Money, Money, Money

I have the credentials to write about the what happens to money when it is processed at the Federal Reserve Bank since I worked there for over 30 years. But, as I told Professor Renfroe, I hope I can get creative about it. It is certainly an interesting process that one doesn't hear about all of the time, and there have been some interesting situations with money handling over the years.

I will try to to make the essay interesting, informative, and add some humor as well. Here's a little tidbit of information to entice you to read it next week...at the Charlotte Office, over $20 million is destroyed every weekday. That's enough for now.

Note to myself: think creatively.

Two Annette Mason's in Charlotte, N. C.

I just had to share with you something weird that happened yesterday. I was in a small gift shop and ready to make a purchase. I walked up to the counter and the sales lady was helping someone else. She said, “Well, Annette, how are you doing?” I looked at her, but she was looking at the other lady, who said she was fine. Of course, since there are not many Annette’s in the world, I said to the lady that my name is Annette also. She said that it was certainly unusual to run into another Annette. Then she said, Well, I’m glad to meet you, Annette; I’m Annette Mason." I almost fell to the floor. Was she joking? No, she wasn’t. I said to her, "My name is Annette Mason as well."

We were both in shock, and especially so, when we found out that we live in neighboring neighborhoods, and we shop at a lot of the same places. We could have been “sisters” except for the fact that she is twenty or so years younger than me. What a small, unusual world!

Essay Feedback - Thank You!

I have read all of the feedback from you, and I agree with your comments. The main thing is that my essay, as it is, means absolutely nothing to the reader. I need to have a distinctive focus instead of various little, disconnected memories from my childhood.

I did some research about how important essay titles are in drawing in readers. Right off the bat, I have a problem with my current title, “Childhood Memories.” Boring, blah, and definitely uninteresting can best describe this title. I would not want to read what follows any more than anyone else would.

I am going to take the route of focusing on a few of my family members by showing how strong they were for living each day, working for the family’s welfare over their own needs. I will also incorporate some of my childhood memories.

These were good people who need to be remembered by someone, in writing, versus fading memories and thoughts. I hope my essay will accomplish that.

THE BEST GIFT

I love Christmas!! I have always loved it. My mother was the one who made me love Christmas so much because she loves Christmas so much. As a child, though we did not have much money, my mother would make things special, even fruit, candy, and nuts. I believed in Santa, with all my heart, until I was around 12 or 13 years old. Those were special times.

Today, I try to temper my holiday enthusiasm, but it is hard to do. You will probably think I’m weird, but I play Christmas music year-round on my i-Pod. I love Christmas Time is Here (Charlie Brown), Silent Night by Mannheim Streamroller, White Christmas by the Drifters, and, above all else, The Best Gift by Barbara Streisand. This song has a lovely melody and has a lot meaning to me since my only child/son was born around Christmas. See what you think of the song’s lyrics…

The best gift
That I ever got
Didn't really weigh a lot
It didn't have a ribbon 'round
And it sometimes made the terrible sound
The best of all it seems to me
It wasn't beneath the Christmas tree
And yet, I guess I'd have to say
That it made all the otherpresents twice as gay
The best gift that I've ever known
I'd always wanted most to own
Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice
I never thought it could be so nice
The best gift that I ever got
Was sometimes dry and sometimes wet
Was usually pink but oftentimes red
As it lay so innocently in its bed
The best gift of the year to me
The one I hold most dear to me
A gift that simply drove me wild
Was a tiny new born child...

Oh, those words “tug” at my heart!!

ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVE

Well, it seems that 2009 is looking like a year of enlightenment. I recently talked about Mary Tribble's nonfiction reading bringing her enlightenment in one of my blogs, and now I recently received an e-mail from a dear friend who shares the following words from Andy Rooney, a man, she says, who has the gift of saying so much with so few words. My favorite ones are in BOLD.

I've learned... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.
I've learned... That when you're in love, it shows.
I've learned... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.
I've learned... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.
I've learned... That being kind is more important than being right.
I've learned... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.
I've learned... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.
I've learned... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.
I've learned... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.
I've learned... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.
I've learned... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
I've learned... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.
I've learned... That money doesn't buy class.
I've learned... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I've learned... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
I've learned... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.
I've learned... That love, not time, heals all wounds.
I've learned... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
I've learned... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.
I've learned... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.
I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.
I've learned... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.
I've learned... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.
I've learned... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.
I've learned... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
I've learned... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.
I've learned... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.
I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

Life is short, too busy to really think about things most times, but it is nice that someone can send you an e-mail and make you stop and think about what really matters. Thank you, dear friend, Mary Ann.

CK's Viewpoint of The Real World

All I can say is "God, help me get through this book before class tonight."

In Chapter 3 of S,D, & CP's, CK talks about Roger Ebert's point about whether film characters are aware of other movies and film characters. He gives several examples of this, e.g., whether Sly Stallone's character, John Rambo, could get "personal inspiration" from the movie (and character) Rocky. Most actors' portrayal of their movie characters are so very different from each other (except for sequels); however, the characters are brought to us by the same actor.

CK goes on to say about the MTV series, The Real World, has this same problem, that each season started over, without any reference to the past seasons. He says that "they have a nonfiction situation that is supposed to have no relationship to the other nonfictions," and that the "kids" on the shows are required to behave like this is the first show of this type.

I have to admit that this is an interesting thought that I would have never pondered, especially since I have never seen The Real World. However, throughout the book, CK does get you to think about out-of-the-ordinary things like that.

Carissa's 2/2/09 Untitled Blog

Carissa does a great job of telling about her love of old, brown and white photos and how looking at them prompts questions about the people in the photos. I loved her recap of visits to the website of the 70's wedding. After reading her comments on this, I pulled out photos from the late 60's of my own wedding, and I know exactly what she is talking about. I can't believe that we wore what we wore or that I had long straight hair and my husband had long sideburns.

She also presents an interesting thought in wondering about what happened to this couple. She ends the blog nicely with a funny line about all the plaid clothing she saw in the photos.

Susan's "My Rant about Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs"

Susan's "rant" is so honest and direct. I feel her stress, her love of good writers, and her concern for all of us who watch too much TV. Her analogy is very interesting...of how people think they want more drama in their lives but when drama actually happens, all people want is their routine, boring life back. I like the way she describes her thoughts on Klosterman's use of typecasting his friends with on-screen personalities. I am hoping that Susan got through all of the cocoa puff mess to feel good about her presentation.

Antoinette's "This is my rant."

I've just read Antionette's "rant" blog, and I really enjoyed it. She uses clear descriptions of both what is going on and her emotions. I can actually visualize the whole thing and can empathize with her feelings because I know exactly what she is talking about after many similar and irritating experiences at the airport. My favorite two parts of her blog were the sections on the phone call describing the conversation and lisp and also the ending, where she realizes, too late, that she could have just moved away from this exasperating situation.

From Charlotte to Heidelberg and Back

During the Vietnam era, around 1969, my husband served in the U. S. Army and was fortunately sent to serve in Heidelberg, Germany vs. into the war zone. After being there for several months, he arranged for our 9-month old son and me to join him, and we were there for around one and a half years.

Upon arrival in Frankfurt and during the whirlwind 40-minute trip on the autobahn to Nussloch, a small town around 20 minutes from Heidelberg, I could already tell via interaction with just a few Germans that this was going to be a somewhat difficult and confusing experience. First, the language barrier was a problem, and secondly, I got the impression immediately that every German we spoke with was irritated with us.

Once we arrived at our new home, on the third floor of Herr Rupp’s guesthaus (part hotel, part grocery store, and part café), it was quite an adjustment getting specific rental information from the Rupp’s and also learning our way around the guesthaus and the town of Nussloch.

A couple of examples come to mind right away that show our confusion and concerns. Because we had the impression our German neighbors were unfriendly and “gruff,” we mostly kept to ourselves. After several months of sharing a window clothes line with one of our neighbors, we heard one of them say something in English and then learned that all along they were also a U. S. Army American family. They had felt the same way we did about keeping to themselves because of our perceived unpleasant German temperament. Needless to say, we became best of friends, since as far we know even today, we were the only two American couples living in the town of Nussloch at the time.

Since we did not have an automobile, one snowy day my son and I had to ride the strassebahn (strasse - street car) to Heidelberg to go to the PX for groceries. Even though I smiled at the other German passengers, there was no response back to me. All of a sudden, the strasse came to a sudden, jolting stop. I did not know what was going on, but the driver was motioning for everyone to get off quickly. I was very scared and finally asked, as best I could, a couple of German ladies if they could help me understand what was going on. It was as if I had not said anything to them. They just looked at me in an agitated way, in my opinion at the time.

Finally, the driver came over, and I was able to interpret that there was a loss of power on the line and that the street car was not going to be able to go for quite a while. The two ladies then flagged down a car and signaled for me and my son to come over. They forcefully motioned for us to get in the front seat with the driver, and they sat in the backseat. I was not sure what was going to happen, but I knew we would have frozen in the terrible weather otherwise. I did not know if we were headed on to Heidelberg or back to Nussloch or even where otherwise. Thankfully, we did end up safely back in Nussloch.

After a while, we determined that many of the younger Germans spoke very good English, but the older Germans did not. We also learned that these people are very caring and that a language barrier can cause all kinds of misinterpretations about people.

Tennis, My Favorite (and only) Hobby

When our one and only son, our life at that time, graduated from high school and left for college, we were devastated. So much of what we were all about at that time, e.g., studying with him, going to baseball games, spending time together, etc., was disappearing, and we would be left to ourselves--to do what??

We thought about what we could do together to replace this big hole, and we finally narrowed it down to a hobby, either tennis or golf. I will tell you right now that this was a big undertaking for me since I had never in my girlie life done anything in the way of sports. We finally decided that we would go with tennis.

My husband is a natural at most things (as most guys are) so I was going to be the problem with this choice. At first, I took lessons at CPCC but soon realized that group lessons were not going to work. We were lucky that one of our best friends was a tennis fanatic. He suggested that we take lessons from his tennis teacher, who was a previous Davis Cup player in Indonesia. We both decided to take lessons with Joseph, and it was a great experience. My lessons went on for several years--once a week, rain or shine.

I eventually started playing in the Parks and Rec league. The first year I played on a team, we won and went to Pinehurst for the state tournament. What an experience!! It was like being in a movie, everything was wonderful. Of course, we lost in the first round, but it was so exciting.

Since I have been concentrating on my Queens' studies for the past year or so, I have not been playing as much. I miss it, and once I get the "heck out of Dodge" in May, I am going to play as often as I can. I can't explain the feeling of hitting the ball inside the court (most of the time). I love that feeling of control and accomplishment.

“Enlightenment” For Her Now

“Enlightenment” For Her Now

I was reading an article in the The Charlotte Observer a few days ago and came across an article about Mary Tribble, age 48, of Tribble Creative Group. The article was titled, “King Bio is Timely; Buddhism Enlightens.”

During the holidays she was in a bad auto accident and has been recovering at home since then. Her friends and family know that she likes to read, typically fiction in the past, but one friend challenged her to read Bearing the Cross, the 800-page Pulitzer-winning biography of Martin Luther King Jr., by David Garrow, “to get a better handle on social justice and the continuing racial divide,” which she considered very timely in view of the inauguration of our nation’s first African-American president.

Tribble’s reading tastes have shifted from novels in the past few years to books “that bring me some kind of enlightenment.” One such book is Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living by the “prolific Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön.” She has found this book to be very helpful, especially with the recent loss of her father. “She's really trying to teach you how to change your life by changing your patterns of thinking, your default reactions to adversity,” said Tribble, whose Tribble Creative Group handles events for big business and nonprofits.

After reading this article, I thought about how, with age, I have also changed my reading preferences to more meaningful reading vs. novels. This book sounds like a good read to me.

That’s Makes Me SO-O-O Mad…

As a vegetarian, eating out can be a very frustrating experience.

I changed my eating habits around 25 years ago because my husband’s cholesterol was extremely high; and we needed to stop regularly eating hot dogs and beans, South 21’s double cheeseburgers (and onion rings), BIG steaks on the grill, and, of course, Kentucky Fried Chicken with all the fixin’s.

At first we cut back on meat, carbs, and desserts. Then we cut out beef and pork. Then I cut out chicken, and my husband cut back on chicken. Then, I went off the “deep end” and cut out all dairy products as well. For years, my diet consisted of beans, tofu, vegetables, soy milk, veggie burgers, fruits, and nuts. Due to bone density concerns over the past few years, I have added back into my diet some items, such as eggs, cheese, and salmon.

Now, with that little bit of information tucked away, this is what makes me so mad. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to send food back in a restaurant for having non-vegetarian items in or on it. In the past when I placed orders, the food would come to me with butter, mayonnaise, gravy, cheese sauce, chicken broth, etc., even though I explained up-front that I am a vegetarian. This has been so maddening.

Nowadays, many returned dishes later, I clearly speak up and say what I want and don’t want. Fortunately for me, I usually go to the same restaurants, and they know me (and my quirks) by now. Still, I don’t take a chance. I specifically describe what I want and don’t want. If I don’t do it, I might be eating, more often than not, something I just don’t want to put in my body.

Out with the Old and In with the New

Over the next few weeks, we are having a new patio and driveway put in. Our existing patio and driveway are as old as the house which was built in 1972. They are cement (cracking cement, that is), and the patio is flat on the ground. The new patio will be raised around 10 inches and will be built with bricks and pavers.

They started work a little over a week ago, and our whole back yard is torn up. We are very excited about this because we both love to sit outside in the evenings and just relax and watch the birds, chipmunks, and, oh yes, our little racoon, who lives in one of our trees near the patio. He's a sweet boy, but we keep a close eye on him since our grandchildren play in our back yard regularly.

We are losing several very old shrubs and a few trees, but it is probably time for them to be replaced anyway. We also lost a 40-year old chain-link fence that surrounded the back yard, but we were not sad to see it go since it had become very rusty and most yards do not have them these days.

The driveway will be the last thing to be completed, and it will be a mixture of pavers and cement. There will be a small stone retaining wall on the yard side of the driveway since the yard slopes down toward the house.

The project should be completed in about a month, just in time for spring and our evening respite. Keep your fingers crossed that we have good weather and that all goes well.

"You Lied, Lied, Lied, Lied, You Lied to Your Daddy"

It could be considered sad, and bad, that for over 40 or so years I have “lied” countless times to my husband. It has to do with only one thing…the actual cost of purchased items. My husband is a very frugal person, which is fine; but he cannot understand that things cost what they cost. Since he will never understand this, I have to pretend that the purchase was a better deal than it was, even if it was a really good deal in the first place, just so he will feel okay about it. For example, I recently found a beautiful hand-blown bowl that was originally $500 that was marked down to $310. I don’t know why I did it, but I told him it was $250. He loves that bowl, and I know he loves it even more so because of the pretend $60 discount I told him about. Also, I purchased a $60 shirt for him at Christmas that was on sale for around $20, and I ended up telling him it cost $15. In recent years I don’t have to tell him the cost of things that often any more so I do feel better when I don’t have to tell these little “white lies.” It does make me wonder, though, whether he is telling me a little lie every now and then.