Home and chilly!

I am home, for the moment. On Friday the 12th I left to head to Boston, Monday onto Ohio, a quick stop in New Paltz on Friday to re-storage my belongings, then back to Boston the same day. Today I drove from there to Croton to work for Sunny, and upon entering my cabin discovered it was a balmy 52F degrees.

It will be a quick stop over here in my haven, as it seems I remain your faithful nomad. My next stops include Hebron CT for Thanksgiving with some family, Brooklyn NY for a "leftovers and film noir" extravaganza where I will settle for a few days working on Art & Adventures business with Greg and Janet. While in New York I will likely be going to a party where Allyson Grey will be live painting, meeting Maddy Rosenberg, and having a lovely time I hope! Then I am off to Miami with Janet to attend Art Basel Miami. Crazy, huh?

This is all great, and the weeks after that are busy and filled with awesome people but I really am hoping for at least two weeks straight at home sometime in January.

Back to tending the fire, as the chill continues!

The Travel Gods have a bizarre sense of humor

Yesterday I left later than i intended because, well that's how things happen. Having company on the road was a really nice change. Having a travel companion who is also a dj? Priceless - between we selected an interesting set of cds, of which we listened to only a small percentage of during the trip - because we brought that much stuff.

We were merrily going along, stopping as I noted last night at Aunt Lu's Cafe for a spot of truck stop cuisine. Finally I was getting tired and drove until I found a rest stop, I can't remember where. We adjust the seats as much as possible and napped. I slept lightly for about two hours, waking at around 3:35. Feeling remarkable awake and knowing that rest of the drive was less than 180 miles I felt sure I could make it, arriving at our host's home before they left for the day.

During some points of the trip I had noticed an odd smell, not totally dissimilar to the problem I had in February which necessitated replacing the heater core, but not identical and I thought it unlikely to have gone bad. In the early morning silence as my companion was still dozing, I now heard odd, vaguely tinkling or crackling like sounds which did not give me the warm fuzzies. About 35 miles from our final destination, my battery light lit up, quickly followed by the temperature gauge rising precipitously fast. Pulling off to the shoulder, I shut the car off and took a few deep breaths before grabbing the manual to try to determine what to do next. My hope was that this was relatively simple - a hose coming loose and losing the coolant fluid type injury to the car. This of course would not explain the battery indicator going on but I was trying to hope for silly but simple explanations of such things. For some reason I could not pop the hood - the lever did absolutely nothing but looking underneath showed a river of fluid heading down towards the earth on the far side of the shoulder.

I decided to call my insurance company, who patched me to a local tow company, who recommended a repair place near we were going to be staying. In my experience, while not extensive, covers a several such calls for service and/or towing, it seems to be the rule that one has a minimum of 1 hours and 15 minute waiting time. This time it was over an hour and a half, though in the end the timing was perfect. It did not take long to reach the car place and as I took Indy off the flat bed to put her in a spot, the power steering went out on me which freaked me out entirely. While doing all this the manager had come in to open things up and I was the first customer of the day. As the tow guy was about to pull out to take us to the house, my hostess with the mostess showed up with the keys.

We settled in quickly for a nap, which was cut short for me by the garage calling me with bad news about the vehicle. Never fear Indy is fine but my budget is screwed (thanks for the advance pay Sunny!). It was way worse and much more extensive than a radiator hose or another simple but she is now running just fine.

I am hoping this is the last of these sorts of adventures because the stress is not a fun kind and the impact on my finances is less than thrilling. Please make offerings, sing prayers, or dance naked around a fire to help insure smoother travels home and for my up coming plans (I will be away from home a good deal, per usual it seems) if you are so inclined. In turn I will make voodoo dolls in your image and laden them with chocolate, multiple orgasms and Jimmy Choo shoes. Thanks.

Movement to conclusion

Around the end of August, or maybe the beginning of September while chatting with a friend, it became apparent that I had a strong yearning to retrieve my things resting in storage in Dayton. There were a few things driving this I believe - one the option to have access to my things that I haven't seen in 1.5 years; a desire to have all my belongings in one state; and perhaps finally to close the Ohio chapter of my adventurous life.

A bit ago I began researching storage places close to either my nest here in New Paltz, or near Sunny. The other problem was figuring out when to go since the drive would be long and with all my traveling, meetings, housesitting it was hard to figure out. Initially I thought I would go in October, clearly that was a bust. Plus with the DNE weekend, well, just wasn't happening. Looking at the calendar, thinking about the weather shifting, and Thanksgiving, well this coming week is the time!

Today I booked a storage site here in New Paltz, let the Dayton place know I was coming to collect my belongings, and reserved a U-Haul trailer. Whew! It feels so good. All of me in one state, and I can have a kitchen table downstairs, a coffee table upstairs, and unearth my fridge magnets! Also I can get my kitchen gear off Sunny's porch and put it in storage close by so if I desire my Cuisinart to make latkes I can. Friday I will drive to Boston to go to Dance Friday, Sunday will be my CCG meeting, then Monday I hit the road. My travel buddy needs to be back in Boston by Friday so it will be a quick turn around but so worth it.

This feels so good, exciting even. It's also been a long time in coming. Of course it means another week away from my cabin but I think it will result in a lot of peace for me.

In the early dark light

Sitting here watching the light change, darkening early with the storm of snow drifting in heavier once again, I am enjoying knowing that I am alone, completely right now. It is a lovely combination, no reason to leave this house right now, except perhaps to walk the tenth of a mile to the mailbox, so I can just sit, and zone out, contemplate, watch tv, read, nap, work, or pet the cat. It is a sweet freedom for which I am grateful.

It is a unique confluence of opportunities that has put me here, where I can ponder, reflect and check my center after a delightful, sometimes challenging long visit with BC. We had eight weeks together, doing various holidays where we recreated old traditions and began to carve out new ones together - testing the waters of what a family together might look like. We even had the opportunity to experience a family vacation by going to Disney World, under the guise of BC running the marathonroller coasters for the first time defying my decades old stance of I don't like them, don't do them, have no interest. It turns out they are fun and I rode them like they were nothing. Few screams of alarm leapt out of my mouth, but essentially I just simply enjoyed the sensations. I also challenge my identity of "I don't like amusement parks." It is true they are never going to be my first choice but I can learn how to loosen up and enjoy the moment, especially when with BC and TK.

Since leaving last Tuesday morning it has been a world wind of traveling about. I discovered that I can make the eight hour drive from Cleveland Heights to Brooklyn in one day and not be totally drained. Yeah me! In Brooklyn I stayed with Greg and Janet, working with them on the new database and other business things. We went to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It's been at least a century since I was there! The movie was a visual delight and there was some interesting twists through the psych of various players. As someone who did not really track Heath Ledger's career or death I did not find the interesting device that was created by his absence distracting or hard to sit with, I found it compelling.

Friday I drove to New Paltz to pick up Hrana on the way to 9 Mountain for the DNE Visioning Weekend in Plainfield MA. First we did some shopping at Trader J*e's, stopped for dinner at Paul and Elizabeth's in Northampton, and then hit Dance Spree. I reached 9 Mountain about 12:30am. The weekend was full, fun, loving, and interesting. Getting to spend time with folks that I usually only see once a year was such a delight, it's hard to express how much it satiates my soul to see them. Sunday, after dark I drove to Sunny's so I could accompanying her for an 8:30am appt for an out patient procedure in Manhattan, which took a good portion of the day (she's fine by the way). Wednesday I drove up to New Paltz to arrive at this lovely place and began to settle in for the next month.

Of course true to form my schedule is fuller than I originally had envisioned. Tomorrow I pick up Greg and Janet to visit Alex and Allyson Gray's property in New Hamburg. The weekend after next I will return to Western MA for the DNE budget meeting. A few days after that BC will visit which will be nice after so much time apart.

In the meantime I need to learn how to create a new layout in FileMaker, follow up on a few web based writing opportunities, do my own writing work (I finally bought The Artist's Way after thinking about it for a decade), knit, read, continue to train for my hike and my health, stay in touch with friends, make weekly visits to Sunny for work, etc etc!

While writing this the light has lightened, darkened back up, and is now brighter. The windows to the right of where I sit have a more glow like quality visible as the sun is veiled by thinner clouds and begins to shift downward. Perhaps in the next few hours I will build my first fire, as in the first time I will do this completely by myself, there is no one but myself to lean on. I am loving my approach of just trying things, dropping away the walls that have phrases like, "I might fail," "I can't," "I don't know how," "I'm too scared to try," etched into them. There will be times I will stumble, by blocked by those walls, but it is just temporary, I have the ability to find a way around or through them. This is my mantra.

Now to the southwest there are patches of blue and sunlit clouds.

Trying to Catch Up

The days following where I left off were rather plain and ordinary. Shocking I know but not every day involves travel, love, and Broadway. That Thursday I went to a clinic to get a breast exam in order to be "in the system" for a free mammogram. So exciting I can hardly tell you. Good thing I brought my knitting since there was a whole lot of waiting around. Speaking of which I still have not heard back from them regarding said mammogram, another thing to add to my to do list, call the clinic.

Friday I picked up Janet from the Metro North station so we could head to New Paltz for some festivities. On the way up we stopped at DIA:Beacon, a museum Ms. Morgan wanted to check out. It was the least juicy art either of us had seen, perhaps ever. We resumed our travels to arrive at Matt's new abode in the center of New Paltz where we had a bit of an impromptu party with the addition of some of his pals. Greg could not resist his new addiction and I looked up several Eddie Izzard videos on YouTube to fed his habit.

The next day, later than Greg wanted due to his enthusiasm, we headed outside of town to Joe and Steph's lovely home where our SCA household (House Ostrov) was holding the annual Feast in the Woods. As the afternoon slid into early evening people changed into garb, the fire was maintained in a roaring fashion, mead and food were consumed, and conversation flowed until close to midnight. Janet, aka Otgon the Bemused, took and posted photos.

Sunday morning Greg, Janet, Kelly and I went for about a 4.5 mile hike - my first one in easily 15 years! There was some scrambling up rocks and such to reach Bonticou Crag Summit.
Proof I was up there compliments of Janet.

There were lots of lovely views and I got an excellent chance to use my new camera (courtesy of BC).

<- A view from the top.

Looking back at the path on the way back to the house.

Hungry from our excursion we snacked quickly on leftovers from the feast and loaded up the car to return to the city. Unfortunately a trip that should have taken two hours was turned into a four hour exercise in patience due to traffic.

Tuesday night I cooked dinner using ingredients from Joe's garden: large chili peppers (which I stuffed), kale sauteed with garlic. Plus I introduced Janet and Greg to the magic of spaghetti squash tossed with butter, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese. Later we watched Tank Girl which I had, amazingly, never seen. Seeing it I finally figure out where Greg got his constant refrain: Is that wrong?

I stayed with them until Thursday morning when I drove back to Croton, planning on a big weekend; however I woke feeling a bit crummy and mostly staying in bed on Saturday. Sunday morning I woke determined to continue my plans, heading up to Rhinebeck for the infamous Sheep and Wool Festival, the mecca for us yarn heads. It was so so wonderful even though the weather was not fabulous, the yarns were. Great fun was had, cute animals (including ringed tail lemurs!) were seen, and lots of yarn was procured. From there I headed to New Paltz for Matt's housewarming party where I met up with Greg. We stayed long enough to go through a few variations of "variations" of the party; great fun seeing the ebb and flow of a social gathering. Joe also came; later the three of us headed back to his house to crash for the night. In the morning Greg and I drove over to Mohonk Mountain House and did an easy hike of about 3 miles with gorgeous views. Unfortunately I did not have my camera so I have no lovely vistas to share with you. Greg and I returned to the house to pack up and I drove him down to the Metro North station near my folks' place.

My plan had been to drive to BC's house but the car (Indy, short for Indigo, formerly referred to as the Purple Beast. Now that she is mine outright I renamed her since the ex had christened her PB.) had been acting up a bit so I decided it was wise to take her in before a long drive. Ha! We will just say that I would up flying and will owe the folks a great deal of money for fronting the price of a new transmission.

So that gets us to last Thursday. I will attempt to write again soon but life is lovely here with BC so I get lulled away from things like the computer a bit.

In which our heroine once again recaps

When last we left our heroine...

Ah yes, in New Hampshire at the 'sense of place' event at Camp Glenbrook, which was lovely and a bit inspiring. That was the last time I blogged, after an embarrassing long absence from the activity. It was the first time since, if I recall correctly, that I had real time alone since May. Later that day I took a workshop with Erica Wheeler on writing and actually did the writing prompts. This is a bit miraculous as I rebel against instructions often, it's a long history but this time I thought what the hell - soak up the atmosphere. The first prompt was "what is true for me today":

I am whole, at peace with being quiet. What is true is being honest with myself and others. Honest different from truth. What I need to know about me may be different from the story of me I tell someone today, tomorrow, forever. Or not. I feel I am on a path to liking myself more, more completely than ever. It is a scary road because I have traits and behaviors that I do not love or even like but they are separate from the whole, only a muted color that I can make stand out or step back in view, this is important. I can choose what I present, I can choose to make it bigger or smaller. I can choose to accept it and move on.

After the workshop I showered, nap, sat in the glorious silence. After all of that I walked to another porch, sat on a chair and wrote in my journal. A huge day of writing for me. There a lot of interesting talks, beautiful views, and great food during this weekend. It was hard to feel inferior, or like a poser among all these folks who were steeped in their passions but I worked on my internal tapes, remembering that all of us make the colors we see in the world. On Sunday I drove all of us back to Brooklyn, unloaded a vehicle full of art, sleeping bags, and clothing. The next day I drove up to Sunny's and hung loose for the next several days.

Months of failed attempts were finally rectified by driving to Dobbs Ferry to meet an online friend in person. Since my move I have had two books to give to Jeri Riggs, a gifted quilter, someone I know from my glbt knit list. Her site (linked above) only gives you the barest sense of her quilts - in person they are beyond amazing. I am in love. In addition to quilting the woman is a mad talented knitter, if she wasn't so lovely it might be easy to hate someone who just drips with talents.

Later that day I took a long and lovely drive to check out a house share near the Ashokan Reservoir. It was not a match, we shall leave it at that, which is a bit of a bummer because having a place to set a bunch of my belongings, to return to, a room with a door, the ability to be alone once in a while, would be so nice. Sunday the 27th I traveled down to NYC again to housesit for Greg and Janet while they taught painting at Fire Island. On Wednesday I ran back up to Croton to prepare for a busy weekend.

Thursday BC (my sweetheart) flew into town. She was so excited she gave my birthday gifts in the car even though my birthday was the next day. Let me say this, BC is thoughtful, pays careful attention, and is generous. We then met the 'rents for lunch. It was a first meeting and I think it went well. She found Sunny (my mother) adorable, which luckily is a common assessment. After lunch we headed to Cape Cod to spend a lovely evening in West Harwich, staying at the Commodore, partaking of a nice dinner at The Ocean House. Friday we leisurely drove up to Wellfleet to meet up with Abby, my oldest friend. Ken, Abby's father, past away in August and a bunch of us came up to share a house for the weekend and to attend the memorial service. The weekend was fun, sad, nostalgic and romantic by turns. I cried a fair amount at the service, no surprise there. It was good to see Abby and catch up just a small bit - it's been four years since we saw each other, we hadn't had a conversation since January.

Sunday afternoon BC and I drove to Boston. We had a tourist type of blast during our short stay - wandered Fauneuil Hall and after my experience at Abercrombie & Finch I'd say I'm unlikely to shop there again, but I adore the shirt I got there. We had a delicious and romantic dinner at Ristorante Limoncello, and I introduced her to Emack and Bolio's ice cream, a place I've known about for about twenty something years but haven't been to in forever! If you are near one, run don't walk.

Monday morning, early I took BC to Logan; I then headed back to Croton to have a bite to eat and nap before Sunny and I headed into Manhattan to see Hair on Broadway. Yes, yes, I know I suck. It was fabulous. They were having a Monday night performance, a night Broadway is traditionally dark so the cast could attend the Equity March on Washington - how cool is that? I saw the original as a child and you know what, it's still great. It has been forever since I listened to the music but somewhere during act one I realized than really none of the lyrics had faded from my memory and I thought, "This is my version of Christmas carols, they are ingrained in my soul". Seeing some members of the cast crying during the moving closing numbers tugged at my heart even more. We came home tired but happy.

Okay that almost catches things up so I think I will stop right now before I bore you all to tears with my nonstop bouncing around the northeast. The next post will have photos I think, how exciting is that! Soon there may be an entry about yarn - Greg, stop yawning!

humbly reported by your modern nomad, Dharma

Honest I don't know where the time went

Life continues to be a whirlwind. Mostly in good ways, some are hard though I admit. Since I last posted I have been in Cleveland OH, Croton NY, Northampton MA, Freedom NH, Northampton MA, Croton NY, Cleveland OH, Brooklyn NY, and at this very moment in Marlborough NH.

Right at this moment I am enjoying a beautiful quiet in a tiny room, in a house that is like a rabbit warren of spaces and doors. It is so lovely I cannot begin to tell you. The likelihood that anyone will come looking for me for at least another hour is about nil. The silence is lovely. Just the clacking of my keys, the sounds of sipping my too sweet, rapidly chilling coffee. Why am I in New Hampshire again you ask. My dear friends Greg and Janet are featured artists at this event and I am serving as their driver and manager. We drove up on Thursday to hang their art and get settled before their talk on Death Valley at Antioch College over in Keene. Both events were, at least in part, the brainchild of their good friend Rowland Russell, with whom I have had the honor of breaking bread with a number of times over the years. Thursday night we retired to our rooms in Hill House (last night renamed Horse Hill House by Ash, the fabulous cook/sommelier/gardener of Glenbrook because of the carousel like horse sculpture jauntily place on the roof line this summer as a prank) and in the night solitude I decided to knit with the only noise being the clink of my metal needles every once and again.

Okay, I know, some of you are scratching your heads about my travels which have been ongoing since March. There may even be some head tilting by my mention of Cleveland. I have a tiny, teeny little secret that I have been holding back from you my dear, devoted and beloved readers. I have a sweetheart, BC (Butch Charming, as my dear friend Dru dubbed her early on, and charming, romantic, sexy and thoughtful she is!). The gods have quite the sense of humor and saw fit to find me someone wonderful in the land of Ohio. So you will continue to see references to Cleveland as time moves forward I suspect. It's okay, you can laugh, snort even. So far things are wonderful and I have been working on keeping my balance in the ways I have decided are important in order not to lose myself. My suspicion is being long distance helps and I am happy to keep it that way as we figure out the path we want to be traveling on together.

Freedom NH is the new home base for Dance New England and it was quite a busy camp with a new site, more people than ever, new programs, a new bookkeeper added to the usual crazy stew that is camp. It was perhaps the most challenging camp work wise since my first, not the way I had hoped my tenth year in the job would feel, but life is what it is, yes? The new site has it's own beauty so that I did not miss Poland Spring too much, though I longed for my old office's coziness and privacy, the wooded areas that I had pitched my tent in other years.

In Northampton I visited some dear old friends and stayed with my good friend Michele. It was so good to get closer to our old rhythm as friends after the last few bumpy years and recreate the friendship with the knowledge that we can go through a rough patch and be okay in the end.

I am enjoying the quiet in this tiny room with one window and two doors that each lead to bigger rooms, hunkered in the middle of the space of this building. In recent days anxiety has been creeping in a bit, for the first time in a long time. On one hand I try to remember that this is no longer my every day or even every week reality and attempt to greet it with grace, to look for what the discomfort is telling me. The other hand panics a bit because it is hard to notice anything except the sense of impending doom which is the color and scent of my anxiety. Through feeling it, trying to avoid it and listening to it, it seems to stems from a lack of time alone, where I know no one will come into my physical space, where I can lay about in my worst clothes, eat ice cream from the container whilst standing at the open freezer door with no fear of being stumbled upon, caught in the act of total incorrectness. To just be, unencumbered by "being on" that is required around most people. While it is relatively easy to not be particularly "on" with Greg and Janet, there is no separate room in their incredible loft, no way to shut the door literally and figuratively on interactions. When sharing the home with BC there are spaces to retreat to, and we can be quiet together (so nice!) there is still that want to be in contact more because we are new, and it is just not the same (as she knows and respects) as being completely alone for a few hours. The last time I can remember having space like that is mid May. Simply too long for this isolating extrovert to go without such time.

The other piece of this is my lack of a place to use as a home base. I am working on a place, ideally somewhere in NY, to retreat to between visits to Sunny's to work (eventually take over the bookkeeping for their business), doing office management for Greg and Janet, as well as trips (10-14 days at a time) to stay with BC. There are some leads developing but nothing is known and I suspect it's getting to me a bit. I have hopes of a cabin in the New Paltz area, so pray to your special deity that this cabin or something similar manifests soon.

Now that the summer is done, so is the bulk of my paying work, another area that is creating some stress so I will have to work on finishing the tasks associated with those positions as well as put time into my other smaller gigs, and finding new ones. It has occurred to me that I need to create a bit of schedule to my days in order to take care of the various tasks and goals on my plate, one that is flexible enough to be done regardless of where I am physically. One would think that after being self employed for a dozen years I would have this down better, but my work and life flows change so much, plus I am so loathe to rigidity and structure that I am afraid I have made it worse. Well there is always time to work on things and improve them, yes?

So this is where I've been, and what I am working on most immediately. I will work on being a better, more consistent communicator as well. I really lost track of time and had not realized it had been so long since I posted.

The latest scoop

I know, I know. It's been a long time. NCDC camp was great, well except for people gettting sick, it ending, and things like that. I returned briefly to Berkeley - like for 36 hours or something ridiculous like that as I remember, staying again with Glamour Girl. I was fortunate enough to see Jennie for dinner one last time before I left - it's hard being far away from great friends.

Landing in NY on June 30th at night, I crashed with Greg & Janet for again about 36 hours before Greg and I left for a 4 day conference in New Jersey. After that, um. Work appointment. Dinner with a dear old friend who I will probably be sharing an apartment with come September - it's amazing how the universe work. I added him to an email asking for a place to crash for a few days in NY, not expecting an answer at all. Instead I connected with someone I haven't seen in a decade, having a fabulous dinner together and a likely home base come fall!

Had a new friend come to town for a great weekend visit where we went to the Salmagundi Club for a reception and to pick up Greg's painting that had been on display there. Also we hit Barefoot Boogie which I haven't been to in FOREVER. My good pal Michael Hayes was djing which was a treat. I haven't see him in about two years so it was really good to touch base a bit. Then I headed up to Croton to see Sunny and take care of car stuff. DMV's are such a lovely place, not. Lots of go rounds because my name is not identical on all my documents. Then the Purple Beast went to the shop for lots of repairs. Apparently as I suspected she was in major trouble and actually had been dangerous to drive. So glad she didn't fall apart when Lindsay and Sunny borrowed her.

Sunday Greg and I went to Coney Island to meet up with Janet and her friend Joseph. Had a lovely, leisurely dinner right on the boardwalk watching the surf. After that we had a long walk on the boardwalk and beach back to Joseph's car. And I do mean a LONG walk, 2 miles. If I were a good blogger I would upload the night photos I took.

Then last Sunday my laptop died, well became morbidly ill and I spend all of Monday choosing, buying, and getting data transferred. Bummer in some ways (like spending a ton of money!) but this new one is lovely. This caused a delay in my trip to the Jersey shore (which is where I am as I type) one day. It's been great fun hanging with my friend Deb and her daughters who are a delight. Yesterday we spent several hours on the beach which was really nice - haven't done that in years. Today was a lovely rainy, windy day. Tomorrow I head back to NYC. Saturday I go for the weekend back to Sunny's then back to NYC on Sunday until Thursday when I fly out of town again.

During all of this I have been working on loose ends for NCDC and toiling away for DNE which starts the evening of August 14th!!! Crazy. After camp I hope to spend a few days to a week in Northampton catching up with old friends before some settling down in Manhattan and more travels I'm sure.

So that's the news for now!

Christmas Past

Exhausted, nervous and excited, I dozed on the first leg of my travels last Thursday from Dayton OH to White Plains, NY. The second leg I stayed awake, pondering any number of things - almost none that I can recall a week later. Except one.

I realized that thirty-three years ago I sat on a plane, possibly on the same date, for holiday travel. Everything was different that time, first off I was still a child. My stepmother and I were heading from New York City to Phoenix, Arizona. Fran, my stepmother had just birthed my siblings (a set of fraternal twins) about six weeks previously and we were taking them to meet Fran's favorite relatives (and some my favorite relatives as well), Aunt Thelma and Uncle Walter.

I have nothing but fond memories of these folks who treated me as family from first meeting. They had been living in upstate New York State, the Albany area maybe, before moving to warmer climes. Walter was still tall though I suspect he had lost a few inches over the decades, and came across as what I now see as a mid-western country folk kind of man. Aunt Thelma was a very proper but warm woman who had iron gray hair that I saw once undone from the braided bun of daily wear. Her hair was stunningly long and still lush. I tried so hard to copy her evening ritual of brushing her hair a hundred strokes after seeing her mane but at age eight I didn't have the follow through that was required for such things. Their upstate house had a lovely fireplace by which Thelma and I did jigsaw puzzles. Perhaps it was during this visit that Thelma gave me this lovely crochet hook set that had a handle and a number of different hooks sizes that one could screw into the handle. Now with what I know of the fiber arts it is more likely it was a tatting set as the hook sizes were quite tiny. Many years later I let go of that set and have regretted it every time I think of it. It would have been the only thing I had from that lovely woman. I remember eating strawberries at their house, and my mother discovering that she apparently was no longer allergic them, much to her delight.

Somewhere in a photo album that is probably still in a box somewhere in my new home is a photo of Fran and I, each holding a baby. As I recall you cannot really see my face because I am looking down at my sister. Well I think it was my sister as she was the smaller of the babies so it would have made sense to give me the lightweight babe to hold through the journey. I don't remember much of either flight except that I think it went well, meaning no screaming infants for the entire trip. There is another photo that I have from that trip, it is of me standing by Thelma and Walter's tree, which I am pretty sure was artificial, looking awkward. I know that had been trying to finish a a woven fabric green jumper to wear during the trip in my school sewing class in time to wear for this trip but I cannot remember if I did, or if it's what I am wearing in that photograph.

It was there that I ate red snapper for the first time and have loved it ever since. It was also there that I first saw Morgan Fairchild in Search for Tomorrow. I believe her character was in prison when I began watching. It may be the only soap on CBS I ever watched. I remember how it seemed so incongruous for it to be Christmas while it was warm, in a place with no snow and things blooming. Of course even with two moms with advanced degrees in English I didn't think of that word to describe what I was feeling back then.

I think I saw Thelma and Walter only one more time, about four or fives years later, in Brooklyn. Somewhere I have a contact sheet of photos I took with a few shots of Walter, but I fear none of Thelma. I know we went to Central Park, played with "the twins", as they were referred as forever - a habit I am trying to break, in the back yard of the house. Again my portfolio of work from those years is in a box somewhere and I have probably ditched the negatives in an attempt to declutter my life. The memories will always be there it's true, but sometimes a physical reminder is really nice to glance at, especially when it can trigger such warm, happy thoughts.

I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday and created sweet memories to recall randomly in the future.

In which our heroine changes plans, again

So as I was saying, things went long. Izaac is a wonderful human being and I cannot imagine a more respectful person when it comes to packing things so they are safe for a long (or even short ride), however he is a tad slow about it. At about 6pm it became clear that we were not going to finish loading the truck that day. We were supposed to go to Ruth’s for a last walk with the dogs and dinner. Since we had been checking in through out the day she wasn’t exactly surprised when I called to give her the less than glowing update. She quickly volunteered to keep Wyatt another night (she had had him since our Sunday late afternoon walk) and we would all do dinner Tuesday night.

TGF and I were both so tired and my feet had been screaming at me a good portion of the day. We foolishly hoped that a night without the dog would allow for some rest but alas and aleck we were oh so wrong. The air mattress was less than comfortable somehow, the living room is a much noisier room than our bedroom and Marcelle decided to play kitty hockey off and on all night. Oh and my left knee decided to wake me several times in total pain. When I woke up I was wishing for a chiropractor to put things in place, or even out – anything to make it stop hurting.

When Alex called in the morning (blessed woman that she is) to see what time she should come but we had barely any consciousness to tell her anything. Izaac also had a late starting gate time, so things started quite late, maybe 1pm? But still I had hopes and dreams of speed, there really wasn’t that much more to load. Again I thought a moment after that prediction that the goddesses were laughing at me. They were. We finally made plans to leave, I think about 6pm, to head to park to meet Ruth and the dogs. It was a short walk as we were both dead tired from the exertion and stress. Ruth cooked us a fabulous dinner of some the best fried chicken either us have even tasted. The end of our time there was very emotional, Ruth was sobbing, we were barely holding it together and Piccolo had the saddest eyes ever and hid under the table refusing us a last hug. Ruth insisted we take Piccolo’s bed so Wyatt would have something to remember her by. See? Totally emotional.

We drove home drained and trying to distract ourselves with mindless conversation. Opening the door to Casa de Cedar was not a happy site. There was far too much that had not gone into the truck. We were starting to get pissed. As previously arranged Izaac had driven the truck down the lot in Oakland since we still needed to attach the car dolly and put the Subaru on it. So there was nothing we could do but steam and gather things for the next day. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. It was Roger the Neighbor – the best neighbor ever! He was worried about us depending on cell phones so he bought us a set of walkie talkies! So sweet.

Wednesday morning found Roger, Alex, TGF and I struggling to make heads or tails out of our dilemma. Roger, the former boy scout, tied awesome knots to secure the soft pack to the roof of the Subaru. He also brought us a container of homemade brownies with Scharffenberger chocolate. Alex came up with a great idea to load the Sub with things to throw into the truck, then come back to load up the stuff that we wanted for travel. Oh, one other little bit of drama, Joia one of our cats disappeared. Yes that’s right she is not with us. I am choosing to hope that she has found a new place. Roger and Alex will keep an eye out for her. Alex offered to drive down a few times and try to catch her, to then fly her to us. I am less than confident about this happening. Truthfully I have had a feeling for quite sometime that this might happen. I am sad about our Mama Joi not being with us. Very sad. While TGF and Alex were fighting with Izaac about getting things into the truck in the quickest and safest manner I was wondering where they were, comforting the dog who was in an empty house, talking to the cats who was already in carriers in the Purple Beast, cleaning, hauling things close to the front door for easy loading, and calling for Joia in the vain hope she would come home.

Finally TGF and Alex arrived home about noon, and none of us had eaten nor had we had caffeine – not pretty. TGF ran to Mickee D’s to feed us all. Finally we were on our way down to Oakland to hook everything up. That took a very long time and I won’t go into all the details of waiting, driving to where the car dolly actually was which was not in the truck lot, or trying to find TGF when they went to find a gas station to check tires and driving in circles around West Oakland until we finally find each other and barreled on to 80 East – at almost 3 fricking o’clock! SO much later than I had wanted to leave which was more like 11 so we could reasonably hit Winnemuca NV – less than 400 miles.