You’ve probably heard the saying shop til you drop. You may have even done it on occasion. I’ve been known to do that fairly often before the pandemic took away my freedom or maybe I should say madness. I could easily leave my house and stagger back five hours later under the burden of groceries, treasures gathered through my errands to the craft shop, the hardware store, or the local clothes outlet.

     Since the pandemic, you’d think that my madness would have waned, but, it hasn’t. Well, I no longer dash from store to store looking for the best of whatever it is I am obsessed with. Nope, now my fingers do the work, as they fly over the keyboard googling whatever I am in pursuit of.

     A few weeks ago, I searched for hours, no, more like days, for the perfect Bissell Spin Mop. I think I found it. Today after several weeks of researching every robot vacuum cleaner on the internet, getting recommendations from friends, and even putting out a plea for folks on Nextdoor to help convince me which was the best, I finally pressed the Pay Now button on Amazon.

     So, now as I sit in my home, while the pandemic abounds, I no longer shop ‘til I drop. But, I do shop. I shop until my fingers feel like withered stubs ready to fall off and my eyes are crossed from too much screen time.

Do you ever find yourself shopping endlessly–always in search of that perfect something?  Tell us about it.

Clip Art compliments of Bing.

     The holidays are almost here again. Time to think of unique gifts for your favorite folks. Are you feeling lucky? You could be the winner of signed copies of all six of these memoirs. Just click this link to go to the site and enter.

     WIN 6 books in time for the holidays.  GOOD LUCK!

See you soon.
donna

 

     I wish I could say, the pandemic came and it went. But, I can’t. The first part is true. The pandemic, COVID-19, came, but it’s still here–more than 10 months later–more than 300 days. Do you want me to tell you how many minutes and seconds? I can! But, I bet a lot of you can too.

     I could list about a million things wrong with the pandemic. Firstly, the amount of lives that it stole–cut short. Secondly, the pandemic stripped perfectly healthy people of their good health and left them with multiple complications, some that will last a life time. But, I don’t want to focus on the detrimental aspects of the virus because, believe it or not, some good things have happened in 2020 while the pandemic ran rampant across and around our country.

     ZOOM happened! It brought folks together during periods of isolation. It brought students to their teachers in virtual classrooms. It prompted family gatherings for people around the planet to meet for birthdays, weddings, and holidays. It was the glue that kept us connected.

     ZOOM opened many doors for me too. It allowed me to accept an invitation to speak to an audience at the New Rochelle Library in New York without boarding a plane. I acted in a play, called Bad Auditions on Camera, which will be available for streaming on December 12 and 13 at Broadway on Demand. It allowed me to attend writers’ conferences and retreats. I was able to take several writing classes offered by Storyteller Academy and Pitched2Published. I met many new writer friends through these classes and even joined an online ZOOM picture book critique group that meets every three weeks. We are the Villagers.

     When the pandemic hit like a hurricane, schools closed down, teachers were desperately grasping how to present their lessons to their twenty-five to thirty students, and parents were anxiously fumbling with the internet to figure out how their child could attend classes. It was a mess. Frankly, it’s still a mess. Some schools are open, some closed, and some in a hybrid state of partially open, but mostly closed. Teachers were presented with the biggest challenges of their teaching careers.

     Though I walked through the door of Room 109 for the last time in 2011 when I retired, I was compelled to help the younguns. I started up a ZOOM room for local children to engage in book talk. The group grew to include children around the United States and went on for many months until schools started to open again. I loved reading picture books to children then discussing the story with them. It’s what I did in my classroom every day for years. By the eager participation in the book talk, I guess my kids from KIDDLE Korner did too.

     A few weeks ago, The Brain Injury Alliance of Arizona (BIAAZ), hosted me in their Coffee with the Authors series that they are doing each month. How exciting to talk about my book, Prisoners without Bars: A Caregiver’s Tale, for an hour and a half. I could talk forever on that topic. Great questions from the audience too. How did we do it? ZOOM, of course.

     In a few weeks, I will be virtually visiting my former theatre in Nutley, New Jersey. The Nutley Little Theatre has invited me to do a selection of readings from my book, Prisoners without Bars, to their Friday night audience. I can’t wait to see my Nutley friends on ZOOM.

The Brain Injury Association of America has invited me to do a talk on caregiving for their Carolyn Rocchio Caregivers Webinar Series. My title, Live - Strive - Thrive: A Caregiver’s Mantra will be offered live on December 16, 2020. Register to get the link. Interestingly, enough, this webinar will not be presented on ZOOM.

I know that there are other social media sites that folks can use besides ZOOM, but this platform has worked well for me. You might also want to try StreamYard or Google Hangouts. Then, there's always the possibilities of FaceTime or SKYPE. Let your fingers do the walking/typing to search for your best platform.

I’m sure there are many more silver linings to this pandemic, we only have to look for them. What silver linings have you found?

See you soon.
donna

Photos compliments of Bing.

     I'm being erased. Well not exactly just me! About 130 other VGs are being erased too. But, frankly, to tell the truth, there are thousands of VGs being wiped out right now as I am writing this. And–We–Are–Mad! Okay, now that I have you completely flummoxed, I’ll explain.

    

     It all happened last week–out of the blue. I received an email saying that my high school was being dissolved, disbanding, disappearing, being terminated. Villa Maria Academy for girls, established in 1892, which is nearly 130-years-old, is vanishing from the face of Erie, Pennsylvania.

    

     By now, you may have guessed that VGs are Villa Girls from Villa Maria Academy. VMA is one of two all-girl high schools in Erie. Cathedral Prep, or Prep, as it’s often called, is the all-boys high school. It’s been that way mostly forever, except for the few years that Villa allowed boys to register. Villa Maria Academy and Cathedral Prep are an important part of Erie’s history. But, Villa is being erased. It’s going to be absorbed by Prep. Villa will lose its identity, its colors of blue and white, its mascot, and more importantly its name.

    

     I have nothing against Prep. In fact, my husband is a graduate of Prep. I attended many Prep events with him in high school and have many Prep friends. But, it’s wrong to strip a school and its classmates of their identity, swallowing them up without a trace of their history.
    

     I understand that it may be a financial decision, but to obliterate the history of one of the schools is wrong!

    

     My pride in my school is strong and my memories will not fade.

 

     Dedicated to all VGs, but especially my classmates in the Class of 1966.

See you soon.

donna

     I started to set up this blog seven months ago. You might ask what happened. I could tell you COVID-19 struck and took all my oomph away, but that wouldn’t be true. I mean, yes, COVID-19 did come. It came on with a vengeance, but that is not my reason for being a lazy blogger. I’ve been working hard through all these months–really hard–on multiple tasks, I promise. And, that, in fact, is the reason that I haven’t started this blog. So, why am I doing it now? Guilt! Yep! Good old-fashioned guilt. That motivates me–that and deadlines. And, getting up in the morning. I won’t go on.

     Now that I’ve started writing this blog, I swear I will let you in on all the nitty-gritty that I have been doing that has taken away my time to write here. Yep! I promise!

     You can help to keep me on task by writing comments and sharing my blog or my website with your family and friends. Oh, and, you can share them with your enemies too–that works for me.

See you soon.

donna