I Think I Love You

...so what'm I so afraid of? I'm afraid that I'm not sure of... a love there is no cure for. (da DUM, da da da DUM DUM, da DUM!)

Wowee. David Cassidy used to make my heart go pitter pat (kinda still does, if we're being honest here).

And Davy Jones! Squeee! The cute Monkee. You know, the short Brittish one who played the tambourine. *sigh* I play the tambourine, too.

Such a huge flood of teen and tween memories accompany those two names. Remembering, in both cases, my sisters and I so looking forward to the new television season because we'd heard about the new show with the cute singer(s). Being envious of the girls down the street who had every issue of Tiger Beat and 16 magazines - their dad owned candy and smokes store, so of course they got theirs for free. Hmph.

I was just young enough for the Monkees that I listened to my sisters' lps, but The Partridge Family was totally my era. My next oldest sister and I bought a teen magazine if it published lyrics to their songs, and we'd make up our own tunes if we didn't know the real ones. Singing on the stage of our beds with our next door neighbor, our hairbrush as our microphone.

David and Davy both lived pinned up on my wall for who knows how many years. Among my very first record albums. Definitely my first crushes. Such sweet innocent times! :)

And two nights from today, both David Cassidy and Davy Jones are going to be IN CONCERT, one night only, just half an hour away from my house. And there are still tickets...

(ED: If I'd not been sick as a dog, I absolutely would have bought tickets; as it was, I was able to get tickets to another show from the same era, JCSuperstar, which I will write about at a later date...)

New Years Tradition

For the first time in years, decades probably, I spent New Year's Day curled up in front of the TV, watching the Tournament of Roses Parade. When I was a kid, I guess I thought that's what everyone did, that's what you were supposed to do on New Year's. We watched lots of parades, it seems. (Maybe that's because there were four channels to choose from, not 250 channels, and a much limited list of programming.)

This year Bob Eubanks was one of the announcers, and was one of several familiar faces, which also included Cloris Leachman and Jack Hannah.

It was fun to watch and listen as an adult, and learn all kinds of interesting facts about the participants in the parade:

• The Tournament of Roses Parade is now 120 years old. The Vally Hunt Club created the parade as a way to advertise Pasadena's great weather, even in winter. I thought it was particularly fitting that the Anchorage, Alaska, Visitors Bureau had a float in the parade!
  
  
• The Rotary Club was started in Chicago, and derived its name from the fact that the men would rotate homes in which the met? (it's true!)
  
  
• The hooves of the horses in the parade are painted with black shoe polish (not sure why, though).
  
  
• John Philip Sousa once played in the USC Marching Band (who participate yearly, I believe)
  
  
• Sons and Daughters of the Old West are a riding club made up of descendants of TV and movie Westerns.
  
  
• The Lions Club reproduced a newly discovered photo of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan on their float.
  
  
• Andalusian horses get darker as they age.
  
  
• An Essex, England band financed its trip by going on a TV reality show and won 40,000 in either dollars or pounds.
  
  
• Another band traveling a long distance was from Puebla, Mexico - the Aguilas Doradas, Golden Eagles. They win the prize for best headgear, for sure!
  
  
• A number of bands, including the band from Hawaii, are specifically assembled for this parade - which means the musicians only have a couple of days to play together as a group.
  
  
• Bob Eubank's wife traveled with Bob Hope and the USO.
  
  
• Huntington Beach has been known as Surf City since 1925, ever since a legendary surfer from Hawaii moved there, bringing his surfboard and his sport.
  
  
• The word "buccaroo" is originally derived from the Spanish word "vaquero", which means cowboy.
  
  
• June Lockhart's parents were set up by Thomas Edison.
  

Some other highlights for me were seeing the Penn State marching band, football team and cheerleaders.


"We are!" "Penn State!"
"We are!" "Penn State!"








Watching the fabulous band from Prairie View A&M University. They were definitely the most energetic of the bands, in my opinion.

I can imagine walking, even marching, for 5 miles, but dancing!?


My favorite floats, judged on beauty and interest, were The Bollywood float (the photo at the top of this entry, the Vera Bradley float,





the City of Duarte / City of Hope float,










and the Rain Bird Corporation float.







Watching the parade was enjoyable not only because of the nostalgia factor, it was fun and interesting and beautiful all at once. Maybe I'm going to have to revive this tradition!

(All photos from www.marching.com website)

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!)

Sankofa Processing #4

So, Sankofa stills keeps coming to mind almost every day.

A couple of days ago, I was going to blog about how the upstairs neighbors' daughter plays the same song over and over again; that it's not loud, just annoying, and compare it to some old upstairs neighbors who must have had a Mr. Microphone. At this point, being the eager blogger that I am, I wanted to link in a reference to Mr. Microphone. Lo and behold, there's an old ad for it on YouTube!

The only thing is, I was so horrified when I watched it, I couldn't post the blog after all. At one point there's an African American man dancing down the street waving his radio around, singing on his Mr. Microphone. *shudder* Watch this ad at your own risk of being offended.

Granted, the white guy who hollers out of the car ("Hey, good lookin'! We'll be back to pick you up later!") makes me shudder, too, but not in a offensive-race-stereotype kind of way (more like a you're-such-an-incredible-dweeb kind of way).

At least this has the excuse of being about 25 years old, and thankfully isn't being aired anymore. Kind of reminds me of the old I Love Lucy shows, where she calls Ricky "sir", or he actually spanks her. They thought that kind of offensive 'humor' was funny, too, rather than simply misogynistic.

We are FamiLY! I got all my sistas with ME! Hey-hey-HEY!

So my family totally rocks! I know this because... well, they just do! I got a couple of cool emails today. One was from my cousin-in-law, who sent me photos from last year's big 50th family reunion. Very cool, especially since I'd been waiting a year for it. I really love that ALL of my siblings and I, and most of our kids, were able to go. We had at least 90 people there.

And the other cool email just came from my sister, who's down visiting Dad right now, and sent us an update. You never know who/what he'll remember, or what he'll fixate on in conversation. Sometimes he can be really funny, like when he kept exclaiming "Wowiekins!" at points during their visit.

Yep, definitely a cool family - we're talking wowiekins cool! :D

Birthday plans

So I've sent out this email invitation to some friends, and am waiting (im)patiently to see if we can make a party of it for this Sunday. I'm so excited!!

TO MY BESTEST BUDDIES,

I am beginning to feel my age (beginning, hah!), and want to start doing things I've always thought were cool, but never got around to it, didn't think I could spare the money, whatever.

So my birthday is coming up next week, and I think it would be fun to celebrate by doing one of those things I always wanted to do - CHICAGO BOAT TOUR!!
(you can tell I'm excited by the double exclamation points!!)

This coming Sunday, July 27, I'm booking tickets four an architectural cruise with Wendella Boat Tour. Do you want to come along? They have an internet price of $22. (Realizing, of course, that our friendship is PRICELESS!!)

Let me know ASAP, and I'll book enough tickets for all of us.

Hoping you'll be able to come,
Waiting with baited breath (get it - baited - boats - fish - BAIT!!!!!),
Me



I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope they can all come. I've never done a Chicago boat anything, except for that one time I could wish I could forget when I was young and stupid and got drunk and then had a seizure on a guy's boat, then got back to my apartment really late the next morning, and there was Big you-know-who coming out of my apartment because everyone was worried about me because I wasn't answering my phone and they didn't know where I was, and thought maybe I had a seizure or something (which I had, but...) and so you-know-who came up and we had been separated for over a year by then and it was really weird and uncomfortable because it was kind of evident that I was still a little hung over - not to mention the fact that I had been with another guy - plus the fact that he was feeling a bit put out by coming all the way to the North Side to see if I was all right like some kind of big humanitarian gesture or something, so that experience doesn't really count. Plus I could never make the toilet flush on that boat.

So anyway, it would be nice to get a positive boating experience for my birthday this year!

(By the way, all these photos were lifted from the Wendela website and are from the architectural tour.)

Sitting Pretty

return to me
Originally uploaded by Swedish Colombian

We take photos because we want to remember, record something. I often take pictures of places I think of as ideal sitting, thinking, reading, chatting, dreaming spots. Some day, I'd like to make myself a photo book of all these places.

Like this bench in the Botanic Gardens. Almost everyone was walking past it on their path to see everything the Gardens have to offer. Its hard to slow down and just sit somewhere, when you feel you have to keep going. But I always think of the places I want to go back to...

Déjà vu all over again

Okay. So this is weird. I'm reading, and the story line says something about a precise time that day. And so I think, how do you know it's that exact time, and my mind keeps stream-of-consciousness-ing along, and I remember calling Time and Temperature when I was a kid.

(streaming, streaming) I squint my eyes and think, what was that number we used to call? Like all of Warren, PA, it had to be 723 something - no! It was that other prefix, 726! Yeah!

(streaming) I dig deep, really deep down in my unused brainwaves and come up with a version of myself, singsong chanting, 7-2-6-1-6-oh-oh! Yeah! The whatchacallit bank we could dial up and hear the voice saying, "the time is 7 o'clock, temperature, 58." Or whatever.

I google the number, 814-726-1600, and sure enough, it comes up with Time & Temp Ser-Warren, Pennsylvania (really they can spell out 'Pennsylvania', but have to abbreviate 'service'?) Way to go, brainwaves!

So what the heck. I call the number. Just like old times. Except for the very long advertisement about whatchacallit bank's services (ser's) first, of course. To make up for that you get not only time, not only temp, but a weather forecast for tomorrow. (High eighties) And can you believe it's like 72 degrees at 1:30 in the morning there!??

By the way, here's the bank building, also known as the Flatiron Building. I took a photography class there once the year after high school. Became friends with the teacher, and saw him at our 25th class reunion, where he was taking our group picture. He's a town councilman now, I think. (streaming, streaming)

Hummingbird don't fly away, fly away...

So a really cool thing happened just now. I got back to my room and opened some windows to let in the fresh air. Just as I threw open the second window, a hummingbird zoomed up to the other side of the screen, hovered for a second, then flew away again. It was like he was checking me out for that second.

There and gone again, just like that. Of course too quick for me to even think of pulling out my camera, but he looked like this guy, a ruby-throated hummingbird. Just long enough for the two of us to look at each other for a second. Little blessings for the day...

getting out of the city (II)

This Memorial Day I did something really fun - I took the Metra to Fox Lake and spent the day at my friend's home in unincorporated Spring Grove. Taking the train was fun. The conductor looked about 19 years old, and he so strongly resembled Harry Potter (is this the Hogwarts Express?) I had to keep myself from staring! Once I got settled, I kept trying to think of ways I could snap a picture of him without either a) looking like a total psycho stalker, or b) getting arrested, or c) getting thrown off the train. No worries - I never saw him again after I first boarded. (Was it all a dream?.......)

Wow. Gorgeous setting, lots of tall trees, large 1-5 acre lots, great yard and gardens, unpaved roads, wildlife nearby, property bordering on state park property. It's like a little taste of Heaven to go there. This is the house my friend's husband lived in before they got married and he moved to her condo in the city. I've wondered before why they didn't just sell the other house and live in one place. Now I wonder why they didn't just opt to live out there, it's so great!

We had a really nice time, laid back, just mostly chatting around a meal of steaks and corn cooked on the grill, then the first game of croquet I've played since I was about 12. Mosquitos notwithstanding, it was simply a perfect afternoon and evening.

On our way home, we drove through Chain of Lakes State Park, which was surprising to me in that it was mostly flat wetlands, instead of hilly forest, my usual experience of state parks.

We were all tired when we got home, but boy was it worth it. (I'm trying to see how I can use their country home as a weekend retreat sometime! Hah!)

when dreams die...

This is the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination. The day before he died, Martin told us that he might not come with us, but he had already seen the promised land. Witnesses say tears were rolling down his face as he spoke these words.

xx Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.
xx And I don't mind.
xx Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
xx And so I'm happy, tonight.
xx I'm not worried about anything.
xx I'm not fearing any man!
xx Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
(See/hear/read the entire speech.)

Bobby Kennedy was out campaigning at the time, and had planned on speaking in a neighborhood in Indianapolis that the police told him was unsafe; in fact, his police escort left him when he entered that neighborhood. He was the one who brought the news to the largely African American crowd who had gathered to hear him that King had been killed. Below is the text of his speech. (Lots of youtube videos have the speech, this one has a nice montage of photos.)

x Ladies and Gentlemen - I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening. Because...
x I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.
x Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.
x For those of you who are black - considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.
x We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.
x For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.
x But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times.
x My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote:
xxx . "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
xxx . falls drop by drop upon the heart,
xxx . until, in our own despair,
xxx . against our will,
xxx . comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
x What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.
x So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, yeah that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.
x But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.
x Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
x Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much. Robert F. Kennedy - April 4, 1968

Even 40 years later, the tragedy of promise cut short brings back sharp feelings of pain. Two months and a day after this speech, Bobby also was dead.

How do we honor those who have gone before us? How do we keep dreams alive? Continue to work so that their deaths, their sacrifices, their work is not in vain? Like Bobby suggested, let's start by praying for ourselves, for our country, and for our world as we attempt to live out the answers to these questions.

I heart Medellín!

I uploaded a bunch of pictures from my trip to Medellín 15 months ago. I also looked up other people's photos of the same places I visited. And I have come to the following conclusion: I LOVE MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA!

There's a feeling when you think of a person, a place, even a pet, and your heart just pulls with the desire to be with that person, in that place again. I don't know how long it's going to take me to be able to visit again, but I will be back. And I can't wait to see some of my favorites and go to some new spots, too. If I could stay three weeks, I would. But I will be back.

The Franklin Sings!

Well, little movie clips from my camera, anyway. He sang with me a little bit yesterday. Here's a verse of Amazing Grace and the chorus to The Holy City. He made up a little song, too, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera to catch it. It was cute, though!
(Now if I could only figure out how to rotate the image so that I don't have to bend over to view!)

Amazing Grace
The Holy City

Lobster...

...is what I feel like about now (not eating it, being it!), after 5 hours on the beach! Various limbs and other exposed body parts are about as red as one of the lifeguard stations here.

We went to Siesta Key, off the coast of Sarasota, and spent hours just reading, sunbathing, listening to the waves. Great relaxation method.

We took a look at Turtle Beach first, but went on to Siesta Beach because of its beautiful sand...white sand some call sugar sand, because its consistency is like confectioners sugar. It's so soft, so white, kind of sparkly when it's on your skin. That's because it's made from quartz.

Hardly anyone was on the beach when we arrived at about 9:30 this morning. Kids being in school, not prime vacation season, plus the early hour guaranteed us a close parking spot and a choice of locations to park our beach chairs.


We had seen the weather forecasts change from possible rain showers to sunny, so figured it was a good day for the beach.

But after a while the clouds started blowing in. We held our ground though, and after an hour or so of threatening clouds, they blew away and the sky cleared again.

Of course the clouds moved so fast because it was so windy, in fact, perfect kite-flying weather. I don’t know when the last time was that I’ve seen people flying kites. But there were a number of them there, including this cool pelican kite.

There was one shaped like a big barrel, another bird shaped one, one that had some noise-making thing in it, one with a long multi-colored tail, a red, white and blue kite (which later had a flag hoisted up its tail). Finally we saw a kite that had two gliding heads connected to each other that made loop-de-loop shapes with the tail connecting them. Pretty cool.

We stayed out probably an hour to 90 minutes too long. Both my sister and I got burned, me far worse than she. Good thing we had plenty of aloe back at Mom’s house! Hopefully the worst of it will be gone by the time I go home.

One of the most interesting things was all the people watching. This guy was out for quite a while, doing what looked like TM or something. He would put his hands in a receptive posture for a while, then stretch them out, then bring them together in a prayer pose. And he sat there in a lotus position for the longest time.

There were also lots of parents with pre-school kids, some really cute and laughing, one that kept crying (and finally left, to our relief!). Some people had their metal detectors or sand sifters, looking for natural or man-made treasure.

All in all, it was a great, relaxing way to spend a day. It’s probably been 30 years since I’ve just lain out a beach like that, and 10 years since I’ve spent any quality time at any beach (last time being mission trip free day on the other side of the Gulf).

So I think this time the lobster skin is a small price to pay!

Part of a Family

During this past week of Midwinter, I realized something. At some point in the week, I connected with people from every decade and every phase of my life.

• Becky and John E have known me since I was a year old, and Karen H was my pastor's wife at our church in the mid sixties. (Of course, I could also name my own sister, who attended Midwinter, and whom I've known since, well...)
  
• I met Keith S, Bob A, Pete H, Bruce L, Rick M all at Camp Mission Meadows in my early teens in the seventies. I would have been at Scandia Cov at the time.
  
• I met Eric Sparrman, Dave G, Dave K and Lana H at North Park in the late seventies. I went first to North Park Cov, then Iglesia del Pacto de Albany Park.
  
• Baxter and Margie S let me live in their home in Medellin, Colombia in 80-81. I also met Carol B that year (in Ecuador), and Ray D, who was head of World Mission at the time. In Colombia, I mostly attended house services.
  
• I had classes with Noel C, and knew who Pat G was at North Park in the early eighties. Back to IdP Albany Park.
• Bob S, Dave and Laurel G, Eric H, Steve and Mary Jane D are all friends made at Grace Covenant in the early nineties. Stuart M and Deb G were my two pastors during the nineties.
• The list of people met since 2000 is simply too long to name - people both at Grace and through work, and who were all at Midwinter.
  

This list is just people I know; if I expanded the list to include people who knew Mom and Dad, or siblings, it would be huge. (And I run into people who knew my sisblings from their camper days or working stints at Mission Meadows, or those who know my siblings from the churches they've attended, or from their time at North Park.)
Family. Awesome... gives me a warm feeling inside.

Was I ever really that small?

Today as I was picking up, I folded a couple of paper bags from the grocery store and a memory picture popped into my brain. I remember playing with paper bags, making clothing out of them by cutting neck holes in the bottom, arm holes in the side, a long cut down the front, and fringe along the bottom. Color with crayons and presto! A very cool vest type thingie. (hip, me? oh, yeah!)

As I looked at the paper bag, holding it upside-down to get the image of the temporary play clothes we used to construct, I was struck by how small it was. Was I really ever able to fit my torso inside a grocery bag!?

What would my grandson say if I took away his transformers and spiderman action figures, and replaced them with crayons, a grocery bag, and a pair of scissors? Are there kids anywhere that still think it's fun to play with such homemade toys? *sigh* Ah, the wonders of the unjaded imagination!

I wanted to illustrate this entry with a photo of a paper bag vest, and found photo evidence that yes, kids still are doing this (although the level of enjoyment in this kid's face is questionable-btw, this is some random kid; I just found him through the miracle that is google). Apparently someone thinks the craft is difficult enough to have created illustrated directions, too. Although they should have mentioned how difficult it is to get realistic fringe that's narrow enough.

Family Jokes

What can I say, I come from a weird family. In a good way. My memories of family life include lots of laughter. A family story involves my sister and I both making up jokes at supper, I think one after the other. Best guess, we were maybe 4 and 5.

Karen's joke:
Q. What did one pancake say to the other pancake? (my dad would often make us Bisquick pancakes for supper)
A. I love you pancake; I love you back. (hilarious, right?)

My joke:
Q. What did one ant say to the other ant when he couldn't find the milk? (supper that night included milk to go with the pancakes, evidently)
A. Hey, where's the milk?

Okay, at least in my joke, it was easy to tell who was saying what.

Another way my family joked was to play with words. This was mostly Dad's thing - he always loved playing with language. He used to point out the oddities of English pronunciation, citing examples like rough, cough, through, bough, though.

We played with our names, learning how to say them backwards. Dad's Alzheimer's is very advanced now - he can't really identify people anymore. But a few months ago when my brother was visiting him and asked him what his own name was, Dad's eyes twinkled and he said, Nilknarf Grebgah, which is his name spelled backwards. :-)

Nice to know that humor survives.