Please give a warm welcome, to my friend, Laura Benjamin, today’s guest blogger. Laura, is a;
Interpersonal communication consulting, website and career coach, facilitator and professional public speaker. A veteran-owned, woman-owned Colorado small business, and, she hunts, although not while sporting a stylin’ beehive hairdo, that’s my Aunt Billie, may she rest in peace.
First Impressions and Familiarity – Seeing Space from the Stories of a Shuttle Commander
We humans! We so easily judge and form first impressions about people and things. While it’s a positive attribute because it often keeps us safe – as in avoiding dangerous situations – it’s amazing how many times we barely skim the surface before jumping to a conclusion. Other times, we get so used to the sights and sounds around us that we think we’ve seen it all and wrongly assume there’s nothing left to learn!
Last night I attended the Annual Tourism Awards Banquet hosted by the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (www.experiencecoloradosprings.com ) A number of small to large companies were in attendance, there was the silent auction, the decorations, a great space related theme and a former astronaut as speaker - Brian Duffy (Colonel, USAF, Retired)
His presentation about the 100th Space Shuttle Mission, which he commanded, was spellbinding! Now, we’ve all watched the images on TV, read the newspaper articles and heard the reports about these Space Shuttle missions. In fact, I believe we’ve grown so accustomed to hearing about them that it’s no longer “news”.
But oh contraire! From this humble, friendly, down-to-earth gentleman (pun intended), we were treated last night to a whole new perspective to the relationship between earth, space and one another. His stories, often humorous, gave us insights that rarely show up on the news.
For example, Colonel Duffy was able to see Fenway Park in Boston MA from the Space Shuttle and then estimated the location of his son’s college fraternity house. At the same time, his son and college buddies were out on the roof looking up at the sky watching the slowly moving light that contained his Dad and crew. You could see the emotion peek through as he related this story, flashed the photos on the screen and remembered the moment he looked down on his son from such a distance.
One of the crew members was a woman from my hometown in Rochester, N.Y. I don’t even know the lady, but the fact she came from Rochester made me beam with pride. To think that someone from where I grew up could achieve this accomplishment at such a young age!
A photo of the entire crew “sitting down” to a meal together (i.e. floating in close proximity to fit within the photo frame) gave us a glimpse of the camaraderie they’d established during the two years of pre-launch preparation and the weeks they spent in space. More humorous comments followed about the unmentionable items that occasionally float on by which no one wants to claim!
Ironically, the novelty of it all wore off for them after weeks of traveling 5 miles per second (you’re reading that correctly). He said that after 500 or so times flying around the earth, you get pretty used to seeing spectacular sights whiz on by. With a grin he panned, “Oh yeah, there goes Antarctica again.”
Yes, we humans are not only good at forming first impressions, but we also allow familiarity to blunt our sense of curiosity. I’m looking at the sky a little differently today. I hope you’ll take the opportunity to revisit the wonders around us, both above and here on planet earth!
Laura Benjamin
Here are some photos, a story and links to interactive tours of the Space Shuttle and the Space Station that you can insert along with this blog post: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/09/29/shuttle.preview/
I broke a tooth over a week ago. Thankfully, I already had an appointment today for an exam and cleaning, or I might not be able to have it fixed by my dentist. I’ve been trying to get in, but they’ve been booked. I’m very surprised that they don’t have a way to treat emergencies. The break has become bigger while I’ve been waiting. I’m praying I won’t need a root canal, just a patch, please.
When I return, some things I will be posting in the future; how to wrap a package seamlessly, a Victorian silhouette Christmas card with cute poem inside, and pictures of glass ornaments painted by yours truly. This will not be all posted in one day of course, but I thought I’d give a little preview of things to come.
December’s tea room menu is posted on the Cozy Tearoom page to the left. I am featuring a High tea (dinner) menu. We all know high tea is a dinner, right?
Oh, btw, I’m on page 207 of my book. Woohoo!
It is much more spectacular in real life, but our tree is up. Since sundown on Thanksgiving. It’s not decorated, but it’s up. It is a fiber optic tree, which means it has fiber optic ‘tubes’ coming out of the branches like light up pine needles, and, they oscillate. It’s a totally guy, totally geek tree and I love it!
May your table groan, but not your belly. May you be happy and surrounded by loved ones. May you have more than enough, and enough to share.
May the one Lord God who made us all cover you with His blessing and favor.
Congratulations to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip for being married for 60 years.
My, but we are a driven society, we Americans. Busy, busy, busy. Gotta go, do, be. It seems to me, that if you are asked, ‘what do you do?’ and you don’t respond with a laundry list of tasks waiting to be accomplished, you are judged most harshly. I believe, working from home is one of the most misunderstood things you could say to people. Right now, I am working on a novel. It is the first of three that I plan to have published. While I’m working on it, I have ideas for other books constantly pop into my head. They don’t know how to wait their turn and sometimes get pushy and demanding, but they still must wait their turn. Then, there is the tea lecture business I’m trying to get started. The tea/hospitality book and trying to start a ladies ministry on hospitality, as well as painting 14 ornaments for an ornament exchange at church, getting ready for Thanksgiving which was supposed to be held at my house but has been moved to my sister’s house due to my husband, shopping for the holidays, decorating the house, hosting home group, research for the books, quiet time with God, etc., etc., not to mention the big reason for not working outside the home; I was 37 when my husband and I married. On December 4th we will celebrate our 3rd anniversary. I would much rather stay home and make him a sandwich, than kill myself working for some ungrateful employer. Been there, done that, hated it. I refuse to allow anyone to attempt to make me feel guilty for not over extending myself on a daily basis. So, ‘what do you do, Melissa?’ I stay home and enjoy my husband. I stay home and enjoy my time. I stay home and I write, dream, read, drink tea, watch a movie here and there and feel blessed to be able to do so.
It all started on Friday and didn’t end until late Sunday night. Hubby and I went to a marriage conference at one of the big churches here in the Springs. Ok, THE biggest church here. It was a bit of a nightmare for we introverts. The conference information presented was good, it was just the huge mash of people there that was stressful. Plus, and here we enter into the realm of WTMI so, avert your eyes know and read a little into the next sentence to avoid the TMI. I get gassy when I sit for too long. 6-10 Friday night was way too long. I could have powered the car home with methane, too long. Ok, you may read again. Hubby and I enjoyed the information so much we are planning to do a small home group on it some time after the first of the year. Back again we went Saturday morning from 9-1:30 only now, I had cramps. Yippee! -not. Went home and crashed the rest of the day after stopping at the Elephant Bar Restaurant for lunch, one of my favorite restaurants. Sunday, we went to church service and then back to church for a leadership meeting/potluck at which I became ill. I know I shouldn’t eat pot luck food but I’m curious about other ladies’ recipes. Next time, I’ll take my own Taco Bell but I might have to bring some for our pastor who is a self proclaimed junk food junkie.
Our church is doing some exciting things with groups and leadership. I’m so glad this is a church interested in more than just people coming in and warming up a pew/chair.
Check out my church- Restoration Church
Ah, the ear splitting, mind numbing shrieks of children hyped up on sugar and the anticipation of Santa’s impending visit. People pushing and jostling one another, stealing parking spaces and waiving at each other with only one finger. Yes, it’s that time of year when everyone’s emotional margins shrink to the size of a mortgage broker’s Christmas bonus (as in zero, nada, zilch), and we all wish people would be nicer to us than we are being to them. During the hurried pace of the holidays little things like saying, ‘excuse me’ to walk past someone in a crowded area, or ‘please and thank you’ or, my personal favorite, ‘no, you go first’ can be overlooked. We’ve all done it or had it done to us.
Children, are never too young to learn to say, ‘please and thank you’ even if it comes out in garble, I don’t know of anyone who would turn one down. A smile is free and for employees, it is mandatory to give one to each and every customer you come face to face with while doing business. For we adults, well, we could always use a brush up so here is a list of do’s and don’ts to make the season brighter.
1. Send a thank you note. Again, send a thank you note.
2. Respond to your invitations whether or not they say; R.S.V.P. Again worth repeating-respond to your R.S.V.P.!
3. Say, ‘yes, please’ or ‘no, thank you’.
4. Be appreciative. You don’t have to be invited back next year.
5. Reciprocate.
6. Be punctual.
7. Be flexible. You may have to sit in an odd place or be asked to move.
8. Be gracious.
9. Smile until it hurts, then smile some more.
10. Talk. You weren’t invited to be a bump on a log. This applies to children. They can respond when someone says, ‘hi’ to them when mom and dad are around.
11. Bring a gift.
12. Hold open a door for someone else.
1.Don’t arrive empty handed.
2.Don’t criticize; a gift, the food, the decor, other people, your host/hostess.
3.Do NOT bully the wait staff.
4.Don’t get drunk.
5.Don’t reveal the amount of your Christmas bonus if you were fortunate enough to receive one and don’t announce to the world if you weren’t.
6.Don’t be the center of attention.
7.Don’t be a motor mouth.
8.Don’t guard the buffet table.
9.Don’t hit on the opposite sex.
10.Don’t dress trashy. Don’t be fashionably late. It’s not fashionable and the hostess really doesn’t like it.
11.Don’t arrive early. If the invitation says 7:00p.m. do NOT arrive at 6:45. You don’t know what could have gone wrong that day and your hostess/host may be finishing up and you would only interrupt her as she would feel obligated to entertain you causing her to get behind and possibly still be setting up when everyone politely showed up on time.
12. Do not forget to send a thank you note.
Bonus round. Unless specifically invited, ie. please join us for a FAMILY FRIENDLY party at our house on… for some reason, there is a current trend for parents to drag their children to every adult gathering they attend. Please, do NOT do this with out calling your hostess first to see if the party is age appropriate. If children are invited, this does not constitute a free for all and parents should take this opportunity to sit their children down and explain that some behavior that is acceptable at home is not acceptable in public. We do not: interrupt adults when they are talking unless it involves blood or fire or imminent bodily harm and/or death. We do not spit out food we don’t like onto our plates and proceed to complain loudly about it’s taste. We do not put our feet on their furniture. We do not yell or scream. We do not chase their pets, eat our boogers or pick fights with our siblings. We DO say: please and thank you, yes, ma’am, no ma’am, yes sir, no sir, please pass the _____, may I have another_____.
If you are entertaining and you have small children and/or pets, hiring a baby sitter for your children and those of your guests would be a thoughtful gesture, and of course if we attend a party where the hostess has graciously done this for us we ALWAYS offer to chip in and/or tip the babysitter.
Pets should be locked up in a spare room or bathroom with a note on the door to please not let them out. Yes, they are your fur babies, but some people may not like animals and may not be used to them doing THAT to their leg or begging from the table.
If etiquette continues to be a mystery and one which you would like to decipher, I really, REALLY, encourage you to sign up your child for cotillion. I had the very distinct pleasure of interviewing the man who created the John D. Williams cotillion program, of course, Mr. John D. Williams himself, that started here in Colorado Springs at the Broadmoor Hotel and is now nation wide so, if you live somewhere else and are interested in this wonderful program, please inquire with them about classes in your area.Mr. Williams was such a pleasure to interview. I don’t mind telling you I developed a wee bit of a crush on him, and he was in his early 90’s when we spoke. He passed away shortly there after but he left quite an impression on me and that was after only one meeting and he was competing with a view of Pike’s Peak from the Garden of the Gods Country Club patio while gorgeous thunder clouds were rolling in for an afternoon storm. Whew!
This was also my second meeting of a talented lady by the name of Connie Armit who at the time headed, and may still, the cotillion program. Her late husband had said that although he played and loved sports, especially hockey, he never had an opportunity to use his hockey skills in his adult life but he used what he learned in cotillion EVERYDAY. Ok, parents of kids in sports, let that sink in a bit. Your child has a 100% certainty of interacting with people on a daily basis and the impression he makes on people will have a huge impact on how successful he’ll be, not only in business, but in life. The chances of him making it onto a major sports team is low. My point? If you have the money to do cotillion AND sports, go for it, but if you have to make a choice, go for cotillion. People with good manners go farther in life and have more doors opened for them, no pun intended,than those who don’t.
Need a hostess gift for all those holiday parties you’ll be attending this season? Give a tea basket.
Find a lovely basket, of course. It may either be a picnic basket filled with goodies or a more shallow basket wrapped in cellophane and tied with a big bow. Whichever you chose, here are some suggestions for filling it up.
Teapot, 4-6 cup or a tea for one.
Selection of good quality herbal, black and flavored teas. Bagged or loose will do, but if you give loose tea also provide a strainer.
Creative sugar :decorated sugar cubes, crystallized sugar wands, or brown sugar cubes, a few flavored honey sticks thrown in for good measure.
If giving a teapot, provide at least two cups and saucers especially if you’re putting the items in a picnic basket.
Small spoons for stirring the tea.
Cookies,(homemade or store bought or a variety) scone mix, a jar of lemon curd, Devonshire Cream and a jar of strawberry jam.
Napkins and if giving a picnic basket, you may also toss in an out door table cloth of picnic blanket.
These are just a few examples. You may include or omit as your budget allows. A nice pen and a box of note cards, a slim volume of poetry, a romance novel or a fancy journal are also nice to place in the basket. Introspection over a cup of tea is as old as, well, tea itself.
Men, held open doors for her. Women complimented her on her hat. She was the very essence of femininity and grace. Where has she gone? Would you dress like this and go out in public and not to a tea party of costume party? Why not? Isn’t fashion one or two or a small handful of designers who dictate what everyone else will wear? What if we started to make our own clothes again or had friends who sew make them or went to websites that sold them and spent our money there instead of at the local retail chain? These days, women’s clothes are poorly made and ill fitting and many styles only flatter the very young and slim.
When I put on my wedding dress almost three years ago, I did not want to take it off. I wanted to dress lovely and feminine like that everyday. I felt graceful, special, beautiful, all because of lace, tulle, and beads and big skirts that made me feel like I was floating.
What would you wear if you had someone who would design and make your own clothes? Would you dress as Marie Antoinette? Dolly Madison? A Victorian Lady. Would you dress the same as you do now?
I would love to know.
I’ve JUST returned from seeing Bee Movie (there’s 90 minutes of my life and $5.75 I’ll never see again). Starring, Jerry Seinfeld, Rene’e Zellweger and many other talented actors including John Goodman who was type cast yet again as a verbally incontinent, angry, loud, fat man (see Evan Almighty, Brother Where Art Thou). I think John Goodman is a fine and talented actor. I would love to see him play a different character once and a while. I would really love to see him as a love interest in a movie.
Rene’e Zellweger and Jerry Seinfeld both shined as the voices of a bee, Jerry, and Vanessa Bloom, Rene’e.
I thought Dreamworks did it again. Their animation was superb as usual. The movie was a visual delight. So why did I only grade it a D-?
Right in the middle of the movie, it became preachy and anti-white people which surprised me. If the movie had attacked black people in this same manor, we would already have sound bites from top leaders in the black community crying out about the stereotyping of black people, etc., etc.
I do not like how the movie vilified bee keepers and tried to make it sound like instead of producing, buying and selling honey, people were engaging in human trafficking, or in this case, honey trafficking. It’s HONEY for Pete’s sake.
The bees in nature had a sweet pad/hive, the bees on the farm lived in little bee slums in squalor. Give me a break!
the movie would have been great if it would have just stuck with the theme of the main character wanting to individuate himself from the hive and have choices but no-o-o-o, they had to go and get political, over honey.
If you want to make a movie with a political message, go for it, but don’t make a cartoon that’s supposed to be about bees and turn it into pseudo, wanna-be-intellectual-so-I-can-appear-deep, movie.
Come one, come all to the first (that I know of) international multicontinent virtual vintage prom, hostessed by the very creative Natasha Burns at Artistic Creations by Natasha. You should be able to get to her site by clicking on this enormous picture. Please visit her site for all the glorious details. This should be fun ladies and gents, gents greatly needed (who else would we dance with?) let’s really kick up our heels on this one!
I have two favorite French blogs I visit everyday. One comes to me and is titled, ‘Paris Breakfasts’ the other is , ‘Tongue in Cheek’. PB is the home of a New York based water color artist who has infected me with her macaron obsession to the point where I broke down and made my own since I cannot find a shop anywhere near me that sells them. TC is the ‘home’ of an American Expat married to a French husband who owns a gorgeous antiques store. From time to time, beautiful French things, old, delicate, can’t find that here, will show up on her site and make me drool. Not good for the key board. I have a new French friend I discovered today upon visiting my friend at the Gracious Hospitality blog. The latest addition to Frenchie passions is…The Inspired Room tmPlease take a moment to visit and leave a comment.
Ah, the R.S.V.P. That little acronym dreamed up by a desperate socialite obviously tired of sending out invitations to boorish people who couldn’t take the time to write or call with a response to their gracious hostess to let her know if they would be attending her party, wedding, bridal or baby shower or graduation. How rude!
Here’s how it works, my friends:invitation arrives in mail, if you are single and won’t be accompanied (assuming you’ve been given a plus one, if you haven’t been given a plus one, do NOT invite other people along to someone else’s party, you’re not a rock star, you don’t need an entourage) walk to your calendar, day planner, or electronic scheduling device and check to see if you are available, sit yourself down that instant and compose your reply. Yes, I would love to attend, no, I will not be able to make it. Seal the envelope, and walk it back out to your mail box post haste! If you are married and need to check with your spouse, do so as soon as possible then send your reply. We do NOT ever, EVER! wait until the last minute just in case something better comes along and if by chance you said you would attend and something better does come along, you are obligated to attend the first one you have committed to, you may NOT cancel on your hostess for something better. That is rude, childish behavior and it needs to end now.
If you’ve never been a host or hostess, try it sometime. You just may end up with more compassion for your hostess, if you have a heart, and hold true to your commitments. Besides, flaking out on your hostess gives you a reputation of, well, being a flake!
Albert, TX is allegedly for sale on EBAY. I say allegedly because the person, or persons, who put it on the internet auction site have chosen to remain anonymous. So have the bidders. I see invisible people!
What would you do with a whole town? I’d really like to know.
I’d turn it into a tea town. There would be a giant teapot in the town square. The parks would be tea themed with a children’s area filled with characters from Alice in Wonderland. A tea store, tea room, linen shop, etc. We would sell locally made products using bounty from the peach and pecan trees which grow in the area. I think it would be fun, and hard work to own a town.
What would you do?
Don’t get too close, I’m sick, or at least, I THINK I’m sick. Last night during home group, sorry dear friends!, the lymph nodes behind my right ear started swelling. To my knowledge, I’ve never had one swell there before. I have on the back of my neck by the base of my skull, but not behind my ear. It hurts, and it spread to a little further back on my neck (although a quick exam shows that is going down). So, I quaffing chicken noodle soup, water and green tea rose sencha today. Keep me in prayers for healing. Now onward!
I have posted November’s Tearoom Menu for a Tea Brunch. I will post the recipe for the acorn stuffing here in a bit. If you make any of my recipes, or use my menu suggestions, please email me a picture of you, or your table decked out in scrumptious food bits and I’ll post your picture on my Flicker account. I’d love to get to know my readers better. Heck, send me photos of yourselves and I’ll post that on my Flicker account.
So, as you know, last night was home group night. Since none of us have kids to take trick or treating, or the desire to site at home and answer the door bell fifty times handing out candy, we decided to go on with the group, also because we just love each other so darn much! 
HINT: most churches have a harvest festival where they hand out free candy and set up game booths carnival style for kids so they don’t have to ring strangers door bells for candy. You might want to check this out for next year.
Anyway, our street is DARK, very, very DARK. we don’t have street lamps so the only illumination is from porch lights. Ours was off which, I would think should send a clear message we are not participating in candy handing out. Sadly, there were some parents who didn’t get the clue. They didn’t just ring the bell or knock once, they practically beat down the door! Ring, Ring, bang, bang! Get the hint, people. I finally went to the bathroom window (which over looks our porch, very convenient) to tell them the reason the porch light is out is because we’re not doing Halloween. This only happened 2x but it does make you kind of stop and think and wonder about the parents of these kids. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t drag my kid of a darkened porch or a bite size candy bar. No sirree!
How group was good even with the distractions. I made stuffed green peppers and cherry almond scones for dessert and a black tea to warm us all up.
I hope you are inviting people over and opening your hearts and homes to friends and neighbors who will, I hope will become friends. I wonder, how many people impacted by the fires interacted with their neighbors prior to standing in the street weeping at the sight of their burned out shells that used to be a home? Don’t wait for a tragedy to strike before meeting your neighbors. Get to know the persons around you. You may need them one day or better yet, they may need you.