X-New York Gal

posted by Evi on Jan 27

What I can’t understand is why there has to be so much blood, guts and gore on TV, in the movies and on video games these days. Do people actually find this entertaining? I can’t even watch a commercial for any of this stuff without covering my eyes.

Is this the kind of crap people want their children to watch? No wonder kids these days are becoming so desensitized to this junk that murdering one’s parents is just another video game to them. Listen up! You kill ‘em, they ain’t coming back and jail isn‘t a happy place.

Where are the cries of outraged parents? Oh, sorry. I forgot. Most parents either don’t care what their kids do or they’re deathly afraid of them. A child brings home a bad report card and right away it’s the teacher’s fault. Neither parent nor child will accept responsibility for their own actions. Hell, let’s blame it on someone else!

Discipline and good values have become a thing of the past. God forbid you smack your child for misbehaving. Why, your ass could end up in jail. Yell at them? Nah, that’s mental abuse. I mean, really, kids actually learn this stuff in schools. Luckily, I never had children. They probably would have been taken away from me and placed in foster care.

Teen pregnancies? Okay, there were some when I was in high school back in the dark ages. But nowadays movies, TV and pop tartlets make teen pregnancy and motherhood something glamorous to aspire to. No more playing dolls. Let’s have real babies instead. And many of those real babies end up having their own real babies before they’re out of their teens. More business for the Welfare Department.

So come on Moms and Dads. Pay some attention to the crap your kids are being exposed to and the messages being sent. Is this really what you want for your children?

posted by Evi on Jan 22

It’s been kind of chilly here in Southwest Florida and that got me to thinking of soup. Just recently I had made a pea soup from scratch which turned out really delicious, if I must say so myself. You can basically use the recipe on an 8 ounce bag of dried peas and then add your own touches.

I cooked mine in the crock pot and added a ham bone and small pieces of cut up ham, a parsnip (which gives it a real nice flavor), carrots, an onion, some leftover cooked potatoes, one and a half Knorr’s vegetable broth cubes, parsley, and some black pepper. Be sure to cut up everything into really small pieces. Then you let it sit in the crock pot for the next 7 – 9 hours. (For the first hour I put it on high, then turned it down to low.) About a half hour or so before serving, I removed the hambone and cut off any remaining meat. This soup, along with a buttered dinner roll, is a complete comfort meal.

I used to love making soups from scratch, even though I’m not much of a cook. Unfortunately Bill, my husband, is not a soup eater so I ended up giving some to my Mom.

I remember back to when I worked in New York City for a life insurance agency on Madison Avenue. One of my favorite ways to spend lunch time on a dreary, rainy day was to run a few blocks over to the Chock Full ‘O’ Nuts coffee shop on Fifth Avenue between 35^th and 36^th Streets and grab a hamburger and Manhattan clam chowder to go. I would then find an empty office in which to savor my greasy hamburger and delicious clam chowder in peace. The most comfortable office was the vice president’s office, so when he was out I would curl up in one of the comfortable old leather chairs along with the New York Daily News, sip at my soup and watch the rain drops streaking down the windows. (In those days I got an hour for lunch even though I only worked from 8:30 to 4:30. This constituted and 8 hour work day unlike those of today.)

I decided to Google Chock Full ‘O’ Nuts before writing about it. I figured they were all gone by now. Boy was I wrong! Apparently there are about 16 shops located in the New York area and one in Jersey. But it seems they went the way of Starbucks and coffee shops of that type with their lattes and other specialty drinks. I’m sorry to say I couldn’t find any mention of their Manhattan clam chowder and hamburgers, my favorite comfort lunches of days past.

posted by Evi on Jan 16

Last year my sister-in-law was down from New York. She was staying with her mother up in Zephyrhills, Florida. So during her stay she and her mother came down to visit my Mom and me and we ended up spending the day in Sanibel. Yes Sanibel, again. It seems every time we have visitors we take them to Sanibel. But it’s a nice drive and the beaches are beautiful and there are all sorts of little gift shops around.

Anyway, the four of us decided to check out some of these little shops and suddenly my sis-in-law’s mom calls out to me to check out this tee shirt that seemed made especially for my husband. It was a bright blue shirt with white lettering that spelled out “Tested Positive For Grumpiness”. That was a real winner so needless to say, I bought it. My husband claims he’s grumpy and proud of it. And believe me, truer words have never been spoken.

I happily brought the shirt home and presented it to him, getting a sarcastic “Oh, thanks a lot”. I figured the shirt would end crumpled up someplace in the back of his armoire.

HA! He wears that damn shirt wherever he goes. He has gotten more comments from women wanting to know where they can get a shirt like that for their husbands. Hell, somebody offered him $25 for it.  He loves the attention and always tells them just how grumpy he really is. If I’m around I, of course, agree. Women have even come up to me asking where they can get a shirt like that.

Which kind of brings me to one conclusion. Most men are grumpy and proud of it.

posted by Evi on Jan 11

This is a continuation of my encounters of the creepy kind – namely spiders. Eek! I’ve had two more life-scarring confrontations that I will never forget and if the spiders were alive to tell, they probably wouldn’t forget either.

Don’t get me wrong – I really don’t advocate killing spiders because they are living creatures and do have their place in nature, but I still haven’t gotten to the point (and probably never will) of capturing them with a tissue and gently placing them outside.

One morning I was walking around the house searching for my slippers. I found them in the dining room and slipped my bare feet in them. The top inside of the slipper felt a little scratchy but I didn’t really give it much thought. You know how the fuzzy part of a slipper picks up little pieces of debris. Then I figured I may as well clean it off so it doesn’t keep scratching my foot. I pulled off the slipper and picked it up to see what was there and . . .out plopped a huge black, hairy spider! My heart stopped. Dizziness overtook me and I thought I would pass out. Holy crap! I was alone in the house with no one but the cat to rescue me.

After my heart started back up I grabbed the slipper and – whack! Shaking, I picked it up with a tissue and disposed of it. I think it was another wolf spider. From then on, I always check my slippers and shoes before putting my feet in. Let that be a lesson to all of you!

posted by Evi on Jan 8

My Mom stopped by yesterday for coffee on her way back from the supermarket. While chatting, we got on the subject of my irrational fear of spiders and how over the years she tried to desensitize me by – hmmm, let me see now – plopping me down in a giant web spun by some sort of creepy garden spider when I was just a little girl, and placing fake spiders between the sheets when I’d come visit her on my semi-annual treks to Florida before moving here. (To be fair, it wasn’t spiders all the time – try rubber cockroaches and those little fur covered toy mice for cats.)

I never knew what would turn up under the covers and after a while I became immune to these offerings. None of this helped me overcome my fear, though. If nothing else, it made it even worse. When confronted with a spider, especially the big black, hairy ones down here in Florida, I still go into shock. My heart pounds and my knees want to buckle right out from under me.

While living in Florida I’ve had three major spider confrontations (so far) that will stick in my mind for all eternity.

Anyway, this is what a spider looks like to someone with acute arachniphobia. In reality the legs were probably only an inch and a half long with a body the size of a penny.

The spider skittered off the door and into the bedroom. I panicked and grabbed the cat then slammed the door shut, closing the spider off in the bedroom. Uh, oh – what did I just do? Oh, no. . .

I grabbed my car keys, tear-assed out the door and scoured the park for Bill. Needless to say, when I did find him he wasn’t too happy being called off duty for something as mundane as a spider. He also wanted to know why I shut the spider in the bedroom. I, in my hysteria, probably said something unintelligible, then told him if he didn’t catch the spider, I was running away from home and sleeping elsewhere.

I spent the night across the street at our friends’ house in their spare bedroom. Al and Dee still haven’t let me forget the incident.

I came home the following day. Bill and Smoochie Cat were up until after two in the morning hunting for the spider, to no avail. That night I was in our spare room playing on the computer – all night if I had to. No way was I going to bed with a giant spider on the loose.

Suddenly Bill came to the room and said, “Don’t move. Just stay where you are.” Then, whack! He intercepted the spider just as it was about to enter the room I was in. My hero!

I put the dead spider in a baggie (don’t worry, my eyes were closed) and showed it to an exterminator the following day. He confirmed it was a wolf spider and quite harmless. Still. . . a spider is a spider!

posted by Evi on Jan 3

Those of you who work or have worked in offices have probably attended a holiday office party at one time or another. Nowadays, many of these parties have become rather tame affairs; some even include spouses.

During my many years of working in offices, everyone (or almost everyone) always looked forward to the annual office party – the big mouthwatering spread and all the booze you could consume in four hours.

When I worked for the GAB in New York City many moons ago, our party was usually held in a reserved hotel room. Christmas lights twinkled on the tree and food and bottles sat upon a white cloth-covered table set up along a wall. Us young gals – of which there weren’t too many – would get all glammed up, drink and flirt like hell. Since spouses weren’t invited to these affairs, we all had a blast; no one looking over anyone’s shoulders with reproving glares.  Since this was before the days of sexual harrassment awareness, there was also a lot of ass-grabbing going on.

I can recall one party for which I bought a black, sleeveless, lace-covered mini dress – very chic at the time. I accessorized it with long silver-balled earrings and strappy, silver high-heeled shoes. I’ll never understand what possessed me to wear a strapless bra under this dress because there was literally not much to hold it up with. I think I spent more time in the bathroom pulling the bra up from around my waist than I did at the party. Eventually, I gave up, pulled it off and stuck it in my purse. I really don’t think anybody noticed the difference.

I remember other parties when working at other companies. Some were held at restaurants, others in the office building. Alcohol always abounded with plenty of food to sop it up. Some of these affairs were dress-up occasions while others were sit-at-your-desk-and-eat deals.

At one company I worked for in Farmingdale on Long Island, the party was held on the second floor. We’d break work a few hours early and head upstairs where we’d eat, drink and most of us were wasted by the time the party ended. Luckily no one got killed or killed anyone on their way home.

Another great party was held at the Huntington Yacht Club. I remember our employers passing out some really nice gifts like fancy perfumes and things.

In later years, the parties became less memorable as employers became more alcohol and lawsuit aware. In some ways this was good and in other ways, not so good. Parties would consist of salads, sandwiches, cookies and soda and everyone who wanted to join the party had to chip in a couple of bucks. We’d gather in little groups around people’s desks and balance food on our laps, eating and waiting until it was politically correct to bolt out the door and meet our work buddies at the local drinking establishment.

Yeah, those were the days. Now that I’m older and my car is my office, I miss the camaraderie of my office years. I miss all my old working friends and the fun times we had. I still keep in touch with some of the people I’ve worked with through the years, and have sometimes managed to get together with them. I wouldn’t give up those years for anything!

posted by Evi on Jan 1

The end of 2008 is nigh.  So, how was your year?  Did you accomplish everything you set out to do?  If not, don’t feel too bad; most of us probably didn’t.  I know I didn’t.  I got a good start on things but after a while I lost momentum or interest and everything started going down the tubes.

 So here I am, faced with a new year.  Once again, will I lose the weight I regained after I lost it the year before?  Will I stick to an exercise program?  Will I get an e-business started?  Will I, will I, will I?  Who knows, but I’ll give it all another shot anyway. Because what is life without something to strive for; to hope for?

I could just sit here and let the world pass me by.  That’s certainly the easy way out.  But what will I have to show for my time on earth?  What will be my legacy?  What will be yours?

So get out there and keep plugging away.  Enjoy your life, create something, dance; whatever.  Start a blog, write a book.  But never give up.

A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL!