Sangria

I am surprised at how often I am asked for my sangria recipe. It really is very simple and easy to match to taste. I prefer a white sangria as opposed to a red, but I think this would work for either.

I start with Mascato wine. This is a sweet white wine, so no need to add the sugar most recipes call for.

Next is the juice flavor(s) of your choice. This can be as simple as a half gallon of orange juice or pineapple juice. My last batch, I made with a juice cocktail called Mango Blast. It really depends on your tastes and whats available.

Next, is the secondary alcohol. I lot of sangria recipes call for brandy. I don't own brandy, never have. What I had around the house when I started making sangria was "99". This is a Schnapps that is available at just about any liquor store. It also comes in a wide variety of flavors...peaches, bananas, apples, oranges, blackberries and cherries. Pick a flavor that complements your juice. I used peach with my mango. Orange is good with pineapple juice and I've used banana with orange pineapple juice. The blackberries and cherries, I think would work well in a red. Anyway, this stuff is 99 proof and can add a nice kick to your sangria. I add about a cup. This can be adjusted for taste and tolerance.

Three ingredients. Mix and stir. A lot of people like to cut fruit up in their sangria, it isn't necessary, but I do think it adds just a touch more flavor...and it does make it look nice if you are serving guest. I prefer citrus fruits, usually lemons and limes. And if you like a little fizzy in your drink, pour in some Sprite. Very flexible drink, very individual...and very, very good.

That sound you heard...

was the book closing on another chapter in my life.

Today was the last day on the most recent job. Nine months. Sucks. Leaving was not my choice. The job went away. Luckily, I was given a 90 day notice to get my shit together. That is a very good thing too, since it takes forever to get through the process. I was 60 days in before I got another job...a job I applied for in early February. I start that job on Monday. Oh how I wish I could have worked in a looooong weekend, but it wasn't meant to be. So Monday morning, bright and early, I start a new chapter. Hopefully this will make it more than a few pages. I have cleaned out three desks in 9 months. I'd like to settle in for a bit. Here's hoping it's a good fit.

What my job has taught me

I work in a hospital. I read charts and talk to people that are not at their best. I have learned to appreciate many things because of this experience.

If you have one person in the world that would miss you if you were gone, you are doing better than many.
If you have one person that would help you if you were sick and could not care for yourself, you are doing better than many.

If you can generally take care of yourself, express yourself and have all your limbs, count yourself lucky. So many things we take for granted...drawing a breath without effort, moving around independently, eating, among so many others.

People, even doctors, have wondered how I do what I do. How I deal with the pain I have everyday. I keep moving, keep pushing. I refuse to give up, to give in. I look around me everyday and know how lucky I am.

Specters

As I drove along the freeway this morning, something caught my attention off the side of the road. I do not know what it was. I know that what it was and what I saw was not the same thing. What I saw, what I perceived, was death. The traditionally depicted death, a hooded figure with scythe, except he was clad in white. Logically, I know death was not standing beside the road. But all the logic in the world did not make the experience less disturbing.

What I am told

I was told today...

that the people in my soon to be job are really looking forward to me starting. This isn't so much because I will be relieving the burden of them working short as much as...

I will bring a sparkle to the department. It's just too quiet, I'm told. It needs some life. Apparently that is my assignment.

My husband promised to take me out to dinner...

if he wins the lottery tonight. I asked, McDonald's? He said we could split a 20.

My son told me that I have issues...

A statement that I strangely take pride and a measure of satisfaction from. All I did was walk into his room blowing an extended raspberry. What's wrong with that?

Silence is...best.

There was one of those uncomfortable conversations around the lunch table today. Basically, several people were discussing raising their children. One said she was raising her children Catholic. One said she was raising her kids Christian. The third said it was only important that children were given religious guidance, no matter what religion the parent's practiced. I, being the fourth person in the room, ate and kept quiet. It's funny, but it seems most people will accept that you are a different religion, but not if your are no religion. From their conversation I gathered that it would be impossible for me to have raised my children in an approved, appropriate, manner. I don't need your approval...and my children are just fine. Want to know what happens with kids without a religious upbringing?

They are told that people believe a lot of different things...and that's okay.
They are told that they need to decide what they believe...and that's okay.
They are told that there is right and wrong.
They are told there are consequences for their actions.

So what is different about the way I taught my children? My sons were introduced to lots of ideas. They were taught it was okay to question even my beliefs...to explore, to seek, to find...or not. They were taught that their actions could be harmful to others...and to themselves. They were taught some behavior was preferable and others forbidden. Their consequences were much more immediate than Heaven or Hell. There was no boogie man devil; just Mom and Dad, and God forbid, the police. Personally, I think that is a concept much easier for the child to grasp than the fire and brimstone of Hell. But, hey, that's just my opinion...kept to myself. I just kept eating.

Jumping off a cliff

Nine months ago, I ran straight off the edge of a cliff with a parachute...a new job. I left 14 years of seniority for an opportunity that excited me. It wasn't long before I discovered I was on a rough road and I wondered if I had made a gigantic mistake. The change was good for me physically and mentally, but I needed an income and that was in jeopardy. Due to circumstances beyond my control, and even to many degrees beyond that of my employer. I found myself treading water...then drowning, as I was given a 90 day notice of separation. Well 60 days later I am running towards another cliff with the same parachute. But this time I am running backwards. Back to the previous employer, in, thankfully, a different capacity. I am more scared this time. I get my seniority back. I know all my future co-workers. I had even once considered this job, but didn't think I'd be selected for the position. It usually goes to high seniority employees. I am unsure why I feel so much trepidation. I can only guess, that it's because I was forced off this cliff. I feel that my decision was rushed, not of my choosing. I was so excited starting the last job and it ended prematurely...badly. Maybe my trepidation is a good sign of what the future holds. I hope. I'm getting too old for cliffs.

Patterns

I tell people that I see patterns. I notice things that a lot of people don't. Now mind you, most of these things are totally useless...but they are there, and for some reason my mind notices them. Maybe looking for order in a disorderly world? Who knows. Maybe it's the right side trying to show off to my overly logical left side. As I tend to think and reason very logically. The only real advantage I have found for this odd ?talent is breaking codes...simple codes. That usually means someone is using a 1 to 1 substitution, a symbol for a letter. But really, how often does one need to break codes in life? You might be surprised. Anyway...

What brought this to mind this morning, was this very blog. As I noticed, randomly, that the two main bodies of the previous entries were of the same number of lines. Along with very similarly sized pictures. Nice little neat observation packages. Useful? Absolutely not. Just my bizarre mind interupting the regularly scheduled programming. Have a nice day.

More words...true words

I saw this quote and realized how very true it is.

"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be."

I seem to know a lot of people currently whose futures are feeling less resolved...including my own. Don't even get me started on people and their glory days. If high school, or college even, was the best you got...I'm sorry. Okay, I should say that and you are, I don't know, five, six, seven, years beyond that time in your life. Get over it, it's unlikely you were really that spectacular. The present is all we have any chance of controlling, and that is a slippery slope. Try your best. Keep your eyes open, feet on the ground and reach for the stars. Take every experience as a lesson. Make the best of what you have. And polish, polish, polish that silver lining...sometimes it's all you got to hold on to, but it's a place to start.

Dooms Day

I saw an ad tonight for a show about people prepping for the end of the world...bunkers, food stores, gun, the whole shebang. The tag line was something like, "It's coming and if you're not prepared, you're already dead." It made me wonder, would I want to live in a world where I needed to live like that? As a nurse, I understand that there are things worse than death. I think having to live in a bunker, armed, in a kill or be killed world...or a kill or starve world, would be one of those things. I would hope to have a quick end, not suffer and struggle. I guess I'll have to meet Armageddon with open arms...and hope it's a few hundred years away. I mean, I don't actually have a death wish.

Where is Heaven?

I heard a commercial this morning on the radio, in which, the joke was the residents of Heaven kept losing items as they fell through the clouds.

We all know from an early age that Heaven is up. But up where? 

How often have you seen a depiction of Heaven in the clouds? I am sure before exploration took us above the clouds, that many people did, indeed, consider Heaven to be so close at hand. Well, having flown through and above the clouds, I assure you, as beautiful as it is, there is no Heaven to be found there.

The Bible is of very little help in locating Heaven...as apparently, according to some experts, there are three. There is the heavens of the Earth, our atmosphere; the heavens of outer space, where the planets reside; and the Heaven, capital H, where God resides. So Heaven is far away, in a place beyond our science...or is Heaven in another plane of existence altogether?

And if I look up to the heavens and wonder, I have to look down and wonder too...as we all know what is down as well as up.

But I find this even more confusing than searching the sky for Heaven because down is so limited. The mental image I always had was that Hell was inside the core of the Earth, as there is no place else down. And the Bible seems to confirm this idea. Now, I'm not an expert on anything, but it seems to me that our Earth has been studied and probed enough that science would have found Hell by now. Unless, of course, it too, is in some alternate universe at the core of the Earth.


I am not a big believer in Heaven or Hell, so why am I looking for them? I like to examine my beliefs every now and again, just to make sure I don't need to change what I think. It has happened. I learn. I get smarter. I challenge my logic. I do not believe, or doubt, blindly, but enlightened and informed. I can tell you more about religion than many believers. Some people say that faith is blind. I guess if that is the case, I'll never be among the faithful. I would love to find comfort there...but not until I can make sense of it.

Mexico 2012

Just got home in the wee hours of the morning from the fourth trip to Mexico in the same number of years. And we've already started planning for next year...it just never gets old.

This is not a hotel review. I did that on tripadvisor.com this morning. This is my, "What I did on vacation" report.

We arrived at the resort early on Saturday, thrilled with our quick trip through Customs and Immigration. It made getting on a plane at 5:20 AM worth it. We spent a week laughing, eating, drinking and a few of us even got lost...even if they didn't know they were lost. I shopped  La Quinta Avenida in Playa del Carmen, a favorite place of mine. I snorkeled in Puerto Morales and saw a more fish than ever...and added a few new additions to my memory collection. I saw a yellow ray, some anemone, and a couple of conch...well, at least the shells. I tried a few new foods, not all with equal success. I saw the best fire show ever, and regret horribly not having my camera with me. I met a few great amigos that shared their time and some of their lives with us and made the trip that much more enjoyable. I was reminded not to judge a book by it's cover...at least when it comes to people. The Hispanic guy working the lobby bar in a Mexican resort...born in California, preparing for school at Georgia Tech. We discovered what it's like to be outnumbered, never before have I seen so many Canadians in one place.

I found the moon in Mexico...finally! I know this sounds bizarre but in my three previous trips, there was no moon to be found. So our last night there, we walked out on the beach and waited for the strangers to drift away...didn't want to frighten the normals, then we howled at the moon. I have waited four years to howl at the moon in Mexico. To make it even better, there was a resort employee, that had been out of my sight, further down the beach. He echoed the howl back to us!

It was a good week. It was hard to come home and it will be harder still to return to everyday life. The ocean calls to me. I can't wait to go back.