In Heaven, Fiorella Will Sing

Fiorella's given up on reviving the violin, but she plays the piano about ten minutes every day. Right now she's reviewing Christmas carols.  Not that she gets any better, but she doesn't get any worse. 
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Husband comes from a musical family, especially on his mother's side.  She was an excellent pianist, and her brother led a successful band way back when.  He even made a couple of recordings, which Daughter was thrilled to find on the internet.
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All three of Fio's kids are musical.  Older son concentrates on instruments, especially the bass guitar, while younger son and daughter enjoy karaoke, all of which makes Fio very happy.  She always hoped her children would discover the joy of music.


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Happy Fourth!

Russian, English, German, Gypsy, Swiss,
Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Jew
Fiorella's an all-American miss
Hooray for the red, white, and blue!

Getting Personal

Today will be a good day for Fiorella if she doesn't second-guess tomorrow.
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Friend Katie doesn't think anything of it when she swims 100 laps.  Fio considers herself an Olympian if she takes the dog twice around the driveway.
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Fio's still waiting for her surgeon to call her in for post-facelift photos. Could it be that he is not as thrilled with the results of the procedure as she is?
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Half-rhyme

She should have confessed
Though you might have guessed
That Fiorella is stressed--
Upset and depressed.

This too shall pass,
Though right now it seems
Forever.

Time on Our Hands

Husband repainted the maibox and affixed it more firmly to its post the other day while, inside, Fiorella rearranged the cupboard in which she keeps her gift-wrapping supplies. But it won't last.  Fio can never  remember a time when her mother's house was not perfect,  Or a time when her own was not a mess.

But, being Fiorella, the saint of lost causes, she tries.
  

Oirginal Home Sweet Home

Check out 429 Stetler Avenue, Ellet, Ohio on the internet.  That's where Fiorella lived for the first seven years of her life.

The front porch has been enclosed now, as has what used to be a screened-in back porch, where Fio would stand and stare outside on rainy days and chant "Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day."  The back porch roof has been fenced and turned into an upstairs patio, but Fiorella remembers the day she discovered the door at the end of the hall, opened it, and walked out onto that roof, which she thought was magic.  However Mother and Aunt Julie, who were out in the back yard didn't think it was magic.  In fact, while Mother kept Fiorella occupied from below, Aunt Julie went inside and came up behind Fio to coax her back inside.

Fiorella misted over as she went through the picture of the inside of the house.  What really got Fio was the window on the stair landing, where she remembers standing and waiting and waiting and waiting.

As she still does.  

Another Baby Step

Fiorella has made another step forward in the literary world.  Yes,  two editors--at Gallery and, of all things, Harlequin--have said they like Kinkaid House and have sent it to second readers.

The first time around, before the new threads were added, five editors "passed" right off the bat.  This time, only two did, and three more editors, one of whom had said she would reconsider KH if the sagging middle were fixed, have not yet responded.

The whole thing may yet go down the drain, of course, but Fio's never made it this far before.