RREALITY

 The blog that was published today was the one that Fiorella wrote yesterday. To top it off, her newspaper didn't show up. Obviously, the kings of the modern world--the computer magnates--are playing around with her again.

Hold your hands over your ears because Fio is going to be practicing her new choir's Christmas songs this afternoon. She's sung most of them before--YEARS before--and isn't sure she still has the touch. Well, it's actually the lungs she's worried about.

Meanwhile, one of the house cats is expressing her love for your girl by purring loudly and trying to lick her nose (Fio looked it up). It's nice to have an approving audience because, as you can tell,  Fiorella is down in the dumps. She's almost out of food and has missed an appointment at her doctor's office so there's nothing to do but watch Soap Dish for the umpteenth time. After all, Maggy survived so maybe Fio can too.

Oops--the cat adjusted the remote to another show while Fiorella was looking at the new kindergarten picture of her granddaughter that Son L was displaying. Jealousy?

Sigh...all in all, there's nothing for your girl to do but (1) call the doctor's office and try to get another appointment, (2) practice the Christmas music like it's the end of the world, and (3) hitch up her belt and dine on apples and chocolate bars until someone visits HEB again. (PS: Son L took Fio out for a hamburger later.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

College Days and Beyond

Question: Did Fio skip a day or did she accidentally wipe one out? Ah, well--at least you now have proof your girl is a real person....

 Looking back, Fiorella realizes that she used her college days as a playground. Her studies went first, of course, but then she added on music, music, music and art, art, art, which were NOT what Mom and Dad had in mind when they paid her tuition. Their plan for her future was that she would become a high school teacher, like her mother, but Fio married when she was twenty and continued on her merry way. 

Later on, of course, your girl's major occupation did turn out to be teaching, but at colleges rather than a high school. She enjoyed it very much, and actually, her music and art background helped her relate better to her students (and vice versa.) Yeah, sometimes your girl even sang to them, and her illustrations on the blackboards were always a success. Hmm--any former students out there and have you identified me yet?

It's never too early to plan for Halloween, and Fio went to town on her decorations last year. Now, if she can just remember where she stored them.....

And now to move on to Christmas, or at least Christmas songs--the ones she's practicing with the Methodist choir, to be exact. However, as it turns out, your girl will have to use earplugs during one particular song, "Once Upon a Tree," which she's never even heard before caused her to melt into tears when she tried to sing it.

 Dang--Fiorella should look for more interesting material than her own life!

PS: WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO FACEBOOK?

 

 

 

 

 

It's All About Me, Me, Me!

 This evening, your girl will be off to the Methodist choir practice in which she made an idiot of herself last week by claiming she sang alto when she's never sung anything but a thundrus soprano her whole life. Apparently, the director has forgiven her, but she still may not fit in. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Fio found a nice nearby Lutheran church that wasn't too choosy and liked to sing?

Reporting in--YES! The American Statesman is still coming to Fiorella's house and landing in her upper yard, which makes Fio very happy. She also likes the way its news reporting seems to have become more oriented toward Austin than New York.

Did your girl mention that friend Ashley (a new friend, not the Ashley that Fio taught with when she was teaching at Temple College) has been urging her to get back into landscape and portrait painting business again? And that the new Ashley even knows where the local hot spots are that Fiorella could display her art and maybe set up a business?

POST choir practice: Whew, everything went much better with the choir group this evening than on her first visit, but your girl's singing voice was still way too throaty. On the other hand, she was much better at reading the music than last weeks--the angel wings of her old UT voice teacher, Edra Gustafson, must have been hovering over her. 

Fiorella has finally figured out how a blog like this one, which she finished off at 10:45 pm on the 28th is published as being on the 29th--because somewhere in the machinery, 10:00 is the cut off for "day."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking Things Out

 NUMBER ONE: The newspaper DID eventually show up yesterday. 

NUMBER TWO: It also showed up today--Fiorella is elated!

But why, you ask, is your girl so het up about getting a newspaper ever day? Because she believes in journalism. Remember, her mother had taught it in high school way-back-when--and passed all her reverence on to her daughter.

Changing the subject, Fio wants a social life--a real one, not just weekly visits to her heart doctors. Her first step, of course, is to obtain reliable transportation, which she's working on, but what's next? How can she find friends and get into the swing of things when she knows she's got a driver ticking off the seconds as he waits for Fiorella in his car? And then there's the fact that your girl's in a city that's changed a lot since she left it twenty-some years ago. (What the heck happened to Scarborough's department store?) For that matter, what happened to all her old friends? Surely, some of them are still alive.

Fio also wants her longevity to be worthwhile, not a drag on her offspring.

Sometimes I have a lot to say/Sometimes I don't but speak up anyway😊

 

Problems, Of Course

 Just when your girl was starting to relax regarding her newspaper.....it didn't turn up on Sunday. SUNDAY! THE DAY YOU'D THINK MOST LIKELY IT WOULD SHOW UP IF NOT ANY OTHER!  O M G--if Fio had only kept track of how many newspapers she'd paid for and not received, she'd be able to buy the joint. 

But Fiorella doesn't have time to dwell on the iniquities of the American Statesman because...blow the trumpets...she's going to church this morning. Yes, the Lutheran one nearest her house that only has about thirty-five parishioners. (She's saving the Methodist church, which must be at least two-hundred strong, for choir practice.)

In her spare time (which is ALL the time), Fio is going to try to build a shelf to put her cosmetics in....and another one for her stray papers. Wood would be ideal, but she's more likely to wind up with cardboard boxes.

This is NOT your girl's good day! That (Missouri Synod) Lutheran church she visited was NOT like the Missouri Synod of her youth, but more like the traveling "revivalists" that, when she was a kid in Waco, would park at a bare intersection and set up their tents. What a disappointment--today's minister couldn't stop talking and the musicians drowned out the congregation. Guess Fio will have to stick with the Methodists for a while.

In the meantime, she is crying and consoling herself with chocolate.

 

Bits and Pieces....

 Fiorella thanks everyone who has been (and is) helping her to get her speaking and singing voices back into shape. Today, it was her daughter-in-law's mother, a singer herself, who urged Fio on.💗

Your girl also thanks her daughter-in-law for allowing her big white male Persian to visit Fio's bedroom every morning and cuddle against her like a dog. Love is where you find it 💗

Hip hooray! Your girl has finally gotten hold of the pastor of the nearest Lutheran church and will attend his service tomorrow. Apparently he has a small congregation, but that's better than an overlarge one. 

Looking ahead, Fiorella is keeping her eyes open for ideas about this years's Christmas card. Contact her if you have a brainstorm....

Congratulate Fio! She went ALL day without watching SOAP-DISH--which she always misnames as SOAP-BOX because she was born in Akron.

 

 

 

 

 

Bringing You Up To Date

FIO CAN'T TELL YOU HOW VERY, VERY HAPPY SHE IS TO HAVE THE AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN DELIVERED TO HER DOOR  (more likely, to her yard) EVERY MORNING AGAIN! THANK YOU!

Guess what? Your girl is toying around with the idea of praying with the local Lutherans, who've dwindled down to only about 35 regular attenders, and singing with the Methodists, whose choir is about forty strong. Now--if she could just get rid of that dang cold (allergy?) that's added a decided gargle to her  voice. Apparently everyone else in Austin has the same problem because when Fio tried to make an appointment with an eye/ear/nose/and throat specialist, the best she could get was October 4.

The good news is that Fio spent half an hour at the piano this morning and her voice sounds like she still has at least a smidgen of a soprano high note in her, but, due to the above-mentioned gargle, she'll have to work on it.

Switching the topic from Fiorella to her family, we need big, real trash bags because we're running low on your girl's collection of HEB grocery store bags. Anyone else have that problem or are we the only ones?

Yes, while she types, your girl is also watching Soapdish for about the hundredth time. As someone who was in the limelight from kindergarten on, Fio is always drawn to the stage--any stage.  Hmmm--wonder if she could still get a role in a local production?😁