Month: May 2019

For the Love of Greeting Cards

Do you love giving and receiving greeting cards? I do. When someone gives me a card, it makes me feel thought of, special and loved. With a physical card, I can touch it and read it again and again. I still cherish a card a friend gave me when I moved to New York 37 years ago. It was a drawing of a girl, cradling the gigantic head of a sleeping dog in her lap. I framed it, and it reminded me of my sweet friend Cathy.

I’m obsessed with buying and collecting cards so much that I have dedicated a filing cabinet drawer to them. Blank cards, thank you cards, anniversary cards, get well cards, sympathy cards, party invitation cards, postcards, envelopes, stamps, stickers, each category nicely organized in their hanging files.

Gasp, I am organized sometimes!

Don’t get me started on the boxed sets, which take up an entire shelf in my dresser. Sometimes I get them out to gaze at their beauty and lovingly caress them. I go to the post office to see if I can match Forever stamps to them.

Boxed sets of cards

If I find out you’re a cat lover, boom, one kitty cat card is coming your way! If you just had a baby, welcome little one!

Usually, I like to get cards on discount, or free, like last summer when all Hallmark Crown Rewards members could come in and get a free card every Friday from their Just Because line. Free Card Friday is coming again, folks, so sign up!

Just Because card from Hallmark

Giving greeting cards is a wonderful way to show you care and recognize the people around you. You don’t have to wait for a special occasion to give one.

So, whether you have a collection like mine, or you walk into a store and buy one, know that your card carries great meaning and brings you closer to the receiver.

Taking a Vacation from My Problems

Do you ever feel tired? Emotionally drained? Every once in a while, I get that way. I start dwelling too much on my problems and not enough on my blessings. So, what can you and I do to get out of the funk?

I decided to take a cue from Bob Wiley, in What About Bob? and take a vacation from my problems. Even the planning gave me a boost. I looked at my 100 Self-Care Activities for Body, Mind, and Spirit, and chose some things to do.

The next morning I woke up singing to my husband, “I’m taking a vacation from my problems!” Just saying it aloud made me happy. He said, “Go for it!” After all, what’s good for me is good for him, right?

My first day, I drove him to work and cranked up a Taylor Dayne CD in the car. Taylor can get your blood pumping, which was just what I needed to start my vacation.

At home, I burned a candle. My favorite candle is Circle E Candles—THE Candle for People Who Know Candles. This one is Orange Vanilla. It smells divine.

Circle E candle Orange Vanilla

I ate lunch with my husband at the Whitney House in Worthington. As I ate my turkey sandwich with brie, I did my best imitation of Bob, mesmerized by the deliciousness of it all. Mmmm. So good! I dropped hubby back to work and went to Cinemark to see the Disneynature movie, Penguins.

Disneynature’s Penguins at Cinemark

Now, I planned to use my refillable tub to buy myself popcorn for the incredibly low price of $4.75, but I was stuffed from lunch and decide to do this another time. When I bought my $5.00 matinee ticket, the cashier asked me to pick my seat. Was the theater really packed? Ok, um, I chose the last row, center seat, the primo seat in the house, and when I entered the theater, I discovered I was all by myself. Cool! Time to use my phone during the whole movie. Just kidding.

You might think that a Disney movie about penguins would be family-friendly. It wasn’t. Sure, penguins are fun to watch because they aren’t very graceful and do a lot of slipping and sliding. The plot was about Steve, a five-year-old Adélie penguin making his first adult visit to his birthplace to start his own family. But I was a bit irritated at how Steve was made out to be an oaf, always apologizing for, well, just being there.

Here’s the not family-friendly part: those leopard seals. I hate leopard seals. Any parent who takes their kid to see Penguins will do well to take their youngsters out during this part, which comes at the end of the movie.

Don’t worry, it ends well, and Steve and his family live on to see another day. Whew!

The exciting and unexpected part about taking a vacation from my problems is that I solved a nagging problem. Or rather, my husband and I solved a problem. The problem was that whenever I drive, my husband wants to tell me where to go, what lane to be in, etc. It’s annoying. The solution we found was for him to read uplifting articles out loud.

So, how about it? Join me in taking a vacation from your problems. Stay tuned for more vacation adventures and solutions.