Holidays... one down, one to go

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and so has a very stressful but wonderful week. We got back in town on Saturday and were both either sick or jet-lagged on Sunday… do you get jet-lagged going west to east? Mama was very glad to see us, as she always is, and has been quite the sweetie this past week, which has been hectic.

Monday, my best buds Marcia, Yvonne, Sandie and I went to the matinee premiere of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, which was wonderful. Yvonne had to leave after the flick, but Marcia, Sandie and I shared a late lunch of appetizers and onion soup at Applebee’s. Marcia then peeled off and Sandie and I ran a few errands and had a great time together, like we always do. Monday night the kids came over and we had a nice visit with two of our four granddaughters- Kendall and Haley were with their mama - so Delaney and Emily had to be twice as amusing, and were. Terrific day.

Tuesday I spent the day cleaning house and preparing for the GFWC Centennial Woman’s Club meeting, which was held at my house, and was our craft meeting. Low attendance- too close to Thanksgiving – but great fun and the craft, a Thanksgiving cornucopia, was a goodie.

Wednesday, Stephanie and I had a big mess to clean up so we got the house in shape, and then I started the cooking. Kelly came in and found the iPod her dad got her in exchange for access to her 600+ CDs. She took off with her long-time best friend Kenny Warwick.

Thursday was table setting, dinner cooking, kitchen slavey hell for me, and iPod heaven for Dave and Kel. They were both in headsets most of the day, so being with them was like being alone. Silent head-banging, two different tempos, a feast for the eyes. Taffy arrived at 4, Jake shortly thereafter, but Becca and the girls got held up in traffic and were about 20 minutes late, which made me a trifle nervy. But all went well. We feasted on turkey, herb stuffing (bread, onions, celery, walnuts, pecans, and lots of butter), green bean casserole made with Italian beans, corn pudding, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, with pumpkin pie and By Cracky Bars for dessert. The By Cracky Bars were a hit! I made them for my club meeting and the ladies raved about them, and the family seemed to really love them too.

Friday, Dave and I were exhausted but Saturday, we put up the tree, decorated the house, and decorated the porch. Sunday (today) we cleaned all the empty storage boxes out of the house and did some rudimentary house cleaning.

We head to California this weekend, and won’t be back for two weeks, so this week will be a flurry of activity, getting as much Christmas shopping and wrapping as possible done before we leave. After a three-month hiatus, I am back to the life two-week deadlines. Try it sometime. You’ll hate it.

This is normal?

Dave got back from Minneapolis safe, sound but exhausted, leaving eight inches of snow in Minnesota for the Santa Ana eighties here in San Diego.  We are already beginning to prepare for the trip home.  Looks like I may need to ship some stuff home, or buy a suitcase.  Think I will ship it, I hate dealing with luggage.  It’s mostly books and games and little things for the goonies, getting ready for Christmas.

I have been doing a lot of shopping online getting ready for the holiday, but sadly, my shipping timing has been a little off.  Normally, when a merchant says that shipping will take 5-10 business days, it really means 10-15 business days.  And when you order something really big that needs to be delivered as freight, the delivery company contacts you to arrange a time and place for drop-off.  Normally.

Nothing about my life is normal.  

You may remember my waxing poetic about my office here in California.  After much discussion, Dave and I decided to replace our beautiful, ornate, but not terribly functional desk in Tullahoma with one exactly like the one we have here.  I ordered the desk from Pottery Barn- I LOVE Pottery Barn, by the way- and was told to expect it in 5-10 business days.  Cool.  I’d be home before it showed up… normally.  Then I got an email telling me that the desk had shipped and I would get a call about delivery!  I called my housekeeper Stephanie ASAP to inform her so that she could tell them, when they called, to bring it next Monday.

She was so relieved to hear from me.  Seems UPS had just delivered three huge heavy boxes and left them in the driveway… yes, my dears, the desk had already arrived and there had been no call about delivery.  I ordered them on Monday and they arrived on Wednesday of the same week.  Now, that’s service, dammit.  

Steph is always on the ball.  She had already called Jake and he was coming after work to bring the boxes into the house.  Cool.  While she had me on the phone, she told me the latest Mamaism.  Friday Stephanie saw we were out of canned cat food and so bought a box of 24 cans.  When she returned on Monday, they were gone.  Apparently Mama fed all 24 cans to the cats over the week end.  They must have been thrilled; they usually only get one can a day each.  Maybe Mama thought she was supposed to feed them breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Why she would think that, since she has been feeding them one can a day since she moved in with us, no one can possibly fathom.  Patches ate herself sick… all over the house, of course.  Ah, well, at least Mama wasn’t trying to assassinate the big screen TV anymore.  Now she’s just trying to kill my cats.

Back to the boxes.  I asked Stephanie to make sure Mama knew Jake was coming to bring them in.  I didn’t want him to frighten her by showing up unannounced.  Steph said Mama already knew Jake was coming, but when I talked to Mama, I took it upon myself to tell her again.  We had a nice, short talk and just before she gave the phone back to Stephanie, I told her yet again to expect Jake.  I then went about the rest of my day, semi-secure that all would be well.

About 7 PM, I got a call from Jake wanting me to do a web search for him and in the course of our conversation, I asked him if he’d had any trouble with the boxes.  The answer was yes and no.  The boxes weren’t all that heavy, but Mama had locked all the doors and windows and wouldn’t let him into the house.  He banged on the door, rang the door bell, tapped on her bedroom window, all to no avail.  He finally just put all the boxes in the garage.

I just hope Mama doesn’t notice the boxes aren’t in the driveway, decide we’ve been robbed, and call the police.

In the meantime, I will be shipping boxes from here before we leave.  Hope we get home before they do.  

Getting lost and loving it!

It is a common misconception that because I travel with Dave, I actually spend all my time with him. The truth is I travel with Dave so that I can at least spend SOME time with him. He is leaving tomorrow for Minneapolis and will not be back until Wednesday night. I will spend three days and two nights without human contact save by phone or email in a city where I have no friends or family. I don’t really care for that. Especially since it comes hard on the heels of his spending three days in Washington last week.

At least I wasn’t lonely last week, because my dear friend Yvonne dropped by for a visit. She had to fly halfway across the country and then hop a bus to do it, but it was so sweet of her to stop by. No, she didn’t travel all the way from Tennessee just to see me. She was out here visiting her brother and his father, and hopped a Greyhound to spend a day or two with me. She must really love me. I have ridden on Greyhounds. And the buses are even worse.

We had a great time. We spent a day at the zoo, which is one of the most wonderful places in the entire world. Yvonne is a world-class walker, so we saw pretty much the entire zoo in one day. We took a round trip skylift to see the zoo by air, and Yvonne, who doesn’t hesitate to jump onto a roller coaster, was holding on for dear life. She cracks me up. I found out she speaks fluent animal, as she was able to get every animal we encountered to turn and let us see its better side. We had a delicious lunch of lobster quesadillas, and a terrific dinner at the Stuart Anderson Black Angus just down the road from the apartment. I introduced her to mocha frappuccinos, which she loved, and crème brulee, to which she was indifferent. [Philistine :) ]

Yvonne and I always have a great time together, even when we are completely lost, as we were for a good part of her visit. We got lost getting to the zoo… but we got there. We got lost coming home from the zoo… but we got there. We got lost on the way to the bus station… but we got there, and timely, too. I think it was unnecessarily cruel of Yvonne to declare that I could get lost in a desert. The fact that it is true is immaterial. I’m glad she doesn’t know I got lost TWICE on the way home from the bus station after dropping her off. Missed a turn-off, back- tracked, got back on the route, missed a second turn –off, back-tracked, got back on route… and landed smack in the middle of the morning rush hour, which didn’t make me nervous at all.

There is something you must know about me. I get lost. A lot. Even in Tullahoma, where I have lived for 25 years. It’s one of my skills. I cannot read a map, I have no sense of direction, and if I deviate from the route laid out for me, I have a devil of a time finding my way back. It used to really stress me. And my children. Jake refused to get in the car without his teddy bear Ted for comfort when he was little. Then he just started refusing to get in the car. Neither of my children seem to have much fear of getting lost, and I don’t as much as I did anymore. I think it’s because of all the years I used to get lost for a living.

It’s not that someone paid me to get lost, though I can think of a couple of people who would like to. I got paid for going places, and since I always got lost, I made my living by getting lost. I worked for the TVA Energy Sourcebook program, conducting seminars for primary school teachers on how to use of the lesson plans in the Sourcebook as part of their science curriculum. This meant I would get a call telling me to be somewhere in my service area at such and such a time on such and such a date with several demonstrations prepared for so and so many teachers. I was a very good at every aspect of this job but getting places. And getting home again. I always factored in an hour “getting lost” time at both ends of the trip, and I always needed it.

So here I am, alone in San Diego, about to spend the next three days going places by myself and completely sure that I will get lost several times. Sure wish Vonnie was going to be here to keep me company. However, I have discovered two very comforting things about driving in San Diego. All roads lead either to the zoo or to Friars Road, and I live at one of those two places. Chances are, I will find it.

Day (spa) tripping

I indulged myself with a trip to the Spa Reflection Day Spa today. When I made the appointment, I said I wanted someone who really knew her stuff. When I got there, I put myself in the hands of Nicole. I told her she was making all the decisions about my hair because I obviously kept repeating the same bad ones. She had two mandates- make it stylish and make it feminine. I think she succeeded on both counts. She took her time, getting to know my hair- it’s thin, fine and frizzy- and then gave me a phase one haircut on the way to the style she thinks will suit me best. In six weeks, we do the phase two cut and possibly perm my crown. After that, we may play with highlights, who knows?

I can’t wait for Kel to get back out here, I think she will love the place, too.
The Spa Reflection is wonderful, very user friendly, and a full-service spa. Want a massage? A bikini wax? A facial? The full range of hair services? How about a manicure? I had my acrylic nails “filled” today by Kim, a lovely Vietnamese woman with excellent English skills and superlative manicure skills. Like Nicole, she took her time. What an artist! My nails have never looked so good… or so red! She gave them a gel coat, and they look like the paint job on a brand new car. Vroom!

I looked so good I took myself out to lunch at Coco’s, where I had crab cakes, cole slaw and iced tea. Yum. Now I am back at the apartment doodling with my blog rather than cleaning house and doing laundry. I don’t want to get mussed. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to two of my dearest friends in the world, Taffy and Marcia.
Taffy has been my friend and advisor since the late 60’s. Dave and I went to high school with her son Lucian and became fast friends with Taffy and her late husband Casey. What a great couple. Taffy is 81, still drives, still works, and has a sister MayBeth who, at 91, still teaches full time at a private high school. Long may they both sail.
I met Marcia in 1983 when I finally went back to college. She was my biology lab instructor. (No, she’s not that much older than me… remember, I was a late bloomer). She and I are both transplanted Michiganians and kindred spirits. She’s one of the smartest, kindest, most feminine people I know with only one glaring flaw… she is a sports nut. Go figure.

News from the home front: Mother has “killed” the receiver so she can’t watch her Westerns until Jake gets over there and finds out what she did to make the audio go away. I was able to walk her caregiver through troubleshooting-long distance- two times since I got here, but the third was the charm. Sigh.

Mocha Frappuccinos, and the joys of travel

The more I travel, the more I find that I am like a fine red wine.

• I am full-bodied… which means that most airplane seats are a bad fit.


• I turn to vinegar if mishandled.


• I need to be aerated to be at my best.


• I do not travel well.

I am slogging through the obligatory two days of unwellness that seems to accompany every trip. I dropped a three-hole punch (heavy) on my foot before we left, and my foot swelled to uncomfortable proportions, which has made walking fun. As expected, the beloved right knee has gone on strike, as it always does after a flight, so I will be limping for the next few days. My right shoulder is in a semi-permanent cramp, making me decidedly lopsided; all I need is a popped eye and a lisp, and I could be Igor. “Tell me, Dr. Frankenstein, do you find me repulsive?”

It’s not all bad, of course. I got out of the apartment yesterday, and got myself a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino- oh, how I LOVE my Mocha Frappucino, that little slice of Heaven in a cup. Six million calories, thirty thousand grams of fat… what’s not to like? I limit myself to one a week, and give up breakfast and lunch to have it, so you know it’s love. I can hear you all shouting “You moron, you’re a diabetic!!”… to which I say “What’s your point?” A person is entitled to a destructive vice or two. I gave up smoking six years ago, I’m not a drinker, I don’t gamble except with my health… CHEERS! (Excuse me while I wipe the whipped cream off my face.)

It’s been pretty here, lovely breezes, moderate temps and since I am here without my daughter, whom I miss… or Mother… it is very quiet. Well, not TOO quiet. The phone rings a lot. It’s mostly Stephanie, my housekeeper and Mama’s caregiver, asking me how to work the big screen TV for Mama. It really should be a no-brainer, because before I left, I set the TV to the Encore Western channel, Mama’s favorite. I put away the extraneous remotes, and left out the two that control the TV and the receiver. I placed these on a piece of labeled paper, half designated “Silver remote- TV” and the other half designated “Black remote- sound”. Under these designations were the instructions: Push the green button (TV). Push the red button (sound). I demonstrated these instructions twice before I left. I felt pretty good about making it possible for my technologically challenged mother-in-law to watch her favorite shows while I am away. After all, how hard can it be to push two buttons?

Apparently, it is very hard. Yesterday, Mama couldn’t get a signal. Stephanie called and I walked her through troubleshooting. We found the problem. Mama had pushed a button on the TV remote she shouldn’t have, and more than once. Sigh. She was on video one when she needed to be on video three. Twenty minutes on the phone solved that problem. I had Stephanie take her through the instructions once again, and thought all was well.

At 10:30 this morning, Steph called again. Apparently, Mother got frustrated when the TV didn’t come on instantaneously, opened the cabinet door and began turning knobs on all the electronic equipment inside. Mama told Stephanie that David had told her to do that if the TV didn’t work. Since David blanches when even I touch his sanctified system, it seems highly unlikely. All the knob turning made today’s troubleshooting a little more complicated but we got there. Stephanie told Mama just to leave the TV on all the time, which will solve the problem if Mama will do it. What are the odds?

I anticipate yet another call tomorrow. Mother is fully capable of pushing two buttons but where’s the fun in that? She’ll think of something to screw up, I am sure. In the meantime, I am going to do a load of dishes, a load of laundry, vacuum, dust and make the bed, which is what I pay Stephanie to do for me in Tullahoma… Does it seem to you that my life is a little screwy?

Mrs. Rosa Parks

I’ve been watching the coverage of the funeral for Mrs. Rosa Parks, and have been surprised again at the power of one simple act of courage. It was such a simple thing; she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. It was a deliberate act, and any number of really awful things could have happened to her in consequence- more awful than being arrested, I mean, which was pretty damn awful for a black person in Alabama in 1955.
Her refusal to move is said to have triggered the civil rights movement. It may have done. What it certainly did was show the economic clout of a segment of the population no one seemed to know had any. The 381-day bus strike in Montgomery HURT, and a new, powerful weapon joined the fight for equality- the dollar.
I don’t think Ms. Parks knew she was triggering an economic revolution when she refused to give up that seat, but she surely knew it was a political act. She was a smart, dignified woman, and she had a lot of courage. I don’t know that I could have done what she did if our roles and lives had been reversed.
It would be nice if courage were as contagious as fear.

Ah, San Diego!

Y’know, San Diego is a strange sort of place. It looks so lush and so green that you forget it is sitting in a desert. It looks green and lush because of watering systems providing the water Nature generally does not. Scoot two feet out of watered spaces and you see what San Diego must have looked like to the indigenous peoples and Catholic priests of its distant past. The operative word here is brown.

It is interesting to hear about a city while you are in it. The big San Diego news this week has been the two earthquakes, and the incredible three day storm.

Theoretically, there were two earthquakes this week. You couldn’t tell by me. I only found out about them listening to the news. Not that I cherish BEING in an earthquake, mind you- I have been here for two that were noticeable, and I noticed I didn’t like them- but there is something both disappointing and anachronistic about earthquakes you have to hear about on the news. If they haven’t really quaked anything, are they really earthquakes?

The other big news was the storm, and I did notice that. I noticed it wasn’t a storm, at least not by Tennessee water volume and pyrotechnic standards. What we had for the last three days were dynamically cloudy skies and semi-continuous soft, gentle rain. Perfect rain, really. Steady but not so heavy that it drenched you from car to house. Just the right size droplets; not so tiny that they felt like little needles hitting your skin but not big ploppers, either. The sound of the falling water was gentle and seductive. My daughter Kelly, who is a rain connoisseur, would have been in paroxysms of joy over it.

This was a prolonged rain shower, not a storm, and dropped less than an inch of water in three days. It had little impact on the well watered places, but the neglected remnants of the desert that really is San Diego wallowed in the rain, drank in the rain, bathed in the rain, used rain to make chlorophyll and chlorophyll to make green.

Maybe San Diego is a metaphor. No matter how lush things may appear, we are all living on the edge of a desert. Or maybe not. One thing is certain; there is nothing more beautiful than the desert after a three day rain shower. And that could be a metaphor as well. Ah, San Diego.

Mama in the Golden State

Of all the things I forgot on this trip… how did I remember Mama?

     We have been in San Diego for one day short of a week, and except for the gorgeous weather and scenery, we might as well be home.  Stand by for the second edition of “The Same Thing Happens Every Time.”

     Mama did very well on the flight out.  She refused a wheelchair, though, and Dave finally got a full-blown taste of Mother in action.  Or, to be completely accurate, inaction.  If her elbows could propel her body forward, she’d be sprinting but her feet only move about half their length with each stride, and she has size 6 feet!  We looked like a Chinese family on parade- Papa in the distant lead, wife ten paces behind, mother 130 paces behind her.  Wife periodically stops for Mama, but Dave stops for no one.  As soon as he has outdistanced us by half a mile, he notices he is alone and slows down… and so does Mama.  Somehow the gaps never seem to close.

     Before we left home, Mama and I both had our eyes examined.  I am now wearing SOFT contacts and I love them.  Instead of wearing glasses all the time and taking them off to read, I wear contacts all the time and only need glasses to read- and simple, cheap-o magnifying glasses at that, the kind you can get for $15 at any drugstore, so if I lose them, no whoop!  On the other hand, Mama’s vision has not changed one jot since her last exam, so she did not need new glasses.  The doctor did inform her, in my presence, that she has macular degeneration but that it had not worsened in the last year.  
Mama asked me to explain what macular degeneration meant.  I explained.  She immediately went into a deep depression and began obsessing about going blind.  It was heart-breaking.  I spent the weeks before we came out here trying to comfort her and reassure her, listening to all the various scenarios of blindness she came up with and feeling genuinely sorry for her.  
I started to get a little suspicious when all of a sudden she could no longer read, she could not see to cut her meat or recognize the food on her plate.  She was walking into walls and bumping into furniture… when it suddenly occurred to me that the doctor had said that her vision HAD NOT CHANGED SINCE HER LAST EXAM.  That was two years ago!  I spoke to the doctor and found out that Mama was first diagnosed with macular degeneration in… wait for it…1994!   Here I was thinking this was news, and bad news, for her and she’s known about the condition for 11 years.  Guess she just forgot.  She may go blind, if she lives to be 90, which I am sure she will, but for the record, she’s no blinder now than she was two years ago.

     Along with going blind, Mama has now decided that she is going deaf as well.  Example:  We get out of the elevator on the parking garage level to go to the car.  As we exit the elevator, I tell her “Go left”.  She goes straight and walks into the wall.  I ask her “What are you doing?”  She says “I can’t see.”  I say, “You can hear, can’t you?  I told you to go left!”  She says “What?  I can’t hear you.”

     Bear in mind that Mama is fighting a nasty cold and so is not feeling 100%.  With that caveat, this is what we have done in San Diego so far.

• We have watched the Western channel.  Every day.  Every hour.  If she falls asleep and I change the channel, she wakes up. Once I turn it back to the Western channel, she falls asleep.  It’s more effective than Sominex.


• We have gone to the grocery store twice.  


• We have gone to K-Mart.  She bought a nightie.  She forgot to pack one.


• We have done one small mall crawl which wore her out completely and had lunch at Ruby’s Diner.  Mama LOVED the strawberry shake, but I am throwing out her doggie bag- which contained her entire lunch from Ruby’s-today.


• We took her out to dinner last night.  I will throw her doggie bag from Black Angus out in a few days.

I ask, ”Mama, want to go to the zoo?  Old Town? The Del? Balboa Park? The beach?  Want to sit on the balcony?”  No, thank you very much.  She spends her days in her room, just like she does at home.  She squirrels treats and junk food in her room just like she does at home.  She sneaks into the kitchen to raid the refrigerator when she thinks we are asleep, and so has no appetite when we are awake.  She sleeps all day and then roams the apartment like a ghost all night.  Maybe this will change when she feels better.  At least she has enjoyed the palms and citrus trees in the complex.  Sigh.
     Dave can entertain her this weekend.
     I’ll stay 10 paces behind… going in the other direction.

The Day of Incredible Brain Farts

It is beautiful in San Diego today, if a bit warm.  It feels weird being here after such a long absence.  Coming into the apartment again after almost three months away was surprisingly pleasant- though my absence has emphasized the difference between tidy and clean.  (  Well, it was clean enough; Dave did a pretty good job keeping on top of things, other than dusting, scrubbing tubs and toilets…  We make a good team in a home; he is Mr. Tidy and I am Mrs. Clean.  Between us, we keep a very nice house/apartment.
As nice as it is to be here, I realized quite quickly that all I had really missed in San Diego was my home office.  I have a great office here, perfect in size, situation, and economically and functionally equipped.  I have the perfect desk from Pottery Barn with a matching credenza- fabuloso! I have my easel and paints set up in the corner, a crafting table sitting perpendicular to the desk and still have ample space to dance and cavort.  A wonderful abstract by my niece Melissa is on one wall, my diplomas on another, and pictures of my goonie girls on a third.  The fourth wall is a bank of windows which are letting in a cool breeze as I type.  A glorious citrus scent is on the air.  I could live in this office and be happy.
We brought Mama with us this trip, and despite a terrible cold, she was quite the trooper on the flight out.  She has been sick in bed since we got here, but I took her out for a little outing yesterday and she did very well.  We went to Michael’s for craft supplies and then the Ruby’s Diner for lunch.  Best shakes and club sandwiches on the planet!  Seriously.  Mama finished her shake, but her lunch, minus one bite, came home with us in a box.  About a week from now, I will throw it into the trash.  Sigh.  
I am assiduously working on Christmas already, via the Internet.  Two years ago, I did my entire Christmas shopping online.  I loved it.  I will do the majority of my shopping online again this year.  I figure the shipping and handling can’t be worse than the cost of gas spent going from shop to shop.   I am also working on birthday scrapbooks for Haley, who will be NINE on October 24th, and Emily, who will be two on November 3rd.  God, they grow up fast.  
I am enjoying being here, but I miss my dollhouse. (See previous posts).  My good friend Yvonne is house-sitting for me while I am gone, and informs me that packages have arrived in my absence.  I love packages.  Several came just as we were leaving on Saturday, and it was all I could do to keep from opening them right then and there.  Dave was impatiently tapping his foot… hell, he was stomping with impatience… so I passed on the pleasure of opening treasures.  
Which, as it turns out, was a good thing. One more delay and we might never have gotten to San Diego.  Why?  Because I had a bad case of absent mind.  Last Saturday will go down in the annals of my life as the DAY OF THE CONTINUAL BRAIN FARTS!
Yes, my brain farts.  I am the queen of farts.  
It started with my discovery, just as we were about to merge onto the Interstate, that I did not have my purse with me.  Imagine Dave’s delight!  We turned around, drove back home, and I went in to retrieve my purse, only to find that I had failed to lock the door when we’d left the first time.  Once inside, I realized I had forgotten to pack my insulin, so I grabbed that and ran, because there was a good chance we were now going to miss our flight, and Dave was literally vibrating with frustration.
I did make sure the door was locked when I exited this time, but while driving to the airport in silence, I found myself wondering if I had left my bedroom window open.  I wondered about it while sitting in the airport waiting for our plane (we made it- Dave set a new land speed record).  I wondered about it on the cramped flight to Dallas.  I wondered as we sat in DFW, the world’s most hateful airport, during our four hour flight delay.  I wondered about it on the cab ride to the apartment.  I emailed Yvonne to check it out for me, and sure enough, the window was wide open.  Locked doors, open window- now that’s security!  I wonder how I manage to survive sometimes.  I am going to sit here quietly for a few days until the cerebral indigestion passes. Talk amongst yourselves until then.

News from Lake Soonbegone

Off we go to San Diego again, this time taking David’s mother with us. Hope she handles the traveling all right. Should be interesting getting there- and being there.

It’s been interesting here in the couple of weeks or so since my last posting.
In that time-

• My good friend Sandie barely survived a triple by-pass surgery with innumerable complications. Knees all over Middle Tennessee have been rubbed raw from praying, but I saw her today, and she looks as good as anyone can after an ordeal like that. Thanks be to God! And what a trouper she is! I don’t mind telling you, I was really scared we were going to lose her. She’s not out of the woods yet- two of the three bypasses have collapsed and they had to put a stent in the major coronary artery- so she may have further surgery in her future, but for now, she is home, she is clear-headed, and she’s alive. And where there’s life, there’s hope.

• A few blogs ago I wrote about the “By Cracky Bars” my mom used to make, and my delight in finding the 1953 Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookbook that contains the recipe through Barnes and Noble’s out-of-print book service. http://www.bn.com/ (By the way, the cookbook originally cost 25 cents; it cost me $21.29 to replace it. Well, it is technically an antique now.) The little book has arrived, and I almost cried when I saw the cover showcasing the $25,000 winning recipe for Snappy Turtle Cookies. Mama made those a couple of times, too. Anyway, I turned to page 48 and there, one of the few cookies photographed in color, were the By Cracky Bars, just as I remember them. Their recipe won second place in the junior contest for Miss Yvonne M. Whyte of New Bedford, Massachusetts. There is a picture of her holding a check for $2,000. In 1953, Miss Whyte was an attractive, young- possibly teen-aged- black woman with tortoise shell glasses and a shy smile. I wonder if she is still alive? How old would she be now? She appears so young in the picture, I imagine she was majoring in home ec when she developed this most wonderful of cookie recipes. She really understands chocolate, by the way. And, at the insistence of my daughter, I am posting her recipe. Enjoy!

By Cracky Bars
(Bowl One: Dry ingredients)
Sift together…. 1¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼teasoon soda

(Bowl Two: Creamed Mixture)
Blend together…. ¾ cup shortening
1 cup sugar, creaming well
Add,,,, 2 eggs, beating well


(Bowl Three: Liquids)
Combine… 1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla.
Add the liquid alternately with the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.

Divide the batter. Place 1/3 of the batter in a bowl with 1 oz. melted chocolate and ¾ cup chopped walnuts. Spread in two well-greased 8x8x2 pans or one 13x9x2 pan.

Arrange…. 9 double graham crackers over the batter in the pan(s).

To the remaining 2/3 of the batter, add ¾ cup chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls over graham crackers and spread to cover.

Bake in 375 degrees oven 20-25 minutes. Cool on rack. Cut into bars when cool.

Damn! I can taste them already. One hint- do NOT over cook or they will be dry.
Thanks, Miss Whyte, wherever you are.

• Today I got a belated birthday present from my baby sister Susie. In it was my mother’s old Home Companion Cook Book, a manila envelope full of hand written recipes as well as recipes cut from newspapers and magazines, and…. THE 1953 PILLSBURY BAKE-OFF COOKBOOK! Susie read my blog, went digging around, found Mama’s copy and sent it to me. The first thing I did was smell it to see if it still smelled like vanilla, but sadly it does not. Its cover is missing and its pages are loose, but it was Mama’s and now it’s mine. What a sweet sister I have, and what a great birthday present.

• My hubby bought our daughter a new car this week. It is sitting in my driveway, a gleaming, sleek temptation, waiting for Kel to come get it, and singing a siren song to me. I sooo want to take it on a road trip, but know how I would feel if someone else was tooling around in my new car before I got a chance to play with it, so am restraining myself. This may not last. Kel better get here quick!

• Hard on the heels of knee surgery that took her out of play comes my housekeeper Stephanie’s two-week vacation, which means I have been left to my own devices in my house for almost a month. It shows. I am going to make a serious attempt at housekeeping tomorrow, but I ask you- if I was any good at this, would I have needed a housekeeper in the first place? Due to post-polio effects and the after-effects of four herniated vertebral discs, there are a lot of things I am not supposed to do- like vacuuming, for example- that I am having to do, but I am being careful. A little at a time, a little each day… oh, who am I kidding? I make messes at twice the rate I can clean them. I need HELP!!! I am a cleaner, not a tidier!

• My ancient (18.5 years old) black tabby Shadow has had what I took to be an eye infection. Her right eye was swollen and weeping, so I stopped by the vet’s, described her symptoms and brought home some antibiotic eye cream, which I assiduously applied to her eye twice a day for about 5 days. When I saw no improvement, I took her in to the vet. Guess what? Not a thing wrong with her eye. She has an abscessed tooth! Poor thing, in terrible pain from a bad tooth, and her “mama” is putting cream in her eye. Good thing she has a bad tooth, or she would have bitten me. Now I am feeling both like a damn fool and a cat torturer. How has she survived this long in my care?

Well, that’s all the news that fits. I am still having a wonderful time with my doll house, and add little touches almost daily. One good shrinking potion for me, and I’ll be ready to move in. Don’t laugh… but I tuck the children into their beds every night.
On that note, I will close, because I can hear you laughing.

My Victorian Dream House

Dining room to left, study to right.
Diningroom. Real china. The art is a copy of a picture on my diningroom wall; it's by Tissot and I made the miniature myself.

Young Peter's room. Still a work in progress. Since I took this picture, I have placed a butterfly collection over his desk.

The Parlor, where a soiree is in progress. I am still awaiting the delivery of Alice and Marcia, who will complete the tableau. Again, the artworks are copies of art in my home, and I made half of them myself.

In this picture, you see the diningroom and another view of the study above, and have a glimpse of the kitchen and the truck garden below. The picture is a copy of "The Captain and His Mate" by Tissot, and I made the miniature.

Here is a view of my work in progress. In a later posting, I will show you the girls room, the music room, the garden and the kitchen. How do you like it so far?

Lady Kathleen, Parva Domus Manor House, the Shire :)

The Same Thing Happens Every Time

I’ve been having a recurring nightmare lately. In it, I am 77 years old, barely mobile, half-blind…and I am still dragging Dave’s mother around everywhere I go. It could happen; some people live to be 98 years old, and if anyone will, Mother will.
I wish you could meet Dave’s mother. She really needs to be experienced, she cannot be described. Having said that, I am going to try to describe her. She is short, scrawny, with bird-like legs, salt and pepper hair that is still mostly pepper, and glasses that magnify her eyes so that she looks like an owl. She stares and blinks like an owl as well. She likes clothes that are too big for her, and tends to wear shorts most of the time, so she looks like a cartoon character with her stick legs dangling out of shorts that three of her could wear at one time. She walks bent over, elbows working, taking four steps to my one- and I slow down for her, so my one step is very leisurely- but she can never keep up, so I slow down even further… and when I come to a complete stop, I realize that she has zigged with uncanny speed either to the left or right, and is gone.
Which brings me to this segment of “The Same Thing Happens Every Time.”
Examples:
Dave and I take her to Lowe’s because she says she wants to come. We don’t have much shopping to do, but even so, when we get there, she decides to stay in the car. Not up to all that walking. We dash in, dash out, gone 15 minutes tops, get back to the car… and of course, she is gone. 30 minutes later, we find her. She went for a walk.

We head out to visit our son and his family. Mother wants to come with us. We travel to Manchester, spend a little time, eat a little dinner… and notice Mother is gone. Where is she? Sitting in the car. No pressure to go home, huh?

She likes to go out to eat. She won’t tell me where she wants to go or what she wants to eat, and is usually disappointed with whatever choice I make. When we get to the restaurant, she refuses to order anything to drink, heads straight for the bathroom, and comes back expecting me to have ordered for her. When the waitress asks what she wants to eat, she stares and blinks. When she finally speaks, 7 times out of 10 she uses what I lovingly call her “stroke” voice - swollen tongued, halting, over-exaggerated pronunciations- which is so patently phony that waitresses have been known to laugh out loud. I’ll tell you about her phony faint some other time, but will mention here that it is hilarious.
Anyway, back to the same thing happens every time… she orders her meal and the minute the food comes, she asks for a doggie bag. She eats about six mouthfuls and is “full”. I have learned to inhale my food rather than eat with her sitting with her doggie bag on her lap, blinking at me. The waitress offers her something to drink several times during the meal, but she doesn’t ask for anything until the bill comes. We wait for the drink, wait for the bill to be re-tabulated… and she leaves without drinking the drink and forgets her doggie bag. (Which is just as well, because when she remembers to bring it home, it just rots in the fridge- she doesn’t like left-overs.)

She’s always spoken with a barely comprehensible Polish-American accent but as she has aged- and survived a couple of mild strokes- her speech has become more disjointed and harder to follow. I am her interpreter because I understand what she is saying, though there are times when I misinterpret her deliberately. Well, unless she walks up to 600 pound men at Tractor Supply, and says things like “Oh, you are so fat!” It’s kind of hard to misinterpret that. I just follow her around and mouth “stroke victim” to whomever she is currently talking to.

Mother loves talking to strangers. She loves inflicting her personality on people. She has been calling herself an “old lady” since she became a grandmother at 41; now she tells anyone who will listen that she is 77 years old as if expecting them to say “NO! Surely not! That’s older than the world!” and is always disappointed when they don’t. She tells perfect strangers that she is homeless (she's not -she lives with Dave and I and has a whole wing of the house to herself); she tells them that we don’t feed her (we do), or that we make her stay in her room all the time (we don't); and, my personal favorite, that she has no one to care for her. As you may have surmised, Mother is not the most truthful person on the planet. She will tell her tale of woe to someone one day, and Social Services will show up the next. Thank God we live in a small town where people know us- and Mother.

Whenever Mother is bored- which, sadly, is most of the time because she won’t do anything for herself anymore- she tends to make long, prolonged, and very irritating sounds. Barking like a dog. Cackling like a hen. Repeating a phrase over and over, LOUDLY! If we are watching something on TV she doesn’t want to watch, she sings. LOUDLY! If that doesn’t work, she interacts with the cat. LOUDLY! (By the way, she has decided my cat Patches is a dog, because she doesn’t like cats, but she does like Patches, so Patches must be a dog.)

There are other little things. My housekeeper Stephanie is also her caretaker when I am away, and is as good and gentle and sweet with her as one human being can be with another. Mother calls her Sadie. She calls her Sadie because my last housekeeper was named Sadie. Apparently Mother thinks all housekeepers are named Sadie. The only problem with this premise is that my last housekeeper was named Sandy, not Sadie.

Don’t get me wrong. Mother can be and is cute, she can be sweet, and she is incredibly generous. When I was sick with the flu, she took care of me the best she could and I appreciated it. She is willing to scratch my back, an admirable quality in any person. It’s not that she doesn’t have an upside. There are lots of times when we crack each other up and for the most part, we live and work well together. I love her. I even like her.

It’s just that I keep having this recurring nightmare.

All it takes to be happy is a fully furnished Victorian home

Unlike my dear husband, I did not have a happy childhood. My family was large, chaotic, and dysfunctional; there was altogether too much alcohol, violence and neglect and too little nurturing and calm. Add chronic health problems and a well-founded sense of being unloved to the mix, and happiness just doesn’t fit. I have spent a disproportionate part of my adult life overcoming the effects of my childhood, but now, in my middle fifties, I believe I have found the solution.

I have a glitzy little thing-a-ma-bob dangling from one of the lamps in my living room that reads “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” So, with Dave’s help, I have been giving myself one. Naturally, this process involves toys. Lots of toys. And, in my case, lots and lots of little tiny perfect toys. Miniatures. Yes, yes, I am providing my second childhood with its own house… a “dollhouse”. I have converted a lovely five shelf curio cabinet into a vignette display case for all the dollhouse furniture I have coveted my whole life.

The top shelf is the master bedroom and the bath. The master bedroom is in mahogany, as is most of the wood in the “house”. The bed has real sheets and pillowcases and a satin brocade comforter and throw pillows. There are two nightstands, a dressing table, an armoire, floral carpets on the floor… When complete, Barbara the nanny will be reading to the baby in its crib in the bedroom, while Peter, the eldest son, dries off after his bath in the sumptuous bathroom, complete with blue floral carpet and filled linen case. (Peter is here. Barbara and the baby are here, but we are waiting for the crib and the rocking chair, so they are sitting together uncomfortably on the brocade bench. I sometimes I think I see Barbara tapping her dainty foot impatiently. In fact, I fear Barbara may be a problem if not watched- she’s much prettier than a nanny has a right to be, and the man of the house is sure to notice that.)

The second shelf is the nursery floor. Peter’s bedroom, and that of his two sisters, are here. Peter’s room is rather spartan, as the rooms of Victorian era boys usually were, but he does have a comfy trundle bed, a dresser and a table and chair- and will soon have a shadow box butterfly collection to hang on his wall, being, as he is, a young naturalist. His sisters’ room is furnished in white and pink, of course. Mama, when she gets here, will be sitting on a chair, cuddling younger sister Beth while big sister Christy (who is here, being a timely child) sits on her bed reading a miniature copy of “A Child’s Garden of Verses”- one of my childhood favs, of course.

Mama has come to say good night because she has a houseful of people in the (third shelf) parlor. It is a well-appointed Victorian room, with rich carpets on the floor. Many of the pictures on the wall are miniature replicas of pictures I have chosen for my own home, most of which are works by James Jacques Tissot. The parlor boasts two conversation areas and a music room. In the small corner conversation area, Alice, who is shy, is sitting listening to Eric, who is also shy and has yet to put down his hat. In the main part of the room, Mr. Michael O’Toole has captured the rapt attention of Katherine, (Eric’s older sister), Rhett (the man of the house), and George (Katherine’s husband, who is enjoying a pre-dinner drink). Marcia (when she gets here) will admire the grand piano, which she will play for the assembled guests later in the evening.

In the (fourth shelf) dining room, Hazel the maid is waiting to put the finishing touches on the table. This is pretty tough right now, because the china hasn’t come yet, so dinner will be delayed until it gets here. It’s coming from England, so it may take some time. But there is a fire in the handsome fireplace that makes all the beautiful serving dishes in the hutch gleam, a beautiful oriental carpet on the floor, and a Japanese screen that separates the dining room from the library, to which the men will repair after dinner for cigars, brandy and a game of chess.

The (fifth shelf) kitchen is a beehive of activity as Ruth the cook, with Susan the ladies’ maid’s help, prepares the evening feast. I am having a ball outfitting this kitchen. I have a porcelain sink, an icebox, and an AGA stove (okay, AGA stoves are NOT Victorian, but I have been in love with them since my trip to England, and this was the only way I was ever going to get one). I have two kitchen dressers, and a pantry on the way. To the right of the kitchen is the truck garden, already “planted” with lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower and strawberry beds, and with a green man overlooking it all.
I am having SO MUCH FUN!

BUT… I am forcing myself to STOP buying anything more until after Christmas. I am giving everyone who has been complaining that I am impossible to buy for a Miniatures.com catalog with everything I want in it circled. I have purchased a lot of my stuff from Miniatures.com (http://www.miniatures.com/) and can recommend the site highly. Another site I use a great deal is the Dollhouse Emporium (http://www.dollshouse.com/) and it is also a wonderful source of yummy goodies.

My “people” are actually figurines, since I am creating vignettes rather than playing with them, but they bring a wonderful dimension to the scenes. Katherine is leaning in to hear Mr. O’Toole. Alice is glancing sideways at Eric. They are wonderful and, while not poseable, are much more realistic than even the priciest porcelain miniature dolls I have looked at.

If I can ever figure out how to post pictures to my blog, I will post pictures if you are interested. In the meantime, I am really am enjoying my second childhood.

It's true... you really CAN find everything on the internet

When I was a kid, my mom was a prodigious cookie maker.  She was a superb cook in all areas- well, okay, she made undrinkable coffee, but that was her only failing- and a remarkably versatile baker.  One of her favorite cookie recipes was that for By Cracky Bars.  She made them from time to time and the taste and smell of them particularly lingers in my memory.  She got the recipe from a publication of the Pillsbury Cook-Off entries, a slim, paperback 5X7 little book that bore the stains of frequent use.  

When my mom died, my sister inherited most of her effects.  This was entirely fair, since she had been Mama’s primary caregiver throughout the long illness that finally took her.  Among those effects was that little cookbook.

For the past couple of years, I have been obsessing about By Cracky Bars.  Even though I am diabetic and can’t eat them, I want to make them, to see and smell them again, and to feed them to my granddaughters to see if any of them love the cookie as much as I did as a child.  I asked my sister for the recipe- but after 15 years, and a couple of moves, she could not find the cookbook.  

Sigh.

And then I thought, what the hell?  I googled “By Cracky Bars” and up popped a partial recipe.  All the ingredients were there, but oven temperature and baking time were not.  What WAS there, however, was the source for the recipe.  The 1953 Pillsbury Bake Off Cookbook.  A title. A year.  A miracle.

So I immediately scurried to the online Barnes and Noble,  www.bn.com straight to the out of print book tab, and typed in 1953 Pillsbury Bake Off.  Voila!  There it was in all its glory- actually several copies were listed- and so it is now wending its way to my kitchen.  I will be so happy to have it, not just because I will get to taste By Cracky Bars for the first time in 40 years, but because I will have a little “memorabilia” of my mother’s days as a baker.   I wonder if her recipe for prune coffee cake is in there?

The collector

Eons and eons ago, when the world was still new, and virgins still lived on it, I had a unicorn. Actually, I had two; actually, I still have them. My sister-in-law Rita gave them to me, two beautiful cream porcelain unicorns. They sat on the piano for years. Then my daughter began the tradition of giving me a unicorn every Christmas. This tradition began in 1987, so you do the math. Unicorns are neither mythical or extinct- they have been transfigured into porcelain and ceramic and stone and glass, and they eventually end up here where they belong.

I guess those unicorns started my career as a collector. That, and the kindness of family and friends. A few years later my godson Ian started the tradition of giving me angels. I now have a shelf of angels in the same curio that contains my unicorns. My sister gave me our grandmother's teapot. Even though I don't like tea, I do like teapots, and before I knew it, my hubby and other lovely people deluged me with teapots.

I love anything miniature and so have a small collection of miniature furniture and a moderate collection of miniature tea sets. (Again with the tea! Have I mentioned I don't like tea?) I have a small collection of Boyd's little Victorian girls, simply because they charmed me. I have a collection of mannekins in my bathroom, and a collection of pitchers in the kitchen. I love PICTURES as well, and the walls of our house are graced with many beautiful works of art. We may have to move; I am running out of wall space.

My largest collection by far, however, is my faery collection. I have loved faeries since childhood, and for the longest time it was really hard to find them. I carried one faery all the way from England because he was, and is, so uniquely beautiful and so rare. Until fairly recently, it was a real coup to find two or three faeries a year. However, in the past few years they have become easier to find, and now friends and family are been buying them for me, too. Right now, as I look at a 16-foot expanse of bookcases in my living room, I can tell you that the top of it is completely inhabited by faeries. Faeries peek out of my plants, and dangle from my lamps. I have "hidden" at least one faery in every room of my house (except Dave's bathroom- he draws the line at faeries watching him bathe). There are faeries in the bedroom, the guest room, the kitchen, the dining room and they all bring me great joy.

My granddaughters were collectors for a little while. Kendall collected Boyd’s bears. She’s now, at 10, too old for them. Haley collected angels. She now disdains to collect anything so “girly girl”. Delaney collects faeries. She sometimes collects MY faeries. She is the only granddaughter still interested in her collection, and it touches me that she chose to collect something so dear to my own heart. (I have a four piece collection of granddaughters, by the way- but Emily is too little to collect anything except hugs just yet.)

I love all my collections, but the two that really obsess me are faeries and pictures. And pictures of faeries, for that matter. I have “Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Edward Robert Hughes hanging on the wall opposite me as I type this. And a watercolor of Fairy Land my mother painted when I was 5 or 6 hangs above the bookcases in the living room, an integral part of the faery population there. My best bud Marcia gave me a plaque with dancing faeries that reads “groweth young” and every time I look at my beloved faeries, I do.

Top Ten Really Obnoxious Things... in my opinion

I have spent the morning trying to get an obnoxious fly out of my PT Cruiser. I was doing this while I was running errands, and believe me, it was no fun negotiating the never-ending road construction, heavy traffic, and a pain-in-the-ass bug. I finally succeeded in shooing it out, but the battle got me to thinking about life’s little annoyances. Here are the top ten things I find most obnoxious, in no particular order.

1. A flying insect in the car. Any insect. Any car.

2. People who chew with their mouths open. Chomp, smack, slurp, YUCK.

3. Servers and/or clerks who seem to feel it is beneath their dignity to provide me with service… or courtesy, for that matter. Just TRY to get politely served in this service economy, I defy you.

4. Telemarketers. “Sign up for the don’t call list”, my ass. Thank God for caller ID; at least if you don’t recognize the name or number, you can refuse to answer the phone. Unless you are my husband, who seems to be pathologically incapable of letting a ringing phone go unanswered.

5. Obscene e-mails. This one really pisses me off. Can’t our service providers figure out a way to protect us from these things? I mean, look for the “F” word or something? It seems for every sender I block, three more show up with the exact same message, and frankly, I have never had much interest in “hot, young babes”. Call me weird, but there it is; I’m just not into naked women.

6. Junk snail mail. Why does it cost me 37¢ to mail a one-ounce letter when publishers can ship whole catalogs for the same price? Unsolicited catalogs, I might add, which I must then responsibly recycle or I am the one polluting the planet. PUH-LEEZE!

7. Companies that sell my information to other companies as part of their “Mailing List”. Which is why I get so many unsolicited catalogs. How did the information I provided to them become their property? And if they are going to sell my information, shouldn’t I get part of the profits? At least enough to cover the cost of recycling their crap?

8. Loud bass lines: I like music. I even like loud music. And I like a good bass line- I give it a ten, I can dance to it. However, I do not like it when I am in my pool, 250 feet from the road, and the bass line thumping from an adolescent boy’s car makes waves in the water. Or rattles my bric-a-brac in the house. Call me eccentric, but this annoys me.

9. Badly behaved and/or sassy kids: I have a hard time biting my tongue- and restraining my “swatting” hand- whenever I am subjected to the antics of a brat. All kids misbehave once in awhile, and have their bratty moments; I’m talking about a pattern of unacceptable behavior in a child that goes uncorrected by a responsible adult. I do not appreciate being talked to by a 5 year old like we are peers, or bossed or lectured by someone’s “precocious” little angel. Brats uncorrected do not make pleasant adults. But at least I can tell off an adult without its mother busting my chops. I can think of about a half a dozen brats I know right now that I will enjoy talking to once they are grown. As for now, they just need to be elsewhere.

10. Call waiting. I hate call waiting. I have never subscribed to that service and resent people who do. Why would anyone give people permission to interrupt their phone calls? Don’t they have answering machines? Can’t people call back? When I am talking to someone and they put me on hold to take another call in the midst of our conversation, I hang up on them. Obviously our conversation was not compelling enough to keep them engaged in it, and my time has value. A phone call is an unexpected interruption to begin with- you stop what you are doing to answer the phone. To have an interruption interrupted is just too much.

I’m sure I will think of more obnoxious things in the future. Any of these hit home with you?

Grumping my way to the pool. See ya.

Feeling pretty good, thanks...

I got my very first French manicure today and am ever so pleased with myself.  It’s the little things in life that keep you happy, you know?  The older I get, the more able I am to take great pleasure in little things.  A dip in the pool makes my day.  Watching the birds from the kitchen window delights me.  Curling up with a good book, watching a cloud mass blow by, listening to bird song… it’s like being a child again.

By my estimation, I am going through my second childhood for the fourth time.  I have become a child again with each grandchild.  Though I must admit that it’s not as easy with Miss Emily as it has been with Kendall, Haley and Delaney, it is still wonderful to have a baby in the house again.  She may not be as gentle and loving as the other three, but she certainly is adorable and entertaining.  So bright, so mischievous, and what a mugger!  She cracks me up constantly.  She’s at that age where she likes to do the same thing over and over and over and over, a stage that wore me out when I was a mama but tickles me as a grandma… or NeeNee,  as my four wonderful girls call me.  Miss Emily called me that for the first time yesterday- so you know she has me wrapped around her chubby little finger.

My little girls spent last weekend swimming in my pool.  It is so much fun to watch them.  They are like otters, swift and silly.  It’s also fun to join them.  I may be almost 56 and more than a little plump, but in the pool, I am sleek and youthful and can somersault with the best of them.  The pool has provided us with a medium where we can meet on equal footing.  We are all water babies and kindred spirits in the pool.

Life is treating me well right now.  My children are doing well, my grandchildren are thriving, my body has been giving me a respite from the stiffness and pain I have been dealing with for the past year, and even my sugar is leveling off.  My “blues” have lessened, and my energy has increased.  In fact, I am feeling almost like a kid again.  Yesterday, it suddenly hit me how good I am feeling, and I stood in front of the mirror and shook my tail feathers. I had to laugh at myself.   I am the grayest, fattest, goofiest kid I know.

Making a big splash

Sometime in April, my daughter-in-law Becca came up with the idea of throwing a surprise birthday party for my son Jake on the occasion of his 29th birthday, figuring he would be expecting something for his big 3-0, which, of course, he would. She thought a luau would be fun. Thus began the months of planning that culminated in a genuinely surprised Jake last Saturday- two days in advance of his actual birthday.

The short planning stage segued into the first of several trips to party stores. We bought grass skirts and leis and garlands and bracelet leis. We bought Hawaiian shirts for the guys. We bought tiki heads, and a tiki pinata. We bought luau themed napkins, cups, plates, bowls, platters, and even a grass skirt for the table. We had inflatable palm trees and inflatable monkeys. We bought three tiki torches. We had inflatable coolers for beer and soft drinks. My best bud Marcia stored all this in her home office for us, but the shopping that continued sporadically ended up under my bed. My side was soon taller than Dave's.

Speaking of Dave- my beloved husband took a week's vacation to get the front yard and the pool area looking good for the party. He re-stained the patio set, and cleaned out gardens, and hung hanging baskets; he moved storage lockers, and mowed and weed-eated, all in 95+ heat. What a mensch.

Becca and I made the invitations and got them mailed. We experimented with cakes... five different cakes...I am thoroughly sick of cake, by the way... and finally managed one that looked like a hula dancer, coconut bra and all, and one that passed for a volcano.

Saturday morning, Becca came over with her sister Abigail and my pixie granddaughter Delaney and we cleaned off the front porch and decorated the back yard. We floated an inflatable lobster in the pool, and after several hours in sweltering heat beneath the threat of rain, we all joined it in the pool to cool off.

We'd recruited a friend in the neighborhood to let people park at his house so it would look like HE was having a party. At six o'clock, guests began to arrive. At about 6:30, Jake, Becca and the four girls arrived, hard on the heels of the Prossers, who got here a little late. We manuevered Jake through the house and into the back yard through the closed curtain. Everyone yelled "SURPRISE" and Jake was genuinely surprised!

It was a great party. There were 26 people here, about half of which Jake eventually chucked into the pool; he got chucked in himself several times. With the music of steel drums in the background, we chowed down on hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecued beans and all the acoutrements that go with them. The cakes were a hit. The girls donned their hula skirts and danced for their daddy, and THEY were a hit. About 10:30, we were driven indoors by the mosquitos, but until then, the party was a smash. Everyone helped drag in the food and drink and Jake's numerous gifts, one of which was a scrapbook album of his life that I have been working on for months. I'm proud of it, and think it is a work of art as well as an act of love.

We were all exhausted the next day. Poor, tired Dave left for San Diego. Mama and I went to church and then met Jake and his brood at the Cracker Barrel in Manchester where we had lunch together, and where Mama purchased white rockers for the front porch for mine and Dave's 37th anniversary (August 10). Jake loaded them into his truck and we got the porch set up so pretty... and then we all (except Mama) jumped in the pool. Baby Emily hung out with me in the shallow end while everyone else competed to see who could make the biggest splash. Poor Delaney was at a disadvantage being so little, but Haley and Kendall made decent waves which washed up to Emily and I, to our mutual delight. Becca and Jake made tidal waves, and the baby and I REALLY loved those.

As refreshing and relaxing as the swim was, it was the icing on the exhaustion cake. Damn, we're back to cake again. After the Lapczynski Traveling Circus left for Manchester (Jake as ringmaster, Becca as band leader, Delaney the high flying trapeze artist, Haley the clown, Kendall the lady on horseback and Emily the lion tamer), Mama and I collapsed on the couch. We vegged amid the detritus of a pretty spectacular birthday for the rest of the day, too tired to clean, tidy or generally move.

It was worth it. Jake has been feeling pretty under-appreciated lately. I think he's over it now.

Another good-bye

I lost my baby brother to cancer in April. Maybe that is part of the reason I have been so attuned to other deaths from cancer lately. Last night, it was announced that Peter Jennings had died, at 67, of lung cancer. He was a heavy smoker for most of his life, as had been my brother and my mother. As an ex-smoker myself, I cannot take the cynical attitude of a lot of non-smokers that these deaths were a form of suicide- the intent was never to die, to heaven's sake; it was to be calmer, or to suppress the appetite, or to seem mature. And the addiction is invidious and entrapping, as anyone who has ever tried to break the habit can attest. I quit smoking six years ago after numerous failed attempts, and - sorry, Tom Cruise- I used a drug to finally do it (Zyban). I think I saved my own life, but not my health. After 24 years of smoking, I have decreased lung capacity and traces of emphysema. Nothing critical, thank God, but enough to let me know how damaging that addiction has been, and no guarantee that it won't lead to cancer in my future despite the past six years of non-smoking.

I met Peter Jennings when I was in high school. I attended a journalism workshop at Ohio University and he was the guest speaker. David Brinkley, a hero of mine, was supposed to be the speaker, but the program was changed at the last minute, and frankly, many of us were deeply disappointed... until he started to speak. Okay, to be honest, until we got a good look at him. He was drop dead gorgeous, much prettier than David Brinkley, and, at 16, that made him romantic in my eyes. He instantly had our attention and he spoke to us like we were informed adults, and spoke to our better angels. He was inspiring. After his talk, he met with many of us- all the teenage girls who were hoping to be noticed and some of the boys who were serious about journalism and me, who was both. He was very kind. He patiently answered our questions, and asked us our names, which he remembered to use in his replies. He shook my hand and wished me well in my career; at that time, I was convinced I was going to work for UPI. I didn't, of course, but it meant a lot to me, a young girl in the 60's, that Peter Jennings seemed to think it was perfectly logical and natural that I would. He was a lovely man.

I realize now that it must have been early in his career when he spoke to us, since I met him almost 40 years ago. He was no more than 27 at the time. I followed his career the rest of his life, and felt he was the kind of journalist I would have liked to have been; eloquent, curious, informed and informative. And beautiful all the way into his 60's.

I will miss his presence on the television. I hate that cancer killed him. I hate that smoking caused the cancer.

Ah, sloth and lethargy...

On Sunday, I took yet another step in my transformation from productive member of society to kept woman- I resigned my position as Director of Christian Education at my church. I have held the position for five years, and it has been a labor of love for me. But the chronic travel and my unraveling health made me realize that I am not doing justice to the job, so I tendered my resignation.

Little (and big) pieces of my life have been peeling away this year and I have been busy trying to redefine myself. I have one title left: President of the GFWC Centennial Woman's Club of Tullahoma, and we are gearing up for the start of our year of service. This is the last year of my two-year term as president, but I am also the state chairman for the Endowment Fund, and Education chair for District IV of Tennessee. I find my life as a clubwoman very fulfilling and fun.

But I am also finding my life as a "retired" person fun, too. I see my grandkids a lot more. I can sleep whenever or wherever I want. I can wallow in scrapbooking and sewing and writing and painting and any number of crafts, and I can read and work puzzles, and cook the way I like to cook, from scratch and in no hurry.

MY ONLY PROBLEM IS that I am reverting to my old, natural circadian rhythms. I have always been nocturnal. Having kids, going to college and then teaching for 10 years forced me into a diurnal pattern that became habitual but not comfortable. Now I stay up until 2 or 4 AM and sleep until about 10 AM, which puts me out of sync with the rest of the world- just like the days when I was a young housewife with no kids and did my housework at midnight, to chagrin of my downstairs neighbors. (I don't have downstairs neighbors in Tullahoma, but I suddenly had an inspiring thought about how to wreak revenge on my very noisy downstairs neighbors in San Diego.)

Of course, I am too slothful to move furniture now. Off to work on a scrapbook, me. Call some time... but not before noon :)