Tag Archives: St. Patrick’s Day

39 Acts of Kindness – 36, 37 and 38

18 Monday Mar 2013

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Ooooooohhhhhh …… after this weekend’s kindness acts I’m soooooooo close to my goal! image (2) I’ve had one blow out of a St. Patrick’s Day weekend, that’s for sure. I’m writing this post Sunday night to publish Monday morning. After writing this I plan to chug some pepto bismo and pass out! I think I’ve managed to survive the 10 million different alcohols. Although I have to admit the thought of Creme de Minthe makes me nauseous right now. It’s the horrible diet that has been my undoing! I essentially consumed pizza from Friday night to Saturday night then moved on to a taste of this and a taste of that, ending today with a giant platter of liquid cheese nachos. I didn’t even order the nachos I ate other people’s nachos and couldn’t stop! It was so yummy until my stomach told me it was really not at all happy with my decisions! So I have to type fast and move on to the remainder of my evening on the sofa.

image#36 – Darlin’ Children. It didn’t take long for my friend to jump on the kindness bandwagon and suggest I babysit for her to help fulfill my quota of niceness. Of course I said yes! I spent midday Saturday with two adorable little boys Gavin and Griffin. Our few hours together were spent making St. Patrick’s Day cards, green tissue flowers, and chasing Mushugana, the 8-year-old dog that I’m currently babysitting (them chasing, me sheltering her from the chasing). I’ve known both these boys since their birth and it’s amazing at how big they are getting. I know that is a generic thing that everyone says but everyone says it because it’s true! Soon I expect that Gavin will be able to drive me around town to do errands. (BTW based on these pictures I assume Gavin’s mom and dad have spent the last 24 hours listening to how great it would be if they owned a dog!)

Shug (Mushugana’s name with more street cred) and I returned later that evening tophoto (6) partake in my friend’s bi-annual drink competition. This one was, obviously, St. Patrick’s Day themed. I made a shot I named the Fresh Little Leprechaun. It was an equal part mix of chocolate vodka, white chocolate liquor, and a dash of Creme de Menthe (shocking). I topped it with crumbled Girl Scout Thin Mints (part of my two ingredient minimum requirement from a long list of possible edible/drinkable items) and added a custom-made (by me) toothpick stabbed through thin mints. Delicious! I didn’t win but I didn’t lose and that was my goal!

#37 – Expert Packs. My friends, Dee Dee and Krissy and I have been planning to go all out for St. Patrick’s Day for a few weeks now. We just couldn’t pass up the holiday falling on a Sunday and although I consider us a pretty fun crew none of us had done St. Patrick’s day “right” before. That needed to be fixed! Knowing that it is a drinking holiday and therefore drinking would be happening I decided the gang needed some first aid kits. I packed up some aspirin, added a sports drink and threw in some green beads for good measure. Since we were getting an early start I put these together the night before. Let me tell you the gals where sure happy to get them and no one got through today without downing a package of Advil!

photo (5)#38 – I said NO PINCHING. Ions ago I had purchased a packet of shamrock stickers from Michael’s at an oddly low price. So low I have to assume the were mis-marked. My goal was to leave them on a park bench near the pool I swim at but there was no way I was getting up even earlier to make that happen. Instead I decided to leave them at the subway station. More foot traffic there anyway! Although my goal wasn’t to drink too much, I’m a responsible adult and had decided I needed to find a non self-driven way to downtown LA and our celebration. Unfortunately, some brilliant planner decided to schedule the LA Marathon on St. Patrick’s Day. This may mean nothing to you but if you live in LA you know that the race road closures essentially isolate the North and South sides of the city. There was no way for a car to get me into downtown at the agreed upon meeting time of 8AM. So I jumped in a taxi and headed off to the Metro (subway) station. Once there I grabbed a ticket and headed downstairs. I found a centrally located bench and tied my bowl of stickers and it’s coordinated sign to it. Then I walked the platform handing out stickers to those in need. It was so much fun. Everyone was so happy. One little girl asked if I was a fairy (probably due to the green wig I had on). One woman asked if I was a city ambassador. Ummm … no to both but I should definitely be a fairy ambassador. That would be an excellent title on a business card.
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Luck was on my side and my subway car stopped RIGHT IN FRONT OF DEE DEE AND KRISSY who were picking it up a few stops down. Amazed we joined forces and kept on the sticker give away plan for the rest of the day. We had a blast spreading joy, happiness and green!

We did St. Patrick’s Day right! I’ll leave you with just a few pics as proof:

photo (11)photo (7)

Act of Kindness Roll-Call:

To be continued …

39 Acts of Kindness – 35

15 Friday Mar 2013

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St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and since my weekend is full up of green alcohol fun I dropped of one of my themed Wendy Bombs of Kindness today.

photo (7)#35 – No pinching.  When I first got Riggins I had grand plans of getting him certified as a helper dog who I could take to hospitals and senior living homes.  His job, which he is a natural at, would be to make people happy.  In return he would be the recipient of endless attention and snuggles.  Seemed like the perfect fit until I came to realize Riggins is crazy.  He does not like anything that he sees as “abnormal.”  This includes anything with wheels, high-pitched voices, signs of nervousness (or just shaking in general), starring directly in his face, odd smells, etc.  In general he would hate everything about a retirement home and/or hospital (no offense).  He seems to be calming down in his old age but I still wouldn’t trust him around a wheelchair as far as I could throw him!

Riggins went to an assisted living home once, to visit my Grandma.  He was a puppy and did well.  Sometimes I think he would probably be fine and I should look into the certification again and then he goes ape shit over a little person walking at Runyon (Is little person the politically correct term?  I’m going to go look it up …. well that was unhelpful but if you want a giggle go to Ask Jeeves and look at some of those answers.) or nearly has a stroke when a skateboarder comes by, and I come to my senses.

Both my grandma’s lived in different degrees of assisted living near the end of their lives.  I feel like when people look for places to donate their time, energy and or love our elders get overlooked.  I didn’t want to leave them out of my 39 Acts of Kindness!

Riggins and I walk by Windsor often.  It is an assisted living community in Glendale, CA.  I’ve always been impressed at how pretty they keep their lawn, flowers, outside of the buildings, etc.  I had never been inside but based on the flow of family members and visitors in and out I figured it had to be a nice place.  I decided to make them green tissue flowers that they could wear on St. Patrick’s Day.

A quick trip to the dollar store left me with two different color green tissue paper.  Weirdphoto (4) fluorescent green and gross dirty green.  Who knew that when you put those together they are beautiful!  I’m so happy with the results.  Here is my “how to make tissue flowers tutorial” for those who can’t remember this same lesson from kindergarten:

  • Grab something circular that you can use as a pattern.  I choose the lid to a lovely smelling candle a friend gave me.  I’m sure a crappy smelling candle lid would work just as well! 
  • Cut out tissue in the circle shape.  I folded the tissue over a number of times so I could cut as many circles as possible all at once.  Some would call that sloppy.  I consider it efficient.
  • Fold the circles in 8ths (that’s 3 folds in half) and round off the corners with scissors (again I did as many at once as I could manage to push my scissors through).  I didn’t worry about uniformity.  Once unfolded you have a scalloped circle.
  • Gather 6 (or so) of these fancy circles and stack on top of each other.
  • Insert a brad clip in the middle and secure it on the back.
  • Starting at the top (middle of the flower) pinch up each layer to make your flower.
  • I added a piece of curly ribbon to the back with a safety-pin.

I dropped of my bouquet today.  Let me tell you the Windsor lobby is as impressive as the outside.  Definitely a place to look into if you require such services.  Now the men and women of Windsor can enjoy a pinch free holiday!

(Once again I forced boy dogs to model flowers.  I told Morgan and Riggins they were boutonnieres and very fashionable for the hip gentleman.)

Act of Kindness Roll-Call:

(BTW no one alerted me to the fact that I had two 31s.  Fixed that, making me even closer to my goal!)

To be continued …

39 Acts of Kindness – 9, 10 and 11

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

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KABOOM!  That’s the sound of a Wendy Kindness Bombs going off.  Here is what happened today:

*9 – More cookies!  I thought that another little boy deserved some yummy cookies after schoolphoto (6).  (And the red velvet cake mix was on sale.  It’s always on sale have you noticed that?  I think it is because although everyone says they love red velvet it just doesn’t taste like anything.  Not only does it not taste like anything it is an obnoxious color whose deep dark pigment gets on EVERYTHING in your kitchen.  Have you ever made red velvet cake balls?  I have, and let me tell you afterward my kitchen looked like I had slaughtered live beasts.  I think it is a big hoax and the person who invented the flavor is cracking up about the whole thing.   I say all of this knowing that I just gave it to someone but I think the recipient family are red velvet fans.  I did add some vanilla to the mix to give it a flavor kick.)

*10 – Speaking of school … I stopped by my local elementary school and donated two reams of paper.  My mom was an administrative assistant for an elementary school for years and she seemed to love when people donated supplies.  The folks at the school seemed genuinely happy and as I left where saying, “we can always use things like this!”  Although I don’t have children and therefore no children in school I feel a kinship to this one as Riggins and I often walk by and the kids in the playground run up to the fence to say hello to the doggie.  Hopefully the paper won’t be used to print homework on but instead something fun like flyers for a carnival.

*11 – Speaking of homework … I’m helping tutor one of my good friends in Algebra.  She is taking a course in college right now.  I really like algebra.  I think it would be a little too much to say I love it but I “really like” it.  It is, by far, the best of the maths!  Now I haven’t done any algebra since high school (I received enough AP credits that I didn’t have to take it in college) so it has been a loooong time since I’ve solved for any X, Y, or Z.  I was hesitant to help at first but she seemed desperate, so I volunteered.  It has been going pretty well and every week I stop by her house to go through a chapter with her.  Granted the first few times I sighed saying, “really smart people would just use a fancy calculator for this.”  Now I’m back in learning mode!  (My friend is gracious enough to feed me a delicious home cooked meal each week so I am technically getting paid in food for my time and knowledge.  Last night it was super yummy chicken, veggies and rice.  Still … I’m counting this as an act of kindness!)

photo (5)There is one person who isn’t really on this kindness train … Riggins.  He seems to feel I’m spending way too much time doing nice things for other people and not enough time doing nice things for him.  He is truly a spoiled only child.  He decided to teach me a lesson by chewing up one of my St. Patrick Day headbands while I made red velvet cake cookies last night.  Little stinker!  He hasn’t chewed up a non-dog toy item in a really long time.  Riggins destroyed that headband.  I had originally purchased two rainbow (I cut off the four-leaf clovers protruding from the top because they annoyed me) headbands for Dee Dee and me to wear during the color run (http://tinyurl.com/aujmymj) but that just didn’t work out.  My new goal was to wear one to our St. Patrick’s Day festivities and give my extra one to a friend.  There is no more extra one …. sorry!  Enjoy the picture of Riggins shamefully wearing the non-gnawed on headband.

Acts of Kindness Roll-Call:

To be continued …