Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Feb 2, 2012, 1:22 pm
…or, is there any reason for a 51-year-old woman with fibromyalgia to go zip-lining? It was supposed to be a Chopin recital in Blacksburg. Garrick Ohlsson. Only it got cancelled because of a scheduling conflict. I’m not all that surprised, since I was wondering why a pianist of this magnitude w...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jan 22, 2012, 7:07 am
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jan 2, 2012, 9:35 pm
Mayberry (as defined by Wikipedia, the closest thing we have to an official “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”: a fictional community in North Carolina that was the setting for two American television sitcoms, The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. It is also a song by American country music ...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Dec 31, 2011, 11:50 am
2011: the year that was, and wasn’t Click to view slideshow. January: A wicked snowstorm at Valle Crucis and the profound beauty of all things made new; the mad dash to Santo Domingo, spending the week with the women of Cielo, the residents of the leprosorium, and my fellow travelers. February:...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Oct 28, 2011, 7:57 pm
(All indented quotes are from the writings of Mother Teresa.) I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God. See that beautiful woman up there? Her name is Mimi, and she...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Oct 20, 2011, 6:43 pm
Update: Wubby is still not in the house. Wubby’s stuff is. Meanwhile, in other news…. Baby Girl had a group project to do in English. (Don’t get me started on group projects.) As part of the project, they had to create a Power Point slideshow, at school, on the school’s computers and save...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Oct 13, 2011, 8:20 am
As if no one knows, I am 50 years old. I’ve been doing this math problem in my head since January, and it’s easier to do with a number that ends in ’0′. Here’s the calculation: When my mom was x years old, I was y years old. Then this whole list of things starts popping into my head, thing...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Oct 5, 2011, 10:45 am
So, it’s time to plan for the week in Cielo (heaven) next January, and I’m agonizing over this decision, again. I was supposed to go last June, but my summer medical mystery tour kept me home. (Gee, I should write that blog post, seeing as the adventure is on-going.) The trip is relatively expen...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Sep 29, 2011, 9:51 am
Got the exact answer I expected. Tomorrow I will have a plan to go with it.
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Sep 28, 2011, 12:46 pm
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Sep 16, 2011, 5:28 pm
Baby Girl had a homework assignment to complete on the first day of school this year.  She had to write a poem about herself, about “where she’s from.” She didn’t ask for help, and I didn’t offer any. I think she got it just right. Where I’m From I am from long afternoons at the barn....
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Sep 16, 2011, 5:03 pm
Aren’t they absolutely beautiful? My girls. One of them is my daughter. The other two are her best friends, and my “other” daughters. I never, ever, imagined that I would be a mother when I was younger. We didn’t have a flower girl or a ring bearer in our wedding because, to be brutally hon...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Aug 7, 2011, 11:06 am
I’m going to the beach a week from tomorrow. Last Friday I decided I needed a beach music playlist…NOT a California beach music playlist, but a CAROLINA beach music playlist. And there is a difference. The creation of my beach music playlist is responsible for the earlier post, Double-Shot. Mo...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Aug 5, 2011, 6:36 pm
OK, so over in the “real” world that is Facebook, the current all-consuming fad seems to be creating groups based on where you grew up. Well, isn’t that special? I “grew up” all over southwest Virginia, so there are several of those groups I could contribute to, but I landed in the one cor...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Aug 1, 2011, 8:05 pm
I met him sometime during the late summer of 1986. I was about nine months into my first programming job, a very small Burroughs mainframe shop, and had just become the senior programmer. With nine months of experience. About three months earlier, the company had hired a new IT manager from the riv...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jul 29, 2011, 1:48 pm
Um, then again, maybe not. So, I really liked traveling by train. Talk about leg room! I’ve flown 1st class exactly once in my life, and that was only because a bunch of us missed our connections in Miami coming home from Santo Domingo a few years back and Wubby and I were lucky enough to catch t...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jul 29, 2011, 12:09 pm
(I realize this is not a comprehensive analysis of our country’s involvement in world conflict. It’s not supposed to be. If you’re here to beat me over the head for my ignorance of the current state of nation, please be nice. I already have a headache. Thanks muchly.) The sweet smell of summe...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jul 20, 2011, 8:40 pm
…..getting on an Amtrak train at 3:16 tomorrow morning and going to DC with a group of students from Baby Girl’s school. Don’t know who, or how many, or anything. And we won’t mention why I probably shouldn’t be doing this just yet, but if you really know me then you know. And it’s sup...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jul 1, 2011, 8:01 pm
Today, I went to Super Compare and bought a yuca and Dominican beer went to Aldi went to Wally World and got CARDED for buying a pre-packaged margarita (5% alcohol, not quite Nyquil….um, I am FIFTY and need my roots done, like seriously!) watched a movie with Baby Girl (Hunt for Red October….I ...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jun 30, 2011, 11:55 am
I was never a Bruce Springsteen fan. However, I continue to find the song “Glory Days” to be very relevant in a number of ways to a number of people, including myself. For example, there’s the mysterious fairy-tale writer who keeps telling the same story over and over and over and over and…...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jun 17, 2011, 9:35 am
If you’ve been reading here recently, I made reference to this song and said i *might* explain what it means to me. After thinking about it, I decided that it was a project worth doing. So, here goes……a real life fairy tale. Back in the days when I was young and innocent, I was blessed to hav...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jun 16, 2011, 2:05 pm
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away……no, wait. That one’s taken. Hmmmmmmm. In the time before time, there were three civilizations separated by a great ocean. One civilization was make up of tree-dwelling people, another of cave-dwellers, and the third civilization lived in a great c...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jun 7, 2011, 6:42 pm
A few posts back I mentioned something about shutting down this blog. I”m thinking that it’s time. I met the man who wrote and is singing this song…met him twice, actually, and he is a wonderful writer and speaker. His name is James Tealy. The video, coincidentally enough, was produced by t...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jun 4, 2011, 3:59 pm
Well, May was just too much fun. Part 1: not  much fun. So, back on the 6th I had to go for some routine blood work, and a strange thing happened. Actually, strange things have been happening for a while now. I’ve been having sudden episodes of hypo tension…rapid drop in blood pressure. We’v...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - May 28, 2011, 10:09 am
Been thinking about the difference between “respect” and “tolerance”. I think this quote from wikipedia (the “real” Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe) sums it up pretty well: Respect should not be confused with tolerance, since tolerance doesn’t necessarily imply any positive feeli...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - May 25, 2011, 9:15 pm
They say that the traits that annoy you the most in others are the ones you posses within yourself. The trick is to recognize and deal with them. A friend acknowledged a couple of things about herself recently that, I have to admit, hit home in a couple of different  ways. First, I had been on the...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - May 20, 2011, 8:20 am
Lyrics “The Sound of My Voice” by Jon Heintz Seems so far away, And then it seems so close to me, and the future’s right here in the air and it’s clearer, Maybe than it’s supposed to be, Than it’s supposed to be. And it seems so hard to take, When the question is what’s wrong w...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - May 5, 2011, 6:52 pm
Wasn’t that a movie or something? Doesn’t really matter…. Where to start: I was thinking about taking down this blog, mainly because most of what I have to say about the state of the world right now is EXTREMELY politically incorrect, and while I stick by my opinions I’m really not in the m...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Mar 12, 2011, 1:10 pm
March 11, 2011 (for 14 more minutes) I should be sleeping but I can’t because words keep writing themselves on the insides of my eyelids, so that, when I close my eyes, I still see the words there, looking at me, waiting for me to acknowledge their existence inside my head. So, now that I’ve g...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Mar 6, 2011, 5:16 pm
(…..dreamed this last night) A famous musician died. Before his death he requested an ocean burial, but not from a boat. He wanted his casket carried into the surf to a cleft between two large boulders just past the breakers, where it would be dropped to slip silently under the water and wedge be...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Mar 1, 2011, 6:10 pm
In the ancient days, when the world was new and fresh, and the animals could converse with their masters, a horse was born. His name was Marius. He appeared to all, his dam and sire, his aunts and uncles and cousins, and the horses of all the neighboring pastures, a plain and simple beast. His dam c...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Feb 25, 2011, 7:43 am
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Feb 11, 2011, 9:49 am
Dear Daddy, Remember when we all went to Fancy Gap for a pig-picking after David’s wedding? You and Ray were sitting at a picnic table, reminiscing about how fast David had grown up, and about where the tine had gone. I heard you tell Ray, “You know, I’ll be fifty this year, but I  don’t f...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Feb 9, 2011, 12:55 pm
I haven’t a clue. January has come and gone. I visited Cielo and it was good. Mari Rosa is surviving her brush with stage 3 breast cancer, thanks to medical treatment provided by donations through the mission, made by people who can afford such things. Not me. I took a few little gifts to my spon...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Dec 31, 2010, 10:19 am
  So it’s December 31st, again, and according to the rules in Blogohstan we’re all supposed to sum up our year in nifty little snippets, yadda yadda sis boom bah and all that jazz. Truth is, I haven’t been feeling much like being a proper citizen of Blogohstan because I woke up one morning ...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Nov 2, 2010, 6:54 am
My intentions were good; perhaps even noble. For me, anyway. This post was supposed to be about Wubby’s first adventure into the big city: the train into Grand Central, the subway entertainment, the busy streets on the west side, the intimate nature of the Frick Gallery, dinner in Grand Central c...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Oct 26, 2010, 9:42 am
In the shadowlands Time, frozen yet frantically passing. He sees life. I took my son to New York. Only time will tell f the trip had any affect on him, desired or otherwise. Our flight was delayed an hour out of Charlotte due to “traffic into LaGuardia”. I think that meant it was raining in N...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Oct 12, 2010, 5:53 pm
Thursday I’m piling Wubby in the car, heading to Charlotte to catch a plane to NYC and (hopefully) get from the airport to Grand Central in time to catch a train to someplace in Connecticut where Alecto, bless her pea-pickin’ heart, will pick us up and take us to meet Simon. This will be my thi...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Oct 4, 2010, 9:00 am
IF my ipod had been in the general vicinity of my computer when I downloaded the piano music from iTunes Friday night, it might make sense. Maybe. But my ipod wasn’t anywhere near the computer. It wasn’t even in the house. It was in the car. Saturday morning we debated over what to do with the ...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Oct 1, 2010, 10:59 pm
See that? I have one of those in my music room. It’s not quite that dusty, nor is it that old. That one up there is a grand. Mine is a studio upright. A dusty studio upright. Oh, and it’s out of tune too. I honestly don’t know what I’ve been waiting for. Maybe for me to feel better, whic...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Sep 29, 2010, 11:10 am
Ms. Chanel Pocahontas Me? I’m around somewhere. Mostly behind my camera, or driving, or reading, or knitting…. and paying attention. One of my favorite teachers in high school described me as “Eagle eyes” because I was always watching, observing, but not necessarily saying much. But when...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Sep 3, 2010, 8:51 am
Must. Go. Bikram. 9:30!!! Bikram yoga. Heh. I really wish I’d taken a “before” picture, not that the current “after” picture would be all that different, but probably enough to notice at least a little.  Bikram and horseback riding are the only two athletic activities I’ve ever stuck w...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Aug 26, 2010, 9:47 am
So, anyway…. Back in June, Alecto’s feeding us writing prompts and she comes up with THIS one: If you disappeared today who would be affected? (other than immediate family, etc.: I added that to the thought process) It was June 11 and I was driving the girls to the nether regions of Virgin...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Aug 23, 2010, 6:45 am
Welcome to my mid-life crisis / nervous breakdown synergy event!
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jun 10, 2010, 7:43 am
Max Lucado talks about grace in an essay entitle “Behind the Shower Curtain”, found in the book When God Whispers Your Name. He has a discussion with a friend about grace. The friend didn’t like the fact that Max was pretty open about who he spent time with. According to Max, “If God cal...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jun 10, 2010, 7:05 am
You Have died. You are in hell. Discuss. There’s a joke that goes something like this: A man dies and goes to hell. He looks around and sees everyone standing waist-deep in crap, smoking cigarettes. Old Scratch himself is nowhere in sight. The man thinks to himself, “Well if this is hel...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Jun 8, 2010, 3:05 pm
It’s Alecto’s fault, all of it. The previous blog entry here talks about me falling off a horse, Inki. Right after that, I went on vacation and Inki got really sick and almost died. (She’s all better now.) After vacation, daughter and I go back to the barn and I’m stuck with...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - May 5, 2010, 8:33 am
….the best thing to do is to get right back up there. Last week I fell off a horse. Really. No metaphors. Horse is a white paint named Inki. Very strange looking horse, but she’s pretty in her own way. For the past three or four months I’ve been riding with Little Girl during les...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - May 3, 2010, 5:13 pm
Captain Phil Harris said, and I quote (edited for PG audience, that is): “Sometimes you make things happen; sometimes you watch things happen; and sometimes you wonder what the heck happened!” I think I’m in the middle of all three phases with Wubby. I wish I knew where he is, met...
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Denise B. posted an article on My Own Little Chair - Feb 18, 2010, 8:44 pm
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