Here I am, in sunny San Diego! Yes, the sun is actually shining, but it is a full 20 degrees cooler here than it is in Tennessee today. It is so nice to be here. I really miss the place when I am gone. And this trip is perfectly timed- smack in the middle of all my General Federation of Women's Clubs stresses.

Saturday was the Highland Rim District meeting, which required a great deal of thought and preparation and a trip to Sparta. (No, not to the 300, but to a little town north of McMinnville). We met in the newly renovated art deco Oldham Theater and what a terrific place for a meeting. The people of Sparta are rightly proud of their historical preservation. The theater now serves as a welcome center and meeting room.

Inside, they have preserved the lobby and ticket booth and the theater itself has been renovated to a very commodious meeting room. It is a wonderful facility and was great fun having our meeting there.

Since the District only meets twice a year, there is great pressure to not forget anything and to get all available information distributed efficiently. We also had a district fund-raiser to pull together, so I was stressed. The Old Lady Mafia drove to Sparta in the Beast- Dave's Ford Excursion- which was packed to the gills with entries for the craft contest, materials for the fund-raiser... and the youngest OLM who was attending her first District meeting and was a bit nervy about it. Her crocheted tablecloth, which she didn't even want to enter, took First Place and Best in Show. She was so pumped on the way home that at one point we were looking for a place to buy a tranquilizer gun to calm her down with.

After weeks of preparation, the end of a big meeting can be a big let-down, but since I was leaving for two weeks the very next day, I didn't have time for one. Turns out to how been a good thing. All the stresses on Saturday, and a smooth, uneventful trip on Sunday, and now I have roughly 12 days of relaxation before Easter and the GFWC Convention in Nashville.

I got home to two emails from friends I had lost track of over the years. There is something very touching and humbling about being remembered. And with revisiting the past. My high-school class is preparing for its (gulp) 40th anniversary reunion; of course, I am sure you all know that, being a prodigy, I graduated at age 12; and there seems to be real excitement about this one, which will be held at a state park in Georgia (even though my high school is in Michigan). The odd and wonderful thing about all this getting in touch with the past is that both of the dear ladies who wrote to me are now living in California, and one of them is right here in San Diego! Even if they miss the reunion, we should be able to have one of our own.


Easter is going to be fun. Jake, Becca, Kendall, Haley, Delaney, Emily, Dave, me, Mama, and the three Cayces are coming to my house for a feast of leg of lamb, Russian salmon loaf en croute, cucumber dip, eggs, ham, homemade bread.... I will be one busy woman preparing the feast, but feasts are my FAVORITE THINGS TO COOK! I love from-scratch cooking. It is going to be so much fun. Care to join us?