Mandelas are those sacred drawings that like mazes and myths and memories have infinite numbers of points that connect--with no easy ways to find beginnings or endings.
I didn't go to Greenville to see my sister Betsy. I am old! Woke up with a pain--yes, Bill was still there! I also had a pain in my back and another in my head. Got up, took Aleve for the back, Advil for the head--and my daily dose of blood pressure medication to help cope with Bill!
Two hours later, at 11 o'clock, my loving and kind driver Bill graciously got up (early for him) and wanted to get going, I still ached in the back & the head, so no go. I hope Betsy isn't too disappointed. Probably not, because I know she & Deb, plus Georgia, Salsa & two other travellers I forgot their names, are enjoying the glories of a great dog show, it's a really pretty day and she understands--because she IS BETSY! Did you ever notice how wonderful women like Betsy always understand! Of course, she would for sure have been in trouble if she didn't call and say she was an hour & a half away, but despite being YOUNGER, she does understand aches and pains, and I know she would drive an hour and a half to hook up with me or anyone in the family--even for a short visit. Because, she's Betsy!
Other updates and commentary: Fun time with Bella on Friday--she is one fun young lady--what a gorgeous, long legged, savvy 6th grader. Kris & Michele went to Kris' UNCC college friend's 41st consecutive Friday the 13th party! A tradition that evolved during their "any reason to go out and party youth" years--and has continued in the same vein. Olivia was engrossed in watching TV, but ever the gregarious Bella was just fun to hang out with in that fabulous Kriders of Davidson kitchen.
Also, this week at our house, Bill finally went with an infected, swollen, painful jaw, to a dentist who then referred him immediately to an oral surgeon. So he's started that ever so needed process. KY and GA wins yesterday, good pain meds and of course a wonderful, doting, caregiver of a wife all have contributed to his recovery from this first of many extractions.
We had great news that after 16 weeks, Sean is totally cast & boot free--plus he had a great report card and loved our birthday box of Bakugan Warriors--only ONE duplicateof the many in his collection. In other grannykate news, Sam goes on his 5th Grade class trip to DC soon, and also soon Jay will have a minor surgery repair of a hernia--another "inheiritance" from his dad's gene pool.
On How & What Else I've Learned just this week: I have finished reading both Good Houskeeping & Atlantic Monthly magazines I got this week, and all the cartoons poetry and most of the commentary in the NYorker, plus my kids in jail wrote some nice essays about Abe's 200th Anniversary. Although one defiant kid told me it was BHMonth so he chose instead to write a great essay about Malcolm X. When I said his work earned him an A+ for content but an F for following directions, he told me that he did it for me--because I probably knew more about Lincoln and needed to learn more Malcom! Great rationalizing--got him where he is today, I said with my best teacher-knows-best smile :-) On this week in Politics: The stupidity of "just say no" irritates the heck out of my sensitivity to an impatient inner voice that screams, "DON'T JUST STAND THERE, DO SOMETHING!" to those who only criticize and won't come forward with reasonable, specific alternatives. And, just so's ya know... Women's rights took long strides forward on this date: In 1820, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was born--and in 1973, Leah Michelle Krider!
On this week connecting politics, learning family & friends: Had a long really on the phone-not-email visit with Pat Krider, and read with delight some great facebook news that Sara's coming to Indy for the 500, and Jane & Darrell will stop by in their RV after Easter.
I also delight as many folks connect on Facebook to other interesting folks that I haven't thought about in years--like Josh Hadley or Lisa King or Diane Jung who are friends of family or friends of friends that have skirted in & out of my life. Diane reported that her parents' house on Tanner Ave. in Greendale is on sale--Her parents bought it for $35,000 in 1964, it's for sale for $300,000+ and we sit in amazement at the housing bubble?
Oh how I loved reading about Susan's gift to Will's teacher, and enjoyed the "perfect gift" timing from Fred for Valentine's Day. And kudos to Meg and Ben for being recognized as proud parents of a Student of the Month. I found a letter dated March 5, 1984 from Richard Negangard naming Bob as Student of the Week, "We sincerely appreciate the extra effort that Bob demonstrated, and we are proud to have him as a studnet at GMS"
Of course, I'm always a proud parent, I've NEVER been noted for humility! What struck me most--the "connection" links of Meg & Ben young, proud super parents of three adorable, smart kids to finding that old Student of the Week note about Bob /to learning aobut Diane Jung's parents house on Tanner Ave where Dick & Andrea Negangard lived, and who died waaaaay too young/to getting updated GMS demolition photos from Carolyn Blevins--and just a week or so after getting that funky t-shirt that Margaret found at Goody's.
No matter how I "spend" my time, as I blog and slog along through life, there are smiles of satisfaction--and endless circles of pain at how my memories and musing, both simply and with a complexity that I can't trace, link us through infinity. Knowing we are connected by just 1 or two degrees of separation because we're connected to someone who's my facebook friend--it's fun! Or because Jack's Dad and Elsie met up with Bill & Pat at an America concert on the Riverboat Casino in Rising Sun. Who knows. Providence? Magic? Mystical? Accidental? Encounters of Aliens? Doesn't matter, really. It is was it is--I am happy and probably have said enough.
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