Hello 43 – Goodbye Everything

Veronica Hosking you just lost the meaning to everything, now what? Attend a concert sponsored by old people. Back in February, Shawn turned the ripe old age of 44 – I know, ancient right? 😉

Well AARP must think so because he got an invitation to join. Since I was still 42 at the time and knew everything, this was funny. Then a few weeks before my birthday, I was listening to an actual radio station. Yes, I’m old and still listen to dial radio stations. I heard the Barenaked Ladies were going to be in Phoenix November 19th! Ooo…only two days after my birthday and on a Saturday, making it easy to schedule in. I asked Shawn if he got my birthday present yet. He said, no, and I told him to buy tickets to the show. Of course, he claimed he was too busy. I had to buy my own birthday present!

I went to the Mesa Amphitheater website and was pleasantly surprised tickets were only $20. Then I saw – presented by AARP. Well it was only fitting since I was buying tickets for my 43rd birthday. After all I will have lost the meaning to the universe.

Proof Shawn is an OLD man

Ah, yes old age sneaks up quickly

Shawn and Me November 19, 2016

Both Shawn and I enjoyed the concert. It was great weather for an outdoor venue and you definitely couldn’t beat the price.

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NaPoWriMo 2016 Day Two

Thanksgiving Dinner 2001

Thanksgiving

Twin sister
Hosts dinner
At her house
Nieces stood together
Katryn dressed in white
Scott turned his head
Gretchen held secure
In Dad’s embrace
Veronica smiles big
In front of Sean
Nonnie wrapped the
Girls with loving arms

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Today, I challenge you to write a poem that takes the form of a family portrait. You could write, for example, a stanza for each member of your family. You could also find an actual snapshot of your family and write a poem about it, spending a little bit of time on each person in the picture. You don’t need to observe any particular form or meter. Happy writing!

A family portrait you say. I immediately thought of this picture. When my mom passed away, she had set aside pictures for each of her daughters. The above picture was in my envelope. It is Thanksgiving Dinner at my sister Katryn’s house when they lived in Arizona. It is her girls, my girls, and my in-laws and niece. My brother-in-law committed suicide just before Thanksgiving 2013. This may have been the last time we were all together and I wanted to write about it.

Note – yes, I did not mention Tina (standing between Scott and Katryn) in the poem.

Once Upon Forty-two Years

Photo Credit

Keep
Towel
Near-at-hand
Hitchhike across
Galaxy
Panic
Free

Great
Autumn
Forty-two
Omniscient year
Universe
Reveals
All

In February Shawn turned 43 and the answer to life was lost. 😦 But I’m not worried, all will be revealed again soon. I’ll be sure to write the answers down.

Twins – Fun Fact

My brain hurts Photo credit

Add
an hour
to the day

First born
twin becomes
younger than
the second.

Okay in two more weeks, my twin sister and I will celebrate 42 years. Since 42 is the answer to everything in the universe maybe I’ll be able to decipher this math problem on the 17th. Until then, I am glad I live in Arizona where we don’t have to worry about trying to figure out who is older. I beat my sister by a day! 😉

I Surrender

Middle of Times Square
Surrender to nature’s call
Feel inauspicious

Since it is only day two of NovPAD, I hope no one is feeling inauspicious yet nor surrendering. I was on Facebook this morning and saw I posted this video a few years ago and well it’s fun. I’m not sure if I’ve shared it on this blog yet. If anyone would like to surrender to nature’s call in the middle of Times Square just visit my husband at work, Blockwise Engineering.

White and Nerdy

It started last night at dinner, my youngest was talking about Five Nights at Freddy’s.  Apparently the prequel takes place way back in 1987 (way back!?)  Being the strange family we are I said; Extra credit to the first person who can tell me how old Mom was way back in 1987.  Both girls started calculating.  Rachael answered first with 15.  No wrong answer.  Gretchen was still busy adding and subtracting but it didn’t take Rachael long to answer 14.  Yes, but since my birthday isn’t until Monday for most of 87 I was… still not difficult, Rachael replied, 13.

Gretchen was upset her sister gave away the answer so she gave us a math game she discovered online a few days ago.  She had her sister pick a number, double it, add six, divide by two, subtract your original number.  The answer… 3.  Rachael tried it over and over with different numbers.  One time she got tricky and picked i; which did not end up being 3 but it was close, since the answer was i +3.  Yes, this poet has math inclined children. Where did I go wrong?

Then this morning I find the #haikuchallenge word today is addition.  I remembered back to NaPoWriMo when one Saturday morning I was accosted by math. Believe it or not, the identical twin was a math major.  I think she took away all my addition sense when the egg split. 😛

Addition problems
Frenetic arithmetic
Poet accosted

One egg splits in two
Daughters double overnight
Family addition

A Birthday haiku for my twin the haiku-a-holic.

My cousin, Michael, Me and Kati all November ’73 babies.

Swallowed Whole

The end of this month marks one year since the loss of my brother-in-law. Then a month later, my cousin, Ken, passed away.  We were traveling to El Paso that day to spend time with Nonnie (my mother-in-law) while the girls were on winter break.  This August my mom passed away.  She had gone through pictures and set them aside for each of us sisters. In my batch, I found a Thanksgiving picture of the Hosking/Dougherty clans (my twin’s family).

Thanksgiving 2001

It is now up on the kitchen cabinet for this Thanksgiving. And this past weekend we were hit with another tragedy as we’ve lost another cousin.  I posted a picture of him and my twin and me on Facebook for throwback Thursday.

Me, Craig, Katryn
Summer 1990

News of suicide
hit hard by reality
tears open my heart

Plummet in despair
Black swallows all radiance
Snuffing out your light

Despondent reach out
Distance felt between us grows
Death cannot be breached

It’s been a very rough year.  I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers.

Soggy Seeds

Standing bare
Dandelion shivers
Drenched

The sun is shining in Arizona again; the dandelions don’t look like soggy mutts anymore. This haiku was inspired by –
Irina’s Poetry Corner.

We don’t see wet dandelion seeds in Arizona often, and my daughter asked me why they weren’t fluffy.

Sunshine
Dries dandelion
Fluff free

Desperate Poet – Septolet

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! This week I am removing my poet hat to put on my housewife hat. I will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I’ve been busy writing and submitting poetry lately; my house has been neglected.

Desperate Poet was published on Narrator USA last week. I hope you check out the link.

Sushi Acrostic

Swallow
Unagi
Smile
Hunger
Inveigled

We went to the Blu Sushi restaurant for my birthday. Shawn asked the waitress for recommendations. She recommended the Las Vegas roll. But Shawn didn’t want to try eel. By mistake we were given a Caterpillar roll. It also has eel. Rachael and I tried it and loved it.

Rachael and Shawn.

Gretchen and me