Three Days In Paris

I'm in Germany! I landed last Thursday morning in Frankfurt. After going through customs and collecting my bags I hopped the train for Mannheim to be met there by Nikki and Bert. The three of us then continued across the river to their apt in Ludwigshafen. We had a little breakfast and then Nikki and I headed back to the train station. Three and a half hours later we arrived in Paris! After a short ride on the Metro, which is the Paris subway, we emerged from the underground about half a block from our hotel. Nikki found a great deal. To find anything decent for 100 euro ($165) a night in Paris is really hard. But through her diligence she found a room for us at the Hotel de Paris for 55 euro a night!! It wasn't fancy by any means but it was, to use a military term, "clean, dry and serviceable". We spent just enough time there to shower and catch 6 or 7 hours of sleep each of the three nights we were in the city. The rest of the time we were riding the Metro all over Paris to see the sights.

As most of you already know, during the time that we lived in Germany back in the late '80's and early '90's I worked for the USO. I wore a couple of different hats during my 4 and a half years with the organization. One was that of tour guide. And one of my favorite tours to lead was to Paris....of course!! What nut wouldn't want to go to Paris as often as possible? I had the great fortune of going at least a dozen times or more. I just had to take anywhere from 20 to 40 other people on the train with me! But, Hey!, I was getting paid to go to Paris!! (Me! A kid who grew up dirt poor, dreaming of Europe (no kidding), a place where, in my child's mind, only rich people went). All that was over a decade and a half ago, though. So I was just as excited as Nikki about our 3 days in The City of Light. She went once when she was about 12 but her memories of that first visit are rather vague and are kind of snapshotish so we were excited together.

After checking into our hotel, getting some coffee, buying Metro passes and making a plan of attack we were off to see Notre Dame, the magnificent 12th century Gothic cathedral that sits on an island in the River Seine. Bridges connect the island to both the Right and Left Bank of the Seine. We elected not to ride the metro all the way to the cathedral but to get off at the river's edge so we could walk across the bridge known as the Pont de Neuf. The bridges of Paris are wonderful in themselves and should be experienced and not just viewed from the riverbank or from the window of a car or a bus. As we turned a corner and Notre Dame came into view Nikki and I said in unison, "Wow!" It is such an imposing structure. There is definitely nothing delicate about Notre Dame but its beauty is in the workmanship of the stone masons who labored for decades and sometimes died to bring into being this miracle of medieval engineering.

Next on our agenda was a stroll down the Champs Elysees, known as one of the most famous streets in the world and the second most expensive strip of real estate just behind Fifth Avenue in New York City. We began at one end at the Place de la Concorde, the largest Place, or square, in Paris. The Champs Elysees is about a mile and a quarter long and at the other end stands the Arc de Triomphe. Speaking of expensive, a stroll down the Champs Elysees should include a stop at one of the many sidewalk cafes along the way, if only for a cup of coffee and some people watching. But, Beware. We had one cup of coffee and one cup of tea and it cost us 18 euro (with tip 20 euro). That's about $33!!!!! To be fair, though, we did sit down at one of the most expensive cafes along the Avenue. But it was beautiful and perfectly located and the little sponge cakes that came with our drinks were very tasty! We sat for about an hour in the late afternoon and just watched all the people going by.

When we finally decided it was time to resume our stroll we continued in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe. The Arch was built by Napolean Bonaparte at the beginning of the 19th century to commemorate his military victories. The best part of visiting this Parisian monument is standing at the top of it and watching the crazy drivers below. About 6 or 7 streets all meet at this point like the spokes of a wheel with the Arch as the hub. The cars enter the traffic circle surrounding the monument and jockey for position to exit the circle at any of the other intersecting streets. There are no lanes and seemingly no rules. It's kind of like a grand prix free-for-all. And it's an awful lot of fun to watch! Fortunately, pedestrians access the Arc de Triomphe by way of tunnels that run under this racetrack. The alternative is harrowing just to think about!

It was almost 9pm by the time we reentered the Metro heading for our final destination of the day.....the Eiffel Tower. As with Notre Dame we could have gotten off the Metro very close to the tower but I wanted Nikki to see it from a particular vantage point so we got off at the Trocadero stop instead. From this direction you walk through the center platz of a beautiful theater, along a tree lined path on the other side that is surrounded by grassy slopes which are occupied by lots of people just hanging out and enjoying the end of the day. There is also a huge rectangular fountain that at times is alive with spouting water and spotlights after dark. Place de Trocadero is a gorgeous area with the Eiffel Tower looming at the end of the park and just across the river. The tower is huge! And the closer you get, the huger it gets until you are standing directly under it craning your neck to see the top. We paid our 12 euro each and waited in line for the glassed in elevator that would take us 180 meters (about 550 ft.) to the top of the tower. From this open air deck you can circle the peak of the tower to see the city in all its glory. It's an impressive view no matter the time of day but truly the best time to find yourself at the top of the Eiffel Tower is after dark. Paris is called the City of Light. It is always alive and awake. Consequently the entire city is lit up after dark. All of the major buildings and monuments are illuminated and easily recognized from this particular vantage point. And what a sight to behold! It was so much fun to watch Nik and see her reactions to this very unique experience. The night was warm and the wind was calm. We stayed for quite a while occasionally moving to a new position to see a different part of the city or to watch the boats cruising down the river (another activity that, in my opinion, is best experienced at night). After finally taking the elevator back down to terra firma we retraced our steps back across the river and to Place de Trocadero. To me even leaving the Eiffel Tower and walking through this open airy park setting is somehow more magical at night. Even at 11:30 on a Thursday night it is alive with people. As we headed back to our hotel on the opposite side of the city we were tired and hungry yet fully satisfied with the day. Earlier in the day we had seen a small simple cafe located next to our hotel and we were looking forward to sitting at one of the sidewalk tables and leisurely ending our day with hot food. It was 1:30am before we finally tumbled into bed that first night.

We got a bit of a late start on day two but we had only one destination....the Palace of Versailles, about 12 miles and an easy train ride from downtown Paris. Begun as a hunting lodge by Louis XIII in 1624, it was enlarged and transformed to a sumptuous chateau by Louis XIV. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived here at the time of the French Revolution in 1789. The palace is a massive example of 17th and 18th century French luxury with all of the art and statues and painted ceilings. It is a feast for the eye, especially the Hall of Mirrors. I was most anxious to explore the grounds, though. It seemed that whenever I had the opportunity to visit Versailles in the past I either didn't have enough time or it was raining or just too blasted hot to be wandering around outside and I was determined this time to see the grounds. It was a beautiful day so Nikki and I set our speedometers to stroll and set out down the path along the Grand Canal. We passed statues and fountains and gardens and groves of perfectly groomed trees. By 3pm we still hadn't seen all there was to see but I was satisfied for the time being and we needed at least a couple of hours to see the inside of the palace. So we stopped at a food stand on the grounds for one of my favorite foods in Paris, a baggette with jambon and fromagge (ham and cheese on a long chewy roll) and ate on our way back to the palace. When we had finished touring the inside we hopped on a little tram that took us to another part of the grounds and Marie Antoinette's private gardens and playground. After a very full day we departed through the gates of Versailles about 7pm. We once again ended our day at the little sidewalk cafe near our hotel, tired, happy and full.

Day three began at Sainte Chapelle, a chapel built by Louis IV in the mid 13th century. I wanted Nikki to see Sainte Chapelle after seeing Notre Dame. As beautiful as the stained glass windows are in Notre Dame, they pale in comparison to what you see when you emerge from the staircase into the upper chapel of Sainte Chapelle. 600 square meters (6456 sq. ft) of beautiful stained glass windows. Two-thirds of this stained glass is original, over 700 years old and in pristine condition. The windows of the chapel were removed and safely stored away during the revolution in 1789 and then again during WWII in anticipation of the German invasion of Paris.

From Sainte Chapelle we made our way to the Musee Rodin. I'm not really much of an art lover. I can look at a famous painting and think, "Oh, OK, that's nice, but..." I never really understand what all the fuss is about. I've been to several of the art museums in Paris, including the Louvre, but more just because I thought I should go rather than out of a real desire. That was probably the reason I went to the Rodin museum the first time, too. I don't remember. What I do remember is the way the sculptures of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) just took my breath away. For the first time in my life I was actually moved by something artistic! I could have spent hours wandering through what was once the sculptor's home, studying the minute details of his creations which were displayed throughout the house, upstairs and downstairs. I fell in love with a life sized white marble sculpture simply called The Kiss, not realizing at the time that this was one of his most famous pieces along with The Thinker and The Gates of Hell. The Thinker was the only one I had ever heard of, but before that day could not even have told you the name of the artist. Auguste Rodin was the first and so far the only artist to actually make me stop dead in my tracks and whisper a long drawn out "Wow". He was such a student of the human form. The Kiss which is made of cold white marble shows such tenderness between these two people held in each other's embrace. The man's hand laid gently on his lover's hip is one of my favorite parts of this sculpture. I wanted Nikki, who loves all forms of art, to see this artist's legacy to the world. And I wanted to go back there myself to see if Rodin's sculptures truly did move me the way I remembered or if perhaps I had just romanticized the experience over the years. They did and I hadn't! We wandered from room to room oooing and aaawing over each new discovery and pointing out little nuances as we detected them. One time I crossed the room to Nikki to say, "Oh Nik, come look at this one!" To which she looked a little perplexed and pointing to the sculpture in front of her said,"But...but...I'm looking at this one." I guess I was getting a little carried away. After satisfying our hunger for art we decided to satisfy our hunger for food at the cafe located within the gardens of the museum.

From Sculptures to Skeletons....We went from the Musee Rodin to the Paris Catacombs. Toward the end of the 18th century the population of Paris was burgeoning and more building space was needed. The cemeteries were also becoming overcrowded and because of mass open graves, improper burials and earth saturated with decomposing organic matter the residents near some of these cemeteries were getting sick. To solve both issues it was decided to close all existing cemeteries within the city and restrict new burials to 3 new cemeteries located outside of the city limits. The remains of the dead which were buried in the condemned cemeteries were disinterred, some of them hundreds of years old, and transported under the cover of darkness to a section of the underground mining tunnels beneath the city. This macabre sight has been open to the public since the late 19th century. To reach the Catacombs you first descend about 60 ft underground via a narrow stone stairway. There you begin walking through a series of tunnels which are perhaps 5 ft wide and 8 ft tall. Eventually you come to a tunnel with a sign over the entrance which reads in French Here Lies the Kingdom of the Dead. As you enter this tunnel you see stacks and stacks and stacks of human bones, mostly arm and leg bones with human skulls used to create patterns or designs in these subterranean burial walls. It is quite a sight and something definitely off the beaten path of most tourist attractions. The last time I was in Paris there was no line to get into the Catacombs. This time, however, the line of people waiting to wander through The Kingdom of the Dead was quite long. The tunnel floors were also a bit muddy back in the early '90's but now they have a nice layer of fine gravel upon which to tread. And the whole experience is just as creepy as ever.

The last thing on our agenda was to take a boat ride down the Seine River. This is also best experienced after dark so we had bought our tickets earlier in the day and planned to catch the last cruise at 10:30pm. After the Catacombs we had enough time to go back to the hotel, freshen up and grab our jackets before heading back to the docks. Did I mention that last Saturday was the Summer Solstice? In celebration of the longest day of the year there were city wide music festivals all day long and into the night. Everyone was celebrating. As we cruised along the Seine on the open air upper deck of the boat it seemed that the entire Paris population was lined along the banks of the river and both sides of every bridge traversing it. They would yell and cheer to the boat passengers as we slowly cruised past them so, of course, we would yell and cheer back at them. It was such a party atmosphere and as usual the whole city was lit up. The commentary on the boat was given in several languages and pointed out those monuments and historic buildings that were spotlighted and easily seen from the river. The river cruise lasted an hour and it was once again 11:30pm before we called it a day and returned to our hotel....with a stop at our little cafe for a late night dinner before turning in.

We left Paris at 9am on Sunday morning and settled in for a pleasant 3 1/2 hour train ride back to Germany. Fortunately the train was not crowded so Nikki and I were both able to stretch out and catch up on a little sleep before arriving in Ludwigshafen where Bert met us at the train station for the short walk back to their apartment. It was such a fun trip and totally satisfying. I have wanted to go back to Paris for so long and to be able to go with Nikki just made it all the better!

We took a ton of pictures but haven't gone through them yet. I'll post them as soon as I can.

A Family Affair

• What a fun weekend! I arrived at Paul's house about 7:30pm on Thursday. It's such a beautiful drive between here and there and I do love a roadtrip. Aunt Carmen and Uncle Dick were already there and Shelly and Steve got in about midnight on Friday. We were all determined to wait up for them and were pretty bleary eyed by the time they got there. Then, of course, everyone had to sit around and talk for a while. We couldn't just go straight to bed. It was my first time meeting my cousin and her husband. I wish I had gotten to know my family much earlier. They are so much fun and just really great people. To give you an idea of what they are like I think the family motto should be Take No Prisoners. There is constant teasing and laughter. If you don't think you can hold your own you better not stick around. I had to really be on my toes. Speaking of which, graceful little thing that I'm not, I tripped going UP the stairs, which happen to be in plain sight of everyone in the living room. As soon as it happened Paul jumped on it, making as much fun of me as possible and his father and son joined right in. All I could do was laugh and say, "Shit, I was hoping nobody saw that." But I got in a few of good ones of my own here and there over the course of the weekend.
  

The big party for Zach was Saturday night. Well, technically it started at 2pm on Saturday afternoon but it went well into the night. Genelle's parents came plus a bunch of Paul and Genelle's friends. Genelle worked really hard to put everything together and she did a great job. Food, decorations and enough beer, wine, tequila, rum and Crown Royal to pickle everyone. Not the kids, of course, but the rest of us did a damn fine job of it. Eventually the party migrated to the game room and to Paul's recording studio, which are both in the basement. Between ping pong, air hockey and an impromptu jam session it got pretty loud.
With the exception of Genelle's parents and my aunt and uncle I was the oldest person at the party and I was the last man standing at the end of the night! Most everybody had either gone home or gone to bed so Paul, Shelly, Steve and I decided to watch the movie I had bought Paul for his birthday. Did I forget to mention that in addition to Zach's graduation the weekend also included Paul's birthday on Friday? We were talking about movies last time I was there and he had never seen Start The Revolution Without Me. So that made his birthday gift an easy one. Anyway, Shelly and Steve lasted about a half hour into the movie before they threw in the towel and headed for bed. Paul lasted longer but didn't make it to the end of the movie either. He fell asleep (or should I say passed out?) on the couch. We were downstairs in the game room. So it was about 3am when I threw a blanket over him and headed for my own bed. Actually I headed for Zach's bed, having taken over his room for the weekend and relegating him to the couch in the living room. When you are trying to sleep nine people someone will always end up on the couch and Zach drew the short straw. So I tiptoed past the family's newest high school graduate as I made my way from the basement and through the living room to the upstairs.

Everyone was moving kind of slow the next morning, especially Paul and me. It was Father's Day and for some reason he and his dad thought they should get special treatment. Imagine that! All they got from everyone else in the house (besides gifts) was a hard time. We didn't do much that day. Genelle made a big breakfast (which my stomach politely declined) and we vegged out most of the day in front of the TV. Shelly and Steve had us watching NASCAR, then Paul had us watching golf. It was the last day of the U.S. Open and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I got really into it. It was neck and neck between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate at the end and they finished the tournament in a tie so they had to have a golf-off today. I actually watched the end of it when I got home this afternoon! Tiger won by one stroke. The Open ended about 9pm last night so we put in Will Smith's movie I Am Legend. It's not the kind of movie I would choose but it was really good. Really suspenseful and creepy. I was sitting next to Genelle and she kept jumping when the movie would startle her. She also shushed me a couple of times at the beginning of the movie so a while later when Shelly and Steve were whispering I pointed at them and told Genelle she needed to shush them! That cracked her up. When everybody else went to bed after the movie I stayed up with Zach and Austin to watch an episode of South Park. Then I went to bed. Who knows how long they stayed up!

Genelle had to leave for work about 6:30am this morning and the rest of us had to get on the road so we were all up early. Carmen and Dick were driving back to North Carolina with Shelly and Steve before flying back to Las Vegas next week. Paul rolled the boys out and the 8 of us all went to The Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Needless to say there was a lot of picking and poking and laughter around that table. We said goodbye in the parking lot and I pointed my car north and west back toward the 'Burgh.

I thought of my dad a lot yesterday. I spent most of my life without him but yesterday was the first Father's Day in 12 years that I didn't buy a card or make a phone call. Looking around me, though, at the family he gave me, I felt his presence in their love.
Thank you, Dad. I love you.

Let the Summer Fun Begin!

I'm off to Haymarket, Virginia this afternoon. Paul's son, Zach, is graduating from high school and this is the celebratory weekend. My Aunt Carmen and Uncle Dick (Zach's grandparents) flew in from Las Vegas and their daughter, Michelle, and her husband Steve are coming from North Carolina.

I still get excited about spending time with my relatives. For so much of my adult life the only people I knew who I was directly related to were my children and my brother's children. It's still a novelty to me to look at someone from my dad's family and think "This is my family. We are related."

I will have just enough time when I get back to unpack and repack because next Wednesday I'm going to spend a couple of weeks with Nikki in Germany. As soon as I land we are going to Paris for 3 days! What fun!

So Long Hedley...

We lost one of film's funniest actors yesterday. Harvey Korman died at the age of 81. In a career that spanned 40 years his best known role was probably that of Hedley "don't call me Hedy" Lamarr, the conniving politician, in Mel Brooks' 1974 classic Blazing Saddles. But as much as I love that silly movie my strongest memories of Harvey Korman are from the The Carol Burnett Show. He was a central player on the show for 10 of its 12 year run from 1967-1978. Harvey played the eternal straight man to the antics of Carol and the incomparable Tim Conway. Who can forget his portrayal of Rhett Butler to Carol's Scarlett O'Hara? Or Harvey and Carol trying desperately not to laugh at Tim's ad libbing? Along with Vicki Lawrence they were the original Dream Team. Thanks for the laughter, Harvey. Sweet dreams...

Music In The Family

If you've been reading my blog you've undoubtedly heard me refer to my cousin, Paul. His mother is my dad's younger sister. Paul lives in Haymarket, Va. with his wife, Genelle, and their boys Zach and Austin. Aside from his day job, Paul is a singer-songwriter and musician. His latest CD is called I Wish My Girl Was This Dirty and I've borrowed some of his lyrics for my Lyrics To Ponder on the sidebar. Paul calls his music "Rock for grownups". I think he has a little something for everyone on this CD. I especially like the last four songs. If you are looking for new music check out Paul's website. http://www.paulmcdonaldmusic.com/home.html

Puerto Rico, Here I Come!

I've been promising Karen that I would come visit again ever since she moved there in 2002. She keeps saying that she'll believe it when she sees it. Well, I hope she's looking, 'cause I'm on my way! I land in San Juan on the 5th of August and will be there until the 19th. Karen has arranged for me to house sit while I'm there which will pay for most of my plane ticket. She manages 17 vacation homes on the island of Vieques and the owners of one want a house sitter for a couple of weeks. Vieques is about 20 miles long and 5 miles wide and is absolutely beautiful. Most of the tourists get no further than the main island so Vieques is very quiet and there really are no crowds on the beaches. Karen has even offered to put me to work while I'm there just in case I don't want to lay around on the beach every day. So I guess this will be sort of a working vacation. What a deal!! And a great way to end the summer!

If It's Tuesday It Must Be Belgium

I went to the doctor yesterday. Everything is healing as it should. I even got back into my jeans yesterday! I've been wearing comfy pants for the last couple of weeks since the surgery and it feels so good to put on my jeans again. I feel like I'm really dressed now.

I wanted to do some traveling this summer but I didn't want to make any plans til after the surgery and until I knew if there was going to be anything else to deal with in the coming months.

Now that I know everything is OK I can make my summer plans. Shauna is coming for a few days weekend after next. Hooray! Then the middle of June I'm going back to my cousin's house in Virginia. His son Zach is graduating from high school.

Next on the itinerary is a trip to see Nikki in Germany on the 18th of June! I'm using the flight voucher with USAir that I got last July when Michael and I let ourselves get bumped on our way back from Dublin. I'll be in Germany until July 4th. We're going to go to the Rodenbach pool! Talk about memory lane! I'm hoping to get back to Paris for a few days, too.

I'll have about 3 days after I get back from Germany until it's time to use another voucher and go to Seattle! This one is through Alaska Airlines and I got it last December when I volunteered to get bumped going from Seattle to Denver. The hitch is that Alaska Airlines doesn't fly out of Pittsburgh, but they do fly out of D.C., so I'll drive to Paul's on the 8th, stay over night, leave my car with them and Paul will drop me at Reagan National the next morning. Nikki arrives on the 10th so I get 12 days with all my chickens in Seattle! Amy has offered to take me kayaking! That sounds like a blast. I'm anxious to see Michael's new car, too. He has always been very conservative and driven only what he can afford. Since he got his job at Boeing he can finally afford a nice car so he bought a 2006 Accord. Everyone says it's really nice and I'm so proud of him for waiting until he could afford it.

Nik and I both leave Seattle on the 22nd. She is going to Green Bay to spend time with the other half of our family (Wade, Sarah and little sisters) before heading back to Germany at the end of the month. I'm going to Colorado from Seattle to spend a little over a week with Ruth and Bill. I'll fly back to Seattle on the 31st and and then back to D.C. from there on the 1st of August. Paul will pick me up at the airport and I'm going to hang out with him, Genelle and the boys for the weekend. They have a boat and Paul says they are out on the river almost every weekend during the summer so that will be fun.

The other trip I want to get in this summer is a couple of weeks in Puerto Rico visiting Karen. I haven't booked anything yet. I'm still looking for a cheap ticket for the first couple of weeks in August after I get back from everything else.

Musings on a Rainy Day

My recuperation is going well. Nikki left on Saturday and I miss her terribly. It's wonderful to see the kids when I get to but it's always hard for the first few days afterward. I'm kind of housebound at the present. I see the doctor on Monday and I'm sure he'll release me to drive next week but in the meantime.....
So I've sort of given my car keys to Steve while I'm out of commission. He's loving being able to drive to and from school and where ever else he needs(!) to go. The deal is, though, that he has to drive me when I need to go somewhere. I really don't mind him driving my car. I guess it's just one more thing that I can do to continue to build our relationship. He really is a great kid and pretty much has my heart wrapped around which ever finger he chooses!

Pittsburgh is quite the sports town. At the moment everyone is consumed with Penguin fever. The Pens are up 3 games to 0 over the Philadelphia Flyers in a best of 7 match up to see who goes to the NHL Stanley Cup finals against (probably) Detroit. Game 4 is in Phili tomorrow evening. I'm not an ice hockey fan but Steve has just insisted that I should have a Penguins shirt so he and I went to the sporting goods store today. We chose #58, a player named LeTang because he's a rookie this year and so am I. So I guess I'll be wearing my Pens shirt tomorrow night along with about 90% of the rest of Pittsburgh!

I'm really missing my long daily walks. I started walking around the block a couple of times a few days ago. I'll build back up to my 8 miles a little at a time, I guess. It's been raining off and on most of today but I got in a walk a little while ago.
When I got back to the house I just didn't want to go back inside so I decided to get my book and sit out on the porch. I brought Lucy out with me. She loves to come outside and explore. I followed her around the yard for a bit while she smelled everything and ate some grass and then finally convinced her to just settle down next to me on the wicker couch. So here we sit, Lucy and I, watching the misty rain as the evening deepens. It's starting to get a little chillier now so we'll probably go inside soon but for now we're content.

Beltane/May Day

May 1st was Beltane, a very important day in the ancient calendar. It was the day when the Celtic people of the Isles would celebrate the rebirth of Spring and the hope of fertility, as Samhain (sow-en), represented the celebration of the harvest in Autumn. As I was busy having my own little unfertility ritual on that day and I didn't get to blog about Beltane on the day of Beltane, I'll do it now.....


According to http://www.tryskelion.com/tryskelion/beltrad.htm

The word Beltane literally means, "shining fire." This is one of the most exciting festivals of the year. It is also one of the only holidays that is usually celebrated in the light of day.

The collecting of spring flowers is one of the popular customs of Beltane. For thousands of years, people would go into the fields to collect the pretty flowers and exchange them. Townspeople would often proceed through the village streets putting flowers on all the houses and buildings. People inside the homes would offer them wonderful food and goodies to eat as sort of a spring version of "trick or treat."

Another benchmark tradition of this holiday is the Maypole. In tradition, a fir was used. The young, unwed men would go to the forest and return with the tree that would be fashioned into the pole. The pole was brought to the center of the village to be guarded through the night until the first day of May. On that day, the people would come and dance around the maypole clockwise to bring fertility and good luck. Later, brightly colored ribbons were woven around the pole by the dancers as they wove around eachother. This symbolizes the balance of masculine and feminine energies and the duality of life. The ribbons would then be removed and kept in a safe place to be burned in the Beltane fires of next year. This action represents the old dying to give birth to the new.

Fertility is a central theme of Beltane. The people lived in close connection with the Earth. To have food to eat, the crops and the beasts of the fields would have to be fertile. In the time of the ancients, this was a life and death matter. For this reason, we have a number of holidays and rituals that are connected with fertility.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I was a child we would make small paper baskets the day before May Day. The next morning we would get up early, fill the baskets with wildflowers, leave them on the neighbors doorsteps, ring the bells and run. That way, when the neighbors came to the door they would just find the flowers and not know who left them. That was in the mid 1960's. Even then, the leaving of May Baskets was a dying tradition in this country. My grandmother told us to only leave them at the door steps of our older neighbors. It would bring a smile to their faces to see that there were still a few children who had been taught about the tradition of their own childhood. She explained to us that it was a way to celebrate the coming of Spring. Little did my grandmother know how far back this innocent little exchange reached into our pagan roots!

Baby Steps Back

Well, I'm feeling human today, but it has been a tough week. Healing from the actual surgery has been the easiest part of this whole ordeal! The worst part has been all the extra complications. First came the migraine on Friday, the day after surgery. Then the reaction to the anesthesia that created a viselike feeling in both shoulders on Sat and Sun, and the awful gas that about brought me to my knees on Sun (although this was expected and normal). To top it off I caught an intestinal infection right after I got home! I lost track of about 30 hours from early Mon til early Tues. The doctor told me to go to the ER to get checked out and he called in a script of antibiotics for me. Tues was still kind of a rough day but things have gotten so much better since that night. I'm not really in any pain anymore. The appetite is coming back a little at a time (I've lost 10 lbs!) and I know from past surgeries that it will be a good while before I get all of my strength back. But I'm on the road. Nikki changed her plane ticket so she's staying until Sat. Yay! I sent her out with Sherry this afternoon to do some shoe shopping. She has been so focused on me for the last week that we all figured she could use a few hours of distraction to clear her head. Well, that's about it. Just wanted to let you know how goes the war! Hopefully I'm on the way back to normalcy now. No more talk of cancer. Just healing and getting back to life!

The Price of Gas

Hi Everyone! It's me! It's a little after 6pm on Sunday and I've been home for almost 2 hours now. Leaving me tucked up in bed, Nikki and Steve have gone to get my prescriptions filled. Sherry is flying and will be home Tuesday evening. So Nik gets to play stand in mom to Steve for a few days as well as nurse to me.

Nikki has been an absolute angel. I can't imagine what I would have done without her during the past few days. She didn't even have time to deal with her jet lag before she jumped in with both feet. Sherry picked her up at the airport Thursday night and brought her to the hospital Friday morning. Just now is the first time she has left my side since she got here. She has fed me, washed me, massaged me, gotten me in and out of bed, and helped me to take baby steps up and down the hallway, all the while keeping the rest of the family in the know and even posting to my blog for me!

The last few days have been rough. It would have been so much easier if all we had to deal with was just the post-op recuperation but it was the added issues that complicated matters. Nikki wrote about the migraine on Friday. That was horrible enough but as soon as that was resolved I developed gas pockets in my shoulders, a normal and expected complication from the anesthesia, according to the nurse. It didn't hurt as long as I was laying down but as soon as I would get out of bed to go to the bathroom or try to walk a bit, it felt like both of my shoulders were caught in vices. It has made moving around very painful but movement is the only way to work it out. Then there was the little matter of needing to pass gas before I could be discharged. It's required of every post surgical patient and (believe me!) much easier said than done. Surgery messes with your bowel system and I blew up like the Hindenburg! Between that and the shoulder pain I spent several hours this morning in excruciating pain. Neither one of those problems has completely resolved themselves yet but they will in time.

As for being 4 days out of surgery, I'm actually doing well with the abdominal healing. The worst is definitely behind me. I can get in and out of bed myself now and it was easier than I thought it would be to get up the stairs to my room when we got home this afternoon. All in all, after a rough few days, I'd say I'm doing pretty good now. And the best news of all is that there is no cancer! The day nurse today told me that I was her only non-cancer patient. I simply cannot express the relief I'm feeling right now.

I want to say thank you to all of my friends and family who have been so supportive during the last 3 months. I love you all and look forward to pestering you for many years to come!

Open wide for the airplane, bbrbrrbb

Thank goodness, it seems the migraine has finally had enough cavorting around in Mom's skull! It's left some achy footprints behind, so she's still not entirely 100% (above the neck), but at least things are calmed down enough to focus on healing below the neck.

She's giggled, as much as her stitches allow, that it's payback time. I'm helping her to pee, to eat, to get in and out of bed, and to take little baby steps down the hallway. She was so weak last night that I was able to overpower her and force-feed some pudding. We almost dribbled all over ourselves as I tried not to make her laugh, guiding the "airplane into the hangar". She's done pretty well with the food and liquids today. We graduated from the IV and she's actually consumed -- gasp! -- a half-cup of yogurt! You know you're feeling like crap when you haven't eaten since Tuesday and don't really care.

Mom probably won't be discharged before tomorrow, but things are definitely comfier and she's much more alert and coherent. She'd like to thank everyone for their phone calls, emails, flowers, and other outpourings of support and love.

Meanwhile, I think I'll pick up this phone and order some coffee!

The Good, the Bad, and the Tasty

Well, good middle of the night, everyone!

Foreign correspondent Nik here, to report on the latest events from the Magee Women's Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

First thing's first: there is not a sign of cancer!!! The doctor came in to confirm their original impressions (though the official pathology report will take a few days yet), and we went just about giddy. He said they opened her up and everything apart from the mass looked clean and healthy. They didn't even bother to remove the appendix, which they were planning on doing. Best news possible at this point!

What made today particularly difficult, though, and all but eclipsed the discomfort of post-surgery, was the migraine. It started quite early on -- around 8:30am -- but because they have to put in an order from the pharmacy every time a new medication is called for, the Imitrex didn't reach her in time to act as any sort of prophylactic. And anyone who knows Mom's migraines knows that once it reaches that point, there's no stopping it. Thank God they had already given her anti-nausea medication earlier, or she'd have been vomiting from the pain. But frustratingly, the staff didn't seem to realize that this wasn't some mildly uncomfortable "headache" as a result of the surgery: this was a separate, excruciating, urgent condition that was likely triggered, but not caused, by the surgery. They of course had no experience with Mom's notorious lack of response to narcotic pain medication, and so kept trying to tell us that the morphine drip she was already on for the surgery itself should "take the edge off". I realize they were just trying to follow procedure, and, not knowing the patient's background, wanted to start out step by step, experimenting with the smallest little half-measures instead of just slamming it down in one fell swoop. But they also wouldn't listen to us! We repeatedly reassured them that we knew exactly what had worked in the past and what hadn't, that we'd already done this whole series of trial & error at the VA hospital in Tucson, so just give her the damned Demerol and have done with it!

Well, to skip over the next *ten hours* of hemming and hawing on their parts, being first inactive and then indecisive -- Mom ended up swimming in half-effective narcotics, pupils the size of purely theoretical particles and remarking that now she was on drugs and suffering a migraine -- the staff finally changed. A brusque Valkyrien doctor came swooping in and declared first her name, then her intention to get Mom's head out of its vise. She was followed by a competent, businesslike, thoughtful young nurse who anticipated all of Mom's needs, checked back frequently just to give us updates, and who then decided to just go forward with the Delaudid (a Demerol counterpart) while we were still waiting for the order to be written, because Mom had "waited long enough for it." Huzzah! I think I must send both of these women chocolates.

So now she's finally getting the closest thing to peace she's had all day, and I'm settling in on my little trundle chair. She still hasn't eaten anything, but hopefully now that the migraine is on its way out, she can focus more on getting her belly to heal. I'm in suspense to see how she feels in the morning!

All inconsiderate, non-Demerol-dispensing, first-round doctors aside, the Magee Women's Hospital is awfully nice. It looks more like a fine hotel, with spacious, elegant, oak decor -- even the curtains covering the large windows of our room are done up in a sort of rose-and-gold, softly Klimt style. Mom has her own room, replete with bathroom. And get this: the food isn't automatically brought to patients on a sort of "here's lunch" schedule. Instead, each room comes with a truly gourmet menu -- seared ahi tuna, anyone? -- provided room-service style! You call down anytime between 8am and 11pm, order whatever and however much you'd like, and they bring it on up. This probably works so well because most patients wouldn't have much of an appetite between surgery and being discharged. But their guests do! Guests' trays cost an extra $6.50, but hey, for all you can eat off a restaurant-quality menu? Bring it up!

Well, I think I'm going to try to join Mom in the shuteye department. Things are only looking up from here, and she's being well looked-after now. I'll send any updates as they arise!

I hope everyone is having a happy, healthy day. Love to all!

Countdown

I've been busy all day lining up my ducks in preparation for tomorrow. Surgery is scheduled for 7:30am so we have to leave the house at 5:00am to be at the hospital two hours prior.

I'm hungry! When they say a "clear liquid diet" the day before, they might as well say "You can't eat anything". Broth, tea and jello don't count as food. They are just alternate forms of water!

I think Lucy can sense that I'm leaving. Roll your eyes if you want but she won't leave me alone today and she woke me several times last night wanting me to cuddle her. She behaved the same way the last day and night before I put her on the plane to Pittsburgh in February.

I probably won't feel much like blogging tomorrow but I'll try to get back on sometime Friday. Wish me luck!

Buck! Buck! Buck! part deux

Nikki is coming! Nikki is coming! I go in for surgery on Thursday and she will arrive from Germany that night (even though I told her not to come I'm glad she didn't listen to me). Sherry and her whole family have been incredibly supportive and I know they would take very good care of me, but having one of my girls here will make me feel so much better. To nurse someone through that first week after a major surgery is such an intimate interaction; it's always best done by the loving hands of immediate family. I'll be in the hospital until Sunday or Monday and then Nik will still be here for the first few days after I come home. I can't think of any better medicine!

Out, damned spot! out, I say!

Good news! My surgery has been moved up to this coming Thursday, May 1st. I'm so glad. I've been pretty nonchalant about the whole thing so far but truth be told it has been weighing on my mind. How could it not! Hmm.....let's see, I might have ovarian cancer. I might not....but I might. It will just be good to finally know, one way or the other. I want to go to Seattle in July and to Puerto Rico sometime this summer but I've been holding off buying any plane tickets 'cause I just don't know what's in store for me over the next few months. There's also that little matter of moving to Scotland in the fall!

Benjamin Disraeli once said, "What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens." It's kind of like when you worry about someone you love because they are out of pocket and you can't reach them. You imagine all kinds of terrible things that could have befallen them. Then they call and everything is OK. All of your fears turn out to be unfounded. It's always when you aren't expecting anything at all and then the phone rings and WHAM! you get blindsided by something terrible. So I figure that since I've been worrying about this for almost 3 months now (and sometimes imagining the worst!) that it will turn out to be much ado about nothing.

Sherry will take me to the hospital on Thursday. She doesn't plan on coming home until that evening so hers will probably be the first fuzzy but familiar face I see once I come around. I'll be in the hospital until Sun or Mon but I'll have my phone with me so I'll be able to talk, text, email and even blog if I feel up to it. God forbid I should be completely unplugged for 3 whole days!

And Another Thing

Do you ever wonder why some movie lines make such an impression that everyone remembers them? I got to thinking today about some that have stuck in my head and decided that a little trivia would be fun.
So I've added Do You Remember.... to the sidebar. This first one is really easy. I'll change it out every week or so. If anyone has a quote that they think would be fun to use, by all means email it to me.

Pounding The Pennsylvania Pavement

I had a great day yesterday. I spent 7 hours actively participating in our electoral process. I encourage anyone who truly believes in a candidate (any candidate!) to get involved in the campaign process. It is so empowering to feel like you are contributing more than just a vote to help your candidate win!

Besides being politically satisfying, it was just a beautiful day to be out walking. The tulips are out in force in everyone's yards, kids were outside playing (no school yesterday) and Mount Lebanon neighborhoods are so pretty. I had to smile when I saw 3 little entrepreneurs with a sidewalk lemonade stand. They were also offering freshly popped popcorn for 50 cents. They served my buttery purchase in a homemade paper cone. It was so cute!
A little later, as I walked by a couple of young boys playing catch, who had been watching me hang *stuff* on doors, one of them asked me, " Are like a mailman or something?" Imagine trying to explain canvasing to a 9 year old in 15 words or less.

At another point in time, just as I was feeling pretty cocky and mentally patting myself on the back for being so proactive in my political beliefs, I started up a set of about 6 stone steps to the next house on my list and promptly...... tripped! Fortunately, I caught myself before I knocked out my front teeth but it did serve to put my ego back in check. LOL!

There were campaign yard signs all over the place, but one yard, in particular, made me stop and do a double take. On one side of the yard was a Hilary Clinton sign, and on the other side of the same yard was a Barack Obama sign. I had to laugh, conjuring an imaginary conversation between the two voters in that household: "This is my side of the yard and that is your side." "That's fine with me as long as you keep your crummy sign on your own side!"

I finished my second route and returned to the campaign office just in time to get a seat to hear Sen. Bob Casey Jr. speak to the volunteers. Besides being the junior senator from PA. Sen. Casey is also the son of the 44th governor of Pennsylvania. After he spoke he then introduced former Sen. Harris Wofford. Sen. Wofford was a friend and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King and a part of JFK's presidential campaign and administration.

I snapped a couple of pictures of them individually with my phone as they each spoke and as they were leaving I asked if I could get a picture of them together. Sen Casey suggested that I should be in the picture, too. So we gave my phone to someone else to take the picture and the Senators put me in between them. It's an awful photo. I had been out on the streets all day long and looked pretty ragged and the guy who took it didn't center it very well but I'm keepin' it! I was honored to stand between these two men.

Senator Obama is not expected to win Pennsylvania's primary today but he still leads Senator Clinton in delegates and in the popular vote. If Sen. Clinton wins by less than 5 points there will be increased pressure for her to drop out of the race but if she wins by more than that then today's results will give her campaign renewed vigor. What an exciting time to be politically active!

Barack The Vote

Tomorrow is the Pennsylvania primary. Even though I registered to vote when I got here I can't vote in PA until the general election (I already voted in the Az primary in Feb.) so I'm going to spend the day canvasing. The local Obama headquarters is right around the corner. I would have worked this past weekend for the campaign but I love Shauna more! It's a beautiful morning here in Pitt so I'll spend it outside hanging door hangers for my favorite candidate. Go Barack!!

A Beary Good Weekend

I just had the best couple of days! Shauna came for the weekend. She landed at 9:30 yesterday morning and stayed until 6 o'clock this evening. We filled every minute!

Everyone here in Pittsburgh met Shauna back in 2001 when she and Nikki came with me on the Ocean City trip, so after we dropped Shauna's stuff off at the house our first stop was to go see Sherry's mom, Lois, who just had back surgery on Thursday and is still in the hospital. Don, Sherry's dad, was there so we spent a little time with both of them and then went over to Sherry's Aunt Peg's house to say Hi before going to lunch at Panera, a great little restaurant at the Galleria Mall. We needed sustenance for an afternoon of serious shopping! My girls are my favorite shopping partners and New York & Co. was having a big sale. Since we both needed some new summer clothes, the timing was perfect. We spent several successful hours in just that one store!

We arrived back at the house with just enough time to get showered and changed for Aunt Peg's big birthday bash. The celebratory dinner was at Jamie's, one of her favorite local restaurants. Somewhere between 70 and 80 people turned out to help Peggy celebrate her 80th birthday! We filled the restaurant's banquet room and I now know why Jamie's is a favorite. The food was great. I reintroduced Shauna to everyone throughout the evening. They all remembered her and were very happy to see her again. After dinner at least half of us reassembled at Aunt Peg's house for cake and ice cream, along with a full bar in the kitchen!

The party was still going strong when Sherry, Shauna and I left about 9:30pm. Steve had bugged out earlier to go to a friend's house so Sherry rode home with us. It was after 11 by the time we finally fell into bed. Poor Shauna had worked all day Friday, then hopped a redeye from Seattle to Pittsburgh and we had been running all day. It was definitely pillow time!

I let her sleep until 8:30am this morning, then woke her up with mommy kisses the way I used to when she was little. We started out the day with coffee while watching and transferring to my laptop the video that I shot last week when I was in Washington D.C. Then we had to try on everything we bought yesterday to be sure we still loved all of it. We did.
It was almost noon by the time we threw on our walking shoes and set out. I love the fact that my girls are both enthusiastic walkers and are always up for *Mom's 8 miler* whenever we get together. It's just too bad that we never have anything to talk about. HA! We jumped from one topic to another, to another, and another, tripping over each other's sentences and circling back around again; all the while oooing and ahhhing at the houses along the way and pointing out the ones we really liked.

Once again, by the time we found our way home, we had just enough time to each jump in the shower before we had to run out the door again. This time, though, we were off to the airport. It was a short visit but those 32 hours fed my soul.
I love you, Sugarbear......

Hallowed Ground

Today is the 262nd anniversary of the Battle of Culloden.

The date was the 16th of April, 1746, but the story began in 1603 when King James VI of Scotland (the only child of Mary Queen of Scots and heir of the Stuart Dynasty) ascended to the throne of England upon the death of his third cousin, Queen Elizabeth. He then became James I of England as well as James VI of Scotland, uniting the two countries under continuing Protestant rule.

The crown passed through the Stuart descendants, a mixed bag of Catholics and Protestants, for about 100 years until the Settlement Act of 1701. This Act prevented James III, the great grandson of James I from claiming the British crown in 1714 because he was Catholic. The next nearest Protestant claimant to the throne was a German from Hanover. Thus began the Hanovarian Dynasty of George I and the struggle of the Jacobites (from the Latin for James) to return the throne to the Catholic Stuart Dynasty. After a failed attempt from France by James III himself in 1715, the cause was passed to his son Charles Edward Stuart, known also as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

In 1745 Prince Charles made his move. He landed in Scotland, gathering his forces predominately from the Highlands and swept through the country on a wave of national pride coming within striking distance of London itself. Through a series of bad command decisions, though, the Highlanders eventually found themselves, on Culloden Moor, exhausted and facing the Hanovarian forces who were well rested and under the sharp command of the Duke of Cumberland, the younger son of King George II. They were outnumbered 9000 to 5000.

It was a slaughter that lasted last than an hour. Survivors were given "no quarter" and the dead were buried by the local citizens. There were too many for individual graves so the bodies were interred in mass graves according to their clan. The clan stones still stand on Culloden Moor to this day. Jacobite sympathizers were hunted down over the coming months, many of them killed or taken prisoner to be executed or transported to the colonies in America. The wearing of kilts and clan tartan were outlawed as well as the playing or possession of the bagpipes, considered not a musical instrument but an instrument of war. The Highland clan way of life that had flourished for 600 years was exterminated.


Clan stones on the moor

A visit to the Memorial at Culloden, today, feels more like a pilgrimage to those who love the Scottish Highlands and her rich history. It truly is hallowed ground. Quiet contemplation in front of each of the Clan stones (many with freshly laid flowers), looking to the top of the Memorial with it's inscription to the fallen Highlanders and imagining the ancient way of life that was crushed on that fateful day is sure to move all but the most hardened of hearts. I encourage all who visit to walk the battlelines. Begin at the line of red flag poles that represent the place where the Hanovarian troops were positioned. Look across the Moor to the blue line of the Highlanders. Then walk to the other side and look back across. Look at how boggy and uneven the ground is and try to imagine the physical struggle and confusion of a battle in such a setting. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of reverence and respect for the men who had died in the very field where we were standing. I do not exagerate when I say that we could very nearly feel their presence all around us.....

Buck! Buck! Buck!

Shauna is coming! Shauna is coming! She is arriving Saturday morning at 9:40am and will be here until 6pm on Sunday. A whole 32 hours and 20 minutes with my little Sugarbear! She just emailed me and pretty much said, "So, Mom, what are you doing this weekend? I thought I'd come visit." Oh boy, Oh boy, Oh boy! What a great suprise!

Family and Tourism

I left Pittsburgh at 11am last Wed for the 4 1/2 hour drive to Paul's house in Haymarket, VA, which is about a half hour outside of Washington D.C. First of all, let me say that I love road trips. I always have and so was looking forward to the drive over. It was a beautiful drive, too. I feel like I have been so starved for lushness and greenery over the last decade and a half that I had a hard time watching the road. There was just so much pretty scenery upon which to feast my eyes! I drove through an intriguing little town called Berkley Springs, West Virginia. The highway went right through the middle of town so the speed limit was drastically reduced which allowed me to rubberneck at a much less dangerous speed. I drove past small shops, ball fields and playgrounds. I hesitate to use the word quaint but I couldn't help wondering what it must be like to live in such a pretty little storybook town.

I met my cousin, Paul, just this last September but we connected right away. I think we would have had a lot of fun if we had grown up together. On the other hand, I am 8 years older than he is so I probably would have thought he was just a little pain in the ass and most likely would have locked him in a closet if given the chance! As it is, though, in adulthood the age difference feels negligible. So I was really looking forward to hanging out with him for a few days. I knew we would have fun. And that we did!
I got to meet his wife, Genelle, for the first time and their two boys. Zach is 18 and Austin is 15. I'm not sure how they turned out so great with such a demented father but somehow they did. Must be Genelle's influence. She is about as sweet as they come.

We hung out at the house that first evening and Paul showed me his recording studio in the basement, which I promptly renamed The Man Cave (but you have to put your hands on your hips and deepen your voice when you say it). Paul built it himself and soundproofed the whole thing! It's pretty cool. The next day Paul gave me a driving tour of Washington D.C. He's lived there off and on for most of his life and he was like a walking, talking guide book. We stopped at a place called Hard Times Cafe in Alexandria for lunch. They served some awesome chili. From there we went to a little park near Reagan National Airport to watch the flyover of 3 vintage war planes. After the flyover Paul showed me where we could stand so the commercial planes that were taking off from the airport would go right over our heads. I had to try to get that with the video camera!
Then Paul said he had an idea and we headed out of the city. I asked where we were going and he said it was a suprise. So I just enjoyed the beautiful drive. We ended up at Mt. Vernon! We didn't go into the house because the line was too long but we poked around the grounds and the gardens and then went into the museum. It was very cool!
We picked Zach up on our way home and stopped at the grocery store. By the time we got home Genelle had dinner well under way. She made chicken cordon bleu and it was delicious!

Friday morning Paul, Zach and I were out the door a little after 6am in order to beat the traffic into the city. After we dropped Zach off we had some time to kill so we went to breakfast in McLean. We then hit downtown Washington D.C. about 8am. Paul runs his own business having to do with construction permitting and, since he had taken the day before off to entertain me, he needed to get some things accomplished that day. That worked well for me because I wanted to go to a couple of museums and I always prefer to do museums alone. That way I can go at my own pace and not have to worry about anyone else. So he dropped me off. It would have been nice if he had slowed the car down a little more, though. I'm not as good at tuck and roll as I used to be!

I walked to the U.S. Capital building first. The very heart of our government! I got goosebumps. We can all be cynical about our country and our government but it's still pretty amazing to stand on the steps of the Capital and know what that building represents.
From there I walked down the National Mall to get back to the Archives. It didn't open until 10am but my personal guide told me I needed to be in line early because only so many people are allowed in at a time and the line really backs up. I waited my turn and was rewarded with the opportunity to see The Charters of Freedom. The Declaration of Independence, The United States Constitution and The Bill of Rights. Those precious documents that we all take so for granted. Those documents that set forth the ideals that our forefathers believed in strongly enough to fight and die for.
I've seen a lot of historical places and artifacts in Europe and, as everyone who knows me knows, I love British history. But this is OUR history. It is what makes us who we are as a collective people....Americans. If you see nothing else in Washington D.C. every American should visit the National Archives.

My next stop was The Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I picked up a brochure and map at the entrance and immediately felt overwhelmed! Where to start? Well, the first floor, I guess. I wandered through it all; the dinosaurs, the sea life, early man, western cultures, mammals, the ice ages. I had to smile when I saw The Tower of Time and thought of the 11 year old who was the only one to notice the inaccuracy that had stood for 32 years but because of him had been corrected by the time I got there.

From The Natural History Museum I returned to the Mall. I got an ice cream cone and just sat for a few minutes. Wow! The sun was shining; it was a beautiful day and I was sitting on a bench on the National Mall, eating ice cream. I could see the Capital to my left and the Washington Monument to my right. Life was good! As soon as I polished off my cone I set off to the right. I was hoping to get to go up to the top of that most famous monolith (or phallic symbol, depending on how you look at it!) but all of the tickets for the day had already been given out. So I just walked around it and craned my neck to see the top. I got a great shot of the Washington Monument the day before with a cherry tree in the foreground!

Just behind the Wash. Monument is the WWII Memorial. It's beautiful and very moving. I took lots of photos.
Unfortunately the battery in my camera died as I was approaching the Lincoln Memorial. I brought an extra battery but it did me little good tucked away in my suitcase as it was at that moment! So I put the digital away and used the video camera to record the rest of the afternoon which included the Lincoln Memorial, the White House and the Viet Nam Memorial. I stopped to read some of the letters that had been left at the Wall. One was from a man who had been a pen pal when he was 12 with a man whose name was written in the stone. Another was from a young woman whose father had asked her to leave flowers beneath the name of his friend. So sad. So many lives uselessly wasted. At least at the WWII memorial you had the feeling that those men and women died for a worthwhile cause. They and their families suffered no less but the difference in the mission of the two wars was so stark.

Paul picked me up at about 3:30 that afternoon and he humored me by driving past the U.S. Supreme Court building before we headed home. My feet and my back had given me about all they had to give by then and it was good to ride.
That evening Paul's friend Scott came over and the three of us ended up hanging out in (deep voice) The Man Cave until the wee hours of the night. A few beers, a few shots of tequila, some music. A good time was had by all...

Unfortunately, Genelle had to work on Saturday so Paul, Zach, Austin and I went to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles. There are some pretty cool planes and space stuff on display. We wandered through the whole museum and checked out everything, including the mini model that was shot as the Mother Ship in Close Encounters. The highlights of the afternoon, though, were the space shuttle Enterprise, the Concorde, and the Enola Gay! Somewhere along the way Zach came up with a new nickname for me. Being only 4' 11" tall, I thought I had heard them all but this was definitely a new one. Ahem...allow me to introduce myself. My name is Connie but you may call me Stubby. LOL! I'm still trying to think of a way to get him back.
Paul had agreed to run sound for his friend's band that night so Genelle and I went along. The music was a little (!) harder than I prefer but I had a good time.

Sunday morning Genelle made a huge breakfast before I headed back to Pittsburgh. I had a great weekend. I got to see our nation's capital and spend time with new found family. My first visit but not my last. Zach graduates high school in June so I'm going back in a couple of months. I've posted pics in The Colors of My World if you are interested.

I'm Sure Strangers Are Laughing

So I'm out for my daily 8 mile walk right now. It's a beautiful morning and I feel great! I have my iPod crankin' all my favorite tunes and I'm just bebopin' down the road. When you're listening to great music a body can't help but physically react to it. My kids all know how I can get that one hand going like I'm leading the orchestra. I can just imagine what all the drivers must think as they pass me! LOL! Oh well! If you haven't heard a female group called Antigone Rising you really should check them out.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Girl Meets Doctor

When I walked into the Gynocologic Oncology clinic at Magee Women's Hospital this morning the first person I saw was a woman wearing a scarf to conceal her lack of hair. That made my stomach tighten a little but I pushed on in. After I checked in and filled out the registration paperwork I took a seat in the waiting room. It was very strange to be there. I half expected Ashton Kutcher to jump out and tell me I had been Punk'd. No such luck, though. Ashton never showed his cute little face. My name was finally called and I followed a nice nurse even further into this little adventure of mine. After taking my vitals she showed me to an office where I waited to meet one Dr. Thomas Krivak.

You know how you get a feeling about people when you first meet them? Good or bad, there is always a gut feeling. Well, I got a good one. He is very down to earth and relaxed and when we talked it was more like just having a conversation not 'my first consultation with the cancer surgeon'. It felt a little surreal, though, when he said that if I did need chemo that he would have to go back in after the initial surgery and do another procedure to put a port into my abdomen. I guess they fill your belly with chemo and then let you sort of marinade in it for a while until your system absorbs it. But that all depends on the treatment plan and IF they find cancer. He also wants to remove my appendix while he's in there, as well as both ovaries and my little invader, who is about the size of a small grapefruit now (aren't you glad you asked?). He scheduled my surgery for May 7th which is about three weeks from now but if there is a cancellation he will try to get me in sooner.

So I had all my pre-op stuff done today before I left the hospital. I had an EKG and a chest Xray done along with bloodwork. I hate getting blood drawn. My veins are so small that I always seem to end up getting poked three or four times before they finally hit the vein. It was no different this time. The nurse tried my left inner arm at the elbow first and got nothing, then tried the back of my left hand. That vein blew so she called the IV team and they sent someone else in to try. The second woman managed to snag a vein in my right arm but barely got all that she needed before it just went dry. All totaled she took about 20cc in 5 different tubes.

So there it is. (I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille.) It's just a waiting game now. I'm kind of suprised at how calm I feel about all of this. Most of us know someone who is dealing with cancer and think to ourselves "Geez, if that was me I'd just freak." Maybe I'll react differently if the diagnosis doesn't come back in my favor but I don't think so. Ovarian cancer is (to me) the scariest kind of cancer. They call it the Whisper because there are no symptoms until the disease is pretty well spread. So most cases are not even diagnosed until it's too late. But I truly don't feel like I'm in peril of dying. If it is cancer I think we've caught it early and the doctor will stage it at 1 or 2, in which case, the chance of survival is very good. Stats show that only about 20% of ovarian cancer cases are caught at the stage 1 level but the chances of survival after 5 years are almost 90%. Stage 2 cases have a 60-80% survival rate afer 5 years. Stage 3 drops to 20% and stage 4 is only 10%. BUT I personally know someone who survived stage 4 ovarian cancer! Someone has to be in that 10%! But if Dr. Krivak does find cancer when we get up close and personal I just don't feel like it's going to be advanced. And it may not even be cancer! It could just be a benign cyst. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I think it's here that I'm supposed to say something about this being the longest three weeks of my life coming up but at this point that would be a little melodramatic. I'm just going to stay busy and pass the time by getting out and enjoying this beautiful Spring weather that is breaking. So no more talk of cancer or surgery or chemo until next month!

P.S. If you don't get the joke in the title of this post you haven't been reading Nikki's blog and if you are not reading Nikki's blog you are missing out on some really great writing!

Birthday Bugs

Happy Birthday Fred and Bud!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Mobile posting

I love technology! I can post to my blog from my phone. Now when I see something or think of something while I'm out and about I don't have to wait uhtil I get back to my computer to post. Next thing is to figure out how to take a picture with my phone and then add it to the blog with text. This is really cool!

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

D.C. Diversion

My dictionary defines the word Diversion as '....an activity that diverts the mind from tedious or serious concerns; a recreation or pastime'.

That's just the ticket I need right now! Actually I've been planning on visiting our nation's capital this Spring ever since I first decided to come to Pittsburgh. My cousin, Paul, lives just outside of Washington D.C. and has graciously agreed to show me the town. So I'm going to hop in MYRDTOY and cruise on over while the cherry trees are still in bloom. I've always wanted to see D.C. and I'm really excited about it. I'm kind of bummed that the Smithsonion American History Museum is closed for renovation until the Fall but I plan to spend a lot of time in the Natural History Museum. And did you know that the Smithsonion has an International Spy Museum? How cool is that!? And, of course, all the monuments on the mall and the others nearby. My camera and I are going to be such tourists!

Captain, We Have An Invader!

Knowing that I was headed to Scotland this fall, I made sure that I got all my medical checkups taken care of before I left Tucson. Being a military veteran, I get my medical care at the V.A. hospital. When I went in for my annual *peek and poke*, as a friend of mine calls it, my doctor discovered that my right ovary was enlarged so she sent me for an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a mass on the ovary that measured 6cm. There are two possibilities. Possibility #1 is a benign cyst. A fairly common occurrence in women, although 6cm is pretty big. Usually a cyst will burst on its own long before it gets to 6cm and the mother ship never even knows it had an uninvited passenger. Possibility #2 is (enter black cloud) ovarian cancer. "Hmm.." says I, "that can't be good." The Dr. wanted to send me for an MRI but there wasn't time to get it done before I left so I promised to see to it as soon as I got to Pittsburgh.

I have to admit that I did freak out in the beginning. I called my friend David, in Phoenix, who had been recently diagnosed with cancer. He listened to me cry and comforted me with words of understanding that only someone in his situation could give. Then he made me laugh. David and his wife Nena have been my very dear friends for over 20 years. I was still concerned after we hung up but I wasn't crying anymore. Besides I still had a lot to do before my impending departure so I just kind of filed it away at the top of my mental to-do list once I got settled in Pittsburgh.

I had my first appointment at the V.A. hospital here a couple of weeks ago and explained the whole thing to the new doctor. She looked at all of my records and scheduled me for another ultrasound and an appt to see a GYN doctor afterward. These both happened this past Friday. After a conference with the GYN doctor and the radiologist who read the ultrasound it was decided that I should have a CT scan done right away. The mass had grown from 6cm to 9cm in about 7 weeks. A "simple" cyst (as opposed to a complex one, I guess) has thin walls, clear fluid and no echo sounds. I struck out on all three counts. So they whisked me over, gave some not-too-bad stuff to drink, stuck an IV in me so they could inject some dye and passed me through the O-ring a couple of times. That big white machine whirring away with me sliding through it always makes me feel like I'm in 2001: A Space Oddessey. Then back I go to see the doctor again who proceeded to do another *peek and poke*. After all was said and done it was decided that I should see a gynecologic oncologist at Magee-Women's Hospital here in Pittsburgh. I should get a phone call today sometime letting me know when my appt at Magee is scheduled for.

I know, for sure, that I have to have surgery. And I suspect it will be very soon. I was hoping they would be able to do a laproscopic procedure but no such luck. My little invader is too large to pull out through a little hole without the risk of rupturing it. They have open me up ("Cut me Mick") to get to it. They will remove both ovaries (take two; they're small) and biopsy a couple of nearby lymph nodes. All of which will then be sent to Pathology.

Sooo....We really won't know anything definitive until then. I am of two minds. One side of me is concerned. Who wouldn't be? But then there is the smart-ass side of me that says, "No, no, no...this will just turn out to be a benign cyst. It can't be ovarian cancer. I don't have time for cancer. I have plans!" May I remind my gentle readers of the title of this humble journal? It says Journey to the Highlands, not Jouney to the Highlands by way of Ovarian Cancer. Hahaha! Sometimes I really crack me up! OK, now I'm just getting silly. It's 5 in the morning and I've been awake since 2 so I guess I'm getting a little slap-happy.

I debated about whether this was an appropriate subject for the blog but my girls have taught me that the blog is for me. It's my journal. If others find it interesting and want to follow along that's great but don't write it for other people. Hence the entries concerning the Irish Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Arbroath. They are important to me. So if my little invader turns out to be just a benign cyst then I'll use the blog to whine about the inconvenience of it all. If it turns out to be wearing a big C on it's little invader name badge then I will probably have a lot more to say as time goes by.

The Declaration of Arbroath

Anybody who saw the movie Braveheart is familiar with the Scottish patriot William Wallace. After Wallace's execution in 1305 by King Edward I of England the Scottish people rallied around their King, known as Robert the Bruce, who continued the struggle against Edward's son and English domination.

Having soundly defeated King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn after nearly 20 years of war, King Robert the Bruce and the Scottish people might have reasonably hoped to be left in peace. But the English king did not give up so easily and the Scottish Wars of Independence continued. In the propaganda war, the Scots were at a disadvantage in relation to the influential power of the Pope in Rome - he was more interested in gaining support for another Crusade to the Holy Land from the English king. The Pope had excommunicated Robert the Bruce, not unreasonably, following Bruce's murder of a rival to the throne on the altar steps of a Franciscan priory. But prompted by the English king, the Pope also excommunicated all the people of Scotland.

The Declaration of Arbroath (sometimes called the Declaration of Independence) was Scotland's response to the excommunication. It is one of the great icons of Scotland and is in the form of a letter (in Latin) to the Pope from eight earls and 31 barons of Scotland asking him in rousing terms to acknowledge Scotland as an independent nation and to reject the claims of the English king. The Declaration was ahead of its time as it sets out that the king (previously regarded as appointed by God) could be driven out if he did not uphold the freedom of the country. It later became a model for the American Declaration of Independence.

It sets out the long history of Scotland as an independent state and cleverly tries to persuade the Pope of the legitimacy of Scotland's case. It's most famous and most quoted passage is:

"For so long as there shall but one hundred of us remain alive we will never give consent to subject ourselves to the dominion of the English. For it is not glory, it is not riches, neither is it honours, but it is liberty alone that we fight and contend for, which no honest man will lose but with his life."

The Declaration of Arbroath is more correctly entitled "Letter of Barons of Scotland to Pope John XXII". It is dated 6 April, 1320. While the original Declaration was delivered to the Pope, a contemporary copy is held in Register House, Edinburgh. The translation below of the full text is based on one published in 1689.

1320 Letter of Barons of Scotland to Pope John XXII (Declaration of Arbroath)

To our most Holy Father in Christ, and our Lord, John, by Divine Providence chief Bishop of the most holy Roman and Universal Church, your humble and devoted sons: Duncan Earl of Fife, Thomas Randolph Earl of Moray, Lord of Man and Annandale, Patrick of Dunbar, Earl of March, Malise Earl of Strathearn, Malcolm Earl of Lennox, Wilham Earl of Ross, Magnus Earl of Caithness and Orkney, William Earl of Sutherland, Walter, Steward of Scotland, Wilham of Soulis, Butler of Scotland, James Lord of Douglas, Roger of Mowbray, David Lord of Brechin, David of Graham, Ingelram of Umfravil, John of Menteith, Guardian of the earldom of Menteith, Alexander Fraser, Gilbert of Hay, Constable of Scotland, Robert of Keith, Marischal of Scotland, Henry of St Clair, John of Graham, David of Lindsay, William Oliphant, Patrick of Graham, John of Fenton, William of Abernethy, David of Wemyss, William Muschet, Fergus of Ardrossan, Eustace of Maxwell, William of Ramsay, William Mowat, Allan of Moray, Donald Campbell, John Cambrun, Reginald le Cheyne, Alexander of Seton, Andrew of Leslie, Alexander of Straton, and the rest of the barons and freeholders, and whole community, of the kingdom of Scotland, send all manner of filial reverence, with devout kisses of your blessed and happy feet.

Most holy Father and Lord, we know and gather from ancient acts and records, that in every famous nation this of Scotland hath been celebrated with many praises: This nation having come from Scythia the greater, through the Tuscan Sea and the Hercules Pillars, and having for many ages taken its residence in Spain in the midst of a most fierce people, could never be brought in subjection by any people, how barbarous soever: And having removed from these parts, above 1,200 years after the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt, did by many victories and much toil obtain these parts in the West which they still possess, having expelled the Britons and entirely rooted out the Picts, notwithstanding of the frequent assaults and invasions they met with from the Norwegians, Danes, and English; And these parts and possessions they have always retained free from all manner of servitude and subjection, as ancient histories do witness.

This kingdom hath been governed by an uninterrupted succession of 113 kings, all of our own native and royal stock, without the intervening of any stranger.

The true nobility and merits of those princes and people are very remarkable, from this one consideration (though there were no other evidence for it) that the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, honoured them as it were the first (though living in the outmost ends of the earth) with a call to His most Holy Faith: Neither would our Saviour have them confirmed in the Christian Faith by any other instrument than His own first Apostle in calling (though in rank the second or third) St Andrew, the most worthy brother of the Blessed Peter, whom He would always have to be over us, as our patron or protector.

Upon the weighty consideration of these things our most Holy Fathers, your predecessors, did with many great and singular favours and privileges fence and secure this kingdom and people, as being the peculiar charge and care of the brother of St Peter; so that our nation hath hitherto lived in freedom and quietness, under their protection, till the magnificent King Edward, father to the present King of England, did under the colour of friendship and alliance, or confederacy, with innumerable oppressions infest us, who had in mind no fraud or deceit, at a time when we were without a king or head, and when the people were unacquainted with wars and invasions. It is impossible for any whose own experience hath not informed him to describe, or fully to understand, the injuries, blood and violence, the depredations and fire, the imprisonments of prelates, the burning, slaughter and robbery committed upon holy persons and religious houses, and a vast multitude of other barbarities, which that king executed on this people, without sparing of any sex or age, religion or order of men whatsoever.

But at length it pleased God, who only can heal after wounds, to restore us to liberty, from these innumerable calamities, by our most serene prince, king, and lord Robert, who, for the delivering of his people and his own rightful inheritance from the enemy's hand, did, like another Joshua or Maccabeus, most cheerfully undergo all manner of toil, fatigue, hardship, and hazard. The Divine Providence, the right of succession by the laws and customs of the kingdom (which we will defend till death) and the due and lawful consent and assent of all the people, made him our king and prince. To him we are obliged and resolved to adhere in all things, both upon the account of his right and his own merit, as being the person who hath restored the people's safety in defence of their liberties. But after all, if this prince shall leave these principles he hath so nobly pursued, and consent that we or our kingdom be subjected to the king or people of England, we will immediately endeavour to expel him, as our enemy and as the subverter both of his own and our rights, and we will make another king, who will defend our liberties: For so long as there shall but one hundred of us remain alive we will never give consent to subject ourselves to the dominion of the English. For it is not glory, it is not riches, neither is it honours, but it is liberty alone that we fight and contend for, which no honest man will lose but with his life.

For these reasons, most Reverend Father and Lord, We do with earnest prayers from our bended knees and hearts, beg and entreat Your Holiness that you may be pleased, with a sincere and cordial piety, to consider that with Him whose Vicar on earth you are there is no respect nor distinction of Jew nor Greek, Scots nor English, and that with a tender and fatherly eye you may look upon the calamities and straits brought upon us and the Church of God by the English; and that you may admonish and exhort the king of England (who may well rest satisfied with his own possessions, since that kingdom of old used to be sufficient for seven or more kings) to suffer us to live at peace in that narrow spot of Scotland beyond which we have no habitation, since we desire nothing but our own, and we on our part, as far as we are able with respect to our own condition, shall effectually agree to him in every thing that may procure our quiet.

It is your concernment, Most Holy Father, to interpose in this, when you see how far the violence and barbarity of the pagans is let loose to rage against Christendom for punishing of the sins of the Christians, and how much they daily encroach upon the Christian territories. And it is your interest to notice that there be no ground given for reflecting on your memory, if you should suffer any part of the Church to come under a scandal or eclipse (which we pray God may prevent) during your times. Let it therefore please Your Holiness to exhort the Christian princes not to make the wars betwixt them and their neighbours a pretext for not going to the relief of the Holy Land, since that is not the true cause of the impediment: The truer ground of it is, that they have a much nearer prospect of advantage, and far less opposition, in the subduing of their weaker neighbours. And God (who is ignorant of nothing) knows with how much cheerfulness both our king and we would go thither, if the king of England would leave us in peace, and we do hereby testify and declare it to the Vicar of Christ and to all Christendom.

But if Your Holiness shall be too credulous of the English misrepresentations, and not give firm credit to what we have said, nor desist to favour the English to our destruction, we must believe that the Most High will lay to your charge all the blood, loss of souls, and other calamities that shall follow on either hand, betwixt us and them. Your Holiness in granting our just desires will oblige us in every case where our duty shall require it, to endeavour your satisfaction, as becomes the obedient sons of the Vicar of Christ.

We commit the defence of our cause to Him who is the Sovereign King and Judge, we cast the burden of our cares upon Him, and hope for such an issue as may give strength and courage to us and bring our enemies to nothing. The Most High God long preserve your Serenity and Holiness to His Holy Church.

Given at the Monastery of Arbroath in Scotland, the sixth day of April in the year of Grace 1320, and of our said king's reign the 15th year.

---

Nuggets from NPR

I love NPR! I never know what cool little tidbits I'm going to hear that I might not have gotten from anywhere else in my little world. I was very excited the other day when Sherry's dad told me where to find my old friends on the Pittsburgh radio dial. This afternoon I was listening to Robert Siegel, the ever comforting voice of All Things Considered. This man could describe paint drying to me and I would somehow find it fascinating but today he really was talking about really interesting stuff.

It seems that researchers from The University of Oregon have found evidence that humans roamed the Americas more than a thousand years earlier than previously believed......14,300 years ago!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080403141109.htm

I had just been watching something about the Clovis culture on the History Channel the other night so when, today, they said that this human DNA evidence predates that culture by 1,200 years I was amazed. I also took a little pleasure in hearing that the site of the find is in Oregon, less than 300 miles from my hometown.

The other story that intrigued me was about a Michigan fifth grader who, last December, was visiting the Smithsonian Natural History Museum (Tops on my must see list next week. What? Did I not mention that I'm going to Washington DC next week? Well, more on that later). Anyway, this 11 year old was looking at the museum's Tower of Time and noticed that it wrongly labeled the Precambrian as an era, when it is actually a supereon. He knew this was wrong because he had just been studying the subject in his science class. Imagine how many uber-educated adults have perused the Tower of Time over the last 27 years! Did not one of them notice the error? Or did someone see it and think, "It's not that big a deal"? Young Kenton Stufflebeam thought it was a very big deal and brought it to the attention of the museum biggies. Can't you just picture it? A little kid pulling on some guy's coat tail "...excuse me, sir..."
The Smithsonian Natural History Museum corrected its mistake this week.
Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

Oh Spring!

This little guy seems to be watching for something. I think he's looking for signs of the changing seasons.










And here it is! The Crocuses are the first to peek through.....















with Tulips and Daffodils preparing to make their own annual debut soon.....


















I just really liked this shot. The shoes sitting on the chair with the gardening tools leaning against the other side of the door suggest to me that someone has been working in the yard. I like that the chair color matches the door, too.


So, this was my first attempt to add photos to the text of a post. Hopefully I'll get a little faster at it!

I'm anxious for Spring to really bloom in all its glory around here. In past years when I have visited Pittsburgh in the fall I have always been impressed with what a beautiful city it is. The natural landscape is lush and hilly. As I've said before I love the local architecture, too. But in winter it all looks pretty dreary. The trees all look like standing skeletons with their barren branches and the heavy stone houses under the dreary skies remind me of a scene out of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. It was really pretty when everything was covered with snow but now it just looks depressing under cloudy skies. But I have faith! Mother Nature is just toying with me; building my anticipation. Today is warm , in the low 60's, but overcast and very windy. I'm just about to set out for my walk. No gloves needed today but maybe I should wear heavy shoes so I don't get blown over when the wind gusts!

Weiner Dog Heaven

I find this so funny. I watched and I giggled and the more I watched the more I giggled.

Jerry’s fetching game http://www.whatjamiefound.com/2008/03/24/jerrys-fetching-game/