Just Ask Ida

Talkin' Turkey

It sure has been busy down to the A&P, let me tell you, with folks stockin’ up on pumpkin pie filling, stuffin’ mix, Jello, miniature marshmallows and what not. The smart ones are, anyways. Women who plan ahead, picking up the non-perishable items and dry goods, paper products and drinks, a week or two before the holiday. ‘Cause tryin’ to do it all in one big grocery shoppin’ is overwhelming. Just putting together the list is intimidatin’ enough. And you could get a hernia just pushin’ that shoppin’ cart to your car!

Charlie and me go to my sister Irene’s for Thanksgiving. They got more room for all of us over there. I bring the desserts, the green bean bake and the Jello mold salad (or “molded cuisine”, as my niece Caitlin calls it). I was lucky enough to have inherited the mold that’s shaped like a turkey (Irene got the one that looks like a wreath), so Thanksgiving’s mine, Jello salad-wise.

Irene takes care of the turkey, stuffin’ and gravy, and I help her prep the potatoes, squash and the carrot-turnip medley. That’s my favorite part, really: cookin’ with Irene. That and the leftovers!

Now Caitlin and her boyfriend Adam are vegetarians, so she brings a tofu turkey. Believe me, it looks and tastes better than the tofurkey they had in that episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Remember that one? (If not, there’s a link below.) Caitlin makes a vegetarian stuffing, too, and cooks it in a muffin tin. Once her mother saw that, Irene started using the same technique with her stuffing, some in the bird, and the overflow as muffin cups. If you like the crispy part of the stuffing, this is the way to go.

In preparation for the big day, I got a new exercise video. I’d never tried kick boxing, and I thought it was high time I did. You know what? It’s kind of fun. Tryin’ new things keeps you young, right? Though hobblin’ around with achy muscles in places I didn’t know I even had muscles, makes me wonder if that’s really true.

In fact, all the Women Who Run With the Moose are in serious training. Sure, we all love Thanksgiving, but what we’re really lookin’ forward to is our favorite shoppin’ day of the year, Black Friday! At the crack of dawn, we plan to hit the ground runnin’ down to the Bangor Mall. We know from experience that this sort of excursion takes stamina, so we take our preparations seriously.

We have a plannin’ session or two beforehand, where we map out our strategy, when we’re takin’ snack breaks to recharge, and most important, where we’re havin’ lunch! Betty, God bless her, is so organized, she prints out a check-list for all of us:

• Plan outfit
• Charge cell phone
• Set timer on coffee maker
• Organize shopping list, coupons, and sales flyers
• Stock personal first aid kit with pre-moistened towelettes, ibuprofen and Hershey’s Kisses

Shirley makes sure her Bonneville’s gassed up, and we all bring leftover pie for breakfast, which we eat in the car on the way, always with some extra to share.

Now lest you think this extravaganza is all about us, part of our Black Friday planning includes choosin’ a charity to support for the holiday season. You know, something local, like the Senior Center, Food Pantry, or the Women’s Shelter in Bangor. As we’re shoppin’, we pick up little things we think would be nice for these folks. Later, we put together gift bags and deliver ‘em. That’s always a fun day, delivering those bags. How can such a little thing make you feel so good?

This year, there are lots of people who’ve been hit hard by Hurricane Sandy and the economy. So during holiday season and all year ‘round, don’t forget to spread the wealth. You’ll be glad you did.

That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!

Here's that link: “Everybody Loves Raymond,” The Tofu Turkey Thanksgiving

IDA'S PODCAST: Talkin' Turkey

Ida/Susan in your neck of the woods!

NOVEMBER 24:
AuthorFest at Kittery Trading Post
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
With Rebecca Rule and John McDonald. Buy three books, get one for a penny! Kittery Trading Post, 301 US Route One, Kittery, ME. FMI: 888-587-6246
www.kitterytradingpost.com

I’ll be traveling around quite a bit in the next few months, so check back here each Monday for where I’ll be that week, or click on the “Where’s Ida” link to the left to see my full schedule.

If you’d like me to do a reading at your library, organization or what not, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line:
ida@idaswebsite.com
And if your book group wants to read Finding Your Inner Moose, I’d love to be part of the discussion. Especially if food’s involved!

North Country Halloween

I was lookin’ through old photo albums the other day, when I come across this Halloween gem. I don’t know what Irene and me were supposed to be, but it must have been some cold and crappy out. Check out the winter coats and boots. If you look close, you can see Irene has a knit hat on behind her cat mask. Maybe that’s why she’s holding it up, instead of wearin’ it. (That mask was probably a tight fit with the hat on.) I think I see the hint of a hood behind my mask. And what’s up with Irene’s cape, with the dancing circus dogs on it? My biggest concern when I look at this picture, though, is how come Irene has a bigger bag than I do? What gives?

Clearly, these costumes were thrown together at the last minute. Maybe my parents were too busy with other stuff. Did they think (rightfully) we were too young to know the difference between a cool costume and just whatever was handy on top of winter clothes? Or did we plan to be our usual standbys, a princess (me) and a gypsy (Irene), but there was a snow storm, and our folks had to come up with somethin’ quick? ‘Cause let me tell you, it’s a real fashion quandary, trick or treatin’ as a princess in the freezing rain. Rubber boots and a rain slicker just kind of ruin the look, you know?

More perplexin’ still, is that my mother wrote on the back (must have been later on) that I was 3 years, 5 months, and Irene was 1 year, 5 months. There’s no way Irene is only one and a half in this picture. I think it’s more likely that I was five and she was three. Both our birthdays are both in May, so the five month part is right.

And what if these kids aren’t even Irene and me? I mean, it’s hard to tell. They must be us if they’re in our photo album. But, who knows? Maybe our dad took a picture of some friends of ours, and after it was developed, tucked it into a shoe box with other photos. And later, when Mom went to put it in an album, she just assumed it was Irene and me, wrote how old she thought we were on the back, stuck it into them little tab things and called it a day.

But let’s take it on faith that this is Irene and me. I can tell we’re standing in Blue’s General Store in Mahoosuc Mills; I recognize the scale behind Irene. It’s that old kind you put a penny in, weigh yourself, and it’s too big to argue with! You can’t see it here, but in the corner to the right is a machine with peanuts in it. Remember those? Again, you put a penny in, turn the crank, hold a paper bag underneath and it’s filled with peanuts. Not them dry roasted peanuts, either. The machine was coated with salt where the peanuts came out, and your bag would develop these little grease spots in seconds. And off to the left is a cooler filled with soda: grape, orange, strawberry, root beer, cream. Irene and me would drink them out of straws; you know, the kind that collapse after a while?

Best of all, behind the person taking the picture, what Irene and me are looking at are two glass fronted, wooden cases filled with penny candy. I’m talkin’ real penny candy: Mary Janes, Squirrels, Root Beer Barrels, Mint Juleps, Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops, Coconut Watermelon and Bacon Strips, Malted Milk Balls, Sweet Tarts, Chocolate Babies, Sugar Daddys, Red and Black Licorice Whips, Hot Balls, wow! Every trick or treater’s dream come true!

So when I look at this picture, what I know for sure is that under those cheap, hard -to-see-in, hard-to-breath-in, funky smellin’ masks are two hopeful, determined, young faces, looking to score a bag full of treats. And we’re not about to let any snow, slush or freezin’ rain stand in our way!

That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!

 

IDA'S PODCAST: North Country Halloween

Ida/Susan in your neck of the woods!

NOVEMBER 1: 
Reading and Signing: "Finding Your Inner Moose"  
7 p.m.
Longfellow Books, 1 Monument Way, Portland, Maine
207-772-4045

I’ll be traveling around quite a bit in the next few months, so check back here each Monday for where I’ll be that week, or click on the “Where’s Ida” link to the left to see my full schedule.

If you’d like me to do a reading at your library, organization or what not, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line:
ida@idaswebsite.com
And if your book group wants to read Finding Your Inner Moose, I’d love to be part of the discussion. Especially if food’s involved!

Missing Mom

I’ve been missing my mom a lot lately. Some of it has to do with the time of year. I mean, both her birthday and death day fall in October. But it’s more than that. My book launch was such a magical, happy day for me. Throughout it all, though, I kept thinking, My mom would have loved this. She’d have gotten all gussied up, and sat in the front row with my dad, the two of them beaming. She’d have persuaded her entire book group and fifty of her closest friends to buy the book, which she would have breezed through in one sitting, two max, book lover that she was. And God, I wish she could have been there!

Me and my mom

I confessed this to my sister, Irene, at lunch the following week, and she said she’d been feelin’ the same way. “It was the strangest thing, Ida. All that day of the book launch, I felt so happy and proud, but kind of sad, too. What’s goin’ on, I’m thinkin’? Then I realized what it was. I was missin’ Mom.”

I guess it’s like that for any big event when you’ve lost someone. Missing is strange. I can go days or even weeks so caught up in my life, I’m not even consciously thinkin’ of my mom, then I see her handwriting on a recipe, and bang! Or I watch a little girl, all dolled up for her first day of school, holdin’ her mom’s hand, and I think, “I miss you.”

There’s that little pang of envy I feel, when I see my friend Rita scorin’ a piece of peanut butter pie for her mom, Cora, at the baked bean supper. Rita does this first (priorities in order) before loading up a plate of beans, American chop suey, a red hot dog, some coleslaw and a homemade biscuit. Cora’s holding court at her table, surrounded by her cronies when Rita delivers her slice of pie, and the two of them exchange a smile and a nod.

I don’t envy Shirley, though. Her mom, Mini, lives with her and Junior, well, in the mother-in-law apartment at their house. Mini probably won’t be there much longer, though, ‘cause she’s gonna need more care than Shirley can manage. Dementia, Alzheimers, Old Timers: don’t matter what you call it, it’s a tough finale for any family and a different kind of missin’. I mean, you miss ‘em, while they’re still here.

But, like I say, come the holiday season or when there’s a big event, it seems like the missin’ gets stronger. ‘Cause there’s always that empty place at the table, that space in the photo where my mother ought to be. There’s the tug at my heart when I think, You know, Mom would have loved this. There’s the taste of her cookin’, the smell of her perfume.

The night of my book launch, my mom wasn’t there, I know that. But she was. She is here. I see her in my sister’s smile, and in the twinkle in my dad’s eye as he says, “I’m so proud of you, honey.” I hear my mother’s voice in my head, encouraging me, sending me grace when I need it. And as I’m standin’ there at the podium that night, reading from my first book, when I reach out, it’s my mother’s hand that turns the page.

That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!

 

IDA'S PODCAST: Missing Mom

Ida/Susan in your neck of the woods!

Nothin’ going on this week, except catchin’ up on some house cleaning. But next week, I have a bunch of book readings comin’ up. Mark your calendars ‘cause I’ll be in Orono, Ellsworth and Lewiston.

OCTOBER 24: 
Reading and Signing, "Finding Your Inner Moose" 
1:00 p.m. at the Orono Public Library, 39 Pine St., Orono, ME
http://www.library.orono.org
207-866-5060

OCTOBER 24:
Reading and Signing, "Finding Your Inner Moose" 
6:00 p.m. at the Franco-American Centre, Crossland Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME
207-581-3791

OCTOBER 25: 
Reading and Signing, "Finding Your Inner Moose" 
6:00 p.m. at the Ellsworth Public Library, 20 State St., Ellsworth, ME
207-667-6363

OCTOBER 27: 
Reading and Signing, "Finding Your Inner Moose" 
1:00 p.m. at the Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn College, 51 Westminster Street, Lewiston, ME
207-753-6545

I’ll be traveling around quite a bit in the next few months, so check back here each Monday for where I’ll be that week, or click on the “Where’s Ida” link to the left to see my full schedule.

If you’d like me to do a reading at your library, organization or what not, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line:
ida@idaswebsite.com
And if your book group wants to read Finding Your Inner Moose, I’d love to be part of the discussion. Especially if food’s involved!