This certainly is one of my personal favorites. Because it was so well received by you before I gave my blog yet another “do-over”, I wanted to share it one more time. I hope you enjoyed this little musical snack and will have a happy, successful start to your week. Thanks for checking in 🧡
Category: Writing
Being Served
Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters
who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.
– Lemony Snicket
While these words certainly hold truth, the mental images are funny. What do you think? Maybe I’ll see you back here at midnight for a musical nightcap? If not, have a great start to your week 🍀
Boundaries!
First and foremost, happy Sunday! ☀
In case that you don’t know, I can be a jovial, genuinely nice person – difficult to believe but true.
Now, if you push my boundaries and don’t stop before I reach the “boiling point”, then you get to meet my bitch twin right quick. This happens particularly, when it pertains to my dogs. With regard to my fur kiddos, I know very few limits [be advised]. Okay.
A lady, who lives about two blocks away from us, feels called upon to “explain the world” to everyone, who doesn’t get away quickly enough. She is the kind of person, who talks down to others. And if there’s one thing I’m highly allergic to it is, when people talk to me as if I’m a complete idiot. This lady likes animals in general, and no dog in the vicinity is “safe from her”. That’s all fine. You may be certain that I’m the last person to deny my dogs attention and cuddles from other people, as long as they like to receive it.
Just the other evening, Lilly and I enjoyed our walk. Who happens to come walking towards us? “Ma’am-know-it-all”, you guessed correctly. Joy to the world, a scolding / lesson for me was about to be in progress, only because Lilly was happy to see her with a tail wagging at 90 mph and a joyous bark. But right away said lady started in on me “Oh! But you have to teach Lilly not to do this! She is aggressive! She should not be so wound up. How come she doesn’t know that? Don’t you work with her?” This “know-it-all” kept yapping at me, and the grumpy within slowly began boiling. After plenty of chances for her, to just stop and walk away, she crossed the line when this “want-to-be-dog-whisperer” began training Lilly right there in the street. She had the verbal smackdown coming to her, and I’m not sorry. How dare you call my dog aggressive, when there was not even a hint of aggression? How dare you tell me what to do, and what kind of a relationship I should have with my dog? Red Line. Crossed. Don’t missunderstand me please, I’m not the least bit against learning from other people. But the communication style makes all the difference. And why in the first place do you try to make me feel, as if I have to defend or explain myself to you? Where do you get off? Honestly! If you don’t like me or my dog, then be gone please. My life will certainly be better without you in it. Well I told her off in no uncertain terms and I bet, for the foreseeable future she will do her best to avoid us. Another hater. Get in line, because there are quite a few others who have seniority over you 🤣
And just to be perfectly clear: Lilly is a playful, sweet little cuddle bug. She is not aggressive, has never shown her little teeth and has yet to growl at me or anyone else for the first time.
With regard to learning progress: What can you expect from a dog, who survived on the streets of Italy for 5 years? What the fluff is she supposed to know, other than surviving one day at a time, by any means necessary? And besides who would I be, expecting perfection from my dogs, when I am so far away from perfection myself? My little puppy girl is just fine the way she is. She’s not allowed to misbehave [such behavior will be corrected if necessary], but it is very important to me, that her adorable whirlwind personality shines through. Anyone who has a problem with that, can hopscotch their way into oblivion, for all I care. 🐾
Nothing Fancy
My wardrobe is low-key, because I’m not the fancy type. So with that in mind, I’ll take a pair of jeans with a t-shirt and sneakers, please. That’ll do just fine for me, thank you. I will gladly leave the dressing up pretty and sexy for those, who enjoy it.
I’m well aware of the heavily overused statement, that “you need to take pride in your appearance”, and all that jazz. Yea, you know what? Yawn! If you can’t stand to look at me the way I am, by all means leave it be. In fact, I’ll be grateful to you for ignoring me completely. Thank you 😊
Rather Curious

Upon occasion I just feel drawn to something, without knowing why. This tree, though not particularly beautiful or special, just had this effect on me. Well, the mind works in mysterious ways, I guess. Happy Sunday!!
Freedom Is…
“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put
on a mask. There can’t be any large scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution,
on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.”
– Jim Morrison
I agree, do you? Have a lovely Sunday ☀
Spinach, Please!
When I was a kid, a [once per week and] favorite meal was spinach with boiled potatoes and a fried egg. To the present day, it is the one meal that instantly takes me back to my childhood days.
Pink & Purple
I’m just sharing a few ‘point and click’ snaps with you…




All pictures by Claudia Braun 06/2025
Forever Gone – Dan Stone
It’s high time for some music around here, don’t you think? Well, here you go…
Thanks very much for stopping by. Have a good night, and don’t let the bedbugs bite [Yah, ew, that’s a creepy mental image right before bed – good job, Claudia 🙃🤣].
Vive La France
It began after a family summer vacation in France, I was a pre-teen. Among other places, we visited Paris, of course. What can I say? This gorgeous city left a lasting impression on me. At the same time I inherited my brother’s record player and started browsing stores for records. Along with Kate Bush I also found Richard Clayderman. He is a French pianist, in case that you don’t know. You may have guessed by now, that I did not just fall in love with his music. A lovely and charming country, a good looking French man who happens to play the piano….jackpot! So, young Claudia made up her mind that she would move to France and marry Richard Clayderman after completing school. My parents just laughed it off and told me to keep on dreaming. Well, the crush on Richard Clayderman faded rather quickly [not the pleasure of listening to his music]. Pictures of a life in France kept twirling in the back of my mind, until I became a young adult. Towards the end of my training to be a nursery school teacher, I met my now ex-husband who is American. It was mentioned a time or 25, that I ended up going to the US with him, and lived there for 20 years [14 of them alone]. It’s funny, how life turns out so differently. But those were the experiences meant for me, the lessons I needed to learn. Who knows, maybe someday I will end up in France after all? And Richard Clayderman? I still have 3 or 4 of his cds in the sideboard, collecting dust.
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