Betsy's Blog

           Did you know we have entered the Year of the Ox that last occurred 12 years ago? Strange things are happening around us. Not only is it a pandemic, but the world has turned upside down...literally. A popular, local Mexican restaurant just collapsed into a sinkhole. I drove by the area and it was surrounded by a fence with a sign above the building saying it is temporarily closed. I can see why! It even made the national news. Apparently, the ground underneath couldn’t support the building any longer and it collapsed. There water leaked beneath the surface and the floor cracked suddenly as people ran out the door. The restaurant had to lay off 80 workers. I hope their insurance covers the reconstruction. Aren’t we all rebuilding ourselves now as 2020 comes to an end? We are all survivors and this pandemic isn’t going to get us down. As a society, we are coping with a daily, deadly virus. Hospitals are overcrowded and can only take in emergen...

  Do you believe in Magic? Today is ‘Sinterklaas Dag’ in The Netherlands. We used to watch him arrive by boat when we lived in The Netherlands. Sinterklass was dressed in a long red coat and carried a bag of toys as he rode his white horse in the annual Dutch parade. His troop of elves threw candy and cookies into the crowds. They used to paint their faces black to resemble the Moors from Spain. Recently, it became politically incorrect and now the elves have their faces painted every color of the rainbow. At night, Dutch children still follow the tradition of putting out a wooden shoe with a carrot in it for Sinterklaas’s white horse. By morning, their shoes are filled with Dutch chocolates and pepernoten spiced cookies.  My family continues to recognize this Dutch holiday. I had a Speculaas cookie or two to celebrate today. I was so excited to find the cookies in a local international grocery store in Nevada. The cookies are best dipped in coffee and melt in your mouth. My D...

    Have you heard my stories of running into celebrities? Here’s one of my favorites! When I was in my teens, I saw Steve Martin play the banjo in a small Colorado theater. He didn’t tell any jokes or even have much to say. Long ago, he was a dedicated musician trying to make his living playing music. That shows how old I am. I still remember the moment I first saw him in a movie and realized that he became a successful actor. Then I ran into him...literally at an outdoor theater in Laguna Beach, CA. over 30 years later.. He was there with Diane Keaton and my children spotted them as they took their seats. We turned our attention to watching the paintings come alive with the actors onstage until intermission. My children asked if they could take their programs over to the famous couple and ask for an autograph. I watched them run-up to the gracious couple who even talked to them as they signed their programs. It was a moment in time that showed the kindness of a beautiful act...

  Hey, guess what? I was on TV today...for my 15 minutes of fame. What was I doing? Clapping in a virtual audience for Drew Barrymore who I have followed since ET. Why not? Are you impressed yet? Do you want to know how you can be on TV from the comfort of your own home? Well…here’s the scoop!  It started last year when my teacher friend Jamy auditioned to be in TV studio audiences. Jamy would wait in long lines just to be in a show audience. She made new friends who were like-minded and shared audition tips. Jamy was a true fan! Pre-COVID, she sat in crowded auditoriums on rickety chairs just to be in a live talk show audience. Now Jamy attends TV shows from the comfort of her own couch. Her colleagues told her about the 1iota.com website that offers a wide variety of TV studio tickets for virtual audiences. I applied for one of my favorite shows, “The Voice”, but it was during my workday. They were sold out for the later performances. My teacher friend got a ticket to “The V...

           Election day has turned into a season instead. It seems like months ago that my husband and I delivered our absentee ballots in person to an official U.S. Post Office. It was reassuring to know that our ballots were in a secure room waiting to be opened. After being overseas for many past elections, it was satisfying to fill outour ballots and physically drop them off. We voted early and made our voice known. No one can mess with our ballots, or so we thought. Now its t hree days after the Election and ballots are still being counted across the nation. Election Day was a school holiday, so we made popcorn and settled in to watch the results on TV. It slowly turned into a bad movie with scenes of long lines of unmasked voters and pickets outside the polls. There were makeshift voting tents in parking lots with long lines of people waiting to vote in our city. Then I saw on the Nightly News piles of absentee ballots sitting in our local Pos...

I’m not sure about my new decision. I am now an official member of a local gym. Why? I have been overeating, watching too much TV, and sitting around the house too much, Why are my clothes getting smaller? I think I know the answer. Why am I hungry all the time? I think I know the answer. What should I do? Well, I could do more fitness videos at home and take more hikes in local parks. I could also monitor my food intake more closely. My husband needs the routine of going to a gym. I like it too and joined the gym which only costs $10 extra monthly. I spend more than that on coffee. So I went to his gym yesterday for the first time. How did it go? Very smoothly. We followed the rules of wearing masks at all times and wiping down machines after use with provided disinfectant bottles and paper towels. We used the socially distanced treadmills with signs covering every other one. Going early in the morning really helped because there were only three other people in the huge space. The...

  After waiting three months for our Department of Motor Vehicles appointment, the big day finally arrived. Due to the pandemic, everything takes a little longer and is a little bit more difficult. My husband and I prepared for this appointment as if we were going into a battle zone. We had a bag full of every possible document, food, drinks, and a wrench to remove our license plate in the parking lot. Eager for the ordeal, we arrived 45 minutes early and got a front row parking space. We were ready for the DMV or the VMD as I call it, the Vehicle Mania Bureaucracy. Upon arrival, the appointments were already an hour behind. Masks were required as we stood in a line six feet apart according to our appointment times. The line didn’t work because no one wanted to move back a step to let new people in. So the DMV employees had to walk up and down the line every fifteen minutes calling out the next appointment time to enter. Having a loud voice helped! People watching made the...