SANDRA DEMPSEY POST
Each issue of the Oprah magazine ends with accounts of what Oprah calls, “What I Know For Sure.” We’re sometimes sitting on a wealth of knowledge but don’t share information. May I offer some thoughts for consideration and smiles? February can always use lighthearted responses.
The more tired and lackluster your appearance when you make a quick run to the grocery store for necessary items, the greater the probability of seeing someone you’ve not seen in years, who wants to chat. Particularly when that someone always looks very well put together. On a good hair day for you, when you’re feeling svelte and stylish, you won’t see one person you know.
On Day One of the Diet to end all diets, when your will power is soaring off the charts, some unsuspecting generous soul delivers to your doorstep a dessert you simply must eat because you know the chef will want your honest opinion.
Similarly when you’ve finally decided to walk six days each week, a snowstorm followed by an ice storm will make walking so hazardous that even the faithful experienced walkers stay inside.
If you’ve stored an item for months or years, within seven days after donating it to a very good cause, you will need that item. It’s a version of Murphy’s Law, but minimalist professionals tell us it’s okay. Every so often that happens, but don’t give up the cause over one mishap.
When an older sibling, playing with a younger one, feverishly tries to shush the insistence that “it’s not fair” or a forceful “No” from the younger one, it’s an almost guarantee that an injustice has been committed by the older sibling. Experienced mothers know differences in cries and loud arguments; grandmas retain that knowledge even when grandparenting happens many years later.
Wear a white top, especially a never-been-worn-before one, to a friend’s or restaurant for lunch or dinner and the entrée will include tomato sauce. Numerous studies are conducted about certain senior behavior, but I’ve yet to see someone explain why suddenly food starts cascading down the front of a senior as she or he enjoys a meal. The lighter in color the top, the deeper in color the food and the greater the chance of a spill.
Change purses to look stylin’ and put together, and count on forgetting a necessary item. I’m envious of men who can fit what they need, whatever the occasion, into two pockets. Really? Amazing! I don’t know women who can do that, but I’d like to be the first one to succeed.
Carry an umbrella that looks ancient and ugly and two things happen. It doesn’t rain; the sun might even pop out; and you will never forget and leave it behind in a restaurant or movie theatre. Buy a new one, a “good” one, which means it costs more than lunch and a latte, and you’ll leave it behind the first time you carry it, and the rain will fall.
Convince yourself you’ve committed to memory the four items you need at the grocery store. Why write them down? The greater your need for them and the more rushed you are, the best odds for arriving home minus one.
For sure these are things I know, and likely even more!