600 Thanks! Sundays in My City, and a Personal Note

This post combines gratitude with Sundays in My City, followed by a personal note.

(1) THANK YOU, THANK YOU, all 600+ of you for jumping aboard Life by Chocolate! I'm especially grateful to my regular commenters. But "commenters" sounds so impersonal. You're my friends. Your words motivate me to keep blogging, and our shared laughter keeps me smiling.  I truly appreciate you.

I also recently exceeded 100,000 page views - which is incomprehensible (in a good way) to me. WOOHOO! Nothing can keep me down.
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(2) Now, welcome to Chico, CA.

 

Have you ever seen such a low low rider?

                                                                          Great sentiment!

I've seen several of these caterpillars recently. They're pretty pretty and only a little bit creepy.
                                                            
Please visit UnknownMami's Sundays in My City here to tour the blog world. It's always fun and fascinating.

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(3) I'll be away from blogland for at least a few days...am having surgery on Monday afternoon, 5/20. If you want to read about it - it's kinda heavy and very personal, so I won't be chronicling that story at Life by Chocolate - go here. But no worries. Positive thoughts only, with smiles and chocolate somethings/anythings but Hershey's.

Be well, have a great week, and I'll see you soon.

Nosey Interview

Note: I.B. Nosey is a great photographer, as evidenced by this picture. Not to sound cocky (Lord knows cockiness is something that's rarely in me), but I've never looked so tall, svelte and sexy.

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Blogland's only official unofficial reporter, I.B. Nosey, recently welcomed me over for a playful interview.

 As a sample-teaser ~

There's a big muscle man over there, a hot fudge sundae, and lots of weirdness. I describe chocolate as "my default." That is, chocolate is de fault for my ever-expanding belly, sagging boobs and butt, and devilish smile that permanently resides midway between my nose and chin. 

Go here to read the full, silly interview. 

Have a great Thursday!

How Far Have We Gone?

Hi, friends.

How far we have gone since I posted this last May...

How far we have gone

How much movement we’ve made

When text isn't a book

But a means to get laid

And those who offend

We simply unfriend

How far have we gone

How much did we gain

When a tag is for photos

And a tweet, the inane?

When we “like” a good joke

Say “hey” with a poke?

How far we have gone

To go viral we aim

Gotta increase the numbers

And stay in the game

How far have we gone?

 

 
I'm grateful for the level of humanity that makes blogland such a unique place in the cyber world. Thank you!

I hope you're having a good week.

Mom, In Memoriam

Edith Engel, 6/27/36  -  3/20/85

She grew up in Speden, Alberta, Canada --a town so small, it no longer exists. After graduating first in her class at the University of Alberta, Mom was offered a job as Head Dietician at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.  She eagerly packed her bags, bound for a great career move, American citizenship, life in a bustling city, and...

In June of 1964, Mom met and married Dad. (Last year, I finally did the basic math; it seems my parents likely had a shotgun wedding, since they married three weeks after they met, and my sister was born 8 months later.) Mom wanted four kids: two girls and two boys. Dad agreed, it seems, because that's what they got. 

Years passed. Antsy for a new challenge, Mom enrolled in law school. She'd graduate second in her class and pass the State Bar on round one --all while in her 40s, with four kids at home. I'd never seen her so content. Mom told me that raising a family and working full-time as a lawyer was "like having the best of both worlds."

The call came on Halloween night, 1984. "Your mother's very sick," Dad said. Medical staff talked coldly about an aggressive cancer that had started in her colon and spread rapidly to assault the rest of Mom's body. I spent the next five months juggling freshman classes, and watching my mother shrivel into a ghostly skeleton on the hospital bed that dominated our house. Three months short of her 50th birthday, Mom took her final breath.

Over 300 people attended the funeral. Everybody loved Mom. She shone with an angelic, calming presence; an unassuming competence and brilliance; and a deeply humble, giving nature.

Mom left behind a broken family, lost in a world she had made more beautiful. 

I miss her every day. 

A Collage of Your Comments

Ever since I started making friends in blogland, I’ve thought about how fun it’d be to meet face-to-face at one big party. I imagine conversations would play out as follows, and what follows are nuggets of your comments in two recent posts: the Prom and Bruce Jenner. Enjoy. (Please excuse the asterisks. This did some funky things when I tried to format it.)

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Ruth said..Last week, I saw on the news that the average person spends over $1000 for the prom. Are you freaking kidding me? 

Klahanie said...Right then, time to pose in front of my full-length mirror...who is that awesome dude? Gosh, it's me!    

                                                                                                                                                                                   

        I.B. Nosey said...Looked more like a leftover mannequin in a forgotten department store.

  Tara Grover Smith said..I prefer wrinkles, gentlemen, except for in penises.

    Mencara Mitchellsaid...Kim's butt was never a problem for me. The problem is the other end. When she starts talking, I want to jam metal objects in my ears.

       

    Debra She Who Seeks said...I regard it as a form of high school bullying.

       

 A Beer For The Shower said...I went with a girl who said she liked me and wanted to date me. She went to go get a glass of punch and started making out with some random guy. I interrupted them and told her to F off and that I wasn't giving her a ride home. Have fun walking. The guy got mad at that and tried to attack me, so I shoved his head into a wall and gave him a massive concussion.

       

Al Penwasser said...That's what he gets for buying 'Face Lifts for Dummies' from COSTCO.

       

Pearl said..Dropped shrimp scampi on my dress.  Didn't really have fun.

       

David Macaulay said...chortle - oh well. I hear Carrie's was worse.

       

Stephen Hayes said..Not to make you or anyone else feel bad, but I married my prom date and we've been together for forty years. Lexa Cain said…"You've come a long way, baby!" Yeah, a long way - straight down the crapper for poor old Bruce.

       

My Journey With Candida said... I wonder if he honestly knows how bad he has made himself look.

       

  Gorilla Bananas said...His face looks slightly effeminate to me.

       

Joanne said.. That (because of the rain and my instant frizz) turned into an afro encased in aquanet.

   Pat Tillett said...Granny always said that high school graduation is the great equalizer.

  

  Melissa Bradley said...I would not trade that experience for anything, the dance was a joke, but the company was excellent. 

  

Shah Wharton said...The best justice came late, however. One girl (who was huge at school and got bullied terribly) turned up looking stunning and pronounced she earned a fortune working as a model in France.

Susan Flett Swiderski said...Best lower-the-bar tidbit here is that he only got three reviews in all those years.

       

     Just Keepin It Real, Folks! said...Though you would think he could afford a better plastic surgeon.

       

      Momma Fargo said...Now...he is just weird.

Pat Hatt said…Has to give him the blues.    klahanie said…Oh my, I thought the "Kardashians" were an alien lifeform on Star Trek.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...You have a point!

       

A Beer For The Shower said...just remember you could look like that and be in the same family as Kim "Functionally Useless In All Ways" Kardashian AND Khloe "Jurassic Park" Kardashian.

       

      Cheryl said...Seriously, the most truthful statement ever written farawayeyes said... From THE Mighty Bruce to a Kardashian - oops!

John DeBellis said...100% over hyped.

THE END

Endnote: My apologies if you didn’t see your comment here.  That’s because it was too sensible.