My love...my husband

I know, I know. I talk about him alot... My wonderful life partner is such an amazing person, to me. And to others, I have to admit. I am so grateful to share my life with this man. Really, I am blessed. Thank you Universe!

Be careful what you wish for!

WOW! I just got word tonight that I have been cast as Momma Rose in Gypsy! I am very happy but I am also very ...um...quiet about it. I know what it will take to bring this character to life. Check out all the ladies who have played her...

"...Ethel Merman in the original 1959 Broadway production of Gypsy, Angela Lansbury in the Original London production, and Rosalind Russell in the Warner Bros 1962 film Gypsy; stage revivals have starred Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley, Joyce DeWitt and Linda Balgord. A television movie starring Bette Midler premiered in 1993."

I think...at this moment in my life... I am ready to do it.

Here is where the show will be done. Ticket info is there as well....

Wow. This is gonna be a trip!

MLK Day

Interesting day.. First off - cool that we have finally recognized the content of Dr. King's character and we celebrate it by creating a holiday devoted to service!

Secondly - I did not celebrate in that way, this year. Obviously, I am in a memorial spirit. This process is still new to me and will take some time.

Mallie and I watched more of "A Concert for George" this morning - we had watched the bulk of it the night before. It is a loving and mighty memorial concert to the life and music of an amazing musician - George Harrison.

Later, we headed out to have tea with friends who are bi-racial. I don't usually refer to them this way but just as we were leaving the tea house my friend mentioned that we could all be thankful we could all be together there today.. Not so in our not so distant past.

Then Mallie and I went to see "The Princess and the Frog". Not giving anything away, there is a lovely moment when we see two stars in the sky that are linked with love and well...

Easy to see where my mind went.

So, for me , it was a day to remember friends, family and strangers that help pave the way for us daily.

Thank you, most sincerely.

What I'm reading....

Just finished a very interesting book...."The Shack".

Not what I expected and given to me by a friend I hadn't seen in a year.With a book like this comes controversy and I say GO! It's a subject people feel strongly about.....

God.

Yup, it's about God and one man's struggle with how to reconnect after a horrific situation turns his ideas of faith inside out.

I found it quite refreshing. It certainly resonated with me and I love that people are all over the 'net bitching and moaning about it. HA!

Keeps our minds on God and that can't be bad, right?

Cheers!

New Year 2010 - a new start

Here we are, in the New Year, waiting on a snowstorm to hit our area. Yawn…. It’s been pretty quiet, on the weather front. For those of you who have received a card from me and wish to read more about my mum's passing feel free to scroll down to an older post - 12/04/09. There, I have written in detail.

Things were hard after Mum’s funeral and all. So much to do – and still to do! We lost two more friends in the 2 weeks after Mum died. Both were cancer victims and Steve and I did both services. It was a sad time.

We made it through the holidays fairly well. Stephen’s parents, Jim & Susan, came down from Traverse City and their other son, Michael, came up from Cleveland. They stayed at Mum’s house which was nice for them and gave me a peaceful feeling knowing that there would be life in the house again, if only for a short time. Adding in to the mix was Susan’s brother, Allan, and a close family friend also named Mike. They came to the service on Christmas Eve, which was lovely. Since Christmas was on a Friday we had to stay in town over the weekend, as we had to make music on Sunday.

I cooked Christmas dinner, with a little help from Steve and Mallie. This was a first for me as Mum always did the meal. Last year, she still managed to cook with me doing all the major work. She tasted things and stirred and directed and it was a lovely, lovely meal. This year I needed to do something completely different – just to get through.

We had 8 for dinner. I cooked a spiral ham with an orange/ginger glaze, a sweet potato/apple bake and green beans with red pepper. Mallie and Steve made his recipe for macaroni and cheese. It’s a gourmet version and it was great! Steve also made his grandmother’s Jell-O salad, which is green and has cottage cheese and pineapple in it. Also lovely. Add in rolls and a very very rich chocolate truffle dessert I made and it was a success. I was very proud of us all.

After church on Sunday we packed up and headed up to Travese City with Steve’s parents leaving a couple of hours before us. Michael had to go back down to Cleveland. The four of us (including Amy the cat) arrived late in the evening and settled in at the lake house on Long Lake some 15 minutes out of downtown Traverse.

The next day it snowed 5 inches and the wind really kicked up! We spent all day doing….nothing! Reading, eating, listening to the radio and taking naps……. It was superb! As I have mentioned before, the living area is on the second level so we look out at the woods, the lake and all that lovely snow.

Tuesday it cleared and we saw it would be the only sunny day so we packed up and drove out to the Leelanau peninsula and our friends, the Trifilios. They are the ones that own the beach property where we vacationed for years and years, there on Lake Michigan some 7 miles south of Leland. We arrived and went down to the beach – the water was not frozen – and scattered a portion of Mum’s ashes there. Most of her cremains will be at the church in the columbarium with Dad’s ashes but I just know that she would have been pleased with our choice. In a way, she had left a part of her heart there already.


After a nice visit with our friends we headed back to dinner at Chez Warner back in town. After that we headed over to the Heritage Museum and saw the train exhibit. This is a yearly event and it’s really fun to see all the set-ups. The other folks drove home and the three of us walked back, in the snow, and enjoyed all the Christmas lights in the neighborhoods.



The next day, Mallie and I went shopping with Grandma Sue and hung around. Later in the evening, my friend Michele arrived from downstate. The next day Mallie, Michele and I made the pilgrimage to Boone’s Tavern in Sutton’s Bay. This was a place my parents and I always made a point to stop in every year. It’s all wood and stone inside with a step-down of three steps to an area with a fireplace. It looks like a ski chalet in winter. They have the best burgers there. After stuffing ourselves we wandered around town, looking in some of the cute shops there. The snow was getting a bit thicker so we headed back. This was New Year’s Eve and we had plans!






This year was the first for the Cherry T-ball Drop! There was large crane all set up with a large cherry that lit up and was hung above the crowd on Front Street. They had closed the street and a band played while people gathered as a thick snow fell… It was magical! There we waited until the “ball” dropped and we entered the New Year officially. Then we all walked back to the Warner’s place and toasted together.



The next day, along with another friend who drove in, we hiked in the snow into the woods and played on the, now frozen, lake. (Mallie had tried snow shoeing earlier in the week!) It was so very lovely. We came back in later and put together some yummy food and played games until it was time to drive back into town and the Warner’s for dinner.

We drove back on that Saturday and entered back into reality on Sunday with church and all.

Now we are back at it and trying to get our schedules ready for a very busy winter. I just finished sending out Christmas cards to those who had written to Mum. It gave me the chance to share the news with her friends and far-flung family and thank them for their correspondence to her, over the years. I am a bit worried about dismantling my folks’ house. There are lots of things to do and I am working, very hard, to not get overwhelmed. We have till May and we didn’t do a lot in December. I spend a portion of every week dealing with her business, making phone calls, mailing off things….lots more to do there. It’s a big process. I remember it took time, when Dad passed, to get through everything and this was without the prospect of the house.

No use dwelling on it, at present. We’ll get through it. A part of me is feeling a bit panicked as to what will happen after everything is finished and done with. Now, I can go to their house and feel their presence. How will it be when that is all gone to me? These are things that whirl around in my head.

I guess, after Mum being so ill for so long, I had anticipated more of a sense of relief at her passing. I didn’t count on missing her so very much.