M Is For Me

My Last Post Of 2013: Tidings Of Amazement & Joy

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

Looking at my calendar and contemplating the next few weeks, I’ve decided to skedaddle out of here.  Bug out, if you will.  Depart.  There will be no more posting to this blog, The Spectacled Bean, until next year.

Let’s call 2013 a done deal, shall we?

But first before I go, I give you the following video: How To Wrap A Cat For Christmas.  This video, which has been around since 2009, is new to me.  If you’ve ever lived with a cat, this video will amaze you.  Confound you.  Inspire you, even.

I dunno, I’ve never seen anything like it before.

And with that, all that’s left for me to add here is this lovely blessing that I found inside a holiday greeting card.  The words resonated with me, so I shall share them with you, my gentle readers.

Merry Christmas, everyone.  And a Happy New Year, too.

~ • ~

“May the magic of the season warm your heart…

may you find hope and peace in the quiet moments spent with those you love,

and may your holiday be filled with everything that brings you joy.”

~ Victoria Barone

~ • ~

I’m Going Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

/ Ally Bean / 15 Comments

•  To review, on Friday I presented you, my gentle readers, with 5 Truths & 1 Lie.  Since then many of you have hazarded a guess about which of my statements is the lie.

Also, many of you have suggested that I’m a good liar.  I’m still processing that idea.  I don’t know whether you say it to flatter my ego;  or to cover your butt if you pick the wrong statement as the lie.

•  Be that as it may, the lie I told was:

“4.  I DRIVE a gray SUV.  I named him Bullwinkle because of his color [which Lexus says is blue, but they’re wrong].  He’s not a new vehicle,  but he gets me where I need to go.”

This is a lie because I DRIVE A WHITE V-6 HONDA ACCORD COUPE.  Named Olivia. Rather old.  She has a snazzy decklid spoiler and sports leather seats with wood paneling stuff inside the car.  Plus she gets fabulous gas mileage.

Yep, that’s the way I live.  I’m more Nancy Drew in her little blue roadster than Shirley Partridge in her funky van.

•  All of which brings me to the only reason, I suspect, that any of you are still reading this post.  Thanks to all who took the time to comment, but the few gentle readers who guessed correctly are:

•  And now I will leave it up to the winners to tell me if they prefer to be a guest poster here OR have me write a haiku about you that I’ll post here.  The choice is yours.  I await your decisions.

Learning To Wait

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

[Sub-titled: Maybe My Middle School English Teacher Did Teach Me Something After All]

Thursday afternoon I was at home, waiting for a few things to happen.  I couldn’t go any farther on the projects at hand until I got some more info from other sources, so I was feeling a bit stuck.  And grumbly.  I wasn’t in the mood to watch TV or to read, so to keep myself from turning into a crabius maximus I decided to goof around with my camera.

First I took a photo of the gorgeous blue sky.  I like to photograph the autumn sky so that when the winter days get gray and gloomy I can look at my photos and remember that once upon a time we had sunshine and clarity.  You understand.

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Then I decided to try to take a photo of the sun.  At first, all I could manage was this impressionistic blur which was more Claude Monet than Ansel Adams.

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However, after a few more attempts I got this photo of the sun.  Granted, it’s not the most spectacular photo ever, but I did achieve my goal and entertain myself in the process so we’re going to call this a win.  Huzzah!

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But here’s the thing, as I was goofing around with my camera I got thinking about a few stanzas of a poem that I was forced inspired to learn along the way.  A poem, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, that seemed to perfectly encapsulate my stuck-at-home-in-the-suburbs afternoon.  A poem that Miss Gillan, my 7th grade English teacher who was about a hundred years old when I had her, would be happy to know I still remember… more or less.

A Psalm Of Life 

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real !   Life is earnest !
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

[a bunch of stanzas that I don’t recall]

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

The V-beam Laser: Looking Puffy, Feeling Angsty

/ Ally Bean / 27 Comments

HERE’S WHAT’S UP with me this week: I’m at home hiding inside my house.  This is because I had a V-beam laser treatment at the doctor’s office a few days ago and now my face, as it heals, is a puffy mess.

Yes, I look like a cross between a jack-o-lantern and a piglet.  Well, not orange or pink, but structurally that’s what I look like.  In bright red.  Like I spent the day at the beach without sunblock.

# # #

SO WHY DID I have another V-beam treatment?  Good question.  Glad you asked.

I suffer from rosacea.  This means that my face gets all red and blotchy because of annoying spider veins, blood vessels and broken capillaries which show through my pale skin.  ‘Tis not pretty.

And it is embarrassing because I look like I’m embarrassed even though I know that I’m not.  This, in turn, makes me flush red because I’m embarrassed about how I look embarrassed when I’m not really embarrassed.  [With me here?]

# # #

THE PROPENSITY FOR rosacea occurs within anyone with a northern European heritage.  It’s genetics, people.  And as such you have three options.

  1. Ignore it and pretend that looking like a drunk all the time is exactly the image you want to project;
  2. Avoid certain trigger foods and drinks while taking daily antibiotics to tame the redness;  OR
  3. Have periodic V-beam laser treatments at the doctor’s office to zap those annoying ugly red veins, vessels and capillaries out of existence.

# # #

BUT ROSACEA IS a condition for which there is no cure;  one can only manage the symptoms.  To wit, each round of laser treatments destroys some of the veins, vessels and capillaries, but there are always more just waiting to make their appearance on your face.

Which is why I’m once again at home avoiding the sun, dodging all mirrors and waiting for my face to not feel fat.  If experience holds true, the results will be worth it… but the wait is making me angsty.

# # #

[Not my doctors, but some V-beam laser information if you’re interested.]

University of North Carolina

University of Virginia

YouTube video of doctor doing procedure like the one I had done.