Casual Fridays were instituted by companies trying to raise the morale of its employees and hopefully boost productivity. I have a better idea! Instead of casual Fridays we should have casual Mondays!

Think about it...

Mondays can ruin your entire weekend!

Sundays are basically ruined because the day is spent in lamenting the fact that you have to go back to work on Monday. (Since this can actually start as early as Saturday, your entire weekend may be ruined!) The latter part of the day is also spent getting ready for Monday. If companies had casual Monday, then the ironing of blouses, skirts, shirts, and pants could wait for a weekday. This way, you can sit and relax on Sunday and watch Carnivale! Mondays would not be as stressful, and let’s face it, Fridays are not stressful at all! Fridays already have the privilege of being considered a weekend and how many people really do all that much work on Friday anyway!

I vote for Casual Monday! Friday already has its own distinction and even has its own saying... TgiF! It even got a restaurant named after it! Let’s give Mondays a better reputation.

Presidents, CEOs, and bosses everywhere... get rid of the Monday blahs, raise productivity, and really boost morale; institute casual Mondays! I will think about how to lift morale for Tuesdays later. Also, while you’re at it, don’t forget the Krispy Kreme donuts!

"Mondays are not part of the productive work week".
~ Dogbert

 
Every year, around this time, we have, what I call, a “Winnie the Pooh” day... a “blustery” day. There is something about nature’s strong winds that I look forward to year after year. After most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, the lawn looks beautiful and I ask the landscaper to wait until the fallen leaves lose their brightness and start to dry before he comes to clean our yard. By that time, I know that most of the leaves will be blown away by the blustery winds of a day in November.

Where do these leaves go? Some poor person’s yard, I suppose. Someone who ends up having to rake their own lawn. We have a landscaper that comes to do our yard work, but by this time, his job is minimal since Mother Nature did the brunt of the work for him. I wonder if the person that ends up with all the blown leaves on his yard likes days like today?

As I write this, it is a bright, sunny day and the winds are blowing the branches of the trees against the house. Most of the leaves have left my lawn and are being blown down the street. Some are pelting on the windows and seem to be performing a wind ballet just for me. The roar of the wind sounds like waves crashing against ocean rocks and is quite soothing to me but is frightening the cockatiel. I have to close the curtain to the window which he sees out of in order that he can stop his nervous twittering.

The gusts of wind will calm down, as will our cockatiel. In the meantime, I will walk outside among the now bare trees and breathe in the cold air and feel the wind sneaking through my jacket. I will promptly run back indoors, grateful for the warmth, and make a cup of coffee and sip it while I sit by the window and enjoy this blustery day. Mother Nature is setting the scene for future natural wonders... snow. I am ready!

"Blustery days should be avoided by Very Small Animals."
~Piglet

 
My favorite time of the year is here. I love autumn. I love the color. I love the chill in the air and the prospect of a hot cup of cocoa. I love winter. I love the preparation for all the holidays beginning with Halloween and ending with the New Year celebration. I love the family and friends get-togethers. I love the traditions.

My daughter and her best friend, Alicia, started their own tradition of trick or treating together since they were seven years old. This year marked a milestone as they went by themselves and collected their usual six pounds of candy. The weather was perfect; a lovely 62?, the warmest Halloween I can remember.

For Thanksgiving, my sister Connie and her children come to my house for dinner. I will host dinner this year again after not cooking the previous two years. My dearest friends, Jeanette and Joe, will also come with their son, Andrew. The day will start with putting the turkey in the oven and turning on the television for the Thanksgiving Day parade, something that has been done in my family since I was a little girl.

Two years ago we took our daughter to see the parade in person and the complaint was that it was not the same, that watching it on television was better. The funny thing is, she really does not sit and watch it, it is just turned on and is just there as a background entertainment.

I will serve all the traditional foods, recipes passed on from my mother. A curious thing is that some of the dishes I prepare are not a favorite of someone or another. My daughter, for example, does not like stuffing! We must have stuffing! My husband does not like the creamed onions or the noodles with cabbage! We must have those too. My niece, Cristina, does not like pumpkin pie! Got to have the pumpkin pie! Joe, if you can believe it, really does not like turkey! He will nibble a piece since it is a traditional part of the holiday. We must have a turkey!

There simply are some dishes that have to be made even if nobody eats them because somehow the holiday would not feel right.

Christmas is a time of many traditions in many families. Last year we went to dinner at another dear friends’ home for their traditional Italian Christmas Eve seafood dinner. Annette’s mother brought her Bacala salad (a cold cod fish salad). Though no one in her family eats it, not even herself, it is a dish that must be present at the dinner table. Without it, the holiday would simply not be the same in their family.

As we do every year, my daughter and I will decorate the trees. We have more than one. My husband has his own Star Wars tree. The other ones have decorations that my daughter and I have made throughout the years. We will try and bake cookies again this year and start a new tradition.

The New Year begins with the families coming to my home for dinner. We stay up and toast the New Year and then the fun begins. It is one of the children’s favorite day, next to Christmas, of course. For several years, we have kept our tradition of staying up til the wee hours in the morning playing Pictionary with my sister, her kids, and my husband’s brother, Louie. We all have the best time and begin the year with peels of laughter and family time.

Ok, there is one tradition that everyone will agree can be stopped.... no more fruit cakes!

I love this time of year!

“Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we can't even describe and aren't even aware of.”
~Ellen Goodman

 
I think it is very funny that people write to advice columnists and start their letter something like this...

Dear Advice Columnist:
I am engaged to a wonderful person who is caring, loving, respectful, funny, and smart. However..... Or...

Dear Advice Columnist:
I am to be married to the most wonderful person in the world. She/he is the best thing that ever happened to me, but...

I am sorry, but if you have to write for advice about someone so wonderful and there is a “but”, why are you still engaged? Halt all plans for the wedding!

I cannot believe the “buts” that follow the description of this wonderful human being.

...but he is 42 years old and still lives at home with his mother and she doesn’t like me. What should I do?

...but she has a very bad spending habit and shops, shops, shops. Should we move to a house with bigger closets?

...but when he drinks he gets out of control and has hit me. He apologizes when he’s sober and promises not to do it again. Should I believe him?

...but he has the worst manners ever and my friends do not like him. What should I do to my friends?

I have read this kind of question many times. I do not get it. If I had my own advice column I would have a list of FAQs. The first one would be regarding the “but”.

FAQ 1. If your question has a “but” after the description of how wonderful your betrothed is, DO NOT MARRY HIM/HER!

I can hear these people after they have been married for a year or two... "If only someone had advised me not to marry."

“Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it.”
~Edna St. Vincent Millay

 
Amendment I:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
~Bill of Rights

If I did not enjoy reading as much as I do, there would be one way to get me to read a book.... ban it.

A couple of weeks ago, a high school on Long Island banned a book. My first reaction was to go straight to Border’s and read what was so objectionable. (My library does not have it... yet.) The book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is actually a coming-of-age book; the story of a fifteen year old high schooler. I read the first couple of chapters and found the book quite inoffensive... but then, I have a high tolerance for subjects others may find offensive. I, actually, do not offend easily, if at all.

I do have strong opinions of things and accept that people have the same. My feelings are that if you impose your opinion on someone, you have to be amenable to having another opinion imposed on you. That, unfortunately, has not been my experience. I find that people who offend the easiest are the ones who offend because their opinions are not accepted.

So if I know that a book is being banned, my curiosity is piqued. If the story sounds interesting enough, I will read it. If not, no offense taken and I do not bother with it.

I ended up purchasing the book. I will encourage both my husband and my daughter to read it. It may not have been the school’s intention to bring notoriety to the author of this “objectionable” book, but alas, there is no such thing as bad publicity. In my opinion, “Perks” has now joined the ranks of other works of literature that have been banned throughout time, such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Wrinkle in Time, Bridge to Terabithia, Leaves of Grass, and many, many others, including The Bible! Yes, The Bible was banned in the Soviet Union for twenty-five years. I wonder how many people that object to Perks find The Bible objectionable.

Hmm. I wonder if I can someday write a book and get it banned by a school?

“Every burned book enlightens the world.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson