T.J. CORMAN
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The Bra-See-Ay

 The Bra-See-Ay is the name of my weekly blog. It is a play on the word brassiere. Bras and panties take on a key role in my novel, so it all comes back to that.

This blog is a place to entertain all kinds of silliness and to have fun. Learn something new, think outside the box, participate in contests, and get to know more about me, T.J. Corman.  

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Merry Christmas to You!

12/25/2020

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Photo by Chad Madden
​I hope you’ve enjoyed my Twelve Days of Christmas series. I wanted you to get to know a bit about me. My friendships. My hobbies. Some of the things that have happened in my life.


I will be taking a few days off over the Christmas holiday, returning with a new blog entry on Sunday, January 3rd. My blog will then be delivered weekly. You will have something thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, or just plain silly to look forward to every Sunday morning. Remember, my focus at the very beginning of this blog series is the word FUN! If you miss me, you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram, as I’ll still be filling those pages with anecdotes and commentary.

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I wish the best of the holiday season to you and yours. Don’t let these strange times get to you. “This, too, shall pass.”


                               
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                               That’s it for now. Have the best day. I’ll speak to you in the new year.
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - Bethlehem and Jerusalem

12/24/2020

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I took these photos when Husband and I travelled to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is sometimes referred to as the holiest place on earth, as three significant religions reside there, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. More than eight and a half million people live there in approximately 125 square kilometres of space. It's crowded - and hot.

Once in a while, you get to visit a place where you can feel it's power. Uluru, Australia, is one of those places. The air vibrates with an inexplicable energy. That's the way it was for us as we walked down the streets of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We walked the same path, the Via Dolorosa, where Jesus pulled his cross along his final steps toward his crucifixion. We touched the marble slab where his body was anointed after his death. To stand at the places where Jesus was born and then resurrected was incredible.

The pictures show the juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern. Western commercial and economic influences are evident. Cobblestone walkways polished shiny from billions of footsteps over millennia—the Roman Empire's impact in architecture amid the cities modern-day inhabitants. It was a wonderland there - a truly magical place.
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That's it for now. Have yourself the best day. I'll speak to you again tomorrow.

TJCorman
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - The Small Things

12/23/2020

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I've shared some of my unforgettable memories—the reasons why family and friends are at the heart of Christmas for me. The people we love make up such an essential part of our Christmas memories.

My mom died of breast cancer when I was a teenager. Her death has defined my life in so many ways I can't describe them all, at least not in this short blog. But this note is not about death and sadness. It is about love and friendship. My mother's best friend was her sister, and her sister became my surrogate mother after my mom died. I have always been close to my auntie and her daughters. My auntie called me her fourth daughter, and my cousins have treated me like a sister. 

I've spent most of my Christmas' with my auntie and her family. Years ago, the house was full of people. Relatives had come from Manitoba, which made Christmas especially exciting that year. I got to snuggle into bed with one of my older cousins, whom I adored (still do), and getting to sleep with her, was a treat. But she sleeps with her eyes partly open, and that was disconcerting when Santa was on his way, and I had to get to sleep! Many years later, after I had my own home, sometimes Husband and I would pick my auntie up on Christmas Eve. We'd bring her to our house so that we could enjoy Christmas morning together. We would go out of our way to spoil her with lots of presents to open and delicious food to devour. That's what she did for us for all those years in between. Once breakfast was over, we would pile into our car and join the rest of the family to play games and eat turkey and fritter the day away. When my auntie became elderly, we reverted to staying at her house. And, even though Husband and I had an uncomfortable sleep on the sofa bed, that did not matter. We weren't spring chickens anymore ourselves, and our backs hurt after a bleary-eyed sleep, but what mattered was our togetherness.

Small memories like that are what makes Christmas great. The effort people put into being together. The thoughtful things we do for one another and the kind ways we treat each other. Being included and being part of something greater than ourselves helps us to feel love. This year might be a time to start a new tradition for you. Create more small memories. Treat yourself if you are alone. Do something different that you've always wanted to do but haven't yet. You'll look back and say, "Remember that year that we...." This year has certainly made us think differently about how to live and what we want from life. The compilation of small memories is what makes life worth remembering.

That's it for now. Remember to get your entry in for the Book Club Give Away Challenge by tomorrow at midnight. Have yourself the best day. I'll speak to you tomorrow.

TJCorman
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - Someone Loves You

12/22/2020

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I am a woman who has been blessed with extraordinary friendships. I've had solid friendships with men and women, but of course, once the men find themselves a mate, they disappear. That begs the question, can men and women be real friends, but that is for discussion in another post. With the men out of the picture, that leaves the women, and I have an extraordinary story to tell you about my friend, Karla.

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My husband found a ceramic tree for sale on the internet. He said, "Hey! That's just like the tree you have! You could sell it - it's vintage!" I knew with that statement that he didn't understand the value of my ceramic tree. It is one of my priceless possessions, along with the story that goes with it. I did not pick it up at a box store. It has a unique history.
I still have friends that I made in elementary school. One of them, Karla, has been my friend since we were about eleven years old. If memory serves me correctly, I think we were in grade six when we got to know one another. We went through school together, hung out at parties, she was my Biology 11 lab partner, and we would get squeamish together about frog guts and so on. I was her maid of honour when she got married at such a ridiculously young age we didn't even realize how young we were. She is still married, by the way, to the same man. That's what an incredible soul she is.

As happens with friendships, sometimes we drift in and out of one another's lives, which is what happened to us. She got married. I went off to university. She had a baby. I partied my face off at university. You get the picture. Our lives went in different directions for a while. We always kept in touch at Christmas - exchanging Christmas cards and catching up on what was happening in our life. We would see each other at grad reunion parties, weddings of mutual friends and things like that, but for the most part, we weren't in one another's lives anymore.

Fast forward a few years, and I got married. Fast forward a few more years, and I got divorced. I was thoroughly heartbroken. It seemed to me that the whole world must be feeling my pain. My dog died a few days after he, "who-shall-not-be-named," left, and another friend of mine said she thought my dog died of a broken heart because he felt everything I felt. It did seem as though that dog lived through me. I was a complete wreck when my ex-husband walked out. My pain was beckoning the universe as I had never felt before. I was suffering complete agony within.

A few days after my ex left and my dog died, my phone rang out of the blue. It was Karla. We hadn't spoken to one another in a long time, and I was delighted to hear her voice on the other end of the line. I asked what made her call. She said that she woke up that morning and said to her husband, "TJ needs me. Something is wrong. I've got to call her."

Can you believe that? Of course, you can. How did she know I needed her? I would never have called her to ask for help. As I stated yesterday, we, as people, as souls, are inexplicably intertwined. There is no coincidence. You are reading this for a reason, and it's touching a part of you somehow. 

So, Karla phoned me, and we talked and talked. She said she was coming for a visit to stay with me for a few days to help me through this difficult time. She came, and we had the best time together. Well, I did, anyway. I sure appreciated her company. I cried a ton and poured my heart out to her. She listened. She didn't judge me. She just loved me and was there when I needed her most. I didn't even have to ask her. She just knew. We didn't do anything extraordinary - we just hung out together as we did all those years ago. We went shopping, made healthy meals, and oh, did I mention that I cried a ton and talked her ear off.

Now, back to the ceramic tree. Karla made that ceramic tree for me and gave it to me for Christmas about a gazillion years ago. We were discussing it the other day, and we think we might have been eighteen years old. That timeline does make my ceramic tree vintage. But as I mentioned before, it's also priceless, and my story tells you why. I bring my ceramic tree out every year and place it in a prominent position in my home. It's in perfect condition (just like Karla!). I remember the love, selflessness and intuition of my friend every time I look at it.

I can't recall where I first heard the following statement, but it has stayed with me and helped me through some terrible times. I'll leave it with you to think about.

"Someone loves you more than you know."

That's it for now. Have yourself the best day. I'll speak to you again tomorrow.

TJCorman
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - My Two Dads

12/21/2020

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​Years ago, there was a television show called 
My Two Dads. I must admit that I never watched it, and I don't know what it was about, but the title always stuck with me because that was me. I had two dads.

I was born out of wedlock in the early 1960s. It wasn't a good time in history for a young woman to fall pregnant and have a baby without being married. There was plenty of judgement and shame that accompanied unwed mothers. It turned out that I was given for adoption, but I was adopted into my own blood family. My biological uncle adopted me. He was my birth mother's older brother. He died long ago, but today, December 21, was his birthday.

Interestingly, my biological parents were very much in love but were young and scared and possibly acted irrationally about their situation. They did not get married. I never heard the story of their youthful love affair or knew my birth father's family until many years later. My birth father is also deceased, and the cosmic part is that he died on December 21.

There is no coincidence. We are inexplicably intertwined. This is real-life magic.

Today I honour my two dads. One I loved dearly, and one I never met, but I know him in ways I can't explain.
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That's it for today. Have yourself the best day. I'll speak to you again tomorrow.

TJCorman
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - T'was the Night...

12/20/2020

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I took this classic Christmas poem and turned it into an irreverent parody. These are only the first two verses. I'm not game to post the whole thing on my blog. You will have to wait for an in-person meeting at a book club dinner or some such event where we meet in person. Please accept my most sincere apologies if I offend you in any way. And I hope that Clement Clarke Moore pardons me for making his Christmas classic into a sexy joke. Gone now for over two hundred years, I hope he is not turning in his grave.​
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T'was the Night Before Christmas Parody


T’was the night before Christmas and all through the abode,

Not a creature was stirring, not even the dog,
The bras and panties were hung on the Christmas tree with care,
In hopes that Saint Husband, soon would be there;
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The adults were nestled all snug in their bed,
While visions of orgasms filled up their heads.
Mama in her negligee and I in my skivvies,
Had just settled down for a long night of jiggy.

                That's it for now. Have yourself the best day - and speculate on what the rest of my poem says!
                                                                     I'll speak to you tomorrow.

TJCorman
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - T.J.'s Five Favourite Things

12/19/2020

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My list of five favourite things - other than husband, dog, bling, bright lights, big city, coffee,  sleeping, clothes, the colour red, red lipstick, shoes, zazz, reading, writing, joking, tv, friends, family, etc.
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T.J. Corman's List of Five Favourite Things in 2020

1. Chocolate - sorry husband - he made number one on the other list
2. Sex - I reiterate - sorry husband - chocolate is chocolate after all
3. Vodka - speaks for itself. I've discovered vodka late in life, but say no more, it made number three
4. Sunglasses - of course - goes without saying
5. Black hair dye - Obviously

That's it for now. Have yourself the best day. I'll speak to you again tomorrow.

TJCorman
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - Don't Forget the Dog!

12/18/2020

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How would it be possible to forget the dog? That is not an option in our house. Beyond being the world's most well-behaved dog, our dog also has a sweet disposition. Our Havanese is the cutest, as these photographs attest. The Christmas picture was taken several years ago when she was only 2 years old. She's the grande dame of the neighbourhood now. Isn't she a beauty? Those eyes, oh those eyes, they are so soft and gentle. How could you not be in love with that attentive little face?

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​We love her to bits, and she has the good fortune of belonging to a couple who don't have children. You can envision the spoiling that goes on around here. However, without spoiling, what would be the point of having our little four-legged friends living in our houses with us. She brings a smile to my face all day, every day, and I am the luckiest Mama to be loved by her. I feel blessed and thankful for the day we met her and brought her home to live with us.
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                        That's it for now. Have yourself the best day. I'll speak to you again tomorrow.
TJCorman
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - Jolly 'Ole St. Nick

12/17/2020

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This picture of Jolly 'Ole St. Nick was taken at, you guessed it, the local Light Up Festival. The photo on the left is the original. It's quite ordinary and not a spectacular picture, but as I've been stressing in previous posts, notice how different a simple photograph can look with the help of a filter. The centre photo uses the Star Dust filter, and the last image is using the Sketch Art filter. I love how the Christmas tree looks like it is a cut-out ginger cookie dripping with icing in the last picture. Think twice before you delete what might have the potential to be a creative shot.

I hope you've enjoyed my photography tutorials. It might seem a bit off track, but it's all part of getting to know me. Let me know what you get up to for hobbies. Please post some of your original photographs.

That's it for now. Have yourself the best day. I'll speak to you again tomorrow.

TJCorman
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The Twelve Days of Christmas - Photography

12/16/2020

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Above is another photo set, taken a couple of years ago at the Christmas Light Up Festival. The photo on the left is the original. It's an interesting photo in and of itself, but notice how it changes and improves with the greyscale filter.

That's it for now. Have yourself the best day. I'll speak to you again tomorrow.

TJCorman
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