When we moved, I took several things along with me that my mother in law had used to extend her reach.
A Grabber.
A folding three step stool.
A folding five step ladder with extended piping above it so you can hang onto it and balance while reaching for high things.
All of which I use constantly.
And there's this memory:
There's something about going through college with your best friend and marrying right after graduation.
Although, one of my children was very disappointed with us. "all of my friends have several parents and lots of brothers and sisters and half brothers and sisters and.... and you're still married to the same person?"
Well, that's another way I failed my child.
Another ALA experience last weekend:
The lines were so long for the various author signings that I didn't know which line was for what book, so I probably missed a lot of good experiences.
On the other hand, I was just standing by an empty table talking to someone and the publisher staff asked if we were in line. We looked at each other and asked, "what line." When the staff member explained who would be signing at that table we nodded and told her that 'sure. We'll be in line" (we were first in line for Dan Santat !!!)
My grandson will love that book.
L ong ago, when we lived in Towanda, PA, my mother let me walk home by myself from kindergarten, so a friend and I took a shortcut that was an hour longer than our regular walk.
We hiked through alleys and people's back yards. We collected empty pop bottles and turned them into the corner store for two cents each. (considering that recycling plastic bottles these days only earns us a dime, that sort of income stream hasn't risen much.)
Yes, mom did panic when we didn't show up on time and forbade us to ever take THAT shortcut again.
We don't forget those teachers who believed in us. But we do forget to go back and tell them so. By the time I decided to find my sophomore high school teacher (who thought I was a good writer) to show her some of the many books I had written that got published, I couldn't find her. She's probably long dead.
Mrs. Schroeder who taught at Parkersburg High School, I'll never forget you.
June 20th was my birthday.
It was wonderful.
My sister and her husband (who live in Ohio) came to visit which was great. The whole west coast family took us to my favorite Japanese restaurant - where you sit around a flat stove and a chef cooks everything right in front of you , while making funny statements. Made us laugh a lot. There were some of those restaurants in around Baltimore when I lived there.
We walked on the beach and ate at a Mexican restaurant, too.
Since she's a fine artist, she visited the art museums here as well.
I thought I was smart making an airplane reservation for 11:30 to get home from a writer's retreat. I was wrong.
Firstly, we had to catch the shuttle from the island near Washington State at 8 am, which meant that we'd miss breakfast. No problem - I had a breakfast bar.
Secondly the shuttle took a couple of hours to get to the Seattle airport, but it made it in time.
Thirdly, when I went to the desk that had a lovely HELP sign above it, when it was my turn to ask for help, they told me it was only for people who wanted to declare a gun !! not me.
Fourthly, they directed me to the actual help desk, where I explained that I was returning from a writer's retreat where they had no printer so I could't print out my plane ticket, but I did take a picture of the "ticket" that was supposed to have gone to my phone, but my iPhone was too old to accept it, so could they help me? They did. They printed out a ticket for me and checked my suitcase right there. NICE.
Fifthly, they directed me to walk to the END of the airport to access the correct security. So I walked and walked (almost got my mile walk in just doing this. :)
Sixthly, it turned out that at this point I was no where near my gate. I had to take a train to another building. No seats. Just clinging to a pole. Fine. I can do that. BUT, to get to the train I had to go down TWO escalators, because the elevator was closed. (at this point in my life, I get vertigo when I go down an escalator, so closing my eyes, I went down, down, down.
Seventhly, yes, I went up two escalators to get back up to the flight area. Only 9 gates. Mine was gate 9. Do you suppose that it was the first gate by the escalator? Nope. It was the last gate away. By this time I was wondering if I would even make it to the plane before it took off.
Eighthly, yes, I made it just as passengers were being loaded.
Ninthly, But I had planned to re-charge my cell phone while waiting for the plane to load, but no there was no time for that. Guess what? The phone charger near my seat was broken -- so I pulled out my back up book and read my way home.
(at least this time they were serving food and snacks on the trip back home)
Tenthly, Yes, I did have just enough charge left in my phone so that I could inform the shuttle that I had arrived at San Diego and he picked me up and took me home. Had a great conversation with him about the areas of San Diego we passed. (he took a short cut)
