Ann Chiappetta

Making Meaningful Connections

Vintage Furniture 🪑

| Filed under Uncategorized

 

One night a few weeks ago, our local news station, KDKA Pittsburgh announced the Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead was selling the old theater seats prior to renovations. The seats, originally crafted in 1898 were being sold on a first come first served basis on a Saturday morning. The price? $50 for two ranging from good to fair condition. Jerry and I thought about it.  He suggested putting the pair in the man cave, the garage.

The advertisement was just too cool to ignore — “These seats have been a front-row to decades of incredible performances (by) many artists like Three Dog Night, Kenny G., Toto, Gino Vanelli, Dave Chappelle, American Idol, Nikki Glaser and our very own Jeff Goldblum,” a Facebook post about the sale reads. “They are conversation starters that will leave your friends in awe, and make an incredible addition to your office, home theater, game room or even your back porch!”

Below is the full but brief article

Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall selling vintage theater seats (msn.com)

 

When he got there, the woman sold him a pair for $25 and threw in an extra back and seat for parts. The seats are beautifully crafted and wider than I thought. Jerry had to fix one a bit and then he mounted the pair on wood slats to protect the wrought iron feet from the concrete floor of the garage. A little retro chic for our new home.

pictured are two attached vintage theater seats. The dark wood and black iron accents are offset by the tan floral seat cushions.

 

 

by annchiappetta_nxovue | tags : | 0

Artificial Divide Anthology

| Filed under blindness Fiction Guide dogs

Hi readers, check out a new #OwnVoice anthology by authors with visual impairment, the first anthology to include one of my short stories plus over twelve other authors. Read the description and you will understand why it’s a pivotal collection. Thanks to Robert Kingett and Randy Lacey for making it possible, along with Renaissance Press.

I hope you and your friends and colleagues support it by pre-ordering the collection. Thanks for your support, we cannot be a success without readers like you.

Release date is September 15, 2021, order now, why wait?

Artificial Divide Anthology by Renaissance Press

 

Step into a world of rogue screen readers, Braille in fantasy worlds, a friend meeting an acquaintance after several years, and more.

This #OwnVoices anthology features fiction by Blind and visually impaired authors showing readers how they thrive, hurt, get revenge, outsmart bullies, or go on epic adventures. Artificial Divide is an own-voices story collection that captures the many layers of Blindness and, for once, puts visually impaired protagonists in the driver’s seat, letting us glimpse their lives.

When we think about it, we’re not really divided. Stories by Eunice Cooper-Matchett, Anita Haas, Rebecca Blaevoet, Tessa Soderberg, Laurie Alice Eakes, Melissa Yuan, Innes – Jamieson Wolf, Ben Fulton, Felix Imonti, – Niki White, M.

Leona Godin, Ann Chiappetta, Lawrence Gunther, Heather Meares, and Jameyanne Fuller. Artificial Divide book cover, featuring bold white letters on a black background. A rolling cane tip slashes through the title diagonally, from the top left to the bottom right. Each I has a round cane tip replacing the dot

 

Links for preordering the paperback, eBook and Audio formats

https://tinyurl.com/b8mk6wxb

 

https://tinyurl.com/s2tz367e

 

A Warm Spot

| Filed under nonfiction Poem

 

Blogging about our animals is a bright  glow in our lives.  Just when I think it can’t get any zanier around here, cohabitating with two large dogs, three cats and two guinea pigs, something  happens. Thank goodness it’s usually adorable or funny.

 

Meet Luna, a petite long-haired mix. April rescued her when she was 6 weeks old and she didn’t weigh more than a bottle of water. She is about five pounds now and won’t be a large cat. She is gentle and happy and like Bagheera/Noodle kitty, travels well in her carrier and  has made her place in the pack. In this photo she found a warm spot to take a nap, I suppose a laptop is kind of like a human lap just a bit flat.

 

Below is my tribute to Luna.

 

Kitten haiku

Sprawling Feline warm

 

from hardware and data  chips

 

cat divinity

Photo: Black kitten laying  on it’s side over open laptop computer, head and paws facing camera.

Black kitten laying  on it’s side over open laptop computer, head and paws facing camera.

 

Cat trap

| Filed under nonfiction

 

The sleek and silent Bagheera slipped into the enclosure, intent on   his destination. The human, distracted by the guinea pigs, didn’t notice until it was too late.

“Darn cat, did you go in there?” The human extended her arm and Bagheera slid into the protected hut at the far corner of the cage, avoiding her searching fingers.

The human’s voice rose and she lowered the door, then talked into the thing called a cell phone.

“Is the cat in there?” she asked the phone, holding it at the cage. The tiny voice in it said,

“Yup, he’s in there, all the way in the back on the shelf,”

The human spoke and she sounded angry but he didn’t care, he was in the most rare and coveted place and he basked in his prize.

 

“I can’t reach you, you little turd,” she said, withdrawing her hand. He watched the human enter the storage room, then she went into the bright room with all the cold and wet places. She tapped the top of his ambrosia. Oh, he thought, why did the human have to entice him so? Why, oh why, did she offer him something he craved even more and more often than the coveted rodent shelf?

And this is how to lure a cat from hiding in the guinea pig cage. Appeal to his stomach.

He's all grown up now

He’s all grown up and now he tries to get into more places than the shopping cart

 

 

 

 

by annchiappetta_nxovue | tags : | 1

Sharing Poetry

| Filed under Poem writing

A Blessing

By James Wright

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46481/a-blessing#mainContent

 

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans.  They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more, they begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

 

Winner On a Whim

| Filed under nonfiction Poem writing

A few months ago a writing friend suggested a contest being offered by the Handy Uncapped Pen. I hadn’t submitted my work for a while and hoped this would help get me back into the submission state-of-mind again. It did help.  I won second place for my poem, “Tide”.

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.Here’s the link:

http://www.handyuncappedpen.com/2021/06/cripendy-contest-second-place-tide-by.html

Thanks to Cheryll Romanek for the beautiful beach pic.

This image requires alt text, but the alt text is currently blank. Either add alt text or mark the image as decorative.

by annchiappetta_nxovue | tags : | 0

Book Corner Review

| Filed under nonfiction Relationships

Book Review

https://www.bookcorner.us/escaping-with-his-life/

Escaping with his life

From Dunkirk to D Day and Beyond © 2019

 

By Sir Nicholas Young

Biography Pen and Sword Military, Publisher; 256pp. ISBN-10: 1526746638 ISBN-13: 978-1526746634

 

Formats: hardcover, Kindle and audible.com

 

https://www.amazon.com › Escaping-His-Life-Dunkirk-…

An inspiring and thrilling account of Leslie Young, a British commando who was captured and escaped from a prison camp in Northern Italy.

From the book jacket:  Very few British soldiers could lay claim to such a full war as Leslie Young. Having survived the retreat to and evacuation from Dunkirk, he volunteered for the newly formed Commandos and took part in their first operation, the raid on the Lofoten Islands. He fought and was captured in Tunisia. He went on the run before his POW camp at Fontanellato was taken over by the Nazis after the September 1943 Italian armistice. He spent six months on the run in the Apennine mountains aided by brave and selfless Italians. Many of whom were actively fighting their occupiers. He eventually reached Allied lines but not before several of his companions were tragically killed by both German and American fire.

On return to England he immediately signed up for the invasion of Northwest Europe and despite being wounded eventually fought through to Germany.

 

 

This biography epitomizes service and dedication during the darkest moments of twentieth century history, World War II.   It also shows the reader the human side of war, the resiliency of the human spirit and the British stiff upper lip, the grit of a soldier.

 

The book takes the reader on a journey filled with   action and heartbreak as told in part by Young’s journal entries and his son’s descriptive and historically accurate narrative.

At times this reader felt as if the history lesson textbook was on the desk and the words blurred into a dry and drawn—out round of this-followed-that narrative. But this was the only drawback to this intriguing story.

 

The attempts of the author to enliven the story is sprinkled with pieces of   the ingenuity of the time, like the bicycle brigade, for example.   There is also depictions of the depredations of war upon humans, the land itself, and the civilians who struggle to survive the Nazi occupation.

 

The book opens with a touching and powerful poem written by an Italian poet, Pierre Luigi Felli. The poem is haunting and sets the book’s place historically as well as creatively. Felli’s last line, alludes to returning to the haunting places, “Years later, the return along those mountain pathways feeling the scent of memory.”

 

This reader was satisfied and pleased Sir Nicholas’s account is fascinating and honors his father’s journey and those  who fought for freedom from tyranny.

4 stars

Memorial Day

| Filed under Poem

Memorial Day

 

The last Monday of May commemorates Memorial Day, the time to gather ourselves and remember the sacrifices made by our Nation’s soldiers who died protecting our country. It has always been a reflective and poignant holiday for me; my father served in Korea, my uncles and cousins in World War II, Vietnam, and my husband in the assorted international conflicts in the Middle East during the 1980s and1990s. During my time as a trauma therapist working with veterans, I heard the firsthand accounts of the demands and sacrifices our men and women in the armed forces made   and continue to make for us each and every day.

 

Originally called Decoration Day, the actual day set aside to fly flags at half-mast, participate in parades, and enjoy the launch of the summer season was May 30th.

It was referred to as Decoration Day because it was chosen as the best time by many families to brush off the ides of winter and decorate the soldiers’ graves. Memorial Day was officially declared a National Holiday   by President Lynden Johnson on May 1966 at Arlington National Cemetery.

A memorial written by Civil War-era orator, Robert Green Ingersoll, eloquently captures the significance of Memorial Day for all generations of our Fallen:

 

“They died for liberty—they died for us.  They are at rest.

They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless … Earth may run red with other wars, but they are at peace.

In the midst of battles, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death.”

 

Below is a link with additional information about the history behind Memorial Day. http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

 

 

Acrostic Poem for Guiding Eyes

| Filed under blindness Guide dogs Poem writing

Hello all-

It’s always a pleasure to put my writing and performing skills to good use, like when helping out Guiding Eyes for the Blind www.guidingeyes.org . Here’s  something I wrote to help them out.

Hi my name is Ann Chiappetta and I am a Guiding Eyes graduate.

I’d like to share what Guiding Eyes means to me

In the form of an acrostic poem.

Guide dog mobility instructors who are the best in the business

Unparalleled   and internationally recognized brood and stud program

Increased independence

Doggone bestest puppy program

Excellent follow up services for graduates and their dogs

 

Developing programs for athletes

, active older adults, and people with additional disabilities

Organization who believes in the potential of it’s clients

Graduates like me who

are recipients of

confident, capable  and loving canine partners.

Thanks for listening.

Click here for the audio:

 

 

 

 

Technology Love Story

| Filed under nonfiction recovering the self Writing Life

www.annchiappetta.com

https://www.recoveringself.com/poetry/technology-love-story.

 

I am a beautiful nerd. I love my technology, drool over new gadgets and would have two computers if I could afford it. Well, I do own an iPad, that counts at least a little bit, right? I call my laptop Skywalker because it’s powerful and insightful, thanks to Windows 10. Yes, it does outthink me sometimes, too, maybe I should have named it R2D2 instead.

 

In late 2018 I upgraded to a new iPhone XR and admittedly grieved for the lost home button and fingerprint lock. The face I.D security features and gestures at first made me want to crunch the darned thing under the heel of my slipper but working from home softened my attitude and feet.

Here is a little poem about it.

On the Tip of a Finger

By Ann Chiappetta

 

Tap.

Flick up.

Flick down.

Double tap.

use a digit

drag it around.

 

press side button;

“Hello Siri” — why doesn’t she talk?

Slide and lift

Thumbs are best   to text.

Swipe up with index finger

Double tap to select.

Tippity-tap tap

Doink doink doink

Try middle finger gesture instead.

 

Spell Onomatopoeia

  • NOT ammonia —

 

Swish, swoosh blunk

 

Dexterity demands flanges

To execute a pinch or scrub.

 

“Hi Siri,”

 

I didn’t say that

 

Slide and lift

Thumbs are best   to text.

Swipe up with index finger

Double tap to select.

photo description of Ann's personal logo of green dragon floating amid books and musical notes.

Ann’s personal logo