HOLIDAY INSPIRATION FOR JINGLED NERVES PART 1 Humor

I want to thank Bettina of Bay County Library and Frank of the Panama City Beach Library for allowing me to bring presentations to their facillities on Monday and Tuesday evening, Dec 7 & 8th. And I want to thank those who attended the 1 hour 15 min event that allowed me to rouse some laughter while also sharing a few of my personal stories regarding holiday stress and providing tips from various sources that help to relieve stress, anxiety, or jingled nerves!

I'm sure many of you are familiar with John Tesh of the radio program, "Intelligence for your Life", well my ambition is to do the same. I want to bring positive helpful information along with smiles, laughter, and time well spent with you.

So, for a bit of laughter, here's a joke I found:
To All Employees
From Management
Subject: Office conduct during the Christmas season

Effective immediately, employees should keep in mind the following guidelines in compliance with FROLIC (the Federal Revelry Office and Leisure Industry Council)

Running aluminum foil through the paper shredder to made tinsel is discouraged!

Playing Jingle Bells on the push-button phone is forbidden (it runs up an incredible long distance bill!)

Work requests are not to be filed under "Bah humbug."

Company cars are not to be ussed to go over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house.

All fruitcake is to be eaten BEFORRE July 25.

Egg nog will NOT be dispensed in vending machines.

In spite of all this, the staff is encouraged to have a Happy Holiday!
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So, a friend shared that when her son was nine years old he sat out cookies, milk and a beer for Santa. The next morning the youngster came racing to his parents yelling, "there really is a Santa!" His mom said, "well how do you know?" Because Santa only drank half the beer. If it had been dad, he'd have drank the whole thing!"
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Regarding Humor: Dr. Steven M. Sultanoff, a clinical psychologist in Irvine California says that "The experiences of humor relieves emotional distress and assists in changing negative thinking patterns."

Well, here it is Christmas, 2009, where we are all living with many uncertainties and each of us have our own concerns and emotional situations to cope with.

We're living with "Jingled Nerves" . So, okay I found this little re-do of Jingle Bells on the net by Amy Scholten in an article for the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle Washington.

Dashing through the snow
In a mindless fit of fray
Through the malls we go
Rushing all the way
Horns on Hondas blast
We have to geet home fast!
What fun it isw to bake and wrap
Thank God it doesn't last!
Jingled nerves, jingled nerves, jingled all the way!
What fun it is to bak and wrap, Thank God it doesn't last!

During the Christmas season we can get our underwear pulled up in some very uncomfortable places! Literally a pain in the you know what!

There's the decorating, shopping, parties, kids plays, church events, crowds, family gatherings, clutteer, roller coaster emotions and for our military families the anxieties and stresses are above the norm because a spouse is thousands of miles away in a war zone.

Speaking of military spouses, I am one, well retired now...but I've been there don that when my husband was active duty Marine Corps and we were based in Southern California.

Dave seemed to always be deployed in November, just prior to Thanksgiving. A couple of stressful holiday events come to mind:

In 1988 before Dave deployed our oldest son Patrick, became angry at us for some reason only known to a 16 year old who believes their reasoning tops any thing including a nice warm home, good food and all expenses paid...but in his reasoning and fit of anger, he slipped from the house, took his cool candy apple red 1966 Chevy Malibu with roll & tuck leather seats to a used car dealer to try and sell it for a ticket to fly to the east coast to his grandmother's home...Yep it was APB time!

Then there was the time when both our boys were back east visiting relatives and I was alone. Now I worked and was always early to arrive at the office. On this given morning I went into the garage to iron a blouse. When finished, I turned the door knob to return inside the house, but lo and behold, the door was locked! I couldn't go out the garage door because back then we didn't have a garage door opener. We couldn't afford one since it already took my entire monthly paycheck to make the mortgage!

Fearing the girls at the office would think something had happened to me because they knew Dave was deployed and the boys were away, I looked at the tool box, grabbed a hammer and started smashing the door knob. Pieces fell out, but apparently not the correct piece that allowed the lock to give. In more of a Jingled Nerve mode, I picked up the axe and proceeded to hack away at the rest of the door knob pieces until every single nut and screw fell to the floor along with a few chunks of wood from the door itself!

I rushed into the house, called the office, and confirmed with the girls I was fine and would be to work shortly to explain my delay. Of course I went immediately after work and order a garage door opener and installation from Home Depot and called a friend and asked if he'd come replace the door knob, which he so graciously did.

Later that evening I spoke with another wife of our unit and told her what had happened. Now news travels fast among military unit spouses and such. It wasn't long before I received a call from my husband in Japan asking how in the world I'd locked myself in the garage!

And the unit monthly news letter was headlined with 1st Sgt's Wife Axes Her Way Out of Garage!

Yep, these are a couple of my Jingled Nerved and looking back now, funny moments as a military wife, but my stress was nothing compared to other military wives such as my young cousine currently in Ft. Richardson, Alaska with 3 young children while her husband is currently serving in Afghanistan.

I am so proud of her as I read little tid bits on facebook that reflects how she is coping courageously through having fun and laughing with her kids whether they are taking photos of one another to post or talking about a movie they saw and having fun with comments and laughter by joking around. And that she also allows her frustration to show a bit through the words she leaves about how much she misses her husband. I believe she sets a good example of working to balance her life as a military wife, mom, and also a woman who holds down a job and manages to get her kids to activities important to their life.

To our military families, spouses, children, and parents of those serving...thank you all for your service, sacrifice, and dedication.



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Comments for Heart of a Hawk

I want to thank Telina, a military wife at Ft Richardson Alaska and Gerald of Locust Grove, Ga for their wonderful comments about Heart of a Hawk. Please go to comments beneath the Heart of a Hawk Blog to read.

WHJG Noon Show Channel 7 Interview November 23

I appreciate the interview on November 23 to discuss Heart of a Hawk and RIZE & SHYNE Presentations. To see the interview please click the link. At the site, go the right side to the "video screen" and beneath scroll to look for In Studio: Heart of a Hawk Local Author

101.1 Talk Radio with Burnie Thompson

It's always such a wonderful pleasure to be on the show with Burnie Thompson's Talk Radio program, 101.1, Northwest Florida's FM Talk Station. On Friday, December 4, from 8 to 9 a.m. Burnie allowed me to remind the listening audience about our millitary families and our men and women serving on our behalf far from home. As the wife of a retired U.S. Marine I know the extra stress and melancholy that comes with our traditional family Christmas holiday. I spent a number of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with my husband 8,000 miles from home. As a military mom I know the anxiety of having a child 8,000 miles away in a war zone during the holidays. I now have a young cousin with 3 young children stationed at Fort Richardson, Alaska while her husband is serving in Afghanistan. When we talk or chat on Facebook, I can tell the anxiety she is experiencing and do all I can to give her a lift. "This too shall pass!" Although at the moment it doesn't seem so.
I also ask everyone to remember the families who have suffered the ultimate sacrifice as well as anyone else known to be grieving through the holidays due to the death of a loved one. I reminded listeners to please acknowledge anyone they know who may be going through such grief, especially at this time of year. Give them a hug and don't be afraid to talk about the deceased loved one, and if anyone is afraid to mention the deceased loved one, just ask the person grieving if they would like to talk about their loved one. Believe me, this is a beautiful gift to most of us. Most of us don't want our loved ones forgotten or not spoken of, especially those like my husband and I who have suffered the death of a child. I also advise the grieving to give others permission to speak of their deceased loved one. This may sound odd, but our society does not teach how to handle grief from either side, the grieving or the observer, we all learn as we go along. My neighbor who lost her 19 year old son in a car accident over a year ago shared with me that it seemed at the family Thanksgiving gathering that some seemed to want to tip toe around and not talk about her son. I asked if she had thought of giving them permission to do so, because they are simply afraid that they will upset her or her husband or other young son. It was as though a light came on for her. She had never thought about doing such a thing, but it made perfect sense after we talked about it. These two small things can keep anyone from feeling like they have to walk on eggshells and keep down any hurt feelings or misunderstandings.
So, Burnie, thank you for letting me share time on your show! I look forward to the next time.