Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Teddy Grahams


My daughter has taken very positively to Teddy Grahams. Perhaps you’ve seen them? They are graham crackers in the shape of little teddy bears. I wanted to give her a little something to keep her occupied when we out for walks or in the car without always resorting to Cheerios. Now, she wouldn’t mind eating Cheerios all the time but I still decided something else might break up the monotony. 

So I gave her one and she liked it. She put it in her mouth, made a ‘yum’ noise and proceeded to get it a bit soggy before taking it out of her mouth and consuming it bit by bit. I didn’t question her process; it seemed to be working well for her. 

I have since given her one or two here and there and she’s always happy to get them because they are tasty. I admit it because I like them too. I found that she and I are not the only ones that enjoy these flavorful little morsels. Two others are quite fond of them as well – the dogs! 

I put a couple of the crackers in my pocket on the way for our ride back home one day. The bigger dog kept her nose at my pocket. And I kept wondering if I hadn’t put one of her treats in my pocket. After a few moments, she began to lick my pocket. I decided to give her one to see if she would take it or if some other scent was calling her attention. Nope! It was the teddy graham. She ate it immediately. Then the other dog came out of her little space to stare me down for one. (They work as a team those two despite their pretending to not get along.) So I had to give a treat to each of my three girls. What was this all coming to?

A few days ago, my daughter grabbed the box of teddy grahams off the coffee table while I turned to grab a diaper out of my bag. She fumbled her way around in the box and the bigger dog came out of nowhere to stare at her sister’s workings. Next thing I knew, there was a slight plat, plat, plat sound against the tiles (the drool of the dog splashing onto the floor) and F waiting for M to drop a cracker by mistake. The minute it happened, the dog scooped in to pick it up and my daughter chuckled at her playmate. 

Kids and dogs really can be funny about what they like and can be quite determined when it’s something they enjoy. I just never thought it would involve little crackers that look like Winnie the Pooh.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

To Tweet or Not To Tweet

Back in 2009 I created a twitter account. Not entirely sure why I did it at the time but I did. However, it just laid in silence until a month ago.

I was having dinner with a friend who decided she would try twitter for a month and give it a try. I agreed to tweet as well. It really was very easy to do. Keeping to the 140 character limit was hard at first but that was almost the fun of it all. Every so often I'll post something but it's not too frequently. Most of my tweets are either in response to some thing I have read from one of the people I am following or it is a catalog/journal of my thoughts.

Yesterday I had a discussion with a friend about Twitter. She was wondering if she should join. I told her that like all social media, it can be a time suck. However, the character limits make it less so. And I said you can follow whatever you want and if there happens to be a link to an article, you can choose to read it or leave it for another time. So in that regard, I thought it better than another form of social media. Also I'm not savvy enough to figure out if there are ways to chat or anything like that on Twitter. I'm happy to not know about that capability if it does exist.

What I also enjoy about Twitter is that it's often quite funny or thought provoking based on who you follow. I have a couple of comedians in my list, some Sesame Street characters and a few authors as well as some news papers. And some people really do tweet more than others so you can adjust your list based on who is being too verbal or not enough.

In my discussion with my friend she was saying that a number of people think that social media is a form of connecting with others when, in fact, it is far more isolating than it appears. I tended to agree with her. Just because you are 'connected' to the internet or social media doesn't mean you are necessarily make deep connections with others. But I also can see how others would think we are totally wrong.

In the end, I am enjoying my tweeting and twitter. It's been fun so far and hope it will continue to be.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Musical Interludes


I have been inundated with work lately. In order to get through these insane periods and be productive, I listen to music when I’m not in a meeting. Occasionally I listen to the radio. However there is the constant deafening replaying of the same three songs that are popular which makes the radio an annoying option at times.

So what I do when I’m disgusted by radio repetitions is I put my ipod on Shuffle. I have a lot of music on my ipod because I’ve uploaded a number of cds that I have accumulated over the years. During my college years, I spent a lot of time listening to different music so it’s a varied collection.

As a song comes up in the shuffle, I’ll look to see what it is (if I don’t readily recognize it) and usually I’m surprised that I had an album because it has been so long since I’ve heard it in its entirety. Then there are songs that I am always excited to hear because they bring me back to a certain time or place. It’s such an overwhelming feeling of happiness when the song makes me recall a specific moment in time or a great set of memories. Some songs are just so fantastic that you need to sing along to them or you need to do an air guitar or air drums solo. 

It’s amazing to me how powerful music can be. When scientists say that music can help calm you down, I have to agree. Music has a way of relaxing me much like petting my dogs. It also brings a bit of clarity to the mind which is refreshing (although if it’s the same songs on rotation, it’s revolting). To more good music and productivity!