Summer time, but the livin’s not easy!

It definitely is summertime here. Plenty hot. Some days remind me of my childhood in Indianapolis with 250% humidity, lot of rainstorms, and heat waves coming up off the sidewalks. That’s what it’s been like here. Lots of heat, humidity and rain. Perfect for frizzy hair. (And I ask you, when will that look ever come back in style? Oh for the early 90’s back again!).

With the tremendous rain storms, the city’s traffic as really been in a gnarl. I wondered if the car would flood out on the way home Sunday night. Just to help me out with my enjoyment, last night, during the night, the electricity went out. I woke up to dead silence and total heat. I took my pillow and went to the spare bedroom, opened up the patio door and tried to sleep. It was so windy, however, that I had a hard time. Finally I did go back to sleep and then the wind died down and I was hot again. By this time the electricity was back up again and I went back to my air conditioned bedroom. I also, plugged everything I had unplugged. I always worry about surges in such situations, as that is common. I think we’ll have a lot of rolling blackouts this year with the tremendous heat we are experiencing.

To add to my pleasure there is a (to be correct, there are a lot) of plumbing problems in the building, and they are cutting the water off now and then. That including yesterday as I did my laundry and this morning while trying to fix lunch. Always nice trying to cook with no water to clean up with. Since we have iron pipes, when the water comes back in, it’s all nice and red and rusty. Really nice to finish washing your clothes with.

I am working hard and things look good for my Window 7 switchover, if I can just remember to buy some DVD’s tomorrow. I hope to find time to do some analysis and evaluation of last year’s resolutions and share the ones for 2010. We have a watch night service that I am looking forward to. For now, it’s off to Wednesday staff meeting, couple counseling and business meeting. A full day.

17 years ago

Today makes 17 years that João and I have been together. I told him last night, that some of the memories of our wedding day are beginning to fade a bit, but that’s only because we have created so many wonderful new memories to take their place.

I don’t do a very good job in “imagining” the future, so when we were married, I didn’t go much beyond the dream that we would live in some vague kind of happily ever after. I got it right after all. I never dreamed of the kind of adventures we would have together, but I didn’t doubt it would be fun. It has been.  Here we are 17 years later, happy as can be!

Newton’s law of motion

Quick, can you cite Newton’s third law of motion? I bet you can, if you really think about it: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Although not exactly the same thing, but in the same vein, every action has a consequence. For instance, this morning I was washing my light clothes on the delicate cycle. Here it takes about 30 minutes for the washing machine to fill with water (I have no idea why, but it’s always been that way here in Brazil), so I checked everything about 45 minutes later as it was beginning the rinse cycle. I almost had a stroke. João’s nice white dress shirts were pink. For some reason my light pink dress, which had been washed before, bled into the white shirts, new linen handkerchiefs, and had turned my new blue nightgown to lilac. I had so few white clothes, I just threw them in with the light clothes. BIG mistake. Nasty consequence. Since, however, they were totally white items, there was a workable solution. Hot and messy, but workable. So I boiled water in a huge pot, put in bleach. (Remembering, of course, that it was about 95 degrees today). Stirred in the clothes and voilá. They were white again. I rinsed and spun them in the washer and all was right with the world. Of course, not even the dryer can take out those wrinkles from being crammed into the pot of hot water, so now I’ll have a nice ironing job ahead of me.

Secondly, Elly has pretty well convinced me to switch over to Windows 7. So reformatting computer,  here I come. Now this action, has really big time consequences. I finally had to get around to making recovery disks for the computer (only took 2 hours and 3 DVD’s), just in case it doesn’t work. I have just downloaded Windows Easy Transfer program and it should help me put all my documents and other such files onto my external disk. It took about two hours or so to transfer all my movies. Next stop, music. Then there is the backing up of all the settings on my browser programs. I also have a program that makes a list of all my programs installed on the computer, so that I can know what I will need to download and install after the reformat. And there are a LOT of programs, because I mostly work with freeware programs. When I think about reinstalling the printers, router, pendrives, external drives, telephones, I get tired. But I like a challenge… and hard work is the consequence. The last time I did a reformat like this I worked for about 12 hours straight. You can lose a lot of valuable stuff if you are too hasty. So everyday I am spending some time on backup. I intend to do a backup on the external drive and on some DVD’s, just in case. The Brazilian saying of “He who has two, actually has one” applies here.  When I analyze all this, I ask myself, why do I put myself through this torture? Ostensibly to save time, but I don’t think I’ll save any time by the time I do all this work. Maybe to have a more efficient computer. Maybe just to prove I can. I have always done well around computers, but recently I have felt like it’s getting harder to keep up with all the changes. That scares me. So to prove I can, I will. Like I say, actions have consequences.

Wish me luck with my actions and their consequences!

A Memorable Christmas

I have read that so many people suffer anxiety or depression on Christmas because they have such high expectations, or because it just has to be perfect, or it needs to “top” Christmas past. While I may have been guilty of that in the past, I think I have moved beyond wanting Christmas to be anymore than it should be – a wonderful celebration of Christ’s birth AND a time of communion with family or friends. So there is simply no way to fail on that score. The girls spend every other year with us on Christmas and this was our year to be together. I know that can’t be entirely easy for them, for traditions do vary and their mother’s family has a very rich tradition of Christmas celebration, whereas João and I sort of hang loose. This year is certainly memorable, for it is the last year we celebrate together with Elly still single. Since she marries next year, things will change. Her fiancé also has his mother’s and his father’s family to think about. That means there are four families to share Christmas with, and in three different cities. Because we have the total monopoly on Thanksgiving, we have already said there is no pressure on our side of the equation. But still in the back of our minds, we knew this year would be the last with our “little girls”. They’ve been grown up a long time, of course, but with marriage, relationships do change. We all had a great time together. We opened presents about 10PM and then we ate supper around 11:30. Elly and her dad were practically falling asleep at the table. It was funny. I called my mom and sister on Skype and we could see each other feel like they also were part of our celebration.

I love giving gifts and am always so anxious to see everyone open them. I don’t think I am particularly accurate in choosing the best gifts, as I always find it to be a struggle, but I do enjoy seeing people open them. Someone commented that I must also enjoy getting presents since I so enjoy giving them. While I might like to deny that, truth be told I do love presents. When someone gives me a present that was obviously well thought out and chosen just for me, I feel cared about and appreciated. I just can’t deny it. And that’s what I am trying to communicate with my gifts as well. That may be a universal sentiment, but somehow I don’t think so. I won’t dwell on the inverse feeling that is the result of not getting a present! You can

figure that out yourself.

We all ate way too much way too late. The food was good and I thought I didn’t eat too much, but must have as even this morning I woke up stuffed. I have only wanted some strong black tea. I have a terrific breakfast planned, but here it is 11AM and the girls are still fast asleep. I envy them. I long ago lost the ability to sleep really late and I miss that. Part of the ageing process. 

I surely hope your family celebration was as joyful and fun as ours was. Enjoy the day.

Christmas Shoes

Today my friend Marlene took me out shoe shopping to let me chose a new pair of shoes for Christmas.  Those who really know me, know I love shoes. I can hardly pass a shoe store without drooling. On the other hand, my feet always have given me fits and I remember a salesman telling my parents they might as well put me in a shoebox because everything hurt my feet. So to find something pretty AND comfortable can be a formidable task. But look, we did it. These are orthopedic shoes. Really. They are butter soft leather, with a softly padded innersole, rubber padding on the outside and low wooden stacked heel. Politely put, they are old lady shoes!!! But I love them. The wooden heels are all the rage this season here, as is this taupe color. So I am all set up for the summer season. When my Achilles tendon was in crisis, I couldn’t have worn even this much heel. After 3 years, it’s good to have my feet back to normal. We aren’t as grateful as we should be for our feet that carry us around everywhere. Now they can do it in style.

As I have been working around the house these days, cleaning and cooking, I have carried my computer around with me (everyone laughs at me using my laptop in the kitchen as I cook – but it’s helpful for recipes and for keeping boredom down to a minimum.). I have watched upteen Christmas movies and almost into candy cane sugar overload with all the syrup. Let me give you a run down on some I have seen (besides those mentioned in my last post).

Santa Klaus – The Movie (1985), which I really liked. It’s a sweet fantasy about how Santa Claus got started and his crisis in the 20th century, but of course good will win out, although a greedy toy manufacturer almost ends it all.  I would consider this a child’s movie. The first half is much better than the last half, which is week. But lots of fun.

The Christmas Story – 1983 came so highly recommended, I had to see it, although I am always reluctant to see something all the critics say is the BEST. Well the film drew me in within the first five minutes. The story takes place in Northern Indiana, probably in the late 40’s or early 50’s. Close enough to my childhood, SOOO related. I love the narration of Ralph’s memories of that Christmas. Ralphie wants a bb gun so badly he could die and is sure he won’t get it. The film really gets into a kids mind. And the scenery and clothes looked like my childhood. His house could have been in my neighborhood and his school looked like mine. This must have been made by a baby boomer! The nice thing is that the story has virtually no stress or sadness. It is just fun without being silly. I loved seeing a normal family. 

Holiday Inn -1942    I mean what’s not to like about Fred Astaire dancing and Bing Crosby singing? Believe it or not I had never seen this movie in which White Christmas was premiered. The music was fun and the story light. Basically it was eye candy.

The Muppets Christmas Carol – 1992. Now I had a real mindset against this movie. I mean I love Charles Dickens. I really loved the Muppets. But somehow it didn’t make sense to put them together. Kermit as Bob Cratchit, really???? I was in for a surprise. They were very faithful to the story. It was less scary for the little kids, and a little more comic, but I didn’t expect to enjoy the story (again) so very much. Really nicely done. The music was especially well done. I definitely think this is a five star movie.

The Christmas Card – 2006 is a Hallmark made for TV movie, so I was prepared for some sniffling, but a feel-good movie. This is most definitely a chick-flick. I can’t imagine any man getting a thrill out of this movie! I enjoyed the romance, even if I realized it is like super unrealistic. Not a criticism, but it is such an “american” cultural movie, that it was, at times, hard to relate to, for me. Remember, although I am an American, I have spent almost half my life out of the country!

But the total winner so far is A Christmas Carol – 1984 (I must be stuck in the 80’s!) starring George C. Scott. Someone called this Patton meets Charles Dickens and I would have to agree. George Scott has one basic acting style, but it so suited Ebenezer Scrooge. I know there’s a lot a controversy as to the best screen adaptation of the Christmas Carol, and I’ve seen a lot of them, but this has to be the best. I saw this year’s 3-D movie and thought it was boring and mostly just special effects. Although this 1985 movie was made for TV the acting is terrific, and the special effects are very believable as well. The ghost of Christmas Present is just absolutely perfect. I felt like he had been drawn right out of my imagination.  I’m afraid my family is going to be stuck watching this one together with me!

That’s more than you could have possibly wanted to know about Christmas movies, right? OK, so turn off the computer and go listen to the Carpenter’s Christmas Album (Christmas Portraits), which is what I am doing.

Christmas Spirit

With Christmas just four days off, that’s what I’m thinking about these days! I have lists set up for grocery shopping and recipes printed out for our Christmas eve dinner. Sissy says it has to be midnight. That is very much a Brazilian tradition, but I’ll confess, not one of my favorites, since it comes from the idea of Christmas mass. In addition, it means no one wants to be in church on Christmas eve since they are busy preparing the big feast for the family. I so miss going to church on Christmas eve. So I’ll just take a nap on the 24th and maybe we’ll eat before midnight, so we can open our presents on the stroke of twelve! Even Mia is getting into the spirit of things. Isn’t she just the cutest thing?

I’ve been trying to get into the spirit by watching holiday movies and looking to pick out something for us to watch together, but just haven’t found the right one. I generally like “old” movies that make you feel all warm and happy. I am tired, however, of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “White Christmas”. I checked out “Christmas in Connecticut”, but frankly found it to be a bit corny for my taste. Someone suggested “Meet Me in St. Louis” with Judy Garland, and although it may be a fine musical, the storyline was pretty goofy. I realized I had never really watched “Holiday Inn”, the original film for the song “White Christmas” and so am watching that, but it’s actually not a very Christmassy story. Hard to please, aren’t I? So if you have a good suggestion, I’d love to hear it.

Last night at church, before the service, the children presented a Christmas program. It was cute and fun and I’m glad to have been there and seen them. It’s always so sweet to see the kids. After their program, then we had our evening worship service which was a Christmas program, with three choirs singing. It was a great worship service. It even cooled down enough to be comfortable without air conditioning, which is a relief.

If I don’t get back to you before Christmas day, I do wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Margaret Mee and Me

I certainly spent the day yesterday in a different kind of way, especially so close to Christmas.  The Post Office Cultural Center has had an exposition of Margaret Mee’s watercolors for about a month and since it’s ending this week, Gabi, my art professor, asked me if I’d like to go with her. I had wanted to go, but for one reason or another, it just kept getting put off, so I jumped at the chance to have someone to go with me. I don’t particularly doing things alone. Even when I was single, I didn’t do much of that. I had to convince myself to get out and go, since once things turn hot here in Rio I turn into a hermit. And I am trying to battle against the tendency, as I don’t think it’s especially healthy. So, I took Gabi up on her offer, even though I had to go downtown on the Metro close to Christmas. The subway was VERY full on the way downtown and I had a long hot walk to the museum. I had never been there and was delighted to see how beautifully it’s been restored. It’s actually an amazing building, with a very cool elevator. There was great air conditioning (a nice plus) and a very nice bistro café.

Back to Margaret Mee… She is very famous among artists and botanists. She is an English woman (b. 1909) who came to Brazil in 1952 to teach art. She developed as one of the world’s great botanical illustrators. She travelled all over Brazil, especially the Amazon region, drawing flowers. She discovered a number of species that she was able to register. She specialized in Orchids and Bromeliads.

Her art is not only scientific, but tremendously artistic, a rare combination. Her watercolors just jump to life with vivid colors and their movement and transparency. I was absolutely enchanted with the display. To say I was drooling, wouldn’t be an exaggeration. It was neat to have Gabi with me to point out a lot of details that I would have missed. As I was looking at the display cases, one of the guards came over to tell me that at 6:30 there would be a guided tour and a distribution of the exposition catalogue. Even though it was early afternoon, we decided to hang around.

I am so glad we did. The museum curator gave the guided tour and there was so much wonderful information to be shared. The catalogue was so worth the wait. It is a beautiful book with all the illustrations we saw printed on high quality paper. I would have paid a lot for such a wonderful book and because of being there on this day, the book was a “prize”. Now, mind you neither Gabi or me knew that there would be the guided tour or free book, we just aimed for a day when we were both free.

When we finally got away from the museum, it was pouring rain. We ran under the marquis to catch the subway back home. Because of the time and the rain, it was so packed. I mean we were like smashed against the door. It reminded me of the trains in Japan where we were shoved on and packed in. By the time I got home, it was raining pretty hard, but I moved it along up the hill to the house. Glad I did, as upon arriving home, the heavens really, really opened up. The city was flooded and João was stuck at Church waiting for the waters to recede. Me, I was safely tucked into my house enjoying my new book on Margaret Mee. I surely wish you could sit down and look at it with me.

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

The old man is NOT snoring, but oh how it is pouring. You can see in my tiny video below the view from our apartment. We are wrapped in a cloud. It is a relief from the heat, but after so many days of rain the city is saturated.

I found myself remembering rain in Indianapolis when I was a child. It rained a lot, especially in the summer. I loved to take off my clothes and run in the rain and feel the squishy mud in the cracks of the sidewalk. I would push it up between my toes and lift my hands and feel the rain running down my back. I remember vividly when Mom decided that I was too old to take off my clothes and run around in my underwear and I was so mad about that. I loved the feel of the rain.

I’m not sure what happened to change that. Gradually I began to associate rain with clouds, darkness and dreariness and it made me sad. I know Dad felt that way and maybe he just “rubbed off”. Maybe it was the headaches I began to feel shortly before it began to rain. (To this day my head is a great barometer. The pressure changes and my head starts to ache). Maybe it was the inconvenience of having to walk to school in those awful rubber galoshes that made huge welts on the back of

my legs where they rubbed. Or maybe it was the icky feel of wet pant legs clinging to my skin all day long. Maybe it has to do with the fact that my wavy hair that I worked so hard to keep smooth and straight became short, curly and frizzy in the rain. I don’t know what it was, but I knew I didn’t like rain and I definitely didn’t want to live anywhere where it rained all the time.

In the last couple of years, however, I have come back to a new appreciation for rain. I attribute that to the fact that the rain brings cooler weather and more than I hated rain, I hated being hot! So I have made an executive decision: let the frizzy hair come  (that’s why they invented flat irons!), throw out the galoshes and wear sandals, roll up the pant legs (or better yet, wear skirts), take a couple of Advil, turn on all the lights in the house, but best of all, turn off the air conditioning, open and windows and smell the rain and sing, sing a song.

I like to hear the rain come down;

Pitter, pitter, pat.

I like to hear it hit the ground

Pitter, pitter, pitter, pitter, pat.

He who serves

This beautiful table was our refreshment table for the deacon’s Christmas party last Friday night. Unfortunately we had a deluge and most of the deacons didn’t make it. We expected 80, but only had about 30 or so. It was a nice program and I thoroughly enjoyed the food for a change, as there were fruits, nuts, and cheeses instead of cakes, cookies, and cokes. I think we Baptists are going to kill ourselves eating junk food at our gatherings. It could get to be downright disgusting and sometimes I even avoid social gatherings for that very reason. This is the time of year of overeating and too many parties, so it’s nice when you can eat and not feel half-sick afterwards! I especially enjoyed the roasted chestnuts. Oh how I love those!

Today we had a lovely morning service full of Christmas music. Our evening services promises to be wonderful as well,  although someone did throw a monkey wrench into the works. The championship soccer game is being played here in Rio (for the Brazilian championship) at Maracanã, the stadium near our church. To give you an idea, there will be about 100,000 people at the game. This is probably bigger than the Superbowl in terms of popular support. Traffic was insane at noon, and the game isn’t til 5PM. You can already hear the crowds, and the game is still a half an hour off from starting. Lots of streets are closed and busses aren’t running, so we know a lot of people won’t make it out tonight. Our location doesn’t always help us in situations like this. And we had no way of knowing before this week that the game would be this Sunday. To explain that, I would have to try to understand the whole championship system here and that’s way over my head. Despite the Christmas program crisis, we are all excited about the game, since “our” team, Flamengo, will win the championship if they win the game. Even Mia put on her soccer jersey to watch the match. hahahaha! Isn’t life interesting here?

Where do I begin?

See what happens when you get behind?  You can’t get ahead. What I mean to say is that there is so much to write about, that you just don’t know where to start. So then you just don’t write at all. I have been struggling to figure out how to edit video on my video camera so I could show you some video of the children’s cantata. So far, no good. My new video cam record in .MOV files, which can be seen on my computer, but aren’t editable on a PC. Since the recording is less than pro, and very long, I wanted to just but a clip, but it looks like I’ll have to forego that option. I have spent many minutes (make that hours) trying to convert, download programs, upload video, etc. If I ever, ever figure it out, I’ll put on some clips of the cantata. Up til know it’s definitely a no-go. Time does slip away with these computer “fun and games”.

Last week was “American” Thanksgiving and our family celebrated here in Rio. As is our custom, we invited another couple to share with us and this year it was our youth minister and his wife. I worked hard all week getting ready for the dinner. I put up the Christmas tree and decorated it, pretty well finished my Christmas shopping and wrapping, plus did the marketing, grocery shopping and cooking. Since it’s been really, really hot, everything took a little longer. I have been in a veritable “swoon” since getting back from the US, trying to adjust to the tremendous heat. I have been blessed in that we really haven’t had any horrible heat waves in the 3 1/2 years since I’ve been back from Canada, so I guess it was about time. This year it has hit with a vengeance and in November, which is SO early. It would be like summer hitting you guys in North America in April. This is our 4th Thanksgiving in Rio, and it’s the first time it’s been hot. I am trying not to complain (well, at least not whine anyway) about the heat, but it has taken the “stuffing's” out of me. Even my husband has mentioned his feet and legs are swollen. One good thing is that no one has much appetite and we all drink lots of water and juice. I find even salad making hot work by the time I walk to the market, come home, wash and clean and chop and serve the fixings. To sum it up, I am not getting a lot done these days, as I am just not very ambitious, but accepting and adjusting my expectations accordingly, is half the battle.

I have been enjoying my Kindle. I was excited that they did an automatic upgrade and now it accepts PDF files, which means a lot of my books I had on my computer, can now be transferred and read on the Kindle. I am really enjoying the free books that Amazon offers. Currently I am reading “Outliers” and just loving it. It’s a fascinating read about the “theory of success”.  In addition I am loving “The Betrayal” , a historical novel about John Calvin. I know many people hate “fictionalizing” history, but I happen to enjoy this genre if it’s well done, and this one is.  I have to discipline myself not to read too much these days. The way I love to read, that’s about all I’d do with the air conditioning turned on full blast.

I have also found a renewed joy in drawing. For some reason that desire seems to wax and wane with me. I’ve always heard people talk about doing things when the “spirit moves them” and that’s about how it is with drawing. I’ll do days or weeks with no urge and then I’ll get started and have a hard time quitting. I lose total and complete track of time. Yesterday was one such day, as I worked finishing the graphite studies on Mom and Dad for about 4-5 hours. I never “finish” anything, but I do eventually stop working on them by “fixing them”, spraying them with clear varnish. The object of a study is to work out problems so you can do a proper portrait later on. These were done on thin paper from a sketchbook, but now I am ready to go work on two other studies and do a larger, better copy of Mom and Dad. I was really pleased with their pictures. I think Mom is a better likeness of her, but Dad’s is more lifelike. I can just see Dad turning quickly to look at me in the portrait. I also love his dimple and his hair waves.

There have been other happenings, but that’s enough for one day, I think. I’ll keep working on the video editing program, and maybe someday I’ll be able to show you some video. Have a good week and stay cool. Or is that warm????