I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: The Way Life Should Be

  • You Don’t Have to Break Up to Wallow (from Four Ticket Ride)

    You Don’t Have to Break Up to Wallow (from Four Ticket Ride)


    Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life made its Netflix debut over the Thanksgiving weekend with much fanfare, hoopla and hype as the three leading actresses appeared on every talk show under the sun to promote the four-part mini-series that was supposed to be a panacea for the yearnings of a major contingent of followers who wanted more from the Gilmore women of Stars Hollow and Hartford. The original American TV comedy series ran for seven seasons from 2000 to 2007, was apparently quite popular, and still missed by many.

    Pretty and I were not Gilmore Girls watchers in those first runs; perhaps because we were younger, our relationship was newer, our social life was busier, we were watching Frasier re-runs… or something else I can’t remember. Whatever the reasons, we missed it the first time around. But since we are now seasoned Netflix subscribers and recently finished the gazillion-episode BBC series Doc Martin  and needed a new diversion, we decided to give the Gilmore Girls a whirl.

    We recently started with the first season and are now prepared to spend the rest of our lives watching Loralei and Rory get daily coffee fixes at Luke’s coffee shop because each of the early years had at least a hundred episodes per season. Luckily, we found ourselves growing fond of the characters as we usually do when the writing is good and the actors as good as the script.

    For example, in one of the first season’s episodes this week I was disappointed when teenage Rory’s first true love, Dean the grocery store bag boy, dumped her. Such a cute, sweet boy – young love blossomed, bloomed, bleeped, fizzled, done. And on their three-month anniversary, too. Sigh. What to do? Talk to Mom.

    Mom’s (Lorelei’s) advice to her teenage daughter was priceless: wallow. That’s right. Wallow. Stay in your pajamas all day while you eat pizza and ice cream…don’t put on makeup…don’t shave your legs…sit in a dark room watching old movies like Love Story, An Affair to Remember, Ishtar, Old Yeller and have a good cry. Wallow the day away.

    What’s really amazing about this advice is I’ve been wallowing minus the crying part and old movies for years without realizing it; my wallowing has nothing at all to do with my love life. I was born to wallow, and then I had a relapse when I had a real job that required getting out of bed, applying Clinique makeup every morning after my shower, spending a fortune on perms and color to give my straight-as-a-board graying hair curls and blondeness,  getting dressed in appropriate business attire, commuting long distances to an office where I sat in front of a computer screen looking at numbers all day while agonizing over the financial decisions my clients were wrestling with…all in all, a relapse that lasted 40 years.

    But now, I have reclaimed my roots (the silver ones, too), and I wallow almost each day. Some days I never get out of my pajamas, my toothpaste gets more use than my bath soap, I gave up shaving my legs for Lent and didn’t resurrect it for Easter, I only wear makeup for date nights, and my straight short white hair qualifies for the “man’s haircut rate” with my hair stylist.  The longest commute I have is from my upstairs office to the kitchen downstairs. Life is good.

    Writing is the perfect career for wallowing. If Pretty asks me what I’ve been doing when she comes home from surveying her antique empire and finds me still in my pajamas, I can say Oh, I’ve been writing all day – which could or could not be exactly true. Unless you count watching In the Heat of the Night as research. (Ishtar, no thanks.)

    Today is New Year’s Eve, the last day of 2016, the day when many of us will be making our resolutions for 2017. I have started my list with the same one I’ve started with for the past 40 years: I need to lose 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 pounds this year. My, how time flies.

    Hm. I never get past that first one.

    If you are making your list and checking it twice, add a day to wallow once a month. You don’t need to break up a relationship to do it – simply indulge and wallow. Indulge. Wallow. Enjoy.

    Pretty and I wish you a Happy New Year from our home at Casa de Canterbury to yours wherever you are in cyberspace around the world – stay safe, and we’ll look forward to having you hang with us in 2017!

    ******************

    In 2017 Pretty and I moved from our two-story Casa de Canterbury in downtown Columbia across the Gervais Street Bridge over the Congaree River to our one-story Casa de Cardinal in West Columbia, fifteen minutes away. Happily, many of our friends in cyberspace made the move with us. And yes, to answer your question, I do still wallow but in the intervening years I read something about the importance of getting dressed every day even if you work from home, so I have given up wallowing in pajamas. The good news is it’s possible to wallow in street clothes. In April of 2021 when I turned 75 years old I finally followed through on a Birthday Eve resolution to lose 50 pounds and have kept it off for two years. In July of 2023 it’s kinda fun to think about New Year’s Eve temperatures and using the oppressive heat as an excuse to wallow. Give it a whirl.

  • age is just a number, and Ella says hers is unlisted

    age is just a number, and Ella says hers is unlisted


    How old are you, Ella? my friend asked our granddaughter Ella. Ella looked at me. I looked at her. Tell her how old you are, Sweet, I said. Ella appeared disinterested in the question, almost as if she were thinking why are the elderly so concerned with my age – can’t they show more curiosity? No one ever asks me what I’m thinking about, for example.

    I’m 4 October, Ella finally replied.

    (which was her interpretation of what we typically say her age is:

    she’s 3 but will be 4 on October 1st)

    ****************

    Overheard at bedtime last weekend:

    Nana, why can’t you come live with me and Molly and Daddy and Mama? Ella asked.

    Oh, darling, Nana has her own house and has to take care of three dogs and Naynay, too, Nana replied.

    Naynay can take care of the dogs, Ella said.

    Problem solved.

    *****************

    Molly and me watching Wimbledon – I miss them both

    Pretty and I acknowledge and embrace our adoration of our two granddaughters Ella and Molly. We realized when Ella was born we would become the typical grandmothers who think their little girl might be the cutest, smartest and funniest child ever. When Molly was born, we were sure they both were.

    *******************

    Following a week of Vacation Bible School at Lolly and Pop’s church, I asked Ella if she knew who Jesus was. She said she did. I said well, good, tell me and Nana about him. Nana was in the front seat driving the car. Ok, Ella said and then came the slightest pause. She tilted her head slightly in Nana’s direction and said hmmm…Jesus was somebody that…hmmmm…(long pause)…he had…hmmm…he was really…hmmm… Naynay, I don’t know anything about Jesus.

    ************************

    Slava Ukraini. For the children.

  • the broken road – dedicated to Pretty

    the broken road – dedicated to Pretty


    I set out on a narrow way
    Many years ago
    Hopin’ I would find true love
    Along the broken road
    But I got lost a time or two
    I wiped my brow
    Kept pushin’ through
    I couldn’t see how every sign
    Pointed straight to you

    And every long lost dream
    Led me to where you are
    Others who broke my heart
    They were just northern stars
    Pointing me on my way
    Into your lovin’ arms
    This much I know is true
    That God blessed the broken road
    And led me straight to you


    I think about the years I spent
    Just passin’ through
    I’d like to take the time I lost
    And give it back to you
    But you just smile and take my hand
    You’ve been there you understand
    It’s all part of His grander plan
    That is coming true


    And every long lost dream
    Led me to where you are
    Others who broke my heart
    They were just northern stars
    Pointing me on my way
    Into your lovin’ arms
    This much I know is true
    That God blessed the broken road
    And led me straight to you

    Source: LyricFind

    Songwriters: Bobby Boyd / Jeff Hanna / Marc Hummon=

  • when women succeed, America succeeds

    when women succeed, America succeeds


    By Nancy Pelosi, House speaker emerita (msnbc.com)

    On this day [July 19, 1848] 175 years ago, in the small town of Seneca Falls, New York, a group of visionary women shook the world.

    With their Declaration of Sentiments, they not only echoed but improved upon our founding charter — boldly asserting that “all men and women are created equal” and rallying women to “demand the equal station to which they are entitled.”

    Imagine the courage that it took for those women at that time. Some had left home without their husband’s or father’s permission, and spoke openly about issues of discrimination and disenfranchisement and domestic violence.

    The groundbreaking convention in Seneca Falls further energized what was a burgeoning women’s rights movement in America. And since then, generations of fearless women marching, mobilizing and demanding full equality for all have carried forth their torch.

    Today, we stand on the shoulders of our courageous foremothers. Because they took a stand, at last we have a seat at the table.

    For their audacity in blazing a path for progress, our nation owes a debt to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann M’Clintock, Jane Hunt, Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and countless heroines of history, including those who were enslaved, abused or marginalized.

    More than seven decades later, women won the right to vote with the 19th Amendment, although it would take many more decades before Black women could fully exercise this freedom everywhere. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 are both pieces of an ongoing effort to close the gender pay gap. In the 1990s, Congress secured expanded access to family and medical leave, as well as strong protections in the Violence Against Women Act. 

    Meanwhile, our coalition has only grown broader and stronger as we have fought for the rights and protections of transgender women and nonbinary Americans. 

    All this progress has made possible a woman as vice president, a woman as speaker — and someday soon, a woman as president.

    Today, we stand on the shoulders of our courageous foremothers. Because they took a stand, at last we have a seat at the table. 

    Yet outrageously, our centuries-long march toward gender justice was abruptly halted last summer when the Republican supermajority on the Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to women’s health freedom.

    The monstrous decision overturning Roe v. Wade ripped away long-held rights — and unleashed a flood of draconian policies denying access to the full spectrum of reproductive care, even in life-threatening circumstances.

    For the first time in our history, girls growing up today have less reproductive freedom than their mothers. Democrats will not rest until the rights of Roe are restored for all. 

    At the same time, women still face too many barriers in the workplace.

    Gender justice starts with finally achieving equal pay for equal work. And we must ease the burden of caregiving that falls disproportionately on women by investing in the expanded child tax credit, universal child care, paid family and medical leave, home health care services and more.

    This is the imperative, ongoing work of the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats in the Congress — and we are committed to finishing the job.

    The story of America has always been one of ever-expanding freedoms, from abolishing the scourge of slavery, which was strongly supported at Seneca Falls, to ensuring all women and people of color are able to vote, to securing reproductive freedom, to achieving marriage equality.

    These victories were made possible by everyday Americans participating in the highest form of patriotism: outside mobilization. This is the indelible legacy of Seneca Falls, stirring generations of women not to wait but to work for change.

    So, on this momentous 175th anniversary, let us renew our pledge to continue the work of Seneca Falls. Because all of America’s mothers, wives, sisters and daughters must be able to enjoy the liberties and opportunities that they deserve. 

    When women succeed, America succeeds.

    Nancy Pelosi

    Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi has represented San Francisco in Congress for more than 36 years. She served as the 52nd speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, from 2007 to 2011 and from 2019 to 2023.

    ****************

    Lest we forget…onward.

  • Luanne Castle’s Reading List (spoiler alert: I’m on her list of favorite writers!)

    Luanne Castle’s Reading List (spoiler alert: I’m on her list of favorite writers!)


    I am honored today by award winning Poet Luanne Castle who recommended my books and body of work on her blog. Luanne has been on my blogroll of favorite bloggers for many years which makes her inclusion of my writing even more special.

    As my daddy used to say, She who tooteth not her own horn, the same shall not be tooteth. I thank you, Luanne, for tooting my horn for me today.

    Please check it out! https://www.writersite.org