Category: Growing up Hollis

Growing up Hollis is my fond name for my childhood stories

9 things I do not want to give up in 2019

My good, good work friend and fellow Connecticut blogger,  Jamie Taylor (jamieeverafter dot com) inspired me to write this blog today when she recently posted about the things she was not willing to give up in the year 2019.   I “liked” her Instagram post because this kind of thinking is the polar opposite of what you expect to hear from anyone in the early days of a New Year.

At any rate, it got me thinking about my own will not give up list for 2019 so here  is that list (in no particular order):

 

Coffee

 I cannot leave the house without my coffee – nothing fancy, just a dark roast, completely black with natural sugar does the trick – I tried leaving the house without coffee once and it wasn’t pretty – I seriously thought I was coming down with something (smile).

 

 

Edge Strong workouts

I cannot imagine doing what I do for a living without the benefits of a good workout each weekday morning.  It is not only a stress reliever but it also keeps me physically fit:  Check out my blog post:    LJ: Stronger than before…

 

 

Social Media

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, Yelp, you name it – I’m on it and loving every minute of it.  Check out my blog post:    R U Social?

 

 

Pampering (hair/feet/nails)

It’s no secret that I have a weekly standing hair appointment at the salon every Saturday morning so getting my nails and/or feet done on a monthly basis is par for the course:  Check out my blog post:   Put your slippers on…

 

 

Wine

I make my living as a TV/Digital/Social Media Account Executive in a highly competitive, pressure-cooker work environment.  I do this all on 100 percent commission so a nice glass (or two) of red wine is more than welcome on the weekends – Check out my blog post:    10 things I cannot live without today

 

 

Movies

As I’ve posted about before in TVFL, Growing up Hollis my mother Jean would take her 7 children to the movies on Saturdays armed with candy and snacks: Check out my blog post:   Movie Buff   To this day watching movies on TV, Mobile tablets or even at the theater is a regular pastime.

 

Salad (with protein)

I absolutely loooooove salad any time of the year – not just the Summertime and I pile my salad with some or all of the following ingredients: romaine lettuce, spinach, kale, fresh veggies, mixed nuts, cheddar cheese, hard boiled eggs, sesame seeds, chick peas, grilled chicken, homemade croutons and low fat dressing.   The low fat dressing is a semi-joke considering what goes into building my salads.  Check out my blog post:   New Haven, CT Fall(ish) eats! 

 

 

Golf

I finally learned how to play Golf last Summer at Lyman Orchards Golf Center in Golf Fore Women 101 and I must say I’m truly looking forward to the Summer again so I can hit the links with my newfound lady golf friends!   Check out my blog post:  Ready Fore Golf

 

 

Beauty Sleep

Over the years I have alternatively read or heard that a good night’s sleep is overrated and you really don’t need that much rest for your body to function at its best.  I disagree.  When I get at least 7 hours of sleep at night I tend to be more mentally alert and better able to handle multiple tasks at hand the following day.   Check out my blog post:   What it means to be a woman of a certain age…  

 

 

So that’s my list for 2019, how does your list compare?

 

Sincerely,

 

 

TVFL

 

LJ’s Style

LJ’s style…where did this conversation come from…oh, now I remember:  one of my gfs was talking to me about her 15 year old daughter and how she had so much style for her age.   Not just the style of her clothes but also how she wore each piece – well.  She made such an impression that she was constantly receiving praise from her teachers, family members, other girls her age, etc…It definitely got me thinking, Growing up Hollis I really didn’t have any style.  I was the baby girl of the Hollis family and one of 9.   My father Jonie B., my mother Jean, one older brother, one younger brother and 4 sisters.  And since I was the  “baby girl” of the family, my style was whatever clothes I could fit into that year that had been passed down to me (smile).

To this day, my style will forever be eclectic and sometimes even out of the ordinary.   I’m not complaining, merely stating a fact (double smile).

Here are some of the many styles that I possess today…

 

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner:

 

My Caffeinated Wake Up look

 

 

My Healthy Lunch Choices look

My fav Sushi Dinner look

 

Work:

 

My chit chat at the water cooler look

 

My Taking Care of Business look

 

My I’m Feeling Myself look

 

Church:

 

My 2 Blessed to be Stressed look

 

Gym:

 

My Daily Workout Gear look

Post Work Events:

 

My i Hope They Like This Arrangement look

My I Hope I Picked Out The Right Outfit For This Event look

 

Romantic Dates:

 

My Valentines Day Birthday look

 

My Dinner and a Movie Date look

 

Play Dates:

 

My jumping into the weekend look!
My Ski Date look

 

My pool party look

 

Vacations:

 

My On my way to vacay look

 

Bedtime:

My Hot Bubble Bath before bedtime look

 

And finally my thanks to God for blessing me with a good life, good family, good friends, good health, good work, good love in my life and a sunny, positive attitude.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

TVFL

Winter in CT

It’s officially Winter in Connecticut which for the most part makes me feel low-key SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) as it means the weather is extremely cold, the days short and the nights, super dark on my drive home from work…

To compensate, I try my darndest to look for fun, free, enlightening and/or educational things to do just to keep me from participating in my favorite pastime, i.e.,  sitting in my La-Z-Boy to watch TV and eat snacks (smile).

 

So here (in no particular order) are some of the ways (in the past) I have kept myself occupied (and far, far away from the snacks) during the dark, dreary days of Winter in CT:

 

Ice skating – Since I enjoyed this activity so much as a child growing up in Groton, CT  I figured I would try it out again as a full-grown adult – I must admit it was easier said than done (smile).

 

We spent the afternoon at Northford Ice Skating rink – what surprised me the most was the noise level, the coldness of the rink and the fact that I could not easily stop myself from falling (smile).

 

This is a fun and easy activity, especially in the Winter:  taking a hot bubble bath after a long day of work:  Check out my blog post:  Put your slippers on…

 

 

Visiting a local museum – this free activity is not only educational but truly enlightening.

 

Visiting a salt cave – this activity was so enlightening I had to write a blog about it – check out my blog post:  Cave Girl

 

Going to a live taping of The View in NYC – a truly magical day from beginning ’till end:  Check out  my blog post:  The View (from Lajeune)

 

Going to a free lecture at the local university.   I recall the event we attended at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT – Margot Lee Shetterly – the author of Hidden Figures – quickly becoming “standing room-only.”    To me this proved the staying power of the written word…

 

Spending a relaxing day at the spa – this never gets old…

 

Skiing  at a local ski resort – Super fun and exhilarating!  Check out my blog post:   Ski Date

 

Spending time (and money) at the casino…in Connecticut we are lucky enough to have two:  Mohegan Sun Casino and Foxwoods Resort Casino.

 

That’s it.  So whatever activity you choose to participate in this Winter in Connecticut, do try to make it memorable 🙂

 

Sincerely,

 

 

TVFL

 

 

Doxie Love!

Anyone who knows me knows I love me some Doxies!  “Doxies,” short for dachshunds, are those “short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dogs.” Dachs meaning badger, hund meaning dog.

Dachshunds originated in Germany and were developed to “scent, chase and flush out badger and other burrow-dwelling animals.”   Some people refer to them as the Hot Dog, or the Weiner Dog or even the Sausage Dog.  I just call them adorable (smile).

So whether I’m on a staycation in Connecticut or on a real vacation in the U.S. or Abroad, I am often on the look-out for what my girlfriends have come to know as a “Cute Doxie Surprise.”  These are the moments when I spot a Doxie in an unexpected place and go nuts – running after it, taking pictures of it, rolling down my car window to ask questions of the pet parent, etc.

Fun fact:  While Growing up Hollis in Groton, CT, a neighbor named Mrs. Brown  had a beautiful long-haired golden Doxie aptly named Goldie Von Bruen.  Goldie gave birth to a litter of full-bred Dachshund puppies.  I’m not sure when but at some point my late mother Jean did something kind for Mrs. Brown that caused her to offer my mother one of her prized and valued Doxies at no charge.  My mother happily picked out a male puppy.  We were so excited because this was our family’s very first canine pet.  My older brother Michael came up with the name.  He called him Rapper and it stuck (smile).   Rapper was a standard (or loooooooooong) red, smooth-haired dachshund with a good disposition.  Dogs were not pampered back in the day so Rapper was not “walked,” rather he ran from the house, sometimes disappearing for days at a time (smile).

This is the closest image I could find of what Rapper looked like back in the day as I could not find any of the Polaroid pictures we took of him!

 

This is the closest image of what Rapper look liked and it’s pretty close!

 

Rapper mostly ate from our plates (often times eating what we didn’t want) despite the fresh, dry dog food sitting in his bowl on a daily basis…

And it was apparently clear who Rapper loved the most –  my mother Jean.  So much so that when she and my father Jonie B went out on a date, we Hollis girls would take turns putting on my mother’s coat, hat and shoes to trick Rapper into believing she was still home.  It worked like a charm (smile).

5 years ago I had two Doxies of my own…I was living at that time in New Haven, CT in a 90-year-old Colonial style house that I owned in the Edgewood neighborhood.

 

The colonial style home I owned in New Haven

 

I named my 2 Doxies Coby and Crimson Hollis.  Coby was a black and tan smooth-haired, male miniature Doxie and Crimson, a red, smooth-haired female miniature Doxie …They were equally energetic, loveable and fun so lots of good memories were made in that house.

 

Coby Hollis sitting on his favorite rug in front of the refrigerator

 

Crimson Hollis in one of her favorite pastimes

 

I adopted them both from the same breeder in Canterbury, CT.   Coby was just 3 months old when I adopted him and I had him until the ripe old age of 17 (in people years).   Unfortunately he died of kidney failure in May of 2012.  Coby was 8 years old when I adopted Crimson, a “breeder dog” who wasn’t producing many pups so the owner “fixed” her to sell her off.  On top of this Crimson had social interaction issues since in her world adults coming to “visit” were coming for the sole purpose of taking away what little puppies she had so I was able to get her at a much lower price than I did with Coby.  She was 4 1/2 when I adopted her and lived a happy and “normal” pet life to the age of 9 before she was struck (1 month after Coby passed!) by a hit and run driver on a busy residential street…Life was rough without my 2 Doxies and it took the passing of a very long time to heal my  broken heart…

Today I am an Insta girl who loves her Instagram pix and I’m happy to admit that the majority of my own collection of saved pix are from the Dachshunds of Instagram (smile).

Doxie Love – it’s no small wonder that the Dachshund, my fav breed, remains one of the top 10 breeds of dogs in the United States according to the American Kennel Association.

 

Sincerely,

 

TVFL

 

 

Hot Comfort Foods

I used to love me some weekends growing up ‘back in the day’ in Groton, CT.   Especially  in the dead of Winter because my mother, Jean Anna Tinsely Hollis, would cook all 7 of her Hollis kids pancakes and bacon or waffles and bacon on Saturday mornings and eggs, bacon, grits and buttered toast on Sunday mornings.   Weekends were truly a time to sleep in, eat a ton of “Brunchy” foods and then go to church.

Perhaps that is why to this day I Love New Haven, as it is truly a foodie destination, and restaurants that serve “brunch” are not at all hard to find.

I celebrated my 55th birthday this past weekend with my girls – it was almost 2 weeks after the fact as I was actually born on Valentine’s Day.   However, one of my three girlfriends was not available until this past Saturday since I had bucked tradition by choosing to celebrate my birthday this year over brunch instead of dinner.  And believe it or not, the hardest part for me was choosing where to go as I had 3 former neighborhood faves in mind:  The Pantry, Bella’s Cafe and Lena’s Cafe and Confections.  

I spent my first 10 years in New Haven living in the East Rock section where The Pantry was the place to go for brunch.  This was back in the day when I was un-clean so I would devour the pancakes made with chocolate chips.

 

 

I spent the next 11 years living in the Westville section of New Haven and everyone who lives in Westville knows there are two go-to restaurants for brunch:  Bella’s Cafe and Lena’s Cafe and Confections.

“Bella’s,” as it is affectionately known, is long and narrow inside and the food is fantabulous  – especially the brunches which are served from 8am-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.  The brunch menu changes each and every week and they don’t disappoint.  The weekend we went I had the fabulous french toast.  Yummy!   And well worth the long lines and the wait!

 

Yummy french toast!

 

Lena’s Cafe and Confections is less than a block away in a much larger space.   As it turned out, this was the chosen restaurant.  And surprisingly we did not have to wait in line at all and the food was out of this world.  I had soft cooked eggs, turkey sausage, cheesy grits and a toasted english muffin with butter.

 

We are the Fab 4 – ladies who golf (smile)

 

Hot Comfort Foods are now my new birthday go-to and the good news is there are so many more restaurants to try in so many other New Haven neighborhoods (smile).

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

TVFL