Personal Style

Be The Light: “You’ve Got To Have Friends”

/ Ally Bean / 60 Comments

INTRODUCTION:

I’ve joined in a yearlong monthly event called We Are The World Blogfest.  

The purpose of this event is to highlight positive news stories, whatever they might be, presenting them on your blog on the last Friday of the month.

This being the last Friday of July, I have a story to share with you, my gentle readers.

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THE NEWS STORY:  

This is a simple story with funny photos.  The gist of this story is best understood in its title: To Prove A Point, This Woman Wore Her ’90s Bridesmaid Dress Everywhere.

As explained in the article, the reason the bridesmaid wore her dress everywhere was to poke fun at her friend, the bride– who recently apologized to her bridesmaids for making them wear these dresses years ago.

The bridesmaid, who took umbrage at this apology, showed her friend, the bride, that she, the bridesmaid, loved the dress and then wore it as she did her daily activities.  She even provided photographic proof.

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MY COMMENTARY:

This story, which is totally absurd, made me laugh out loud.

It reminded me that a longtime friendship like the one described in this article is rare and true and needs to be celebrated.

I mean think about it: who do you know who’d do something as goofy as wearing a bridesmaid dress while doing her daily activities just to make you laugh– and eat your words?

My answer: only a dear friend, that’s who!

And it’s for this reason that I share with you this small, silly, happy news story proving that a bit of humor can go a long way toward making life more positive and enjoyable.

Like they say, you gotta have friends.

Share Your World | Growing On A Vine

/ Ally Bean / 49 Comments

Once a week Cee asks the questions on her blog, and I answer them here on my blog.  You can join in the Share Your World Challenge by clicking here.

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•  What is your favorite cheese?

Swiss.  Cute holes, lovely color, mild taste.

•  Are you left or right handed [sic]?

Right-handed, unless I’m using a computer mouse, then I’m left-handed.

•  Do you prefer exercising your mind or your body? How frequently do you do either?

I prefer exercising my mind, but reluctantly admit that exercising my body can, on occasion, be ok, too.  I exercise my mind and body often enough to not decline into complete decrepitude, but not often enough to be an inspiration to anyone.  I get by, you know.

•  Complete this sentence: Hot days are …

… a reason to remember that things can work out for the best.  Once upon a time I thought that I wanted to live in southern Florida and was sad that we didn’t end up there.  But now I’m happy that we stayed in the midwest because I only have to put up with humid 90ºF+ days, that I now find to be annoying, for a few months each year.

•  Optional Bonus Question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

Last week’s gratitude award goes to the Dr. Who franchise for picking a woman, Jodie Whittaker, to be the 13th Doctor.  IT’S ABOUT TIME.  We all need to see more female protagonists on the screen [and in real life, too].  I never enjoyed Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, the plot lines were too dark and twisted for me, so I stopped watching the show.  But now, with a new female Doctor, I’m interested again.

This week’s looking forward to something goes to baking a cake.  The details of which I’ll tell you about on my next post.

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Share Your World | On The Deck With The Usual Suspects

/ Ally Bean / 51 Comments

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Re: what I mentioned last week that I was looking forward to doing. On our deck we now have a small herb + vegetable garden with the usual suspects: [l to r] Italian Oregano, Rosemary, Husky Cherry Red Tomatoes, Cute Stuff Gold Peppers, and Sweet Mint.

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• Wanting something to quench your thirst, what would you drink?

Water… or maybe Iced Tea.  Of course what is Iced Tea but Water fancied up, so my final answer, Alex, is: what is water?

• Complete this sentence:  Never In My Life Have I…. 

Wanted to go to the moon.

• If you could be given any gift what would it be?

Are we talking gift, like a present? Or are we talking gift, like a skill? Or a superpower?  I need a bit of clarification here before I can gift the world with my answer.  😉

• What do you do if you can’t sleep at night? Do you count sheep, toss and turn, or get up and try to do something productive?

I’m a good sleeper, so I rarely deal with sleeplessness.  But when I do, I lie in bed and compose blog posts in my head.  This tends to put me back to sleep almost instantly.  🙂

• Optional Bonus Question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

Last week’s gratitude award goes to the needy selfish people who caused me angst and trouble– which then lead me to remember one of my favorite hymns, It Is Well with My Soul.  I share a beautiful rendition of this hymn, sung a cappella by Sisters, below. In the rotunda!

This week’s looking forward to something goes to having lunch with an articulate out-of-town friend who I’ve known for year and agrees with me that most of the people who we know are whacked.  We’ll have much to talk about.  Imagine that!

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This post is part of Cee’s Share Your World Weekly Writing Challenge.

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Out For A Walk: “Love You, Annie”

/ Ally Bean / 86 Comments

IN ANTICIPATION OF A haircut appointment tomorrow, I’ve been trying to decide what to do about my graying blonde hair. “Gronde” as it’s known in hair salon lingo.

Out for a walk yesterday I was lost in my thoughts, contemplating this very important issue, when I walked by a property under construction.  There were men working on the outside of the building.

As I walked by I heard one of them shout at me: “Love you, Annie.”

This made no sense to me but I smiled, waved my hand at him, and continued on with my walk.

ABOUT HALF A BLOCK later it occurred to me in a hey-wait-a-minute moment that I may have misheard what the guy shouted at me.

That what the man shouted at me was: “Love you, Granny.”

Meaning that from afar I appeared to be, of all things, a grandmother.

Peeved and dismayed as I was by this disturbing realization that shook my ego to its core, it dawned on me that I had my answer about what to do about my gronde hair.

Hence, tomorrow’s hair appointment will include highlights, lowlights– and any other lights available– to reduce the grayness in my fading blonde hair.

Because Granny?!

Me thinks not.