Liz Savino's Continuing Blog

It was bitterly cold this evening. Bill and I set out on our walk knowing we were facing a 1 ° F wind-chill. We were well bundled as we took off into the very crisp air. No problem… until we turned back in the opposite direction: into that 1 °. The wind had picked up and was biting our cheeks. I flung my scarf around my face and felt immediate relief.   We ducked into a store vestibule where I tied Bill’s scarf around his face. Like little kids.   We both joked and called each other “Aurence” (an inside joke for lovers of that classic movie) and made our way back. When we walked into (what felt like) a 'too warm' house, I spied the flower arrangement that I had put together this weekend. I’m not creative and I am rather haphazard when it comes to décor. But, my love of gardening has me fooled into thinking that I can conquer flower arranging.  Anyway, coming in from a world of white into the warm colors of the kitchen, I smiled. I saw that ‘jankity’ arrangement I...

I was listening to Dr. Sanjay Gupta talking about brain health on Sunday morning. He has written a book called Keep Sharp and he was promoting it as a tool to keeping dementia and Alzheimer’s at bay. It seemed like a bit of a rehash of info I had already heard: cut out sugar, eat berries, and keep active - the usual. He also suggested that we try new things to “tax” the brain. Yes, crosswords are good, but if you really want to flex those brain muscles, try eating with your non-dominant hand. His advice was to build up reserves and resilience in your gray matter by changing things up. (And here I thought my daily NYT crossword was going to keep my mind acute.) He also discussed the importance of social interaction. He suggested a great way to maintain brain health was to take a brisk walk while talking to someone. Apparently exercising all your muscles is also a key component. Well,  I felt pretty clever when I heard that bit of advice because that’s just what I’ve been doin...

I do like my home office. It has many great amenities: good lighting, warm and cozy, great décor (lol), and close to the fridge. Bill brings me my coffee refills in the morning and makes me a hot cup of tea every afternoon. It is a sweet setup. But there are so many things that I miss from my regular office. My biggest pet peeve is my desk chair. While it’s a decent chair with wheels and good back support, the arms do not fit under my desk.  The opening of the desk where my legs go through is just not wide enough to accommodate the chair. Sometimes I just want to get in really close and tight to the desk but those arms prevent me from making it happen. It annoys me. Every. Damn. Day. Since March 2020.  I suspect this set-up is contributing to the pain in my shoulders. But, hope was reborn today. I was able to visit our new office space in Amherst. The company I work for is moving into new digs and it has been designed to be super cool, clean, and ergonomic. Of cour...

Postscript: This blog wrote itself and is dedicated to my Poker Pals.  I am not going to make this blog political. I am blessed to have so many friends that embrace different shades of the political spectrum. I may not agree with them, but they are still my friends. Nevertheless, I must confess that today between 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. I shed so many tears of relief and joy … I swear I lost a pound or two. I am really good at not crying; I suppress it constantly. But today - this release was cathartic.   It was a reflexive reaction stemming from the frustration I’ve felt, from the suffering we’ve all witnessed, and especially from the joy of seeing a woman greeted as the Vice President! And then the youngest poet laureate stepped up to the mic and proclaimed  in “ a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one ”…   I started to cry anew...

It is almost 6:00 p.m. Which means it’s time for a cocktail. I’m not a drunk, but I do so look forward to a cocktail at the end of the day. People say you shouldn’t drink alone. I disagree. My husband, Bill, won’t drink at cocktail hour with me during the week because he wants to be sharp to either (1) practice his guitar; (2) do whatever he needs to do with his UB courses; and/or (3) work some more… you get the idea. So, I’ve learned to drink alone and I’m perfectly ok with it. My friend, Annie and I like actual cocktails at cocktail hour (as opposed to a glass of wine or beer). When we get together, our preference is gin and tonic – with lots of ice and lots of lime. It’s much better when she makes it ,(and she’ll tell you it’s much better if I make it. Ok, we both liked to be served.)   Recently, she told me about a new drink she’s tried called the Queen’s Cocktail.   Prep time: 1 min. That’s important. If it’s a complicated drink, I’ve lost interest by the third ingre...

My desk sits in the middle of my home office facing a bay window. My monitor blocks the middle window so I can  only view the side two windows as I work. This fall, I installed a new “squirrel proof” bird feeder outside,in the middle of the bay window.  I purposely hung that feeder outside of my sight line because I knew I would get distracted by the birds and by the acrobatic insanity of the squirrels as they try to crack the code of the feeder.   I do realize that I'm denying food for one type of creature as I encourage another. Why do humans do this? What's with the judgment about who should be fed in the winter? For me, it's  because I love watching birds. My Grandmother Nicoll was a bird watcher and I choose to think of it is an inherited trait.  Plus, it calms me. Which is a big deal nowadays.   This morning, in the middle of a morning video call with about 12 coworkers, I saw some movement in my peripheral vision. It wasn’t the usual flash ...

I saw my sweet Emma today. We haven’t been able to be together since October, because of COVID-19, and it’s been killing me. Yes, we FaceTime everyday – but it isn't the same. But, today she came over for a socially distanced get together. I knew the visit would have to be outside since we weren’t officially in each other’s ‘pod’.   So, in anticipation of the visit I had gathered some fallen twigs earlier this week so we could have a fire. Today the weather was cold but dry, with very little wind, and the sky was blue (intermittently).   It was heavenly – because Emma was with me. We started by burning the wreath and all the greenery that had festooned the front door. We went through the twigs, some wet wood, and then we just burned everything we could get our hands on. We even burned an old chair (Peter Vanhaecke and Petra Haldermans style - sorry that’s an inside CTG joke) just to prolong the visit. My Emma epitomizes the line from a Midsummers Night Dream “… and though ...

Ok, I am an idiot. I just learned about “ Cuffing season” and how the whole process has been on steroids during COVID19. If you are as uninformed as I am, let me explain. Rather than spending the winter alone, singles seek out (and often settle for) someone they could co-habit with during lockdown. Sometimes people decide to live together after one or two socially distanced dates.   How sad is that? But, then…how logical, too? I know if I had to face this winter alone, I would fall apart. Although I didn’t know that this practice existed, I must admit that Bill and I often discussed how grateful we were that both of our kids were already ‘hitched’ to awesome partners well before COVID19 struck.     Our son, Will, is an extraordinary man. He met an equally extraordinary woman while studying in Michigan and they decided to get married. No date was set, but they figured sometime in 2020 or 2021. We were thrilled. However, Clare (his partner) was offered a position at...

It’s only mid-January and I’m already dreaming of spring and what I will plant in my garden. I love to flip through gardening catalogs and conjure up the possibilities. It also helps me stay warm - at least in my heart.    Last week, I started looking at urns, pots and planters online. My mum taught me that planting pots is very satisfying - you get results fast and you can move the plants around if they aren’t in the best spot. I was determined to find some classic urns for the patio; something that looked like they’d always been here. I looked at a million websites, weighing the pros and cons of material, weight, shape, height, capacity. I found out that you could spend some serious cash on this stuff. I was not going to do that. Finally, I found exactly what I wanted at regular old Lowes - and  at a reasonable price.   They were exactly what I wanted, but they were HEAVY!   Wherever they were going to be placed, they were going to have to stay there. I...

  Did you know that the state of NY now allows those over 65 years of age to make an appointment for the Covid-19 vaccination? I didn’t know until about 2:00 this afternoon when Bill got a text from his best pal, Bruce, urging him to get an appointment.   Bill rushed into my office and said ‘Figure out how I get one!’.   I’m one of those freaks who frequents the NYS   department of health site so I quickly pulled it up and followed the steps. Super simple. Confirmed he was eligible and then I pulled up a list of pharmacies. He called Tops first (he’s a true blue Tops grocery-store shopper), Wegmans, and then various pharmacies until he found one that had a slot available.  Ten minutes later, as I’m sitting in my office, I see Bill in my peripheral vision, jumping up and down and pointing to his arm. He’s been "coached" about not interrupting me in my office so he was pantomiming his excitement outside my door. I excused myself from mv video call, opened ...

 January 11, 2012  Every morning before work I work on a little puzzle on the NYT site. It’s called Spelling Bee and the object of the game is to make as many words out of 7 letters. The rules are as follows:          Words must contain at least 4 letters.          Words must include the center letter.          No  obscure, hyphenated, or proper nouns.          No swear words.          Letters can be used more than once.          4-letter words are worth 1 point each.          Longer words earn 1 point per letter.          Each puzzle includes at least one “pangram” which uses every letter. These are worth 7 extra points! I like this game for a number of reasons:    It jump starts my brain; It reminds me every day to look at things from all angles. Y...

  January 10, 2021 Life Inside And… the gray skies are back. One day of sun and you get all cocky about the weather. This morning when I pulled open the blinds I remembered… oh – yeah. IT’S JANUARY! This is what Buffalo looks like in January: MONOCHROMATIC. But, I have a little trick that gets me through these sad days. I grow plants. Big plants. Plants that you have to walk around in order to get by. I have the best luck with peace lilies. In the summer, they thrive under some backyard trees. In the winter, I haul them in, move the furniture, and give them as much space as I can.  My front hall gets the most sun so that is where a lot of them live.   It’s also somewhat central to the house so I ‘interact’ with these plants the most.   I poke my finger in the dirt assessing dryness, note the changes, try to track their subtle movements and sometime I stroke their leaves. It calms me.  Just look at this sweet tendril reaching for the light.  That wee bit o...

  January 9, 2021 When I woke up, I was delighted to see the sun (after a week of gray skies) and thought “What a perfect day for a home playoff game for the Bills.”   The lucky 7000 or so who were able to sit in the stands were twice rewarded: being able to see their home team play live AND having the sun shine into the Bill’s stadium. I mean, it's still Buffalo ... in January. I don't think the temperature was higher than 35 degrees. So it's still pretty cold, even with the sun.   photo credit J. Laubacker Today’s moment of joy was almost wrested from our collective Buffalonian grip. The Colts rallied in the 4 th quarter and everyone in Buffalo inhaled, gripped their beers, and either sat very still or paced in front of the screen. But, the odds makers in Vegas were right, and the Bills were indeed victorious. The fans exhaled and the sun set on Buffalo. Joy delivered to all in Western New York.         

My incredible mum! She's 90 today and still as cute as can be!!!!! I had planned to be with her today but Covid-19 made other plans for us. Instead, we did a Facetime cocktail call where Kevin, Bill, and I shared our screen and looked at photos from her life. It was fun. She'd already talked to her grandchildren on Zoom throughout the day. She is living her best life - on the water (as she always wanted) and trying to stay out of trouble. Recently she broke her arm. She was after a cockroach and the cockroach won. However, the cast came off just in time for her birthday. She couldn't open the packages that arrived but she was able to lift a glass of vodka. She is incredibly agile and energetic. Although the broken arm slowed her down, she really doesn't stop moving. She is unstoppable. Up until a couple of years ago, she accompanied us on our family trips - the most recent to Croatia. I cannot believe the luck I've had having her by my side all these years. My hear...

Most days Bill gets up before me. He doesn’t need much sleep and when he wakes up, he GETS UP. I tend to like to linger… more of a slow roll out of bed. Bill always puts on the coffee and brings me a cup and the paper. But, that is not what happened today. (I bet you thought that was going to be my moment of joy, didn't you?)  Bill didn’t sleep well last night. He was glued to the TV until after 1 a.m. He was deeply upset   about the incidents at the Capitol yesterday.   When I found he still wasn’t in bed, I went downstairs to find him standing 12 inches from the TV set in the kitchen. COMPLETELY. WOUND! UP! I tried to coax him back to bed, but he needed to unwind a bit more.  Consequently, I woke up before him this morning.  Which also meant I put on the coffee and grabbed the paper. Here's the thing  - that small amount of time when I was puttering in the kitchen, looking out the window, waiting for the coffee to finish brewing, smelling that aroma.....

2021. We all thought that with a turn of the calendar page, things would get better. Well, I am not taking any chances, so I've decided to be purposeful in noticing things in my little world that bring joy. I was inspired by a  podcast  that i listened to today -so I've missed the first 5 days of January. Nevertheless, today is a perfect day to start because of what is happening at the Capitol building. I have to push that insanity over to the side of my brain to make room for positivity.  It's that slow, quiet scream that I'm trying to tamp down. Otherwise, I may lose it. Are you with me?  January 6th Covid-19 wages on - which means both Bill and I continue to work from our home offices. One of the benefits of working from home is that we get to eat lunch together and Bill always offers to make it (although he has been known to interrupt me when I'm having a video chat with my boss to ask whether we are eating together. Luckily, I have a very un...