Love, Lucy Blue

LucyBlue is back from China......

2009-11-24T15:32:00.003-05:00

I moved back to the States on October 7. It is now November 24 and I still have no job. Great. I miss my home in Beijing and I miss teaching kids. I miss all my great student friends. I read about reverse culture shock but honestly didn't think it would affect me. I was wrong.....

Basking in Beijing!

2008-04-21T03:07:00.005-04:00

Photos from a trip to the Summer Palace.

Still loving life in Beijing! :) This blog is now unblocked in China so I thought I'd make a quick post. For up to date posts on my life in China, go to www.tinchina.typepad.com. The capital city of Beijing is gearing up for the 2008 Olympics! Spring has sprung here and there's many beautiful flowering trees and shrubs. The trees are full of newborn green-colored leaves and folks have shed their heavy coats and scarves in favor of light jackets or no jacket at all. Recent rains have washed away a lot of winter's dust and grime and the city looks like a car that just went through the car wash. Life is good.

Poor Lucy Blue....

2007-10-02T09:50:00.000-04:00

It feels so strange not being able to see my Lucy Blue blog from China. As I said, I can write entries, I just can't see them. Things are fine here in China and I'm enjoying keeping up my "TinChina" blog. I want to post here every now and then just to keep it alive and well. I'm off work this week due to National Holiday week in China. National Day is October 1. I begin teaching again this Saturday, Oct. 6. I'm looking forward to it because I can only watch so many movies and play on the computer for so long. It's a little frustrating not to be able to communicate with anyone here. Like today, for instance. After arranging to have a water cooler sent to my apartment tomorrow, I walked quite a distance to a shopping center called West Point. There were many people out and about. Sometimes folks try to engage me in conversation but I just have to stand there like an idiot and tell them I don't understand. You can imagine how difficult it is for me because you all know how much Lucy Blue likes to talk, right? :) So this week has been a little lonely since I don't have my work friends around me. But I should probably just enjoy it because we won't have another vacation week like this until Chinese New Year in early February (or thereabouts....it's according to the Chinese calendar). I hope all is well with everyone who reads this blog and do tune to www.tinchina.typepad.com for a look at my life here. LB

Hello from Beijing!

2007-09-04T09:15:00.001-04:00

It's really weird to post on this blog now since I can't actually see it and here in China.....the site is in Chinese! It was hit or miss to figure out how to log in! ha
So keep checking in on the other blog, www.tinchina.typepad.com, because that's where all the news and pics will be. I'll post here every now and then just to keep things going and hopefully the blogspot sites will be unblocked before too long! :)
Good night from Beijing! Lucy Blue

Countdown to China!

2007-09-01T00:47:00.000-04:00

Today (Friday) was my last day at UT. It was a little hectic as I had a lot to do but that is now behind me. We even had red velvet cake in my honor this afternoon! Delish! Now the push is on to finish up the house, get everything in storage, move things to Nick's apartment and....oh, yeah....wash clothes and PACK! All before 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning when I will leave for the airport.
Because blogspot.com is currently blocked in China (I'm going to ask them nicely when I arrive to please unblock blogspot)....I have a new blog hosted by a company that is not blocked. My new blog, exclusive to my time in Beijing is www.tinchina.typepad.com. "T" in China. Get it? Only us older folks know the phrase, "I wouldn't do that for all the tea in China." Oh well. I thought it was a little catchy. I'll try to post a blog in China as soon as possible to let folks know I arrived. I will most likely continuing posting on this blog, just a bit more infrequently as I can post...I just can't SEE it. So tune in to www.tinchina.typepad.com for more complete and interesting blog entries, okay?
Lucy Blue is very excited about her new life adventure. She's just exhausted from the preparation to leave the country for an extended time. There's a LOT to think about and prepare for. I think I must have one of every kind of over-the-counter medicine every made! I bought things for ailments that I've never even had. You never know, right?
Time for bed now. Don't forget to leave comments on the other blog and let me know how you like it. And PLEASE email me when you can. I will LOVE hearing from family and friends in the States. And big, big points to anyone who will send me long emails about Big Brother (Joyce?). I hope to be able to access the NBC site to read about it but I won't know if that's possible until I get there and try it. Yawn! I'm really tired......

I'll miss you Altruda's!

2007-08-30T10:25:00.000-04:00

Dinner last night with my "home girls" was fun and delicious! I would tell you what a few of them gave me as a "parting" gift but let's just say it's something you just can't find in China! ha I ordered my wonderful sausage eggplant dish....yet again....and loved every bite. It was good to spend a little time with this beautiful group of women before I leave.

I'm still going crazy trying to get everything packed!!! It's really unbelievable. Each time I move....it's just harder and harder (which is understandable as I am older each time). Each time I move I say it's the last time. Each time I move, it turns out to be NOT the last time! :) I'm predicting anywhere from 5-10 more moves before my story ends.

I have my visa now so it's official. I'm going to China! I have not been kidding when I've said that the 13 hour plane ride from Chicago to Beijing may be the first time this week that I can actually relax and get some good sleep. I wouldn't mind sleeping the entire flight. Oh, if only I had one of those business class seats that reclines almost to a bed!

I'll try to write one more time before getting on the plane but if there's no time then my next entry will be around September 5 or so and will be from Beijing! :) Keep me in your thoughts as I spend all day Sunday and well into the next morning on an airplane. I don't have a huge fear of flying....just a little tiny one! :) Don't forget to email me every now and then in China!!! I promise to respond. If you don't know my personal email address then leave a comment here and I'll get back to you.

This is How I Feel!

2007-08-27T08:22:00.000-04:00

Funny....yet not! :)

Muddling along....

2007-08-26T23:30:00.000-04:00

So I got a lot done this weekend.....but oh so much more to do!!!! It's so overwhelming that I'm actually looking forward to the 13 hour flight to Beijing from Chicago because then I can SLEEP! :) I did make great headway this weekend and rented my storage space for the year. I just hope it's enough space! I have so much to do while at the same time working all this week. It's far more than I counted on. I thought I'd quit work on the 31st and have at least a week or so to get things situated. But you know what they say. Just when you make plans......
So the rush is on and so far I'm meeting the challenge. Sadly, my son will be leaving this Friday to spend the weekend in Murfreesboro to attend the wedding of a fraternity brother. So this coming Friday morning will be the last time I see my son for a year! Hard to believe and something I'm sure I'm not prepared for (although I think he's quite fine with this fact!). I think my being away (uh, that's FAR away) for a year will be very good for N and it'll be interesting to see how often he emails me in China with monetary needs! Hopefully.....not so often, although I will leave prepared to help him when needed. Keep me in your thoughts as I struggle to pack up and get rid of many, many years of the detritus of my life. All the important stuff (papers and photographs, books, etc.) will be kept but do I really need 12 years of my son's school papers? These are the things I struggle with.

Up, Down, Up, Down ..... Exhaustion!

2007-08-24T15:22:00.000-04:00

Was that a crazy wired post late last night or what? I'm so tired. But here's the facts. I'm overnighting my visa application today, I've purchased my ticket and I'm leaving next Sunday, September 2, at 5:44 a.m. for Chicago and then on to Beijing, arriving at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, September 3.
I need to have a packing party......
Wanna come?

OH MY GOSH!

2007-08-23T23:42:00.000-04:00

So I just got off the phone with my DOS (Director of Studies), who will be my boss in China and who is female and American, and we have ironed out a lot of details. I also was able to talk with the CM (Center Manager) of my school who is Chinese but speaks with excellent English (I'm SO glad). So here's the deal. It's a very real possibility that I am going to be leaving for Beijing in just ONE WEEK! Yep! And there is a trip to Hong Kong in my future to obtain the proper working visa that I will need. The trip will be at the expense of my company so.....can you believe it? I'm going to get to see Hong Kong, even if just for an overnight stay to obtain my working visa! Trust me, I will use those 24 hours to see all that I can in Hong Kong and a friend of mine knows someone who lives there who might be willing to host me!!!!! Oh.....the things I need to do!!!!! I might be up all weekend packing and working out all the details. But I couldn't be more thrilled. I'll have time to sleep later, right? :) This is how China works, folks. I should have expected it. After so long of "I'm not sure, I'm not sure".....all the sudden I AM sure and now I must leave sooner than expected!!!!! Man. Unbelievable. More tomorrow (Friday) when I know more of the details. It's a good thing that I've been preparing. It's nearly midnight on Thursday night and I'm not sure WHEN I'm going to be able to sleep tonight. I very well may be overnighting my passport to Washington DC tomorrow!!!! Oh the EXCITEMENT!!!!!

T in China Update!

2007-08-23T20:53:00.000-04:00

I'm blogging to you from home so no interesting photo with this blog! :( Things moved slowly at first but now they are definitely picking up! Although there are still some issues, it looks like I may be jet-bound for Beijing on September 5 which means I'll arrive the afternoon of September 6. Yes, folks, I could be blogging to you from the future (I'll be 12 hours ahead of all in the U.S.) in less than 2 weeks. I'm very excited but also overwhelmed with all I have left to do. Forgive me if there aren't many posts in the next few days but I will definitely update with results. I'll be setting up a new blog just for China and it will be with typepad.com because currently blogspot.com is blocked in China. I can post to this blog but I won't be able to see it so I'll do most of my blogging from my new website which I'll post on this website so no worries. I'll also continue to post to this website, which I can do from China, I just won't be able to see it. But you folks will be able to see it. So I may post to this blog only about once a week or so but quite frequently to my new blog. I'm thinking of calling it "tinchina." Get it? "T" in China? Okay......logging off for tonight and perhaps some more definite news tomorrow! Lucy Blue is definitely excited about the day to come! I could be eating delicious Chinese food in less than 2 weeks! Honestly? I just can't wait!!!!!

2007-08-21T13:55:00.000-04:00

Apparently, I feed more than just stray kitties! Eeeewwwww! Nasty things, possums! This little guy was very arrogant and gave me the evil eye before he finally ambled off.

The TEFL is all done and I'm just waiting to receive the certificate. I had to pay for it to be internationally overnighted and I should receive it today. I've heard from my manager in Beijing and once I receive my invitation letter, I'll get the proper visa and be on my way. My last day at work is next Friday, August 31. I have many invitations for lunch, which is very nice. I'm down to a couch, a table and one of Nick's twin beds from his childhood bunkbeds to sleep on. I have to be careful making a big flip from my right side to my left side (something I do several times during the night), lest I flip myself right onto the floor! A friend treated me to Indian food last night at Sitar and it was absolutely delicious! I'll be finding out about the Indian restaurants in Beijing for sure! After dinner I went for a great swim at the pool. Fall semester starts tomorrow so there was a nice little party revving up on one of the outdoor patios beside the pool. The music was, at times, deafening! The kids were really enjoying themselves and that was good to see.

I've rounding up all the things I'll need to spend a year in Beijing and stocking up on things that are hard to find (dental floss, deoderant, etc.). I talked to my friend, Hua, who now lives in Boston with his wife and their baby girl, Amy. He has a cousin who owns a company in Beijing and lives with his wife and 5 year old daughter. Hua said they have invited me to live with them for free while I am living in Beijing! What an incredibly generous offer. That's the Chinese. I told Hua to thank him very, very much for his amazing offer but it would be better for me to live close to my school (he lives across town). I'm sure I'll get to know his family well and he is also going to pick me up in his car at the Beijing airport when I arrive. Also, Tracy has two former classmates who live in Beijing and who each have babies under one year old. I'll have plenty of young ones to play with, not to mention my own young students.

Yesterday, as Nick and I drove toward our respective homes on Clinch Avenue (he lives in an apartment building across from my house), we saw five big fire trucks stopped in front of our houses. They had apparently just screeched to a halt and were jumping off with their air tanks. I saw one fireman take two steps toward my house and said to Nick, "Is it my house? Is it my house?" It wasn't my house. It was the house directly behind Nick's apartment building and there was a small fire on the side deck of that house. Whew!

You Make Me Laugh.....

2007-08-16T17:22:00.000-04:00

No new news. Still waitin' on the golden piece of paper!
In the meantime, however, let's have a few laughs at the expense of my son! It's a mother's right......right? So here's the deal. I like to write and I like to record things. I've been recording my own thoughts and views for many, many years. Anyway.....I tried to keep an ongoing record of things my little boy said that were funny. I only recorded a few when you consider all the hilarious stuff that comes out of young mouths. Here's a few of the few. Ready to laugh?

"When I was on the playground today, I asked God, please make this ear quit hurting. He didn't." - 4.5 years old

"My tummy hurts bad. It hurts like I'm having a baby." - 4.75 years old

"If you don't want to waste your money, you can always write a check!" - 5 years old (this statement was made in K-Mart when he really wanted a teenage mutant ninja turtle suitcase.

"I got five happy faces today. You're going to be proud at me!" ha ha 5 years old

"Momma, on the playground today someone kicked me in the ribbons." (pointing to his ribs). 5 years old

10/04/90 (5.5 years old) - We had just eaten supper and I told my son to go upstairs and put his pajamas on. I told him to put the ketchup in the refrigerator on the way up. He said, "Why do I always have to do everything for you? I'll just drive you to work in the morning!"

And at the ripe old age of 7 years old........
Nick was at his Nana's watching TV (the Golden Girls) and they kept saying, "shacking up for the weekend" on this episode. Nana peeked her head in and said, "Nick, what do they mean when they say 'shacking up for the weekend'"? He looked at her with a "you dummy" look and said, "Nana, it means having sex!"

Yeah.....that's my boy! :)

Finito! No Looking Back!

2007-08-12T14:58:00.000-04:00

I finished my lessons! Yay for me! :) Now I just need to get them graded, receive my certificate, send it off to China, have them do their thing, send me the thing I need to do my thing (get my "z" visa), fly to Beijing and TEACH! I've worked very very hard these last seven days. Every minute after work and all weekend. The staff at Panera Bread know me very well now because that's the nice, quiet environment I chose to hunker down. Too many distractions/temptations in my house. I'm done! Now I can get down to the business of packing (the house, that is; packing for China will come later). I hope to leave the first week in September but that may be too optimistic. It all depends on how fast I get my certificate and how fast the Beijing government processes my immigration papers. Oh, the excitement of it all!

My friend Liyin gave me CDs of all her pics of our time in China and this is one of me feeling a little nervous about taking the "rollercoaster cars" down from the Great Wall at Badaling. But it turned out to be great fun! I am especially looking forward to exploring some of the unrestored sections of the Great Wall this winter. It's the best time to meander around without throngs of tourists. Hard to believe I'm going to be a Beijing resident, isn't it? Ahhhhh.....life is good.

How Busy Am I?

2007-08-08T17:05:00.000-04:00

So busy that I bought my very own laptop this past "tax free" weekend.....and I still haven't cracked open the box. Now I'm pretty much an instant gratification type of person so the fact that this computer has sat in my foyer for four days is quite amazing. I hope to open it up and try it all out by this weekend. Until then, I'm still plugging away on my TEFL lessons and making good progress. It's too bad I wasn't in Beijing today. There were wonderful celebrations in Tiananmen Square as Beijingers marked the one year countdown to the 2008 Olympics. I would have been there. I would have taken lots of pictures. I would have put them on my blog for all you nice people to see.

Baby Steps.....

2007-08-04T12:17:00.001-04:00

I received an email today from Andrew in Shanghai. The local government in Beijing must have a copy of my TEFL certificate before my papers can be processed. Therefore, I'll be double-timing it with the rest of my lessons, meaning there will be no time to blog this coming week. Once I get my TEFL certificate, scan it and send it to China, everything should be fine.
So.....I'm not announcing any "breaking news" yet.....however, it's looking better than it did yesterday. Moving to another country to work, especially one with a socialist government, is not a simple process. I must exercise patience.

The Chinese Way?

2007-08-03T17:04:00.000-04:00

I had a great conversation this past Monday evening with Andrew, another Brit who works for the company I will be teaching for. He said everything is fine. They will start working on my immigration papers, etc. He said he'd email the next day and I would probably also receive a call from the DOS of my school (Director of Studies). Five days later and there's no call, no email, no nothing. My Chinese friends would probably just say "Oh, don't worry. This is just the Chinese way." But it's very frustrating for me because there's things that I absolutely have to do by next Monday (stop certain payments, etc.) so I need to know something concrete. I will not consider this whole life-changing trip a guarantee until I have signed a contract. I have received no emailed contract. Geez. No worries, though. I have a Plan B.

Still Waiting........

2007-07-27T17:02:00.000-04:00

This is Nima. She's from south India and I've been helping her for an upcoming SPEAK test (part of the TOEFL test). She's a dentist in India and is seeking a graduate degree in Public Health & Safety. Her full name is Poornima Gopalakrishnan!

And this cute little guy was speeding along the path when I cut across the Humanities Plaza to get to Melrose Hall for my meeting with Nima.

So I didn't hear from China last night. He never said he was calling exactly last night, just to tell him when I would be available. Surely I'll hear something tonight, right? Hope so.

I've been looking at rents in Beijing. This job pays a much higher salary but does not provide a shared apartment. I'll find my own. It won't be so hard. I don't want to pay more than 2500 yuan ($312) and I'd prefer to pay around 2000 ($250 per month). This will be a decent one bedroom. It's all I need.

Sigh. I hope they call me tonight. I'm anxious to get things finalized because I've got things to do to get ready. Ya know? Lots and lots of things......

Looking Good.....

2007-07-26T17:27:00.000-04:00

Update: So last night's conversation went very well:
British Guy: Yes, LucyBlue, I believe they are very keen on you.
Lucy: Uh.....that's wonderful news.
Well, I'm very keen on living in Beijing for a year so it's looking good. I expect another call tonight and possibly even another tomorrow evening and then things should be pretty much wrapped up. Oh, the excitement. Oh, the crap to do before leaving for a year. I'm already exhuasted. More soon. LB

Good News on the 250th!!!

2007-07-25T07:30:00.000-04:00

My 250th entry! I love my blog. I really do. It's a nice little friend of mine.

Okay, so this morning some good news via email. A kindergarten in Beijing is very interested in my application materials and would like to talk with me. This news came via the British man that I talked with last week (who helps recruit native English speakers). He will call me this evening with more details and then I'll speak with the director of the school later this week. Pretty exciting, right? I may actually get to see this lake at the Summer Palace in Beijing when it's not frozen!

Keep the Faith...

2007-07-24T17:03:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I know I haven't been blogging much but I've got lots going on. I'll be glad to get my permanent crowns next week because my bite is off and I live in terror of these temporary things coming off and having huge gaps in my mouth. I even dreamed that all three came off at once! Then again, last night I dreamed I was in Thailand and when I went outside to go to the restroom (yep, that's how it was in dreamland) there were tons of cats and monkeys all over the place and the monkeys, let me tell ya, they were fierce looking so I high-tailed it right back inside my abode and into my bed and decided I could wait. Weird, huh?

I'm going through more and more tubs of clothes and things and it's just exhausting. Much of it is keeper stuff like Nick's baby clothes, baby toys that he liked, etc. But those clothes that I wore 10-12 years ago? Yeah, they can go. But then again....I could lose a bunch of weight and by then those clothes will probably be in style! :) Remember when we thought the gauchos (spelling?) would NEVER rear their ugly little legs again? Right.

I had a phone call from a recruiter in Shanghai about working at a kindergarten in Beijing but I haven't heard from them again. I'm a little discouraged. I guess it's time to step up applications and get this job thing nailed down for good. I'm also slowly working through my TEFL lessons and they continue to kick my grammar butt. Did you know the English language has 12 tenses? Yep. And you must be able to explain the structure and usage of all of them to different age levels. Present simple, present perfect, present continuous and don't forget present perfect continuous. Now substitute "past" and "future" for present and....yep, ya got 12 tenses. Where were these tenses when I was learning grammar???????

Anyway......tonight's a good night because Big Brother comes on. I love Big Brother. Love it. My favorite person this summer is "Evil." He just flat out tells it like it is and leave folks with their mouth dropped open. Gotta love it!

Okay, so forgive the lack of posts and interesting pics for a while until I get a bit more of my life straightened out. And remember? Lucy Blue loves you! :)

1977, don't cha' know.....

2007-07-19T17:32:00.000-04:00

Can you find Lucy Blue?

Yeah....she's the tall one!

So I went to Nashville Monday to have three teeth prepped for crowns! I'd just as soon do ANYTHING than go to the dentist. Honest. But the teeth have been prepped, the temporary crowns are on and I'll go back in a couple of weeks for the permanent crowns. Then my mouth will be all set to go to China.

I was packing up stuff in the big old house for storage and came across all my yearbooks. I opened up 1977 (16 years old) and started reading what fellow students had written. My best and longest friend, Tammy (who lives here in Knoxville now), filled up an entire page! Apparently, I was a real clown in Geometry class that year. Here's some excerpts: "Lucy Blue, I don't think I can ever forget you in Geometry," "I don't know what we would do without you in Geometry," "Do you remember all the good times in Geometry?" Well, no, I don't remember! But I sure wish I did. And here's the very best one, written by Vickie Pardue: "Lucy Blue, good luck in everything you do. You're a funny person. Remember when you threw the frog's leg down my shirt and it got stuck?" ha ha ha ha ha Now that's funny!

I Need What???

2007-07-13T17:02:00.000-04:00

A slow week for this blog. Just dealing with all the stuff in my brain, making lists, checking things off, etc. I went to Nashville this past Monday to take care of the eyes and the teeth. The eyes fared well. The teeth did not. This is what happens when you slack off those bi-yearly cleanings. I need three crowns. All three will be done next Monday and I am pretty sure I am going to die (of pain, that is). I could probably hold off but what if I get halfway around the world and need to see a dentist? And what if it is a dentist who believes that if your tooth is causing you pain, you merely pull it! So I decided to take care of all three teeth now. I'll be out of commission until next Wednesday. There is just absolutely nothing good to come from having three teeth prepared for crowns in one day. Oh, wait! Yeah.....the pain meds.

Life on a Lucky Saturday

2007-07-09T07:50:00.000-04:00

07/07/07.....lucky couple, lucky in love. Wedding on the World's Fair lawn.

I was standing on the Clinch Ave. bridge, using zoom on my little camera.

The Sunsphere is open again! There's the wedding party.

Downtown Knoxville

N's living room with freshly painted white walls (from sunny yellow)

Looks clean enough to me.

After work on Saturday, I took a walk down to World's Fair Park to see the Sunsphere from the inside. Very interesting but I'm not sure if I want to go up there again. One of the odd things that has occurred as I get on in years is a slight fear of heighths. I say slight because obviously it's not bad enough to prevent from going up in such tower-like structures as the Sunsphere. I just don't want to hang out there too long. It gives me an unpleasant odd feeling and I especially don't like looking over the edge of the railing. This from a woman who once had "skydiving" and "hot air ballooning" on her list of things to do.

The observation deck of the Sunsphere is in the lower part of the gold ball, the second floor of five floors. There is a big flat screen on the wall and wonderful footage from the 1982 Fair is being shown. I saw several people I once knew, including a wonderful mime couple. In seeing how folks were dressed, I realized that 1982 was further back that I realized. If I had seen footage in 1982 of folks in 1957 (25 years prior), I'd think they dressed a little odd as well. It just doesn't seem that long ago and I have many, many fond and wacky memories of working at the '82 Fair! Nothing like hip-hopping down memory lane.....

This Land is Your Land......

2007-07-05T17:08:00.000-04:00

A huge flag at World's Fair Park!

The Sunsphere's observation deck re-opens today and the restaurant is opening September 1. A brave man slowly came down a zip-line from the top of the ball across the street and into the Park lawn yesterday. We also saw him do a practice runs on Tuesday. The Sunsphere is higher than it appears.

Nana shows a little patriotic/UT attitude!

I love standing here and watching the kids play in the fountains! They laugh and squeal and have tons 'o fun!

Patriotic shadows

The huge moving Rubik's cube from the '82 World's Fair was refurbished by UT engineering students and is now on display in the Exhibition Hall of the old convention center.

Because you never know when you're going to need emergency cash....

Over 20,000 folks listening to the Knoxville Symphony and waiting for the fireworks display!

My camera doesn't do well with firework shots but you get the picture!

Yesterday, at World's Fair Park, there was a festival celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 1982 World's Fair. I took time off from college and worked 2 jobs at the Fair. It was a wonderful time as a 21 year old and I loved working at the Fair. During that six months, I dated a musician in the World's Fair Band and a magician (who was very good at disappearing acts!).

We walked around, had some homemade ice cream, checked out the exhibits, and then all went home for a rest before heading back down for the fireworks. The symphony plays wonderful patriotic music during the fireworks and there are hordes of people spread out on the lawns, streets, wherever they can. Last night after the fireworks, I get a call from my son:

N: So I just cooked a pizza and I have no knife to cut it up!

Me: Okay, well, just tear it.

N: No, no, I can't do that. It's one of those rising crust ones. I'm coming over to get a knife.

Me: Whatever.

It's nice to live less than 20 yards from your mother. Imagine the horrible crisis if I had already left!

The Galili Family Comes to Knoxville!

2007-07-02T17:07:00.000-04:00

Amory (15), Adina (17), Benny and Lynne

Benny ponders how he would look in a nifty pair of overalls!

Melrose Hall, where Lynne and I lived over 25 years ago.

Unfortunately, Melrose Hall will be torn down in a few years to make way for a newer residence hall. This is unfortunate as it is the most unique residence hall on UT's campus and has a wonderful enclosed courtyard unlike any other building on campus. Just look at these arches! I'll be sad to see it go.

Adina gives me a theatrical pose in the Melrose Hall courtyard.

Amory, looking very handsome on the rocks of Clingman's Dome.

I did it, I did it, I did it!!!!! Finally!

Lynne Getter (now Galili) and I met when we both lived in Melrose Hall during our undergraduate years at UT. We also had German class together. At the time, I would have considered Lynne a liberal Jewish girl and she would probably have considered me a conservative Christian girl. After 22 years, Lynne and I were reunited as she took a "southern driving vacation" to see many long-time friends in the south. Lynne and her family live in Boston and Lynne has become a friend to Tracy and Hua, now that they live in Boston (well, technically, they all live outside of Boston proper). The four Galilis and I had a wonderful two days together as we toured around Knoxville and Gatlinburg, climbed up Clingman's Dome, had a picnic and rode go-carts in Pigeon Forge. We even had the soup, salad and vegetable buffet at Shoney's to give them a well-rounded Southern experience. Speaking of southern, after priding myself in my ability to "lose" my southern accent, one of the first things Benny commented on (who is from Israel) was my southern accent. I took great offense and from that moment on took great joy in teasing him about his Israeli accent ("Did you say "mudder" or "mother"?). ha ha It was great fun to meet Lynne's husband and children, who were very articulate and well-behaved (despite what Lynne may think). After 22 years, Lynne is still Jewish and I am still Christian. However, it was interesting to observe that Lynne has become a bit more conservative and I have become far more liberal. At least this was my observation. I'm looking forward to spending more time with Lynne and her family in future times.

In other monumental news, N moved into his own apartment yesterday; the first time he has ever had his own place without roommates. More on that, complete with photos, tomorrow!

The Hostess With The Mostest

2007-06-26T17:38:00.000-04:00

China Economic Review reports, "Women hoping to become hostesses at next year’s Olympic Games medal ceremonies must meet a set of criteria which might be thought to be male chauvinistic: no tattoos, no big bottoms, and cut down on the earrings."

No tattoos.....check

Don't wear earrings.....no problem

No big bottoms......Uhhhhh......damn!

It's a good thing I'm going to China to teach and not be a hostess. The above photograph is a rendering of the Olympic Stadium called the "Birdnest" by locals. Just in front of it, the square building with blue tint, is the Water Cube and will house all the swimming/diving/water events.

Aunt Millie!

2007-06-20T17:08:00.000-04:00

This is Aunt Millie. My birthday dinner was made all that more special because of her attendance. Since I was her designated driver, we didn't worry about all that beer she drank! Aunt Millie is.....well, in Lucy Blue fashion, Aunt Millie has celebrated over 40 anniversaries of her 40th birthday. She's dealing with some health problems at present but she's a real trooper and she is who I want to be just like (if I could be so lucky to live as long).

Last night was a great night of good friends, good food, and good fellowship! What more could a girl in her 40's ask for?

Today, It's All About Me!

2007-06-19T17:08:00.000-04:00

Kisses to everyone! :)

It's the sixth anniversary of my 40th birthday! Happy Birthday to me! This morning my son said, "You're how old? 53?" Such a kidder. Although today was a busy work day I did have a couple of surprises: a gift card to a favorite restaurant, a CD, a homemade birthday card. I even got to take my son out to lunch! No, no, just kidding.

Tonight I'm meeting 7 special friends for a fabulous dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant. I'll take lots of photos!

Yes, Lucy, There is a Santa Claus!

2007-06-15T17:23:00.000-04:00

Whew! I'll be able to make it in China after all!

By 5:00 today I'll be $175 poorer. But my car will be boasting 2 new tires. Would you like to buy it?

Next Tuesday is the 6th anniversary of my 40th birthday and there is a nice big dinner party in the works at Altruda's. And, of course, I'll be having what I always have: Salciccia Melanzani (for you non-Italian speaking folks that's "sausage eggplant"). I've eaten at Altruda's probably 15-20 times and I've never once ordered anything different. I came close once. In the end, however, I figured why take the chance on having anything less than an excellent dining experience for my tastebuds.

A Favorite Author, A Favorite Activity

2007-06-13T07:58:00.000-04:00

May Sarton is one of my favorite writers. Although a poet, novelist and journalist, I enjoy her journals most. I also have a couple of unusual connections to Ms. Sarton in that a good friend of mine in Nashville worked for a dear friend of Sarton's, H. Sharp (whom May referred to as the "Queen of Tennessee") and a friend/professor here at UT, M. Kallet, edited a book of writings on Sarton's poetry and also visited May at times (Sarton was M's daughter's godmother). I wish I could have written to or met May Sarton. She died in 1995, just a year or two after Ms. Sharp gave my friend Sarton's first journal "Plant Dreaming Deep" to read and P. passed it on to me. I was hooked and eventually collected nearly all of her journals and a couple of her novels. I've also read Sarton's letters to Juliette Huxley, which were absolutely beautiful. If I move to China, I will most likely travel with very few books, perhaps only a few paperbacks. Sarton will definitely be among them.

The beautiful little beaded pouch is from Nana and is now what houses my cell phone.

I've been swimming after work for the last four days. So relaxing and refreshing. When I get to the pool I can't wait to drop my towels on a chair and get in the cool water. It's usually fairly deserted. This week, however, hordes of young kids have been invading the pool in the early evenings due to special camps that UT hosts over the summer. Yesterday evening it was young 10-12 year old boys. If I were a 10 year old girl I probably would have thought I had died and gone to heaven as these boys hooped and hollered and had a grand old time in the water. But I'm not. So I didn't.

I Love Khachapuri!

2007-06-07T17:59:00.000-04:00

Khachapuri is well-known in Georgia (Republic of) and is cheese-filled bread!

N and Nana flatten out the balls of dough.

Then they wrap the dough around the cheese balls (combo of 1 egg, mozzarella and feta cheeses)

Then it gets flattened back out carefully and put in a medium-hot pan (the cheese is now in the middle! Yum)

The end result is absolutely delicious. We made five of these last night! There was only enough left for N to take some for his lunch today (which I suspect he ate for his breakfast!) N is also figuring out ways to add pepperoni on the inside!

It's good to have Nana back in Knoxville. Wonder how many times I can get her to cook for me by whining that I may not enjoy her cooking for one whole year?

Two Leave, One Returns

2007-06-05T17:36:00.000-04:00

Last Friday at 5:00 in the morning I took Tracy and Amy to the airport. The next day I picked up Nana, returning from a trip to the Republic of Georgia, her home country, for three weeks.
She brought me these delicious candles! ha ha No, they're not candles, but they LOOK like candles, don't they? Hand-dipped candles. They are CANDIES! They are filled with peanuts and walnuts and gooey stuff and the outside is sugary and you eat the whole thing....except the string, of course. I've never seen anything like this! Isn't it interesting? Nana says these are about .50 a piece. They are really good!

Yep. Just like a candle!

Oh, and she brought me a handful of Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian chocolates and hard candies! You gotta love a friend who will haul chocolate back from halfway around the world for you! :)

This is the inside of the darkest one. It's walnuts and it's delicious! You're just going to have to trust me!

The thin amber-colored ones have hazelnuts in them. I can't figure out how they strung the hazlenuts, though. Odd.

Nana bought this little Georgia clay bowl back with her. She's going to keep all her "found" money in it! :)

She also brought this beautiful elephant pillowcase cover back for herself!

See? I didn't kill Nana's plants while she was gone.

And she even brought back a Georgian drinking horn for my brother, who was jealous of mine! ha

Tracy and Amy are safely in Boston now in their new 2 bedroom apartment. It's on the third floor of a house and they have a wonderful landlord couple who lives on the first floor. The landlord has already helped them out by taking them to a couple of store.

Amy is around 9.5 lbs. now and she'll be 7 weeks old tomorrow. Tracy and Hua have promised me they will send lots of photos and videos. They better! :)

So a dear friend left town and a dear friend returned to town. And soon....this dear friend may be leaving for a year in the Middle Kingdom! How exciting is that?

Lovey Doveys

2007-06-01T17:41:00.000-04:00

Oh, to be six and have Madam Fifi (fee-fee) perform magic at your birthday. She came to one of my birthday parties. I forget how old I was. I think around 7-9. Sadly, Madam Fifi is gone now. But oh how she put on a show. We loved her. Twenty years later, we loved her again!

Elvis is back in the house!!!

2007-05-31T17:01:00.000-04:00

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Do you know who this is?
We were in a film student's homemade film about a school for Elvis wanna-bees. N represented the younger set! ha ha ha ha I've got to find my copy of that tape!

Fun Stuff on Wednesday

2007-05-30T17:37:00.000-04:00

Benjarat is from Thailand and I tutored her in English for a short while. She and her fiance have now returned to Bangkok where they live and they hope to marry in September. She invited me to the wedding. Hmmmm. A flight from Beijing to Bangkok is not really very far. Okay, okay. I guess I can't attend EVERY international wedding, right? My mother would be afraid I would move to Bangkok. Actually....... (just kidding)
The three Hager brothers! Okay, guys...give me a big smile! One, two three....

No, the one on the left is not a CIA agent, but he does look the part! :)

Okay, this time let's all make funny faces! Aw, come on! Okay, here we go. One, two three! (at least it made them smile more).

Now let's include Sissy! :)

Wow. I have it all to myself!

I took these yesterday when I went down to the Aquatic Center for a swim. My first of the year. Man, did it feel great!!! I love swimming in the deep end. I'm not big on lane swimming. I just kinda do my own thing, swimming around and doing some exercises in the water. I love sitting out in the evening sun afterwards. I'll be heading that way after work today!

Rest in Peace, R.D.

2007-05-29T17:56:00.000-04:00

My great uncle passed away last week. He was born in 1914 and was 92 years old. His father worked on the streetcars of downtown Nashville back in the day. R.D. was a Merchant Marine during World War II. Wikipedia states: "The U.S. Merchant Marine is made up of the nation’s civilian-owned merchant ships and the men and women that crew them. The merchant marine transports cargo and passengers during peace time. In time of war, the merchant marine is an auxiliary to the Navy and can be called upon to delivery troops and supplies for the miliary. These marines are civilians except in times of war when, in accordance with the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, they are considered military personnel." Merchant marines now have full veteran status. It was said during World War II that the merchant marines made victory possible. It was said that they were the "first to go, last to return, highest casualty rate, no promised benefits." Thanks to H.R. 23, merchant marines now have certain military benefits and have been issued, as of January, 2007, a belated thank you for their service to our nation. The average age of a mechant marine is 82.
R.D. told me that during World War II he found himself in a very frightening position, standing on deck of a ship delivering supplies and troops just off the coast of Japan with bombing and gunfire all around. He told me that he prayed to God to please let him come back home to his new bride, Lillie Mae. God granted his prayer. They were married for over 50 years.
My great aunt Mae passed away in 2000. Now, R.D. and his bride are together once again. May they both rest in eternal peace.

Aw man....

2007-05-25T17:50:00.000-04:00

I said I'd post an interesting entry today.

I totally lied.

However....I do want to wish all my friends in the Republic of Georgia a very happy Independence Day!!!!! Go Georgia! Go Georgia! Go Georgia!

2007-05-24T17:16:00.000-04:00

Hmmmmm.

Oh, to be young and wearing blue!

Destination Imagination folks getting their "chicken dance" on!

Go Guatamala!

Go Poland!

Go Korea!

Yea Singapore!

Let's not forget Mexico!

Hey! I wanna play too!

I like trees!

UT is currently hosting Destination Imagination, as we do every year. This year it's the Global Finals. Young people from all over the world are here to compete in various types of games, some highly intelligent, some just plain wacky! :) It's nice to see so many kids having so much fun! Last night I looked out my kitchen window and saw big fireworks being launched from Neyland Stadium.

I promise to try to write a more interesting entry tomorrow. I have so much on my mind that I can't seem to get it down in written form. I'm still working on my goal of working in China. In fact, it's becoming more and more of a reality. Just think. If it all comes together (and I suspect it will), I could be leaving the U.S. in a mere 11 weeks! I've got to find more boxes!

Rainbow Musings......

2007-05-18T17:12:00.000-04:00

This gorgeous view greeted me as I returned home from work yesterday!

I suppose the gold is not always in a pot at the end, eh?

Broken necklace man!

I remember writing many months ago that it was time for me to move on. I'm approaching the sixth anniversary of my 40th birthday and it's time to "do" or "forget about it." I'm opting for "doing." It's not as easy, however, to make these kinds of changes as one gets older. The details that need to be worked out seem exhausting. I have a huge house full of the detritus of life. Lots of it will need to be culled and thrown out or given away. Tiring work, yet I already imagine the freedom my brain will feel when my surroundings are pared down. Living simply is something I'm very interested in yet I seem to have some sort of block towards getting rid of things. I've become more sentimental as I age and I want to hang on to lots of thing. There was a point in my life when my son was young when we collected beanie babies. I have 5 big tubs of them totaling around 150. They've barely been touched; in "new" condition. I want to save them to give to my grandchildren for birthdays and holidays. They can drag them all around. I don't mind. I'm even keeping my son's solid pine bunkbed bedroom furniture for his children. He could care less. But I do. So I haul these possessions with me from place to place. You see....for such a nomad/wanderer/adventurer personality as I have, it just doesn't mesh well with my volume of possessions. I can't seem to reach a happy medium on this but that's exactly what I need to do in order to move to a foreign country for a while. I love the fact that I can only take two suitcases with me. It will also be a discouragement to acquires "things" that I can't bring back to the States so perhaps I'll finally get an opportunity to live simply for a year.

You know.....traveling and experiencing new cultures and places is not just self-centered frivolous sightseeing for me. For lack of a more complex way to explain it, it's simply something that I have to do. I don't want to make excuses for myself as to why I didn't pursue what could have been pursued. I want my list to be worn out and have lots of checkmarks on it. That will make me very, very happy.

Wimpy Wednesday!

2007-05-16T17:40:00.000-04:00

A little spring beauty!

I'm going to miss my big blue house. It's been a good four years there but it's time to move on. I'm also going to miss my big car!

Can you spot the little kitty?

I'm invisible, I'm invisible, You do not see me!

These are the ones that live across the street. They're nearly full grown now. What will happen to them when I'm not around to feed them anymore????

Amy!

Mommy is a little tired!

Wednesday. Sigh. Nothing exciting, nothing new.....same, same, same. Oh! There is a bright spot to today: someone told me I am beautiful. And they meant it. :) It's always nice to hear compliments from folks. One compliment can make a world of difference in the middle of a crappy day. That.....and a big piece of chocolate cake!

All about mothers......

2007-05-14T05:53:00.000-04:00

Amy still does not appreciate Nana Teresa's camera flash! :)

"Well, hello everyone! Aren't I cute?"

Amy is growing. In just 17 days she and her mother will join her daddy in Medford, near Boston. I’ll miss them but I am very grateful they found a good opportunity which allows them to continue their plans in the U.S. I have a friend in Boston who helped them find a good two-bedroom apartment in a house close enough for Hua to walk to work. The last photo is of MaoMao, Tracy's sister and little Amy's aunt. MaoMao is due in about six weeks. She will give birth in Changchun, China. It may be more than a year before these two sisters reunite with their babies.
Mother’s Day came and went. My son gave me a funny card, which I appreciated. He also cleaned up his room (meaning he finally unloaded his suitcases from his move back to Tennessee 2.5 months ago). After work, Nick bought a pizza for our dinner from a small deli up the street and we enjoyed watching the Sunday night line-up together (well, I enjoyed it....he merely tolerated it). That would be Extreme Home Makeover, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters (which I really enjoy). If I move to China, I will miss these shows. There’s not much on CCTV in English. Mostly news. But there is satellite TV and during important sports play-offs, ex-pats in Beijing might get up as early as 5:00 a.m. to watch a game in a hotel or restaurant/bar. Interestingly, I would not mind giving up television viewing. I recently quit taping my daytime shows completely. I miss them far less than I thought I would. No more soap operas, no more Oprah, no more Rosie O’Donnell on the View (LOVE her!). I can always catch up on any show via the internet.

HB to my Favorite Son!

2007-05-08T17:58:00.000-04:00

Present
Guess who is 22 today! On May 8, 1985, I was living in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a rainy Wednesday at 7:50 in the morning when another voice was added to the world’s cacophony of sounds. He is working today and his co-workers will provide lunch and cake for him. I’m taking him to dinner tonight so he’s got the day covered for free meals.
Past
The day I turned 22 years old I was spending six weeks on a sailboat with my son’s father near Gulf Shores, Alabama. It was a summer free of much worry.
Future
I have always supported my son in his endeavors. He’ll tell you that. I may not have been able to fully fund his recent life tangents but he never lacked support and encouragement. He knows this and appreciates it. Soon, it will be time for my son to support my next life tangent. I cannot be 100% sure of the destination but I know I will be "turning course." A friend of mine is returning to her home country for a visit after a two year absence. Last night I asked her, "You're leaving in 2 days! Are you getting excited?" She said, "No, because I am already there!" I understand what she means.

Xiao Amy!

2007-05-07T06:44:00.000-04:00

What a beautiful face! I love her "fluffy" cheeks!

Little Amy (Xiao Amy) will be three weeks old this Wednesday. I recently discovered that Amy Li Xing shares a birthday with Suri Cruise, 1 year old daughter of Tom Cruise! I wonder if Amy will be impressed by that fact when she grows up. I hope not. Amy will be a very strong and independent woman. I have no doubt. Her mother named her Amy because of it's meaning: beloved. It's a good name.

Writing My Life

2007-05-03T17:06:00.000-04:00

I will spend a year living and working in Beijing, China. My life will be enriched by the students I will teach. I will have many international friends, not only from China but from other countries as well. My apartment will be simple and small, but nice, with a great view of the city. It will have a swimming pool nearby and I will have great neighbors. Just outside my apartment building there will be many wonderful Chinese restaurants and places to buy fresh vegetables and fruit. I will spend my free time exploring the city and will travel to many surrounding cities when there are Chinese holidays. My son will visit me at Christmas and maybe my brother and sister-in-law will visit and bring my mother. I will be in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics and will drink in the atmosphere charged with excitement. I might even see a celebrity or two as they make their way to the competitions. I will become more healthy than I have been in ten years as I walk all over the city and enjoy healthy Chinese foods. I will enjoy writing during my year in Beijing and will fill many journals with renewed creativity. Many people will enjoy reading my online diary (blog) as I document my year in China. I will take incredible photographs, capturing the real essence of the people and culture of Beijing. It will be an amazing year for me and will fulfill a very strong and special goal. Living in Beijing will bring richness into my life that I never imagined and will define how I live out the rest of my life. I will love my year in China.

I am currently reading WRITE IT DOWN, MAKE IT HAPPEN (Knowing What You Want – And Getting It) by Henriette Anne Klauser. So....I’ve written it down. There you have it. Are you excited for me?

A Visit to the Doctor!

2007-05-01T17:44:00.000-04:00

Amy Li Xing has a good check-up at the doctor today. She is 6 lbs. 5.5 oz, which means she has gained 7.5 ounces since leaving the hospital. This is very good. Hen hao, hen hao! She has also grown 1/4 of an inch in length. You know what the best part of this doctor visit was? I got to feed Amy a bottle! She really is a very good little girl. She hardly ever cries. But when she does, her mother picks her up right away. I told her she should be careful, lest she "spoil the child." Who am I kidding! ha I would SO do the very same thing if she were mine! :)

Present and Past

2007-05-01T05:21:00.000-04:00

I don't mind posting lots of photos of Amy. Not at all. These are a few I took yesterday when I stopped in to see how things are going. Many of Tracy and Hua's family and friends in China and other countries are now looking at this blog to see pictures of Amy. Tracy is just too busy to send them all photos individually. I am more than happy to post photos, at least for the first month of Amy's life. Once she moves to Boston I'm sure I'll be begging for photos as well.

The last photo is of my great uncle R.D. and his mother (he was born in 1914 and he'll be 93 next December). Do you think folks were told not to look at the camera lens back in those days? I love the detailed wicker work on the chair. The the gown he is wearing is amazing. I wonder what color his mother's dress was. One thing's for sure. Puffy sleeves must have been all the rage.

Amy, Amy, Amy! :)

2007-04-30T17:05:00.000-04:00

Amy sleeps with confidence!

Mommy and Amy's hands

Amy's bassinet

What a cutie!

Amy is still basically sleeping, eating, and pooping.

She will celebrate her two week birthday this Wednesday

Randomness on Friday with a Pig's Foot!

2007-04-27T17:28:00.000-04:00

Tracy and Amy miss Daddy but they are getting along very well!

Amy and her Auntie Nana

Amy and her Auntie Liyin

Uh....thanks....but no thank you! :)

(poor little piggy)

Hua gets a free hair cut!

Just some random shots for a Friday. It's a nice day here in Knoxburg but it does look like rain. It's a cool 67 degrees and feels great! My son took me out to lunch today. We had fast mexican at El Charro Express. Pretty good plate of food for just four bucks! I intend to take lots of pictures of Amy this weekend and I'll post them on Monday.

I have only been working weekends for three weeks and already I miss the freedom of days off. At least I only work half days on Sunday. That counts for something. You know?

Amy and her Daddy!

2007-04-25T17:04:00.000-04:00

Hua is an excellent daddy (Baba). He loves little Amy dearly!

Amy is not too thrilled with the flash of her American Nana's camera!

Amy is gazing at her mommy who is about to feed her.

And Now for Something Completely Different.....

2007-04-24T05:40:00.000-04:00

Remember those kittens I caught and got adopted last year? These are them. Cinnamon and Sugar. They were adopted by a terrific cat-loving family who lets them eat at the table with their own high chairs!!!!
Well, Mama Cat has had two more litters. I couldn't get any of the second litter and below is a kitten of the 3 from the third litter. We're trying to find this little calico a home.

I've decided that since I can't NOT feed these feral cats every day (they live under a house across the street from mine), I'm just going to have to move. When I come home from work and open my screen door (which makes a high-pitched sound) they are all lined up in the yard across the street and start meowing. They also know the "jingle" of my keys. I've become a "crazy cat lady" and I'm not proud of it. I'm thinking of entering cat-dependency rehab.

All About Amy!

2007-04-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

That's my hand under Amy's hand and Nana's hand over Amy's arm! Truly a miracle, babies!
Amy holds on to Nana!

In many ultrasounds Amy was seen with her hands around her face. Now that she is born she still likes keeping her hands around her face. It gives her comfort!

What an adorable Asian beauty!

Amy lays sideways in one of her little bouncey things. She went to the doctor today and has gained one ounce since she left the hospital 3 days ago. Both Mom and daughter are learning the art of nursing and the fact that Amy has gained an ounce is a good thing. Amy is still only performing two tricks: eating and sleeping (well, I guess pooping makes 3, right?). Soon, however, she's going to have more awake time and her little eyes will be darting here and there. And I will be there to take many, many photos. So if you don't want to see lots of pictures of my little girl (okay...technically she's not mine) then tune back in around mid-June when Tracy will join Hua in Boston and, unfortunately, take Amy with her. :( But until then..........

I Was Born in the U.S.A.!

2007-04-20T17:24:00.000-04:00

Amy was born in the USA in the Year of the Pig! She's a lucky girl!

Tracy and her husband reunite after nearly two months, and just before Amy is born!

What a little beauty!

Dad is very excited!

First Xing family portrait!

Mom and baby are exhausted and take a little time to nap.
Below: Amy is almost one day old!

Miss Amy Li Xing was born Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 6:11 p.m. Weighing in at 6 lbs. 4 oz, and being 19.3 inches long, Amy proudly showed off her head full of black hair. Mom and Dad are both very happy and proud to be Amy’s parents. Tracy had a tough time with her labor. Being induced can sometimes be brutal. However, she was a real trooper and in the end she came through with flying colors. As Tracy began the pushing phase of Amy’s birth, we all counted in Chinese from 1 to 10 with each contraction as a nurse monitored Amy’s progress. The nurses and folks on the floor thought we were singing! Ha ha
Hua was supposed to arrive at 12:00 and we figured Amy would be born that evening. His flight, however, was delayed out of Boston due to weather and he did not arrive in Knoxville until 3:40. He arrived at the hospital a little after 4:00 p.m. and Miss Amy was born at 6:11 p.m. A close call but he made it!
Yesterday, Dad changed his first diaper as I guided him through the process. He did a great job and it was a poopy diaper to boot! :) Mom is doing great and the new Xing family is coming home from the hospital today. I took about 65 photographs, chronicling the entire experience for Tracy and Hua and about 10 videos. Amy is a very good baby and is eating well and rarely cries. I actually think little Amy knows my voice, as well as her mother and father. She is very curious and already seems to focus on Mom and Dad’s face.

The world has a new citizen.....and a very beautiful one (nah, I'm not biased at all!).

Come and get it!

2007-04-17T17:38:00.000-04:00

My son makes great baked ziti! He's not so great at paying for the ingredients but hey.....

When I tried to take his photo he politely told me to talk to the hand.

My friend Tracy will have a new baby girl to love and adore tomorrow. I will take her to the hospital tonight at midnight. Yep. Midnight. She is going to be induced. Little Amy Li Xing (pronounced "shing" like "ping") wants to see the light! Hua, Tracy's husband, will arrive from Boston at noon tomorrow and we expect the baby to be born tomorrow afternoon or early evening. Hua only has one week off from work. I'm off from work tomorrow and Thursday and will post a picture of the little Asian beauty on Friday. We've seen many untrasound images of Amy. Tracy and Hua think she looks like Hua. She has fat cheeks and beautiful pouty lips. She also has a lot of hair, so say the sonographers. I can't wait to hold her. But I'll let Mom and Dad hold her first. I promise.

April Showers.....

2007-04-13T17:32:00.000-04:00

I guess we'll be taking showers in the downstairs bathroom for a while........
We have an all new shower head and stems and knobs and spigot....but who knows when the landlord will get around to replacing the tile so we can actually use the shower. You can see right into the bathroom closet! Much like the holes in the wall from February's plumbing work, I don't expect the tile work to be repaired anytime soon. When we DO get to use the upstairs showers, at least it won't rain into the closet of the downstairs bathroom.
In more appealing news, N is completing his second full week of work and is looking forward to the weekend. He's never worked a job that was M-F, 8-5 before. He joins me for lunch nearly every day because.....well, because he's not stupid. Know what I mean?

Death by Chocolate, Boredom by Pictures!

2007-04-10T17:08:00.000-04:00

I consider myself to be a fairly creative person. Would you call this creativity? Today is a very slow day. Sigh.....

Had lunch with my son today. I drove to the ag campus and picked him up, took him to the arena cafeteria, paid for both our lunches, gave him a dollar in change for a drink this afternoon and took him back to his building. I need a Mom like me! :)

Happy Easter!

2007-04-05T17:00:00.000-04:00

Easter Sunday will arrive with a temperature of 24 degrees in Knoxville!

Pink AND white blossoms on this dogwood! My brother once attempted to splice one of our dogwood trees when we were growing up but it didn't take.

A beautiful, bright, and sunny day!

Tiptoe through the tulips!

I love the Japanese maple!

Today I attend the second meeting of the International Literary Colloquy and we discussed the book The Sand Child. It was a confusing book to me, rife with Moroccan fables and myth, so I offered very little by way of discussion. I did, however, enjoy hearing others dissect the book because it cleared up some things for me. This is what I love about literary discussion.

Tomorrow is Good Friday! No work! Peace to everyone!

Asian Grocery Outing!

2007-04-04T17:00:00.000-04:00

These cakes are just as good, if not better, than the 'ole moon pie!

Help! Help! I can't feel my tail!

Brrrrrr! It's cold in here!

The plant with the red bow is called a money tree. It will bring good fortune. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough money to buy it.

Aw Geeeeeezzzz!

2007-04-03T17:00:00.000-04:00

Woman, do you have any idea how friggin' bright that flash is??????

Work and Humor

2007-04-02T17:00:00.000-04:00

My son is gainfully employed. He went on a working interview last Tuesday and was called last Thursday and offered the job. He started today. He’s working at the College of Veterinary Medicine (which is just a short free campus bus ride away). This is good news; very good news, and Momma is happy.
A conversation my son and I had this morning as we both readied for work:
Me: You know, son, you could buy a moped and drive it to work.
Son: Yeah, that’ll help me get dates.
Me: Well, there’s no shame in not owning a vehicle.
Son: Yeah, and then I’ll tell her, "Come home and meet my roommate!"
One of the things I admire and enjoy most in my son is his sense of humor! It’s what will get him through the sometimes doldrums of everyday life. This I know.

Meatless Dish

2007-03-28T16:50:00.000-04:00

I'm not a good cook. Just ask my son. I'm a pretty decent baker, however. This dish was first prepared for me by my friend, Nana. It's potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, onion, bell pepper, cilantro (the magic ingredient), salt, pepper, garlic, cheese. I'm not usually a big fan of eggplant (at least eggplant that's not breaded, fried, and comes with marinara sauce on top) but I really liked this dish so I made it myself. Stupid me forgot to take a shot of the baked result. It was good, though. My son wouldn't touch it. "Did you say eggplant?" ha

Early Urban Ride.....

2007-03-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

Handmade tiles in support (or memory) of those battling cancer.

Nature's pretty detritus.

The culprit.

Okay, okay! I won't swim or wade!

I'll just walk.

Early morning sun rays.

Thank you, PBA.

Your stream looks fairly clean.

The Foundry at World's Fair Park, but more lovingly known by me as the Strohaus at the 1982 World's Fair. I was a "waitress" there and heard more than my fair share of polka music!

Sprinklers water the brown, winter turf. The homeless are sitting on benches on both sides.

Knoxville's Old Faithful.

In the city, it's not always pretty around every turn.

NO TRESPASSING! (said with some "Happy Feet" sweetness).

Party remnants. Maybe the burglar will be deterred by the trash and not go for the open door!

One of my favorite places in the Fort.

If only there were big apartments here.....I'd move in.

The clean and well-maintained courtyard.

Just needs a couple of ducks.

My favorite.

Okay, that sun's rising and getting hot. It's nearly 9:00 a.m. Time to head home.

I enjoy living in the city. It’s true that Knoxville isn’t a very big city but I still consider myself an urban-dweller. Sunday morning around 7:30, I headed down the street on my bicycle to enjoy what would be the coolest part of the day (Al G., my friend, I’m beginning to believe ya!). One of the first places I headed was World’s Fair Park. I expected the park to be completely empty of people and cars. It was.....almost. As I zipped down the road and under the Clinch Ave. viaduct I was surprised to see nearly all the benches that line the sidewalks and the big playing field occupied by homeless folks, most with their backpacks at their feet. I even recognized a couple. No one was talking. They were just sitting there, very quietly. It really was kind of eerie, like I might have stumbled into the middle of a zombie’s colony. The shelter for the homeless closes early in the morning so folks must get up and get out. I thought I remembered someone telling me that the Holiday Inn at World’s Fair Park sometimes gives out coffee and doughnuts in the mornings. Perhaps they were waiting for some hot coffee. When I rode back through, nearly an hour later, they were all still there.

The Stork is Getting Closer!

2007-03-20T11:45:00.000-04:00

Nana knitted this dress for Tracy and Hua's little girl!

Go Vols! No wearing red in Boston!

Smells so........

I'm not looking! I'm just smelling!

With the help of friends, I hosted a shower for my "adopted daughter," Tracy. It was held next door in Nana’s apartment. We all had a great time. In China, it is not customary for a mother-to-be to receive gifts prior to baby’s arrival. Gifts are given to a newborn at around one month and it is customarily cash gifts. Tracy, however, had a wonderful experience with her American baby shower. We played two games, even though folks balked a little at my second game (I wonder why). Okay, maybe the second game was a little "gross" in theory, but in reality we had some fun with it. Surely you’ve heard of the Poopy Diaper game! You melt half of six different candy bars in the microwave and then plop each one down in the middle of a clean disposable diaper. Label the diapers from 1 to 6 and you’ve got yourself a very funny baby shower game. Folks had to smell each diaper and try to identify which popular candy bar it was. The Reese’s Cup and the York Peppermint Patty were the easiest. And let me tell you something. A Hershey’s bar with almonds is not a pretty sight when viewed melted in a diaper. It is, quite frankly, far too realistic! Well, now that I’ve left you with some fine mental images on this Tuesday morning, I’ll leave the matter of the Poopey Diaper game. But I’m just sayin’......my son’s future wife has a lot of fun to look forward to. On the other hand, he probably won’t allow me to host a baby shower after reading this.
Tracy received many nice gifts. Her husband, Hua, has already moved to Boston where he is working at a prestigious university. He will miss the birth (as I may have said earlier, fathers are not present at births...in fact, only medical personnel are allowed at hospital births). Tracy and I have been attending birthing classes together and she is doing just great. We toured the hospital last night with our class and took some photos of the rooms where Tracy will be. She was very, very interested in everything. What have I learned from going through birthing classes after 22 years? Things haven’t changed much. Deep breath, push, push, push!

A Small Slice of Life.....

2007-03-15T14:08:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I called my son around 4:30 from work and asked him if he wanted to go get cheap Mexican food for dinner. I told him we could split the bill. He said, "Yeah, but I need to take a shower first." I said, "Well, go ahead and get in the shower and you’ll be ready to go when I get home." He said, "Nah, I have something I want to show you first so I’ll wait until you get here." I said, "Does it have anything to do with getting a job?" He laughed and said, "No." I said, "Well, go ahead and take a shower because it must not be that important!" I got home and noticed the bucket on the front porch but didn’t think much about it. But then I noticed that he had swept and cleaned the front porch (a very large front porch). Wow. Good for him. Good for me! I walked in and then it dawned on me (the bucket, that is). I said, "Oh! Did you also mop the kitchen floor?" He said, "Darn. I forgot all about that!" I said, "Oh, well at least you cleaned the front porch!" He grinned. I whooped and headed to the kitchen where the kitchen floor was shiny clean! "Yes!" Now, the kitty litter wasn’t scooped and he hadn’t taken the trash out, but those are things I would gladly take care of to have someone mop my kitchen floor!
Dinner at Cancun’s was good. Feeling generous, I told N that I would pay for the meal if he would pay the tip. Somehow, as is often the case with parent and child, I ended up paying for the meal AND the tip. As we walked towards the car, N said, "Oh, I forgot to leave the tip!" I said, "Yeah. I left it." After all, I have a clean kitchen floor.

Booooorrrrrrring......

2007-03-14T16:17:00.001-04:00

It's been a boring day and I have nothing to say.

I took some photos last year of some pictures on my mantel. They're fairly self-explanatory. That's me at 16 on top of the W T C. And that's me and my college friend, Lynne Galili posing in Brooklyn with the W T C Towers in the background. When I look at these photos, it still seems unfathomable that those two towering buildings don't exist anymore. Sigh.

Did I tell you how bored I am right now? I am. It shows. Doesn't it?

Lucy Blue at the Forbidden City!

2007-03-08T17:20:00.000-05:00

You can call me Empress Lucy!

Mad Max

2007-03-08T16:55:00.000-05:00

Max is finally getting used to N being back in the house! :)

Reading and Dancing

2007-03-07T16:30:00.000-05:00

I finished reading Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide at lunch today. It was a fine hour of uninterrupted reading. The Hungry Tide is set in the Sundarbans, an archipelago in the southeast corner of India. The story is about islands, tides, mangroves, tigers, river dolphins in jeopardy of becoming extinct (they are already extinct in China), cyclones, culture and history. At times it wasn’t a smooth read for me. I found myself skimming some of the mythological tales the author had a couple of his characters relay to the reader. I wanted to get back to the characters and their intertwining lives. Overall, however, it was a very enjoyable read and I learned a lot about the Irawaddy river dolphin. If you are a cetologist, I now know what you do (a marine scientist who studies whales, dolphins and porpoise).
I went to see the Russian Festival Ballet last night with friends. It’s the last dance event in the series. They always save the Russian dancing for last. The dancing was very, very good but I’m no ballet expert or anything. In fact, of all forms of dance, ballet is probably my least favorite. I’d much rather see modern, interpretive, jazz, etc. The dance group that performed at the Academy Awards this year is called Pilobolus. They made amazing shapes such as a van, a gun and a shoe with their bodies behind a shadow curtain. They came to Knoxville last year. They were amazing.

Longing for the Younger Days

2007-03-02T15:50:00.001-05:00

This is my brother’s grandson. It’s so much easier at this age.....

My son is home. My son is living with me. Again. After four years. I thought it would be great to have him home. I do think it’s great to have him home. I don’t necessarily think it’s great to have him living with me. Then again, I’m sure he thinks living with his mother kinda sucks too. He doesn’t really understand the concept of house rules. Never mind that some of my rules were the same rules imposed on him by living with a roommate in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, he adhered to the rules of living with someone else. Apparently, mothers don’t rate as high as roommates and the rules can be ignored. After all, your mother will never kick you out of the house, right? Or will she?

The Coming of Spring and No. 200!

2007-02-27T15:05:00.001-05:00

Today is entry number 200 in my online journal. I began this blog on April 1, 2005, and I have absolutely no regrets. I love to document things, and especially document my life. Sometimes I laugh when I think of all the journals and writings and scrapbooks that I'm going to leave behind and I imagine they'll either be stuffed in a box in the attic or thrown in the trash.....but I hope not. I'm hoping for a real sentimental daughter-in-law one day. :) It’s been fun to write about life, interests, plans, travel, etc. It’s a more efficient way for me to journal given that I'm much more consistent with this type of journal. I also have a paper diary but my entries are sporadic. I reserve that journal for more private thoughts and serious conversations with myself. We should all have conversations with ourselves from time to time.
It's interesting to peek in on someone’s life from time to time. It can make you feel real good about your own. It can make you laugh. It can provide one of those "Ah, hah!" moments. I enjoy reading a handful of blogs daily. I have corresponded with the authors of several of them. A few of them are: Sage, a homeschooling mother who moved to Toronto, Canada because she and her husband disagreed so vehemently with President Bush. Kim, a 30-something woman who is a masseuse and her husband a photographer. They just had a little baby girl and they live outside Sedona, Arizona. I also read the blogs of 2 people living in China, one a young American male teaching English and the other a young female Beijinger. You may wonder if I have too much free time at work. I do have a certain amount of free time at work. However, I read these blogs on my lunch and coffee breaks (smiling).
Okay, enough nonsense about my blog and other bloggers. I have something very important to say on this, the 200th entry. If you did not see Oprah’s one hour special about the school for girls she opened in South Africa, it’s coming on again Saturday (I think in the early evening). It’s on ABC. You really, really should watch it. Every school age kid should watch those African girls express their unbelievable gratitude at being able to go to Oprah’s Leadership Academy. It’s the words of the girls that are most amazing. It's the obstacles they live with every day yet are the best in their class that makes them so remarkable. Watch it. Watch it with your kids. You won’t regret it.

Dining with friends....

2007-02-26T11:52:00.000-05:00

Altruda's spumoni is the very best!

Nana can't believe she finished the whole bowl of lasagna!

All pregnant women should have their own candle-topped ice cream! This was at a going away dinner last Friday night for Hua, Tracy’s husband. Hua will be leaving in two days to begin a post-doctoral research associate position at Tufts University, outside Boston, Mass. Tracy will stay here in Knoxville until she has their little baby girl, around the first week of May, and then join her husband as soon as she and the baby are able to travel. I will certainly miss them and I will miss their little baby! I will be Tracy’s labor and delivery coach and am pretty excited about that. It will be the first time I have witnessed the birth of a baby, other than my own son. I think I’ll enjoy this birth much more. :)

This weekend was fairly uneventful. N slept a lot, trying to convert his system to the eastern time zone. We did cook a couple of nice meals, though, which was nice. N emptied the dishwasher without prodding, and also took the trash out! Baby steps, but solid steps. My boy might be trainable yet!

China, China, China, China! :)

2007-02-23T16:54:00.000-05:00

Someone recently said that I seem to talk/write a lot about China. It was obvious that their words were not meant to be positive. Well, you know, so what if I journal a lot about China? I absolutely LOVED being in China for what precious little time I was there. It was an incredible adventure for me. I would give up chocolate for the rest of my life (seriously) if I could just go back and spend more time in China. I have very, very good friends who are Chinese. They mean a lot to me. A lot. I write what I want to for my online journal. It’s mine. I write what I feel like writing and I post pictures of things/events/people that are important to me and mean something to me. That’s what bloggers do. I enjoy it. I honestly don’t care if anyone reads it or not. But I always appreciate it when someone pays me a positive comment about something I’ve written.
People who journal (as I do) tend to journal (and talk) about things that mean something to us. Issues that are important to us. China (the country and its people) is important to me. I spent months reading great Chinese literature in preparation for my trip. Going to China changed my life. Even a small tiny event that occurs within the space of seconds can drastically change your life. Those things are important. Geez, I mean, having a kid changes your life. Getting married, getting divorced, getting old, getting ill, blah, blah, blah. Have you ever heard a divorced woman go on and on about her crazy ex-husband? Of course! It’s important to them at the time. All kinds of things change the direction of our lives. What’s important to one person may not be important to another. That’s okay. Some things that were important to me ten years ago are not important to me today. Things change. People change. The world changes.
When I am fortunate enough to travel to another country....I get completely immersed in the culture. I want to know everything there is to know about what I'm seeing and see it all. I want to talk to people and eat different foods and just sit and listen to the sound of a different language being spoken. When I traveled to Europe when I was 16, there was no easy internet access, like I enjoyed before my trip to China. I went to the library to do my research. I wanted to know the less-touristy things to do....even at that age. I found out about a hotel in Vienna, Austria that served an incredible homemade chocolate cake (called Sacher Torte, and layered with apricot jam) and you could actually get a glass of cold milk there (and I do love a glass of cold milk with chocolate cake!). It was (and still is) near the famous Vienna State Opera House. I got a map, found the hotel on the map, walked there by myself and had a piece of that cake, sitting at a little table outside at the hotel cafe. It was delicious.
If you think these are just mindless rantings about travel.....I suppose one could blame my mother. She started it when she arranged for me to go on that incredible trip to Europe when I was in high school. It began my lifetime love of other countries and other peoples.
So.......tonight I am thrilled to be going to dinner with my son at our favorite Italian restaurant. And guess what? We’re taking my CHINESE friends.

About My Son.....

2007-02-23T15:17:00.001-05:00

My son has returned home. He’s safe. He’s well. And.....he’s still sleeping right now! Seriously.
For weeks I have been telling my son to be careful while still living in Las Vegas. Be careful driving, son, you don’t want to get a ticket (he still has a TN driver’s license). Be careful, son, you don’t want to cause an accident. Be careful, son, and watch out for all the crazy driver’s there. You’re selling your car so you certainly don’t want to wreck it before you get a chance to sell it and move home. Be careful, be careful, be careful. (Hey....it’s a mother’s job, right?)
Last Sunday, I was politely minding my own business, having a relaxing time working on my photo journals with a few of my girlfriends when my mobile rings. It was around 8:00 a.m., Vegas time:
Me: Hello?
Son: Oh my gosh, you won’t BELIEVE what just happened?
Me: Oh my gosh, what? What? WHAT??? Are you okay? (I HATE it when he does that to me!)
Son: Yeah, but I just got hit by a drunk driver!
Me: Are you okay????
Son: Yeah, I’m okay. But the guy slammed on brakes at a GREEN LIGHT and when I swerved to his right to avoid hitting him, he decided to turn right from the inside lane and hit me. Then he TOOK OFF!
Me: Really?
Son: Yeah, so, of course, I knew I had to take off after him!
Me: What?!!!!!
Son: Yeah, but he finally stopped and the police are here now talking to him.
Me: Well, son, things happen and the most important thing is that you’re okay.
Son: Yeah.

It should be said that N was absolutely furious when the guy finally pulled over and N got out of the car. He demonstrated this by using his best, most colorful language. Then N saw that Drunk Guy was drunk so he decided he was just wasting his colorful language on him and backed off. Drunk Guy actually tried to convince Nick to just "exchange information" so he could go on his merry, inebriated way.

Drunk Guy: So dude, you don’t have that much damage to your car. Let’s just exchange numbers and leave.
Son: Uh, no, that’s not gonna work for me.

So Drunk Guy, who had only been living in Vegas for 2 months, also got a ticket for not having a Nevada driver’s license, along with his expensive stay in the Clark County Jail. Nick showed the police his Tennessee driver’s license. They didn’t say a word. Whew! They didn’t ask for his insurance. Double whew!
Long story trying to be short (really, I’m trying).....Nick is working with Drunk Guy’s insurance agent but had to leave the car at his former employer’s in Vegas without selling it. The silver lining, hopefully, will be that Nick will most likely receive more for the damage than he would have received had he sold the car unwrecked. The car still runs just fine. It just "don’t look so pretty." He already has a buyer who will buy it wrecked. So for now....all is well. He’s just waiting to hear from the adjuster.

I’m just glad my son is home and away from what truly was, for him, The City of Lost Wages. He did experience one bright spot, however, as he was "leaving Las Vegas." He had dinner with friends there and before they took him to the airport they decided to have a few drinks and they all started playing poker machines. N, of course, couldn’t resist. He didn’t have all that much money with him. When he arrived in Knoxville at 6:00 a.m. he said, "I have good news and I have bad news." I said, "Lord have mercy on my soul and prevent me from having a heart attack, WHAT IS THE BAD NEWS?????" He said, "I played a poker machine before I went to the airport.......but I hit four aces and won $400!" Then he smiled. I said, "You’re buying breakfast!"

Saying Goodbye to Vegas......

2007-02-20T16:33:00.000-05:00

New York, New York casino from room at the Excaliber.

Since my last post, life's been kinda slow and stressful. My son returns to Knoxville early Thursday morning. I’ll post on Friday and tell you all the drama surrounding his return! It’s funny and at the same time, not that funny. Yep, one of those kinds of stories. The important thing is that N is good and excited about getting back to his family and friends. Now don’t go emailing me about this fabulous funny/not so funny story because I just ain’t tellin’ till Friday! :) And no, I haven't even told my mother! ha
There are two big holes in the wall of the stairwell behind this dirty towel and pillow case. For over a year I have been hearing a slow drip, drip, drip inside the wall of my upstairs bathroom sink. My landlord and my landlord’s son agreed that it is a leak from a pipe inside the wall. Well, the drip, drip, drip has gotten faster and faster (dripdripdripdripdrip) and so they (landlord) finally sent a plumber (can you say 26 year old guy and 17 year old guy!!!!) in to fix the problem. They listened and agreed that there is a leak. They cut two big holes in the wall, exposed the pipes and found no wetness and no leaks. So.....now they say it’s just the pipes making noises that "sounds like drips!" Okay, whatever. My assessment is that it is dripping further down the pipes where they didn’t look. But it’s not my house and if they want the inside of the walls to get all damp and mildewed then I can’t do anything about it. I have decided I have probably spent my last winter in my big old house so it won’t really matter to me. As soon as my son gets situated and back on track, he’ll be getting his own place (yes! ha) and then I’m going to move to a smaller, drip-free, place.
Tomorrow night is Taiwan Culture Night at the I-House. And there’s a hypnotist at 8:00. I might try to catch both of these events but I’ll definitely be going to see my Taiwanese friends at the I-House and enjoying some great Chinese food! I’ll take some photos but probably won’t post them until Friday as I’ll be off work this Thursday.

Culture Junkie's Group Meeting

2007-02-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

Wonderful hummus and pita bread and above, little chicken curry mini-wraps

Couscous, served cold

Great display of fruit and in the background, eggplant ratatoule

The group, beginning to arrive.

Today’s discussion about "A Street in Marrakech" was good. (Yes, of course I turned my mobile off!) This literary colloquy is made up of 10 students, 10 staff members (that would be my group) and 10 faculty members. Many had traveled to Morocco and we benefitted from their experiences. One post-doctoral student from Pakistan and gave us wonderful insight into Muslim culture. I chose not to share my dream about baraka but I did share my thoughts and opinions about this book and also a little research I did on the author, which was warmly received. The great thing about this group is that it brings together, through world literature, students, faculty and staff here at UT. There are not many activities here that can successfully achieve such cohesion. In the last couple of years this colloquy has become very popular and now there are more than one group. Maybe it’s the delicious food that is prepared for our discussions. It was better today than it’s ever been. The hummus, delicious; the meat, tender. I think I’m an addict; a culture addict. I have absolutely no discriminations when it comes to culture. Any country, any ethnicity, any place, any time. The other night I went to the apartment of an Indian couple to advise some Chinese friends on whether they should purchase some baby equipment or not. The apartment was filled with the delicious aroma of curry from recent food preparation. I complimented the wife on the wonderful smell and she seemed very pleased. Walking back to the car, I said to my friend, "I need to get a friend from India!"

Ridin' on the Marrakech Express....

2007-02-13T16:05:00.000-05:00

I’ve been reading every day at lunch lately in order to finish a non-fiction book I am reading for the International Literary Colloquy (the country of focus is Morocco). We meet tomorrow at noon. "A Street in Marrakech" has been a very interesting read for me. This past fall I read "Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits" by a Moroccan author who now lives in the United States. Now I am learning much more about Morocco and it’s fascinating culture. Interestingly, my mother and father visited Morocco for a day when they traveled across the water from Spain while on a rare international vacation (their only one and the only time, to my knowledge, that my mother has left the United States, excepting Mexico). It was the only time that my brother and I were left with a bonafide, card-carrying, nanny. She was about 100 years old and we didn’t like her. But I digress. I remember my mother saying that they were taken to the suq (the market) and the men were told to put their wallets in their front pockets to avoid being pickpocketed. Elizabeth Fernea gives an accurate and colorful account of spending a year in Marrakech, in a traditional medina (neighborhood), with her husband and their three children. She exhibits an important level of patience as she gets to know the women who are her neighbors and eventually become her friends. I have really enjoyed this book, as I really enjoy insight into other cultures. Last night I even dreamed about looking for "baraka" (grace, blessing) and woke up thinking, "Did I really have a dream that included Arabic words?" I did. That’s the result of how my subconscious mind works when I read before sleeping. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s discussion. Surely we will dine on couscous; and maybe even tajeen (a stew of meat and spices). Enshallah.

Weekend Scraps

2007-02-12T11:51:00.000-05:00

I had a good time scrapping with the ladies on Saturday. I finished 9 pages of photos from the cruise my son and I took. It was fun going back over all the photos and remembering how much we enjoyed that trip and the fun we had. He would like to go on another cruise. I told him that would be great and we would definitely go....as soon as he could pay for it. And, of course, we’ll have to find a ship without a casino.
Saturday night I went to see "The Departed" with some friends at the UC. The place was nearly full. It brought back memories of seeing movies at the UC when I was an undergrad. "The Departed" was very good and I can understand the recent nominations. There were so many characters who got shot in the head, however, that in the end everyone was just laughing about it. After the movie, I was surprised to learn from two Chinese friends that "The Departed" was a remake of a popular Chinese movie that came out in 2002. In fact, it was a 3 film series so there is a sequel to "The Departed" wherein we learn the identity of the police psychologist’s baby’s father. As quoted from the Hollywood Reporter: "The film, written by William Monahan ("Kingdom of Heaven"), derives from "Infernal Affairs," a hugely popular 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller co-directed by Alan Mak and Andrew Lau Wai Keung and written by Mak and Felix Chong. That too was a doozy of tight construction and breathtaking suspense. The story remains remarkably intact despite its transfer from cops and criminals in Hong Kong to a war between state police and a tough Irish mob in south Boston."

Fake Flower Friday

2007-02-09T14:22:00.001-05:00

These "arrangements" using tissue flowers are used in mourning the dead in China.

Tiananmen Square and below, somewhere over Siberia

Tomorrow, I’m scrappin’ with the ladies! A friend of mine is a teacher at the Tennessee School for the Deaf and once a month we try to get together to work on our scrapbooks in the dining hall at the school. We bring snacks and create a snack table. This is most important. :) Then we spread out all our "stuff" and get to work. Last time, my friend Ginger opted to work on handmade cards instead and created nearly 50 by day’s end. Another friend worked on her daughter’s album, who passed away from cerebral palsy. One lady worked on her "anniversary" album. She creates a beautiful 2-page spread for each year that she and her husband have been married. We have the radio going in the background (usually oldies) and it’s just a nice, pleasant, comfortable day. We borrow each other’s tools and put out requests for a certain color paper or a certain "punch" and sometimes a request for help in designing a page. Some of us are whiz bang scrappers. Their pages take much longer than mine but are constructed in a very "professional" way. As for me, I prefer a little more of a "slaphappy" look. It’s my style and I would prefer my pages be more unique to me than have a designer look. I love, however, looking at and admiring the more "designed" pages. Currently, I’m working on scrapping the photos from the cruise my son and I took a couple of years ago. I just finished a few nice pages of photos of Bridge Day, 1998. Bridge Day is held every October in Fayette County (where my father grew up), West Virginia, at the New River Gorge Bridge. It’s the only day of the year that folks can actually strap a big wad of nylon to their backs and jump off the bridge. It’s all about B.A.S.E. jumpers who are, in my opinion, some of the more extreme adrenaline junkies. This past October there was a death. A parachute wasn't opened or didn’t open in time for it to fully deploy and the jumper (a 66 year old man) was too close to the bottom. The bridge is 876 feet high above the New River. You only have about 3 seconds of free fall before you must open your chute.
It’s an interesting event to witness. Maybe I'll post some pics of my pages next week. I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I'm reading a wonderful non-fiction book called "A Street in Marrakech" which will be discussed next Wednesday at the meeting of the Int'l Literary Colloquy. This semester our reading is by authors from Morocco. Wonderful!

I miss Haiti.....

2007-02-06T16:06:00.000-05:00

My downstairs bathroom is decorated with art brought back from Haiti and Costa Rica. I would love to return to Haiti some day soon. I haven't visited Haiti in almost 15 years. Still, I remember every detail of my visits there (she says as she wonders just how long that kind of memory lasts). I tasted my first mango in Haiti. The only time I have tasted the juice of a freshly split coconut was in Haiti. My first experience translating English to English (which I do quite a bit of now) was in Haiti. I was dining with a French man and a man from the Deep South, USA. The Frenchman couldn't understand most of the Southerner's word. He would look at me and I would pronounce the words sans accent and he would smile, nod, and say "Ahhhh."
Those were some good times in my life.
Tonight I will view the Iranian movie, Day Break. This film is part of the Film Movement Film Series wherein independent films are shown every other Tuesday. They are free and I enjoy them. The printed synopsis of tonight's movie reads: "In Iran, capital punishment is carried out according to Islamic law, which gives the family of the victim ownership of the offender's life. Day Break, based on a compilation of true stories and shot inside Tehran's century-old prison, revoles around the imminent execution of mansour, a man found guilty of murder. When the family of the victim repeatedly fails to show up on the appointed day, Mansour's execution is postponed again and again. Stuck inside the purgatory of his own mind, he waits as time passes on without him, caught between life and death, retribution and forgiveness.
Can you imagine what life might be like for criminals in the U.S. if victims owned their lives and made the decision on sentencing? Hmmmmmm.

Homeless Possessions

2007-02-02T14:41:00.000-05:00

As I’ve said before, I live on a street which is a convenient thoroughfare from downtown Knoxville to the Strip, near campus. The homeless walk this street often, gathering aluminum cans from dumpsters, and heading to the Strip to hang out, beg for money, purchase alcohol, etc. I have found things between my house and the house next door that a homeless person has "stashed," intending to come back later and retrieve. There’s an old bicycle that’s still leaning against the house next door that was left over 2 years ago. No one ever came back for the bike. It could have been stolen but it was already pretty old and rusty. Now it's ready for the dump. Someone came along and removed a wheel. I keep meaning to set it out on the street for trash pick-up. The shoes are fairly new. They've only been hanging out in the back of the house in a pile of leaves for about one year. One time someone left their backpack stuffed beside the concrete stairs leading to the kitchen of the house next door for a few days. It became wet with rain before someone either came back for it or saw it and took it. Oftentimes, something will be "stashed" and if the person is inebriated or under the influence of drugs at the time, the location of their precious stash will be lost somewhere in their minds. This happened with a full trash bag of aluminum cans, also stowed beside the side stairs beside my house. It stayed there for three weeks before I branded it "forgotten." I then gave it to a homeless man whom I see often very early in the mornings canvassing the neighborhood dumpsters for cans. He was very appreciative. There’s money in aluminum.

First of February, First Knoxville Snow

2007-02-01T12:31:00.000-05:00

Snow. Just a little. More snow is expected tonight. I’m not stressed, though. I have an adequate supply of milk and bread.
My temporary housemate is leaving me today and moving into her own apt. It’s been a wonderful experience for me because now I know that I can be perfectly content with someone living in the house other than my son. She’s been a nice addition to the house for the past 2.5 weeks. There are things I"ll miss. I’ll miss her saying, in Georgian, "Tza val, da vi ban" (I will go take a shower now) or "Tza val da vi zee neb" (I’m going to go to sleep now). I’ll miss the times she cooked dinner (which happened more times than I cooked!). I’ll miss her company in the evenings when we sat on the couches and knitted (she, wonderful scarves and hats; me, lopsided little dishrags) and watched American Idol’s wacky auditions. I’ll especially miss the times she took out the trash. :) I’ll miss coming home from work and seeing her hang her head over the upstairs bannister and call out, "Hello!" I'll miss how nice and tidy she kept my son's former bedroom (it'll soon be all male and messy when N moves back in). Sigh. Yeah, it’s only been a couple of weeks and she’s just moving about 20 feet to the left of my house. Still.
When I lived in Georgia in the mid-80's I had a habit of calling my friend, Connie, and asking what she was having for dinner. Then I’d say, "Okay, what time do you want me to be there?" Maybe I should get back in this habit. It worked well for me in the past. :)

Hat of Many Colors

2007-01-30T17:12:00.000-05:00

My young friend is modeling my new hat that my friend, Nana, made for me. She whipped it up in just one evening. Okay, it was two evenings but I swear she could have easily done it in one evening if she had no studying to do. Seriously. I picked out the yarn and Nana was going to show me how to knit something other than a dishrag. After a frustrating hour of trying I decided to quit and became resigned to that fact that I will never be an accomplished knitter. And I'm okay with that. Seriously.

Just Between Max and Tachio!

2007-01-25T14:11:00.000-05:00

What's that ya got there? Give a poor ole' cat a look, would ya?
Ah, ice cream! I don't usually eat green stuff. Can I get a good smell?
Sniff, sniff! Hmmmm. Smells pretty good! Maybe I'll give it a lick!
Don't look, Mom! I'm eatin' outta da human spoon! Carpe diem! La dolce vita!

Self-Revelations

2007-01-24T16:05:00.000-05:00

What are:
Wire-bound blank journals (line and unlined) and multi-colored micron pens
Fountain pens with fine nibs and an abundance of ink cartridges
Good sleeping pillows to stack up for reading in bed
Lots of pieces of papers in many colors with many textures
Bedside table lamps that can be turned off by gently yanking a chain
Perfumed lotion (especially peppermint spearmint, rosemary mint)
My library card and reading glasses
????
A few things that make me happy.

Knit Pickin'

2007-01-22T15:40:00.000-05:00

My little green knitted dishrag took me 3 days to complete. The beginnings of a nice yellow scarf on the left, knitted by my housemate, took about 1 hour to get to the same length. Oh, well. I am a beginner, after all. Mom, this one’s comin’ your way!
A cold and dreary weekend in Knoxville. On Sunday a few friends and I celebrated Tracy’s 31st with a special McBirthday meal and then an entertaining movie. I’m not a huge fan of ridiculous comedy, so I’ve rarely seen Will Ferrell in any movies. This one, however, was very good and has received good reviews. Go see Stranger Than Fiction. We enjoyed it. Who knew Ferrell could play an IRS agent who causes feelings of compassion! :) I feel the same way about Steve Martin. I never much enjoyed his comedic movies but really liked him in Shopgirl. Ditto for Jim Carrey, who I thought was great in The Majestic.
Much like the weekend, it’s a cold and dreary day here in Knoxville. From this very average, blah day, I’m just
Lucy Blue

Two Kinds of Lap Tops!

2007-01-18T14:38:00.000-05:00

Max has found a new buddy in my temporary housemate. :)
It turns out my friend might get to move into her new place next door sooner than expected, possibly this weekend. I have enjoyed having her in the house. Last night, I proposed that she remain in my house and we’ll send my son next door to live when he returns to town late next month. She is the perfect roommate: great personality, clean, respectful, knows how to cook (big plus), quiet, likes cats, and best of all (unlike my dear son), she has been educated in Trash 101. When she sees that it’s full, she takes it out.

The Proof is in the Paper!

2007-01-17T16:25:00.000-05:00

I'm beginning to love my little stub scrapbook. It's a work in progress. Take my evening with Maya Angelous, for example. I recall feeling completely mesmerized by her voice. Everything she said, wise, important, funny, potent! I will soon journal her page with these thoughts. I plan to get caught up to 2007 and can paste and journal as I go. I'm thinking of dedicating a page to my ticket stub from the Michael Jackson concert I attended in 1984! :) That concert is, after all, responsible for a huge "about face" in my life. If I hadn't traveled from Atlanta to Knoxville for that concert, I wouldn't have the wonderful son that I am blessed with. We all have fateful events like this in our lives. Mine are not so special. Just interesting that this one intersects with Michael Jackson!

Same Song, Second Verse

2007-01-16T17:00:00.000-05:00

You asked for a tutorial on how to make my friend Nana's famous Georgian (country, not state) mini meat burritos and you got it! What? You didn't ask? Well, here it is anyway. They are so good! If anyone wants the actual recipe then I can email it to you. This time I made Nana measure out ingredients using "American" measuring tools so I could write a recipe! The meat and rice mixture is simply that, grilled onions, chopped cilantro, salt, pepper, coriander and a little ground cilantro! Absolutely delicious. Nana prefers to dip hers in tartar sauce (yeah, I told her that stuff's for fish but she doesn't care) and I dip mine in a little ranch dressing. These days, I like to dip just about anything in ranch dressing.
I got a lot done over the holiday weekend, which was nice. I spent about four hours at the coffee house yesterday (yet I didn't drink any coffee, just tea). I completed a handwritten journal entry, a page in my art journal, and wrote two letters by hand for overseas friends. I also did a little reading and had a delicious bowl of soup. Geez! I sound about 80 years old, don't I! Well, so be it. There's something about dragging all my crap to the coffee house that inspires me to get things done. Maybe that's why the place was packed. Most were taking advantage of the free wireless but for me it's a time to put aside technology and get back to basics. Tomorrow I'll show you a page or two in my new "ticket stub" journal. I am really enjoying making lists these days (does that reflect upon my age?). Fun lists. I've made a list of all the countries I've visited in the order visited (an entirely too-short list) and a list of all my various jobs, states and cities visited, addresses, etc. My recent art journal page was entitled "I'd Like To Do More Of This List" and I had a lot of fun with it. So what would you like to do more of? A couple of things on my list was "walk in my neighborhood" and "swim" (I love to swim).
I did something I've never done last night? Intrigued? I let my friend cut 3-4 inches of hair off my head! She did an excellent job. Now I wish I had agreed to a few more inches. She claims to be able to give me a wonderful dye job but I'm just not there yet. Soon, though. I'm tired of yanking out all those damn gray hairs. I've decided to just let them take over for now. You have to get pretty close to me to see them. But I know they're there.....lurking among all the lovely brown hairs. And that's really all that matters.

The Way Things Happen

2007-01-12T15:29:00.000-05:00

This morning, a co-worker called me and said that his father-in-law had died in the night. He was 93. He asked if I would get a book from his office and return it to the library as it was due today. I said sure. The book is called Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier and I’m on Chapter Three. :) I’ll renew it in my name today. Frazier also wrote Cold Mountain (I didn’t read the book but I loved the movie). Sometimes things that I read sound very profound and meaningful to me, irregardless of the storyline. Meaning just on their own. Bold and clear statements. This has happened twice in the first 22 pages of Thirteen Moons. The first instance was when I read these words of Frazier which, although relevant to the story, made an impression on me as if the only words on the page:
Survive long enough and you get to a far point in life where nothing else of particular interest is going to happen. After that, if you don’t watch out, you can spend all your time tallying your losses and gains in endless narrative. All you love has fled or been taken away. Everything fallen from you except the possibility of jolting and unforewarned memory springing out of the dark, rushing over you with the velocity of heartbreak.

Changes

2007-01-10T14:39:00.000-05:00

Why can’t my downstairs desk look like my upstairs desk?
I began keeping my "books read" list in 2005 by trying to recall all the books I read in 2004. I remembered 16. I recorded all books read in 2005, which numbered 18. However (drum roll, please), I nearly doubled my book digestion in 2006 by reading 33 books, nearly 3 a month. Good for me. My goal for 2007? 40.
A friend of mine (who is moving into an apartment near my house but can’t move in until February 1) is going to live with me for nearly 3 weeks. This is going to be very interesting. I haven’t had a roommate since 1987 when I lived with a co-worker for nearly a year when N was 2 (so I could afford to rent a nice house in Stone Mountain, Georgia). My friend is 37 years old and a very nice, mature Ph.D. student. I suspect I’ll hardly know she’s there as she is quite studious. After living alone for nearly four years (since N went off to college), it may not be easy to transition to living with a "non-relative." On the other hand, my friend (who is from Georgia, the country, not the state) makes wonderful foreign dishes from her native homeland that I really love. She is going to teach me how to make stuffed bread (one with a bean mixture and one with cheeses). Sooooo good! On the downside, I suppose I'll have to curb my tendency to belt out Patsy Cline's "Crazy" at the top of my lungs while walking around the house. Yeah, I'm sure she'll appreciate that.

Please Step Away From The Candy!

2007-01-08T16:40:00.000-05:00

This photo (featuring my friend, Tracy) is a prime example of why you should keep children out of food stores with displays such as this one. It's hard enough on us grown-ups!

Tidbits. So the weekend was certainly blah but not without a couple of outings. I waded through a typical cold over the holidays and now am left with that hacking cough that my lungs and bronchial tubes are so famous for. The cough is finally getting better but it has zapped every bit of strength out of me (evidenced by the fact that I actually drove 2.5 blocks to see some friends so I wouldn't arrive wheezing and coughing). I dragged my butt out of bed Saturday in time to treat my friend, Tracy, and her husband, Hua, to a celebratory lunch at the Green Hills Grille. My boss gave me a nice-sized gift certificate for Christmas so we enjoyed good food and good conversation. Tracy recently completed her master's degree, she and Hua recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, and Tracy's birthday is coming up later this month. A good reason for a nice lunch outing. After lunch, some outdoor window shopping and a nice drive along Ft. Loudon lake admiring the day, I returned to my cocoon on the couch, where I wiled away the rest of the day. Sunday was much the same, venturing out only to see the movie, "The Freedom Writers." Go see this "true story turned movie". Very inspiring, especially for teacher-wanna-bees like me. I can only imagine, however, the daily fear that comes with teaching at schools known for gang violence and racial divides. The comic relief in this movie was the one white kid in Ms. Gruwell's classroom, who looked like he was completely terrified every second of the day.
I am nearly finished with The Good Life by Jay McInerney. The book is interesting in that it sort of plops you down in NYC in the days following 9/11, revealing what it was like for New Yorkers, their continuing fears, and their ability to exhibit resilence and fortitude in the face of such uncertainty. I would hesitate to call it "essential" reading, but it is an engaging novel. The author does reside in New York City and I imagine his "fictional" accounts are more truth than not.
Spring semester classes begin this Wednesday. Isn't it odd that "spring" classes begin in the middle of winter. Back in the "olden" days, when I attended UT, we were on the quarter system and this would be called winter quarter. Now that we are on the semester system it was either "winter" or "spring." In any case, my Elementary Chinese class begins again this week. Unfortunately, I've forgotten nearly all my vocabulary from last semester. My professor told me, in a phone call just before Christmas, that my pronunciation was very good. Oh, the pressure!

Boardwalk, Pelicans, Red Rocks and Books!

2007-01-05T15:20:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading Joan Didion's book, The Year of Magical Thinking. This writer of novels and essays lost her writer husband in 2004 due to a sudden massive heart attack and a little less than 2 years later lost her 39 year old daughter, who died from multiple complications that began with a bad case of pneumonia. Didion is 72 years old. It's an interesting and honest view of the grieving process but, as you might imagine, a bit of a "downer" to read. It seems that I've chosen to follow that read with another "tragic" tale, albeit this one fictional. I'm now reading The Good Life, written by Jay McInerney (who wrote Bright Lights, Big City, which was made into a movie in which Michael J. Fox starred). This is a tale of relationships in the aftermath of 9/11 in New York City. One critic, Keir Graff, praises McInerney and states, "There have been a number of 9/11 novels lately, as writers grapple with what that terrible day means to us. This one is essential." Essential. I'll find out.

Laguna Beach

2007-01-04T16:57:00.000-05:00

The drive to Laguna Beach was beautiful. We left the 1 around La Jolla and hit the 5 going north. The interestate pretty much stays close to the ocean which makes for some nice scenery. My brother not only recommended that we eat at a clifftop restaurant in Laguna Beach called Las Brisas, he also provided the money for a very nice lunch as a Christmas present. The meal was very good and we sat on the patio overlooking the ocean. It was a bit windy, which made it cold, but I survived in just a T-shirt and no coat. I would love to spend more time in the ocean towns along the sand and surf in southern California. My son is not one for walking along the streets, going in and out of stores (especially bookstores).
That night, in the hotel room, N convinced me to watch Saw III with him. I watched the first Saw movie and found it fairly intriguing, despite the grisly blood and guts action. Saw III, however, takes the cake, portraying absurd and horrific grisly acts carried out by a mad man and his pretty female accomplice. It also left t he door open for Saw IV, which I may see just to make sure the "little girl is found by her father in time." I would not recommend this movie to anyone over 30 years old. My 21 year old son, however, really liked it.
That night we had an excellent dinner at a restaurant in Mission Bay called "Nick's." I had shrimp scampi over rice and my son had shrimp and pasta. Very tasty, very good and a nice end to our little jaunt over to southern California. The next morning we packed up, checked out and drove to see the seals one more time. I would have liked to hang out on the benches overlooking the cove for a while but we still had a 5 hour drive back to Vegas looming and we had to figure out how to catch the 15 from LaJolla. Everyone in those parts refers to the interstates as "THE 5" or "THE 15." I've decided that's kinda cool so the next time I travel from Knoxville to Nashville, I'm gonna hop on the 40 and cruise on into town. :)

Sun, Surf and Seals

2007-01-03T15:57:00.000-05:00

The day after Christmas, N and I drove to San Diego. The deal was that N would pay for the hotel room and I would cover the car rental (a very nice silver Dodge Charger; yep, it had a hemi) and gas and food and drinks and stuff. N got the better deal. He researched the hotel possibilities and made the reservation himself, choosing the Mission Bay Inn. It was a good choice. We were 3 blocks from the Bay and 2 miles from the ocean. The first thing we did was head to the ocean to watch the sunset. Amazing. I haven't been to San Diego since I was 9 years old and only remember the Old Town, the zoo and going to Tijuana where my mother expertly bargained for some marakas for ten cents (hey...it was 1970), even walking away and the guy came after her, agreeing to the deal. I have those green marakas on my shelf in my guest bedroom today. Ah, digression. Anyway......I had no idea the Pacific Ocean in southern California was so beautiful. I suppose I'm partial to the beautiful colors of the Gulf of Mexico. The waves were incredibly large due to a windy day and there were some crazy surfers trying to get in a few more rides before the lifeguard shut them down. That night we drove downtown to the Gaslamp District and enjoyed some great Mexican food. N and I both love Mexican food. The Gaslamp District is nice; very commercial and full of tourists.
On Wednesday we drove through Oceanside, alongside the ocean (duh), stopping for fresh bagels at the Buzy Bee Bagel shop. Continuing up to La Jolla, we came upon an overlook and although N didn't want to stop, I was driving and the driver rules the car. We stopped. Good thing, too. We spent a minute or two gazing out at the ocean beyond a small cove and beach and then it hit me. Oh my gosh, those are seals! :) I said, "N, look at all those seals!" He said, "Huh?" I said, "Those are seals!" (M R pigs, M R not, S M R......sigh, another digression). He started laughing because neither one of us actually understood what we were seeing at first. N thought they were just big clumps of sea weed. Apparently, it's pupping season and the beach was full of pregnant females. No pups yet.
Tomorrow pics of Laguna Beach and another great Mexican meal.

2007-01-02T17:07:00.000-05:00

I flew into Las Vegas on Christmas Eve. The temp was very mild and only slight wind. After renting a car and dropping off luggage at my son's apt., N and I headed to Ellis Island for a $4.99 steak dinner. The next day we headed to the Red Rock Canyon for a little hiking and picture taking. What a beautiful day! I'm not much for desert landscapes but the red rocks really are amazing. We even saw a small herd (for lack of what they are called en masse) of quail. My son took great pictures and I'll post some when his computer is up and running and he can load them.
N worked on Christmas Day for 12 hours, beginning at 8:00 p.m. We headed to a new casino called Red Rock in southwest Las Vegas where N lives. Very nice place, completely with movie theaters and a bingo room (which we later visited but came away empty). Going to a casino on Christmas Day......well, it seems like there should be some sort of law against it, at least for Christians, right? There were people everywhere. Not exactly a reverent way to observe Christmas. But since what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, I think I'm okay. :) We saw In The Pursuit of Happyness, which was a very good movie about a real man and his son rising from homelessness to wealth. N and I don't often agree on movie choices so when I find one that both of us want to see, it's a unique opportunity.
N finally got off work at 9:30 a.m. Apparently there were many, many sick animals on Christmas Day, including one crazy lady who came in, asked N if he was the doctor and started screaming about her dog being helped. This may not have been such unusual behavior for an animal owner in distress but she then proceeded to lay down on the floor, continuing her behavior of frustration (you know, using non-Christmas Day words). N handles situations like this very well and calmly notified the manager of the facility who escorted Ms. Crazy outside.
We headed out for San Diego around 10:00 a.m. and arrived around 3:30 p.m. Pics and more on that later.

West Coast Adventure

2006-12-29T15:20:00.000-05:00

I'm in the Clark County Library in southwest Las Vegas. We just had lunch at a wonderful Hawaiian restaurant named Kona Grill. My son had sushi and calamari! Who knew! He's branching out in his older age. :)
I'll be posting pics taken at Red Rock Canyon and San Diego (ocean and seals and such) next week. We had a wonderful time together and even though I'm returning to the East with no money (that's right, Mom, I didn't win at the slot machines), it was a great trip with good weather, good food and good company. Now that I've driven from Vegas to the Pacific Coast, I can say that I've driven from Tennessee to the west coast. I suppose, since I've driven to Myrtle Beach a couple of times, as well as Hilton Head, I can say that I've driven from coast to coast (although not in one trip). I like driving. Driving through desert country, however, is completely uninteresting. Sorry, desert citizens.
See you next week! LB

Happy Ho Ho Ho!

2006-12-20T16:15:00.000-05:00

This is a hectic week for everyone. What I’ve discovered is that it’s a crazy week even if you don’t do any Christmas shopping. I do bake, however. This year I will bake over 20 loaves of pumpkin bread. Last night I put three pans of batter in the oven and began washing the dishes. Suddenly my thumb felt strange. I noticed that my long, long thumbnail on my left hand was missing. Oh my gosh! No worries. :) It broke off as I was washing the beaters!
I’ll be flying to Las Vegas wearing my "ho" earrings on Christmas Eve to spend a week with my son. He has decided to move back to Knoxville at the end of February. He came to this wise decision on his own. Las Vegas didn’t turn out to be the beat all/end all of cities to live in. However, I am extremely proud of him. He drove out there, found a safe place to live, and obtained a great job working at a vet hospital. He has gained a lot of experience as he is paying his own way completely for the first time in his life. It’s time, however, to throw in the towel and he realized that he needs to get back in school before he’s a 30 year old undergraduate. :) He’ll "bunk" with me for a while and begin classes at UT next fall. With a great reference from his employer in Vegas, he hopes to work at UT’s Vet Hospital. I’m not thrilled about becoming a "mother worrier" again but I’m glad he’s coming home. Since he’ll have to sell his car (I don't think it'd make it 50 miles outside of Vegas), I suppose I won’t have to worry too much. He’s going to learn the art of riding the bus and that you really can get from Point A to Point B with just your God-given legs. :) So my son will leave behind his car, his TV, his stereo, and most of his disposable income (which he has graciously spread out to different casinos for the good of all Las Vegans) and fly home with his head high, knowing that he went after a dream and made it happen.
Last year on Christmas Day I flew to Beijing and spent 2 weeks in China. It was the trip of a lifetime. Since that trip I really haven’t traveled anywhere but for the drive west to Las Vegas with my son at the end of May. My son and I will have a little adventure the day after Christmas by renting a car and driving to San Diego to see the sights. We’ll drive down the Pacific Coast Highway and most likely take a little jaunt into Tijuana. I’d also like to see a couple of the new casinos that I didn’t get to last time. The Valley of Fire State Park and Mt. Charleston are also on our list of places to visit in and around Vegas. I really wanted to go see Barry Manilow but the tickets were all sold out. I really love his music. Seriously.
This may be my last entry until the first of January. Tune in then for photos from NV and CA.
To all my family and friends, and anyone who may be reading this, have a wonderful holiday season!
Lucy Blue

Surprise, Surprise.......

2006-12-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

When I arrived home from work Wednesday there was a DHL form plastered to my front door. Apparently, there was a package to be delivered to my address (no name as to who it belonged to) and it required a signature. How odd, I thought. I figured it was either being sent to the wrong address or it was something being sent to Tracy and Hua, who use my mailing address for their mail. I signed the form allowing the package to be left the next morning and didn’t think much more about it. When I got home yesterday there was a big box sitting right in front of my front door.....in PLAIN VIEW. The delivery person didn’t even attempt to put the box further down the front porch where it would be obscured by the railing and columns. No, it was sitting on a chair next to my front door and could easily have been stolen. When I looked, I saw the word "CHINA" on the shipping label and thought it must be for Tracy. Inside my house I put on my reading glasses (yeah....it totally sucks, older age) so I could read the label. The package was addressed merely to my street address no name. Then I saw where it was from. Hangzhou, where my young friend, Carrie, lives. She is the young 17-year-old Chinese girl that spent a couple of months at the English Language Institute. I drove her to Nashville and she spent a night and day with my family and friends before leaving to return to China in early August. She did much shopping and I learned that her parents own an exporting business. They export furs. Carrie sent me the most gorgeous brown cashmere cape that is outlined in fur. It’s beautiful. She also sent several cashmere scarves for me, my mother and cousins and a package for Tracy (whom she met through me here in Knoxville) that includes a beautiful knitted pink dress for Tracy’s baby. She wrote a letter to me in English and one to Tracy in Chinese. I haven’t had time yet but will take pictures over the weekend and post them on Monday. While I am in awe over owning such a beautiful cape, I am also amazed that it sat on my porch the better part of a day in full view of anyone walking by my house (I’d say an average of 50-70 people per day, 10-15 of which are homeless).
Have a wonderful weekend!

Ahhhhhh, the smell.......

2006-12-14T14:03:00.000-05:00

I love the smell of cut wood. When I was young, my parents would sometimes drive to new neighborhoods and we would walk through houses under construction. They smelled so good to me, especially the ones that were framed but had no drywall in place; when you could really smell the wood. My brother and I would run through the house and lay claim to "our" bedroom. We would get excited at the possibility of moving to a new house. We never did move to a new house and that was okay with us. It was fun, however, to pretend.
I stopped and breathed in deep when I came upon this pile of lumber on my walk yesterday evening.
The memories that smells evoke for me are sometimes odd. Many people will say they love the smell of cut grass, pine trees, clothesline-dried sheets, and a new car. But I also like the smell of hotel rooms, diesel fuel, burning coal, empty basements. They all trigger good memories.

I few more pics from last night's walk. I found these dead/dried flowers very interesting.

Conversation and Communication

2006-12-13T17:33:00.000-05:00

Esther, Juya and Kayo (Costa Rica, South Korea, Japan)
Kayo and Renato (Peru)
Cool New Orleans Christmas card!
Last night I enjoyed a little meeting (yeah, that's what we call it) with students from UT's English Language Institute where I am a volunteer. They are so much fun. We spent a good 20 minutes talking about the different cuisine in our very different five countries. I learned that in Peru, Inca Cola is much more popular than Coca Cola and that they also eat an animal that was described by Renato as "kinda like a big rat." Well, alrighty then. There was the usual discussion of the consumption of dog in Asian countries (sorry, but I believe that when in Rome....so if it had been offered to me in China.....well, I wouldn't have insulted my host) and the consumption of not only octopus, but live octopus. We had lots of laughs and will do it one more time next week before Renato heads back to Peru.
I received a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday. My first official Christmas card of the season from my cruisin' buddies. Two years ago my son and I went on a cruise to the western caribbean and met some wonderful folks who were assigned to the same dinner table. Joan, Bill and their beautiful daughter, Mary, all living in New Orleans. We had wonderful meals and laughter every evening for seven nights. At the end of the cruise we exchanged emails and said we'd keep in touch. We have. I've enjoyed a wonderful King cake (pre-Katrina) from New Orleans and they have been introduced to the gooey goodness of Goo Goo bars. When Katrina struck I didn't hear from them for months. Finally, an email. They live in New Orleans but also have a rental property in Slidell, I believe. That home suffered greatly. They tried to "stick it out" like many residents but ended up wading out with just about everyone else. It was a very trying and sad time as they, like everyone else, lost many sentimental belongings.
It's good to hear from them!