Well, I'm a soldier now...

Tuesday afternoon at work, I got a phone call from my son. 

"Where are you?" I asked him. 

"Home again."

"Yeah? How'd it go?"

"Well, I'm a soldier now." 

He had just gotten back from an overnight spent with two busloads of other new recruits, out near the airport. During their day and a half together, they sat around, bored, while the officers were getting all kinds of paperwork assembled and filled out. 

Then they had extensive physical check-ups, some basic testing of their physical condition (how fast can they run a mile, how many pushups and situps, etc). 

And then he signed three years of his life over to Uncle Sam, eight years if you count the commitment of inactive reserve status. 

He's going to be a CBRN Specialist. Impressive sounding, eh? Here's what the Army has to say about it:

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist (74D)

As a CBRN Specialist you will plan, employ, and coordinate CBRN defense systems in support of joint and combined arms operations including CBRN reconnaissance systems, biological agent detection systems (BIDS), obscurant systems, CBRN decontamination systems, and other CBRN hazard detection and warning systems. In addition, CBRN Specialists coordinate assets and efforts for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) force protection programs, CBRN defense support to civil authorities, CBRN vulnerability analysis, CBRN sensitive site assessment/exploitation, WMD elimination, technical escort operation, CBRN reconnaissance, and CBRN decontamination. The Chemical Branch provides the Army with a highly trained corps of CBRN experts.

My baby's going to be a specialist in chemical weapons.

Lots of people ask me how I'm doing with it. Since it's been a couple of months that he and I have been talking seriously about this possibility, I'm doing much better. Actually, in this whole anxiety producing process, once the decisions were made and action taken, the anxiety lessened considerably. The fear comes with the unknown.

My son let me come with him to the recruiting station when he went to pick out a job. I think he may have regretted that decision when I was was finding yet more questions to ask the officers. But hey, if I'm not going to question things for my son, who is? He doesn't want to appear like too much of an arrogant jerk, but I don't really care what they think of me. I want him to have the best opportunity possible.

And it didn't help when I got to the recruiting office, and all the officers were babies, under 30 themselves. It was much more comforting and helpful for my peace of mind when we were able to spend time with an officer over 40, who had close to 20 years of service.

Another help in this whole process has been being able to email and phone a good friend who can give me her insight and wisdom from the perspective of being an enlisted soldier herself. She's been in the Air Force for some years now, and gave us good advice about things like jobs to check, questions to ask, and things to expect.

So in a few months, I'll be packing up my boy and kissing him goodbye as he leaves for Basic Training. When he's done with that, he'll go to school for 20 weeks to learn how to deal with all kinds of dangerous and hazardous materials. 

Because I'm an external processor, I've been talking everyone's ear off about this whole change of direction in his life. The nice thing is, I've been given tons of support from my friends. And both he and I have been prayed over more in the last couple of weeks than in a long time, I think! 

We are blessed with our friends and our family. Without them, this would be a much more difficult process. 

Being Known, Being Loved

Some people have an eye for gift giving - or gift choosing, perhaps I should say. I am kind of gift giving challenged. Almost every year for me, it's the same old thing as Christmas approaches, racking my brain trying to think up interesting gifts to get for friends and family.

In the past few days, I've been given a couple of gifts that astounded me. Not because they were so fancy or costly or rare, but because my friends saw something that so reminded them of me, they were moved to get it and give it to me.

I had to miss the annual "girls' day out" with a small group of friends. They told me that they had missed me, and gave me a little present to demonstrate it. It was perfect - a little ornament in the shape of a front door with a wreath hung on it. It's just too cute! My friends know I have a thing for doors and windows, and have several door-like objet d'art hanging on my living room wall that this ornament matches perfectly.

Then last night another girlfriend and I exchanged gifts. Since she likes monkeys, I found another silly monkey-related present for her (a pair of slippers that look like sock monkeys, which she assures me are very comfy!). She gave me an object whose purpose was a mystery for a moment. It was a designed rack of some sort. My first guess was a plant rack, but it wasn't really the correct proportions.

It turned out to be a teacup rack that displays four cups and saucers. I was very moved because while she and her husband were browsing antique shops on vacation in August, she saw it and thought of me. She knows I have a number of old teacups that used to belong to my Mom. While the store had a number of antique teacups for sale, she knew that a more meaningful gift would be a way to display the cups from my Mom.

She also bought me a vintage glass Christmas ornament in the shape of Big Ben, because she knows I've been planning a trip to the UK (unfortunately delayed till the US$ gets a little healthier).

Now these three gifts are proudly set out on my living room table. My former pastor used to say that being known is important for us humans. Exchanging gifts with friends is fun, but much more meaningful than having the gifts is having friends whom I know and love, and who know me and love me. I feel very blessed this Christmas.

(To my special friends: you know who you are and that I love you!)

Drastic Changes

I hate playing around with my hair. That's basically the reason I grew it so long. Of course, once it got growing, it got to be a little contest with self to see just how long I was willing to let it go.

A couple of years ago when I cut a considerable length off of it, I was able to donate it to Locks of Love. However, I only had 6 inches, instead of the preferred 10 inches. That's okay, they Locks of Love can sell it 'to offset costs', as they say. But this time around, I wanted to give enough hair to make a wig.

So yesterday, my favorite hairdresser, Olivia, put my hair into a bunch of smaller ponytails - after asking me about sixteen times if I really wanted to cut that much off - and made my head several pounds lighter. (It will be interesting to see if it makes any difference in frequency of headaches.)

Even though I've been through this once before, fairly recently, I was still surprised at just how much hair that made, when gathered all together. I've been told I've got a lot of hair, but blonde hair tends to be smaller in circumference than other colors, so it appears thinner... not true here.

We ended up with a big hunk of ponytail about as big around as my wrist.

Here are some of the fun residuals. I posted the photo of me and Olivia on my Facebook page, and have gotten a bunch of comments on it. One of my friends said that she'd done the exact same thing yesterday. If I'm reading her comment right, my appointment was at 1:00, and hers was at 2:00! I wonder if she went to the same shop...

Is there such a thing as too much time spent online??

Okay, I realize that I am not an active person (coughunderstatementcough). That part I get: sitting all the time means that you're not getting enough exercise, no matter why you're sitting. You could be reading, writing, crafting, solving world peace, or stalking connecting with people on Facebook.

But really, I love connecting with people! And I think it's a really cool thing that these friends whom I haven't seen or had real contact in decades, I can communicate with them, let them know they're in my thoughts, know a little bit about their lives, their families, their sorrows, their joys.

(And send them oh-so-thoughtful-and-free cyber gifts from time to time, like an egg that hatches into a little puppy, f'rinstance.)

Oh the joy I feel when the little notification turns out to be a friend request - especially from someone who really is an old friend, not just some passing acquaintance through work or some other network.

"Will you be my friend?"
"You want me to be your friend?? Yes! Yes! Of course we are friends!!"

But if you talk about Facebook, people think that's the only thing you're doing, regardless if half your online time is spent doing all your shopping, correspondence, flickring and blogging.

I've been told (by good friends, actually) that I really need to get a life.

Hmmm. While that might be a valid observation, even if a cruelly delivered one, I still maintain that spending time virtually connecting with people is valuable, particularly when it's not possible to connect with them in person.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Venice, Day 4

Three words: Siesta. Key. Beach. Rated the #3 most beautiful beach in the United States for 2008.

Just south of Sarasota, it's home to sugar sand, which is incredibly white, soft, and doesn't get hot in the sun, so it's lovely to walk on.

We spent two lovely hours there, enjoying the breezy day, watching the pelicans and gulls nosedive into the surf for fish.

People watching was also good - we saw people building sand castles, flying kites, swimming, fishing (and throwing lots of fish back, causing a small feeding frenzy among the gulls), parasailing, and just generally enjoying themselves.

On the way home, we stopped off (of course) at Nokomis Groves for more citrus ice cream. I had another orange / vanilla; my friend tried the orange / pineapple. (Both received top marks!)

I decided it would be fun to take a walk in the actual groves, to see the fruit trees up close. It was cool until my foot started stinging from dozens of teeny tiny ants biting me furiously!

Meanwhile, I did get in a shot of the melon-sized grapefruits. (ED. Found out the next day that this particular species is called Chinese grapefruit, they're really meaty, and delicious!)


Once it was approaching dusk, we headed out again, this time to the Venice Audobon Center Bird Sanctuary to watch the birds come home to roost for the night. I'm coveting a nicer camera about now, one with better zoom, better color filtering, and ability to take photos at dusk.


This one blurry shot was actually quite interesting - a couple of egrets seemed to have a disagreement over a certain branch...

There were tons of egrets, blue heron, anhingas and some others I couldn't name. We got some lovely close shots of one great blue heron who really liked a nearby tree. He didn't seem to mind as we snapped photo after photo.

Home again, we're trying to bunk down at a decent time, to get ready for another full day tomorrow!

Laying in the sun is exhausting! (Venice Day 3)

Tonight my friend and I are two tired vacationers! We are all worn out from... erm, sitting in the sun at the beach. Oh, yes, we floated in the waves, too! And we ate ice cream.

But first things first. On the advice of my sister, we ate at a wonderful and charming Mexican restaurant in Venice called Mi Pueblo. Our food (chiles rellenos for me, tacos de camarones for her) was delicious, but the ambiance was what made it a very lovely experience. The building is kind of mission style architecture, and shares a quaint courtyard complete with fountain with several other businesses. Inside, murals on the wall framed with brick, warm colors, lots of plants, interesting lighting fixtures all make you wonder if you didn't step across the threshold into Mexico. Thanks, sis!

After lunch, we headed out to Venice's Casperson Beach - the Sharks' Tooth Capital of the WORLD! We followed the time honored tradition of vacationers (and locals, for that matter), and walked around bent at the waist, peering intently at the sand, in search of prehistoric teeth from prehistoric sharks.

We were honored for our search, as our reward is pictured here. 26 teeth, from teeny-tiny to larger than my own teeth, was our total haul. Not bad, actually, considering we spent way more time sunning and swimming than searching. It does get addicting, though. Once you're on a streak of finding teeth, you can't bring yourself to go. Like playing slots or drinking, you keep thinking "just one more, I'm sure the next one will be a big one, let me find just one more tooth." (Maybe if I go back real early tomorrow, ...)

Floating around in the Gulf of Mexico, letting the waves lift me up and bring me back down again, is very relaxing, yet somehow draining. Must be all the sun. It sure did feel good just bobbing about (like a cork on the wave, to quote a former ECC president). I did wonder just a tiny bit about the sharks whose teeth will wash up in ten thousand years or so, and whether they might be bobbing around in the currents like I was...

Back on land, we cleaned up and headed back out in search of treasure of a different kind: Nokomis Groves homemade citrus ice creams! (On the left is lime & chocolate; on the right is orange & vanilla.) This place is fabulous. It doesn't look like much, but their ice cream, made from oranges, lemons, limes, and pineapples, not to mention chocolate and vanilla. Their main store is closed for the season, but they keep the ice cream stand part open all year round. Lucky for us!

A visit to Nokomis Groves has become a tradition in my family, often one we take seriously enough to observe more than once during our visits here! (I think we're going back tomorrow - market research, you see, to find if orange/pineapple is better than lime/chocolate.)

On our way home, we had intended to shop for new swimsuits, but alas, the lycra gods were not in a flattering mood today. We did each end up with groovy new beach footwear, however - mine are pictured.

Home again in time to watch a DVD before heading off to bed. It's been a long day.

Venice, Day 2

Today was filled with Myakka River State Park and a visit to the South Jetty here in Venice.

Now I'd been to Myakka several times with Mom and Dad on previous visits, but had only ever taken the boat ride on the chuck-full-o-gators Myakka Lake and the tram ride.

Today, we started by going on the nature walk through partially swampy ground - walkways kept us out of the muckier parts - to the Canopy Walkway.

First you climb the 'short' tower to the swinging bridge, 25 feet off the ground. Then you climb the 74 foot tower, and get an eyeful of beautiful country.

My friend had to talk me up, since I'm so scared of heights. I hung back on the next to the highest level for at least 10 minutes before I had the nerve to go all the way up to the top.

We saw an amazing array of birds: hawks, vultures, cranes, egrets, herons - nesting, flying, screeching, whirling. It was pretty awesome.

Back on the ground, we went back to the lake. Too late to take the boat ride, we found out that today wasn't a good gator-viewing day, so we weren't too disappointed.

Right alongside the boat, we got a bit of a treat. One of the rarer birds in the park, the Limpkin was wading around looking for food, so we got a nice close look.

From there, we went over to the little dam, where we were about as close to a gator as you can get and keep all your body parts intact.

After brats and floats, we decided to go over to the Birdwalk, which extends a ways out into the swampy land, almost to the lake, and saw lots more birds and lots more beautiful lake.

By the time we were heading back to Venice, it was getting later, so we decided to go straight to the South Jetty to see if we could spot any dolphins as the tide was coming in.

In all the many times I've been out dolphin watching on the Jetty, I've never seen as many at once, and as playful a bunch of dolphins as today.

They weren't just breaching and swimming around; they were blowing, jumping a little bit and coming down with a big splash; they were slapping the surface of the water with their tails. It was really fun!

Trying to take pictures got a little hard, because there so many off in several directions.

While we were there, we saw two bridal couples taking wedding shots, and what was probably an engaged couple getting their photos taken, too.

We were there for almost two and a half hours, just watching people, dolphins, waves, and the sunset.

All in all, a great day spent in the beauty of West Central Florida!

We have arrived! (Venice, Day 1)

Hooray! After months of thinking we were coming to Florida in October, agonizing over what dates to select, only to have a false alarm thinking that my boss didn't want me to take this particular week off, we have arrived in the land of sunshine!

We landed in Tampa yesterday around noon, and took advantage of our proximity to Clearwater to visit the attractions there before heading south to Venice. While we weren't able to visit the US's number one rated beach at Caladesi State Park because of the ferry hours, we did check out Honeymoon Island State Park (so named for honeymoon bungalows built there in the 30s).

What a pleasant surprise! We walked along the Osprey Nature Path. We did see one osprey flying away from us, and a couple of giant nests up high in the trees. Our walk was hurried along by the carniverous noseeums, unfortunately.

Escaping the bugs, we took a walk along the beach and cooled off in the waves a bit. Then we drove down and visited the ferry landing, where we saw lots of water birds and jumping fish. This really is a beautiful area, and we may be back to visit the beach when we leave.

At my folks' house now, I wonder if I'll ever be able or want to retire down here. The pace of life is slower, that's for sure. But there are lots of things to do - it's not like the streets roll up at night.

Of course, there are the hurricanes to consider...

'My Very Own' first installment...

Today I received my first three meals prepared by My Very Own Chef!! I had my son pick which one he wanted to try. He decided on Ratatouille. I was a little less than completely enthusiastic, because it has eggplant, right? And I'm not enthusiastic about eggplant, but still wanted to try the dish.

Well.

First of all I was starving because I worked late again today, and didn't get home till almost 7:00. So by the time we talked about it, decided what to eat, then cooked it, it was about 8:00. Then bit by bit, the house started getting infused with the most delicious smells.

When the food was ready, I served up our two plates. Son was less than enthusiastic about trying goat cheese, but he decided to be brave.

(Fred Astair song/dance break) "Heaven, I'm in heaven. And my mouth's so full that I can hardly speak! But I seem to find the happiness I seek, when there's ratatouille stuffed inside my cheeks!"

The flavors were so yummy, and so good together. Between the slices of veggie, the sauce it's cooked in, the tang of the goat cheese, and the basic goodness of the couscous, I really did feel like I was in heaven.

My son loved it. He expressed himself weirdly though. Here was our conversation:

Me: So, did you like it?

Him: Yeah, it was okay.

Me: Okay?!!

Him: Yeah, I mean it's not like my normal kind of food I eat every day. But it was delicious. But I wouldn't eat it every day, you know? But I really thought it was delicious!

Me: Um. Okay.

As I'm writing this, he hollered at me from his room, "Hey Mom, is it okay if my girlfriend comes over to try the ratatouille?" There's actually still enough for two servings in the pan. I said yes, but I'll make sure there's still enough for me to have another serving!


ED. Since I posted, the official website for My Very Own Chef has gone live, and the kitchen is definitely open for business!

Maybe you can go home again

When the Town & Country Commission decided to hold their fall meeting this year in Sugar Grove, PA, just 15 minutes from my hometown of Warren, I jumped at the chance to tag along. I get back home so infrequently anymore, and a free trip there was too good to pass up.

The anticipation was building as we drove down from the airport - it's been a year since I was last in Warren. I was going to stay at my sister's house, and it would be nice to see her, but because the meetings would be held in Sugar Grove, I'd also be able to see several cousins there who still live on the land they grew up on.

I had forgotten about the fall colors, and wouldn't have dreamed what strong feelings they would evoke in me. Reflecting on it, I realized it's probably been almost 30 years since I was last in Warren at the height of the autumn brilliance. Turn after turn of the road revealed heartbreakingly beautiful reds, oranges, yellows, greens and browns of deciduous splendor.
I was desperate to stop and capture it on film, but we needed to keep moving, to get to our destination, and I didn't want to scare the passengers in my car with my drive-and-click method of photography (which yields admittedly questionable results). :)

The next unexpected joy was waiting for me at the church. The pastor, Brian, had told me that my carpenter-contractor cousin Bob was working on a construction project in back of the church. This church I have always thought of as a sleepy country church is almost doubling the size of their building! We arrived in time for me to talk with him for a while and catch up a bit, then we were off to his big brother's buffalo farm.

I'd been there last year at the reunion - I knew the buffalo would be cool. But when my cousin John started telling us all about the animals, from breeding to feeding to disease prevention to behavior patterns, and more, I was tremendously impressed with how knowledgeable he is. Things like this: they buy bugs, actually import specialized insects that prey on the kind of flies that plague the buffalo, and can cause eye disease. And how buffalo are so intelligent, that, unlike cattle, they don't hurt themselves by overeating.

I was glad that we'd arrived just in time for me to see cousin Barb and cousin-in-law Sherry, as well!

The whole weekend, although a bit crazy busy, was wonderful! We were able to tour two other local businesses, including a lumber mill (with the biggest, scariest saw I ever wish to see!), and a diesel engine plant where they make two products - a big engine and a bigger engine! (Now who would have thought assembly line work could be so fascinating!??).

Best of all, of course, was the people. Our commission invited four area pastors and their spouses out to a nice dinner on Friday, and all four pastors are friends of mine. It was very special to spend a bit of quality time with them, and hear how their ministries are going.

The reason the commission holds one meeting a year at a town & country church is two-fold: to learn about the individual churches, and to encourage the pastors and congregations. We always pick locations where there will be a cluster of several T&C churches. And while I think we did encourage the pastors by our interest in them and our visit, there's no question in my mind that I was on the receiving end of some big time encouragement by being there.

All of my trip photos are here (as well as explanations as to what they are), but below are several of my favorites from the weekend. Enjoy!

Salivating...

Okay, food trivia fans. Here's a little quiz. What do the following items have in common?

• stuffed peppers
• grilled chicken parmigiana
• chicken cordon bleu
• pulled pork
• swedish meatballs
• melt-in-your-mouth meatloaf (can'twaitcan'twaitcan'twait!!!!!)
• classic lasagna
• tuscan pot roast
• chef's special gazpacho :)
  
• ratatouille for me-eee (and Jazz)
  
• chicken pot pie
• beef bourguignon
• stuffed pork tenderloin
• chicken chili
• melt-in-your-mouth meatloaf

If you guessed they are things that I'm not cooking in October, you are CORRECT!

If you guessed they are things I am eating in October (well, at least 10 of them), you are ALSO CORRECT!

If you want to point out that meatloaf is on the list twice, no duh! It's only the best thing in the whole wide world!

Finally, if you'd like to point out that I'm using way too many exclamation points, get used to it!!!!!!!

good neighbors

They say good fences make good neighbors. I talk to and like a lot of the people on my block, even if I don't actually socialize with them beyond our sidewalk conversations. I think I have pretty good neighbors.

There's a 3-flat across the street from me. The owner is not a huge gardener, nor does he take exquisite care of his lawn (as opposed to the people in the 3-flat right next door to him, whose lawn is as green as I imagine their homeland of Ireland to be!).

Over the years he's gotten some nicer plants, and he's tried to put little mini-fence things to protect his grass. But the mini-fence things keep getting knocked over, stepped on, bent, by who knows who. And the neighbor kids from the corner apartment building have begun extending their play area to include his lawn.

I remember walking by his yard and seeing that someone had systematically bent over all the top decorations on his mini-fences, and also flattened every other one to the ground. Nice.

So today, I come home, and what's across the street? A good (and pissed off) neighbor...

Random Act of Kindness

I love my church. I love that we have air conditioning. I love singing in my church's worship band. But I don't love that while we're on stage, we're under the fry lights, out of range of the AC, and I end up sweating like crazy.

Today's sermon was on Kindness (already done Love, Joy Peace, Patience, the rest are yet to come). Good sermon, talked about the difference between Being Nice and Showing Kindness. At one point Pastor was talking about the idea of random acts of kindness that was made popular a number of years ago.

As I sat in the back pew, listening to her speak, someone tapped my shoulder. It was a guy (who'd been sitting in the comfy chairs in the way back) with a wet paper towel for me to put on my neck. He'd seen me fanning myself, then twisting up my hair to get it off my neck, and decided to do a li'l random act of kindness right then and there.

Nice. Kind. :)