Annie, my 15 year old, just got back from a class trip to England. She went for 10 days, stayed with a lovely host family, went to school with her host "sister" and got to see some sights. Unfortunately she got the flu and was sick in bed for much of the time, but she did get out some. Luckily the host parents were a doctor and a nurse and very nice too so she had good care. She is full of stories and good memories about her trip and can hardly wait to go back! She is doing very well in school (3.8) and she is greatly looking forward to getting her learner's permit as she will be 16 on May 12th. (Yikes!)
Jill and Annie have a dance performance coming up the first weekend in June. Jill does hip-hop; Annie does hip-hop, ballet and jazz,. Jill and I will be going on her class trip in May to Hershey Park - her chorus performs in a competition there. She too is doing extremely well in school (4.0) and is looking forward to the summer. I took her and cousin Caitlyn (David and Cindy's) to a No Doubt concert over their school break. That was fun!
We go to the beach July 4th week - I think this year we will go back to the Cape May, NJ area. My husband, John, works as hard as ever teaching martial arts and training clients and practicing his owns techniques as well. It is my turn to take him out this evening (we take turns every other Sat. nite). He's been craving pizza so we might go out for that, and then probably to a movie. I get more inspired in the summer when we can get outside and I can take him to golf or for a picnic. There are so many good movies we want to see too. I get it easy because he is happy with pizza, Chinese or something equally economical whereas I like the fancy schmancy restaurants!! In May I will be taking my 2nd degree hwardo test. I am training hard for it now. Wish me luck!!
In 3 weeks I am off for the summer, from my job as a cook at a sorority!! You will find me most often in my back yard in the garden or out on the trail! Can't wait!
HOME IMPROVEMENT Valerie Davidson - Redwood City, CA
I'm working pretty steadily on upgrading our home base, after 21+ years of living here. Our landlord has offered to paint the entire interior, replace the kitchen floor, and replace several doors (all the windows were replaced 2 years ago); and I in turn am tossing out all kinds of old, old furniture and replacing all the mini-blinds, etc. Part of the fun of all this hard work is that I am redecorating as inexpensively as possible, yet with articles of furniture, etc. that I intend to use for the next several decades. If one shops carefully, one can find simple but elegant pieces that just happen to have been well-made and are likely to endure nicely. I have also added heavy-duty casters to the cabinets on which my two aquariums rest, to make them more "mobile," with power strips anchored to the back so that all the plugs and tubes are neatly arranged and anchored in place. Part of all this industry owes to my needing to become less sedentary, a state of being which has crept up on me. Slowly but surely, I am building my stamina so that a good wall scrubbing won't give me a stroke!
Meanwhile, I have also upgraded my reading choices. I have decided to spend my time reading classics, which I don't mind buying and keeping--unlike the "pablum" bestsellers which don't usually hold up to a second reading, and are therefore a waste of bucks. (What am I saying -- they usually can't hold up to a FIRST reading!) Funny, I made my decision a very short time before Oprah announced the end of her book club, citing a shortage of excellent books to recommend (hear, hear!).
My reading list is sort of eclectic, the main idea being variety in era and country of origin. Currently, I am re-reading Jude the Obscure, the book toward which the public so over-reacted that Hardy never wrote another novel. I started out with Jude, Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, and Pearl Buck's Good Earth. Before that, Tess of the D'urbervilles and Madame Bovary. It's rather surprising how differently I experience the books that I first read decades ago. [Sorry, no time for the boob toob!]
I've purchased a couple of new bookcases and unpacked boxes of books stored in the garage and sorted through them, but still probably gave away more books than I kept. That leaves me with several empty shelves to grow into, as it were! (oh, boy!)
FLORIDA TRIP REPORT Orrel and Charlie Frost
We spent a week in Hudson, FL, in early Feb with a family friend who summers in Athol. Orrel bought more notepaper at the gift
shop of the Ringling Museum of Art that we visited last year. Later that day we visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in
Sarasota, which has a wonderful collection of orchids -- even the black orchid of comic-strip fame. A few days later we returned
to Sarasota to visit the Mote Marine Aquarium for a ride on the pontoon boat to view the nesting areas of pelicans, snowy egrets
and ibis. We drove down to the state park at Dunedin for a walk on the Osprey Trail. Saw over a dozen ospreys consuming their
fish catch in their big nests atop dead trees. Went to our friend's Universalist-Unitarian church in Tarpon Springs. He took us to
several musical performances, one of a world-class clarinetist from the University of Alaska and the other a baroque harpsichord
and vocal recital under the auspices of the county library system. We came home with cumquat jams, jellies and syrup and a
wicked good recipe for a sweet spread.
The only sour note was that our home water supply failed. The morning before we left, our plumber neighbor assembled a gang of four
to lift over 300 feet of pipe and cable to replace the submersible pump. Amazingly, they completed the job in a little over two
hours.
There's wonderful material in your Muse, and it's so handy to receive it on the Internet. We are commending this as
a model for some friends of ours in Columbia, MO. They were neighbors in Kirksville and now have a daughter and son-in-law
with the Peace Corps in Armenia. We've just received the couple's first newsletter from Armenia and think the project could well
evolve into a family newsletter.
AN INTERESTING DAY Nancy A. Murdock
April 20, 2002 -- A few days before, we stared at the two events on our calendar and debated whether to cancel the tickets for an 11 AM Baltimore Symphony concert. After much speculation, we organized it all by changing the time of my afternoon commitment at the quilt show. We knew it would be a tight day, but along the way other things came along to make it a real standout.
We got up early for a Saturday and packed the trunk with everything we thought we might need for the whole day, eliminating the possibility of taking food to share with the quilters. Who wants to provide food poisoning, after all? We left in plenty of time for the symphony, having once allowed only an hour and been caught in maintenance on the freeway, from which there was no escape.
Half a mile from home, I spotted a white car that looked remarkably like ours. We were excited to see that it was indeed a Toyota. Another half mile later, when we stopped for a light, I asked Bob to roll down the window so we could get the driver's attention. Bob called out, "What year is your car?" The driver said "90!" and we said, "So is ours!" We all grinned smugly and discussed how little trouble we've ever had with the twin cars. As we drove off, we said what an interesting way that was to begin our big day.
Two or three miles later, I realized there was one police car in front of us and two sitting nearby. Oh-oh, were we about to drive into a sticky situation? Well, too late to turn back, but I gripped the steering wheel tightly. We noticed a lot of people standing around; the situation looked worse to us. Then we saw some were sitting on the curb, but no police were standing over them. A fire truck came toward us with lights all flashing; maybe a fire? We pulled over to the curb, but the driver grinned and waved to us. Then we spotted a whole lot of teenaged men dressed in identical T-shirts, and we relaxed. Apparently this was some kind of celebration and parade for a team's achievement. Well, that was interesting, we said.
We found a really good parking spot in the garage and had plenty of time to read the program before the concert. We speculated on the reason for an ungainly piece of equipment on the stage. At these concerts someone comes out and talks and gives time for questions and answers. This time, though, it began with a talk by someone who had set up a test of the audio equipment that needed to be done with an audience in place. We were to make no sound each time the short test was being done. It consisted of a short burst of sounds from low to high on the scale, and vice versa. Okay, no problem. Unfortunately, I must be part dog, because when it hit the high end, I said OOOH! and grabbed my ears. For the remaining tests, I covered the ears as we began.
The concert, featuring Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony, was truly excellent and well worth the trip in, even though it totaled only 45 minutes of music. Even the maestro, who was sort of icy in demeanor at the time he came in after stepping over a bunch of electrical wires from the test, smiled at the end.
We didn't need to have worried that we wouldn't have time to get to the next part of our day, with a concert of that length.
We drove directly from Baltimore to my guild's quilt show in Columbia and had time to eat from the food brought by others. Someone had even made a white bean soup. Then we parted, so Bob could view the show while I checked on the silent auction, which I chaired. This was his third day there, but the other times he was helping. He had a special tag that said his name and "Very Special Participant," so he wouldn't have to pay admission.
From 2:30 to 3:15 I did my demonstration of "crazy quilting." Then it was time to stop the bidding, which had been announced ahead of time. The vultures were circling the bidding papers, trying to guard their bids from last-minute bidders. I stopped the bidding but then realized suddenly that we had no cash box! So I said they could bid until I got some cash. Dashing out to the entry, I found someone who was willing to give up hers, but we had to count the money first. It got a bit confusing for a while. We had 86 items, and a lot of people had stayed around for the ending. But my great team got it all straight. Then we had to take down the remaining items and pack them in the car, along with all the stuff I'd brought over during the past three days.
By then Bob was exhausted and said he'd like to stay in the car while I helped break down the show. I took down a display of heart blocks made for Lynda Brugge, which I had volunteered to make into a quilt after the show. We couldn't leave without the quilts I had in the show. All 300 of the quilts were brought into my silent auction room, folded, placed in see-through plastic bags with the tags visible, and stacked more or less alphabetically by the member's last name. Then I helped sort each member's quilts into shopping bags. We had to wait until all were done and then go through the checkpoint with our registration slips, which had to be matched against a master list. No army on the move could have been better regimented.
By the time we got home and rehashed the day, we were ready to drop but a little high from how well it all had gone. It was a successful show, and the silent auction garnered over $3,000 for our education program. We'll be able to get some nationally known quilt teachers for our guild classes in the next two years. But Bob and I aren't hoping for another day like this any time soon.
THE LONG FAREWELL Nancy A. Murdock
THE LONG FAREWELL
--Nancy Murdock
It was a good planet.
Shimmering blue water -
Plenty to drink
For a person
Or a country.
But there were many countries.
It was a beautiful planet.
Thick green trees
Marching over mountains,
Crowding into hollows -
Plenty to build houses.
But there were many houses.
It was a healthy planet.
Clear sun-drenched air
That smelled of flowers.
Plenty for a family
Or a family of families.
But there were many families.
It was a kind planet.
Absorbing the indignities
Of the axe and plow,
Roads and boats,
Electricity and airplanes.
But there were many indignities.
It was a changed planet.
Cold water turned to warm,
The coral died,
The fields were houses,
The air was thick with gray,
And no rain fell.
Fewer families roamed the planet.
They huddled in zoos
Appeared on lists in books
Of signs and warnings.
A few spoke up
But there were fewer listeners.
It was a deserted planet.
A few space vessels
Soared toward other rocks
Other dreams
Other lives.
But the planet died,