2008 Day Ninety Two

Happy Birthday DK! Didn't we have a time 35 years ago? You know I love you and always wish you the best.

It was so busy at work. I think we were 83 in que all day. In call center terms that is bad day at bad rock. I was very happy to put on my coat and leave at 1:30.

Came home and made bacon avocado Ortega hamburgers for M and me. Now I have the afternoon to do what I want.

The appraisal went well. All the cleaning, reorganising and sparkling did the trick. The appraiser said that we would be in the high end of his comps. We should close on the loan on Monday if all goes well.

Tonight I am recording Dancing With the Stars and New Amsterdam. Hell's Kitchen starts this week. I am a big Gordon Ramsey fan! I love television. I probably watch way too much, but hey, it's cheaper than shopping or drinking!

2008 Day Ninety One

Woke up to, you guessed it, Snow! I am hoping this is the last of it.

M is home today. We get to paint the bathroom ceiling. Now doesn't that sound like a fun Sunday project?

Pictures of my pups:

2008 Day Ninety

I HATE Housework! Next time I will hire a maid service. I swear I will.

2008 Day Eighty Nine

Last day of first quarter. They brought in pizza for CRU. Not good pizza, in fact pretty bad pizza.

After work I went to Walmart to stock up on cleaning supplies and dog treats. The appraisal is set for monday morning. So this weekend I will mop floors, scrub and sparkle the bathroom and finish straightening up the basement and craft room.

It started to snow really hard this afternoon. So far there is about 1 or 2 inches of snow. They are predicting 2 or 4 more inches. I've have given up the hope that we will ever experience Spring. It is amazing how the weather can effect your attitude and well being. This winter has really done most of us in.

2008 Day Eighty Eight

It snowed again today. Will it ever end? Will Spring ever come? More snow coming tomorrow. I'm thrilled...

I had my annual review at work today. It was pleasant and I got a raise. Not much of one, but, in this economy I guess any raise is a good raise.

On the the other side on my way home I got my first speeding ticket in 30 years! I am so dumb. 14 miles over the speed limit. I guess I will go to Traffic School so they will espunge it off my record. M of course gave me no sympathy. I say it is Jiffy's fault. She is so fun to drive and she is well, Jiffy.

Tonight is the Celebrity Apprentice finale. I am hoping Trace wins. Hope I can stay up that late to watch it all.

2008 Day Eighty Seven

Is it only Wednesday? I kept hearing that question all day at work. Yes indeed it is only hump day. To make matters worse it snowed, rained and hailed. Will winter ever lose it's grip? Can you tell I had a headache all day?

Now that I am home and took some good ol' Excedrin, I feel much better.

On the plus side, M is working days Thursday and Friday. So we can live normal for a few days.

I want to share another poem from Nikki Giovanni:

Luxury

I suppose living

in a meterialistic society

luxury

to some would be having

more than what you need

living in a electronic age seeing

the whole world by pushing a button

the nth degree might perhaps be

adequately represented by having

someone else to push

the buttons for you

i have thought if only

i could become rich and famous i would

live luxuriously in new york knowing

famous people eating

in expensive restaurants calling

long distance anytime i want

but you held me

one evening and now i know

the ultimate luxury

of your love

2008 Day Eighty Six

Little flurries are flying through the air. Looks like Spring will have to wait awhile before bursting on the scene.

The bug man came today. He sprayed to kill anything that might even think of hatching. We used to have ants outside when we first moved into this house. But once we call this pest control company - no more bugs at all. Since his first spray last year I have yet to see ant, spider or any other creepy crawlie thing. Plus the tech owns shihtzu's.

more memories...

Many summers we would drive cross country to my grandparent's farm in Indiana. I loved those trips. I still to this day love to travel, especially by car. Our first stop would always be Reno. We always went to Sparks to the Nugget Casino. We would go to the restaurant in the casino and have their famous fried chicken.

The next afternoon we would stop in Salt Lake City. I learned there that was the temple the Walker's were married in. One time we stopped at a kind of science park that showcased dinosaurs. I don't remember much about it except they had a giant dinosaur skeleton and my Dad bought me a green Dino plastic dinosaur. My Dad would always find a motel with a pool, so we could swim till we were so tired we would sleep all night.

The next stop was always Little America, Wyoming. I fell in love with Wyoming. So western and so wide open. We saw prairie dogs and wild horses. I used to tell my Dad I was going to be a cowgirl and live in Wyoming when I grew up. We would usually spend the night in Cheyenne the rodeo town. I always dissapointed that the rodeo was never going on when we were there.

We stopped alot at the Howard Johnson Motor Inns because their restaurants were famous for their ice cream. I always had orange shebert. I remember one HoJo's was built on an overpass. I cannot remember what state that was in.

We would sometimes stop in Council Bluffs, IA and visit one or more of my mother's 11 brothers and sisters. I remember one summer we stayed about a week. One of her sisters had an ice cream catering truck business. My brother and I ate alot of ice cream that week. Another summer we visited in Illinois with my mother's Uncle Howard. He had made a folding table size Bump game board. We played that game for hours on end. It is sort of like Chinese Checkers, but, different. When we got home we begged our Dad to build one just like Uncle Howard. I think he did, but I cannot remember for sure. We would finally arrive in Indiana at the farm. This was paradise for us city kids.

2008 Day Eighty Five

Not much time to blog tonight. Enjoyed the afternoon with M being home. He put more ram in my computer, but, it would not accept the new video card.

It was beautiful and sunny today. Definitely loved the sunshine for a change.

I promise to write more tomorrow...

2008 Day Eighty Four

We woke to grey overcast skies this morning.Very different from the blue skies and sunshine yesterday. They are calling for rain. We had planned on going out and doing some geocaching, but, now that the weather is downright cold, we will stay in and work on straigtening up the basement in case the appraisal walk-through will include that, which I'm sure it will since that is where the master bedroom, family room and laundry room are.

2008 Day Eighty Three

Started our Saturday off with a nice breakfast. Drove M to work. Now me and the house have lots of work to do with a little blogging here and there.

This week's Photo Hunter's theme is METAL. I chose some hometown pictures of the metal sculpture of runners that were donated to the city. I love seeing them in every season. Riverfront Park that is downtown is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. It is the site where the World's Fair was held. We have walking paths and bridges that cross over the beautiful waterfalls. The park also has an IMAX theatre, a sky cup ride that crosses over the falls and a historic hand carved carrousel and alot of other attractions.

2008 Day Eighty Two

I am so happy it is Friday. I know, I say that every week. Even though I had Monday off, this week seemed like an even longer week than usual. If that is possible.


We had a mini blizzard today. It snowed so hard I could have sworn it was January. By the time 1:30 rolled around the big meltdown was taking place. The sun has been out most of the afternoon but it is quite chilly. Freaky Spring weather.

I am staying home this weekend and working on the house to get it ready for the appraisal. I have too many clothes. I know I need to sort through them and give some away, but, I just cannot part with any. I will try.

I watched the second episode of New Amsterdam. It is becomming one of my favorite new shows. Last night I watch Celebrity Apprentice. My man, Trace Adkins, is still in it. Down to the last 2. I'm hoping he beats that pompous British creep Pierce. Next week is the finale.

2008 Day Eighty One

http://sirrobinridesaway.blogspot.com/2008/03/five-years.html

Please visit this site. I would love to gather a petition of people who would like to see the madness of this war END! Are there enough people out there that would actually sign their

name to my list that I would send to our elected officials to convince them this has to STOP?

We brought an end to the Vietnam War - now let us end this one!

2008 Day Eighty

Interesting day at work. It was slow but I kept busy with some busy work I got from our admin, Carol. I had my monthly one on one with Holly. She tells me to "Be Happy" "To Show My True Personality" "Be excited about coming to work everyday" I have to wonder if am truly cut out for this kind of work. If only I could make a living doing readings or maybe as a jewelry artist. Too much to protect these days, so back to work I go and will try and "be more happy".

The shipment came from Rubber Nation. More fun beads!! I cannot wait to get started.

Another poem from Nikki Giovanni

The Room With The Tapestry Rug

And when she was lonely...she would go into the room...

where all who lived...knew her well...

Her hands would touch...her lips... silently moving... would

punctuate the talk... with a smile... or a frown...

an occasional "Oh My"...

If it was cold...she would wrap herself... in the natted blue

sweater... knitted by a grandmother,,, so many years ago... If

warm... the windows were opened... to allow the wind... to

partake of their pleasure...

Holidays were never sad... seasons in fact... unchanging...

Family and friends... lovers and longings... rested...

waited... never to betray... never to leave her...

Her books... her secret life... in the room with the tapestry

rug..

2008 Day Seventy Nine

After work I went to the bank to meet with Robin regarding the home equity loan. Everything is done. Now we wait for the appraisal.

One of my favorite poets is Nikki Giovanni. She died of cancer in1998 but I still love her poems.

No Reservations

there are no reservations

for the revolution

no polite little clerk

to send notice

to your room

saying you are WANTED

on the battlefield

there are no banners

to wave you forward

no blaring trumpets

not even a blues note

moaning wailing lone blue note

to the yoruba drums saying

strike now shout

strike now fire

strike now run

there will be no grand parade

and a lot thrown round

your neck

people won't look up and say

"why he used to live next to me

usn't it nice

it's his turn now"

there will be no recruitment

station

where you can give

the most convenient hours

"monday wednesday i play ball

firday night i play cards

any other time i'm free"

there will be no reserve

of energy

no slacking off till next time

"let's see -- i can come back

next week

better not wear myself out

this time"

there will be no reservations

only

if we fail

2008 Day Seventy Eight Happy St Patrick's Day

We started the day out taking all 3 dogs to the groomer.

Went down to O'Dougherty's. Free Whiskey (the band) was playing. Such great Irish music. I'm crazy for bodhram, fiddle and penny whistle music. We had the fish & chip lunch listen to the music for awhile then decided to move on because it just isn't the same if you cannot drink beer..

We walked next door to Boo Radley's and looked around. I bought the Sublime Stitchery book I was going to buy online. Saved on shipping costs.

We left downtown and found some coffee. That sobered M up. We stopped at Lowes to look for lighting for my craft room. Didn't find what we were looking for there. Next stop was at Michael's and they actually had the craft lamps we were looking for and they were on sale. Now instead of using the kitchen table I can actually use my craft room. From there picked up the dogs and headed home.

some St Patrick's memories....

My brother, Steve, was born on Saint Patrick's Day. So of course we celebrated the birth of Saint Steve every year. I call him St Steve, because my brother when I was growing up never did anything wrong, or let's just say, he never got caught doing anything wrong. He was alot like my mother. Orderly, sane and very stable. I was the adventurous-flighty one. My brother's best friend was Marc O'Connor who was about 6'5''. One year he came over and picked Steve up and he was dressed as a leprechaun! Just imagine a 6'5" all dressed in green-top hat and elf curly toe shoes and all. It was a crack up. I wished at the time I was older so I could have gone with them.

The other memory that comes to mind is back in my single bar hopping days. Where I grew up St Pat's was a big day. I have never worked on this holiday. We would start with the tricycle races and move onto the potato sack races to the green beer chuging contests and then to hilarious limerick contests. We ate lots of free corned beef and cabbage and drank probably too many pints of beer. One year I had really wanted to date this guy who I cannot even remember his name now. He had just bought a new corvette...knowing I was Irish and new all the fun places to go on St Pat's he asked me out. We hit all the fun places and did all the fun things. Then he asked those fateful words..."Have you ever drank green tequilla"? I said no I had not but was game to try ...and we did...And driving home, well I got a tipsy bit sick in his new corvette. He was a true gentleman through and through - but he never asked me out again. I can't say I blame him.

My second or third date with M was on St Pat's day. We were quite on our way though the drinking and merriment when he decided to take me to meet his parents.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day. *Slainte*

2008 Day Seventy Seven

M left early and was gone all day finishing the computer project at the shop.

I did laundry, watched tv and finished some beading projects.

Talked to DK tonight. He is celebrating St Pats Day with all his friends.

more past memories....

One week before Christmas the family drove to San Jose and we bought a travel trailer from a private party. I don't remember the brand of trailer but I do remember the model name: Diablo. We took the little trailer and camped all over northern California. We went every year to Big Sur and then on to the Calaveras County Frog Jump. Many summers we camped at the beach and also on the Leary's private land in Placerville. It was always alot of fun. My Mom's favorite thing she would make was potato soup over the campfire. And I remember them buying bacon in a can. We would have our own private frog jumps with frogs we caught from the river. We climbed the sand dunes at Sunset Beach, saw wild boars in Big Sur, listened to ghost stories while toasting marshmallows around the campfire, saw the monarch butterflies of Carmel, marvelled at the tall redwood trees, visited most all of the California missions, panned for gold and enjoyed being a family of vagabonds on all those long weekends. California was beautiful back then and I have many happy memories after we bought the Diablo trailer.

2008 Day Seventy Six

We got up and had BLT's for breakfast. M went off with Chris to work on the shop's computer project. I went to the Rock n Roller's Gem and Mineral Show.

I saw lots of beautiful stones. I bought a string of red polished stones that were drilled so they could be used as beads. I also bought 2 carved stone angels pendants with bails and a gold donkey pin.

I went by a bead shop that Lorna has been telling me about, but it was closed. Came home and let the dogs out. Went over to Walmart and bought all the normal things on the list plus filters for the fish tank and some red beads to finish the "chili pepper" necklace I've been working on.

I did finish that necklace this afternoon. When M came home we got ready and went out to Opa for dinner. We met Debbie and Pat who are delightful. The conversation was terrific. The food and the service could have been better, but, the restaurant was crowded and very busy. I was surprised a Greek/Italian restaurant did not have espresso or any coffee drinks. Like I always say, East Drink and Be Merry because tomorrow you may be in Spokane.

2008 Day Seventy Five

Oh Happy Friday! What a crazy weather day. There was rain, snow and hail. The weather guy is saying rain and a little snow overnight. It always does this right before St Patrick's Day.

I am looking forward to my 3 day weekend.

Work was slow today and that was a nice change. First quarter is coming to an end. After work I came home and worked on a few projects. I made my first order to Rubber Nation. Lots of great beads coming.

More memories coming soon...

2008 Day Seventy Four

I am too tired to even think. Tomorrow is Friday-Payday. I will post more tomorrow.

2008 Day Seventy Three

I played hookey today. I needed a mental health day. I cleaned the house, worked on beading projects, surfed on my computer and treated myself to coffee. Connected with Debbie and made plans for Saturday night for the four or six of us to meet up at Opa for dinner.

M caught an earlier flight by 2 hours. I drove out to the airport to pick him up. His flight was only 10 minutes late. From there we drove back through town and went to Chilis for dinner. My kitchen is too clean to dirty it up with dinner preparations. Now I am too full to live.

****

More memories.... We had other family friends that did not live on our street. One of the first ones I remember was Jim and Fran Marta and their son Jimmy Joe. One time when my parents were away they left me with the Marta's. Fran would make us Ovaltine every afternoon and Jimmy Joe and I would watch Creature Features. Those movies would give me nightmares. I would dream that the 50 foot woman would be peering through the bedroom window or the Thing from the Black Lagoon would be standing in their backyard dripping of lake slime. Jimmy Joe showed me how to use a tin can phone that he had between their house and his friend's house that lived next door. Fran was a crafter and I was fascinated that she had a whole room just to do crafts in.

We spent alot of Christmas Eve's at the Marta household. Every year I would ask Santa for a horse. One year my parents surprised me at their house with a green parakeet for Christmas. I named him Danny Boy. I loved that bird. He was crazy. He would wolf whistle and break out of his cage if anyone was making toast and fly over and crawl all over you until you shared some with him. We had another neighbor, Mrs. Otradavich who was the ugliest woman you have ever seen. She would come down in the morning to have coffee with my mother and she would say the only reason she would visit is because that bird would wolf whistle at her. He would bob his head up and down and dance back and forth on his perch if you sang The Yellow Rose of Texas. For some reason he really liked that one song. That bird lived 16 years which I have heard is a really long time for parakeets. And even though he was not a horse, I loved Danny Boy the bird.

The kids from our neighborhood would get together on Christmas Eve and we would go door to door and sing Christmas Carols. We really thought people would like to hear kids who could not sing chime out cheesy Christmas songs. Some did and showed us by sharing goodies, hot chocolate and some even gave us money and then some would slam the door in our face or just not answer. When we went to the Marta's my brother, Steve, would go with Jimmy Joe on a big bobtail truck to go caroling. My Mom would never let me go on the truck.

Other friends included the DiBernardi's, the Green's, the Barry's, The Ayers and the Gronenboom's.

It's time for American Idol so I will have to continue more tomorrow.

2008 Day Seventy Two

After work I stopped and gave my left arm to buy gas. Gas prices are crazy.

I took M to the airport. He is flying over to Bellevue for some training. He is having dinner with his friends that he knew from Premera. He will be back tomorrow night. I miss him already.

American Idol tonight they are going to sing Beatle music! My absolute favorite music!

****

I think I left off about popcorn balls and Halloween. . .

I loved Halloween when I was growing up It seemed every year it would get better and better. I had 2 costumes. One was Tweety Bird and the other was Sylvester the Cat. Like every holiday in our house we had a routine that we followed. After school and after homework and chores I would dress in my costume and watch American Bandstand. They would be dressed in costume too and they would play all the crazy Halloween themed songs. Then my Dad would come home from work. We would eat a quick dinner and by that time it was dark and he would take me trick or treating.

Down the street from the Walkers lived a bachelor man named Rex, same name as my dog which I thought was always funny. He had a pipe organ that took up his whole garage. On warm nights the neighborhood would grab folding chairs and put them in the street in front of his house and he would open his garage doors and give concerts. That organ was so loud it would vibrate the street and make our feet tingle. The music was enchanting.

The Locke family lived next door to Rex. Their daughter Beatrice, nicknamed Beechie, was my age. We were expected to be friends, but, we never hit it off. Not sure why. I remember she came over to our house to spend the night but got so homesick she was crying and had to go home. After that I really didn't have much to do with her even at our mother's insistance.

Further down the street was the Byrd family. Here was the craziest woman in the neighborhood. She was from Poland or some country like that so you bearly understood what she said. She was always screaming at any kids that came near their house. She had a son named Woody who would definitely become one of America's Most Wanted. Even at 5 years old he was notorious. His sister Mary was as sweet as she could be. Pretty, timid and very sweet. Its the only way I could describe her. We really didn't get a chance to get to know her because of her crazy mother. But we had several encounters with Woody and learned to steer clear of him.

Across the street lived the Ritters. Paul Ritter who was an executive at Southern Pacific Railroad was my Dad's best friend. They had two daughters Diane and Patty. We went to church with their family. We bbq'd, made homemade ice cream, went to drive in movies, travelled to the beach and did alot with them for many years. Paul had a sister who taught high school in Manteca. We drove over there one weekend and she made the yummiest fried onion rings I had ever tasted. Funny the things you remember. She was one of the first lesbian women I had ever encountered. Later the Ritters got divorced and Paul moved to San Leandro. We visited him a couple of times and I know my Dad missed him.

Those were the families we knew the best. Families came and went over the years, but I will always remember the first families with fond and happy memories. more memories to come...

2008 Day Seventy One

Another Monday under my belt. M is off on Mondays so it was nice to spend the afternoon together.

To continue the story:

I remember the weather when I was young. It seemed to be always nice. It was almost always in the 70's with soft bay breezes. Sometimes it would smell of the ocean and my Dad would always say, "The bay is in". At that time the San Francisco Bay came all the way up to Alviso and you could really smell it when the tide was in. Then we had the cannery smells. We had 3 canneries that ran most of the year. You always knew what season it was by what they were cooking. First it would be peaches and pears. The Libby plant made fruit cocktail and had a water tower that looked just like a can of cocktail. Then would come the smell of cooked tomatoes.

My Dad was a true lawn junkie. We had a big corner lot and he always kept our grass green and lush. I remember on summer days we would spend hours laying in the grass looking up at the clouds and making out the shapes of animals and mythical creatures. My Dad's garage was his special place. He had a big workbench and pegboard wall full of tools and "man" stuff. He also collected train signs which looked liked license plates for the different train lines. My Dad was always working on home improvement projects.

As a new family on a street of new houses we knew all our neighbors. Across the street were the Camachos who were from Guam. Mr Camacho worked as a chef at the Officer's Club at the Moffett Field naval base. They had lots of kids and were always having parties and BBQ's to celebrate birthdays, baptisims and first holy communions. At their parties we would dance to Chubby Checkers and Fats Domino doing the Twist and the Mashed Potatoes and all the crazy dances that were popular on American Bandstand. The kids my age were Kathy and Joey.

Two houses over were the Walkers. They were Mormon, married in the temple as their kids would always say. I had no clue what that mean't as a child. Mr. Walker worked for IBM. They kept building on to their home because they had 11 children. I was always amazed at their stockpile of canned foods in their garage. Their boy Nyman was my age. They could never play outside on some nights and never on Sunday because of their religion. But I do remember on each Halloween Mrs. Walker would make the best caramel popcorn balls.

I will have to continue more tomorrow, as I have run out of time tonight.

2008 Day Seventy

This was a wonderful Sunday. We spent the day at home. I slowly cleaned off a portion of my desk, the rest of the laundry and worked on beading projects. All in all it has been a very peaceful nice day.

****

Continuing what I started yesterday...

I do not remember how we got to California, if we drove or if we took the train. When we first arrived in Palo Alto, CA we stayed in a motel and then rented an Eichler home from a Stanford professor. My father took a job at Kodak while he waited for a job in the post office to open up. This is what he did in the Army when he was stationed in Okinawa and then in the Fort Wayne post office. My Dad once told me how during the depression how he noticed the postman had a stable job and was able to buy food from the market. Growing up on a farm you ate what you grew and the animals that could no longer produce. The job with the post office finally came through and he worked as a clerk in the East Palo Alto branch during the day and at Kodak at night.

We spent every weekend driving and looking at model homes in all the new housing tracts that were springing up everywhere. I remember one housing tract named Kilarney Farms. They had a red barn and pony rides and all kinds of farm animals. We looked at those homes many times. I hoped we would get one of those homes. But the folks settled on a house where the builder went bankrupt after only building one street of homes and I guess they got a terrific deal on the sale of a corner lot, 3 bdrm dusty pink house. We moved from the rented house to our new home at 550 West Eden in Sunnyvale, CA. My dad set up a sturdy swing set in the backyard and planted a peach tree and a plum tree. He also constructed a concrete patio in the back yard. It was a typical suburban middle class neighborhood. We had a collie named Rex. I loved him so much. I loved brushing his beautiful long fur coat. We must have had a female too because I remember we had a couple of litters of puppies. My responsibility was to mix up the Gerber cereal and teach the puppies to eat once they were ready. I was always sad when people came and bought the pups, one by one and then they were gone. My Dad would tell me stories about how they raised dogs on the farm and then shipped them all over the country.

My grandparents came out by train and visited us. My Grandpa, Carper, brought my brother a can of chocolate covered ants from Africa and a can of lemon drops (my favorite at the time) for me.

My Mom babysat for a time before I started school. When I started kindergarten she went to work at Lindy's Toy Store which was downtown. She worked there for several years but had a falling out with the owner. From there she worked at a children's clothing store called Youngsters which was also in downtown Sunnyvale. She became a buyer for them and I remember the store expanded and opened another store in Fremont. She was with Youngsters for a long time. She left them and I don't not know why, but she went to work for a stationery store just a few doors down from Youngsters. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the stationery store. She had to work Saturdays. My Dad did all the grocery shopping for the family and I would go with him every Saturday to Chinese owned State Market. It always smelled of cooked meat. I loved staring at the Chinese calendars they had hanging everywhere. We bought our meat at a meat market close to the store where my Mom worked. We had a Carnation milk man who delivered milk in glass bottles along with butter, cottage cheese and ice cream. We also had a bakery truck that would drive through our neighborhood and would sell fresh made donuts, pasteries and bread. In the spring and summer we had fruit and vegetable stands everywhere because we were surrounded by orchards and truck farms.

***to be continued

2008 Day Sixy Nine

I slept in this morning. It is raining outside and it was such a nice change than getting up at 3:00 am as I do each day of the work week.

This week's Photo Hunt theme is DIFFERENT. Hope you like what I have chosen.

A wrong way corrigan in this bunch.

This week I have read alot of people's blogs. There are many talented writers out there who can write about their lives so vividly that you can really seem to know them. I am not the best writer and my life has been average. I have had really good times and really low times but on the whole average. I am going to start to write a little bit about my life for my son to read so he can understand where I came from. So I will write a little about my life each day.

I was born in Fort Wayne, IN. I had many problems healthwise with my ears and throat. They removed my tonsils and adnoids when I was only 5 weeks old. I guess I almost died, so I was baptised in the hospital. But as you can see I made it. It is also hard to believe I was only 5 lbs when I was born. When I was born my grandmother, Blanche, was in the hospital for thyroid surgery. I had learned she did not care for me because I took away her attention during that time. At least this is what I have put together from what has been told to me in bits and pieces. I continued to have health issues for the next two years. All I really remember of living in Fort Wayne is that we had a little black cocker spaniel named Holly and that the house was a little white Cape Cod style house with green shutters. With the harsh winters of Indiana my parents decided to sell everything and move to California where the weather is milder and where my father was once stationed in the Army and where the problems with my ears would have a better chance to heal. Growing up I always felt guilty because they had to leave their comfortable life near my father's family and move clear across the country. My mother on occasion would like to remind me that I was the reason they had to move. Even though now as an adult I know that was the best choice for them. For my father he could move away from the nagging guilt of being expected to work on the family farm and for my mother away from a critical and downright cruel mother in law. Neither one was cut out for small town farm life.

*******

I have so much to do today. Housework that has been ignored, a mountain of laundry and bead projects I want to start. It is a nice rainy day to stay in and work on that. There is a Spring Craft Show going on at the college. I may go and look around and get ideas for more jewelry projects.

I am considering myself tagged by Pidomon:

Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post.

4. Tag five more blogs with links.

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Been There, Done That, Do Again

I tagged:

Betty of Betty's This and That

Admiral of In A Mad, Mad, Mad World

April of Aprilwine's Weblog

Barb of Partly Bloggy...With a Chance of Sarcasm

Rachel of all-she-is.com