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.