Sheils Writes

Just an 80's girl in a modern world!

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60+ mid life ramblings, Scorpio, she/her, former nutmegger, current Floridian, forever dreamer

  • Top 5 American Moments in my lifetime

    With all the hype about America’s 250th Celebration, it got me thinking, what says ‘America’ to me…record scratch…this is light & breezy, not complain-y & political, so, here it goes, born in 1965, these are my top 5 all-American girl highlights…

    5. Seeing Jaws in theatres, waiting in line for tickets, not knowing much about it (we had no internet, we just heard “some shark movie” and off we went! 1975, it had everything, suspense, surprise, non stop action hunting a great white, should we ever need to hunt one, boy did we learn a lot! A memory that has lasted a lifetime, to this day, still reciting lines.  Thanks Dad for taking me!

    4. Fireworks at the beach, any beach. Growing up in Connecticut this was a staple of our July 4th “weekend”. A crowded parking lot, one road in, same road out, a packed cooler (or 2 when we got older & went with friends instead of parents), blankets, rickety lawn chairs, a BBQ grill if you saved a table at Shady Beach. A band playing in the band shell, we ran around in bathing suits, exhausted, but “ooo-ed and ahh-ed” our way through the fireworks displays up to the grand finale! No photos or selfies but I’ve got that one forever in my head & heart!

    3. Chasing the ice cream truck.  We would play for hours outside, in the street, or at a school playground, rode bikes, skateboards, unicycles, hopped on tag sale pogo sticks, or roller skates.  When we heard the bell ring, we ran inside, scrounged for loose change, front door slamming, running barefoot down the street, what traffic? We ran!  The best memory, screams American childhood to me.

    2. Seeing Madonna at 2 iconic venues (no judgment, these are my memories)…Yankee Stadium & Madison Square Garden. A show within a show with all the street theatre surrounding those venues.  Prior to seeing the icon at the iconic locations, we used to go to Madison Square Garden for the Ice Capades (yes. Dorothy Hamill, even tried the haircut) & the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus. 2 staples of America for me.

    1. No American childhood would not be complete, at least for me, without seeing the Mets at Shea Stadium.  A perfect day at the ballpark, nothing is more American to me than baseball…hotdogs, a stadium seat, a baseball hat & glove in the good ol’ summertime! I can still hear the vendor shouting “Beer here” in that classic NY accent. Win or lose (& ok, no judgment here either, forever a Mets fan), we had the best time!  Thanks again, Mom & Dad!

    These are memories I am so grateful to have.  As we head into the celebration of our 250th, I need to tune out a lot of things that are difficult right now & tune into these memories that I cherish. Just need a slice of Mom’s Jell-O American flag cake, some cherry Kool-Aid & I Love Lucy reruns playing in the background to recreate the full feels!

    I hope you have a Top 5 (or 10) you can look back on!

  • Pencils.

    I can’t remember exactly when I did this, end of 2023, maybe March 2024 – we were cleaning out my parents house, my childhood home.  A part of the journey of life.  Anyways, the exact time isn’t important, the task apparently was.  There were a million other things to do, I know.  I stopped at the pencil cup, or cups.  I think one was a blue ceramic golf bag.  I picked through all the pencils.  I probably spent a half hour doing this.  Pause.  Refer back to the ‘there were a million other things to do” sentence, please.  I, instead, did this.  I sorted through old pencils and put them in my suitcase.

    Fast forward 3 years, give or take.  Today I came across all these old pencils in one of many pencil cups, mugs, what have you that I’ve accumulated from my move to Florida.  I’m busy today, but these pencils, again, stopped me in time, stopped life, for another 30 minutes.  There’s something about these old pencils.  The words they wrote.  The grocery lists.  The hopes and dreams someone wrote with them.  The travel log.  The household budget.  The measurements for a shelf to build.  The movie times for Jaws or Star Wars, which theatre.  The phone number for the babysitter.  Half finished crossword puzzles.  The party list.  So many party lists.

    Next time you find you have a million other things to do, I hope you find an old pencil cup somewhere.  Take your time.  Hold them.  Keep them.  They are so much more than a half used, sort of sharpened writing instrument.  They are life.

    (They also actually motivated me today to write again, how funny is that?? It’s ironic to me in some way, I continue to be grateful for these funny old half used pencils).

  • The Empty Box

    “What’s this?”  “There’s nothing in this.” he says.

    “Oh, really?” I say.

    The box, it’s empty.  I could’ve sworn I put all the gifts inside before I tied it up with that big beautiful bow.  Oh wait, I did.  They aren’t gifts that money can buy.  That box is full of memories.

    Memories of years gone by.  Of family that is scattered.  Of family that has passed away.  Of Christmas cookies and roasts that aren’t on any table.  Of beautifully decorated Christmas trees in the living room that used to have so many voices around them.  Of the front door opening with so many well wishers on Christmas morning.

    That box is jam packed full.  That box is far from empty.

    That’s the best gift anyone could ever give to someone special, the gift of all the warm, comforting memories of family and friends.

    You know what goes next in that big, beautiful empty box – the new memories that are still to be made.  Jam pack it with new memories of new traditions, new voices, new family and friends.  While we adjust to those that have left us this time of year, we know they would not want us to be sad and missing them, they would want us to be like they were, full of cheer and laughter, warmth and joy.

    I hope you all find a beautifully wrapped, beautiful full empty box this year that doesn’t cost a cent somewhere around your home.  It will forever be the best gift anyone can give.

    The best gift!

  • Relive a weeknight in 1985 with me!

    I had to do some far back thinking for this piece.  I wanted to capture just what it felt like to be 20 years old in 1985 on a weeknight.  My weeknights now revolve around a cell phone, scrolling through Facebook & Instagram, scrolling again through Facebook & Instagram.  This was not what life was like for me on a typical weeknight in 1985, 40 years ago – close your eyes and imagine along with me, here we go —-

    I lived in my childhood home still, wasn’t anxious to ‘launch’ and was planning to marry a ‘rockstar’ at the time (more on that some other time).  There was no urgency for me to make big bucks or have a Dynasty type ‘career’ complete with shoulder pads and office suits.  I worked at a soundproof room company about 1 mile from my house as a word processor.  I kept track of my time on a paper timesheet.  Most likely walked upstairs to the 2nd floor to hand it in to Carol who ran payroll on some sort of a computer every 2 weeks.  I received a paper paycheck, went to the Barney machine – yes, I still, to this day, call the ATM, the Barney machine – in the Caldor shopping plaza.  Any bills I paid, I would write a check and I kept a handwritten check register that I learned how to maintain by watching my Mom do the family check register.

    I would end my work day, walk to my Mercury Topaz and put in one of my homemade cassette tapes where songs were usually cut off at the end, flipped to Side B and continued (I never claimed to be an expert at making cassettes) or my Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Want To Have Fun cassette, for my 4 minute drive home.

    It’s now about 5:15 pm – what next?  Go inside, put my pocketbook away in my room – head back downstairs to see what was going on for supper – I’m 20, I live at home, Mom’s cooking for me and I’m pretty happy.  We’d have dinner in the kitchen, me, Dad, Mom.  I cleared the dishes from the table and Dad went to watch the evening news with Dan Rather.  I’d head in the den to usually find him with his eyes closed.  He worked a long day as a mail carrier, his day usually started at 5:30 am.  If he wasn’t working in the yard or garden, this is where you’d find him.  A daily newspaper, called The Norwalk Hour, also in his lap.  We read real newspapers back then.  I usually read the comics or did the word jumble.  Mom picked up her needlepoint.

    OK, what next?  I’m trying to recreate an evening in 1985, not 1955 although it’s sounding a little 1950s.  I had a pretty solid Mom/Dad vibe going on, I was very lucky.  Anyways, I was not going to pick up a cell phone at this point in the night, that’s for sure.  Well, there was a soap opera on at 1 pm every day that we would all miss, so you know what we did?  Very cutting edge of us — we video recorded it on our VHS machine!  The next thing we all would do was rewind the VHS tape and watch the daily episode of ‘All My Children’ – so much fun!  Loved getting caught up on Erica, Tad, Opal and the gang.

    Now we are up to about 8 pm and I’m either watching Family Ties or Growing Pains.  Most likely in pajamas already.  But then, guess what??  A sudden ring of a phone – yes, you guessed it, a wall phone, way off in the distance, all the way in the kitchen!  No matter what part of the show you were on, you’d run to the kitchen to pick up the loud ringing phone – if it was for me (my ‘rockstar’ boyfriend), I’d usually say “hey Mom, can you hang this up, once I get to the upstairs phone”?  We’d talk about our day, what we had for lunch, dinner, what record company was he going to sign with someday, what we were (well ‘not’) watching anymore now that we were talking on the phone – and – if someone else was trying to get through – nope – busy signal.  Sorry, Aunt Phyllis!

    After hanging up, I’d wash up with Noxzema — if it was good enough for supermodel Carol Alt who was splashed all over my Mademoiselle magazines, then it was definitely good enough for me!  Grab an actual book, a Time to Kill by John Grisham, and climb into my comfy bed.  I got through many a weeknights without a cell phone and I’d like to get through more this same way.

    So, there you have it, a random weeknight in 1985.  Somehow it all seemed simpler.  I can’t quite put my finger on just what one thing was different back then.  I just want to go back there for one night and know about life now, to really live in those moments and appreciate them more.  Although I might opt for Spotify instead of one of those cut-off homemade cassette tapes of mine…or not!  Tough call.

    I can hear this picture!

  • The Universe Is Trying to Tell Me Something

    A rare day off from work for a dentist appointment for a dentist that is closed on Friday’s (yes, I confirmed, hmmm).  Ok, go sit at a coffee shop & write, finally.   Get here, dig through my purse that ALWAYS has not one, but three pens!  No pen.  I’m being sent a message, but what?!

    I am noticing how darn fast everything is, fast drivers, fast food, insta cart.  I’m living in a new world. Paved by, well, my generation?  What have we done?

    We sit here now, some of us don’t fit quite right.

    Observe. Write. Slow the F down. Laugh. Cry. Breathe. Read.  Eat coffee cake & carry on.

    I had a vision of sitting at a coffee shop & blogging. I’m doing it, without a pen.  Heading home soon to check that off the list.  Maybe that’s part my problem, I plan too much, today things did not go at all as planned.  That could be the universe saying planning isn’t working.

    I’ll take it. Now what?? 

    The universe

  • What’s in my purse!

    Silly, right?? No one cares but I haven’t written in so long because I’m not sure what to write about!

    I used to love the celebrity “what’s in my purse” feature in, I think, Us magazine…so…for fun, I’ll do a “what’s in my (very cool, ballerina pink) Telfar bag”!

    As you can see in my photo, I have my essentials! Panama Jack mango lip balm & Naples Soap Company (a new fave!) luxe hand cream in Pura Vida.  I discovered this store in Lakewood Ranch, FL.  So many great scents to choose from!

    My (prescription) sunglasses, Guess wallet, L’oreal mica lipstick (been buying this shade for years).  Stop me if this is too boring.   I am just happy to start writing a bit again.

    I started a monthly journal club, Silk & Sonder (it got me during a 3 AM doom scroll, we’ve all been there I’m sure).  One of my 3 goals for this week was to “write a blog post” and I didn’t want to fail.

    So here you have it!  Riveting, I know!

    Back to your regularly scheduled programs and I can’t wait to post another blog real soon!

    What’s in my lunchbag?? Wouldn’t you all like to know!!  Its also pink, by the way! 🩷

    “What’s in my purse”! 👛

  • What are we even doing?

    A writer observes.

    I’ve been quietly in the background observing for this past month.  I’m watching people.  People come and go.  People smiling in their vacation photos to somewhere fantastical, amazing.  A drink.  A meal.  A sunset.  People complaining about Donald Trump or something else.  People in general are complaining about things.  A sad observation, but an observation nonetheless.  As a writer of this observation, I have a few things to write.

    I think of Lucy from the Peanuts every morning, 5 cents please?  Maybe that’s $1 now.  Although I get nothing out of your complaining about things.  Just a quick scroll past yet again another unsatisfied customer.

    There needs to be a shift in this pattern.  I’m not going to make a difference with writing these few words on my old-lady blog, but it’s my free space on my bingo card and I’d like to use it.  Complaining has a place.  However, working towards a change, a shift, possibly might make sense.  I’m far from politically savvy, but sure, I see a lot of crap going on.  Instead of sharing your next upsetting issue, post something positive, about how you, yes you, can change what you see.  Send out a smile to all of us.  A meal.  A drink.  A sunset.

    I don’t know.  Only thing I do know, is something has to start to change.  Nothing changes, if nothing changes.

    A writer observes.

    Help please!

  • Two people (a poem)

    Two people

    Two people sitting together.

    Two people lost in thoughts.

    Two people not talking.

    Two people side by side.

    Two people who might look unhappy.

    Two people who have suffered a lot of loss.

    Two people who have enjoyed a lot of happy times.

    Two people.

    Two people.

    Every day is not great.

    Every day is ok.

    It’s in those moments, the ok ones, where life settles.

    Ah, the happy, smiling faces in the one picture that shows up on Facebook.

    It’s still just two people.

    If you think life is always great, step back, wait through all the other moments first.

    Loss.

    Work.

    Slow times.

    Boredom.

    Wake up. Do it again.

    Two people laughing for a short second.  Click. Snap. Post.

    Back to regular life.

    Two people.

  • Fitting in…in a world where I don’t fit

    It’s fast out here, so fast.  Technology is at the forefront,  obviously I don’t live in a cave, but I feel like I do.  AI, Chat GPT, social media exploding all around me – well if you want to follow a retro writer, you’ve found her.  This is as far as I’m going.  A little website, a few simple shares to Instagram and Facebook.  I can’t go any faster.  I don’t want to go any faster anymore.  I thought I did, I thought I should, but it’s holding me up from just writing, so I don’t.

    If you want to follow a daily wordle player who then group texts their score to their mom and sisters, yep, that’s where I top out, quite happily.

    They say youth is wasted on the young, from a technology standpoint, I say go for it young ones.  Have at it.  You’ll find me here years from now, still at it, writing about life, ad free, sponsor-less, un-influencer-able (is that even a word??), not a podcaster, and you know what? … I’ll be all the craze for when you want a throwback to a simpler time.  Come see me in 10 years, we’ll ‘chat’ the old fashioned way.  Grab your Stanley Cup, sit with me and “Chat OLD”-en days!

  • Travel through the years ✈️📸

    I’ve never been a huge traveler, only a small handful of times for work, but mostly for pleasure…but the word “awkward” comes to mind when I travel.  I envision myself as the savvy, hip lady, but the reality is so far from that it’s laughable.

    Always very early, my 1st awkwardness,  there’s a sweet spot between 2 1/2 hours early & stress rushing hoping you don’t miss your flight.  I never hit that sweet spot.  I sit here, in a sea of Hey Dudes & Skechers slip-ons, 3 or 4 bathroom trips in, still waiting for the gate to post on the board.

    However, the older I get, the more important I think it is to stay in the game of flying.   2 weeks of pre trip anxiety, an odd night of packing for 2 or 3 days, a comfy leggings outfit & flannel for the possible too high a/c, a klanky walk through the small airport sundries shop, of course an overpriced Starbucks with just another 2 hours to go before boarding.

    Traveling alone is good for my aging soul.  I highly recommend you pack your 20 year old roller bag, I got mine at Sears luggage department back in the day, but it’s OK to ask the young flight attendant for help putting it in the overhead bin, I always do!

    Your destination awaits!  Safe travels!  And on all these trips, so far security has not asked for the Kind bar in my purse, it always makes it through! 

    The essentials!