CLOWNS

"The ballons creep me out!"

All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well. To find out more on the A-Z blogging challenge follow the link.

CLOWNS

Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns. You are not alone if you find clowns creepy and scary. People have been frightened of clowns for centuries, although not a lot of people actually suffer from extreme clownphobia, most people just don't like them. There are even websites dedicated to clown hating such as ihateclowns.com . I do not hate clowns but Stephen King's book IT definitely made clowns forever creepy in my eyes.

Clowns are supposed to be entertainers for children but a survey of 250 children between the ages of 4-16 showed that most children dislike clowns and even feared them. Have clowns always been so scary or did something happen at sometime to make them this creepy? What do you think?

BED BUGS

"Talk about a bedtime snack!"

All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well. To find out more on the A-Z blogging challenge follow the link.






BED BUGS 

They have been around for thousands of years. These nasty little buggers like to suck on our blood while we sleep.They prefer exposed skin, preferably the face, neck and arms of their sleeping victims. Talk about creepy! Just take a look at one.

Good-night---Sleep tight---Don't let the bed bugs bite! Don't know about you but I am going to change my bedclothes and maybe even wear some full body armor to bed! 

IWSG: Where fore art thou Muse?

Just a small note for the first Wednesday of the month dedicated to the Insecure Writers Support Group. Inspiration lacking, imagination stale and dedication failing. Sound familiar? It took me almost two years to write my first book which was published last summer. The sequel to that book at the rate I am going now will take twice that long. The fire has gone out, the well is dry and everyday is just another Monday. Oh well, nobody said this was going to be one long week-end of inspiration. The sun is out and the weather is warmer so I am sure my writing engine will soon start again and my muse will return to help drive me forward. Until then I have this A-Z challenge to fuel my curiosity and imagination.

Happy writing!

ANIMATION AND THE UNCANNY VALLEY

Time for the A-Z blogging challenge! To sign up or find out more follow the link to the A-Z challenge blog site.

Creepy, strange and weird, You talking about me?

All through the month of April, Minnie will help me explore the people, places and things that WE call creepy, strange and downright weird. To be honest, Minnie finds almost everything creepy and strange so having the entire alphabet at our disposal is going to be a challenge. You might find what we discover delightful, or you may agree with us. Please share your opinions either way. Have fun road-tripping the Alphabet by visiting others doing the challenge as well.

A-ANIMATION AND THE UNCANNY VALLEY

Obviously, not all animation is creepy. Good old fashioned Disney movies and cartoons have installed many good memories from childhood. However, today animation is so realistic that I often find it as creepy as bumping into a mannequin and saying, “Excuse me!” Check out this video to see what I mean.

Thank God For Batman!

Sometimes the easiest way to deal with unfortunate situations is by maintaining a sense of humor. After my mother recovered from her initial embarrassment from falling off the stool in her shower, which resulted in a couple of broken ribs and two black eyes, she hobbled out of her bat cave the next day wearing her newly acquired mask. She made a grand gesture as she opened her shawl, and my eyes quickly glanced over the marmalade stains on her nightshirt and focused on her childish grin.

“I look like batman,” she giggled and then winced, grabbing her side.

I couldn’t stop myself from bursting out in laughter, even though I was angry at her for not asking for help. Her stubborn nature has become the villain she faces every day.

“Next time you want to play super hero--- mom, please wait for your side kick to show up!”

A week later, the mask is fading...

Who am I kidding? She is NEVER going to ask for help. I don’t much like having a mother who thinks she has to be a super hero, especially when she goes to such lengths to look the part.

The past few months I have been trapped in some kind of bizarre alternate reality which consists of diapers for both the young and the old, as well as toothless grins and gurgles among other things. Soon my mother and granddaughter will be equally equipped to face the challenges of being fed with a spoon. 

Like I said earlier, sometimes the easiest way to deal with unfortunate situations is to keep a sense of humor. I am doing the best to keep mine and although my inspiration for anything remotely creative has been lacking for quite some time I am hoping that I can kick start my writing engine through the A-Z challenge this year. My theme will be creepy, scary and just plain weird. Are any of you joining the challenge this year, and do you have a theme? I know that I have a lot of catching up to do with my blogging friends and I am sorry about that. Thank god for Batman and a good laugh. Sometimes the strangest thing will put everything else back in place.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week! I will back to share some creepiness with you on April 1^st.

Life in Color

Cabin on the lake painted by me shortly after my divorce and move to Norway

Life is like a canvas full of different colors that splash randomly, making surprises in life. Do you ever wonder what your life would look like if it were to be painted on a canvas? What are the colors of paint that would be splashed, and what forms would they take? As an artist and a writer I would like to show you my life on canvas and paper for one simple reason, to relate, to make a connection, to not feel so alone in this world. 

How many of you feel like your life started out in pastels, moved to black and white with some splashes of red and then a lot of white just to be painted over by black, making everything grey?

I am so sorry that I have not been around for my blogging friends lately; you all know that there are personal reasons for this. I am fighting through the grey, struggling to find some color to paint with again, struggling to find words that will make any sense.

 

Following a splash of pink created by the birth of my first granddaughter, today a bright white splashed its way onto my life’s canvas. My oldest daughter Nicole has started her own blog about food and family, please visit her and say hello.

http://nicolelindblom.wordpress.com/

Maybe pastels and light are forcing the way onto my life’s canvas again, blotting out the grey. As we all grow older less grey is good, right?

Wheels of Time

My mother and me in Central Park, NY  1959

Certain moments in my life have instantly snapped like a rubber band and I knew at that very instant no matter how hard I tried to fight it, that everything was about to change. It was like that the first time my mother gazed off in the distance, as she sat in her chair, and said to me in a childish voice, “Can you drive me home now? I want to go home but I don’t have any shoes so I can’t walk there.” 

My mother was home. She has been living with me and my family for the past 10 years. Snap goes the rubber band and I knew it was time to quite fooling myself. I had taken her to the doctor even though she had said she was perfectly fine. I was worried about the dosage of her medicine and forced her out of the house to see her doctor. His diagnosis was suspected dementia or another mild stroke. She seemed fine enough at the time but I was kidding myself, letting myself be deceived. Tell me, what child does not want to believe their mother? The rubber band snapped and in an instant I became the parent, my mother the child. My brother and sisters are in the states, so I am a so called single parent. I make the hard decisions alone with the support of my family here because they know firsthand the situation. I keep my sisters and brother informed as best I can, but as one of my sisters said, “What can I do?” She does the best she can by giving me emotional support and that is all I can ask for.

Yesterday after my husband and I checked my mother into a medical facility, where over the course of 3- 4 weeks she will be physically and mentally tested for disease, I felt relieved yet saddened. Relieved knowing that she will get the medical attention she needs yet has fought against. Saddened because I know this proud woman does not like to be where she is but has accepted the fact that she needs the kind of help that I cannot give her. Kissing her on the cheek and leaving her in the care of others reminded me of the first time I left my child in daycare. Strange how the wheels of time can turn and how the snap of a moment can change your life.

Be kind to the people you love because one day when you least expect it that rubber band will snap, and hopefully as your life is changed you will make the right choices.

Happy New Year my friends! I hope the choices you make this year bring you success and happiness!

Food and More Food

Christmas in Norway lasts forever, especially if you are working in the restaurant business. Since the middle of November I have been cooking Christmas dinner for hundreds of guests. Just look at all this food, and this is just the cold food. There are desserts and warm food as well. This has been a busy month for me, so sorry if I have been absent. The Christmas Buffet at the hotel where I work is a popular destination for businesses, families and friends. By the time Christmas is here I will have had my fill of food!

Not everything has been about food. If you remember from my last post, my daughter was expecting the birth of her first child. Guess what I did this Thanksgiving? I met my grand-daughter for the first time. Introducing Victoria, I think I will call her Tory. Both mother and child are doing well. Enjoy the rest of your week! I hope to get around to visiting my blogging friends soon.