Playful – Page 20

Kanye’s onto Something Big!

Posted on October 23, 2021November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

Did you see this important announcement?

I love this idea. It’s brilliant! He’s brilliant! It’s healthy! It’s word dieting!

People with long names or names that are difficult for me to remember (90% of all names) should join Ye’s revolution.

For example, take that fellow who said we should all get into “The Flow” to be happy and successful. Remember him? Csikszentmihalyi?

(I just had to take a 15 minute break after simply typing his name. Ruined my blogging flow.)

So anyway, how can I be expected to FLOW when I’m b(l)ogged down with his 20-letter name? I wouldn’t have to be so befuddled if he would simply Ye his name to Yi. Problem solved!

Or take politics.

(Please take politics!)

All that ugly name calling and acrimony might just be taken down a few notches if Kanye, I mean Ye, would be taken seriously and given the respect he deserves.

Let’s start with the President. Well, the President according to a little over half of the nation. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Did you know his middle name is Robinette? Seriously? What were his folks thinking?!

Here’s want Ye and I suggest. “Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.” is Ye’d down to “Bi.” That way the buzz around the President would switch from infrastructure and debt ceiling fighting to Bi’s sexuality. Which is far more intriguing, especially in a fellow his age. (And we all know that Jill is outta the White House often to teach at that community college.)

And what about Donald John Trump, the current President to a little less than half the nation? I just got off the phone with Ye, and we agree the former/current President Trump should now go by …

“Rump.” It’s an easy one syllable (I think), and it sorta fits in a couple of ways.

If the shoe fits.

All that Ye-ing forced me to take a serious look at my own rather messy blog name and see if it could be Ye’d. So from now on, NealEnJoy will simply be “Oy!” Doesn’t that sound hip? It did until Ye looked it up in Merriam-Webster and explained what Oy means.

Oy, gotta rethink my blog name!

I’ll get back with you when Ye and I have a chance to come up with a new name. But I’m afraid it may take a while since Ye told me he’s running for President … again. Isn’t that great news?! Problem is he’s having to send back truckloads of campaign materials because of the name change.

Head’s up: The blog may have to go on hiatus since I’m hitting the campaign trail soon. And I came up with Team Ye’s slogan.

“Ye America Wee Again!”

Life Truths

Asphalt Truth

Posted on October 20, 2021November 23, 2021 by Neal Saye

At a recent session, my therapist, attempting to get me a bit more grounded in reality, gave me an assignment: “Neal, why don’t you try to come up with a few REALISTIC affirmations about areas of your life where you would like to see meaningful improvement?” (Interpretation: what I tell myself maybe isn’t always rooted in actuality. Hmm, I don’t see what’s wrong with “Tonight is my turn to win Powerball.”)

Here’s one I came up with: “I love today. I love right now. Well, maybe I don’t exactly love today or love right now, but I am glad I have a today and a right now to have positive or negative feelings about.”

And although I don’t really like this next one, I appreciate its realistic groundedness: “I own it all—Everything I’ve ever done. Because there is no do-over button for life.” (But I do wish Apple would just go ahead and create one.)

But yesterday my buddy Mark texted me a quote which is SO much more intelligent and effective than my “no do-over” affirmation …

Asphalt truth!

Humor, Neal's Writing, New, Savannah Joy, The Joy and Wisdom of Children, Transition, Uncategorized, Where Happiness Finds You

The Bear and the Unicorn

Posted on January 24, 2018November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

For my recent suxteee-seckth birthday, I celebrated with my big ole’ modern family …

… at Savannah’s Tequila’s Town restaurant in Sandfly.

(Seriously? Can you believe they come hooting “Happy Bday” laden with tequila for the celebrant! Even though I had my large head prepared for an oversized sombrero and some flan.)

Post-tequila I received some neat gifts, but perhaps my Favorites came from five-year-old grandtwins Madison (inappropriately pictured above next to the tequila) and Matthew. Their mom let them pick out their gifts for me. Madison gave me a pink unicorn in a love mug …

…while Matthew opted for a brown bear that actually smells like chocolate when you rub it vigorously!

(Matthew is in an over-smiling-for-the-camera stage.)

Oh, they also each got me a large skein of yarn–yellow from Madison and green from Matthew. Not that I knit (who has the patience for that?!), but because they like to unravel the yarn, make giant spiderwebs and throw it all over the furniture and each other.

Thus, inspired by the tequila, when I got home I opted for a quick photoshoot to document my suxteee-seckth.

Moral of Story: the strangest little gifts ofttimes make for the biggest shots of … Joy.

In Our Own Backyard, The Joy and Wisdom of Children

Rainbow Joy

Posted on August 23, 2015November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

Last evening I went to a fun but bittersweet farewell party for good buddy Ellie Covington (who is Texas-bound, Galveston).

After a torrential downfall forced the party onto the carport, the late-stayers ventured out onto the dock by the marsh and saw this …

(Do you see the second one to the right?)

Of course, we all had to get a little silly.

I quickly texted the pic to my fam and got this response from daughter Emily (mother of grandtwins Madison and Mathew) from the other side of Savannah:

“We can hold it too!”

The joyful promise of a rainbow!

May the excitement and happiness of children be with us all, especially Ellie as she makes her move to the next successful stage of her life!

Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers — 5/22/15

Posted on May 22, 2015November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

MAY — an incredibly joyful month, don’t you think?

Five Reasons for Happy:

1. An early morning walk along the McQueens-Tybee Island trail (between Savannah and Tybee Island–10 mins from my apartment).

2. Grandson Daniel in his end-of-year Who Am I? Research Biography presentation. (He was Paul McCartney, btw.)

(Okay. okay, maybe I helped him a little with the tri-board.)

(He could only get such coolness from his grandfather. Seriously.)

The kids had to explain their research, poster-board-presentation-style, to the folks in attendance.

They do that kinda stuff nowadays in 2nd Grade?! Research?! All I did in 2nd grade was spend a year of trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to stop crying for mama.

3. Being a judge for the 2015 Savannah Authors Anthology. Such fun!

(I want to be a judge … full time. And get paid. Exorbitantly. Call me if you or yours need high-end judging.)

4. Getting 2015 Beach Ready.

5. Seafood at Safe Harbor in Mayport, FL. (After taking the ferry across the St. John’s River on the south end of Amelia Island.)

Safe, Joyful Weekend ahead to you all!

The Joy and Wisdom of Children

G

Posted on May 6, 2015March 30, 2022 by Neal Saye

I have FOUR grandchildren. (Yes, you’re right, I’m FAR too young. We all know that. It’s a given. But sometimes Mother Nature has a way of bypassing her laws of when people should have grandchildren–and presents them in, well, early, early middle age.)

Anyway, the second-from-the-oldest-grandchild is Gabriel, 5, a rambunctious bundle of pure little boy-ness. He’s often affectionately referred to simply as “G.” In his most recent pre-K school report, the patient-as-a-saint and give-her-a-raise teacher wrote that Gabriel is “smart, funny, with many friends … and has a touch of naughtiness.”

Here’s G (on the far right) with a few school buddies,

And here he is the other night with older brother Daniel (8).

Today I received this text from my daughter/G mom Amy:

The brutal honesty of children.

College Teaching

The Smile — and Happiness Shared

Posted on November 11, 2014November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

The students in my English 123 (Freshman Composition) classes at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) are doing what I call Visual Essays in this, their next-to-the-last week of Fall Quarter 2014. We read two books this term, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and Tal Ben-Shahar’s Happier, both relating to our course theme of “Happiness and the Exploration of Joy.” The Visual Essay project invites the students to MAKE, rather than write, their papers. Traditional essay requirements are still required: a focus and thesis, structure, detail and support, etc. But this essay morphs into a drawing or painting, a sculpture, a collage, a video, a food, etc. Basically this project is a visual representation of one topic narrowed into a clear thesis/perspective/idea. The challenge: how to “show” their thesis.

Debora Jacob (from Brazil) went to Forsyth Park here in Savannah last Saturday. Here’s her Visual Essay titled “Happiness Shared” on the topic of the smile and its significance.

Thanks for the encouragement, Debora.

Let’s all SMILE more often.

Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers (10/31/14)

Posted on October 31, 2014November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

It’s All Hallow’s Eve! (Wasn’t it just July 4th last week?) And I am spookily happy. Seriously. Here’s why.

1. Yesterday going to my grandtwins’ nursery school and carving a Jack O’ Lantern. Here it is:

Okay, that’s a lie. I took that pic near my place in historic district Savannah. Here’s the one I did:

Sorry but that’s a lie as well. (Is that a bat?) Here’s mine:

For more decades than I care to mention, my Jack O’Lanterns have looked EXACTLY the same. But what fun with Matthew and Madison and their little classmates.

2. Speaking of pumpkins, here’s my dinner Wednesday night–Butternut Squash Soup in Pumpkin Bowls.

Oh. My. Goodness. Gourmet heaven.

3. The Savannah Film Festival this week, hosted by my SCAD–Savannah College of Art and Design.

Such fun.

What incredible films I saw, including a fascinating documentary about Summerville, GA artist Americana Howard Finster and a mesmerizing selection of short films from Ireland.

4. Singing with James Brown in Augusts, GA.

We’re belting out “Papa’s Got a Brand new Bag,” followed by “Make it Funky.”

5. The joy of holidays.

Happy, Happy Halloween to you all!

Humor

Sometimes I Get What I Deserve

Posted on September 19, 2014November 6, 2021 by Neal Saye

So today I ate lunch at Savannah’s hip Green Truck Neighborhood Pub on Habersham Street near Victory.

Here’s how the story went down.

As some of you know, I no longer bring meat into the house–it’s all vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds there. But I occasionally indulge while eating out. And for some some reason, today I had an all-too-powerful-to-ignore-or-resist hankering for a hunk of grilled meat. So I pulled up to the Green Truck, bellied up to the bar to avoid the table wait and ordered the Green Truck Classic Burger, described in their menu as “plain and simple as an old truck: lettuce, tomato, onion and our soon-to-be-famous house-made pickle.” (I added cheddar.)

Yum. No, double yum!

I kept furtively looking around to see if any of my vegetarian friends might have followed me inside. I was nervously poised to slam my meaty plate in front of one of the folks on either side of me at the bar.

Anyhoo, I savored every moment, every bite. (Do Not Tell Anyone About This! It’s Just Between You And Me.)

Well, when I finished, (and be forewarned, the rest of the story is probably TMI, so stop right now, if you like, and you will still have my burger story), I went to the non-gender-specific bathroom–I’m so 2014– before waddling back to the car.

There was the coolest retro sink inside.

And the typical cabinet.

But for some reason I glanced at the cabinet again …

… and thought, “I wonder what’s in that little cabinet? And if the contents are also non-gender-specific?”

(P.S. When inviting me to birthday or Avon parties, put some of those plastic child resistant lock things on your cabinets. I’ve never been able to figure them out.)

So, of course I reached up and opened the cabinet door. Wouldn’t you? No?! (I also opened a door in a huge hallway in the Biltmore House in Asheville some years back, and a piercing alarm went off, terribly embarrassing my family and friends. Me? When things like that happen, I just try to go to my Happy Place inside and block out externals. There might have been an “Alarm Will Sound” notice on the door, I can’t remember, but really, how often would the Biltmores have changed the batteries?)

Lo and behold, an alarm of sorts also went off when I opened the cabinet door inside the Green Truck’s non-gender-specific bathroom. Here’s what was scrawled on the inside of the door:

I walked out of the bathroom beet red.

(P.S. II: I was so taken aback by the message that I completely forgot to see what was inside the cabinet. If someone wouldn’t mind, would you rush over to the Green Truck, pretend to have to use the bathroom, and snap a pic or two of the inside of that cabinet so I can go to sleep tonight? Thank you.)