May 5 & May 6 Birthday Girls

Yesterday was my dear Mother's birthday. She would have been 88 years old. Today is my birthday. We always shared our birthdays together. However, she told me the night of her birthday while I was in the womb that I was not to be born till the next day so she could finish out having her grand celebration....dining on lobster and champagne and dancing till the wee hours of the morning. Like the dutiful daughter, I waited...I always listened to what my mother said...not that I always did what she bid...I saw the path she chose for me I just had to meander off here and there a while then I would get back on..la te da..you know what I mean, don't you? So because I also got to dine (intravenously I guess you would say) on lobster and champagne in that bubble like stage of my life, I enjoy lobster very much and one of my favorite things to do is dine in fine restaurants. My friends tease me because I don't know how to order at fast food restaurants (really it's true). But I don't feel like I am missing a thing. Now I'm not too much on champagne and wine...much rather have a glass of juice but none the less, fine dining and dancing are my ideas of a happy birthday...oh, and not to forget...breakfast in bed! That was a tradition my parents always spoiled us with (my sister didn't really enjoy that because she said she felt lonely in her bed breakfasting by herself. Not me...I enjoyed the tulip in the special vase and my egg cooked in olive oil with Syrian bread to lap up the yolk and the fresh grapefruit that my mother always sectioned for me and of course a very tall frosty glass of orange juice. When we became of age...18 in my mother's eye..she would give us a cup of coffee with sugar and cream. It was alright..but still I would just as soon have 2 tall glasses of juice! It would also make me happy that even if the day turned dark and stormy, if the morning light that hit my eyes was bright and sunny..it made it a perfect day. My parents always gave me a poetry book for my birthday and I remember one in particular..the first pages said "If a little toad winks as you walk by, or you wish he would, this little book is dedicated to you" It was a book by Gwen Frostic and it was called A Walk With Me. I still have it, of course, still have all the books my parents gave me, and it sits beside my bed and it is the first thing I look at when I wake up..right after I look at the sunshine.

Stormy Weather Party Preparation

Gosh, makes me feel kinda weird that I do a post on the fun times my son and I had in Nashville, Tennessee and now they are devastated by serious flooding! I sometimes think of a person or a place before something happens. Do you ever do that? It's creepy I know. I'm not a psychic but perhaps I get "vibes" about things. The news says that the Grand Ole Opry is damaged by flooding waters and they mentioned since it is the music city a lot of musical instruments will be in jeopardy.
It is storming here in Indiana tonight but not as much rain as 14 inches in 36 hours! At least I hope not. The temperature has dropped quite a bit since I got home from work which always brings about a rash of storms. I love storms but not storms with bad consequences. Hopefully, the weather will clear up because we have a big party planned for this weekend! My daughter and her Dutch Boy fiance are flying here to meet the family before their wedding in July. We want to have the party outside where we have been working so hard. You know the feeling, I'm sure. You have to beat yourself up with projects before a party! Instead of relaxing and getting into the groove of partying, we are hammering and mulching and planting and cleaning and cooking! Well, we're trying to mulch..weather isn't cooperating much. The Kenny Rogers Look-Alike will probably be laying mulch as the party guests arrive! Ha Ha! It's been done before!!! And he has to fix the fence that warped over the winter. Now, any suggestions on what to serve that is easy and stress free for a bunch of relatives~say about 11 of them, for a party that will start in the late afternoon till late in the night?

Happy Birthday, Regan!

Today is my beautiful daughter's birthday! 36 years ago today I was tanned bronze from basking every afternoon in that unusually warm and sunny April winding down, awaiting the arrival of the present in my tummy. My little son and I would sit out on the patio while he played in the sandbox and think of names for a little boy or girl. He loved the name Regan and he never did say which boy's name he liked. Guess he knew she would be a girl. Back in those days, we, or at least I, didn't know ahead what the gender was so it was always a surprise and since it was 10 days before my birthday it couldn't have been a sweeter gift.
She was always ready to move around..couldn't be content in her little punkin seat until she could crawl and walk. She loved little toads and no matter how hard the boys in the neighborhood teased her with them, she would grab them from their hands and kiss the little dudes. That being said, she was very attached to her mom and very shy and as she grew, mom had to participate in her activities~yes, I had to get on the mat with her during gymnastics~did a couple somersaults once or twice and even had to get on the trampoline with her. I was worried she would never out grow that but when it came to the next year when she was 4 we enrolled her in ballet and she forgot her shyness. She loved ballet and from then on tap danced her way through junior high and high school. She loved playing the flute and the violin. Music was her outlet when she got stressed.
She's an ethnic conglomeration~part Lebanese, German, Scot-Irish, and a little Dutch~ so maybe that's why she always had the longing to go, go somewhere, see the world. About 10 years ago she decided to move all the way to Portland, Oregon from Indiana. By herself! How proud I was that she didn't have to have her mom with her on that excursion! She'll be getting married for the first time this summer in July to a wonderful man from Holland and she waited till she found the best man to spend her life with. I couldn't be more joyful!
She's traveled to several places in the world~I've traveled in books. She's creative like her mom but she is an artist, and a jewelry maker~ she loves the outdoors, to hike and to ski...Oregon is the perfect place for her~she's just like me~ only opposite.
She looks like me, too...if I was tall, blonde and slender!
Happy Birthday, Reggie! Love, Mom

Things I'd Rather....

I have to do some, not a lot, but enough grocery shopping to make me fussy. Seems like I just went. How can two people go through this much food..staples really. Milk, bread, potatoes, meat, veg. I hate lugging that bag of potatoes and milk up the stairs into the house dodging our 126 year old cat who tries to slip out of the closing door. One time she got caught between the screen door and the hard door and I couldn't find her for half an hour! And on top of that I have to vacuum the house, finish straightening things up a bit, wash and dry 3 loads of laundry (who is wearing all these clothes?!) and then iron Kenny Rogers look-alike's shirts. And it is raining and has been all day long. Yuck...I'd rather just stay here, wish it weren't raining and sit in my wicker chair and look at photos that I'd like to write stories about and take pictures of Mr. Rat-a-tat, the woodpecker(I have found out now that it is a Northern Flicker of the woodpecker family) who has made the biggest hole in my tree and the biggest mess of wood chips on the ground...Guess we can use them for mulch.. Take photos of the lush green of spring with my one eye squinted on the digital camera up to my eye. Yes, I do that, as if it were a regular old-fashioned camera. My friends make fun of me because I put the screen up to my one open eye and snap the picture..old dogs keep the old ways. I could have done all this yesterday but I was too busy talking on the phone (we all live in different states) to all my relatives about our ethnic past. That takes lots of time..trying to figure out who is related by who especially when all the names sound alike and all we have to go on are some of the old stories my grandparents told. The "new" old country related cousins and aunts and uncles say they never heard some of those stories. So are they true or not? We tend to want to think the stories will stay the same in our minds. They sound more romantic. So I'd rather be doing all these much "funner" things than going to the grocery in the rain.
At least the green of spring looks greener in the wet rain. I'm begrudgingly off to the store, thinking of my next story.

Know When To Fold 'Em

My boyfriend of 20 years (in some states that is considered common law marriage though we choose to stay unmarried but live together like we are)looks like Kenny Rogers. Well, he did before Kenny had some unfortunate plastic surgery.
I was visiting my daughter in Portland, Oregon again, the first time I had gone out by myself and there was a thrift store a couple blocks from her house that I liked the looks of while window shopping. There was a cardboard standup of none other than Kenny Rogers..big as life. I had to go in. I asked the man behind the cash register how much he would sell Kenny for. He said $4.00. Wow, I said I can't pass that up but how will I get him home to Indiana? He said it will cost you more than $4.00 to ship it and it does fold up so I'll bet you can take him on the plane. I thought about it and decided yes, I could do that. I have done strange things like that before! So the day of departure came and we dragged my suitcase down 4 flights of stairs at 5am along with Kenny under my arm. After the tearful good-bye and a pat on Kenny's head I presented myself and luggage to the curb side check out. The man there looked at my ticket and asked "Is it just you and Kenny today?" I said yes, do you think I will have trouble on the plane and he said No, I think he'll go in the overhead bin. So I was happy and relieved. So up the escalator Kenny and I went receiving lots of long loving looks and chuckling. We got to the inspection gate and Kenny had to stand up and go through on his own..he was wanded but thank goodness they didn't have him take off his shoes! I made it through with out setting off any alarms for once and so did Kenny. While walking to our gate a woman observed "Either you like Kenny Rogers or you like cardboard." We got to our gate and sat down behind a father and daughter. The daughter looked behind at us and said to her dad "Kenny Rogers is sitting behind you, Dad. He looked and chuckled and wondered if he would sing to us on the plane. We had our ticket scanned and nothing more was said. Great. We entered the packed plane and I thought "where am I going to put Kenny?" A girl standing behind me noticed an empty bin..She said "look this one is empty, just put him in and we'll close it and everyone will think its full!" Brilliant girl! Don't think I even saw her face. So Easy Peasy I thought..this is just great!
We flew from Portland to Cincinnati for our connecting flight and again we got loving and longing(as I like to think of it) glances as we were waiting for our plane. I kept waiting to hear them call our row and then noticed that Kenny and I were the only ones left at the gate. We hurried up to the desk and they said, Oh my they are almost boarded! Did I have a brain fade thinking about Kenny?....It was a very small plane..2 seats on each side of the aisle--but the flight attendant said nothing about Kenny so in we went and sat down next to a very large black man. I smiled at him and thought to myself, if I were a casting agent I would pick this man over all others to play Big Sam in Gone With The Wind! Kenny wouldn't fit in the bin on that plane..hardly had a bin, so I put folded up Kenny in front of my knees. His arm stuck out a little into the aisle but not more than a big fat man's arm several rows ahead of us. "Big Sam" looked at Kenny and then at me and asked.."is he going to fly with us like that?" And I said "yes, it will be fine..he's not in the way." The flight attendant starting going down the short aisle and gasped, "Oh, Kenny can't ride that way!" I said that I didn't know what else to do with him. She tried him behind her seat. Nope, didn't fit. Tried him in the front of the plane behind that flight attendant's seat. Nope that didn't work either. Tried him several places and by this time we are 20 minutes past take-off all because we can't find Kenny a seat. I was getting nervous~I thought oh, my gosh people are going to start yelling at me and they are going to throw poor $4.00 Kenny off the plane! Instead, people started singing Kenny Rogers songs~"Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em", "Lady" and several others. It was hysterical. Finally the attendant came back and she said, the Pilot says "Kenny can fly jump seat behind me if he'll sing me a song." So off Kenny went to help fly the plane home and every one clapped. When we arrived home Kenny and I were walking to the luggage carousel again getting the loving longing looks and Michael was there to greet us. He said "my gosh, what have you done? Where did you get Kenny? This is so typical of you, Kim!" He loved it! Now Kenny goes to parties and drinks beer with the guys and people get their picture taken with him. Funny thing about that is...the real people look more cardboard than Kenny!

Cracking the Safe of the Past

One of my cousins is going to meet a relative of ours that we never knew existed...didn't know any one was still alive in the old country. We are anxiously awaiting the rich information she will bring back to us. What an incredible tool the internet is to us seeking our past! There are branches of our family~every family really~ that are out there and living and some might live only a few miles from us and have for years and we never knew!
Our paternal side of the family is from Lebanon and my cousin has found the live link...our three grandfathers were brothers and they came over at the turn of the 20th century on ships..one entered through Boston, one through Canada, and the other we are still researching for place of entry. Our grandmothers did too, entered this country by themselves when they were in their teens. That is amazing to me...to come to another country over a vast sea in a ship that perhaps was not very hospitable, to put it delicately. To come over across the ocean not speaking any English and looking for work at age 15 and then ending up staying, meeting a man or woman of your own background, carving out a life of work, marriage, children and housekeeping never to go back to the old country again. Establishing roots in a foreign country yet intertwining the customs of the old ways with a new culture and in many cases losing correspondence with the family left behind. That is what happened here. For generations our relatives in Lebanon thought our ancestry line was no longer in existence and they wondered what happened to the brothers that left for a better life. Needless to say, we are all very excited on both sides of the sea and wouldn't our grandparents be so proud of us! It is like opening a safe that has been sitting unopened for generations...everyone wanted to open it but could never figure out the combination. We think we have the combination now. Aunts and uncles and cousins all that are still alive in both countries are buzzing with remembrances and questions of long told stories and mispronunciation of names with phones running out of charge and fingers flying on the keyboards.

Misty night in Dallas

Several years ago I was privileged to go on buying trips with one of my best friends, Lynn, who owned a decorating and gift shop in our home town. I was, I like to think, an Assistant Buyer. We always have an adventure when we're together and this trip was no exception. Dallas, Texas was our destination to buy at the World Trade Center there, where we flew once (that is another story)...but then took the train the next two times. We would leave from Chicago on the train which seemed kind of silly to take the train from Indianapolis up to Chicago and then down to Dallas..but that is the way the train travels. This trip was in January when it is very snowy in Indiana and Illinois but milder in Texas. One night after a long day of walking, looking, choosing and doing great quantities of dollar calculations for the shop we decided to go to Baby Doe's Matchless Mine restaurant..an old silver mine of sorts that is perched on the only hill, as far as I know, in Dallas, complete with a live burro at the entrance chewing on hay or what ever they chew on. It was a very misty, cool, dark night but Baby Doe's was very cozy and warm and we enjoyed a delicious meal. When the meal was over, we asked for a cab to be called for us. While we waited we shopped in the little gift store that looked just like a "company store" a mine would have~there were pieces of turquoise and silver jewelry and rings, bits of fool's gold and all sorts of books and trinkety things to tempt you. Time passed and no cab. A couple of what looked like cowboys with big ten gallon hats sauntered over and asked us if we were movie stars and we said "Why, yes, we are" I wonder if they believed us? That was fun but waiting that long was not. We asked the maitre d' again to call a cab and waited again. Pretty soon an hour had passed and we had asked 2 more times. Finally they told us that a cab had arrived. We went out into the murky night and saw 5 cabs in a row. Puzzled we looked at each other and decided to take the first one. When we entered the taxi the windows were so steamed up we could barely see. I said to Lynn "I don't feel right in this cab. Something is just not right in here..I feel like there is a gun in here or something." We decided it was going to be alright that my imagination was running away from me since we'd had such a long intense day and that we didn't have far to go. We drove along in the heavy, misty rain on the road that runs parallel to Stemmons Freeway back past the World Trade Center and we saw a man in a trench coat carrying a brief case and piece of luggage walking along the road and waving for us to slow down. Our driver hesitated but we said let's give him a lift since it is so miserable out and he can share the cab fare with us. So our driver stopped to pick up the man. The man said "no, you already have a fare" and we insisted that he take the ride. He and the driver loaded up his suitcase in the trunk and he seated himself in the front. He said he needed to get to the airport right away and he was in a great hurry...he seemed irritated and nervous. We told him it will be alright, the driver can just leave us off at the entrance of our hotel drive and they can go on. The man never looked at us or thanked us. So we were deposited at the entrance of the drive and the cab drove away. The next morning we hailed a cab to take us to the final buying day of our trip. The sky was blue and it was a little warmer and we were talking to each other about what a difference a few hours make. We told our driver that we had a terrible time getting a cab last night...that we were out to dinner and....Our cab driver joined the conversation and finished the sentence Lynn was just saying...He said..."Yes, 5 cabs were dispensed to Baby Doe's last night for a fare of 2 women. During this fare the driver picked up another fare and we are told never, never to do that. After the driver released his original fare at their hotel he was held at gunpoint and robbed on the way to the airport." Silence fell over our gaped mouths like a blanket. Lynn looked at me and whispered, "I'll never not trust your intuition again!"