on the bike I don't notice my tooth at all.  Likewise my personal problems fade off in the distance when I'm concentrating on my workout.

Sooner or later I'll get off this plateau I've been on.  I'll keep track of my eating and keep changing my exercise routine.  I will increase my fluid intake and try to get to bed earlier.  I thank all my good friends and family  for their continued encouragement.  

Love to all, 

Marlena of Mohegan