Seeds of Excitement Planted

As of today, it is 77 days until we leave on our Mediterranean cruise.  We signed up for this cruise almost exactly a year ago.  It's our first ocean voyage, though a little ocean, compared with the Pacific -- the Mediterranean.  The friends we made on our Ukraine trip, Linda and Bob, wrote to us that they wanted to take the cruise, and did we want to go with them?  We all signed up, Walt and I, Char and Mike.  We got adjoining staterooms, the last available, actually.  We had great plans to remove the barricade between our balconies so we could all party together.

Of course, since then, we have lost Mike, but Viking was very nice to Char and is letting her keep the double room for a single price, so we still have adjoining balconies.

This will be our first time on a large ship (1000 passengers vs. 300 passengers), our first cruise on the ocean (staterooms come equipped with binoculars, which I thought was a fun addition!)  I wonder if it will be as casual as the river cruises will be ... can I show up to dinner in one of the three dining rooms in my t-shirt?

As of today, we are able to sign up for the optional shore excursions.  Each port (Barcelona, Toulon, Monte Carlo, Tuscany,  Rome, Naples, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Split, and Venice) has a free overview excursion or you can opt for the more expensive choices (anywhere from $60 to over $300).  We are taking several of the free excursion, but also splurged on some of the other excursions as well.

In Barcelona, we are taking the Gaudi tour.  Ever since I heard about Antoni Gaudi, I've wanted to see some of his architecture, especially the Sagrada Famlia , the church that was his life's work (he worked on it for 43 years, until 1926), which will not be completed until long after I am dead.

An example of a Gaudi building

After that, I'd be happy to go home, but it's only day 2.  On day 3 we will dock in Toulon (France) and will tour the fishing village of Cassis, passing France's highest sea cliff on the way, we take a short cruise, and end up in one of the wineries, tasting wine.

On day 4 we are in Monte Carlo.  Char is going on a tour of Nice, but we are going with Linda and Bob to the perfumeries (which I enjoyed last time we were here) and to the hill town of St. Paul de Vince, which was my favorite hill town last time.  I would enjoy browsing those small shops again, stopping for a coffee or something.

Day 5 finds us in Tuscany  Walt and I will be alone "touring Florence on your own" for 9 hours.  My memories of Florence are so bad that I want the chance to just do it at my own pace and leave with good memories this time, because it is a beautiful city.  I especially want to return to Vivoli, which, our tour guide told us before, is the birthplace of gelato.

Day 6 is Rome.  Char was going to take the "little-seen Rome" tour because she has been there before, but then opted to join the rest of us for the highlights tour (which is included in our cruise price). Walt points out that it will be a Sunday, and All Soul's day so I think I'm glad we will be in Viking's hands and not have to brave the streets on our own.

Day 7 we are again taking the included tour, highlights of Naples, which includes free time in the piazza to have coffee and/or gelato.

Day 8 is our day at sea, so no excursions (maybe a chance to enjoy the swimming pools) but on Day 9 we are doing Corfu's natural and historic riches, most of which I can't pronounce:  You’ll have a bird’s-eye view of scenic Paleokastritsa from the village of Lakones, situated in the nearby hills. Ascending Mt. Pantokrator, more of the island stretches out below you. Along our route, there will be time to explore several Corfiot villages, from traditional Nissaki and Acharavi—where you’ll enjoy a delicious Greek lunch—to the coastal resorts of Barbati, Ipsos, Dassia, Gouvia and Kontokali. In Old Corfu Town, you can take in the island’s rich history as you pass the Town Hall, the Old Fortress, the Church of St. Spyridon and Esplanade Square.

Day 10 is Dubrovnik, which George Bernard Show called "paradise on earth."  We've opted for the free tour here in the morning and a vineyard and wine tasting in the afternoon.

Day 11 is Split, where we drive through scenic views, then take a 45 minute cruise "through picturesque canyons," after which we taste Croatian delicacies.

Day 12 we arrive in Venice and are only taking the included tour because we have extended our trip a few days in Venice, and Char has been there and loves it so we figure we'll just use her as our tour guide.  I just want to sit on the piazza sipping espresso and wondering if Rosanno Brazzi will show up, though since he died in 1994, it's unlikely.

So the seeds have been sewn and we are all starting to get excited.

A Red Letter Day

Each day when I pick up the mail, or when I see Walt walking in with it, I scan the stack for the familiar cream colored envelope from Compassion, with a letter from one of my kids (there is a business we hear from regularly that uses the same color envelope and it drives me nuts when I get all excited about the envelope and then discover it's not from Compassion at all.

I couldn't believe it when Walt tossed the mail into my lap yesterday.

SIX LETTERS from kids!

I am lucky if I get six in a month, but yesterday I got six in one day. all from kids in Kenya, which has now become officially my favorite letter-writing country.

Erik (age 16), to whom I have been writing the longest was happy to report that his school was able to proceed to the county levels in soccer "which was not easy to attain." (He's a real soccer fan.)  He also tells me that it has started to rain now (this was written in May) and that there will be more rain.  I wish he could send some this way!

Samuel, whom I took on because he looked so un-well in his photo, with a distended belly and oversized head, tells me that they normally celebrate their birthdays by going to church and singing together and that he participates in communal work by sweeping and cleaning the nearby market.

Mwongela is one of the newest kids ("The Kenya 7," I called them) I took on, not to sponsor, but to write to because his financial sponsor, a corporation, decided to sponsor 1,000 kids but was not going to write to them all, so many of us took several kids to write to.  He's only 5, so he doesn't write a letter per se, but fills out a form telling me about his family.  His favorite thing to do with his family is tell stories and his favorite way to help his family is to be sent to the shop.  He wants to "grow stronger in Christ and have good health."

Michael, another of the Kenya 7, is 6 so he, too, filled out a form about his family. He has 2 sisters, he tells me, and he likes watching Tom and Jerry cartoons.  His mother does the cooking in his house, but he is learning to cook from her.

Brightone (Yes, that really is his name) is 9 and he writes his own letters, in English.  He always writes long letters (at least a full page).  I had asked the kids where they sleep and he tells me he sleeps wit his siblings "we always prepare our bedroom before the evening, so after doing home work we go to sleep."  His favorite subject is science "because we are taught interesting things in the natural world."  He adds "It is so amazing how God loves us and has good plans for us.  I am being transformed holistically at Compassion's project every Saturday.  Thanks to your support." and signs it "God bless you from your sponsored son in Kenya."

James is 10 and also writes his own letters in English.  It is always amusing to me that NONE of the 30 kids I get letters from ever mention all of our kids, but pick out one, often it's Ned.  I'm not sure why, but this time I had sent him a photo of Ned with Bri and Lacie.  James says "I was impressed to see Ned and the two little girls.  Ned is looking good with his short hair and let him just maintain his hair like that." He ends by saying "be blessed so much, dear."

So I have my work cut out for me today, answering these letters.  I also have one from Venkanna, in India, which arrived over the weekend.  His letter was mostly about Peach.  I had asked each of the kids to pray for her when I was in Iowa.  He says "Mostly I feel bad about your cousin.  How is her health now?  I am praying for you and your cousin.  He also told me that their Independence Day is August 15 and they raise the flag and distribute chocolates.

Anyway, it was a wonderful day for me yesterday and it will be a happy day today, responding to each of these letters.

Sunday Stealing

Have you ever demolished a wall or building?
No, but it sounds like fun.

If you and a friend both wanted the same thing would you let the friend get it first?
Depends on what it is.  I think I've done both. 

Have you ever argued over who should pay for something?
Sure, but never seriously.

Do you have any family heirlooms?
My family wasn't rich enough to have heirlooms.

Are you related or distantly related to anyone famous?
My godfather (and great uncle) was a champion 6-day bicycle racer; his brother came one fight from winning the featherweight boxing title.

What's your favorite ocean?
Because it's "my" ocean, I love the Pacific, but I also fell in love with the Indian Ocean in Australia.

Do you correct people's mistakes? 

Not verbally, but it drives me nuts to do a meme when someone has made a grammatical or spelling error, so I always correct those

Have you ever helped out an injured animal?
When you have been a doggie foster parent for five years, you definitely take care of injured animals.

Do you throw bread for the ducks?
I used to when I was a kid.  There is a wonderful duck pond here in Davis, on the university campus, but they have asked people not to feed them because they need not to rely on humans for their meals.

Do you think babies are little bundles of joy or smelly noisy things?
The only reason I had five children in six years was because they were all little bundles of joy and when they started getting bigger, I missed those bundles (even tho at times they can be smelly, noisy things!)

Do you give money to buskers?
Often.  As the mother of musicians, I have a soft spot in my heart for buskers.

Do you ever forward or reply to chain mails?
Good lord, no!

Do you often have a tune in your head you can't name?
Sometimes, but usually I know what the tune is.

Has anyone ever approached you thinking you were someone else?
Occasionally, especially at Logos.  Best time was when I was in high school and someone thought I was Judy Garland!

Have you ever starred in an amateur or professional video?
Starred?  No.  But as the mother of amateur videographers, I have been in many videos.

Have you ever been in a position of authority?
I was office manager of an ob/gyn office for 2 years before I left the job and took over another office.  I was office manager (and only employee) there too.

If you were ruler of your own country what would you call it?
The Grand Duchy of Basingstoke

And what title would you give yourself?
Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII

If you invented a monster what would you call it?
Bob

And what features would it have?

 

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Rocky Mountain High (1975)

... because Bev recommended John Denver

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, Denver sings that he was "born in the summer of his 27th year," because that's when he discovered the place where he felt most at home. What do you remember about your 27th year? (If it hasn't happened yet, what do you want to happen when you're 27?)

I was 27 in 1970, so pregnant with our fourth child.  My life was kids, LaLeche League, and nursery school.  (Child #4, Tom, was born in July of that year, his brother 2 years later)

2) In 2007, the Colorado General Assembly named this one of the state's two official songs. (The other is "Where the Columbines Grow.") Do you know your state song?

I may have had to look this up on Wikipedia for the particulars, but we sang this song in grammar school in the 1940s:  "I Love You, California" (1913) is the official state song of California. The lyrics were written by Francis Bernard Silverwood (1863-1924), a Los Angeles clothier, and the words were subsequently put to music by Abraham Franklin Frankenstein (1873-1934), then conductor of the Orpheum Theatre Orchestra. The production was published by Hatch & Loveland, Music Printers, Los Angeles, California,^[1] and copyrighted by F.B. Silverwood in 1913. It was the official song of expositions held in San Francisco and San Diego in 1915.

3) John Denver was a dedicated environmentalist who wrote an anthem about Earth Day. Are you careful about your energy consumption? Do you recycle?

I am probably more conscientious of recycling than energy consumption, but do try to consume as little energy as I can.

4) 1975 is also the year that Denver released a collection of holiday songs called Rocky Mountain Christmas. On this August day, what's the first carol that comes to mind?

My first Christmas song that always comes to mind is "Silver Bells," though I have that John Denver recording and "Daddy Please Don't Get Drunk for Christmas" is memorable too!

5) Denver dabbled in photography in his spare time and friends say he was quite good. Tell us about your hobbies.

Nothing exciting.  Reading, TV watching, cooking, and amateur photography.  Also journal writing.

6) In 1975, when this song was popular, mood rings were all the rage. It was said that the ring reflected the wearer's mood. Black = anxious/stressed, orange = worried, green = normal, blue = happy, pink = as good as it gets. As you respond to this week's Saturday 9, what color would your mood ring be?

Based on your definitions, probably pink today. 

7) Pet Rocks were 1975's other odd cultural phenomenon. Do you have any real-life, breathing pets?

We now have two dogs.  Our third dog had to be put to sleep because of lymphoma two weeks ago.  We all still miss her.

8) 1975 saw the premiere of Wheel of Fortune. Are you good at word puzzles?

Pretty good.  I like word puzzles better than any other kind.  We are faithful Jeopardy watchers.  I got tired of Wheel but when I do watch it I'm pretty good.  Love Word with Friends.

9) Random question: Did you sleep well last night?

GREAT day to ask me this question.  So often I have difficulty sleeping, but last night I fell asleep around 1 and slept through until 7, except for a brief run to the bathroom at 3, which seems to be programmed into my body's biological clock.

Exhausting Day

Walt and i settled in to watch Jeopardy after the show I was reviewing at around 11 p.m.  I fell asleep before the show ended and really didn't wake up until 7.  A good night sleep, for sure.

The morning started with a trip to Kaiser.  My long-awaited appointment with the ophthalmologist was finally here.  I wanted two months for it.  No emergency, but I figured it was finally time to talk with her about removing  the cataract in my "bad" eye.  We have been discussing this for several years now.  My right eye is the eye I am conscious of never having used for vision.  When I was a kid I was diagnosed with lazy eye blindness but I was a little too old to do much about it.  I have mentioned here before that I never mentioned it to my parents because I just assumed that everybody had one good eye and one bad eye.

Several years ago I had the cataract in the other eye removed, a nearly effortless surgery which was actually kind of fun.  But the doctor then warned that removing the other cataract might be more problematic because there was a congenital defect in the eye that might make it a 2-3 surgery process.  Since I have never used the eye for vision, I decided to just let it go for awhile, which I have been doing for the past several years.  I have an annual eye exam and we discuss it every time, but the doctor hasn't pressured me to have it done.

However, in the past year the cataract has become much worse to the point where I am aware of this white cloud over the eye and it's been bothering me so I decided it was time to get it done.  The wait was forever.  I arrived early, so it was 15 minutes before I was seen by the nurse who did the initial exam and dilated my pupils.  

Then another 15-20 minutes in the exam room waiting for the doctor, whom I love.  She's obviously very popular, since I took her ONLY appointment slot when I called two months ago! We agreed that it's time to remove it and she again warned that it might take several surgeries to get it done, but, as I said, it's time.  I won't have it done until we return from Europe in November, since they don't want you to travel very far for a month after the surgery.  But I've made the first step and hopefully it will all get done, maybe by my next birthday!  It will be weird to have vision in that eye, perhaps for the first time ever.

Kaiser Sacramento is very close to the Red Lobster restaurant, which has been tantalizing me for weeks with ads for their "Crabfest."  Walt and I have talked about going, so I did feel a bit guilty about going without him, but we tend to do a lot of talking about this stuff and never actually doing it, so I decided to splurge.

I order the "crab lovers' dream" which was a plate of king crab legs, combined with some other crab I had not heard of before, but which is bigger and sweeter than snow crab and finally crab fetuccini.  I knew that was way more than I could eat, so I decided to get it and take the fetuccini home for Walt's dinner, thus easing my guilt.  (I almost regretted decision, since the fetuccini was so delicious!)

My plan was to stop by Atria and bring my mother her meds on the way home, but it was so late when I left the restaurant (3:30) and I was so sated with crab that all I wanted to do we sleep, so I did.  Shortly after I woke up, I turned on Rachel Maddow and, to my surprise, discovered that it was, instead, a one hour special called Jon Stewart has Left the Building, which was a great review of the phenomenon that was The Daily Show.  I wonder how many people did not see the show because it wasn't even listed by that name.

I skipped dinner because I was still full of crab and Walt loved the fetuccini, then we went off to Woodland to see an excellent production of Mary Poppins, which I will be reviewing for both The Davis Enterprise and Sacramento News and Review.  It was really a special way to end the day.

Today at Logos

It was Peter again whom I relieved at Logos today. On my way into the store, I passed Bruce, without his hat, outside. I said hello and asked where his hat was and he showed it to me, squashed up with his newspaper, under his arm.  He followed me into the store a few minutes after Peter left and was looking for Oscar Wilde essays, but we couldn't find any.

Shortly after he left, a woman came in carrying an unopened Amazon package in her hand.  She stood at the desk, opened it, and without even looking at it, gave it to me as a donation.  It was Hillary Clinton's book, which she had gotten from Amazon for 1 cent.  She said it took them $3 to send it to her and she didn't want to pay to ship it back (she already had a copy), so she  thought she would just donate it.

A tall man with gold hoop earrings came in and spent a lot of time with cookbooks.  He was in the store for a very long time, and finally left without buying anything.

A guy came in with a box of donations, which included a Michael Connelly book I had not read, so that was my book to read today, and I brought it home with me.

A middle aged man in rumpled jeans, dirty shoes and a plaid shirt was walking around when his cell phone rang--the ring tone was a train whistle.  He bought an Ayn Rand, two books on science writing and "Hunger" by Kurt Hamsun, written in 1890, of which Amazon says, "this powerful, autobiographical novel recounting the abject poverty, hunger and despair of a young writer struggling to achieve self-discovery and its ultimate artistic expression. The book brilliantly probes the psychodynamics of alienation and obsession, painting an unforgettable portrait of a man driven by forces beyond his control to the edge of self-destruction" 

A young woman bought Khaled Hosseni's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (book two after "The Kite Runner"), a book by Jhumpa Lahiri (I don't remember the name, but we talked about the author, since I had just finished her "The Lowlands," which the customer had also read), and another contemporary fiction book.

A mother and her two teenage children came in and Mom bought 3 science fiction books for the son (who wore a black shirt with a big red A on it.  I resisted the temptation to mention the Scarlet Letter). The daughter didn't appear interested in old books.

A guy wearing a cap which appeared to be made of aloha shirt material came in, wearing the cap backwards, showing the wide electric pink band at the back.  He had on a Van Halen t-shirt and orange cargo pants.  He didn't buy anything, but certainly was colorful.

A professor-type, with pressed jeans and a pressed sport shirt looked for a long time and finally bought 3 boos about home improvement and one on antiques.

A tall woman bought Kipling's "Kim" from the gift book section.  As I was recording her purchase, the next customer, a mustachioed man called my list of sales old fashioned. He bought 2 books on agriculture and 2 on the moon (I don't know if they were astrological or astronomy!).  He left but then came back with a book called "Don't Push the River," an account of the use of Gestalt therapy and the ways of Zen, and another agricultural themed book.

A Mom with a cute curly headed baby somewhere between a year and 18 months old spent time in the children's room and I loved hearing the two of them talking, but the didn't buy anything but he waved and said "bye bye" to be as they left.

A woman named Jan came in to pick up books being held for her--4 children's books.  She left and then came back to get a receipt since she was picking them up for someone else.

The next woman bought two kids' board books, so it was a busy day for the kids' room!

A gangly looking woman with damp curly hair bought a bargain book.

A man bought Woody Guthrie's "Bound for Glory."  He left the store and about 5 minutes later he returned saying "I think I left my pants here."  He went to the back of the store and sure enough, there were his pants...his biking shorts (he was wearing regular pants!)  I told him he was the very first person to ever leave their pants here.

My last customer was a zaftig women wearing a hat that first looked like a pith helmet but it was soft fabric, but a nice brim.  She bought two history type books, one of which was "Mary Queen of Scotts."  I told her  that as a kid I had read the queen's biography and was quite enamored of her. Then  said when I read books about Elizabeth, I learned Mary was kind of an ogre.  The woman agreed and gave some examples of things she had done to prisoners and then said "But look at all the deaths Hillary Clinton has caused...she's the real ogre."

I decided it was probably not a good idea to comment.

Then I came home to watch the Republican debate, which made me nauseous thinking that one of those men could possibly be our next president.  Also that it's still a YEAR from the nominations!

After that I watched the last Daily Show and had a good cry.

Busy day.

Potpourri

My mother and I did something different yesterday!

I showed up for our usual Wednesday lunch.  I've decided I'm going to keep a schedule with her, for my sanity and in the hope that if I'm not around as much she might start getting out into the building occasionally.  So now I have lunch with her on Wednesday, take her pills and pick up her laundry on Friday, bring her laundry back on Sunday and then lunch again on Wednesday.  This going every other day and sitting there staring each other or answering the same question about what exciting thing I was doing that night was really starting to get to me.  This way I regularly see her 3x a week and maybe on those other days I can actually do something worth talking about.

So today we went to lunch.  Had a nice lunch with Robert, the 98 year old retired veterinarian who brings a little sparkle to her.  He's a man.  She needs a man around. It's no boyfriend situation, but she does perk up when he is around, though he's almost deaf and she doesn't have a clue what his name is.

When lunch was over, she asked if I'd like to sit in the chairs outside the dining room, overlooking the garden.  Shock!  I eagerly agreed and we sat down while she commented on the color of the trees and the movement of the leaves and then asked me what I was doing exciting tonight.

I got this bright idea to ask her if she wanted to go upstairs and work a puzzle.  She said yes!  So we went up to the puzzle tables and found a puzzle that apparently had been finished but someone was taking it apart.  We decided to put it together again, about 1/3 of the left side of the thing.

We sat there for two hours working the puzzle.  While we were working, the Brain Gymnasium (remember that?) was going on in the room next to the puzzle area and hearing the group laugh and talk together made me sad that my mother refuses to consider going.

I noticed something interesting about her.  My mother has been a puzzle fiend all of her life.  We both are.  We are very good at jigsaw puzzles.  We look at pieces and generally find the right piece for a certain space without having to try a lot of them.  But we stayed to complete the puzzle and I know she was getting tired.  That's when I noticed she would pick up a piece and seemed to have no idea how to turn it to put it in a spot.  She'd try large round edges into small holes.  It didn't last very long, but I was surprised at how she seemed completely incapable of doing the puzzle.  Fortunately she snapped out of it soon and was zipping through the last few pieces, but I had the distinct feeling  that this was part of her dementia too.

* * *

Walt has been putting "writer" on my occupation for our tax return for a few years now.  It always sounds so pretentious, but after writing two reviews, doing a couple of interviews and then writing an article for the paper on Tuesday, I'm starting to think -- hey maybe I am a writer.

* * *

Last night was the penultimate Daily Show, as Jon Stewart interviewed his buddy Louis C K. Tonight will be the hour-long finale and I'm surprised at how emotional I am being about the end of this 16 years of a show I have watched every night for at least the last 10 or so.  It was Ned who kept telling me I had to watch The Daily Show.  I have become one of the 12% who turn to Stewart for their nightly news.  Along with Rachel Maddow I think The Daily Show, for all its humorous focus, is perhaps the most accurate news around, with fact checking in the form of news clips at least for the important headlines of the day.  I'm wondering if, like Johnny Carson, Stewart is going to disappear from our lives forever.

When I look back over my life I think that Carson and Stewart may be the only two real TV icons whose finale have hit me this hard.

You will be missed