more college memories, how I met my husband

Wow, one little reunion weekend and the memories keep flooding back.  Seeing the print making department, dissimilar as it is to what I remember, reminded me of how I met my husband. I was working diligently on a silk screen print, when Martha, the graduate assistant who was teaching the class, walked up to me and said "I know someone who wants to meet you."  As I later found out, Tom had never set eyes on me at that point, but he had shown some interest in Martha, who (lucky for me) was dating someone else,  She decided that she and I were similar enough in looks (tall with brown hair) that Tom might be attracted to me and he was.  With my ok, she gave him my phone number, he called, and we spent over an hour on that first phone call.  Then we went out for what was then referred to as a "coke date" - the drink, not the drugs - at the corner sweet shop.  We actually drank Lime-O's, and that was the beginning of a three-year up and down, near and far courtship.  He moved to Texas for a while, I moved to New York, but eventually we got back together and the rest, as they say, is history.

an ode to pizza king

At the reunion I attended this weekend at Ball State, several thoughtful, and very complimentary speeches were made about past professors and department leaders, some living, some dead, all definitely worthy of praise.  However one aspect of my college education was not touched on and I think it deserves mention. Fifty years ago when I went off to college, a financially and socially challenged small-town girl, I had never eaten pizza prepared in a restaurant.  My girlfriends and I had made pizza from a box at slumber parties but delivery wasn't an option back then, at least not in Woodburn, Indiana.
Thursday evening as my friend Alice and I were driving around Muncie, trying to decide on a place for dinner, we happened to pass a Pizza King restaurant (a place we learned to love and had often frequented in our college days) and immediately decided that pizza was the perfect choice, and it was,  Talk about something that brings back memories - the smell was wonderful, the taste was amazingly delicious - thick gooey cheese, traditional toppings, a perfect crust!  We still love you, Pizza King.  Yummmm!!
 

Down memory lane...

I had a wonderful two days at Ball State University this weekend attending the first ever reunion of art students from the time when Alice Nichols was chair of the department (from the late 1940's to the early 1970's).  It was fun to reminisce, but even more fun to see how the school has grown.  It is a "school" now, not a department, with many specific art majors at the bachelors and masters level.  When I attended there we were working toward a bachelors in art education.  Now you can get degrees in about twenty different areas of art and the qualifications to get accepted to the program are much stricter than in my day.  I'm not at all sure I would have made it.
The area that most intrigues me is the new glass design program.  We spent a fascinating couple of hours watching students working with glass, super heating and shaping blobs of glass into soaring works of art.  I particularly liked one lovely "wing" shaped piece that was being created as we watched and would have liked to buy it.  Unfortunately, it was being created as a thank-you award for a million dollar donor.  I know that's not me. .

A blast from the past...

As I was driving to work this morning, I was passed by a circa 1971 VW bus camper conversion, very similar to the one my husband and I used to own, and the way it bounced along and the sound of its ticky little engine brought back a flood of memories. We bought our camper new in 1971, while I was pregnant with our first child and had the pop-top added a year later. I learned to shift the gears (4 on the floor) by jackrabbiting around a large mall parking lot, and we were off.  My family (my husband, myself, two children and two dogs) traveled in that camper/second family vehicle for 13 years; 210,000 miles of exploration through the desert southwest, the mountains of the northwest, parts of Canada, historic sites along the east coast and on and on.  We even camped in Las Vegas (my first time there) and discovered that the KOA laundry room had slot machines.  So many happy, silly, carefree memories - thanks little VW bus.

A Scary Statistic

As I rush around in the mornings getting ready for work, I half listen to the local and national news. Sometimes a snippet catches my attention, but the commentators are on to something else before I can get the information straight.  For example, the other morning I heard this statistic "Over the next ___ years one in three people will die with (not of, with) Alzheimer's."   One in three?? That's truly scary and pretty unbelievable, but it got me to thinking - what are we all doing that generations before us didn't do?
Of all the people I have known in my father's generation -my parent, aunts and uncles, and parents of friends, I can think of three who had Alzheimer's -none in my immediate family - out of probably 50 or more people that I could quickly name, certainly not one in three.
So what are we doing to ourselves?
What's in our food? beverages? atmosphere? OTC meds? other? that could impact so many, so drastically? Are we reading too little, watching TV too much, focusing on computer and other screens all day? I am sure there are lots of studies being done so my assignment to me is to do some reading.
More on this later.

This functional family

In this age when dis-functional families often seem to be the norm, I am pleased to report that my family is very functional.  We had a family dinner tonight, 11 of us, including 3 generations of siblings, cousins, in-laws, parents and children, and we had fun - good conversation, good food (I cooked but everyone ate without being forced, so I'm assuming it was good), four young cousins - my grandchildren - playing happily together, even our family's inimitable rendition of "Happy Birthday" to salute a son and son-in-law who celebrated birthdays this month.  I am so blessed.

Apple butter day

I didn't post a blog last night, too much fun having a sleepover with two of my grandchildren.  Two are here tonight also but they are asleep now after a busy day of apple butter making.  This year I decided that my grandchildren, at ages 12, 11, 10 and 9, were old enough to help with more than just gathering the apples from my old tree so I gave each of the three who could be here today a cutting board and knife and we started chopping apples.  Of course I watched them carefully, not wanting any cut fingers, but they did very well.
We chopped enough apples for two big slow cooker  batches of apple butter.  The first one is almost finished as I write this and the house smells wonderfully of apples, cinnamon and cloves.  Yummm.
Would you care to guess who was the only one of the four of us to cut her finger?  Me, of course.

What's in a voice?

Today I used the credit union's drive through service to deposit my paycheck.  Since I was two bays away from the building, I couldn't see the teller but her voice came loud and clear and extremely cheerful over the intercom, "How are you today, Lucinda?"
Now I knew that we weren't close personal friends (no one calls me Lucinda) and my first reaction was to think how over the top and insincere her voice sounded and that made me laugh. But then I realized that if her goal was to spread cheer, she had succeeded.  She made me smile and laugh (mostly at myself).
Who am I to judge the sincerity of someone else's greeting?.
I will accept all future cheerful greetings at face value.

and speaking of slang phrases

I woke up at the 'crack of dawn; this morning and I actually saw it, the real crack of dawn.  The sky was dark, full of purple and skybluepink rolling bubbly clouds, and there, right in the middle was a thin horizontal stripe of icy clear pale shining blue - the beautiful crack of dawn.

Terms we take for granted

At our weekly staff meeting this morning our Korean pastor thanked one of the staff for teaching him a new American phrase while they were working on a project together.  The phrase was "play it by ear" and that got me thinking about terms we use that may have no meaning or a very different meaning to someone whose native tongue is not English.  Consider "You're toast!", "What's up?", "Give me five!", "That's my bag.", "Bring it home.", "Let's face it.", "You don't have a leg to stand on.", "Wrap it up.", "It's the cat's pajamas." - well no, we don't really say that one much anymore - but pajamas remind me of one of my favorites "You made your bed, now lie in it." and that's what I"m "off to do".  Good night, I'm going to "saw some logs."

Cats are quiet

Through the years I have had several pets, dogs and cats, and while I dearly loved my dogs, I must admit that I find living with a cat very comfortable.  Cats are quiet, and they like to snuggle.  My cat, Frances, is snuggled up beside me on the couch right now.  Of course there are a few drawbacks.  Cats don't fetch.  I saw a cute video of a dog bringing his master a beer from the fridge.  Frances might bring me a cricket, but only if she wants to show me what a mighty hunter she is.  I have taught her one trick though.  All I have to do is flop down on the couch (this is usually on a Sunday afternoon) and say "nap" and she is right there on top of me holding me down so I'm forced to take a good long nap.  Good Kitty!

reflecting on reflections

I realized, as I was putting on my make up this morning, that looking at myself in the mirror is a lot less fun, and takes a lot more courage, at 68 than it did at 23.  I don't really believe that there is a new wrinkle on my face every day, but it certainly seems that way sometimes.
Lucky for me I can't wear my glasses while I'm doing my make up, so I don't really see the harshest reality.
I heard recently of a woman who coped by simply removing all mirrors from her house.  I'm not quite ready for that yet.  On the other hand, one of my friends who is my age uses a magnifying mirror so she can really see all the flaws - no thank you!

An encouraging word

Two mornings ago I heard a very, very exciting bit of research results on the morning news, exciting to me at least.  A study has shown that many people do their best, most creative work in their 70's and beyond, and that brain tissue keeps growing much later in life that was originally thought.  I'll be 70 in 15 months and I'll be waiting for the genius to kick in.  Will I write a great novel; paint better than I ever did in college or take up weaving again?  Who knows?  We'll all have to wait and see.

Happy Birthday to my favorite son...

Today my oldest child, my son, turned 42.  So many memories swirl through my mind, it's hard to know where to start.  We've been through a near death experience, a pinewood derby triumph, a name change, the agonies of shyness, the victory over shyness, many scholastic successes, a few not so successful endeavors, interesting jobs, an eternal interest in space, fantastic support for me through the toughest time, a wonderful wife, two beautiful daughters and on and on.  Is it any wonder I love him so much and am filled with pride whenever I think of him.  Happy Birthday Thomas!

What happened on birthday eve...

Tomorrow is my son's , my oldest child's, birthday.  He will be 42 and has grown into a wonderful man of whom I am very proud.  But more about him tomorrow.  Today I have been remembering the night before he was born.
My husband and I had gone our for a delicious Mexican dinner, and I was feeling fine until about midnight when I started to have stomach cramps.  I seemed to develop all of the classic symptoms of a mild case of food poisoning.  Sometimes I'm slow to figure things out but eventually I get there.  After about three hours of discomfort I began to wonder if I might be having labor pains.  You would think that the fact that it was 10 days beyond my due date might have given me a clue.  I finally decided to call my doctor who told me that, since I wasn't having regular contractions yet (note, I never did have regular contractions) there was probably no rush, but since it was my first I could come to the hospital any time.  I woke my husband, we got ready, grabbed our prepacked bags - mine with clothes, his with stuff to occupy our time - and headed off to the hospital.  We got there about 5am, were wisked into a little room where a nurse checked me over and then left us alone.
My husband, since we had both read lots of books about the subject, assumed that we would have several hours to wait, brought out the travel chess set and started to set up the game.  Just then the nurse came back, said we were heading for the delivery room -no long wait after all - and off we went. Our baby boy was born at about 6am.
The moral of this story is that if you want a fast easy birth experience, eat Mexican food the night before. More about my baby boy tomorrow.

An Amazing Performance

Picture if you will over 100 children, most of them under six years old, sitting on the floor with their families in a huge room, enjoying banjo and accordion music.  It was a sight to behold, and I misspoke a little when I said they were sitting.  Mostly they (and their parents) were swaying, doing jumping jacks, clapping, sneezing, twirling and generally moving to the music.  This is the magic of Jim Gill, a children's entertainer whom I had never heard of until our church invited him to come and perform as the opening program of our music series for this year.  I hadn't heard of him but lots and lots of young children certainly have.
What i most enjoyed about the evening, besides the really excellent lively music, was that nobody told the kids to be quiet or settle down.  They were there to move and move they did, and so, although we hoped not to be noticed, did a lot of us grandparent types standing around the edges of the room. It was pure fun.

Today's discovery

While sitting in a meeting this evening, I heard a woman who was giving a report refer to looking up a word on Thesaurus.net.  Who knew??  I don't know why I should be so surprised.  I do find all sorts of information by googling, but it never occurred to me to search for an on-line thesaurus.  I was so excited (did I ever mention that I am easily entertained?) that I came right home and looked up a word.
The word I chose was 'happy' and the huge long list of synonyms that popped up included cheerful, pleasant, agreeable, amiable, bright,buoyant, easy going, affable, cheerful, cheery, complaisant, congenial and friendly.  The whole experience left me smiling..

Thinking about Syria

I heard a very interesting lecture this evening on situations in the Middle East.  The information was presented by a young man who has just spent a year in Jordan studying political situations in that area and working on his doctoral thesis.
I'm still processing much of what he said but two things stand out right now.  First, I didn't know that over 3,000,000 Syrians are refugees living in camps in Jordan and other countries.  That's 10% of the Syrian population. He said that the US is contributing a great deal of money and materials to help these refugees and had some rather scathing comments about other countries who make big promises of help and then don't come through.
Secondly, in the Q&A session, he was asked about possible reprisals if we attack Syria in some way.  He said the most likely response would be to attack something of value to us in that part of the world.  I must admit my very selfish first reaction to that comment was "Well, that wouldn't be as bad as an attack in the US." How very shallow of me.
I just heard on the news this evening that Syria has offered to destroy its chemical weapons in exchange for???.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out, since also according to our speaker the aim of the US in Syria is regime change and has been for a long time.

An irritating word

From time to time a word, or more accurately a word usage comes along that drives me nuts.  For a long time it was the word utilize.  I didn't understand why people insisted on utilizing the word utilize when they could simply have used the word use.  I haven't noticed this much lately so maybe it has run its course.  However, recently I have notice another word fad.  It seems like so many people I hear interviewed on TV shows start every sentence with 'so'. Now 'so' is a perfectly acceptable and useful word (see the sentence above) but seldom necessary at the beginning of a sentence.  Listen for it and you'll hear what I mean.

Ginger bread temptation

I baked gingerbread today for a dessert we're having at church tomorrow.  I love gingerbread and I love to bake it.  It's so spicy and makes the kitchen smell absolutely wonderful.  The problem is temptation.  I'm sitting here sniffing the wonderful aroma while knowing full well that these cakes are intended for the fundraiser tomorrow.
I'm about convinced that I should do a taste test, you know, to be sure the two pans of gingerbread are good enough to take tomorrow, but the two pans were mixed as separate batches so perhaps I should check them both????  Hmmmm....

The play's the thing...

Nothing very profound today, just want to share a fun experience.  I saw the play Fox on the Fairway at First Presbyterian Theater.  It was very funny, not just mildly amusing, but laugh out loud funny.  I really enjoy a good laugh and a surprise ending.

A Dock Diver Dog

Another fun fact gleaned from the early morning news.  Remy, a large black long legged rescue dog, is the fifth best dock diving dog in the country.  They showed several scenes of him running full tilt off the end of a dock, leaping into the air to snag a suspended ball, then flying way out into the water, then swimming back. It's a good thing I saw this since otherwise I would have had no idea what a dock diving dog competition consisted of.
What first attracted me to this news piece was the dog's name.
Many years ago we had a dog, a very short legged miniature dachshund named Remington, whom we called Remy.  That seems to be the only thing they had in common.  Never was there a dog who hated water more than our Remy.  Bath time was not a pleasant experience.  The closest our Remy ever came to dock diving was on a woodland hike with the family when he ran out onto what he thought was solid ground only to discover that it was the edge of a lake covered with green scum.  He sank like a chubby little stone, proving once and for all that not all dogs can swim.  Lucky for all of us, he was on a leash and we hauled him out quickly, sopping wet but otherwise quite unharmed.

Really, what a deal!

TV commercials intrigue me.  I know, I know, I'm easily amused, but really sometimes they tug at my heart, sometimes they make me laugh and sometimes they just puzzle me.  How can a super one-day sale last two days? How will I save money by spending money?  Will a face lift really make me look 20 again?

But the one I've been pondering most lately is one advertising a legal firm (which shall remain nameless because I don't want to be sued).  In their commercial they say "If you decide to settle a law suit and the money you receive is less that what you owe us, we'll reduce our fee."  Hmmm... They don't say by how much they'll reduce their fee.  Will it equal my settlement?  Will it still be larger than my settlement?  Will I walk away with anything?  Why didn't you win the lawsuit for me?

I'm not a litigious person so I'll probably never know.

A day to remember

Today was a red letter day in my life, a day to remember in my technological evolution.  Today my daughter asked for my help with a Publisher problem and - wait for it - I was able to help her!
Today I also "installed" a new cordless keyboard on my computer at work.  After carefully reading the installation manual which told me not to eat the batteries, and warned of other dire possibilities, and scanning the warranty booklet, I finally found the actual installation instructions on a postcard size slip of paper. They consisted of two pictures, one showing how to put the batteries in and one indicating that I had to plug the memory stick into my computer.  I did both steps and it worked.  Such an accomplishment.

I love to read.

Everyone who knows me knows that I love to read.  Currently I'm reading a novel by Barbara Kingsolver. "Prodigal Summer".  Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors.  She tells excellent stories but I also enjoy the sheer beauty of her descriptions, especially descriptions of nature.
Today one line made me laugh "A bird never doubts its place at the center of the universe."  I will remember that as I enjoy the little soloist outside my window tomorrow morning.
By the way, I always appreciate hearing about new authors and recently read books, so if you want to share or just leave a comment, click on the title of this post.  That will put this entry on a page of its own with a space for comments.  Thanks.

My son the Elder

This year my son was elected an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, which pleases me very much.  This morning we served communion together for the first time and I enjoyed the experience.  However, I do have one concern.  I've been an Elder for several years but now that my son is one, what does that make me?  An ancient, I suppose.