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My Trip to Washington D.C., Day 2
As if it weren’t emotional enough to honor my dad at the Grant Writers’ Association conference, we also honored my step-mom’s first husband, Bruce, who died early in the Vietnam War. She was married while in college, and he left soon after their wedding to go to Vietnam, so they did not have a lot of time together. They did spend some time in Hawaii once when he was on leave. His death broke her heart and changed her life. She left college and travelled in Europe for awhile, and when she came home, discovered she could not bear to live in California anymore, there were too many memories. So…
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My Trip to Washington D.C., Day 1, Part 2
After spending the morning at the Grant Writers’ Association Conference, we walked over to the National Mall and went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was amazing and overwhelming and so emotional. We only had the fortitude to visit the History section, and at that point were worn out and ready to head home for the day, which is too bad in a way because I think the Culture section would have been well worth seeing as well. The museum is part of the Smithsonian, which means that it is free, and I think a person could spend a month or two in D.C. and…
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Rocking Good News!
Not a recent picture, but one I like a lot…anyway, my darling sister, Melissa (on the right up there, black dress), got the news today that her cancer is in FULL REMISSION! YAY! What a relief, I feel like we can finally exhale. Thank you for your kind thoughts her way. I am so very happy for her, for our sister, for her husband and kids, for myself, for all of us. Very good news. I’ll tell you more about the DC trip soon, it was great.
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My Trip to Washington D.C. – Day 1, Part 1
My dad was honored posthumously at the National Conference of the Grant Professionals Association in Washington DC last week with about 900 members in attendance. My stepmom, one of my sisters and her kids, and I traveled to DC to accept the award on his behalf. It was amazing to hear the presentation, and to have so many people tell us what a difference he made to them through his work, his guidance, his stewardship, his books and classes that he taught, his career. As is the case with so many of us, we didn’t really know a lot about his professional life. This was the side that we didn’t…
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Harriet
Harriet Tubman has been my hero for as long as I can remember. When Maya was little and they were talking about heroes at school, I told her about Harriet, and several years later she told me that at the time, she had pictured her with a cape, flying down like Superman, rescuing slaves from the south and spiriting them north to safety and freedom. I love that idea, but of course, if she had been able to fly, she would not be proven to be as brave as she was in real life. Putting herself into harm’s way, again and again, So, a few months ago when we first…
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Modern Love
Modern Love is a new series on Amazon Prime, and each of its 8 episodes is a stand alone story based on a column in the New York Times. In the column, people write in and tell their stories about experiences in their life that relate to love in its many forms. If you have access to Amazon Prime, I recommend watching the series, it is very good. The episodes are uneven, though, with some being really, really good (Are two reallys justified there? Yes.) and some being just OK. I don’t want to give anything away because I find that I enjoy TV/movies/books more if I don’t know much…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Friday Randomness
This is Ted’s cousin, Sewdaye, and her husband Bryan, who were married in early September. They had a Hindu ceremony on Friday, which brought back so many memories of our own wedding, 26 years ago. The pundit who performed their ceremony (and ours) was Ted’s mom’s cousin, who flew over from England both times. Here we are with him and his wife after the wedding. It was a wonderful day. Saturday they had what I call a western ceremony, which to me means western civilization, not cowboy boots. This wedding was also beautiful, weather was perfect, and it was great to see so much family. Ted’s family is divided between…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Belotti Ristorante
My lovely sister-in-law is visiting California from Alaska, and I got to spend Friday with her. We started out with lunch at one of my very favorite restaurants, Belotti Ristorante. I first heard about this restaurant on a local TV show, Check Please, Bay Area, and as I am a huge fan of pasta, I was intrigued. Ted, Maya, and I went for a late lunch there back in March, and I loved it. They loved it too, but they don’t love pasta as much as I do. Kathy, happily, LOVES Italy. She has been to Italy a few times, most recently she went for a month (alone even, so…
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Perfect Baked Potatoes
What is it about a really good baked potato? I am reminded of a movie that came out many years ago, Eating, all about women and our issues with food. There’s a line where one woman says, “I think I’m looking for a man who can excite me as much as a baked potato.” See the trailer here. I remember seeing the movie and discussing it with a coworker, who then went on to tell me about a baked potato she had a couple of years before that was so amazing, and why couldn’t they always be that way? Over the years, I have come across different baked potato recipes,…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Richard’s Dad
There was sad news that my brother Richard’s father, Bob, passed away on Monday. The story is that at the same time that my mom contacted Dad back in 1987, she also contacted Bob about Richard. Apparently, when Bob first heard, he was excited and said, “Where are Joyce and Richard???” Tragically, before they made contact, one of his other children committed suicide, which understandably threw him into a bit of a tailspin, and they did not meet. Richard and Bob did talk on the phone a few times, exchanged letters and emails, and Richard wanted very badly to meet him, to get to know him, to perhaps have a…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Books on Tape*
Or, more accurately, audio books. I’ve never really liked the idea of listening to audio books, but many people that I know love them. Most of the people I know that love them listen on long car rides. I work from home, so don’t really have long car rides in my life. A few months ago, Maya and I were at our local Amazon bookstore, and as a Prime member, they said I was entitled to a free month with two audio books. OK, I thought, maybe I’ll use it. A few days later, I was talking to my stepmom, Julie, and she was telling me about an audiobook she…