now what?

Right before I left for Denver, I had finished my first real knitting project - my light teal poncho. I have already shared a picture of it on Facebook, but in case you didn't see it there - here it is again...

What I haven't told you yet is that when I was at the Oakland Airport on Thursday, two different women complimented my poncho - one while I was going through security and the other when I was standing in line to get on my plane! I can't tell you how great it felt for someone to acknowledge my hard work! Oh and by the way - I was able to get on the plane with knitting needles and a small pair of scissors in my carry on bag!

One of the fun things we did in Denver was to seek out a yarn store (I know - I'm a little obsessed), but JB and Causten had gotten me a gift certificate for yarn at the Lamb Shoppe for my birthday. What a beautiful store - so many beautiful yarns and patterns...here is what I selected...

Now I need to decide what to make. What do you think?

home

As much as I love "going" and "doing" it's also nice to get back home and sleeping in my own bed. I came home to find that Ron had actually kept the house pretty neat and also although I had forgotten to ask him to water the flowers in my wine barrel planter, they were still alive! Whew!

Another surprise that awaited me was a letter. Here is what it said...

"Dear Mrs. Beeson:

The San Leandro Police Department would like to thank you for your efforts in notifying our agency of an infant that was locked inside an unattended vehicle in the GAP Store parking lot. Your diligence in reporting your observations helped us to locate the infant who was found unharmed, We are proud to serve our community and rely on the partnership with our residents.

Once again, thank you for your assistance. Together we will build a strong legacy of public service that keeps the community of San Leandro safe.

Sincerely,

Sandra R Spagnoli
Chief of Police"

Wasn't that a nice surprise?!

Another lovely weekend...

It's so good to be well enough to "Go!" and "Do!" That's what I did this weekend - I went and I did! Remember how I went off to Santa Barbara with Mandi a couple weeks ago?  This weekend it was my special time with JB. Last Thursday I flew into in beautiful Denver, Colorado to spend time with her and her fiance, Causten. We were all hosted by his lovely grandmother for a very special weekend and we had a wonderful time.

Lots of good conversation, great food and a beautiful city to explore. One of the great things about the weekend was that I got to meet Causten's family and I made some new friends...

Here I am with Dakota and Riley - we became very close and was hard to leave them!

JB has been a grown up and living away from home since she went off to college in 2004, but darn it if I can't keep from crying when it's time to say good-bye to her again. After all these years, you would think that I would be better at the saying good-bye part. Nope. I'm not, but I take great comfort in the fact that she is happy and healthy and doing so well in every aspect of her life. I am a proud and grateful mama!

Sitting here at the Denver Airport waiting for my flight and now I'm just anxious to get back home to my honey...3 hour flight delay due to micro bursts and wind sheer...sounds dangerous so I'm happy to sit and wait until things settle down. It will give me time to think about what Beckie and I might do together...

fyi

I haven't written anything for the past couple of days. It's hard for me to write my silly little stories when bad things happen to good people or when horrible things happen in the world. Seems like a good time to take a small break.

I'm off on a little adventure tomorrow and I won't be home until Sunday. If I am given permission to do so, I will tell you all about it when I'm back in California...have a good weekend, Everyone! See you when I get back...

still celebratin'

I am pretty spoiled. When my birthday falls on a weekday, Ron always extends the celebration to the weekend. Do you remember last year? My birthday lasted for an entire week! Granted, we didn't go to Las Vegas this year, but we are still using my birthday as an excuse to go out to dinner and see movies.

On Friday, we went to Kinder's for my favorite marinated ball tip steak sandwich (YUM!) and then the movie 42. Yesterday we went for an even nicer dinner at Sundance - The Steakhouse in Palo Alto. We had a delicious half bottle of wine, salad and prime rib. We even took the time to share a piece of 7 layered chocolate cake before we hit the road to San Francisco. Very delicious meal.

Next up, we were off to San Francisco to see Disconnect at the only theater in the area that was showing this film. The movie has several different story lines related to current technology and the internet - identity theft, cyber-bullying, internet pornography are among the difficult topics dealt with in the film. This is a very thought provoking movie and the central thread that weaves all the stories together is that people are becoming disconnected from each other due to their connections to technology. A father who is constantly on his cell phone to the point where he neglects his family; a  grieving couple who have had their identities stolen because the wife goes to online chat rooms and the husband goes to online gambling sites; a lonely boy who becomes the victim of cyber-bullying through facebook; and finally a teenage boy who is first exploited by a cyber pimp when he is convinced to engage in online pornography and then exploited by a news reporter who convinces him to tell his story for the camera. They are all compelling stories and real food for thought. The actors are all very good. There is some nudity, adult language and situations, but I do recommend this movie if you can find it - it opened in limited release this weekend.

One day left in the weekend - should we keep celebrating? It makes turning another year older not quite so bad. Beside, I said it earlier this week and I meant it - this year I'm just grateful to be celebrating my birthday at all!

42

I have to be honest. I love baseball movies more than I like baseball. We have many friends that are passionate baseball fans and I totally understand their devotion to the sport - that's how we feel about basketball in this house! When I first saw the trailers for 42 I knew that I HAD to see it. It's an important story and I'm really surprised that it took so long for the film to be made.

The movie is based on the true story of Jackie Robinson. I knew he was important to the game of baseball but didn't realize that he was the first black player to play on an all white team. I wonder how accurately the movie portrayed Jackie's struggles against racism and segregation in the late 1940's. Parts of the movie were difficult to watch because of how freely the "N" word was used against Jackie. It's an important history lesson about civil rights and the indignities that black Americans suffered.

Chadwick Boseman is the actor who wonderfully portrayed the bravery of Jackie Robinson. I was most surprised by Harrison Ford who played Branch Rickey. Usually when I see a movie with Harrison Ford in it, I always think of him as Han Solo or Indiana Jones playing the role. Not this time. He was perfect as the gruff, curmudgeonly owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who decided to shake up the game of baseball by bringing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers. There was no sign of Han or Indy here. He was great!

You must see this movie! I believe that it will become one of the classic sports movies like Pride of the Yankees, Raging Bull, Rudy, The Natural or Hoosiers. 

What a day!

When I woke up this morning, I was thinking there would be no hoopla this year...just a profound sense of gratitude to be having a birthday at all! It is really is something to look back over the last year and reflect on all that has happened. Whew - what a ride!

The day started as I expected. Mom called me first thing this morning to sing "Happy Birthday" to me - that much hasn't changed! I got up, showered, puttered around the house, made myself a flower arrangement then decided to do a little shopping close to home.  I had a coupon for the GAP  Outlet store. I got to the store, found what I wanted, tried it on and made my purchase...easy peasy, right? WRONG!

I came out of the store and stopped to look for my keys in my purse. A woman walking towards me asked me if I heard a baby crying. Yes, I could hear the baby. The two of us tracked the baby's cries to parked SUV. The baby (about 3 months old) was strapped into a  car seat in the back seat of the car. The windows were open about 4 inches, but it was about 77 degrees out today. The baby was crying loudly. We both looked around and saw no potential parents standing around. My first thought was to try to open the car, but the other woman thought that was a bad idea. I asked her to watch the car while I went back into the GAP to ask for security or 911. The clerk in the store called 911 and the police came pretty quickly. Two police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck showed up with sirens blaring and lights flashing! I waved them down and showed them where the baby was. One of the police officers was able to put his arm through the open window and unlock the door. He took the baby out of her car seat, walked over to the shade, held and comforted her until one of the EMT's from the ambulance took her from him. It was such a relief to see the baby girl in the officer's arms! I got a big lump in my throat. But still no mother. It occurred to me that if the police could get into the car so easily, someone else could have as well and maybe taken the baby...

The other woman was on her lunch break and had to get back to work - she saw that the baby seemed ok and left. I was asked to wait so the police could take a statement. I waited. I watched as the police went into the nearby stores asking for the workers to call the parents' names over the store intercoms. They must have gotten the parents' names from the license plate registration. From the time I found the baby until the time the police brought the mother out of the Marshall's store, 20 minutes had elapsed. I just wonder how long she would have kept shopping if the police hadn't found her.

One of the police officers finally came over to me and took my statement. He then asked to see my ID to get my information and noticed that it was my birthday. He thanked me repeatedly for taking action and said "You saved a life on the day you were given life." Another lady that had been watching the whole event take place came over and gave me a hug also thanking me for taking action. The officer told her that it was my birthday and the woman said "You were meant to be here today! Happy Birthday and God bless you!" I thanked them both and asked if the officer if the  baby girl was ok. Yes, she's going to be fine. I asked if mother would be charged. Yes. The mother would be charged. I can't imagine what was she thinking leaving her baby in the car to go shopping...

I wanted to get another look at the baby, but she and the mother were inside the ambulance. It was enough to know that she was ok and that the police had responded so quickly. It was time for me to go home. I needed to have a little cry.

I might have saved a baby's life on my 51st birthday...What a day...

spring cleaning

 Housekeeping is just like exercise to me - aside from the obvious physical aspect - I always feel better when it's done, but I have a really hard time making myself DO it. One of my favorite sayings is "Dust is a protective covering for furniture." I do not pretend to be much of a housekeeper - never have been. The Beeson House has never been at risk of being closed down by the health department, but things do tend to get messy with all my sewing and crafting and, yes, nesting.

Having out of town guests coming in this week inspired me to take care of business and get my house in order. It has taken me the better part of the last 5 days, but it's just about done. The funniest thing happened this morning...I had decided to wait until today to clean the bathrooms. I gathered all the cleaning supplies and got to work. I picked up the can of what I thought was "Scrubbing Bubbles" and sprayed down the shower, the commode and sink. I waited a couple minutes and started scrubbing. It wasn't going well - I was having to use a lot more elbow grease than usual and it still wasn't getting clean...it didn't smell right, either....

A word to the wise - furniture polish does not work well in the bathrrom! 

Lesson learned! Once I figured out the right cleaning product to use, things went much better. Now the backyard needs a few tweaks, but the house is ready to receive guests. I hope to keep up with the housekeeping this time so that next time it won't take me days to get ready for future guests...I really am going to try this time...really...

 Here's a peek at the backyard -

before

after

before

after

before

after

It's Spring and I cleaned...and now I'm exhausted.  

work AND play

It was a good weekend - a productive weekend. I have guests coming in from out of town this week and that was my main motivation for all the work in the backyard...but it's great to have it almost all done. Just another hour of work and it will be ready for visitors. I might have finished today but I was a little sidetracked by my favorite 6 year old. He helped me in the backyard by keeping me company as I moved flower pots around and swept the patio. He soon tired of that so we were off to explore the bike path and the marsh. Here are a few photos from our day.

He started on a scooter but we ended up on bikes to go to the bay.

Lots of wildlife in the marsh today. This fox was quite laid back and the geese didn't seem to mind him...

The fox didn't seem to mind us either...

 

Then the geese decided not to trust Mr. Fox. We also saw two huge jackrabbits, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera to capture them. 

He is such a ham when there is a camera around.

 The tide was very low when we were out by the bay.

On our way back home...

The weather was a bit cool, but it was another lovely day at the bay. A successful day complete with work and play.

work in progress

It all started with a wine barrel...well, half of a wine barrel. I have always wanted a half wine barrel to use as a flower planter. Mandi and I found one when we were in Santa Barbara and she bought it for me for my upcoming birthday! The only downside was trying to fit it in the Stratus and then smelling the wine the entire drive home!

So, yesterday after I was finished with my volunteer job, I went to Home Depot for potting soil and flowers. There were so many to choose from but I bought enough to plant in my barrel - English daisies, Marguerite daisies, and 3 different varieties of dahlias. I got up this morning and got started. I had to drill holes in the bottom of the barrel for drainage and then it was time to get my hands dirty. I DO NOT have a green thumb by any stretch of the imagination, but I do love to play in the dirt. I will do my best to keep these flowers going...

Once I had planted my flowers, I looked around my small back yard to realize how much I have neglected it in the last year. Granted, I have had other things on my mind, but I really did let it get messy. I grabbed the camera and took some "before" pictures, but I'm not going to show those to you yet. I pulled weeds and re-potted some succulents and then I decided to go Orchard Supply and get more potting soil and more plants. Here is the result....

I got marigolds, petunias, vincas, coleus and another dahlia. Once I've finished cleaning up the yard and cleaning and filling the fountain, I will scatter these pots around the yard for maximum effect! Then I will take the "after" pictures and show you what I've done. Is the suspense killing you? It's killing me! I'm going to have to take a long soak in a hot bath....my back is aching...but it will be well worth it when I'm finished!

eyes open

When I got home from yoga class and the grocery store yesterday, there was a helicopter hovering over my neighborhood. Uh-oh! This immediately made me nervous because there had been a shooting in the neighborhood just last week and I was afraid that the helicopter was looking for a criminal! I pulled into the driveway and saw that the helicopter was actually hovering over the marsh that is right next to the walking path that runs alongside the neighborhood and the San Francisco Bay. I quickly unloaded my groceries, grabbed my camera and headed back outside. Here is what I saw...

These power towers are set throughout the marsh. It's a bit unnerving to walk near them - there is an audible hum coming from them.

There must have been a need for some kind of maintenance. The helicopter was bringing large objects and lowering them to the workmen on the tower. This went on most of the afternoon.

This is a job I would NOT want!

A view of the walking/biking path.

 

A couple neighbors discussing the what was going on.

 

On the walk back to the house I couldn't help but admire a neighbor's garden.

This beauty is in MY garden, but I don't know where it came from - I didn't plant it there!

Quite a lot going on in my neighborhood yesterday - amazing what you see if you keep your eyes open!

life begins at the end of your comfort zone

"The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk" - Alasdair A. K. White.

Today I find myself in an uncomfortable situation. In the last couple days, my status has changed from "disabled" to "unemployed." What this means is that I have to make a real effort now to get myself together and find a job. What is uncomfortable is being nearly 51 years old and looking for work. Will there be anyone who wants to hire someone my age?

Other questions have begun to emerge. What do I want to do? The kind of position I had prior to my illness was absolutely ideal for me, but ultimately, somewhat stressful. I think I am past the time in my life for a 40 hour a week (more like 60, actually!) full-time job. What am I qualified to do? I have a bachelor's degree in social work. That in itself doesn't carry much weight. To be considered for almost all 'social work' positions, you must have a Master's degree and years of experience. I have the year's of experience, but do I want to go back to the kind of work I was doing before? I don't know.

I've been working with older adults for almost 20 years now. That would be my comfort zone. Maybe it's time to switch gears. What if I started looking for something working with children or better yet - babies?! I can also see myself sitting at a front desk answering the phone and doing light paper work on a part-time basis. Too bad I can't blog for a living!

OK, Universe! I am putting myself out there...what do you have in store for me now?

On the Road

It might surprise you to know that I have never read On the Road by Jack Kerouac. It's one of those books that I knew I was supposed to read because it was important, but I never got around to it. This past weekend when we were trying to decide what to see, I noted that this movie was playing at the theater where we usually go to see documentaries and "indie" films. I had heard a so-so review on the movie in general, but also that the actors' performances were very good. Okay, then, why not?

This movie which is based on the book is somewhat autobiographical. Jack Kerouac was a member of the Beat Generation of the late 40's along with his friends, Allan Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. The names of the main characters are changed but their identities are obvious - Kerouac is Sal, Ginsberg is Carlo and Neal Cassady is Dean in the story. We went into this movie with open minds knowing very little about what we were going to see. Not so much for the other people in the theater with us. Many of the other movie goers in the audience seemed to be 10 to 20 years older than us and were obviously excited to see this story on film.

So now what I know about the Beat Generation is that it was the earliest beginnings of the hippie counterculture. The members of this post-war culture were considered "bohemian hedonists" who experimented with drugs and alternative sexuality while reveling in spontaneous creativity and non-conformist ideals. Although most of the Beat writers met in New York, many of them settled in San Francisco and were responsible for the San Francisco Renaissance. It was a lot to take in.

The film focuses on these characters and their complex relationships as they drive back and forth across the country in search of the ultimate hedonistic pleasures - sex, drugs and jazz. I can't deny that the actors' performances were good. They were very dedicated to portraying the iconic characters in an honest and realistic manner. I believed them. But did I enjoy the movie? Well, no, not really. Since I hadn't read the book, I had no idea if the movie was faithful to the story. I did get the sense from the other people in the theater that they were vaguely unsatisfied with adaption of the book into film.  The movie ended and left us wondering what happened to the various characters. When we got home I looked up these people on the internet and found out that both Kerouac and Cassady (characters Sal and Dean, respectively) died young - Kerouac at 47 from internal bleeding due to excessive alcohol use and Cassady at 42 probably due his use of drugs. A couple of very sad lives.

On the Road as a film educated me about a time in American history that I didn't know too much about. It's not a "feel good" movie in any way. I would recommend this movie to Jack Kerouac fans and would be interested to know how they feel about the adaptation from book to film.