Munichmaedchen

Huimat
Furt muass i, huimat, lass mi ganga.
Hears bleara auf und lass mi los.
Du wiarsch mer z'eng, ka numma schnaufa
I ho kuin Platz mea in deim Schoss

Mir hilft kui Doktor und kui Geald
furt muass i, naus in'd Wealt.
Mear seacha als bloss Nochbars Tenna,
will learna, lohse, wachsa kenna.

Ming Wurzla kennat numma triebe,
sonscht waer i no a Wiele bliebe.
Schlof ruhig, Du bliebscht ming greaschtar Schatz,
hosch allat in ming Hearza Platz.

Huimat wiar di furchtbar misse,
bisch ming Kumpl, wiarsch wohl wisse.
Egal an wealchem Fleck i bin,
als Allgaier Fehl leab und stiarb i,
Huimat...bisch allat in mir drin.
Copyright Silvia Bichler

Happy Year of the Tiger!

It sure started marvelous yesterday for Clay, Adriana, and myself with this sunny and warm day at the beach in Santa Cruz. Let's hope the year of the tiger will be as lucky as the Chinese predict. Gung Hay Fat Choi Y'all!

Two-Two turns Three

Two-Two turns Three
Originally uploaded by Munichmaedchen.

I can't believe my granddaughter already turns three. It seems like yesterday when I cut her belly cord. Happy birthday Adriana!

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming...

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming...
Originally uploaded by Munichmaedchen.

My St. Joseph's Coat rose started blooming on the first day of 2010. Discovering this gave me more hope for the new year than any of the phony political speeches I've heard the past days.

Happy Twenty Ten!

New Year's Blue Moon - Happy Twenty Ten!
Originally uploaded by Munichmaedchen.

Blue moon over Gilroy awaiting the birth of 2010.

A Fairy on My Nose

Joannda Riche

There was a fairy on my nose,
I saw it, I`m sure with tiny toes.
It smiled at me with an impish grin,
Then plucked my hair and began to spin.

It spun a tiny spiders web,
For a mummy spider with a broken leg.
And then the cheeky little thing,
Flew really fast and stole my ring.

She put it in a magpies nest,
Then quite exhausted sat down to rest.
When it had caught its fairy breath,
She flew in my ear, scared me to death.

It buzzed around in there for a while,
Then pulled out a drum with a sneaky smile.
It took six lashes from my eyes,
And made a fiddle with knots and ties.

She gave these things,
The drum and strings,
To a group of nearby bugs.
They danced and they played,
For the rest of the day.
Then they all gave each other big hugs.

I still have the mark on the end of my nose,
Footprints from the fairy`s toes,
I think they`re speckled,
But some say they`re freckled.
There was a fairy on my nose!

Reflections of 2009

I know I haven't blogged in a while. Facebook got all my attention as it is a way to communicate with my family in Germany and find friends whom I had lost in cyberspace.

However, the year 2009 was a special year for me and deserves a proper reflection. So here we are: 2009 - definitely a good year for me personally but also a very difficult one with lots of obstacles:

1) Love - I got married to Clay, my soulmate. We had the time of our life in Las Vegas when we tied the knot in the drive-thru of the Little White Wedding Chapel.

2) Health - During my yearly check-up, my primary care physician discovered a swelling at my thyroid and sent me to the specialists for a biopsy. There they found a tumor but couldn't tell whether it was benign or cancer. I had to have the tumor and part of my thyroid removed in a surgery in August. 2 weeks later the tumor got cleared as benign. I was lucky and will not take good health for granted anymore.

3) Family - Sarah moved out on bad terms as we did not want her boyfriend around in the house. I could not see my grandbaby anymore - the boyfriend wanted us out of the picture until I received a help call of my daughter in the middle of the night and we rushed to her. My little granddaughter had been beaten up horribly by her friend while she was at work. She got him arrested. I will never forget the picture of the bruised toddler. As horrible as this experience was, it brought my daughter closer to me as she realized that it is part of the responsibility to protect your kid from strangers you don't know even if you have fallen in love with them. It also brought me closer to my highter power. The moment I started giving up the fight to regain control over the situation, the picture turned. It solved itself without my help. Sarah stayed in her new home, a step into independence, and I got my grandbaby back to babysit and play with when she is at work. Sarah and I get along much better now.

4) Finance - Clay's unemployment for almost the entire year hurt our finances incredibly. He is back in a job and we learned that the best protection against wrecking havoc financially is to include savings for a rainy day into your budget and not to use credit cards. We learned from this year and established our budget and what we can spend without using credit. Our long-term goal: Having the house paid off in ten years.

5) Career - The California state budget is almost not existent. I probably have enough seniority to survive.

6) Vacation - Clay and I went on a city weekend trip staying at Hotel Tomo in San Francisco's Japantown in late spring before my surgery to prepare for the things to deal with. After the surgery, we went to Lake Tahoe for a few days to enjoy being alive and for my 50th birthday in October we went to Las Vegas to get married, determined to live and enjoy life together from now on. The trips we made this year belong to the best ones in my life.

All in all, 2009 was a year to learn from and a year of personal changes. It was an important year and I don't want to miss it. It was the year I turned 50 on my wedding day - a milestone which taught me that everything is possible any time and at any age you are willing to dream a dream.

From 2010 I expect it to be a year of moderation and reorganisation. It will be a year we, the newlyweds, will have to face a tight budget. It will also be a year of professional changes for both of us - either in our current jobs or in new ones. It hopefully will be a year of love, partnership, and the kind of fun you only have when you are broke and can't afford all the shit that takes family time away from you and your loved ones. It will be a challenging year, this 2010, and I am ready to tackle it - one way or the other.

My wish for 2010: Health, peace, and that my son comes visit me in California. I haven't seen him in three years and miss him.

I wish all my friends and family a wonderful 2010!

Holidays Doggie Style

Thanksgiving Doggie Style
Originally uploaded by Munichmaedchen.

That's how our dogs spend the holidays: chillin' in the sun on the lazy boy. Our mini dachshund Max and Jack Russel mix Rebel as well as our four-legged guest, Kurt's German shepherd mix Cappuccino love this cozy corner in our living room which once was my reading and blogging chair. I moved to the sofa - defeated by three animals.

Cherry gloves

Cherry gloves
Originally uploaded by Munichmaedchen.

I found these gloves in the Gilroy outlets at Harry & David. They are perfect to work in the garden. I developed a rash on my arms this year when I touched the tomato and zuccini plants. Next year I will be save and the cherries look cheerful.

Rough Nights

Today is Barbara Day which means that all the unmarried girls in my hometown will run through the streets in the evening dressed as moss mask wearing witches to pay respect to Mother Earth and scare the evil winter ghosts away in the rough nights (the nights before and after Christmas are considered dominated by the evil spirits as counterpart to the holy nights of Christ's birth - yin/yang so to say). On the nights of Dec. 5th and Dec. 6th the bachelors are then joining dressed as scary looking Wild Santas dressed in furs, carrying huge cow bells. All the good people are supposed to stay at home during those nights of chasing the evil but of course everyone is out in the streets getting teased and whipped by the Baerbele and Wild Santas. Pure barbaric Germanic and Celtic fun I call that, yay! There is more to Barbara: if you cut a twig from your Apple or Cherry tree on Barbara and put it in water, it will blossom on Christmas Eve. The blossoming twig in the dark cold winter is considered a sign of hope that the days will soon be warmer and brighter. In my home town you grow up Catholic but also Pagan, make no mistake. Both parts are in me.