TO DANCE BENEATH THE DIAMOND SKY

...With one hand waving free....

Because the other one was holding a beer!


Due to unavoidable life issues interfering with well laid out plans, it appeared that I would be attending the Dublin Irish Festival (DIF) by my lonesome this year. Not that I gave it much thought, I knew I would just do it and enjoy it even though I would be with just Me.

Imagine my surprise Saturday morning when my husband came roaring into the hotel parking lot, straddling his Honda and looking exactly like the Hero come to save the day. Only then did I realize how I was inwardly holding my breath and longing for a companion.

He looked pretty hot too on that motorcycle.

Brilliant. That was the word. Brilliant performers, brilliant new Celtic Rock Stage and area, brilliant sky, brilliant white heat, brilliant crowd, brilliant time. Just brilliant!!

The crowds seemed larger than before, perhaps because we were now cut off from the main pedestrian area and had our Celtic Rock world on the West Side of the Festival. Brilliant move!!

Other than that, everything else was the same. Lots of festival food Celtic style. The melt in your mouth Fish and Chips from the Old Bag of Nails. The same icy cold cans of Killian beer drawn from gigantic chests of ice. Sneaky Pete had a new location directly on the path to the Rock Tent. The Irish Canines also had new digs, under the cover of a canopy of trees. The Capital City Pipe and Drums still made my eyes tear up and bring a lump to my throat. The Irish thunder stage was still a hell like pit that could toast you to a crisp. The baby buggies and strollers seemed to be everywhere. As did Red hair. Tattoos were shown off by many, the real kind and the henna kind. Young girls still strolled around with their hair twisted up in those torturous looking rollers awaiting their big moment to dance the Irish jig. It was still very risky to enter the port-a-john trailers after a certain time...The buses rolled from 8am till 130 am Saturday carrying back to their vehicles the intoxicated revelers and their dedicated drivers. We still sang on the five minute trip. This year it was Hang On Sloopy. We continued to wander around the parking lots, walking in the wrong direction to the hotel. I awoke with a headache on Sunday morning...again.

The Saw Doctors blew everyone away as was expected. Only this year they played before their largest Ohio crowd ever! This was Joes first time seeing them on stage. I believe he came away impressed.

A year came and went so quickly. Now I look forward to next year, the 20th anniversary of the DIF!

Ashley MacIsaac - The Devil In The Kitchen

Oh my God!! The Devil in the Kitchen!!

Can't believe I found Ashley on this site!!

Now y'all get a double dose of Celtic music.

Ashley is a total talent with the fiddle. (can you call that a violin?)

Who will I discover next at the Irish Festival!!!!!

N17 - The Saw Doctors

I can not believe my luck!!

Finally found a Saw Doctor Video I can upload.

The first time I heard N-17 Joe and I had just returned from Ireland. I began to cry.

PHOTO FRIDAY - PORTRAIT

I have not participated in the Photo Friday for some time now. Today I took a look. When I read the subject matter, Isreal immediately jumped to my minds eye.

Taken at the airport in Merida Mexico awaiting evacuation after Hurricane Wilma. We had been stranded in Mexico for seven days before finally flying to St. Louis ...American soil.

MY LIFE IS AN OPEN BORE

Repetitious Rubbish

I'm experiencing that as this blog nears the Three Years Mark that a type of cycle is emerging. Next week end I am going to The Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival. I have written about that twice. I am seeing the Saw Doctors who will be performing there (this will make the 5th time I have seen them and the 3rd time this year!!) God knows I have written about that before! In two weeks, I will be going to the MidSummer Night Run in Lexington, been there done that. The week after that is the Woodland Arts Festival. And so it goes.

In the famous words of Dylan Thomas, "Someone's boring me. I think it's me".

For example: My week-end. Nothing out of the ordinary. A typical two days of predictable occurrences and behavior.

I went to the Southside Farmers Market early Saturday morning and bought delicious vegetables and these beautiful gladiolus. I was there early enough to snag some! They normally have disappeared by the time I arrive.

I have been hitting the New Haven Nature Trail, dodging the beastly bicycles and have pushed myself to just about 2 1/2 mile run. I am walk/running close to 5 1/2 miles. Sweaty stuff.

I have fallen off the Healthy Food Wagon earlier this week. My boss made me by taking me to a Mexican restaurant where those chips and salsa were calling my name so LOUD that it was all I could do not to devour them entirely while he watched me, astonished at my ravenous behavior. After that it was a Blizzard. After that it was a sub sandwich.

Living the Healthy life is not all it is cracked up to be...so I tell myself. So I have hit the trails again...running that weight off.

I have been working in the garden trying to keep it alive. When we first moved up here, last spring, so many people told us we were going to enjoy the mild summers. What mild summers? They have been torturous!! 90 degrees or more is not unusual! My poor flower beds are burnt up!

After an hour of weeding and snipping I drank a beer and passed out for two hours.

I then went to the local nursery and partook in their "wagon sale" where you fill up an entire wagon with whatever you can fit into it ....all for $20!! Last year it was $15 and they allowed you to double deck...not this year and the lady had her eye on me. I had the look of one who would do such a thing in a heart beat!!

I came home with tons of stuff to replace the dead stuff.

Today will be more of the same. Cooking, cleaning, boring, boring, boring.

But then again...next week-end!! Irish Festival and Saw Doc's I'm counting the hours!!!!

HAY!!

CAN YOU SAY PINK, BIMBO?

For almost thirty years my parents have lived in the last house on a lovely dead-end street. It is a very mature 1970 era area with beautiful brick homes. Most everyone on the street has been there since the early days of the neighborhood and only leave their homes in the back of a hearse.

At least that is the way it use to be. Next to my parents home is an empty lot. Not exactly empty, it was owned by a gentleman on the next block, and backed up to his property. He has a garage, very nice brick building, that sat at the very back of the property.

He passed away in the past year and his heirs put the property up for sale. Naturally they wanted a pretty penny for the lot as we inquired because...well, we were just use to having all that open space for soccer games, football, volley ball etc. It would have been nice to keep it, but it was not to be.

No...Bimbo bought it.

I have never blogged about Bimbo before. In a nut shell, he has been my mechanic for years back when I did not have a company car and had need for a mechanic.

I love the name Bimbo. I love saying it. Just like I love saying Pink. I just can't think of a combination to put Bimbo and pink together unless it was, "I asked Bimbo if he could paint my car pink..."

When my mother told me that a Bimbo ****** had bought the property, I was thrilled for them! Why? Bimbo is a terrific guy, let alone a superb mechanic. He will be very good to my parents, who are elderly and need a lot of looking after these days.

"Do you think Bimbo is a family name?", my Mother asked

For some reason the neighbors across the street have taken an intense dislike to Bimbo. Maybe its because he is building a beautiful new home, very much in the tradition of all the other homes on the street, right down to a similar color of brick. He has been using my mothers water and paying her water bill.

I think that is what triggered the apparent attack of yesterday.

The Angel caregiver for my Dad informed me of a terrific uproar on the property next door yesterday. The guy across the street had his finger in Bimbo's face....Naturally The Angel had to get in the back yard to see if she could over hear the details.

Lots of cuss words and threats from the neighbor. "My nephew is chief of Police and I will have you arrested."

For using my Mother's water? For cutting down the diseased trees that bordered both properties?

For agreeing to keep on eye on Mom and Pop and knock on their door if The Angel is not there between 8-830am and call 911 if the door is not answered?

Bimbo came over and was hotter than hell.

"I'll call the police on that So & So if he ever gets in my face like that again! By the way, does your visitor (my SIL Laura) need any help painting the trim?"

Drama on the Dead End.

Wonder if Bimbo would paint the trim Pink?

MERMAID CONVERSATIONS

It seems that I have been in a certain place at a certain time, the opportune time, to overhear some juicy stuff from total and perfect strangers.


At my favorite consignment shop, (which I made a bee-line for the moment I landed in Lexington), in the changing area, which is actually four stalls in the middle of the store, protected from prying eyes by cloth curtains....

All was quiet and solemn, as it must be when trying on sizes too small for you, two girls burst into the dressing area.

Giggling, talking like they had not a care in the world about who might over hear them.

First part of the conversation: "He can't tell me who to be friends with and he can't block me from messaging him because he is mad and does not agree with the friendship!! And I told him so after work....in the parking lot on the way to our cars"

Delicious stuff.

Suddenly the other one screamed in amusement, "I look like a Mermaid"

The other countered, "I look like a Mermaid too!!"

They ventured out of their dressing rooms to admire each other. This was followed by more giggling and more exclamations of how beautiful they looked when a third party entered the conversation.

"You two girls look like you have somewhere important to go."

"Oh no", one of them replied, "We just like to come in and put on the dresses!"

With that they exited the dressing area in pursuit of more.....I can only guess.... Mermaid dresses.

They returned and resumed their exuberant chattering.

"Quick, let me look at you."

"Wait a minute, this has sooooooooooooo many buttons!....Oh, Oh, I look so corporate!"

"You look special!"

"I feel special!!"

What I was feeling was the over flow of their fun. I felt special too.

I only wish that when I was their age that I would have had the brilliant idea to go play dress up at the consignemnt store with one of my best friends.

Big Girl Dress Up.....how much fun is that!?

TRUCKIN'.......GOT MY CHIPS CASHED IN

Going to hit the road in a few minutes. I have one stop to make, at the Southside Farmers Market to pick up some of that wonderful bread made by that articulate writer, and this totally terrific hand cream made at home called " Country Honey". Besides smelling divine, it is the best stuff I have ever smeared on.

I'm headed home to Kentucky for the monthly gathering of my clan. My mother has several out of town guests staying with her. Including my brother from NYC and my Aunt from Florida. It will be a wonderful dinner tomorrow. My Mother is always so animated and happy when she is surrounded by her family. It is a joyous occasion.

I am struggling (again) with the boundaries I must set while writing this blog. I think it is imperative that I protect and respect the privacy of not only my family, but the people I come in contact with on a daily basis.

My life feels like I am in the middle of the spider web and all my experiences and the people who are part of them, instigate them, inspire them, are the webbing that reaches out far into the universe. No telling how far out they reach...can reach.

Yet, this is my history. I think all these personal blogs are our written history. Maybe polished a bit, certainly embellished a little, but they are ours and only ours. They would be less engaging and charming unless they include all those characters who come in and out of our lives on a daily basis. And also, those who are here to stay.

Those who are here to stay, like the Husband, who I promised never to make him look bad in any way on these pages. Some of the funniest, most gut splitting antics are not included here, not because they would make him look bad, but because I think it would upset him. He tends to think this lowly blog is read by millions...hahahah!!!

This is my history and it should include the downs with the ups.

Even if I change the names to protect the guilty.

So, I am going to mull things over during this trip down South to home. I am having the most vivid, sad dreams about certain things that are going on in my life at this moment, this place in time in a very difficult struggle with my daughter.

On well, what is life if it isn't interesting?

Tangled up in Youth

Recently my Boss entered the small cramped office room my co-worlers and I share. "Anyone heard of a Big Name Band having a concert at the Wizards Stadium?"

We turned and showed each other our quizzical expressions, shrugged and returned our attention towards him.

"Some old guy" he continued, "Like my age."

"Jimmy Buffett" Smart Aleck #1 asked.

"No...but someone like that". He then proceeded to quote us the figure they wanted for our Corporate Suite that night. The price for 20 people to attend.

"Wow" said Smart Aleck #2. He immediately got on the phone and called the Stadium the moment Boss left the room. He got the name of the Top Secret not yet released name of the Big Band!

"Thanks" he concluded, turned toward us and waited for just enough time to gain an air of drama.......

"Bob Dylan."

Pause.

"Who's he?" Smart Aleck #1 asks.

Co-worker #3, The Hunk leans back in his chair and twirls his pen between his fingers, "I never liked him much." Looking at me he says, "You tell them."

I begin.

"Blowing in the Wind". Blank faces from the Smart Alecks.

"Rainy Day Woman". Still blank.

"Like a Rolling Stone". Now head shaking.

"Mr. Tambourine Man" More head shaking.

"Subterranean Homesick Blues" They both look incredulous. I begin to Rap the words (like Dylan did all those years ago)......


"Johnnys in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government"

Now they look like they are going to start laughing.

I suddenly had the image of my Mother rapping Guy Lombardo trying to convince me 30 years ago there was no better music than THAT.

I gaze across the abyss of the generation gap and suddenly it hits me!

"Guns and Roses?" Finally they nod. "They covered his "Knocking on Heavens Door".

"OOOOOOOOKKKKKAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY" Smart Aleck#1 says in his Napoleon Dynamite imitation and they resume their tasks at hand, ignoring me and the Hunk.

"Gun's and Roses is over the Hill for them" he informed me. Then he resumed working.

I sat semi-stunned.

BEAUTIFUL BOUNTY

What $8.50 will get you at the Farmers Market

My heart softens about this city when I find someplace as wonderful as Southside Market. It took me awhile to locate the spot, as it is in a part of town I am totally unfamiliar with. I even thought I was in the wrong place and had somehow gotten the address incorrect. This was a neighborhood!

Then there it was. People were coming out carrying large hanging baskets full of summer flowers. I saw others walking on the sidewalks with plastic bags draped over their arms. The building itself could make you smile. Shaped like the letter E, paint long ago stripped from its wooden slats.The doors thrown wide open the entire length of building so you could just glimpse in and know something was going on inside.

Once I was in I realized how much fun this place is going to be. I felt like I had stumbled into an open air market in the Bahamas! Color was everywhere. No only were just farm produce and plants offered, I also found soy candles, a butcher shop, a grill, beads and chimes, cut flowers, loads of enticing baked goods, and in the back corner a musician had set up and was serenading us making the whole experience lovely.

Before I made my way out, I came across a gentleman sitting behind a booth (cafeteria style table with sturdy legs!) reading a book. I was drawn by the smell! Laid out in front of him were baked goods wrapped in cellophane. Small breads and large cookies.

I choose the cinnamon bread (for Joe) (a treat, he has put up with me the past week with this fast).

We began to talk. "Did you bake this?"

"No, but its my recipe. Heath Department has all these rules."

We talked about the virtues of lard verses butter.

He told me he had made a Peach cobbler recently and would love to make a blackberry one. Had I seen the prices of blackberries?

He told me about making the crust and kneading in the butter and separating it out into three separate sections and rolling it out just so.

I was impressed. I told him I just slap it all together without much thought.

"Cooking is like art." He began. "I myself am a writer. I get an idea, I write about it and then I go back and edit it. I add a little here, change a little there. When I am finished, it doesn't resemble what I started out with at all".

I asked him to make me a peach cobble and hide it under his table.

I'm certain it is a masterpiece.

THE RESULTS ARE IN

I must admit, I am impressed.

Checking the book out of the library and devouring the pages in a single sitting, I developed a lot of expectations. I wanted to "feel like a kid again". I wanted to have the mental acuity that was a by-product for the author. I wanted to have my nose free from the suffocating feeling I experience in the mornings. I wanted to free myself from my sugar cravings. I longed for more energy. And the thought of the weight loss tantalized me.

The fast was to be for 10 days. Telling my best bud D. about it over the phone right before I began, she asked, "How long do you think you will last?"

"Five days."

I lasted SIX!!

At the beginning of the fourth day I abandoned the lemon juice concoction and made a huge pot of fresh vegetable soup. I then drank the broth the remaining three days.

I lost 10 - 12 pounds.

The metal acuity alluded me, but I have an astonishing ability to focus!

I feel I have more personal mental energy.

I no longer felt the mid-afternoon urge to find somewhere warm and cozy to lay down. Instead, on the drives home at the end of the work day I would marvel at how un-tired I actually felt!

My head still feels stuffy, but that tells me I have to work on that. Or I am sensitive to the chemicals floating around this area. (big industrial farming).

My joints are great!! Great I'm telling ya!! My barometer is how I get out of the bed in the morning. In the past, as I have eased into middle age, the ritual of staggering down the hall way like a drunken sailor because of the stiffness in the knees and back has been a major concern of mine.

Gone.

The next hard part begins now, beginning a healthy eating life style.

I'm off the Farmers Market!!

DETOX IS NOT FOR WEENIES

Day Three and still no adverse effects.

The diet is like this....of course I only read a portion of the book and listened to the CD, so when I started I had no idea what I was doing, other than flushing out my system.

First of all, there are many variations of the diet to choose from. I naturally went with the most radical. If at any time I think I am going to pass out, or keel over...which I do anyway without being on a detox.....or am just uncomfortable, I can switch to a friendlier program within the parameters of the anticipated end.

The radical one I am doing is the Lemon Water Wash Out (my name).

I drink water, 8 - 12 glasses (8oz), of this particularly nasty yet comforting glass of fresh squeezed lemon juice..(one lemon is about five tablespoons), maple syrup and cayenne pepper.

I kid you not.

The first time, I felt the fire going down. First my mouth, then my throat and about 20 minutes later I felt it spreading through out my stomach. Something in this mixture suppresses the appetite and gives you the necessary energy.

Then you drink lots of bottle water inbewteen. After the first day, I have not been confined to the bathroom! Go figure. And you can have chamomile tea and any tea that is a diarrhetic.

Major Flush out the body is the name of the game.

According to what I am reading, the organ cleansing begins with the top and works down. Brain power! I certainly could use more of that.

When your body tells you it has had enough, you begin back gradually and then your new life of a healthy eater begins.

No more meat, no more sugar, no more alcohol, no more caffeine, fried foods...forget it!

I guess I may become a vegan!

The good thing is this, our foods and our envirornment are so full of chemicals that we don't realize how poisioned we have become because we are just use to feeling this way. Stuffy nose in the morning, joints that hurt and ache, skin problems, allergies...the irratants in our enviornment that cause us harm is endless.

It is day three and I am feeling pretty good.

A TOXIC GRAND SEND OFF

The most ordinary things can bring the unexpected. Such as taking my Brother-in-Law to the annual week-end gathering at Norris Lake in Tennessee. He hitched a ride at the half way point for me, Louisville, en-route to eastern TN.

He supplied the entertainment, an envelope of CD's he had received from New Dimensions. Thought provoking interviews conducted for broadcast over the airwaves, akin to NRP.

I thoroughly enjoyed most the CD's but by far the most interesting was Dr. Elson M. Haas. He took approximately one hour to convince me to consider his "New" Detox diet.

I considered it all week. And I decided to do it! I figured Friday or Saturday would be the best time of the week for life altering changes.

If I was going to totally change my eating habits, saying good-bye to alcohol, caffeine, sugar etc. etc. etc, then I really needed to give them a Grand Send Off.

What a week!! First I had to list all my favorite stuff and them stuff them into me.

Donuts from the terrific bakery that is a hole in the wall in New Haven.

A lunch at the Chinese Buffet in Auburn.

A Blizzard from DQ.

McDonalds. The McGriddles.......yum. And double cheeseburger.

Burger King...Whopper and Onion Rings.

Lot's of Coconut Rum.

My unbelievably delicious dish of chicken and squash cooked in a wok and smothered in Swiss Cheese and fresh tomatoes.

Frozen Custard...Chocolate mint with M&M's.

A cinnamon crisp from Panera's.

Oh, a mixed berry muffin from Panera's.

That's about it.

Now I am detoxing and well into day two. Not too bad at all. It is a pretty radical program and I am surprised that I am not hungry at all.

Should I be? Gosh!!!

SNEAK PEEK

My new Career as a Wedding Planner

Adventures in David's Bridal Shop

The big news is that they have decided to put off the wedding until next year. I do feel like I bribed them just a wee bit, but my new assignment as a Wedding Planner necessitates that it be postponed until a later day.

Yet, we kept our appointment at David's Bridal Shop.

Some one should have clued me in.

What a racket. A sweet racket, a joyful racket, an honest racket, but a racket all the same. Bridget and I walked down the aisle of a million white wedding dresses and she picked out no less than 15 of them to try on.

We got into the back area and were hustled into a room and handed a bustier and then the work began. Somehow it felt like tying to get the glass slipper on. No, not the glass slipper but that scene from GONE WITH THE WIND where Scarlette is being laced into her corset.

It was hard work, but I finally got her snapped in. Then the dresses. Over the head or step in? We opted for over the head at first. Where oh where did Bridget go???

The first two dresses did not fit. I could not get the first zipped up. The second was better, but it was all I could do it get it hooked and zipped. I was afraid she was going to rip it. The sales person had exchanged several of the dresses for a larger size, assuring Bridget that the sizes were misleading, and people always sized up and that they truly had to fit at the top....most important thing.

The third dress was ....

Well, she put it on, stepped out of the dressing room and onto the pedestal, my heart was in my throat.

It was as if she had slipped on a dress made of magic. This was THE dress.

Then I started to cry.

BATS IN THE BELFRY

I realize that I am going through a semi-dry spell where I think my writing is crap and I have nothing to share, or say. It would be so easy to just quit and walk away for a spell while I settle down, or settle back into the groove. Whatever...as my step-daughter would say.

Crazy enough, I am listening to my MP3 player on the drive back to town from Ohio. I had just yesterday reloaded the little Zen I have. Little as in a tiny piece of hardware. It packs a wallop in every other category. I love it and use it practically every day while I walk or have long boring drives.

I have learned how to load only those songs from my CD's that I enjoy the most.

So I'm rocking down Route 37 singing the words to CAPTAIN AMERICA along with Ashley McIssac and joyfully awaiting in anticipation for Grupo Fantasma to come on next with Chocolate...which sounds like Coco-latte. A random thought entered my head. Why don't you (as in me) open up some sort of venue in Ft. Wayne that invites off beat killer International bands to perform.

The proverbial Built It And They Will Come.

Well, well, well. I did it again. Trying to find some link for this jnl....and also making certain I spelled Grupo Fantasma correctly....I see they are performing in Dayton on July 2nd at the City Fest.

Well well well.

This is certainly turning into the year of the Music concertt.

I remember!!!

I wrote a piece in the other blog about a friend of mine from the "old days". For the life of me I could not remember his last name! Shame on me.

I woke up this morning and the first thought in my head was .... His Last Name. It sounded so much like a hilarious post Saturday Night Live comic's name that I thought maybe I was wrong. I checked on-line and sure enough, there is a doctor in North Kentucky, an internist, with that name! Hurray! I remembered. I will drop him a line in the next several days. We will see what happens.

Things like this happen to me all the time. I'll be searching for the answer to a tricky question and wake up in the morning with the solution fresh in my head. I'll wake up and go, "Oh no!! I forgot to do "this or that" yesterday.

All the time.

Its a lot easier and healthier than banging my head on concrete or ice. That brings it home too. I come to seeing stars and saying, "Oh yes, that's where I left that key to the old root cellar in 1965."

I'M MISSING A GENE! CAN YOU HELP ME FIND IT?

My cousins wedding 2002
(Most the women on my Mom's side of the family.)

Joe was called in to work at Dayton this past week end so I tagged along thinking I could explore the city, take pictures galore, go to a museum and if things got too boring, Cincinnati was only 25 miles away.

My plan would have worked but the weather did not cooperate. I left the hotel at 630am thinking I could get a great brisk walk and it was raining that cold grey drizzle that belongs to April!! And it was 52 degrees.

I drove around the city checking things out and found my path to the Riverwalk blocked by several police cars. I could not figure out if someone had been murdered or if they were expecting a huge group of banner waving, slogan sign carrying protesters to advance in an unruly manner upon the miniscule festival taking place in a corner of the ground.

I drove around the streets searching for the Art Institute and finally suddenly drove past a tiny sign pointing towards the west! I made a quick "I'm from out of town" turn after traveling only a block found myself in a horrific traffic grid lock! Thinking I had stumbled into a graduation....why so many people dressed in suits and fancy threads looking anxious ....I never quite figured that out either.

The art institute was right there! Lo and Behold, a picture of Princess Diana smiled down at me. Alright, I remembered that a collection of her haute couture was making the rounds in this country. Americans always seem to be in awe of Royalty and it is a fact that everyone in the world was in awe of Princess Diana but certainly this traffic nightmare was not about that.

I went back to the hotel room and laid on the bed and flipped on the tv and entered into a marathon of WHO'S WEDDING IS IT ANYWAY" on the E channel.

And I am a better person for it. Much more informed.

And convinced that I need to hire a Wedding Planner.

I'm off to the library to check out wedding planner books. Maybe somewhere in one of them it will explain where my misplaced Gene is. You know the one. The one that I should have been born with that enables me to make a centerpiece out of paper mache, wire and some wild flowers.

I'm okay, I'm okay. I am breathing into a paper bag.

I think I have a date, August 13th. And I think we have a place. They are going to have the wedding and the reception in one beautiful reception hall in the St. James Court area of Louisville. I am going to travel there next Saturday.

With check book in hand.

We also are going to go to David's Bridal Shop.

Things are moving along.

And yes, "Diana A Celebration" exhibit is closing today. I was in the midst of a Diana frenzy.

FUNKADELIC

It seems that if I wait for inspiration to whack me on the side of the head, I will never write another entry again. I recall how I use to be bubbling over with subjects and could hardly contain myself. Everything sparked a memory or a thought process that resulted in a theme! It was once so simple to sit in front of the key board and look at the blank screen, stretch my fingers and just begin! Once time I use to write them out in long hand, then edit them into the blog. That was long ago, when our entries were limited to 2500 words and no spell check. Brevity was the word of the day back then.

This journal I used for the day to day dull stuff. As well as the drawing board and editing tool for the other blog. It has evolved into something different now and I sorely miss the carefree days of random thoughts and observations.

It was so easy when there was no one to write for other than myself.

I have been in a funk since the trip to Florida. Even the announcement of Bridget's engagement has not pulled me out, but the reverse has occurred and I am plunged even further into the dark.

I know that I can figure out most of what is causing my gloom. Someone very close to me is going through a terrible divorce after many years of marriage. Many years. Its ridiculous. She is loosing everything. Her home, her husband, her comfort. All because he thinks he is in love with someone else.

It just sickens me.

I am in a funk because I look at the calendar and see that I have crossed the one year mark of living in this part of the world. And I miss home more and more with each passing day. It is as if I refuse to be adaptable.

I hate people on bikes hogging the River Walk Way trails. Since I wear a MP3 player I do not hear them until they are rushing past me. I usually give a little yell the first time, as they can startle the hell out of you. It makes me long for the cross country paths of the open fields and hills of my favorite park....back home.

I feel that I am crossing that line that takes you from cool adult to eccentric old fuddy duddy. The other day, Matt (young stud at work) asked if I had any extra change. I opened my purse and dug out the change purse that came with the bag! I unzipped it open and dumped out the dimes and nickels and scarce quarters and began handing it over.

I felt like Grandma tipping the bag boy at Krogers!

And my stupid toe! The one that I banged up badly during the 10 mile run. That nail is going to bail on me. And I am so squeamish that I can't stand it. So, I am wearing my Crock's with ankle socks....trying to hold on the toe nail until I can take it.

How old Florida Native is that???!!

And since I am on a roll....because I am depressed I don't do much of anything. The trails are full of bicycle bullies, so I pout and rarely go. Therefore, I have gained at least 20 pounds since last summer.

I'm an over weight, sock sandal wearing, penny pinching old fart.

There I feel better.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OMEGA

The year was 1968. I was in High School. Thank God it was a Catholic prison School where it was not uncommon for our Mothers to be pregnant. My mother had her sixth and final child, the infamous Omega of many of my stories.

She, naturally, is the little red faced (burn) blond squinting at the camera. Dressed like her older sister, Kit. Dresses my mother made for them.

Omega has many concerns about being the final child of a large family. First of all, not many pictures of her. I must admit, it did take me awhile to find a photograph. And this photograph would not be my first selection. Unfortunately, it is my only selection!! So, she has a point.

Secondly, she is an over achiever which she blames on all of us forcing her to have to go above and beyond to gain any attention. She was hellion for awhile then reformed and became a brain of sorts.

My Dad was scheduled for heart surgery in the early 1970's. Before it could happen, he had to lose weight. The form of exercise that he used was an after dinner walk accompanied with either Kit or Omega, sometimes both.

On one walk, Omega and Dad were having a conversation and my Dad mistakenly called her Kit.

"I'm sorry, "Omega". When you have so many children sometimes you mix the names up."

"That's okay, Mom" she quipped back. She wasn't even four years old yet and already displaying the sharp wit inherited from Nana.

Happy Birthday to my original Side Kick!!

BEATLEMANIA REVISITED

Memorial Day 2006

I was 10 years old when the Beatles were introduced to America via the Ed Sullivan show. It was love at first scream. I really don't remember the first time I had heard the songs. I do remember the first one though, it was She Loves You.

Yea. Yea. Yea.

My first Beatle album was "The Beatles Second Album". Followed by Rubber Soul, A Hard Days Night and Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and finally Abbey Road.

My friend and fellow maniac, Judy, filled in with "Meet the Beatles" and others, of which now I can not remember. We spent hours at each others house listening to these albums along with our numerous 45's.

I coveted a Beatle wig. It was not to be. But I did manage to have a totally fab Beatle poster that was about four feet long and maybe 18 inches wide. It was red and each Beatle head was in a white star, along with extra pictures of them full length in the back ground. I also had a white sweat shirt with the Beatle logo.

Way back then it was not known as the Beatle logo. Just the name, the Beatles. Long before the Apple.

I had as many Beatle magazines as I could afford. Only one remains now. Without the cover. I think I remember purchasing that mag. I think I remember the cover. It was a "16 Magazine" special edition.

I also collected Beatle cards. I wrote an entry about those long ago...

I had a George Harrison plastic doll, about four inches in height and sporting a brown mop top. He was wearing a dark suit. He may have been holding a guitar. I remember he had very luscious lips.

I out grew my Beatle mania in time. I graduated sometime around my sophomore year in High School, after listening to the Beatle White album a million times in Suzy's secret room, to bands like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin.

Last Saturday on the belvedere in Louisville I found myself at a Beatle Tribute Festival singing the words of the songs, long ago imprinted indelibly on my brain.

75 bands, 10 stages, three days. It was fab. We wandered from stage to stage sampling all the different interpretations and imitations.

A lone guy from England performing only George Harrison songs.

A girl band from who knows where with the drummer belting out "Twist and Shout".

My personal unusual favorite, fifty people on the stage with guitars, tambourine and voices all singing RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.

Run For Your Life seemed to be a favorite, performed by each band.

My choice for number one mind blowing interpretation ....Nervous Melvin and the Mistakes rendition of Tomorrow Never Knows. I was spell bound and my heart was thumping as they put a totally unique sound without loosing the essence of the song.

Next year, I will be better prepared.

Camcorder.

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.

YESTERYEAR'S COFFEE BREAK

Sitting in Bob Evans worrying about my failing memory. I'm always thinking about the loss of those tiny moments, small conversations, quiet spaces and many non-earth shattering occurrences of my life. Where have they gone? Do they still hold residence in my brain? Behind doors closed with the locks of marijuana abuse and alcohol residues?

If someone, some mad scientist, inserted a mind probe and gently, please ever so gently, poked...would I be able to recall in vivid detail faded recollections from ...say the summer of 1974? What was I feeling, hoping for, dreading? Where was I in terms of self-awareness, self-destructiveness, self-esteem, self-development, self-reliance, self-examination, selfishness, selflessness?

I think of 1974 because I am drinking coffee out of a small ceramic breakfast mug and finishing off the remains of a $7.89 breakfast at Bob Evans and recalling the $0.99 plate breakfast at a little old Hole in the Wall off campus in Murray Kentucky, called the Hungry Bear.

I have vivid vague memories of the place, usually because I was in the throws of a magnificent hang-over. The diner was right across the street from the Sig-Ep house, of which I was a Little Sister and beyond that, a constant visitor. Not only the Sig-Eps hung out there, but everyone else including, but not limited to,....straights, freaks, GDI's, frat boys, jocks, hippies, do-gooders, Bolio's, grad students, professors, drunks, flunkies, Narc's, sorority chicks, bootleggers, Viet Nam vet's, ROTC, police, police wanna bees, drug addicts, Homecoming Queens, locals, barefoot, long hair, no hair, motor cycle riders, punks, pot heads, sweeties, jerks, hoods, car thieves, drug smugglers, artists, crazy people and their girlfriends, and those people from New Jersey.

Besides the $0.99 cent menu the biggest attraction was the mangy stuffed bear in the corner...a real bear once....Complete with teeth revealing snarl and extended arms with the four inch claws!

Yikes!!

Before it was the Hungry Bear, it was a B-B-Q place called the Saucy Pig. Considering the clientele, the name was constantly bastardized to "The Hungry Pig" or "The Saucy Bear". More often than not it was referred to as either "The Pig" or "The Bear"...as in, "Let's go to the Pig".

We'd sit bleary eyed, eating our $0.99 cent specials, drinking our bottomless coffee and stating at that stuffed bear.

The same meal is now $7.89 at Bob Evans.

And a darn good price for 30 year old memories. Much less expensive than a brain probe from a mad scientist, more than likely an ex-customer of the Pig.

TEN WEEKLY EXCELLENT GOOD THINGS

Yesterday I had my doubts about coming up with ten things. I thought, maybe four or five. This is the magic and beauty of the exercise! Once you let your mind wander through the days of the previous week trying to focus and pinpoint the good things...guess what, not only did I unearth four or five I came up with over then things.

1) Got a raise! Yea!! And an excellent review. They don't know me very well yet. HA!

2) Had to go see the Doctor at the immediate care center and really lucked out! Got a woman and got in and out in under an hour. And...got good drugs. lol!!

3) Found a terrific antique/flea market in Ft. Wayne. Spent an enjoyable lunch hour browsing through all the old photographs, books, magazines, dresses, paintings, furniture, toys...the list was endless.

4) Spent all week-end in my yard gussying it up. One thing about Ft. Wayne, everybody takes pride in their yards. I planted a lot of summer bulbs in the back and have some blooms for the front. Some gladiolus in honor of my Grandmother who never smiled.

5) I finished The Beast...a 250 page handwritten personal journal that I have laboring in for a year and a half. It was one of those experiences where at the beginning it was all exciting and stimulating and at the end it was "GOSH, will it ever end." And it did. Never again. Only those mousy 100 or 150 page deals from now on.

6) Took a trip (work related) to upper Indiana and bought three bottles of fabulous raspberry wine from Satex Winery in Angola.

7) I ran in the 5K Mastodon Stomp several weeks ago and signed up so late that all the T-shirts were gone! Because of my work connection with the establishment that sponsored the race I was able to receive one!! It came in the mail on Friday. Unexpectedly! The best kind of packages.

8) Joe gave me an unexpected gift this week, a beautiful pink golf shirt/sweater. I am so lucky to have him in my life.

9) Reality TV. I just love it. I only watch three shows on TV, two of them are reality. The other is The Soprano's...which I love too. But the Reality...geez! Amazing Race is now on at a time I can remember and stay up for. I loved the couple Lake and Michele, not sure where they are from but those Southern Accents were music to my ears. Too bad they were eliminated last week. I don't know, it just tickled me to hear them go at it with each other. Especially when he said, "Bitch, Shut-up" in that high pitched Southern Accent. You had to be there. Does not translate to the written word.

10) The last thing is just a thought, a seed that my sister Kit planted last week at the family gathering to celebrate Easter. Seems there is a couple somewhere up north who decided to try for a year to diminish their dependency on consumerism. She is going to grow her own vegetables, only purchase clothes second hand....etc.etc.etc. They will only purchase the absolute necessities. Wine is consider a necessity. (the husband) I find it very intriguing and wonder if I could cut my consumption in half.....could I do it?

I did give up alcohol for six weeks...except for those times the Bishop gave us Irish a dispensation.

I know I have the will power, do I have the desire??

Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven

Several days ago I stopped at a park and enjoyed the spring time weather. There was a rather large pond made complete with at least twenty ducks and geese. No, it was made complete with two older women attending a young girl child and her small training wheeled bicycle.

Being alone, I was able to just sit and enjoy the sunshine and people watch. Besides the young girl and her custodians, there was a middle age couple desperately in love. Not that they were smooching or openly fondling each other, but very gentle and holding hands, bodies always touching. Young love in the bloom.

Another lone character who was slowly walking the perimeter of the pond. Perhaps searching for the best spot to cast a fishing line?

It was a gorgeous day and we all celebrated it in our little peaceful realms of togetherness with nature.

The couple offered the little girl a handful of soft bread from the loaf they had retrieved from the car. All walked to the small dock on the pond, perfect and intended for duck feeding.

A flood of memories poured over me as the little girl, clad in a pink jacket tossed the bread over the railing into the waiting crowd of now noisy grouped fowl crying for the crusts of bread.

Bridget must have been around two years old. The jacket she is wearing above is the jacket she was wearing that fateful day we went to Cave Hill Cemetery off Bardstown Rd.

Going to the cemetery and feeding the ducks in the murky and muck ridden pond was one of her favorite things to do. We would first go to the day old bread store and purchase for dimes several loafs of stale bread. She would be so excited on the short drive. Being winter, I would bundle her up in several layers into that blue jacket along with mittens.

She was so excited that as I "unleashed" her from the car she began to run at full reckless two year old speed down a small hill towards the pond. Once I realized she was out of control I went after her.

In one tiny gloved hand, outstretched towards the ducks in the pond, was a lone slice of bread.

She never slowed down.

Over the lip of the grey limestone lined rim into the pond she went! With me giving chase behind her. She was up to her waist in the muck. What relief! I had no idea how deep the pond was going to be and had no hesitation of going in after her. Instead I just grabbed her and yanked her back out.

Still with the bread outstretched in her hand.

At the time it was not funny. 23 years later its a priceless memory.

THE TRAUMATIZED TOE CATASTROPHE

I sent my best buddy Deb a card this week and wrote all about the Papa John 10 Mile Race last week-end.

I knew that in her minds eye she was able to see me, an over weight 50+ woman, stripped down to a sports bra because the weather was toooooo hot, much warmer than anticipated. If anticipated, would have worn something more appropriate. Then I would have avoided the shock of seeing the pictures they send you via e-mail, in the hopes you will purchase documentation of being part of the race. What I saw was overweight white skin shining under the glaring sun, flab rolling over my tight running pants (also inappropriate for the weather...but would have been okay if my t-shirt did not have to be removed). I practically fell off the computer chair when I saw this abomination!

Good Lord, how did I arrive at this lowly state.

Since I did not practice, I was once again astonished at how hard it is to walk 10 miles! Especially when you are at least 20 pounds over weight and your hands and feet are swelling. I was being passed by everyone...everyone. Not to make any excuses, but my feet were killing me.

If only I could rip those shoes off and finish the last five miles bare foot, I would have done it. But having to carry the shoes would have done me in too.

Every step was torture.

I finished out of 4700 people, in the last batch of 300. Thank God there was pizza left. I limped to my car and immediately ripped those shoes off and examined my digits. They were so tender I could not touch them!

Several days later, they became big black and blue cartoon character toes.

I must concede that my running days are over, or I must loose weight, presumably by running.

God forbid I try eating correctly.

I am actually tempted to purchase the pictures as motivation.

Looking Back

THE WOMEN IN MY FAMILY (continued)

The interesting fact about this photo is that it is the only one I have ever seen of my Grandmother (bottom left) and all her grandchildren. Well, all the grandkids at the time. Missing are only my youngest brother P, my two sisters, and two of my cousins. All yet to be born. I would guess the year is 1956. Can you find me?

Never again were we all together for a photo. Our family moved to Kentucky. We were the only faction of the family to leave New York. Others followed, but much later.

Several times after this frozen moment we could have gathered together as a clan and smile for the camera. It never happened. It was not due to distance, we got together for several weddings before Grandma passed. It was due to my cousin (the cute blonde on the couch tickling one of the babies) marrying an Italian and "killing" my grandmother.

If she refused to go to one wedding, she could not go to any others.

As I look at this photo I am startled as I realize Grandma is smiling! As a child I never remember her smiling. I was scared to death of her.

My mother was the apple of her eye. She was mad at my mother also, for marrying my father. The reason? Because his sister is an albino and she was convinced the gene would transfer to one of us kids.

All the sisters and the one sister in law look so young, so happy. Tragedy, the step-sister to Life, had yet to reach out and touch them. To remind them that there are a lot more tragic things waiting for them than Italians.

Germans were okay. Not Italians.

The New Camera

 

If I resize the photo down to about 1/3 of the original, it is doable.

Even though I had them looking directly into the sun, I love the sly smile on Bridget's face.

Things Good This Week Ten!!

"Homer no function well beer without." Homer Simpson.

1) I made it through Lent and kept the no alcohol fast for over six weeks. That first Blue Moon tasted like....well, the best thing in the world!

2) The beautiful full moon this past week. It seemed so close to the earth as it set in the western sky that I could almost reach up and touch it.

3) Had an excellent week at work!

4) The Papa John 10 miler race is behind me. I finished in a very humiliating time and my poor feet were killing me. I came prepared to participate in 60 degree weather and it was in the damn 80's! Thought I was going to keel over.

5) Spending Easter with my family.

6) Shopping with my daughter Bridget, she is a trip.

7) A cookie run for DUNKERS (cranberry kind with icing!!) at Trader Joes in Indianapolis. I have everyone hooked on them at work.

8) While traveling down I-65 towards Louisville late Friday night, there was a tremendous lightening thunder tornado storm behind me. I was about 30 miles ahead of it. Thank God! It lit up the sky in breathtaking fashion for hours.

9) Going to lunch on the now fashionable Frankfort Ave and finding that an Easter parade was going on! We traversed the road blocks and found a parking spot on a side road very close to the restaurant! And added to that, we had a great spot to watch the parade.

10) Using my new camera at our family gathering resulted in some fabulous pictures. I am truly amazed at the differences. I have not figured out how to load up the pictures via Photobucket without them ending up in gargantuan proportions! But I will.

THE OPPOSITE

I was not a huge Seinfeld fan. George was my favorite. I guess I felt I had a little more of George in me than Jerry. One of the funniest episodes was when George decides that from here on out, he is going to do the exact opposite of what he would normally do!! Or say.

Ever since seeing that episode I have been tempted now and then to do the opposite of my normal routine!

It seems that I, like George, seem to have good things happen to me when I do the exact opposite of what I would normally do.

To my delight, I read yesterday in a trippy astrological newsletter that I subscribe to, but never read (the exact opposite of my normal routine)some interesting stuff.

I paraphrase....

If you want to have a happier life and feel better about yourself, just turn your back on reality! The higher your expectations, coupled with an unrealistic positive attitude and unfounded optimism, you are just more likely to accomplish great things in life!!

So,I'm being George the past several days! I'm not allowing myself to feel fat, or old, or unmotivated. I'm feeling the opposite, Sexy and a force to be reckoned with.

It has been fun and paying off in diamonds.

A very serendipitous two days searching for the universal password.

TEN GOOD WEEKLY THINGS

Once again!! Has a week flown by already!! Lisa has inspired me to keep track, usually in my head, the things that have made this week special. So, here we go...

1) Thanks to Netflix, I saw Walk the Line and CRASH. Both were really excellent movies, but CRASH...certainly the best movie I have seen in some time. If it had not won the academy award, I more than likely would have missed this superb movie.

2) After years of resistance (why????) I am reading THE DAVINCI CODE...and can't put it down.

3) Went to my bosses house for a barbecue on Saturday! We all sat around and watched the guys play ping-pong and ate Snickers Salad. I got the recipe! Divine.

4) My long lost gal pal C. sent me a belated birthday gift. Unexpected and lovely. The best kind of gifts!

5) Found the "Where I'm From" template for writing a poem. It was moving and emotional and a terrific self-examining experience. I can not wait to share it with my family and see the poetry they come up with!

6) Suddenly, overnight, I see yellow daffodils everywhere!!

7) At work, we are approaching our manic period (runs till October there abouts) and I am becoming acquainted with some fun accounts! Yea!! Minor League baseball clubs, little leagues, golf courses etc. etc. etc.

8) Went to the local comedy club, Snickerz, and had a blast! Found out I have passes at work and that means.....I can go whenever I want! Oh, how I love to laugh.

9) Finally being able to go out into the yard and do yard work!! This year, my yard is going to be a masterpiece. (hahahah!!!)

10) Joe came home!! This was the best of the week's events. I enjoyed the quiet and peacefulness, but I missed him more. Guess I would trade all that for him!

The Women in my Family

The Greatest Generation

I have a large box of photographs that my mother gave to me several years ago. The box contains the key to the past as long as it is passed on. I can look at the above photograph and know exactly who each little person is though the year must be around 1930. My daughter will know who each of the young children is, but will her children?

My mother is the youngest on the right. It is astonishing how much my sisters youngest resembles my Mom. Uncanny.

My Aunt Pat is on the left. My mom was born a year to the day to Aunt Pat. They shared a birthday. Aunt Pat was a major Tomboy in her day. She was a baseball fanatic and could pop off statistics memorized from the back of baseball cards like nobodies business. She was a beauty and married an Irishman who my Grandmother brought home for her. Funny, but true.

Aunt Maura is in the middle, the eldest. I am named after her and she is my Godmother. Maura is a nickname for Mary. In our family, so is Mollie! Maura left home at 18 and married a German!! I wonder if Grandma ever got over that. As the eldest, Maura was responsible for running the household because Grandma worked days as a nurse.

More about Grandma later.

Maura left home as quickly as possible. She is a fabulous cook, a highly regarded party giver, and most recently had cataract surgery because she was having trouble driving at night and it was interfering with her night life.

Uncle J., her German husband, died in 1982 of a heart attack. He died in her arms. He was tooling around in the garage, and she sensed something was wrong. She found him on the floor.

We all miss Uncle J. to this day. When ever we gather together, we talk about him and how big of a void in the family he left.

She remarried in 1995. They are quite a couple. He is about 95! He came over and ate at her house every night and she decided it would be easier to marry him if she was going to keep on feeding him. "I never expected him to live this long!" she exclaims.

Aunt Pat passed away in 2003. She had a long battle with cancer.

I will miss her till my dying day.

TEN WEEKLY GOOD THINGS

INSPIRED BY LISA

This is going to be tough this week. It began like a fresh summer day bright with possibilities and then a thunderstorm ruined everything. That is how the past week felt. But, that is the point of this exercise, to dwell not on the bad, but on the good!

1) Bridget and I driving and listening to Ibrahim Ferrer singing in Spanish. She flipped open the liner notes and began to read the words aloud in her sweet, halting voice brimming with the emotion of the lyrics.

A broken Shadow
without you
Only the twilight accompanies me now
Now that your love is gone
And there is no happiness for me.

Aimless, I drift
like smoke
through space
searching for you
I may not find you
I may have lost your forever, my love.

I will remember your eyes, your touch
I cannot avoid it
I will suffer, longing for yesterday,
I cannot forget you.

A broken shadow
without you
Only the twilight accompanies me now.
Now your love is gone
I will never feel happiness.

2) I purchased my first MP3. Well, the first one for ME! It is a cheap little thing from Walmart and I loaded up all the space with many of my favorite CD's.

3) I was able to take a long walk down the River Green Way beside the Maumee River. Though spring seems to have lost her way here, some of the fattest Robins I have ever seen did not get the word.

4) Solitude. Peace. Quiet. The deliciousness of being alone.

5) Catching a glimpse of something blue and realizing I was seeing the first crocus of spring in my new home!

6) Completing the 5K on Saturday and shearing off 45 seconds from the last 5K. This is hilarious as well as a good thing.

7) Going through several boxes of old pictures (from the early 90's) and the memories they evoked.

8) Seriously taking a trip by myself next month. Thinking that I really could do it!!

9) The sound of the thunderstorms this week-end.

10) Someone flirted with me last week and by God, it made me feel good!

COUNTDOWN

It has been really tough to practice for the upcoming 10 mile run in Louisville. Bad weather and attitude. Heck, I did not practice for any of the races thus far, why should I change now!! Fact is, the six miler (10K) surprisingly almost killed me. I really thought I could just sashay in and do it.

After all, I have done it before. The above picture was taken by my daughter Bridget several years ago (my hair is so short!!!) after the Danskin Triathlon held at Disneyworld. My sister Kit and I decided to do it together and I had plenty of time to prepare.

Did I? Heck no. I did join the YWCA and swam a grand total of one time. I had to sign up for a bicycle the day we arrived. And he only had some klunkers left. I was only too glad to get one!

We started the event when it was still dark. My daughter was scared for me because we began with the swim in the lagoon. I was concerned about alligators myself, but I guess Walt Disney would not allow us to be eaten alive by 'gators during a charity event. They divided us into age groups to begin the race. As soon as I hit the water I was run over by the enthusiastic nuts trying to jockey into a good position. Within a few strokes, I had to flip over and finish the 400 yards on my back. (In my youth I was a very fast backstoker...it is my event!)

I survived that and jumped on the bicycle for the 10 mile trek that seemed to circumvent the park. My sister came whizzing by me (smart aleck) asking if I was okay. Did I look OK?

I could barely stand up when I jumped off the bike. My butt took the worst of it.

The even ended with a two mile run through the Park itself. That would have been so cool if I had not been cross-eyed by then.

Yet, I finished and have a medal to prove it....and this picture. See the finish line?

So, after enduring that and finishing it without one bit of practice, the 10 mile run should be a piece of cake.

In 12 days I am going to attempt to run up the mountainous roads of Iroquois Park and then down the other side. I have accomplished this three times before.

Can I do it fourth time?

I really need to practice.

The Joy of Easedropping

I did get up and attend the Mastodon Stomp 5K. I was thoroughly pissed because I did not register in time to receive a T-shirt! I will have one. I have a plan to get my hands on one with the help of the Athletic Dept. Why run (if you call that running?!!) if you don't get the cool t-shirt.

As I was standing around waiting for the beginning of the race I could not help but over hear the conversation behind me. I was only half paying attention, so I missed half the details. Unfortunately, the important ones.

It went something like this.

"........and it only costs $19 to join. You run from bar to bar and drink a beer. Dinner afterwards."

"Dinner?"

"Yes, it use to cost an extra $7."

What the hell! I want to join this running club!! Immediately I think it must be a very cool running club for lushes. Now that I think about it, it could be a Running Slither...minus the dinner and on the premise that there is only enough beer for the first 50 people. I crack myself up with that picture in my mind!!

Once Joe and I were in this run in a small town in Kentucky. Before the race started we were given instructions to watch out for the loose gravel on the three mile stretch.

Two teenage kids were in front of us, one turns to the other. "I run for the cheerleaders."

The other replied..........."I run for the danger."

It became a running joke between Joe and I since.

HOME ALONE

My husband has gone down South for an long planned reunion with his family. The details were up in the air as to whether they would return here or just hang out "down there" and find activities that would interest an 11 year old.

They are staying there.

I am home alone for a week!!

I am so happy!! I know this is sort of crazy, but I really enjoy the solitude and the pleasures involved with just yourself to answer to. I want to put my pajamas on at 6pm...so be it. I am okay with just eating that pot of chicken/garbonzo bean soup all week, cool! No worries! Read, read, read!! Yea! yea! yea! No one to come through the front door and shout, "You back there on that computer...you are always on the computer!!" I can be on the computer as much as I want!! Write, write, write! Yea! Yea! Yea!

I miss him already. He left yesterday morning and we have been on the phone no less than six times. My sister told me that once she went to Europe for four weeks and never sent her husband a post card nor called him. I think this is strangely sad. I admire the certainly of the relationship. I know that she knew where he was every minute of every day...because they have been together for so long. I know that I could not do it.

I am going to go to a 5K at IPFW in a few moments. It has turned cold and chilly again after several days of teasing us with Spring like weather. I was hoping to work in the yard and surprise Joe when he arrives home! Maybe I will just rearrange the furniture and hang a few more pictures and surprise him that way.

I am so looking forward to this week stretching out before me.

Skipping around the Rules

RULE 7 -- After the age of 30, it is unseemly to blame one's parents for one's life.

Easy for Roger Rosenblatt to write in Rules for Aging. Let him put on a satin green skirt and dance the jig with ones Mother in front of the most distinguished constituents of the community. Including your friends. Let this happen to you year after year. While you wait for your cue to get up and make a dancing fool of yourself, your Father is signing old Irish love songs in the spot light.

Let Roger compensate for being shipped to another town to attend high school because your parents are hell bent on you receiving a Catholic education! (if only they knew this was not the Catholic schools of their generation!!)

Let Roger cope with his parents being involved with most every aspect of our lives from the time we were in the cradle till we were kicked from the nest...with our walking papers.

Coaching the swim team, car pooling to school, taking us and friends to camp, dragging us to museums, making us go to Mass, and for God's sake, limiting the amount of television we watched.

No No No ... I can never give up blaming them for who I am today!!

The fun part of aging is pretending you are wise......You can quote me on that one.

And I shall....the fabulous Angela of the equally fabulous Life As I See It.

I suggest we change Rule Number One to read "Knowing what Matters and What Does not"

On to Rule Number Two from the book RULES FOR AGING by Roger Rosenblatt...

NOBODY IS THINKING ABOUT YOU.

"Yes I know, you are certain that your friends are becoming your enemies; that your grocer, garbage man, clergyman, SIL, and your dog are all of the opinion that you have put on weight, that you have lost your touch, that you have lost your mind; further more, you are convinced that everyone spends two-thirds of every day commenting on your disintegration, denigrating your work, plotting your assassination. I promise you: Nobody is thinking about you. They are thinking about themselves - just like you."

Hmmmmmmmm.......

Then I have this other quote I read this week-end (thanks to Cynthia Heimel, author extraordinaire)

"When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap."

Here is the connection. I am certain that when I have one of my moments...such as telling Leo of Saw Doctors a complete fib and gushing as I babbled....or the time I spilled a drink all over the lead guitarist of Tempest and his girlfriend, those two leap to my mind immediately....that I am mortified for days.

It is nice to know that it is just a fleeting moment for them, and they never will think about it again. If they perchance ever spot me at another once of their concerts, they will not turn and run in the opposite direction.

I know this rule is riddled with cracks regarding its truthfullness,just like the first rule.

They might not think about you, but they will remember!!

This afternoon as I made my way back to the office I made a mental list of all the people I had thought of during the day.

The guy I met at IPFW, who was born in Harlan, KY. The guy I met today who went to school in Morehead, KY. My Mom, my Dad, the Angel Genie, my daughter Bridget, both my sisters, my pal G. in Florida, and then D. in Florida. My husband, dogs in general, my boss, my co-workers, A. who got her hair cut and it looks so nice and Don Johnson.

I threw in good old Don because I use to fantasize about him all the time years ago and he just popped into my head.

I was so busy thinking about everybody else, that I had little time to obsess about myself.

It was a relief, because I never ever should have gone through MacDonalds and got that double cheeseburger! I wasn't even hungry.

Where was I when it happened?

Rules for Aging

This afternoon at work I shuffled through the mountain of papers on my desk no less than three times. While I was in the middle of the second or maybe the third time, looking for an errant sheet of paper I had already found and absentmindedly misplaced again, I prayed that no one in the tight quarters (one small office barely large enough for one person is shared by four of us...the heat generated is something else!) noticed what I was doing.

Which brings me to mention the book I am reading.....Rules for Aging by Roger Rosenblatt.

Rule # 2......Nobody is thinking about you.

Thank God.

Actually, I am finding this book immensely entertaining in several respects. First, because it so full of common sense. Secondly, why didn't I learn these things long ago when it might have counted. It could have changed direction my life was taking. It's incredible how many times I broke these rules. And I still do!

Each rule is like a little nugget full of wisdom. A light goes off in my head and I think, "oh yea....I sure broke that rule the time I............. (fill in the blank).

Rule # 1 .......... IT DOES NOT MATTER.

"Whatever you think matters - it doesn't."

I can not possibly agree with this one. Sure, I see the possibilities that it is inconsequential if you are late, early, there or not there in the BIG PICTURE of things. 10 days from now let alone 10 years from now, what will it matter if I was at that meeting? Or made that dental appointment? But in the short run, it sure as hell matters.

I see the domino effect.

I wish it didn't matter so much. Maybe that should be the belief that I can age gracefully with. It does not matter as much as I think it does. Or maybe, there are things that I think matter....making a lot of money, living in a big house, driving a nicer car, the material things that are not important. If I loose my job, I will not die or starve. I found that our this summer, that I can find another job. It might not be the same, but I will find another job.

Yet, so many things matter a lot to me. I guess the trick is to have the knowledge and experience to know what is important and is not.

So, the fact that I shuffled through my disorganized mess of paperwork that I drag from my desk to the car and then from the car back to the desk.....it matters that I found what I was looking for.

And it matters that the guys did not notice, or comment, that I am one disorganized chick.

Ten Good Things Weekly

Lisa's Ten Good Things Weekly

This is Lisa's idea and a pretty darn good one. On every Monday she is going to come up with ten good things that happened to here during the past week.

Pretty cool to focus on the good things in life. I carried a piece of paper around, tucked in my purse and when something nice happened, I would jot it down. Even while I was driving down the road. So some of them are difficult to read!

1) LSU beating Duke!! I will never forgive Duke and Christian Laettner for hitting the miracle shot at the final buzzer of the Regional tournament in 1992. If I see it one more time on TV I will scream. Sure, it was a great shot and he was 100% from the field and on the free throw line. A perfect game. But this was our Un-Forgettable UK Wildcat Team!! Anyone who beats Duke gets my total support!

2) I made a promise to myself a long time ago when I first started the journal that I would not write a hair entry. Oh how I have wanted to write a hair entry since then!! So many time!! But, this is not a hair entry, this is just acknowledging that I walked into Great Clips and took my chances! You never know what might happen to you and your head. I got a very nice cut. It looks great. For that, I am so grateful.

3) I participated in the 10K (six + miles) in Louisville this week-end. Around mile four, my hip went our of joint Oh the pain! The pain!! But, I did not quit as much as I wanted. I finished it. Barely, but I finished it. I really need to practice more...

4) I lost five pounds in two weeks. Yea!

5) After the race Bridget and I drove around and I always take them out to eat. I wanted the delicious fish at the woman Suburban Club Fish Fry. A great place that use to be a hole in the wall in the South End of Louisville. It was only open from April until November and then, only on Saturdays. When the Papa John stadium was built for the University of Louisville football team, eminent domain was the finish to the Fish Fry. A brand new modern building was completed in the same neighborhood. The fish is still wonderful and scrumptious. And it was open on Saturday!! I purchased two pounds of it. There goes my diet...but I had just hobbled through six miles (+)!!!

6) Reading this great book...can't remember the name, something like The Fairy Princess of Brooklyn...and in it was this great story about her meeting Mick Jagger. I wish I had lived in NYC during the 1960's.

7) The sun was shining brightly on Sunday morning and I was able to take a few pictures with my new camera.

8) I made a trip to The liquor barn in Louisville for a b couple e double r un for Joe. I found a bag of candy assorts that I love. I carried it around the store and then right before I checked out, I put it back. Shocker.

9) I couldn't remember the exact birthday of my long lost pal C., but I knew it was sometime last week. I put together a surprise birthday box of goodies and sent it off! It arrived on the right day! Her birthday!


10) Border Book store and their fabulous CD selection. I was able to find exactly what I was looking for, an Ibrahim Ferrer album. I have listened to it about 100 times since I found it. I love this guys voice. I was so crushed when I found out that he passed away in 2001.

This was a great exercise and I look forward to doing this every week!!

IT WAS REALLY BONO

BANG A GONG GET IT ON

The lights were turned up. The roadies took the stage now.

We were left with HAY HAY HAY ringing in our ears.

Magic hung in the air.

We called our limo ride. He informed us he would be there at 1130. We retired to the bar to wait. We ordered two more gigantic 32 ounce beers to split between the four of us.

We were talking of non-important things and suddenly Linda stands straight up, points and announces. "THERE IS LEO!!!" (guitar player and cutie-extraordinaire.)

By golly he had entered the bar to talk and meet the fans. How cool is that? I mean really, how cool is that??

Linda and I go running over there and she asks if she can take his picture with me! He immediately puts his arm around me and she snaps this occasion with my cell phone!

Then I begin to babble. "Leo, our cousin in Galway is the God-father to your child." He looks terribly confused and frowns. "You don't have any children, do you?" He shakes his head no.

Damn.

I go back to the table. I tell Omega what I have done. "You big dummy! It's not Leo! It one of the original band members who is no longer with the band. It's not our cousin, but the brother of the man she married." She shook her head in sympathy of my Larry David-ness.

"Do you think I should go apologize to him. Tell him I was confused, it was Bono and not him?"

Then, she asked if she needed to save the picture. I stupidly told her it saved automatically.........

It's gone.

But the magic lives on.

And I found out they are head lining at the Irish Festival in Dublin Ohio this August.

I'll set things straight with Leo then.

LADIES AND GENT'S ----- THE SAW DOCTORS

There was not a soul anywhere! Only a guy outside standing on the street yelling "Tickets! Tickets!"

Are we at the right place!!? Where is everyone! Les was gone. The streets were deserted. It was pitch black, except for the Agora sign. The "O" was burnt out.

With some trepidation we went in. Down a dimly lit hallway and one turn to the left...there it was, the double glass doors to enter the Agora.

As soon as the doors opened, the heat, the smell, the noise engulfed us and sucked us in.

I heard them! They were already on stage. I ran into the ballroom blindly without looking back. I ran right into the back of the theatre into a thickly packed crowd. "How long have they been on stage?" I screamed, because he could not hear me any other way over the crowd, "About 20 minutes.", he relied.

Oh hell.

They were great. They were marvelous. They were wonderful. They sang and sang. N-17 was performed very early. We all sang along. As we did to most the songs. New ones were intertwined with all the classics.

I wanted to call Joe and let him listen to SHARE THE DARKNESS, one of the songs he likes....

Why don't we share the darkness tonight
Ah life's too short for wasting
For ifs and might have been's
Life's too short for wondering if
You could have lived your dreams
And its way too short for loneliness
We don't have to be
Now that we trust each other
Why don't you stay with me?
Why don't we share the darkness tonight
Make it warm and burning bright
I'll not say nothing
I'll be polite
Why don't we share the darkness tonight

........but I knew all he would hear would be people around me singing along with the dreamy lyrics.

So I enjoyed it meself, with a 32 ounce beer in one hand and waving my other arm in tune with the music and in a brotherhood with the others in the room.

They left the stage and naturally we coaxed them back on chanting/singing the soccer anthem that is a major part of the show, provided by the concert goers.

And they returned!! And did about six more songs.

Things get a little blurry here. And loud and sentimental. A big delightful surprise was their performance of BANG A GONG....!!

And they finished with HAY WRAP.

Then, they left the stage and the magic lingered.