Bagel Chat

Crabby guy in green apron at my bagel shop today. First time that's ever happened. Bagel people are usually happy people. He was just outright rude and ignored me as I stood patiently waiting for his attention...someone's attention....at the counter. Kinda annoying but I also remember the 12 hours I worked there and quit. It was a few years back. I needed a job. Yup, 4 hours of training followed by one 8-hour shift and that was enough for me. I cried all the way to the car, my feet and legs hurt so bad, making mental note: places you like to shop and dine won't necessarily be places you'll like to work.

I study at my bagel shop most Sunday's, buying something to nibble on or sip every hour or so. Life unfolds at nearby tables, most of which I completely miss because I'm buried in what I'm doing. But snippets of conversation drift my way......

Young teenager girl and Dad having lunch together:

Teen: Oh you know how it is with mom, Dad. She hasn't changed since you lived with us. I said to her the other day, "You and Dad have very different senses of humor" and mom said, "Yeah, mine's funny."

Girl laughs.
Dad kind of laughs.
She's too young to understand the dig. He's wonderful. Never a negative comment and asks lots of questions requiring open-ended answers about what is going on in the daughter's life. Her new boyfriend: has she met his parents? He listens. Really listens. He's honestly interested in her young life. She's a lucky daughter. I wish I could tap him on the arm when his daughter isn't looking and tell him I think what a great Dad I think he is.

Two sisters and a friend, having coffee and talking about one of the sister's upcoming wedding:

Sister #1: Is Dad giving you away?

Sister #2: No, we think that's stupid. No one is "giving me away". He'll be there but he's a groomsman.

Sister #1: Ohmygod, do NOT make me walk with that man. I'm sorry but that is one thing I refuse to do as a bridesmaid. I will NOT walk with that man.

Sister #2: Don't worry, he's walking with his wife, she's a bridesmaid....

Moms having coffee and bagels, talking about kids that just went off to college:

Lady #1: I just opened up another account in both our names and keep an eye on it. When the balance drops down, I just put another hundred dollars or so in it for him. You know, it's no big deal and just easier that way.

Another lucky kid.

Professor and student:

Professor, comment directed at me as the two of them are getting ready to leave: You seem to be working wayyyy too hard on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Me, pulling my nose out of the PowerPoint I'm working on and looking at them for the first time: This is my idea of fun. So far they don't have a pill for it.

We chat.
Nice people. They leave.
Time for me to leave, too. Warmed by the friendly conversation I take pity, looking around for the crabby guy in the green apron as I buy a loaf of bread to take home. I think I'll tell him I've had bad days too, I know what it's like and I really do hope he has a better day tomorrow. Can't find him. Next time I see him I'm sure he'll be allllllllll better.

Or maybe not. Wouldn't be surprised if he threw down his apron and walked to his car crying. The bagel business can do that to a person.

Callin' in the Aunties

Me and the cousins had some kinda sweeeeet fun today, playing with ribbons and wire and fall-ish stuff for our nieces wedding next weekend.




We fussed over flowers with a glue gun to make bouquets and stuff for the outdoor ceremony that will be held on their little acreage in Southern Iowa.
It'll be a blue-jeans sort of party, cider and kegs to go with the wedding cake.







Later this week her aunties will bake the wedding cake and we're going to spend all day next Saturday making sure everything is set up pretty and perfect when she walks through the freshly mowed yard on the arm of her Daddy later in the afternoon.

MMmmmmm autumn.

First Class

First class: the people I'm in class with every Tuesday night for 4 hours.
Second class: My photography on this particular evening when we did a couple of team-building exercises on the parking lot. Sorry...........I was trying to juggle my camera in one hand, not let go of the rope with the other and was laughing so hard, I couldn't hold the camera still.

Anyway.............these are some of my best girls. Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce you to...........

The Ladies of MBLD003

They're smart, they're witty, they're busy employees, wives, daughters, mothers and friends. I learn something from them every single week and just feel so very lucky to have landed in their midst a year ago.

And might I add, they can finesse a rope, fast and pretty.






Meanwhile, way out in the back 40, the boys 911 Dr. Johnson and beg him to come untangle them before it gets dark and scary outside. (Love ya, guys)

Well. You really kinda had to be there. It wouldn't make much more sense if I tried to explain it, but we were having some kinda fun in that parking lot.

This is my little three-peeps study group. We sit together in class.
We hang out together on Sundays.

I can't begin to tell you how much I loves these two.
I'm a lucky Debbie to have them on my side.

Dining Alfresco

Our company collaborated with an architectural firm to create a giant sculptural installation. A 30 ton dining table and chairs, fabricated of steel and installed over a walking bridge in Grand Rapids, Michigan is Sticks entry in ArtPrize 2009.
www.artprize.org


Watching the cranes install the pieces via webcam last week was really cool.
Here are a few shots of the installation coming together:








Mable, Mable..........

Random

Random thoughts as the sun sets and the weekend prepares to unfold:

1. My TAB key is broken and it's very annoying.

2. I grow weary of people who lie.

3. The hummingbirds and robins have all flown South, haven't seen either in at least 2 weeks.

4. All those years spent as a stay-at-home mom: WORTH IT.

5. Bummer. Grilled asparagus really doesn't freeze well.

6. Shopping the Lady Clairol aisle without glasses: bad idea

7. Every now and then a great kiss just fixes everything.

8. It's really hard to walk across a yard that's full of acorns.

9. There is always someone with bigger problems.

10. On a great day like today, it's hard to choose a favorite moment but I did watch a big hedgehog munching grass out in the woods and that was pretty cool.

Thanks for the music, Mary

Tennessee Weekend

Nashville is lots shinier than I imagined. And taller.




We took a couple wrong turns. Had to stop and ask for directions. Once we settled in to our hotel, it didn't take much wandering in the humid summer air to find the night side of Nashville. Word to the wise: if you think you're great at karaoke back home in front of the neighbors and a few of your co-workers....you're notsomuch here. Wannabe country music stars grab the mics in bars up and down the streets of Nashville, giving a whole new meaning to the word "amateur". My t-shirt smelled like cigarettes and bar-food by the end of our first evening like you might expect lots of places....you can still smoke in bars down there..........but my ears were filled with music like I've never heard from a karaoke mic anywhere else. I swear I sat and listened to Elvis and Reba and Willie Nelson all evening. Even though, of course, I know this is not possible since I've heard Elvis is working in a Git'n Go in Pulaski, Ohio.

The Country Music Hall of Fame is a great place. The architecture of the building itself is reminiscent of string instruments with windows that line up like the keyboard of a piano. Very cool. While some of us wandered around looking at the displays, one of us engaged a young employee in conversation about the beauties of living in the South. They are many. Escaping Minnesota winters being one of them, he explained, having relocated to Nashville from Minneapolis. While the gift shops are typically full of anything and everything you could possibly want to purchase with Elvis memorialized on it.....from pencil sharpeners to t-shirts to teddy bears and coffee mugs, the halls were filled with memorabilia from country stars past and present.

My daughter would want you to know this is "THE SHIRT that GARTH FREAKIN' BROOKS wore when he did the video for 'The Dance", Ma." Indeed it is. We love Garth.

Visiting Nashville was just a little side benefit of the trip to Tennessee.
The reason three of us traveled to Nashville was to meet up with my daughter, who works in Deer Lodge, Tennessee as a therapeutic counselor at resident youth camping program.

It's an amazingly peaceful, beautiful place.
Sara walks down this path to work from the cabin where she lives when she goes on duty.

We spent part of the weekend at a horse ranch where campers bring their trailers and horses for a weekend of riding and camping.

All around the ranch are campsites with corrals for the visiting horses. At night all the campers sit around the fire and share stories.

Wish you could see this picture better, but I have to include it because it reminds me of the evening around the campfire with a whole bunch of great people, chatting like old friends even though we'd never met before. Sara sang with her guitar with a full moon overhead, shining down on us all through the tall, tall pines.

Great memories.
Great crew.

Great weekend.

AUGUST 2009

Kinda bored with the page background.
Wish I knew more about designing blog pages.
Making note: find someone who knows more than me.

Sitting here watching a public TV special on the the Kennedy family over the years. It's prompted of course, by the death of Ted Kennedy but it starts with Joseph and Rose and has moved right on up through all of the history....on up to the present. Really well done. So nostalgic. I remember it all....the bomb shelter built in the parking lot of a nearby shopping plaza when things got dicey with the Cubans. I wasn't scared, I was just a little kid. But I remember what the yellow and black "Fallout Shelter" signs looked like and how they popped up everywhere.

I was in a third-grade classroom when Mrs. Herron was called to the office. When she returned to class she told us President Kennedy had died, we all had to go home from school early and we should be very quiet and respectful in the halls. The images on TV were all in black and white and there was nothing but death and funeral coverage on all channels...for days. No wonder those images are seared into the memories of all of us who were old enough to understand.

I didn't care much for history when I was a kid in school. Funny how I soak it up like a sponge now. Must come with age. I remember my younger sister having to write a research paper on the Kennedy assassination when she was in high school. She was borrrrrrrrrrred to tears. When she told me just how bored she was with the subject I was incredulous. Seriously!!!??? Since the day it happened I haven't been able to walk past a magazine article or book on the subject without picking it up and diving in. I was there. I remember. It makes all the difference.

A friend of mine died this week, too. Brain cancer. There is something to be said for dying from a terminal illness that lingers just a bit. There is time. Things that need to be said.......get said. Things that need to be done.........get done. The urgency of the every-day hassles we all wrestle with take a back seat to issues of substance and moments of deep and true meaning. Brad left on a positive note, having said and done what had to be said, what had to be done. He'd be the first to tell you, there were many many things that needed to be said to lots of people.
I'm thankful he had the opportunity to stitch up those ragged tears and go home to heaven knowing the fabric of the family he left behind was seamless and whole.

It's human nature to cling to life. It's a deep, primal instinct. Listen to all the talk on the subject these days. Talk radio. Newspapers. Is the government wanting to tell us when it's time to die? Should we be able to choose? Is there an age when we're too old to receive treatment for an illness?

Tonight I was talking to my sister, wondering out loud if it's wrong to pray that someone would die. After months of deteriorating health, our mom is not doing well. She's a woman of great faith and she's weary. There is peace on her face and she's pretty much checked out. She doesn't know us when we walk in the room. She's ready.

I see it in her eyes.

It's a wonderfully grey evening. A steady rain is falling.

Lazy, lazy summer days. The best kind.

It's good to be five and a half.







It's better to be Grandma.

SO Guilty

Does this commercial crack anyone else up??



Ahh technology.
Everything is just so different, are there rule books for this stuff?????

Mike's Graduation Day

It could have rained. No one would have noticed. But it was a blue-sky beautiful summer's day. The grass was green, the breeze was gentle and inside the auditorium the uniforms were pressed, the shoes and badges polished.

Graduation day for our Michael.
It began with the surprise arrival of his favorite little girl in the world.
My dear daughter-in-law Nikki, Victoria's sweet mommy Lisa and I all conspired along with 5-year old Victoria to fly her in for the special occasion...........and keep it a secret. That's a tall order for an almost-Kindergartner!

But we did it! She popped out of the car into the surprised arms of her Daddy, the perfect start to a perfect day.

So let's get this show on the road!!

Class officers as they're introduced. Mike was VP of the 229th graduating class of the
Iowa Law Enforcement Academy

Officially receiving his badge from great friend and cousin Chris, an Iowa State Trooper.

Grandpa Evans graduated from the ILEA in 1973.
He served with the Polk County Sheriff's Department.

The accomplishment is shared by Mike's wife Nikki. They're newlyweds and she kept everything going at home while he was away for the past couple of months.

Proud, proud Grandma.

Mike and his Dad.

Mike graduated on my birthday. Can't think of a better present!
That night at the party we took out some time for cake.

Victoria was busy catching lightning bugs.
She wouldn't let me see him because.....Grandma, I can't. You KNOW he'll fly away!!!

When it got dark we broke out the glow-in-the-dark party bracelets.
This is David's sweetheart of a girlfriend Missy.

Teri and Rodney.

Yet another of my great kids. David. My oldest.

My cousin and traveling buddy, Rhonda.

My daughter-in-law Nikki is super-hostess. She was all over the back yard all evening like the Energizer bunny, making sure everyone had food and drinks. She had a pink pig pinata for the little kids, fireworks and packages of powdered donuts for everyone.....get it.....donuts...cops.....love it.

Mike and Nik's yard is huge and there were groups of people all over it in lawn chairs, at picnic tables, relaxing around the fire pit, checking out the garden. After I filled up a little plate of food and made my rounds saying hello, I spent the rest of the evening tucked into a corner of their deck where we had a great view of the party going on in the yard.

Candlelight made for some blurry pics but I had to include them because I had such a great time with these friends. Janie and my cousin, Sherilyn. A couple of my veteran Camper Girls.

My cousin Rodney. One of my favorite guys in the whole world.

Didn't take long after the kids started swinging. Soon all that was left of the piggy pinata was piles of candy on the ground and a nice, pink, pig head.

Inside, in the spirit of the days surprises, Victoria takes careful aim and nails Grandpa with a can of silly string when he isn't lookin'.

It was a great day. Much more so than my photos show
Congratulations Mike, your family is proud of you.