Fall is in all its glory during the month of October. Birthday month of mine same for a child I once knew. Look how lovely the red, yellow, brown and burnished orange hues. My sweaters, jean jackets and corduroy pants all make a comeback. The air so clear, clean and fresh.
October reminds us how lovely it is to let the dead things go. I stock the pantry and freezer as its pie and turkey season. Pots of soup and stews, I love the hygge of this season of my birth. Cinnamon rolls and pumpkin spice coffees, it’s all so nice.
Celebrating October born, just so happy to be alive and living so full of loving and life. Living through this peace-filled time without strife. October warms me from the inside out. October the tenth month of the year just after September and before November and December.
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
The premise of this question goes in direct opposition to what I believe … my belief is “do what you love, and the money will follow.”
All the jobs I have I enjoyed and in all of them I made money. I was a waitress at a high end restaurant and made good money. I was a real estate agent and consistently was in the top 25% for both sales and listings. I made good money.
Later I worked in nonprofit as a development director and made good money.
What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
With a name like “Bernadette” I wasn’t going to fool anyone about my heritage! My Italian heritage comes from my mother’s side of the family. Her parents, my grandparents migrated here from Italy.
My fathers side was Irish and both parents were Catholic and I was raised in an Italian, Irish Catholic home.
A big part of my heritage is cooking and making food. My Italian grandmother was a huge influence here. She owned and operated a hotel and was always cooking and making food. I love to cook and often make Italian dishes and baked goods.
When I was younger I joked “I am Irish and Italian and have the temper to prove it!” Fortunately age has mellowed me.
My dad was so proud of his Irish heritage. I do celebrate Saint Patrick’s day with Irish drink and foods.
There is nothing more fun than attending an Italian Festival and/or restaurant and pub, same can be said for the Irish celebrations.
My Catholic faith has stayed with me and for many years I worked for Catholic organizations. There were many times through the years that my faith has not only saved me but sustained me.
I don’t even view it as “proud” but matter of factually that I was born and raised Italian, Irish and Catholic that’s just who I am, and has stayed with me for my entire life.
There are certain brands that I like and therefore “brand loyal.” One of them is Marriott properties as I find them to be consistently clean and welcoming. I love that their Residence Inn properties allow me to travel comfortably with my two precious pooches. I love being a “rewards” member and this coming December we have a special holiday trip planned to Nashville that will be completely covered by my rewards points!
Another brand I support is Wegman’s grocery store as I find their name brands to be of good quality and a value price. The stores are clean and show so beautifully too.
I am brand loyal to Trader Joe’s for their coffee that I grind from beans while at the store knowing how freshly ground my coffee is makes me happy.
Over the years we have become “brand loyal” to several Jeep vehicle purchases. We have loved them all. They have worn well, held their value and last.
As far as clothing I love Ann Taylor, Loft and Talbots. I find things I enjoy wearing from these shops.
If I find a business that sells products I like at a fair and reasonable price, generally I am happy to support them.
My husband laughs at me because I carry so many “loyalty” cards where there are benefits for being loyal to them. At the time of this writing I carry three cards for local craft breweries that have many perks like free drink and food, discount prices and one currently has a cash value of $60 that we may use for lunch and dinner when we visit there.
I personally enjoy being brand loyal to places we frequent …
When I was a kid, I was friends with all the kids. Friends with the jocks, the artists, the pot heads, the brainiacs, the religious, the non-believers, all of them. I still have that same belief that each person, each type of person has something special to offer. And I was interested in knowing them.
Although I am personally a Christian and Conservative, I never force my beliefs on others. I do my best to live by the “golden rule” treat others as you wish to be treated. It’s not my place to change anyone else but rather to continue to work on and improve myself. If I live a live that is worthy of friends and followers, so be and if not, that is fine too,
What I find increasingly difficult to understand is our current culture or “group think” and the desire to hate and even hurt those that think differently. I find our current political discourse to be soul crushing. I see people that I love and adore spew political hatred at their so called “opposition” and it saddens me. Not because of the target of their wrath and hatred because of how small it makes them look. Often, I shake my head. How could someone so smart and so accomplished spew hatred toward another group of people just because they think/believe in a different way?
We used to believe that shared ideas from opposing viewpoints meted out the best outcomes, today we aren’t even able to have those conversations. I worry for anyone who lives with any hatred in their hearts. I believe it is like a cancer that will harm them from the inside out. Peace and love and acceptance are so much healthier.
My parents taught me that “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” what if someone said something you didn’t like, you just walked away, turned them off, didn’t listen?
Today it’s apparent that there are people who believe that if you don’t think and believe as they do, you deserve to be murdered. How can this even be possible? How on earth did we get here? And more importantly, where do we go from here?
Written on the day after Charlie Kirk was murdered …
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I ever received was on parenting from a father of seven children. He said, “Children when they deserve your love the least is when they need your love the most.” He shared this with me when I was a young mother of a toddler. It wasn’t until many years later when I could appreciate his wisdom in these words.
Our home is filled with music as we love most types and lean toward classic rock and roll and both old and new country music.
My husband is a true rock and roll guy with music by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Tom Petty and more.
I was raised on Johnny Cash and grew up to be a huge fan of Country Music Artist Gary Allan. We have probably attended more than 20 of his fan club parties and more than 50 of Gary Allan’s live concerts.
Recently we have become huge fans of Anderson East and have attended several of his concerts.
We stream music still play our CD’s and how a large vinyl record collection.
Music is for all reasons and seasons and all emotions. I can’t imagine living in a world without music! While sitting at home, driving in the car, or on the beach and more, music fill our hearts and warms our souls.
We love the holidays, all of them! From Thanksgiving through to New Years there are some “traditions” for how we celebrate. Every season we make time to view these three movies; The Holiday, The Family Stone and A White Christmas.
We love visiting New York City during the holiday season where we take in The Radio City Christmas Show, Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and some shopping that always includes Macy’s. And some dining too. It’s a trip where we take the train into the city and walk and walk and walk. We using exceed 20,000 steps on that one day in NYC!
Another great holiday trip is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. The hotel is decorated so beautifully and there are white lights on most exterior trees with horse drawn carriages.
At home we decorate and dine on traditional turkey dinners for Thanksgiving and Christmas is usually surf and turf.
Now that the kids are grown and gone we do celebrate more with our friends and neighbors. Our home is decorated and we play Christmas tunes while baking homemade cookies, cakes and pies.
Whether traveling or staying home we love the holidays and do raise a glass or two in celebration.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
In an early morning attempt to bake a birthday cake for a co-worker before work, I forgot the eggs! As a pretty accomplished baker I couldn’t understand why the cake I had just baked was as flat as a pancake.
After some deduction and detective work I soon realized I forgot to include the three eggs the recipe called for, I was just moving fast and in the desire to get much accomplished, really accomplished very little.
Baking unlike cooking is more science based and those eggs were necessary for success.
Oh well a quick trip to the grocery store to purchase a birthday cake ended up being plan “B” and the takeaway for me; enjoy baking cakes more when you actually have the time to bake them.
Bernadette A. Sahm 