IT'S ALL ABOUT ME

Last week my daughter called and informed me that S. had proposed to her and she had accepted. I was overjoyed and began crying! I am so happy for her. Thrilled for her.

Afterwards the moment, I immediately began planning the wedding.

I have to butt out. This is her wedding and they will do it the way HE wants.

I am annoyed beyond words. He is an introvert and does not want a large wedding. She is succumbing to his wishes. If he had his way, they would just slip away and have a civil ceremony. I have a large family and tons and tons of friends I want to share this joy with. IT is becoming apparent this is not going to be a typical Irish wedding.

To say I am disappointed would be an understatement. I want to get him alone in a room for a few minutes and tell him exactly how it is going to be, but I love my daughter and I want her to be happy. And if making him happy makes her happy....then so be it. I don't have to like it. Yet, I must accept it.

I wrote out a long list of things she needs to be doing.

He freaked out at the length of the list. "This is exactly what he did not want." She informed me.

What?? No photographer? No flowers? No invitations? No guest list? No caterer? No wedding dress?

I am 300 miles away and it will be impossible for me to help out with details. She can not put it off and think it will all come together the week before.

How do you survive this?

I WANT TO RUN AWAY...

....AND JOIN THE MERMAIDS.

If anything I am a creature. A creature of habit. Everytime we are in the Springhill area we pay a visit to Weeki Wachee like our first trip to Florida when Bridget was only five years old.

Even way back then, we wanted to be Mermaids.

Somethings never change. Well, maybe somethings......




summer circa 1986

FIRST STOP

We first went north of Tampa to visit my Mother's sister, my Godmother Auntie M. She is a character and I love her dearly. I suppose that with age comes a cantankerous attitude towards certain things. I suppose at my age, I find this quite amusing. At Bridget's age, she finds it disturbing and a bit scary.

I was telling Auntie M about my trip to Kentucky to visit my Mom and the three hour wait I endured on I-75 as they continued to clean up a hazardous waste accident involving several semi's.

Bridget wanted to know what the danger would be.

Auntie M leaned toward Bridget. "You drive over it, go home, park your car, go in the house, begin to prepare dinner and the next thing you know.....BOOM!!!!!!!" Bridget jumped three feet.

We spent two days visiting and Auntie M insisted on taking us to Rogers Christmas House. Actually five Christmas houses each with a different theme. It was interesting and quite pretty, but we were eager to get to the beach! Bridget and I amused ourselves by taking lots and lots of pictures.

As punishment for our lack of interest (from God above) Auntie M decided to turn on the air-conditioning on the 20 mile ride back to her condo. She rolled up the windows and turned on the air...not the conditioning. Like my Mother, Auntie M does not like to waste gas on the real thing.

I worried about Bridget in the back seat and turned to look at her.

She had the window rolled as far down as it would go, about 1/3 of the way, and had as much of her head as she could possibly squeeze hanging out the window.

It was not funny at the time, but hilarious in the remembering.

FRACTURED VACATION FRAGMENTS

Louisville International Airport - Standiford Field

I love airports.

I love the anticipation, the urgency, the packing, the hint of panic. The wonder and awe of flying. I love checking in. I love holding the boarding pass in my hands. The ticket to adventure, freedom, the unknown, happiness, new experiences, the beginning of memories.

I love arriving with time to wander around the terminal and absorb the air surrounding me. The air filled with others traveling...Their anticipation, their trepidation, their joy, their sadness, their dreams. The climate is heavy with every type of emotion and feeling.....hanging. So real you can almost reach out and touch it.

Bridget and I found our gate and within moments she went to find the smoking room. She dragged me along with her so she would not be alone. We spent five minutes with her burning one and me talking about a book I had recently read about a women who rode the rails in the smoking room because that is where the most interesting people collected and bonded.

She slightly moved her head to direct my attention to a young man fervently talking to a couple...heading to Texas (there is nothing you can't overhear if you listen) ...Her facial expression read, "He is annoying and drunk. And he does not quite fit your description of your typical interesting smoker riding the rail."

Needless to say, I was very excited to visit Florida, and just as needless, Bridget needed to smoke.

She made the trip alone to the smoking room several times. The last time we were preparing to board the plane and she rushed up, all animated that she had seen a ticket someone had dropped on the stairs leading up to the smoking area.

"Did you pick it up and turn it in?"

She looked at me like I was talking Greek. "No...someone behind me saw it too."

Just at that moment we were distracted by a loud clamor to our right. The guy from smoking room upstairs was raising his voice to the clerks manning the Airline desk. We watched in that typical "tisk tisk" way that women have when they are proven right about his liquor intake...when I suddenly realized he was taking about his ticket.

"Bridget...Do you think he LOST HIS TICKET??"

She looked sideways at me. "It's possible...."

She walked over to him and informed him of the stray ticket on the stairs.

He took off running.

"It will be my luck he'll sit next to me." She muttered.

He didn't.

He should of.

He could have bought me a drink.

Dear Paul, what can I say?

I was this close, Paul. Mashed against the stage! Me and my camera. It was poetic justice that after Cleveland, where I was twenty minutes late arriving and could only find a spot at the back of the Agora, that fate would shine on me and place me right in front...this time.

HAY!!

(SAW DOCTORS AT THE TROPICAL HEATWAVE IN TAMPA)

DEAR MOM & DAD,

(This is an actual letter I wrote to my parents in 1973.)

"Gayle, Leetha and myself are going to Virginia Beach for a few days - should be home Thursday. Will call collect tomorrow sometime. I know this is out of the blue sky - but, I need a semi-vacation after working so long.

Please take $20 our of my savings and put it in my checking account so I don't run the risk of over drawing.

Everything is fine. Arrangements have been made - no guys going!!!

Will call tomorrow.

Mary

We're staying at a beach house with a friend of Leetha's, named Ann, and her family."

First of all, I had flunked out of school and was working as a Ward Clerk at the University Hospital in OB/GYN. I made minimum wage. I had been there since January. This letter (note more than likely left on the kitchen table) was August.

Yes, I definitely needed a vacation.

Secondly, I was lying about Ann and the beach house!!! I wonder why I felt the need to add that embellishment.

Added to the debacle, Gayle did not tell her parents nor get permission. We just split. Leetha was always a free spirit....

As I remember, it was a disastrous trip. Not much fun. Lot of driving. Layla playing on the radio.

I was a rotten kid. I had flunked out of school. Basically stolen one of the families vehicles and snuck off to Virginia days before I was to return to college for another try.

I look back and wonder how my parents kept from killing me or worse, tossing me out on my righteous butt.

Maybe they saw something in me that I was hiding under a bushel at the time. They believed in me. I guess that they were convinced that if I carried their blood in my veins, someday (if I survived), I would turn out okay.

Happy Mothers Day to my tremendous Mom. A lesser woman would have tossed me out and written me off. Instead she cursed me with the most potent and powerful of ancient hexes....

"I HOPE SOME DAY YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER JUST LIKE YOU!!!!"

And I did.

TEN COOL THINGS THIS WEEK

I need more time to write entries. Where oh where did all my time go? I think I am taking work much more seriously than I did down South. I have to. Things are very different up here. Much more intense. When I was able to spend a leisurely hour or two in the library reading and writing...all in the past.

Yet it's okay. It's all good. I'm not complaining.

On to Lisa's inspiration to list ten positive things from the past week...and away we go.

1)  I lost Joe's Ran Ban Wayfarers! That's bad. I found a pair on E-bay and won them!! That's good. Then I discovered they were from the UK and I was bidding in dollars that would be converted to pounds. That's bad! But in the end, they cost me less that ordering them new. So that was good.

2)  For someone that is suppose to have some smarts about her, I sure can be dumb. I found out that at Walmart (or K-mart of Target or any of a million places) I can purchase picture frames (some pre-matted!) at a fraction of the cost  a gallery or frame shop charges. And if I buy the photographs already matted....

3)  Have a new customer who is Italian and has the most intoxicating accent. I was able to avert a disaster (or so he thought so) for him. I met him several days later and when we were introduced and he made the connection....!!! Nothing like a sexy Italian to make you feel like a woman!

4)  Thanks to Jae and her 30 day challenge, I got out and exercised four out of seven days. I know, I know...but it is better than zero out of seven days.

5)  My boss decided out of the blue to ride with me on Wednesday. It was okay, a trifle stressful and annoying because my car was messy and my day was thrown into a flux. I have to look at it in such a way as I get a great lunch. On Friday he hunted me down and told me he was going to ride with me again. I felt my heart flip-flop! What did I do to deserve this!! What!!! What!!! Why??? Why??? I tried to throw my co-worker under the bus..."Wouldn't you rather ride with him?" After torturing me for about five minutes, he told me he was joking. Gosh....that was wonderful.

6)  I was able to make it to the Historical Society for their annual Herb sale. They dress up in colonial outfits and sell heirloom plants. They are cheerful and chatty and full of tid bits of knowledge about the plants. I purchased several things along with some fertilizer that you make a tea for use!! They showed me. Far-out!!

7)  I stayed home this week end and did nothing but fool around in the yard and relax. It was a wonderful two days.

8) On Sunday I went on a walk around the downtown area to just try and find some photo op's when I happened upon a Living History Outing going on at The Fort. What fun! I truly enjoy that sort of thing and after a bout of shyness was able to over come it and began to take photo's. Unfortunately, the turn out, at least at the time I was there, was pitiful. A handful of people. Such a shame that this type of effort to preserve and teach is virtually ignored by the community. Maybe I should volunteer to help out with P.R. and marketing.

9)  Found out about a wonderful festival going on in Tampa on May 20th called The Heatwave. It is going to be held in the Cuban Club in Ybor City. Performing on one of the six stages is THE SAW DOCTORS!!!!!

10)  I'm going to be there!! Bridget is able to travel with me and we will taking a Mother/Daughter trip together next week! Hurray!!

This was one great week! 
 

K.I.S.S.

Street performer at the Cherokee Triange Art Fair

TEN GROOVY THINGS FROM THE WEEK

I almost forgot about the ten great things!! Once again here we go on a reflective tour of the week that was and all the wonders it offered.

1) Had a long telephone conversation with one of my buds from Lexington. I heard the latest stories about his precocious children. Made me laugh! Miss all of them so much it hurts still.

2) While driving to work early one morning, I saw two deer in a side field. The day was just breaking and there was fog swirling around. Beautiful.

3) Found this oasis of tranquility in the middle of the city! Called Linderwood Nature Reserve. Shhhhhhh....don't tell anyone.

4) My injured toe is much better...almost healed.

5) Spring has arrived in all her glory and I have been taking stolen moments to enjoy the beauty of the area. What I once thought was bland and flat, is now ablaze with color and possibilities. I am happy and sometimes when I realize it, it makes me pause.

6) I wrote the Hungry Bear piece in a fit of inspiration! I was so proud of the comment Paul wrote!

7) I met this spiritual mystical guy at the Buffalo Preserve. I'm working on a piece about him. Fascinating.

8) Was able to make it to Louisville for the Cherokee Triangle Arts Fair! It did not matter that it was rainly and overcast. I met my friend the scientist with the wonderful jewelry...Found some of the cutest pig earrings for Bridget. The head on one earring, the pigs butt on the other. Darling.

9) After the fair Bridget and I took a long stroll down Bardstown Road and visited Ear-X-tasy, my favorite music store!! Found the Saw Doctor's latest CD.

10) Totally blew my attempts to be less consumer oriented! Found some really cool stuff at the Fair, besides the pig earrings.