#NaPoWriMo – Early Bird Prompt

Five Months Ago - Before 48

Acute early-stage geriatrics
Opaque vision  
              turns my world milky white
Cataracts blind my right eye
If to be "Elder" - means most pain

Youngest patient - not even fifty
Surgery to see clear again
Hits hard my pursestrings
I'm old enough, today 

Cataract Surgery November 2, 2021

NaPoWriMo Early Prompt – Dickinson is known for her elliptical style, unusual word choices, and mordant sense of humor. Over the past year, I’ve experimented with writing poems based on, or responding to, various lines from her poems. Today, I’d like to challenge you to do the same! Here are a few lines of Dickinson’s that might appeal to you (the slashes indicate line breaks)

Good afternoon readers! And welcome to the early bird prompt of NaPoWriMo. And yes, as my loyal readers know I had cataract surgery at the end of last year about two weeks before my 48th birthday. So the lines from One Year Ago – jots What? spoke volumes. No one ever told me about the pre-mature aging that corresponds with cerebral palsy. I mean I really feel like an “Elder” – the eye doctor who first saw my cataracts in August was amazed. He remarked I was 15-20 years too young. Then the surgeon informed I was his youngest patient; followed by, You can no longer drive at night. On the positive side of all this – I do not drive at all because of the cerebral palsy so it wasn’t a restriction the surgeon thought it would be. Thanks for reading my first poetry attempt for 2022.

Cooking with Chef Michelle Bernstein

First off I’d like everyone to know I will be participating in NaPoWriMo once again next month. However my in-laws will be in town this weekend to celebrate Gretchen’s 21st birthday so the first few prompts may be late.

All this month I was writing my #haikuchallenge pieces about cerebral palsy. I managed it every day through Friday March 25 – National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. But this past weekend I was busy enjoying an online cooking experience with Chef Michelle Bernstein offered by Cocina Corona. It was a fun experience and we made some excellent food, but it was draining. I’m glad it was Saturday so Shawn was here to help with all the prep work and cooking. It even wore him out as he took a nap afterwards before sitting down to enjoy the feast.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

First photo is the glass of sangria with the queso dip prep behind the computer. Second photo is Shawn starting on the chicken thighs. The third photo is the queso dip we doubled the chorizo since we bought a package that was 9 oz and I didn’t have anything else planned for chorizo so we cooked it all and added it. Everyone enjoyed it and I was pleasantly surprised it reheated well the next day too. Shawn with his sangria watching over the tomatoes and peppers sauteing. The chicken is finished and ready to serve. They had a plating comparison, but for obvious reasons my plating has never been artistic. Thankfully my children don’t care how their food is presented. Now that they’ve started cooking and see how difficult plating can be, we joke about it. But none of us are overly concerned about presentation as long as the food tastes great. Chef Bernstein and the moderator check out one of the participant’s plate presentation. Selfie after all the hard work. Last but not least serving the chocolate pudding. Yeah we were worn out and not everything was cleaned up yet.

So Sunday was recuperation day. I did get to the clean up too, and we had great leftovers for lunch. Then today I used the #HaikuChallenge word to talk about my fun weekend.

Pudding skin debate
The piece de resistance
Love it or hate it

Okay growing up my mom did not cover pudding while it set. As we were making the pudding Saturday night Chef Bernstein told us to cover it with parchment paper before putting it in the fridge. I was not a fan of pudding skin growing up, so I had no problem letting my sisters grab pudding first. They took the skin and I had the good pudding. As Shawn was covering the pudding, I laughed and told him, You know that’s going to prevent a pudding skin? Thankfully he still covered it. He never told me which way he fell on the pudding skin debate.

Herstory – Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month

This March I have decided to try to focus on cerebral palsy for the #haikuchallenge word on Twitter. So far I’ve been able to – granted they are not the greatest poems but they’ve all used the daily @baffled word and the correct syllable count.

Learning how to walk
Life with cerebral palsy
Limbs bend awkwardly

March photo contest
Cerebral palsy spotlight
Thank you for voting

Hollywood Star

Make a difference
This month brings awareness to
Cerebral palsy

March – official month
Focus on brain injuries
Cerebral palsy

Those are the four thus far. And yes, I snuck in my photo for the cerebral palsy alliance research foundation contest. Any long time readers will recognize it is the photo of me I used for the silver birch press Same Name series.