I Dare you...

...to stay crabby after watching this video.

Dancing at the Movies - Music Video

Believe it or not...

There has been stitching.

Just the teeniest bit, but it's a start.

I'm not happy with the amount of time I've been spending on facebook playing games. Following news feeds is fine. Chatting with friends is the best. But, for the most part, playing the games feels like a waste when there is SO MUCH out there with which to fill a life. So I went digging through my stash and decided this piece fits my current mood quite nicely.


I finished about half the word "Scatter." Not much, but it's a start!

The End of Summer

It's always a difficult time.

It's been a momentous summer, to say the least. It started with great sadness as my dad died after a quick, horrible experience with pancreatic cancer that spread throughout his body and took, for the last three weeks of his life, his ability to think clearly. He hated that. He died on June 19 and I stayed with my mom for a week after.

Three days after I returned home my older son and his wife moved in for three weeks as they prepared to relocate to Japan. It was a happy, exciting time. It was a sad, stressful time. On the one hand, I can't believe my baby is an ocean away. On the other hand, by all accounts they are settling in nicely and my son seems happier than he has in years. I can't be upset with that!

Shortly after my dad died I took a trip to my favorite Happy Place, Disneyland. A good friend works there and in the course of the afternoon suggested I try Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. To oversimplify, TAW is a personal development system based on daily writing exercises. Also part of the program is a weekly "artist's date." I have embraced the program completely and have found it a source of comfort as well as inspiration. I will always be grateful that this door was opened for me.

As the summer has wound to a close, I have gone overboard with the Artist's Date concept. The AD is supposed to be a two-hour outing. Something to spoil myself. I am well aware that I have taken the idea too far but make no apologies. I had the best three-day vacation and spoiled myself rotten.


On the first day, I started with a trip to the Gene Autry Western Heritage Center in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. I had never been there and can't believe that I have missed it for nearly twenty years. The temporary exhibit that I enjoyed was called "Home Lands - How Women Made the West" tracing women's contributions to the buiding of America's culture of the West starting with Native Americans up through the immigrant experience and into today. There was even an exhibit about the effect on our culture of women + the automobile! Just wonderful.

Next I went into the permanent exhibits which started with a marvelous collection of paintings of the Romantic Era. I was proud that I was able to recognize my Bierstadts without even reading the identification cards!


I loved the way this museum segued from the Romantic era paintings into the West-based entertainments such as Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and from that into the cowboy movies and television shows. They even had the Lone Ranger's costume. A blast from my past!

After the Autry I made my way into Los Angeles to visit Rosedale Cemetery. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles and was the first integrated cemetery. It was an interesting experience to see all the different styles of architecture used on headstones and crypts. I did not stay there long however.

Next I made my way into West Hollywood where I had tickets for a play. First, though, I had dinner at a restaurant called Hugo's. The atmosphere was acceptable and it was convenient to the theater. The sauce on the carbonara was to die for.

The play that I went to see was called Circle of Will. It was set in the time between William Shakespeare's last play and his death six years later. Very cleverly plotted and brilliantly acted, the play was thought-provoking as well as hilarious. I had such a good time! Circle of Will was written by Jack Grapes and Bill Cakmis. Events unfolded to get me to it when my son, who had taken a summer writing workshop in 1996 with Grapes, encouraged me to sign up for a class with him as well. When I contacted Grapes about the class, he encouraged me to see the play. I'm so glad I did, and am really looking forward to the workshop starting in October.

The next day my brother, sister-in-law and I returned to the city for a Lewis Black performance in Disney Hall. I have long wanted to see something in this facility and am a huge fan of Lewis Black.

I wasn't disappointed with Black's performance - he was exactly as he is on every HBO special or Comedy Central appearance - but this was just not the venue. Disney Hall is a place where I'd love to hear a concert of the L.A. Phil or even to hear their fabulous organ. But a one-man stand-up? I just would have preferred something more intimate.

Which I got on Sunday of that weekend. Hang with me through that fabulous day.

I started with my first visit to the Getty Art Museum in Los Angeles. Oh, what a breathtaking place! I truly did not want to go inside to see any of the art. The architecture and landscaping of this place is phenomenal.



I did eventually make my way into the museum to see the domestic arts displays (the palace of Louis XIV, et al.) and an exhibit of late middle ages sketches. Also saw the temporary exhibit of the work of Jean-Leon Gerome.

I didn't really want to leave, but had more adventures ahead of me. After the Getty I traveled down Wilshire Blvd. and made my way into Hollywood. I had tickets to see Toy Story III at the El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Blvd.

Originally opened in the 1920s, the El Capitan has been fully restored and is currently owned by the Disney Corporation. After a delicious chocolate shake at the adjoining soda fountain (how long has it been since I had a REAL chocolate milkshake?) I entered the theater in time to enjoy the pre-movie performance of their award-winning organist. Nothing better than well-played arrangements of Disney songs.

The movie was charming - probably the best of the three Toy Story movies - but I think this will be my last visit to this theater. The experience is fairly expensive and (although this is not the theater's fault) ruined by rude patrons. If I'm going to have a movie ruined by thoughtless patrons who insist on talking through the movie on their cell phones, I'd just as soon do it in a theater where I've only paid $6 for the matinee instead of $30.

The highlight of this day was the two comedy shows I saw at the Second City Comedy Training Center just up the street from the El Capitan. This was the intimate comedy experience I had missed with Lewis Black. Talented young people with such energy and passion for what they were doing! VERY funny, and an inexpensive way to spend an evening. I had a delightful dinner with the same friend who guided me to Artist's Way at a nearby Italian restaurant, then drove Sunset to the Pacific Coast Highway and home.

Since that rather momentous growth experience, I've been pretty much just puttering around trying to wrap my head around returning to work. I have, sorry to say, not been struck with any great ideas to "fix" my teaching issues. But, all things considered, I'm returning in a much happier state of mind than I left school in June and am hopeful that I can carry that happy little spark into the classroom with me.

Coming up. Tomorrow is a long-delayed scrapbooking date with my Mom and sister. Monday I take my Mom to Disneyland to enjoy a day with the oh-so-talented Ragtime Michael.

And on Tuesday I will spend the day with my terrific sister-in-law. We were hoping to see the Autry women exhibit again but it ends tomorrow. We will, however, travel some great distance to a cottage garden nursery that we sincerely HOPE is still in business. At the least, we will enjoy each others' company for the duration of the trip.

I have to report back to work Monday, August 30 with students arriving Wednesday, September 1.

And the cycle begins again.

Everything is Looking Up

Have a busy, fun end of summer ahead.

My oldest and his wife are getting settled in Fuji-shi. They haven't actually SEEN the mountain yet, but their camera is at the ready for that momentous day. In the meantime they are getting settled in. They have a two-bedroom apartment. At 6'4", my son has to duck to go through interior doors. The bedding and refrigerator had to be replaced and a great deal of leftover belongings from the previous tenant dealt with, but it sounds like things are coming together. It seems that the staff at his new school appreciates his willingness to pitch in. He says he is feeling better than he has in a "long, long time."

I've been fairly lazy. I've done a little weeding (not much) and have harvested lots of sweet pea, scabiosa and Apricot Chiffon poppy seed.

The joke around here is that Monday must be Disneyland day. Ha. Ha. I went two Mondays in a row. On the first day I treated myself to all of what they call "the dark rides," the rides that we used to enjoy when I was really little. I enjoyed noticing a lot of details that I didn't remember from before, like Mr. Toad's hands.
Of course, this area went through a major renovation in 1983 and so a lot of what I'm seeing is different than it was when I was a kid. Like this elephant stack on the Dumbo ride,

and I was noticing for the first time the wavy glass on the Pinocchio ride (although, to be honest, it might have been like that when I was little, too, and I wouldn't have paid attention).
I think the last time I rode the carousel was when my youngest was not quite two (which would make it 27 years ago). I was debating whether to get in line or not when the "calliope" started to play "Once Upon a Dream." Since the carousel has a Sleeping Beauty theme, it seemed like some kind of direction so I got on and enjoyed the ride.
And, no, I still need to lose more weight before I will challenge my knees to get me up on a carousel horse. The bench worked just fine.

If I can find it again, I'll post a video of what I call the water dance at Pixie Hollow. I heard some kids call it a water jump this week, but since the jumping is choreographed to music, I'll stick with my dance label. Just a fun fountain that I find relaxing and happy.

I know most people think of the rides when they think of Disneyland, but if I am lucky enough to hit a day when Ragtime Michael is at the keyboard, I settle in for an afternoon and evening of some amazing piano. The man has the gift, no doubt about it.

We've had some wildlife excitement around here. About 15 years ago, my mother's neighbor gave me two clutches of baby desert tortoises that she had hatched. A little over a week ago I was in the back yard collecting seed and looked down into the tortoise pen to find...
I was so EXCITED! My son is into reptiles and so we think we have them safely incubating under lights in the kitchen. Apparently you can't candle tortoise eggs like you can chicken eggs so we don't really know if they're viable or not, but we're hopeful. Every baby animal is cute, but tiny baby tortoises are really cute since they are just tiny replicas - right down to the claws - of the adults.

Now that the Japan-bound are there, we are back into the process of re-arranging the spare room into a combination music room and sewing room. Where did all this stuff come from!?! It's taking forever. Considering that I've been flinging stuff for five years now, it's proving to be very difficult getting rid of what has now survived two or three rounds of making stuff go away (the Rescue Mission loves me).

I have a lot of great "field trips" in the works in the next couple of weeks, but rather than take time to write about what I WANT to do, I'll wait until I can write about what I did.

Hope summer is going well for you, friends. Most of you will be jealous to hear that my part of SoCA is experiencing an amazingly cool summer; I've been puttering around comfortably all day today in a sweatshirt. Do not envy me, as we are all sure this means 100+ temps at Christmas.

Eeeeuuuwwwww.

Pink Eye?

Not exactly.

This is my firstborn. He was about four months old, just starting to get the almost white hair that he eventually grew out of. Wasn't he proud?


And here he is, 32 years later.


Still AWESOME AND AMAZING!

I just put him on a plane to Japan. Where he and his wife will be living for at least two more years. Possibly forever.

Pink eye? No, I burst a blood vessel in my eye crying (or trying not to) for the last two days.

Oh, I know. Intellectually, I know what a wonderful opportunity this is for them. She will be near her family after living in the US for most of the last decade. They will live in a place where teachers are still treated with respect and where healthcare is considered more a right than a privilege. They will have access to beauty and culture and the hot city scene if they want it.

For all of those things, I rejoice for this opportunity.

But my heart is a mother's heart. I weep.

An ocean away.

I can't help but to think about the pioneer mothers who sent their babies west (as I send mine west) without the internet, cell phones, Skype and facebook. Who stood in the road until the wagon had rolled out of sight and who knew that - quite possibly - most likely - they would never hear from that child again. Never know whether they made their future or not.

And I am grateful.

Or to think of the mothers today who don't want to let go of that last hug - as I did not want to let go this morning - to take their arms from around their precious baby off to Afghanistan or Iraq.

And I am grateful.

Fare well, my precious boy.

Be safe. Have fun.

Disneyland. (again)

Had a fantastic day yesterday with my older son and his wife. Breakfast with Chef Oscar. Rides in two parks. Aladdin. Dinner at the Blue Bayou. Ragtime piano with Alan AND retiree Johnny Hodges. New "World of Color" show at DCA.


Have continued to work The Artist's Way (Julia Cameron). The friend who recommended it said it had transformed him. I told him transformation was probably aiming a little high.

I was wrong.

Transformation is in progress.

Heading out to help DS1 get clothes (my birthday gift to him) since he is quite tall and it may be difficult to find what he needs in Japan.

Unseasonably Cool

I'm not complaining.

I don't ever remember a summer so downright chilly. Here along the California coast June Gloom is the norm, but we often have years where the late June summer temps have been in the high 90s and 100s for weeks. The recent temps have been hovering in the low 70s.

It's just delightful.

I've been working away in the garden.

This bed was knee high in spring grass and dandelions (the tortoises like the dandelions). I cleared it out and planted lisianthus and gerbera daisies. I clearly need more flowers here and will probably add some violas in the fall. The Snowball bush (viburnum) in the corner (barely showing in the picture) is doing great! It will probably be huge next year.

I had a great bed of sweet peas this year and they are going to seed. They were all advertised as self-sowing so I'm hopeful that I'll get some of the same back next year. The one on the end was my favorite (I think it was called Strawberry Sundae but I've lost the label).

I am absolutely thrilled by the performance of the three brugmansias I ordered last year from Kartuz Greenhouses. They arrived as 6-inch rooted sticks. After just a few weeks they were about a foot tall. And now, about a year later, they are three feet tall and have been blooming all season. I'm enjoying all of them (plus the pink that has been in the yard for several years) but this one is my favorite. It's called 'Creamsicle'. The bloom (some are double) starts out pure white, then as it ages it develops this lovely peachy mottling, just like when we would mix vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet and kind of stir it up as it melted. What a yummy flower.

You can see the flower of one of my hydrangeas in this picture. This year I added aluminum sulfate to the water once to try to bring on the blue. Then my dad got sick and with one thing and another I missed adding the stuff in subsequent waterings. I ended up with this strange but quite lovely mix of colors. This is a lacecap. The flowers are a strong blue, but the bracts around the edge are a mix of pink and purple. I kind of like it.

In other news, my oldest and his wife are on their way to Japan and are staying with us for a few weeks. Their lease was up on their apartment June 30 and they fly out the end of July. My room is back to looking the way it did before my grand remodel. It's OK, I know it's just for a few days really and I will be so sad to see them go. My DIL is having a rough time deciding what to keep and what to trash as she goes through the last of her boxes. They can't take much (will have to pay to ship anything) so they gave away their furniture and kitchen equipment. They already sold one car and still have the other to sell as well as a computer. Some of their stuff I will store in my storage unit. I made it as clear as I knew how to communicate, though, that nothing was to be left in the house.

If that wasn't enough, my younger son decided to honor his grandpa's memory by returning to music. I'm thrilled to death, but he's a drummer and drums take lots of space. For now he is confined to his room, but I told him that when the other two leave, we will convert the spare room into a shared space so that he can have his drums in there and get his bed back.

In personal news, I shared with a friend that I was enjoying The Imagineering Workout, a delightful little book I bought at Disneyland. Disney Imagineers share their advice for igniting creativity. I've mentioned to him before that I'm worried about making it through the next few years of teaching and was hoping this book would give me some new approach. He then told me that he had worked The Artist's Way program by Julia Cameron and that it had a huge positive impact for him. Since he is rarely wrong, I decided to go for it. I'm just finishing my second week. There is a lot of writing and a handful of "assignments" each week (including a weekly solo "artist's date"). Already I'm noticing some significant changes in my attitude about myself and what I do. I still don't know about the next school year but am feeling some confidence that I'll get it together.

Finally, we are all getting our wits about us again after my dad's short but intense passing with cancer. Mom seems to be doing well. Last Sunday I threw a party at her house to belatedly celebrate my BIL's birthday, my oldest son's birthday and my birthday. As always, everyone asked what we all wanted for our birthdays. I replied that I had decided to buy myself an IPOD Touch and asked for Best Buy gift cards. I am overwhelmed by their generosity. Between them my family gave me enough cards to just about pay for the device I wanted (I ended up paying just the tax and for a service contract. Oh, yes, and a really cool pink protective cover). Anyway, here's my new treasure toy.

32 gb 3 gen. I've managed to connect to my facebook account, rip over some favorite movies, transfer my favorite music and load in a DMC floss inventory app, a mah jong game and three Disneyland line time trackers. Now, if I can just find wifi wherever I go I'll be in good shape.

Actually, most of what I wanted it for I don't need wifi, but being able to satisfy my facebook addiction from time to time would be nice.

The Good, the Bad and the...

...oh, what the hell.

At Christmas time I bought some Light-Up Bubble Guns at Disneyland, intending to give them as gifts. As it turned out, I only gave away one, so earlier this month I took one of the other guns back to Disneyland to play with.

It didn't work.

I was never able to get it to work, but the one I had given away (to my nephew) was still at my mom's house (well, actually it was lying in the planter). I knew his had worked because I had watched him in the dark on Christmas night, so I brought his in, cleaned it up and tried it out.

It didn't work.

It occurred to me that just maybe the problem was the six-month-old batteries. So, I went to the store and bought some new batteries. Popped them into the gun and...

It didn't work.

Today as I was clearing some stuff out of the spare room I found the last of the guns.

IT WORKED!

I played with it in the front for a while. The bubbles were lovely with the sun reflecting off them. So lovely that I decided to try to take some pictures of them with my new camera (two months old).

The camera is missing. I'm pretty sure I left it on the table at the Buca di Beppo that we ate at last night. My son drove over to the restaurant today to check to see if it had been found, but no luck.

Other than that, things are going OK. A friend recommended The Artist's Way, a creativity program created by Julia Cameron. I'm just a few days into it but am enjoying the process very much. I'm hopeful that with this help I will be able to start school in September with a more positive attitude about what I do. I've added a link in the side bar if you'd like to check it out.

Still no stitching to speak of. While I was staying with Mom I bought several cross-stitch magazines and felt a little stir of interest in some of the charts (don't you love British cross-stitch magazines?) Maybe by next week I'll be ready to go through my collection and decide what I'd like to work on now. Dog is still too crazy for Firefly Faeries to be out and vulnerable, but I have a significant number of charts and supplies in the museum. Surely I can find something to play with.

Garden is surviving. We're having an especially cool (as in temps) summer this year which really helps. Favorites are the "Jack Frost" brunnera and the Creamsicle brugmansia.

Delicious, both.

Getting On With It

My Mom is Amazing.

For that matter, so is my brother. He has spent countless hours going through my Dad's financial records and now is leading our mom through the process of getting everything settled so she can handle things herself. Something to think about. Dad SEEMED to be in good mental condition until the last three weeks or so, but as my brother has tried to organize Dad's records it appears Dad wasn't quite "with it" even when we thought he was. Thank goodness my brother set Dad down early on to get what information he could early on.

If only we had thought to get his Wi-Fi security pin.

Tomorrow will mark my third week here and I'm thinking it's time to head back to Camarillo. Mom seems to have her feet under her. I want to return for one overnight each week through the summer (two days, one night) so that I can help her with - well - whatever she needs. I'm sure once she's truly functioning on her own she will discover certain maintenance chores that she needs help with and that we can restructure in some way to help her out. Like today I want to get her some oscillating sprinklers so that she doesn't have to move the sprinklers in the back yard ten times to get the back grass watered.

I have a full summer to trek through. Some of it is exciting to look forward to. I plan to get myself to a Tom Kubis performance in Seal Beach next month. To the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles. Up the coast to Cambria. Lots of schoolwork as I try to re-design my attitude by re-designing my presentation, starting with a re-writing of our 8th grade history standards so that they - I don't know - make sense maybe?

I also talked my mom into upgrading her Disneyland passport so that we could go several times this summer.

We're both looking forward to that.