Haiku for death of appliance

Rattle screech in ears
Electric box chills no more
Frigidaire or truth

Life in the 80s

In the late '70s and early '80s, I was running a little bar called the Lakewood Yacht Club, and performing with a comedy group called Random Scam.  

The guys told me I needed some new portfolio shots, so I hollered at an old friend from OU who was shooting football games for Sports Illustrated. 

He came and shot a few rolls and came back a week later with wonderful prints.  Lord knows what I've done with our group shots... We had recorded a 45 record - a parody of the Village People called the Village Apartment People, "It's fun to live on Northwest Highway"  and we had several off and on gigs around town.

Makes me smile to look back on those days - moderately sane,  still kickin'.

The smiling continues

I come from hopeful stock.

Not that we were prideful, so to speak, but we tended to expect things to turn out okay even if the immediate result wasn't necessarily what we had planned.  I always had the feeling that though I didn't like what was happenig this minute, it would get better at some point.

And it has.  It has.

Knock on wood.

Life in a bag

Does someone in your family keep everything?  And are you lucky enough to have someone else in your family who sorts it all and parcels it out?  Because of two of these great sisters, I have a chance to re-live some special moments from my past, documented in letters and artwork I sent and they kept safe and preserved for me --- in a bag.

Programs from high school plays, community theater performances, cross gender ballets (yes I once took the role of a boy: Fritz in the Nutcracker).  Then later, notes and letters documenting my marriage and divorce. 

Wow. 

Here's the lot of us circa 1959 in Lawton  - JC and Vandalia and their five great girls.

Arboretum is my church today

Spent the day at the Dallas Arboretum with three of my sisters, and hundreds of other people strolling, watching for bunnies and blooms, smiling at each other--- speaking for everyone, we had a great time.

The weather is just a bit cool but lots of good sunshine, plenty of flowering plants and  rose bushes.  Special faves: delphineums, violas, peonies and azaleas.  Rose bushes were so fragrant it was breathing in heaven.

Here's one sweetgum tree in the sunshine.

Seniors 2009

I’ve spent the past two weeks serving on three scholarship committees and it’s been a great experience. How happy I feel about our future!

The young people I’ve met these past few days are remarkable.  Graduating seniors who have already accomplished so much, we got to meet them in person and hear about their lives and dreams.

Balanced, articulate and passionate about their options and goals, they shared hope and commitment to giving college their very best. I don’t know if my own generation was as calmly confident although I know we were as eager. 

Another thing that they all shared in common: the acknowledgment of emotional support they gave to their parents.  Whether it was one-parent family or two, young or older parents, varying levels of education, these parents were all exclaimed roundly as the primary role models of these scholarship winners.

My congratulations to the 2009 grads, in Dallas and around the nation!

flash from the past

Struggled with internet access at home part of the month; very hard to try to get all net stuff accomplished at work, but mother nature had wrecked havok in my neighborhood.

A series of interesting things occurred.  

1) I got some housework done (I am NOT domestic so this is always a challenge for me). 

2) Finally broke down and bought a new laptop - great little MacBook, I love it!

3) Since I'm not using a work computer at home now, been a bit more adventuresome with blogs, photos and web searches.

4) Stumbled across the first love of life, Jim - who is now James - living in an adjacent state. We were madly in love in junior-senior years of high school then suffered separation issues after graduation that we tried but never could overcome. 

Long story short, still singing and playing guitar and writing GREAT songs, not doing for a living but since he has other means of support, he just keeps creating. He seems happy and it's so neat to be getting reacquainted.  I've found myself looking forward to his emails and calls over the past week, and we've made plans to get together for dinner- in person - next month. 

Smiling as I write this. 

Long day

Writing, calling, quick thinking and asking for favors took up most of the day.

Projects of varied interests kept me busy:  

• baseball -- a new urban league / clinics for third and fourth grade kids at six schools 
  
• signing day -- for graduating seniors going to top colleges, earning lots of scholarships
  
• focus group planning -- for a group of schools 
  
• new school dedication -- arts magnet, a really cool school
  
• classroom makeover project; library makeover project
  
• little kids rock guitar and keyboard program

And that's just the tip of the work iceberg.  I like the challenges that come, but sometimes they come all at once!  Never a dull moment in the communications world.