Category Archives: Something About Nothing Column

Where Did You Find Your Treasure?

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Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf published week of January 13, 2015 in the Albert Lea Tribune and Courier Sentinel

I like treasure hunts. Almost every day I seem to be on a treasure hunt in my home. The treasure I am usually hunting is my sweet shyster Natasha.natasha

I have two shysters, but Natasha, who is part Siamese and part something else, gets into more trouble than my 14-pound Boris. Maybe when we named her we were asking for trouble because she does act a little like her namesake Natasha, from the “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” cartoons.

This week while working on the edits for my new book that will be titled “Something About Nothing” after this column, I was reminded by Boris and Natasha, who were helping me edit, that they do not get enough page time from me.

I was reading my columns about Sambo, my beloved pooch who no longer resides in our household. Natasha and Boris took the time to point out by their scratches and their meows that they are often absent from my writing. My granddaughter reminded me that it was time to introduce the shysters into my children’s books where Sam already has a starring role. Who would have thought the shysters would be jealous?

Though they don’t bury birdbaths, hang their fur on my floor giving me new carpeting as Sam did, they provide hours of entertainment and trouble. I decided to relent, and thus begins my story of my everyday treasure hunt.

Natasha along with Boris is my treasure. At some point during every day either my husband will ask, “Have you seen Natasha?” or I will.

Laidback Boris usually doesn’t care where Natasha is if he is trying to sleep.

The hunt begins. We check under the beds, under the covers, all chairs and after we have exhausted all boxes, we begin opening doors. We open closet doors, cupboard doors and the basement door. There are a lot of doors to open. We know a disappearance by Natasha is trouble.

Most people would not be concerned if they haven’t seen their cat in their house for hours. It isn’t unusual for cats to be shy and find somewhere quiet to sleep. Our shysters are anything but shy and usually are out in eyesight helping us with every step of our household duties.

If they are sleeping they like to be near us. Other cats hide; ours like to play hide and seek. Natasha hides and we seek.

Natasha is sneaky and quick. We know this, but she is quicker than the average eye, and can sneak into a closet and through the basement door quick as a wink without us seeing her. She is always in stealth mode.

You would think she would give us a small hint as to where she is by a meow or a scratch but no — she is content to wait for us to find her no matter how long it takes.

Before we leave the house we always have to make sure our treasure is safe and that means in plain sight.

One day when we left the house I forgot to secure my treasure. I was gone all day. On arriving back at my house I put my packages on the counter in the kitchen only to look over to the bathroom to see Boris sitting by the bathroom closet door. He wouldn’t move. There was no noise.

I thought it was strange so I decided to open the bathroom closet to see if he was waiting for a beetle or ladybug to pop out. He was waiting for Natasha to pop out. She had been left in the closet all day. Apparently she didn’t mind because there were no accidents and she calmly crawled out and kissed Boris.

The other part about Natasha is the fact that even if we did not open the door for her to sneak in, she can open doors herself. She has taught Boris how to open the door under the sink to get treats. We had to put a childproof lock on the door.

Natasha can open the bi-fold door on my closet and jump in. It is not unusual for me to hear a prowler during the night opening my closet door. Some nights she climbs in and closes it.

Natasha takes an interest in helping me with my writing. She likes to take the paper out of the printer when it is printing. Yesterday she climbed on to the top of my printer, stood up to a shelf on her hind legs and opened my plastic drawers where I keep my pens and pencils and tried to toss me a pen.

Yes, life with our two shysters is interesting and some wonder why we put up with their antics. Boris and Natasha are two of our treasures. They are two of the treasures that we seek that we always find. They are easy treasures to find. Other treasures in life may be hidden.

Treasure is defined in the dictionary as wealth or riches stored or accumulated; any thing or person valued highly. In our world today when treasure is mentioned the first definition of wealth or riches is what is sought and what comes to mind.

We get excited when the word treasure is mentioned. We buy lottery tickets; we search for the magic fountain of youth in bottles or the knife. We search for fame so it will bring us fortune. Our treasures might be the next super sale at a big box store

My treasure hunt reminds me of the book, “The Alchemist,” by Paul Coelho. Santiago, the shepherd boy travels from his homeland, which is Spain, to the Egyptian Desert to find a treasure buried in the pyramids. We don’t know what the treasure is. There are obstacles in the way of finding the treasure.

Santiago found his true treasure, but where and what he found might surprise you, just as your search for your treasure might end in a surprising place, right where you started, at home with those you love.

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM

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Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf – Published week of January 5, 2015 borris window

I got my broom out this week, but I didn’t use it to fly. I said that before some of my more sarcastic family members could make the broom and witch joke. When I am in a cleaning mode there are times I mimic the Wicked Witch of the East in “The Wizard of Oz.”

I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t wait until the new year to get started on my house cleaning. While my husband was away, I didn’t play; I used my creative ability to chase some of the dust bunnies out of the way.

When I chase dust bunnies out of my house it also means I move furniture, change things on the walls and wash the kitty blankets, and if anyone questions my motives I erupt like a small volcano. This time I had the run of the house for a day or two and I got busy the minute the car pulled out of the driveway.

The couch sitting in the east corner ended in the middle, the kitty litter castle took the place where the couch used to sit, dressers were moved, chairs slid across the floor, things were tossed and closets and refrigerator cleaned.

At the end of the first day my shysters weren’t meowing at me anymore. They had retreated to a blanket on the bed together, not to come out of the room for at least eight hours, and when I would check on them they would raise their head and glare at me. They do have different faces, and this was not their smiley one. I had moved their world.

I tried to read on my Kindle before I went to bed, but visions of the next day danced in my head. A few hooks, a few new nooks and I could make my laundry room look like the decorating books. With no sane person to reign in my train of thought, the vision and dream of what I could do kept growing and I almost got up during the night putting my day dreaming into reality.

I have many dreams and visions of many things. I look at a house that needs help and can vision how it would look with a little tender care.

My dreams are sometimes just that, a dream but then there are dreams that do turn into a reality. I have always believed in dreaming big. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t I go on to the next dream. Dreams fuel my life and keep me alive.

While living in New Richland a co-adviser of my SADD Chapter mentioned that it would be outstanding, remember this was back in the late ’80s, if Kevin Lynch, Gopher basketball star, would come to talk to my SADD chapter.

In my dream we could make that  happen. We had no money to offer and so we put together a video. All anyone on the video said was “Please” in many different ways and many different tones, sometimes alone and sometimes in a group.

The entire community participated. They didn’t find it unusual for me to show up with a video camera in a business and ask them to say please.

We sent it to Kevin and he responded the next week, visited and spent an entire day with the New Richland-Hartland Ellendale-Geneva High School.

That is one of the many times a pipe dream turned into a reality. This past December the same thing happened. Earlier this year I interviewed via email for the Courier Sentinel, Chris Rupp of the talented A Capella Group, Home Free, winners of Season 4 of NBC’s “The Sing Off.”

As a Christmas gift the owner and editor of the Courier Sentinel had bought tickets for her staff. I decided to email Chris Rupp to see if it was possible to meet Home Free and get our pictures taken with them before the concert. I didn’t expect it would happen. I was very excited when he emailed back and put us in touch with his manager to make the arrangements.

Our dream was realized when we were led into the concert arena ahead of time and saw what goes on before a concert, meeting Home Free, hearing a song beforehand and getting our pictures taken.

It was an exciting event for all of us but for a couple of co-workers that had an unusually tough year, it was a highlight in their year. Thank you, Home Free and Chris Rupp. The concert was outstanding.

If you’ve told someone your dream and they laugh, don’t let it discourage you from dreaming and going for the dream. If your dream dies, realize that another is right around the corner and maybe that is the one that will happen for you.

When someone makes fun of my dreaming and some of them are kind of wild dreams, I remember all those who have shaped our country on a wild dream.

Thomas Edison dreams included the light bulb, a phonograph and the motion picture camera.

Anne Sullivan believed Helen Keller could be more than a blind and deaf girl that could do nothing. Because she believed and put that dream in to action, Helen Keller leaned to communicate and blossom in society. They broke through the barriers of disbelief because they believed in their dreams.

It’s a new year and our dreams might be different than last year. Some of our dreams might die before they were born. Disney’s Cinderella nailed it in in her song “A Dream Is The Wish Your Heart Makes.”

Elvis Presley sang, “Follow that dream, I gotta follow that dream.”

We are all dreamers in one way or another. Maybe we listened to those that told us to quit dreaming and we quit dreaming.

Dreams may die but your next dream might be the one that changes the world or at least your world. Our entire world would have been different if the inventors, songwriters, authors and people like you and me gave up on their dream. Let your heart make the wish and then follow that dream.

 

Coupons and Store Cards Entice Us To Spend!

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Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf published October 2014Coupon Pile Stock Photo
I have an inquisitive mind. I also like contests and coupons that give you something free. You know what they say: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. You would not think that it would apply to coupons from your favorite places such as grocery stores, clothing stores, etc.

Each week there are coupons in the newspaper. Each week my Sunday paper comes with those colorful enticing ads. My mailbox, both snail mail and email, are full of exciting offers that tell us we can’t pass up the latest and greatest deal.

This week, as I was sorting through all the paper I have accumulated, I looked at all the receipts that I have that offer you something if you go online and take a survey about your visit. I usually toss the receipts. I decided to put my receipts in a pile and actually take their surveys.

At one store, after taking the survey, I received $5 off my next purchase of $25 or more. It has an expiration date. Another receipt gave me a free cookie on my next visit. I missed the deadline on two receipts. I decided to try it anyway. One of the receipts registered me for their drawing and another told me I was too late. The other receipts registered me for drawings for a prize of anywhere from $500 to $1,000.

As I looked in my billfold I also sifted through all the cards that I have that are reward cards. If I would carry all my reward cards I would need another wallet to carry them. Many of the cards I have, I use when I take my grandchildren to places such as Orange Leaf and Cherry Berry and more kid-friendly, fun establishments.

I have reward cards for Erbert & Gerbert’s, Lego, Ulta Beauty, Shopko, Panera, Hy-Vee Gas, Lowe’s, Caribou Coffee, Pizza Ranch, Petco and the list could go on. I sift through my cards before I leave my house if I know I am going to be going to one of these establishments. I admit, I do frequent some of these more often because of my rewards cards.

I used to be the coupon queen when I had kids at home. No grocery item was bought without a coupon. I carefully planned my shopping trips.  Now that we are empty-nesters, except for the Meow Twins that inhabit my house, I am not so careful. I do find myself looking at the coupons each week and cutting them out, thinking I should buy something. If I look at the coupons when I am hungry I cut out the coupons for things I would never buy, but look good on the coupons. That is probably the reason for coupons.

Moving on to store cards. I love birthdays because the store cards send coupons for $10 and $15 to use in their store. There is no catch, you do not have to buy anything else. If you have a lot of will power that works. You visit the store and spend only the amount that they have given you. There is one store that used to put the coupon in the paper. I would suspect there are more people that don’t have willpower and those coupons bring people into the store and they buy more than their $10.

I love the store that gives you $10 for every $50 you buy in the store. Of course, you need to come back and spend that $10. It is my version of going to the grocery store to only purchase one item and coming out with a cart full of groceries. How many times have you heard the comment in the checkout line, “I only came in to buy one thing?”

J.C. Penney a few years ago tried doing away with sales and it almost did them in. There is something about a coupon and a sale that brings the I-need-this out in people. Although for me, I loved the prices that J.C. Penney offered, but I did not like the ads so I wasn’t drawn in.

I have always been baffled by people camping out to get the sales on Black Friday. There will always be another sale. That item will be back. The hype feeds people into thinking they need something because of the price. “It’s a good deal so I better buy it now.”

I thought it was interesting that when the iPhone 6 came out there was such a frenzy to get it. I love my iPhone 5 but I also know that quirks and bugs usually come with something new.

On Sunday’s as I read through the ads I find so many things that I know I need. I am very lucky that I have to drive for miles to get that product I absolutely can’t do without. By the time I get around to driving those miles I have usually decided I don’t need it.

The key word to all of this is time. How much time do we spend trying to save money but only end up being tempted and succumbing to buying more because we have a deal? I am going to continue taking the time to register with my receipts as an experiment. Will I be a winner? Tune in for updates.