Posted 8:30 AM by Bonnie

Winter in Erie, PA - my home town:



And these are from a friend in Bristol, VT where I lived for 10 years!

Posted 8:51 AM by Bonnie

It's been awhile since I let my insanity reign supreme so it's time for an insantity break!

Sunday, February 18
Monday Music Mambo

Hello all! I'm back with another Mambo for your enjoyment. Today is Temporary Insanity Day.

1. What song drives you mad when you hear it?

There are a lot but two that really make me want to scream stop!! are The Girl From Impanema and These Boots are Made for Walking.

2. Who do you think is the craziest musician out there?

Right now probably Brittany Spears - she's been in and out of rehab how many times in just one week? Okay, that's if you can call her a musician. I guess she's more of a vocalist - I won't even label her a singer - but she does make vocal sounds.

3. What is your favorite song with the word "crazy" in the title?

Still Crazy by Paul Simon (sort of the story of me - still crazy after all these years!)

4. If you went temporarily insane, what song or album would be your soundtrack?

They're coming to take me away, Hahaa!!!

The rules are, there are no rules!!! All you need to do is copy and paste the above questions into your blog and add your responses. After you've finished, return here and leave us a comment so we'll know you've Mamboed. Be sure your Mambo is linked back to http://bdinsanity.blogdrive.com so others can dance too.

Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. If one of the questions doesn't inspire you then simply "pass" it. Just use your imagination and dance like crazy!

Posted 8:35 AM by Bonnie

People: Even at the ripe old age of 59 I find people can still disappoint me. Oh, if it's someone I wasn't real close to that's one thing. I can let it go and get past it because it doesn't really matter. But, when it's someone I trusted. Someone I thought of very highly. Someone I respected. When someone like that does something totally unexplainable but totally wrong it takes me back and makes me rethink my belief in this person. I can handle just about anything except when a person lies and when that lie is blatant and obvious then I have to wonder why. Revelation time for me I guess.

Posted 12:34 PM by Bonnie

Archives temporary fix: No matter what I did I couldn't get the archives to work in the previous fashion. Clicking on archives to access the old blog missives. So, I had to go into the template and rewrite the code to set up the side bar archives. I know it's a bit bulky but I wanted them to be accessible and until I can figure out how to get the old archive method to work this will have to do.

Posted 3:15 PM by Bonnie

Swan Lake Quilt Guild Show: Okay, I'm not a quilter. Sewing and I are not friends. Sewing on a button is a waste of time to me when a pin will do just fine. But, I have a friend who quilts so I went. I was amazed at the intricacy of the work! It was amazing! I was so impressed I came home, got my camera and went back for pictures! Even considering joining the guild to see if even I could learn how to make some of these. Beth does some really involved work that are wonderful! Some made you stand back open jawed in amazement, some made you ooh and ahh and some even made you laugh. All in all it was worth the time to go see. So, I am sharing some pics I took here. Enjoy!

Posted 1:33 PM by Bonnie

Archives: Okay...Before I could post about the open mic I had to switch to the new blogger. Which worked pretty well until I tried to access my archive pages! The are there for the poetry blog but not for the main blog. I am trying to get some assitance from blogger regarding this issue and can only hope. In the meantime, enjoy the posts below and I'll let you know if and when this archive issue gets resolved.

Posted 8:14 AM by Bonnie

Open Mic for February 15, 2007: Can you say fun? Can you say energized? Can you say exciting? I’m not going to go into individual performances this time because everyone was dynamic! I will post pictures, of course. The first half of the night was open mic and for awhile I thought we were going to be short on poets, but they trickled in and in the end we had a great turnout. Develon Douglas returned to regale and entertain us with his exciting and enlightening poetry. I’m not one for PDA but when I turned around and saw him my first reaction was to give him a big hug! LOL! When I get him and Colette Jones there on the same night I know it’s going to be dynamic! And yes, Colette was there.

It’s also great to find out we are inspiring others to try their hand at original poetry. Linda Rowe, who will generally share a song or poem she found on the internet, shared an original work she had written about King Arthur and Guinnevere. She said she was just sitting at the computer one night and the poem just sort of wrote itself. I think we have a new poet in the horizon. Her husband, Tom, unfortunately had to work, so we didn’t get to hear part three of his epic poem. And I think this brings the poem to it’s conclusion.

Beth Langley brought her guitar and sang the song she spoke last month. Also, joining us was Hyacinth Kinley and Marie (Lyric) Grady. I’m happy to say we also had two new poets join us – LaKeyshuh Carolina and Aaron Johnson. Aaron is one of my husbands students, at Morris College. He brought his adorable two year old son with him and for a few minutes we all forgot about the poetry while oohing and aahing over this precious child.




And then on to the Slam! I was excited! Happy! Amazed! Seven people were brave enough to enter the slam. Okay, so it was unofficial, but still they were being judged and there were some prizes involved.

Dr. Michelle Reese came to watch and since my Slam participants were a bit nervous she volunteered to go up and do one, not as a participant, but to get the first one out of the way so the judges could practice scoring and the other particpants could have someone to follow and not have to be the first. What a big heart and it really did help.



Our Slam Participants were:
Michelle, LaKeyshuh, Develon, Marie, Beth, Aaron, Montresia Loyd, and Colette.
Our finalists for first, second, and third place were. Drum roll!

Develon Douglas – First Place
Montresia Loyd – Second Place
Colette Jones – Third place

There was only one point difference between each place winner and in the end we actually had a three way tie for third place – Colette, Aaron and Marie. Even adding back in the high and low it was still a tie so I let the audience decide with their applause.

To say it was fun is an understatement. I may try a slam again for another special occasion, but for next month things will be back to normal. Thanks to all of you wonderful poets who make this night so exciting and such a success.

And I leave you with one final picture. A shocker! Get ready.....

Yes, I am actually wearing a skirt!

Posted 1:00 PM by Bonnie

New Blogger: Well, wish me luck. When I logged on to post today I received a notice to upgrade to the new blogger account. It promises nothing will change, but from the horror stories I have heard from friends who have made the change that aint necessarily so. I had one chance and only one more chance to post the old blogger way, so this is it. My warning that the next post may screw me up royally, since I will have to make the leap and have faith in the new blogger system and change. Change can be good. I keep telling myself this as I cringe inwardly at the thought of losing my entire old blog or any part of it. And then the google account! what the heck is a google account? Guess I'll find out. So, again...wish me luck with the blogging for books and in a week or so when I come on to post again hopefully I will make it through the transformation and become not just a blogger...but a new blogger! And seeing that notice totally knocked out of my head what I had come here to post! Arrgghh!!!

Posted 4:40 PM by Bonnie

Blogging for Books for Feb. 07 is 'live! This months topic is dreams. I have written a few things on dreams I have had but this is about one of my most haunting and powerful dreams.

The Power of Love by Bonnie Johnson

He told me, if he died first, he would come back for me. I would laugh and tell him I’d believe it when it happened. I have learned now to never doubt the power of love.

On March 24th one of my cats passed away and on March 27th I had a dream that my cat was crying and I had to find him. When I found the cage where the cat was crying the cat turned into my best friend, Rick, and he was lying there crying. He said he was sorry and then I woke up. That morning I received a call from his wife that he had passed away in the night.

He told me he would come back for me and I laughed. Never doubt the power of love. That night Rick came to me in my dreams and told me he was taking me with him. After a forty-two year relationship where we would vacillate between lovers and friends, he couldn’t go on into the after life with out me. He put me on a bike and had me riding down a mountain pass. He watched on as a truck plowed down the mountain, out of control, and headed right towards me. At the last second I was able to jump off the bike and out of the path of the truck.

But he wouldn’t give up. He wasn’t ready to let me out of his life even if it was the after-life. I found myself back on the mountain pass, but this time with a group of people protesting. I was never quite sure what we were protesting, but there he sat, in his wheelchair watching and waiting. A fire broke out in the trees around us and quickly worked its way to the mountain pass. I ran and ran! My legs moved faster than I ever thought they could. I literally ran for my life.

Then I was off the mountain and in a building. He told me to follow him and we could be together forever. Taking me to a window I looked out and realized we were very high above a city. I could barely make out the traffic below. “Follow me,” he said. “It’s safe. You can do it.” Then he rolled over to the window and was gone. I backed away quickly and woke up drenched in sweat.

But it was over for the night. I felt he had been given three tries to get me to go and then he had to leave without me. He was sad I hadn’t chosen to go with him, but I told him I would join him when my time came. Until then he could visit in my dreams whenever he chose, but only if he agreed to never try to take me before my time again. He has chosen to visit and mostly we play guitars and sing old songs. We remember the happier times of our youth.

He told me if he died first he would come back for me. I have learned to never doubt the power of love.

Posted 1:48 PM by Bonnie

Super SuperBowl! Wow! I can't believe it! The Colts actually won! And in a torrential downpour which is amazing for a team used to playing inside a dome where the weather has no affect on the game. I really thought the Bears would take it, but kept cheering for the Colts anyway. Now, I don't agree with Grungy Dungy that the team won because of god and the team playing god's way. I can't imagine any god or goddess first, having any interest in who won a football game (unless they had a bet on it (grin)) and two, ever actually playing so how would you play god's way? There were some personal fouls called against both teams so neither played a really "clean" game and there was a bit of a fracas at one point where a Colts player and a Bears player were going after each other but were pulled apart very quickly. But, I guess when you reach that point in the game emotions are running high. Still, in spite of an auspicious start by the Bears, the Colts were not intimidated and just kept fighting and made a great comeback! Way to go Colts!

Posted 4:59 PM by Bonnie

Da Colts! One of my friends, with whom I play online scrabble, and I are betting on the superbowl. I'm backing my Colts, even if Grungy Dungy made some inane remarks about god winning the game for them...and she is backing the Bears. Now, I'm not saying she's overly confident, but she already sent me her address to send her the $1 we bet on the game. Oh yeah, we're big betters!

Posted 4:30 PM by Bonnie

Rainy days and.... Thursday we had icy rain and for the first part of the morning everything stopped. Businesses and schools delayed opening until later in the morning when it would warm up a bit and the roads wouldn't be so icy. But what struck me was that every day care closed for the day! Now, that meant that at least one parent had to call in and take a day off to stay home with the kids, if they didn't have a friend or relative willing to give up a day to take the kids. It was as if each of them took advantage of the rain to take a day off, not considering the impact it had on the parents who pay them and depend on them. Not a big issue unless you are one of those working parents. When I lived in VT I often ended up with friends kids when the daycares closed for a day, but they still had to go into work. I'm just wondering what is so different about day care workers that they can't get to work when other people can? I could understand the two hour delay, but after that it was doable!

On a cute note...the stray female cat we feed decided she would also spend the day inside and when I opened the door in the morning had a few words for me. She immediately moved in and made herself comfortable for the day. Every once in awhile she would venture out and then turn around and come back in. Prior to her pregnancy and us bringing her in, when she brought us the babies at 2 weeks old and keeping her while she healed from the spaying, she spent every day and night outside! Weather be damned! But now she has gotten a bit spoiled and pampered.

The male cat, Scarface, toughed it out and when I saw him today he had yet another gash on one of his ears! He needs to stop getting into scraps with other cats. I want to catch him and get him neutered, but so far that has been out of the question.

Well, anyway, the rain has gone away and I will now end with a little song one of my relatives used to sing... it's a Spanish song about a lazy person...

The window she is broken
And the rain she's coming in,
If someone doesn't fix it soon,
I'll be soaked to my skin.
But maybe in a day or two,
The rain she'll go away,
And who will need a window,
On such a sunny day?
Manana, manana, manana
She is good enough for me!