Romantic Share [syw]

Di @ Pensitivity101 has a new set of Share Your World questions for us, relevant to the hearts and flowers celebration coming up in a couple of weeks.

1. Do you consider yourself to be romantic?

This is a tough question for me ~ the answer is yes, but… I do not like “forced” romance, such as a man being unromantic generally and then shoving a box of candy at me on February 14. That’s not romantic! In fact, token gestures like this only serve to remind me that we aren’t a good match.

In my (totally unrealistic) ideal, romance would be an ongoing state of mind, with lots of affection, kindness, sweet talk/texts, cute poetry/lyrics/links, thoughtful acts, etc., all happening on a daily or at least weekly basis. I’m totally responsive to this kind of behavior and return it in kind, though I’ve never experienced it for long. Maybe it’s not sustainable… I don’t know.

Anyway, in that scenario, Valentines would be part of the whole package, not something to do once a year because the marketers got to you.

2. Do you send cards on Valentine’s Day?

I used to give cute cards and gifts to my daughters, but that’s pretty much faded away. I don’t randomly give out Valentine cards to friends or others.

3. Would you spend a considerable amount of money on a single red rose for your beloved?

If I knew he would appreciate that, sure.

4. What is your idea of a romantic evening?

The traditional dinner at a nice restaurant, including lovely conversation, followed by the clichéd moonlit walk works for me. Or it can simply be sharing a bottle of wine at sunset in a peaceful environment. Mainly it involves being alone together and focusing on each other, not the news or work or other people/problems.

5. Gratitude: I’m thankful I survived the dating/relationship wars with only minimal PTSD.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Temptation

Toffee crunchy noms
Easter basket yum bunny
Mounds coconut decadence
Peanut butter cups yes indeed
Twix caramel goodness please
Almond Joy I feel like a nut
Turtles made of chocolate
I can’t resist a little bit
One taste and then another
Now I’m lost in Candyland…

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Acrostic written for Ragtag Daily Prompt (temptation).

TGIF ~ Crawdads

Happy Friday. Hope you’re all in a good place and not too stressed out about the holidays or anything else. This is my TGIF prompt ~ write about anything you like, related to this post or not, use the logo or don’t, and link back if you feel like it. How about them easygoing apples? No rules, tags, syllable counts, themes, etc., needed to participate.

I watched Where the Crawdads Sing this week on Netflix, and it was excellent! I wanted to see it in the summer with friends, but that didn’t work out, and it was certainly worth the wait. My daughter says the book is better, but I haven’t read it yet. At first, I thought the film was a little slow, which is why I watched half one night and half the next, but I ended up enjoying the pacing after all. It’s a long movie, over two hours, and you really can’t skip any of it. The plot unfolds bit by bit, and each new piece of info is important. It’s a murder mystery and a love story ~ both aspects are equally enjoyable and also take unexpected twists. I highly recommend it.

This week we had our annual chocolate pizza delivered at work, and this time they mixed it up by putting bits of peppermint on the top, which was a fabulous combination with the choccy. Well, of course, that would be extra-delicious, if you were ever a fan of Marshall Field’s Frango mints (John, I bet you’re familiar with those), and I was definitely a fan. Once, the guy I was seeing in 1980 took me to a family function where someone had made Frango mint brownies, which were divine. You remember that guy, right? My college boyfriend who invited me to the Wisconsin Dells where we almost drowned. Good times. I can really pick ’em!

But I don’t tell dating stories here on my blog any longer. Couple reasons. I don’t want to think about all that negativity now that I’m happier. I just realized something today (Thursday): I have now been not dating post-divorce for a longer time than I dated post- divorce. My divorce was final in July 2011, I dated until the end of 2016, and I have been date-free since then. So that makes 5.5 years of dating vs 6 years of NOT DATING! I think that calls for a cupcake or something in celebration.

I had this delicious cupcake last December...

Another reason I don’t want to tell the dating stories is because of my fallible memory. I think I know what happened, but maybe time has washed away some of the details and enhanced others. That’s not really fair to the other characters in these stories, since they don’t get to tell their side (except for the very few who read my blog and occasionally comment). Plus, I exaggerate a bit for comedic effect because the most important thing is to keep my loyal readers entertained, not that I care anything about my stats. Oh no, not me.

Finally, I don’t tell these stories any longer because I don’t want advice. I’m out. So I don’t need to hear about what I did wrong and what I could do better next time. I don’t care. But some people just can’t resist giving advice, which annoys me, and I don’t want to be annoyed at my readers because you’re all awesome. Btw, I kept a dating tag after my April 2021 blog refresh because I need to continually explain that I don’t talk about dating anymore.

Anyway. I’m looking forward to Sunday when I get to see my whole family for the first night of Chanukah! (Crossing fingers that no one gets sick between now and then.)

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Empty Wrappers

He was an artificial
Sugar daddy
Who offered arm candy,
And he grew sweet on me.
I tried to take
Just one piece,
But the broken ones
Have no calories.
Soon there were only
Empty wrappers
And a fading memory that
Something never happened.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Quadrille (144 words) written for dVerse Poets with a candy theme.

Predictable Me [socs]

If there’s one thing you can predict about my behavior, it’s that I will get totally obsessed with something for X amount of time and then drop it completely as if it never had existed at all. X can be an hour, a day, a year, or whatever. One of my latest insanities is gummy bears. Yes, I realize I’m old, but my coworker brought some for the office and I ate an embarrassing amount of them. I couldn’t believe how YUMMY they were! I don’t remember them being this yummy when I was a teenager. So tonight I bought a couple bags of gummy bears for myself from Target. Yes, bags.

Btw, they have to be Black Forest bears, not any other brand. And I know I just scoffed at anything labeled “organic” over at Sadje’s, but the organic Black Forest bears actually taste better and are softer too. How long will I be addicted to this ridiculous candy? I don’t know.

I’m tired of romance novels, writing them and reading them. If anyone remembers that I said I’d be doing a romance novel bingo card in 2023, sorry ~ I deleted it and the free romances I had on my Kindle. They’re all so boring I feel I could go the rest of my life without reading another one. Verdict: done.

I’m not tired of rom-coms, specifically Christmas rom-coms, but I can’t watch them right now because I don’t want to lose the Little Drummer Boy Challenge. It was brave of me to watch a few after Thanksgiving, and I was lucky not to have heard the song, but tonight I got scared and stopped in the middle of a movie when a different carol began to play. Whew!

Of course if I lose anyway, I’ll get right back on the Christmas rom-com train.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Clothes and Sweets [syw]

Di @ Pensitivity101 continues her Share Your World series with the following set of questions.

1. Do you have a favourite outfit you like to wear?

I like black yoga pants, a cozy colorful top, and toasty socks.

2. What is the worst thing you were forced to wear as a child (school uniforms aside)?

The only thing I was ever forced to wear was a gym outfit in high school ~ blue shorts, white shirt, white socks, tennis shoes. Since it was freezing in Illinois winter, this wasn’t enough for me, even indoors. My lips would literally turn blue during class!

3. Do you have a sweet tooth, and if so, are you a chewer, cruncher, or sucker?

Omg yes! I guess I would say chewer, though I do like some crunchy treats such as PB rice krispie bars. My preference is mostly toward the cake and cookie family however. I don’t do lollipops and other suckers.

4. Do you think you could eat your weight in chocolate?

No. Chocolate isn’t even my favorite sweet. I prefer lemon bars, peanut butter cookies, cherry pie, and vanilla frosted cupcakes. As far as candy, while I still like a Snickers bar occasionally, I could eat gummy bears daily!

5. I’m grateful to be reminded of this quote:

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Just Another Day

Cold dawn
Tea with sugar
Lonely office silence
CVS for lunchtime shopping
People!
Stifling crowds and list forgotten
Buy Reese’s trees instead
Early darkness
Sleepy

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Butterfly cinquain written for Tanka Tuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge 300 (share your day).

5 Favorite Sweets (Candies)

Dr. Tanya continues her #5Things series by asking for our favorites sweets ~ I think she means candy specifically, so I am limiting myself to that and not including cakes here.

1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I love them in any form: regular, mini, big cups, holiday shapes, etc. They’re far and away the best.

2. Snickers. It really does satisfy! When I want a bar, this is my first choice.

3. Peanut M&Ms. These are a fun, crunchy snack.

4. Regular M&Ms. These are tasty and also good for cake/cupcake decorations. They’re also great in cookies!

5. Trader Joe’s English Toffee. So yummy! I rarely eat this because it’s a bit expensive, but it’s always heavenly when I have a piece.

Note that these all contain chocolate. I don’t find non-chocolate candy worth the calories, so I avoid all of it. Candy is where chocolate belongs, or in cookies, but not in cake, imo. I vastly prefer non-chocolate flavors for cake (brownies excepted), though chocolate chips in banana bread are fabulous. I’m not a huge fan of fudge either because it’s too overpowering and gives me heartburn. As far as candy shop candy, like See’s, I have mixed feelings. There are a few yummies, but so many of them contain fruit goop or other unwelcome surprises, that I would rather just have a PB cup, which I know is always guaranteed delicious.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Suit Weather

1.
The first October frost
Hardens the garden
Ground too cold for a spade

2.
Halloween candy heart
Crisp chocolate shell
Green gummy worm inside

3.
Cool symmetrical tiles
Scrabble club reject
Letters dance on the board

4.
Ghosted at Thanksgiving
Diamond cut voice
Pumpkin pie crust has burned

5.
She learns to be alone
Playing cards online
These suits won’t let her down

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Cadralor written for the Skeptic’s Kaddish W3 26.

Bowling, Monkees, Licorice [socs]

How do these three things connect?

My mom loved to bowl ~ and she was good at it too. She joined a league when we lived in New Jersey and kept an average of about 180. I used to think that was fabulous, but google says it’s merely above average and 190-220 is the “good” range. Oh well. I am an absolutely terrible bowler, lucky to crack 100, not that I would ever try now with my back problems. Mom continued bowling in Cary, Illinois, but I don’t think she was interested after we moved to Chicago. I can’t recall if she bowled in California ~ probably not, for her arthritis was a lot worse by then.

When I was around 5 (1966) we were living in New York, and my mom took me with her when she bowled. It was so boring to wait for her… and so noisy. I often waited in the bar, which was the quietest spot. No one cared that a 5 year old sat in the bar eating candy back in those days. Happiness arrived when the alley began playing Monkees’ songs, which was my introduction to them.

One day I was so bored I bought a different kind of candy from my usual. This was my first taste of red licorice and it immediately made me feel sick. I had to throw up, but I didn’t think I could make it to the bathroom in time, so I threw up discreetly in the bar. Then I casually walked back to where my mom was bowling. I didn’t say anything to her about the incident because I was too embarrassed. After that day, I never stepped foot in the bar again, nor can I abide the smell or taste of licorice.

So now you see the connection.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.