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Mom's
I bought this at a rest stop on our way from Baltimore to Boston. We never actually did anything in Delaware other than driving through it, but my good friend is from there and I thought I should prove I at least set foot on Delaware concrete. Food for thought All those years -Nan Witcomb I am a theatre critic OK...so it's a new "career", but if you're interested in reading my reviews, go here Updated 2/11/01 WHAT I'M READING... Christmas gift from my friend, Diane, who felt it was time I learn more about Australia WHAT I WATCHED TODAY... The
King and I Shadowlands That's it for today!
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QUEEN FOR A DAY 18 February 2001 It’s nice to have a birthday. I got to feel special all day long. Peggy was the first to wish me a happy birthday at our pre-dawn conference. A box had come from Australia a week ago and, being the queen of instant gratification, I’d already opened it. She knows how to make a person feel special. As does our friend Diane, who had sent a couple of books, which also arrived a week ago. Walt would have fixed coffee for me, but it was made long before he got up. He gave me a lovely romantic card which shows a woman opening a box and saying "An artificial hip! You guys are the best!" The legend explains it’s birthday parties for "people our age." He’s such a sweetheart. No gift to open from him, as my laptop computer died and I told him that I wanted to get a new one and could consider that my gift. He had been thinking that himself, so I ordered my own birthday present the day before. Jeri had called the night before and we had a great talk. Her exciting news is that Berklee School of Music is giving her the Contemporary Writing deparment's highest award, which also means she gets to write a piece of music to be performed at the Writing Division's awards concert. It’s the best present to hear her sounding so happy. She had to leave home to discover what we’ve been telling her all along--that she really has a talent. Walt and I decided that we are going to try to get to Boston to see the concert, if it’s open to the public. Steve posted a happy birthday to me on his mailing list. Since he never wishes people happy birthday, it made me feel very special indeed. We also had a nice IM chat after I'd finished chatting with Peggy. Ned stopped by to pick up the keys to Walt’s mother’s condo at Lake Tahoe and to drop off the keys to his house so we can feed the pugs while he and Marta are away. He brought with him a cassette tape of a silly "Happy Birthday" recording my father bought when I was a kid. It’s by the Sportsmen (is that the name?) who used to sing on the old Jack Benny TV show and it has been played at everybody’s birthday for as long as I can remember. So I sat here and laughed once again at "happy, happy, happy, happy, birthday to you..." We talked about his radio show and his "fans." He has one woman, he says, who calls and leaves a very long, incoherent message on his answering machine every morning. Odd to think of Ned as having become a "radio personality." My friend Will called from San Francisco to give me a hard time about getting older. He has the right to do that because he doesn’t turn 58 until April. At lunchtime I drove to Chevy’s Mexican restaurant in Dixon, about a 15 minute drive from here. I thought I was meeting my mother and my cousin Shirley, but my other cousin Peach and her husband showed up as well, so we had a nice lunch, presents, and I had to wear the silly sombrero while the wait staff sang to me. The things I do for free ice cream. When I came home there was a stack of cards waiting for me (one is from someone I don't even know!). Bill D and Diane S are mean nasty people. And I say that publicly (but with some affection). There were also several e-cards, which are always fun. The one from Marn was the best, tho. Tom called in the late afternoon. He’d tried to get through earlier in the day, but Walt had been on the Internet and so the phone line was tied up. But it was nice to talk with #3 son and his girlfriend Laurel. Tom has been traveling around the country lately, helping to train offices on the software that the company he works for develops. He worked for years doing food service, putting himself through college. He has always been a terrific people person but since he graduated from college he’s worked in office jobs, first for a bank and now for the software development company, and so he hasn’t had the kind of people interaction that he did while waiting tables and he says he’s misssed it. So he’s in his element now that he’s doing software training. He also reports Bethlehem, PA is a nice town. He’s been there a few times lately. A surprise call came as Walt and I were getting ready to leave for dinner. It was the daughter of our Brasilian son, Eduardo. Eduardo has been calling me on my birthday for 20 years. He now lives in Canada and his daughter is 10 years old. I’ve never talked with her before and it was fun to hear her voice. Also nice to talk with Eduardo again. We went to the senior center complex where Walt’s mother lives for dinner. This is one of those three-tiered things. She has her own apartment, but if it becomes necessary, she can go into assisted living, or into the medical section if she needs full care. At 86 she’s an amazing woman and I really admire her. She took us to dinner in the dining hall. This place is like a big fancy hotel and the setting and food are always special, so we enjoyed our dinner (and I didn’t have to wear a silly hat). We came home early, stopping by Ned and Marta’s to feed the pugs, and then home to find two messages on the answering machine from Walt’s brother (who did not give me a hard time for being old--he’s 2½ months younger than I am), and from his sister, whose message got cut off by this screwy answering machine we have. My friend Diane, from Seattle, was on IM when I logged on and we had a long, rather intense conversation. It was good talking to her. And that was it. A calm, quiet day, but I got to talk in person or on the computer to everybody I love, heard from lots of friends, and felt special. I even went to sleep early and didn’t set the alarm, so I forgot to write a journal entry and woke up late for my conference with Peggy, but I have nearly 8 hours of sleep under my belt and am ready to move into the first "normal" day of my 59th year. |
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Some pictures from this journal |
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Created 2/13/01 by Bev Sykes |
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