My First Entry in My Daybook – My Way

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by Elaine Johnston

I’m not sure if I can do this exactly by the book. For starters, I’m creating a blog on a computer instead of using a physical journal type book which I can open wide, begin on the left-hand page in the upper left-hand corner so I have a really big area to write on.

The instructions also call for leaving wide margins on both sides of each page for writing any additions that later occur to me.

On top of that, I seem to be suffering from “writer’s block!”  That’s something I rarely experience. Perhaps it’s because I am being instructed as to what my subject should be instead of doing my own thing.  MMMM! That’s interesting. Something new to think about.

Let’s see…on Page 14 of Barbara Sher’s book – Refuse to Choose! - I am to put today’s date and time in the upper left corner of the first page. At the top of the page, write a title of any idea I’d enjoy playing with, like “Life Stories of My Neighbors.” I can handle that, but need to come up with a title more to my liking as I have no idea what my neighbors have done before they became my neighbors although I’m sure I would come up with some juicy stuff…I’ll put that one on a back burner for further consideration…in the meantime here goes:

June 19, 2010

2:58 PM Central Daylight Time

Cooking Your Way

I live in a resort retirement area in Crossville, Tennessee. Most of our residents have migrated from the Mid-Western part of the USA, however, a number of residents also hail from such strange places as California, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey – strangest of all…a few from Virginia and West Virginia, and a BUNCH from Florida…we call them “half-backs.” Florida residents are the folks who left the frigid colds of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and parts of Ohio, moved to Florida – got burned not only by the sun but high taxes and insurance – and landed in Tennessee as a happy medium. They’re arriving daily…I’m from the strangest of all – New Jersey…

We range in age from early 60′s to well over 80, and we all have a story to tell. Better yet, we come from all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds. When I hear the word “ethnic”, I immediately think of FOOD! How about you?

Wouldn’t it be fun to start a cooking club that would eventually turn into a cooking school of men and women willing to share their very special ethnic family recipes! I don’t mean putting together a cook book like the Ladies Club and other organizations have done in the past. I’m talking about an actual club where people meet monthly – to begin – and share their family ethnic recipes – all secret, I hope!

I’m Polish…no jokes please…so here are a few of the foods that could always be found in our home as kids growing up and sometimes in my own home. Some are easy to create, others not so easy, but sooo worth the trouble. I’m willing to share:

  • Kielbasa and Sauerkraut  (Kielbasa z Kapusta Wloska)
  • Pierogi
  • Potato Pancakes
  • Babka
  • Poppy Seed Roll
  • Borscht
  • Kapusta Soup
  • and at least 20 or 30 more!

It would be the job of one person a month to bring in all the ingredients needed to make their recipe – including a printed copy of the recipe for distribution to all club members – and then actually make the recipe for us all to enjoy…of course, I would have to find a meeting place conducive to what we would need – might be able to get the Art Guild’s kitchen. They have a pretty good set up with a full kitchen and room for demonstrations. One of our local high schools, perhaps both of them, have culinary classes. Might be able to rent space there in the evening when the classroom is not in use…WOW! My wheels are turning! I just might try this….it started as an assignment for my Daybook, but who knows!

You see – I’m surrounded by the art of cooking – and, yes, cooking is an art. My mom was a chef in her own way. She owned two restaurants and one catering business – all in New Jersey.

Here’s a photo of her in the apron she adored getting ready to serve another memorable Easter Sunday bountiful creation at home in East Brunswick, New Jersey somewhere around 1970.

After retiring and moving to Inverness, Florida, she worked as a cook in the hospital’s cafeteria. Her potato salad was the talk of the town and worth a trip to the hospital! She didn’t need to work for the money, but she did need to work to keep her sanity. Not everyone is geared to retirement and spending all day and all night with “the one you love” (my dad) can get to be old hat. I heard this the other day, and just love it: “I married you for better or worse, but not for lunch!”

OH…here I go again…getting off the subject.

My daughter is the other chef in my life. She’s the real thing. A graduate from the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York campus – better known as the CIA and now Executive Chef of the Fort Collins Marriott Hotel, Fort Collins, Colorado. Do I sound proud? Well, I am…here’s a photo I took of her and the Chef of the Carnival Glory while cruising in 2003. She hates when I tell people what she does for a living, but I think it’s neat…Moms can really be a pain…

OK..back to the club. Have to come up with a name. Happy Cookers? Might get confused with Happy Hookers? Although, I think there is a club right here in my own neighborhood known as Happy Hookers and they are quilters. Think I’ll stick to Cooking Your Way. I like that.

I would definitely keep it to ethnic foods. Members would have to reach out to their family backgrounds and recipes as well as favorite recipes they have picked up along the way in their travels. You know I have to have something to do with travel – me being a “personal travel planner.” As I said, the wheels are turning.

In time, if this thing grows as I expect it to, we’ll definitely have to find a facility for hands-on cooking. I’ll have to take a look at the culinary classrooms at the high school. Think that would be my best shot. Might even be able to get Cricket – my daughter – to make a guest appearance if I could ever get her out of the wilds of Colorado. She loves it that much!

You know – I may be able to make a few buck on this project if I put my thinking cap on a bit tighter. Folks would have to pay for the hands-on portion of the program. I’m sure the school won’t let me use their facilities gratis, and what about the food for preparation – not to mention the wine to sip while sampling the final product upon completion. Perhaps a sip or two during the preparation? I always like to see people having a good time and feel at home. You know the saying on the old fridge magnet: “I Love to Cook With Wine. Sometimes I Even Put it in The Food!” I have one of those magnets…

This would really be a lot of fun. Nothing brings people together more than food! Off the top of my head, I know we have people right here in Crossville with Polish, Italian, Irish, Swedish, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese (that’s Tony – he does my nails) roots who can cook up a storm in their own homes. Why not share your talent with our little world. NOW it’s time for the cookbook and the blog. I’m creating it all in my mind even as we speak. Watch out Rachel Ray – here we come!

I hope this post will qualify as my First Entry in My Daybook My Way.

In the exact words of Barbara Sher in Refuse to Choose!:

When you decide to stop, catch the thought you had that caused that decision, such as: “I’m losing interest in this” or “I wish I could continue, but I have to pick up the kids” or anything in between. Write that thought at the end of your description and write the exact time next to it.

And that’s all for today.

It’s 4:53 PM on a Saturday night and close to “Wine Time”…have a piece of salmon in the fridge that needs cooking in about an hour before it goes bad, and a hubby that needs prodding to grill his hamburgers in about an hour. Hate the thought that he won’t eat salmon -  it’s his loss…

I then need to find a few photos for this post ’cause that’s just how I am…

thanks for your time and enjoy your evening…

how do you think I’m doing with this Scanner Daybook thing? Would love hearing from you. You don’t have to be a scanner…comments are open to one and all…take care!

OH! By-the-way…you may like to check out Barbara Sher’s site to get a better handle on what I am talking about and trying to accomplish. Beginning to think I’ve bit off more than I can chew, but I’ll keep going as long as I can. I know in my heart I’ll have to write about other topics one day soon…it’s the “scanner” in me…

elaine

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It’s A Revalation! I know what to do…

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by Elaine Johnston

If you read my very first post on this blog, you’ll see that I talk about being a “Scanner” and Barbara Sher’s book – Refuse to Choose!

Guess I could just have you click here for that first post…learn something new every day!

I’ve given that post a lot of thought lately. Probably the reason I’ve not gone much further in this project than I have. Three entries in two months is rather pathetic. But 3 is all I was able to handle in my present circumstances and state of mind.

Before I go any further, let me give credit where credit is due. I first discovered the whole idea of being a “scanner” on Neil Patel’s blog – Quick Sprout. That was several months ago, and do you think I can find the post now? Have no idea where it went, but it’s in there someplace if you care to look.

OK…that being said, I can go on with my story…

I once again direct you to quickly read Post #1. Just have to scroll down a bit if you don’t want to click. See the part where I mention not knowing what to write about and sort of being a “copycat” of Julie and Julia? Well - I do believe I have come up with a plan. Hope I don’t get letters and threats from the powers that be, but here goes…

I’m going to follow most of the instructions and suggestions given by Barbara in her book right here online for the world to see. I want to do this. I want to begin with my Scanner Daybook and take it from there. Allow me to quote from Page 11 of Refuse to Choose! what a Scanner Daybook is:

This is simply a blank book devoted to what you do each day – as a Scanner, or course. No laundry lists or general journaling, just anything related to being a Scanner – the place to capture your best ideas and also the tangents that pull you off those ideas. In addition, I’ll sometimes ask you to work on an exercise that requires writing, and you might want to take notes on anything you find particularly useful inside this book (or anywhere else).

This is your personal version of the Leonardo da Vinci notebooks. If you’ve never seen them, find a book of reproductions in your library or try to get a glimpse on the Internet. They’re an inspiration.

I found them! Here’s one of the thousands of links…Leonardo Da Vinci Notebooks OK – so here’s another by Project Gutenberg which is news to me…The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci – be warned – you may just end up spending all day on this one – lot’s of fun things to download. If price is no object, Amazon.com has tons of choices such as the one to your right! (Guess I’ll have to figure out how to use my affiliate info for Amazon one of these days…see what I mean about being a “scanner”.)

Now, I’m not going to rewrite Barbara’s book for you. Think I would be breaking the law if I did,  but I would like to quote at least a few more paragraphs before moving on. Let’s face it, as time goes on, you’re just going to have to buy the book…

The da Vinci notebooks are a great model for a Scanner Daybook. Leonardo’s entries are delightfully out of order, impulsive, and unrestrained. (He even wrote his comments backward! This was possibly to hide his ideas from prying eyes or perhaps because he had mirror vision or maybe because he loved to exercise his brain. I wouldn’t put it past a Scanner.)

The blank pages in your Daybook are where you’ll capture ideas that could otherwise get lost or keep a record of private little trips and “what ifs” that are always floating in and out of a creative mind. You’ll find yourself welcoming these thoughts more and more as you realize you are not required to do anything but write about them. No follow-up is required unless it takes your fancy to do so.

Barbara then goes on to tell you what your Daybook should look like. I’ll let you read that part yourself when you buy the book…the pages of this blog will be My Daybook…

Again, I promise not to make this whole blog a rewrite of Barbara Sher’s book, but I have to tell you just a bit more of what she says about your Daybook in order for me to make sense of what I am trying to accomplish here, and what better way than in her own words. This is especially informative for folks who are just now finding out what being a scanner is all about:

Writing in your Scanner Daybook is more important than you may yet realize. As the days go by and the entries add up, you’ll notice that you’re actually taking care of the sides of you that you may have neglected as well as undervalued until now. But the very act of considering your explorations worth keeping track of begins to change everything you ever thought about yourself.

Your Daybook is also a self-study book: Turned loose without any restrictions, allowed to learn or design or imagine whatever you like, what kind of Scanner emerges? Where does your mind really want to go? Your Daybook gives you a free ticket to create anything you like, so the farther you follow your fancy in your Daybook pages, the clearer the answer will be.

In the past, you may have seen yourself simply as someone with an inability to stick to things or follow through on projects, but none of that is relevant here. Getting your ideas down on paper isn’t like starting something you should finish; it’s like seeing a good movie – only better because you’re not only watching it but designing it. If, for instance you’re taken by the idea of interviewing your neighbors for their life stories, you’d open the Daybook and write down your idea, and you’d have no hesitation to let it grow.

Your Daybook lets you go into planning that idea without having to actually produce it.

Little by little, the process of writing your ideas in your Daybook will change the way you feel about not following up on every one of your good ideas, because it becomes so clear that planning, designing, and making a record of your ideas in something called a Scanner Daybook isn’t making a promise; it’s the way inventive people enjoy themselves.

I intend to have a ball, and possibly help other “scanners” floating around in cyberspace…I’m not afraid to admit that I am 68 years old and still not sure what I want to do when “I grow up!” There are days when I feel I’ve done it all, but not really. My To Do List is still full.

Hopefully, as time goes on and I get a few readers who may also be scanners - otherwise known as Renaissance men & women, da Vinci personalities, polymaths, people with too many aptitudes, Jacks (& Jills) of all trades, eclectics, dilettantes or flakes – we may be able to help others come to their senses and enjoy their life as is…

My next post will be my “First Entry” of My Daybook My Way…

If you take a look at the top of this page, you’ll see that I have crossed out traveling and inserted scanning thru life…it’s a start…

Hope you’ll tune in once in awhile to see how I’m doing!

Thanks for your time and have a great day!

elaine

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If They Could See Me Now!

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by Elaine Johnston

Agent of The Year 2010

In the words of Mel Allen,
famed sportscaster for the New York Yankees -
“How about that!”

I was flabbergasted when I heard the news…but also humbled. Me? Why me? Maybe because I love what I do and work hard at making your travel dreams come true…

Thanks so much. I appreciate your vote and kind words.

see you ’round the next bend in the road…in the meantime – have a great day!

elaine

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Beginning to Get Creative

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by Elaine Johnston

Strike Up The Band!

Well…I told you I had no idea where I was heading with this blog…but I’m gaining on them…

A little confession…I already have two blogs floating around in cyberspace – Globetrotting Your Way and Culinary Cruises & Tours – both of which are an addition to my travel business web site – The Glade Explorers Travel.

How do you like that for fitting  three advertisements into one sentence?

Not too long ago, the book, Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey was mentioned in Barbara Winter’s newsletter – Winning Ways. (It’s a great subscription only newsletter printed on real paper sent via “snail mail” using one of those old type postage stamps…you know, the kind you buy at the Post Office and have to actually stick on the envelope before sending it off. It’s not a newsletter you get online and have to print yourself using your own paper and ink if you don’t want to get bleary eyed trying to read it on your computer screen.)

Anyhow – I bought the book and fell in love with Blogging for Bliss…and everything it has to say. You can’t just read it once. Two or three times is good…it gets better every time around.

And…that’s what I’m trying to do with this blog. Blog for Bliss… My plan is to incorporate my other two blogs into this one, as it just takes too much of my time to keep them all running the way I like. If you take a peek at the other two, you’ll see they are very outdated. No recent entries in a long time only because I still have a business to run – The Glade Explorers Travel. It’s what keeps the wolf away from the door…

I’m still in the experimental stage of creating this blog. In addition to putting the pieces together, I am also learning  Photoshop Elements 8 by the seat of my pants for Scrapbooking as well as editing photos. I have tons of black and white photos from the “good old days” that need some TLC…photos I want to preserve for my children and grandchildren. Right now, they’re all too busy to look at where Grandma’s been, but some day when they’re my age, they’ll take the time to remember…

The photo above is an example…it stinks! (Not the photo, but what I have done to it!) Know I’ll get better, though. I was trying to follow frame and opacity instructions found in Blogging For Bliss. I didn’t have the correct paper for the textured overlay, so I used what I had. The learning and experimenting is the important part.

By-the-way, that’s me in the in the  St. Raymond’s School Marching  Band, East Rockaway, New York. I was the head majorette – I was the only majorette…It was the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The two fellows next to me came along with their own band…I was in the third grade at the time and never thought to see what they wore under those kilts!

St. Patrick's Day MajoretteStrike Up The Band!

And here you have the original. What do you think?

My creative efforts make my legs look like a tattoo artist had a field day while I was sleeping…as I said, I’ll get better…any and all suggestions are much appreciated!

to be continued…thanks for your time!

elaine

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Where Do I Begin?

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by Elaine Johnston

Where do I begin is an age old question put to song by The Chemical Brothers in 1997. At least, that’s what Wikipedia tells me…it turns out to be a love song recorded by the likes of Shirley Bassey and Andy Williams to name a few.

Easter 1947 Hempstead NYFor the sake of history and archives – where this post will eventually be found as more come along – where do I really begin?

I came up with “traveling thru life” as the tagline for this blog – do I start from the beginning or just pick and choose randomly? Will I have time to go through all 68 years? More importantly, do you want to read through all 68 years? There were some pretty good ones, but than again, there’s some pretty lousy ones too.  Go ahead – tell me the truth. You won’t hurt my feelings. You really don’t want to read about all 68 years of my life…you don’t even know me yet…

(I was a cute kid, though. Maybe a bit sassy? Now that I’m looking at this pic of me on Easter Sunday in 1947, reminds me of Granddaughter #2…talk about sass!)

Right now, as I write, I’m trying to get this whole blog thing straight in my mind. Trying to come up with the right approach…do I find something specific to write about like Julie did in Julie and Julia?

No sense creating another travel blog. There are tons of them already. Although, I know in time, I will have to mention a thing or two about travel and the travel industry. It’s been my life since 1972 and still is. Just so happens, I know a GREAT travel agent I would be happy to recommend to you…

It’s tough deciding what to write. It’s not as if I have writer’s block. It’s just that there are so many darn things out there to talk and write about… To make matters worse, I now know I’m a “Scanner.” Yup…a Scanner. Do you believe it? OK…so, what’s a Scanner?

According to Barbara Sher in her book: Refuse to Choose! - a scanner is someone who has an intense curiosity about numerous unrelated subjects. Here’s some more of what she has to say:

Scanners love to read and write, to fix and invent things, to design projects, and businesses, to cook and sing, and to create the perfect dinner party. (You’ll notice I didn’t use the word “or”, because Scanners don’t love to do one thing or the other; they love them all.) A scanner might be fascinated with learning how to play bridge or bocce, but once she gets good at it, she might never play it again. One Scanner I know proudly showed me a button she was wearing that said, “I Did That Already.”

Just a bit more from her book to further explain “Who is a Scanner?” (I know it’s me, but Barbara tells it much better than I ever could)

Scanners are endlessly inquisitive. In fact, Scanners often describe themselves as being hopelessly interested in everything (although, as you’ll find out, this isn’t so). A scanner doesn’t want to specialize in any of the things she loves, because that means giving up all the rest. Some even think that being an expert would be limiting and boring.

There you have it…me in a nutshell. It only took me 68 years to find out that I am normal to someone’s world. Perhaps not the whole world, but someone’s somewhere.

to be continued…thanks for your time!

elaine

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