Thursday, January 10, 2008

I stepped into my role as volunteer for Ocean County Library's Home Borrowers Program and made a new friend!
Cathy O'C. is a real find. She's a delightful woman a few years older than I am and, boy, do we have a lot in common. She was born and brought up in Trenton and later lived in Glendale, which is part of Ewing. That's where we lived for 41 years and where we raised our children.
Cathy and I quickly found we were both products of parochial schools (hers took, however). She went to Cathedral H.S. and we laughed over our shared experiences--including the uniforms, the stockings, the ban on strapless gowns, and so on. We both smoked and, as teenagers, experimented with hanging out in bars. Not only that, but she loves biographies (same here), real-life murder (oh, yeah), and history (gotcha there, too). She does read contemporary fiction, which generally leaves me cold, but who knows? Maybe I'll acquire a taste someday.
Cathy has a son and daughter and several grandchildren. She lost another son in 1999 and two sisters (one of whom was a nun) and her husband in 2006. I saw a studio portrait of Cathy and him 30 or so years ago and what a beautiful couple! They actually looked like movie stars.
Cathy had about two dozen books to donate to the library and I took them for her. At this point, she's well supplied, as she orders books from the Literary Guild, so I didn't need to take her request for the library.
I was delighted to learn she's computer literate and is on it every day. She loves "Bookworm" and was interested in hearing about my favorite, "Wordslinger." Forgot to ask her to exchange e-mail addresses, but will call her today and do that.
Because I slept so late, then had to zip up to Cathy's, I didn't have time for breakfast. It was close to noon when I got home, so I just segued right into lunch. I know, I know, people are always being preached to about not skipping a meal, especially breakfast, and blah, blah, blah. That seems to me bullshit of the purest ray serene, and I'd like to see the background evidence to support it.
BTW, I'm going to go to Weight Watchers tomorrow instead of today because I have to take Pat to his podiatrist appointment at 10:30.

5 comments:

iloveac said...

Rosemary,
Here's an article about skipping breakfast. It cites the research and you might want to check it out and look at how the study was done. The Journal cited is reputable, I believe.
At any rate skipping breakfast once in a while can't do harm.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147140,00.html

**********
Your new friend sounds like an interesting lady and meeting with her will be a pleasure as opposed to AM or Betty's Norma.

Mimi said...

I don't intend to skip breakfast often, Pat. For one thing, I LIKE it and I'm hungry in the morning. I'll look into the site you sent, though, and thanks.
You're so right about Cathy being a much better friend than A.M. or N.! Just got off the phone with Betty and she elaborated on what's on her blog about Norma. Somehow, these people always find others to allow them to continue their dependency. A.M. sure has a stable of helping neighbors, including yours truly.

EBJ said...

I agree with you about breakfast. I recently got a medical journal that indicated there is no real background that there is any great benefit by eating breakfast. When I was REAL thin I never ate breakfast.
I can not remember where I got (or put) the article.

Mimi said...

I always ate breakfast when I was thin, too. It consisted of coffee and cigarettes and plenty of both.
Read the article; the sampling was only 10 women and the conclusions seem vague. (Odd that it mentions brand names, but maybe not, since it's from Fox Noise.) Anyway, the point is moot for me because now that I can eat breakfast at 9:00, I do and I like it. I like looking stuff up like that, though. Now see if you can find anything that supports the wisdom of weighing more at 70 than at 20.

iloveac said...

Any study with such a small sample is a weak study, and cannot be generalized to the larger population. I can't imagine the AJCN even published it. Fox yes, but not AJCN. Another reason to check the original source.
Further research definitely needed to conclude whether eating breakfast is necesary. For me it is....for others, maybe not. And here's my weirdness. My first meal of the day has to be what I consider breakfast food....not a roast beef sandwich or bowl of soup...no, I have to have cereal or bacon and eggs etc. I said I was weird.

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