For the first 50 years of my life, my perfectionist self mistakenly believed it was all about knowing more, getting it right, planning, attempting to prevent bad things from happening, and keeping all of my chicks in a row. It took me this long to discover that the JOURNEY is all that matters. This quote from Gilda Radner sums it all up:

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
"


Friday, December 22, 2017

Life After College

I haven't posted in a while, and wasn't planning to start again until the New Year.  
But plans change when there's a very good reason!


2017 has been a year of change for my daughter, Annie.  College graduation in May, job interviews, accepting a job offer in July, move to a new apartment in August, adopting 2 kittens, and beginning her first teaching position in mid-August...all happening in four months.



Annie found a large, beautiful, bright, cheery apartment in a small town in Massachusettes only 40 minutes from home and 15 minutes from her new job!


It is the 3rd floor of an old house which was just totally renovated.


It has 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, a spacious kitchen, dining room, and living room.







The kittens, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab came home a few weeks later.


Then she entered the "working world".



 Since September,  there have been ups and downs as Annie has been finding her way through the struggles of first-year teaching.  Over time, we've noticed less focus on her difficulties and more talk about "her kids" and the funny things they say, notes they've written to her, and appreciative emails from parents.

Annie's time is split between the elementary school and the middle school. 

She teaches general music to 3rd and 4th graders, 
and
is the band instructor to 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.

Last week she put on a wonderful holiday concert with her elementary students.



She was extremely nervous beforehand, but you'd never know it once the show began.



Watching her interact with the kids, we couldn't help but wonder where
the years have gone.  Wasn't it just yesterday that she was one of the
 little ones on the stage? 

  
As a parent, it was wonderful to watch the kids looking up to Annie
 and to see her face light up in response.


Not very many years ago,  Annie would scramble up to her music teacher, Mrs. Bigge, 
after every concert so I could take their picture together.


Now she is the "Mrs. Bigge" for these kids.



Last night,  we were honored to attend Annie's first Middle School Band Concert.




Here, she directed the very cool Jazz Band.




Then the full band did extremely well too!


It was nice for us to be able to meet the school principal and a few of
Annie's colleagues that we hear so much about.


We were very proud of Annie.  
She looked confident and professional,
but the best part was, again, seeing how she
was connected to the kids and how they responded to her.


We would have traveled far to attend these concerts,
but we feel fortunate to be less than an hour away!

Congratulations, Annie!

Monday, October 30, 2017

A Mighty Oak Falls

I woke up this morning in anticipation to discover
who had been indicted by the Grand Jury
in the Trump investigation.

In complex investigations such as this, often the first to be charged are
those at the bottom.  It is common that prosecutors use information from lower level people to help the investigation as it works its way higher up the ladder.

Early this morning, as the rain came down and the wind whirled through the trees,  a mighty oak toppled to the ground in our front yard.




It fell away from our house, across our neighbor's driveway, and across the road.




Unfortunately, it also crushed our neighbor's car.


BUT their mailbox and newspaper boxes remained untouched.

There's nothing like a disaster to draw the neighbors out of their houses
before 7 o'clock in the morning!


Within 1/2 hour,  the town was here to clear the branches from the road to allow cars to pass.


And within a few hours,  the Distinctive Tree Care was here to remove the rest 
of the tree.



The car was uncovered.



The crime scene was taped off so as not to endanger any Trick-or-Treaters tomorrow night.

As I looked more closely at the root ball,  I noticed how small the roots of this enormous tree actually were.  I asked the arborist about the root system.  After all this tree had weathered over its many, many years, what made it topple now?

He explained that, unlike what many believe,  the roots of large oaks are not huge and mainly extend only 18 inches into the ground.  The many small roots extend way beyond the canopy of the tree and make up the entire support system for the tree.

Over time, and for many reasons, these many small tentacles of roots can weaken or be broken.  When this happens, and the support system of the mighty tree is no longer as strong as it once was,  it can be uprooted if the conditions are right.

There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top.

As the Meuller investigation chips away at those small roots in Donald Trump's world,
what will be discovered?  

Will it be enough, 
and will conditions be right
 to bring him down?












Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Paris, Je T'Aime

Earlier this summer,  my daughter, Annie, and I made a post-graduation trip to London and Paris.  I posted about our time in London already, but I need to post about the 2nd half of our vacation.  

Paris is an amazing city!  This was my daughter's first time there, but my second.  

Where London seemed to be a fine-tuned, past-paced machine where people walked briskly and with purpose,  Paris was a stark contrast to that.  Parisians seem to spend a lot of time enjoying life.  They lounge in parks, near fountains, on the quays next to the Seine, near the Eiffel Tower, and at many, many bars and cafes.  Ok, maybe some were tourists.  And maybe London is different because the weather is not as conducive to lounging outside. But there is a distinctly different feel between the two cities.




As I look back on our pictures from Paris,  I am struck by how pretty 
everything was.  


We stayed in a small apartment in the 6th arrondissement on Rue Bonaparte.  I LOVED this neighborhood more than any other I've seen in Paris.  Within a short walk, there were affordable restaurants, bakeries, bars, shops, and Luxembourg Gardens.  The streets were narrow and quaint and beautiful!


On our first day, while walking to Luxembourg Gardens,  we came upon this statue "Under the Hat" in front of the Hungarian Institute.  There is a twin statue in Hungary.  


Luxembourg Gardens is a huge park, and we enjoyed walking around its many sections. 


We sat by the fountains and watched Parisian children push sailboats around the fountain with long sticks (nothing motorized).  


We passed by the original model used to create the Statue of Liberty.
Then we sat and watched a group of men play Petanque - a French version
of Bocce Ball.

On our first evening,  we walked to Tuileries Gardens where we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.


Then, as daylight waned, we watched the pyramids of the Louvre come alive with light. 


We briefly visited the Arch de Triomphe, 


and the Trocadero for this iconic view of the tower.


We climbed to the towers of Notre Dame.


Annie attracted a crowd as an artist in Montmartre "cut" out her silhouette
with paper and scissors.


Then she allowed another artist to do her "portrait".  He wanted $100 for it.
We refused.  He gave it to Annie anyway.  She put it in the nearest trash can!


Wherever we went,  we saw Asian couples in extravagant gowns and tuxedos having professional portraits taken.  It was rather odd.


One evening, we attended a wonderful concert of Carmin Burana 
at beautiful Saint-Chapelle.




The musicians played instruments from the Renaissance period which was a treat
for Annie.  She recently played the Crumhorn in a Renaissance Quartet at Eastman!


Another evening was spent at the Eiffel Tower. 







We took the elevator to the top level, then walked down from the second level.




Not wanting to leave, we lingered on the lawn for a picnic and a few games of Rummy 
in the shadow of the Iron Lady.




The Eiffel Tower (and all of Paris) is really at its finest at night.  One of our best
discoveries was an hour-long boat tour (Vedettes du Pont Neuf) on the Seine.  We booked the last ride of the night so we could relax and enjoy the "city of lights".


We traveled past Notre Dame, under many gorgeous bridges, and past many buildings and monuments.


The reflections of the lights in the water made everything doubly beautiful! 


The boat turned around at the Eiffel Tower, which takes your breath away at night!  For five minutes at the beginning of every hour after dark, the Eiffel Tower "sparkles" in addition to its regular lights.  We were fortunate to be able to see this light show too!




My favorite day in France was a day-trip from Paris to Giverny to visit the house and gardens of artist Claude Monet.  We took the train to Vernon, where we decided not to take the bus, but rented bikes to ride the remaining 6 kilometers to Giverny.
It was so much fun!


I am a gardener and a lover of flowers of all kinds, so this was a huge treat for me.



We also were able to go inside the house, which was a feast of color too.








On the way back, we lingered in Giverny amid its quaint beauty for a while longer.
 The poppies were growing wild on the roadside and each house that we passed was adorned with flowers of its own.








We grabbed an ice cream cone before returning our bikes and heading back to Paris.
It was such a fabulous day that I will never forget!

I am so thankful for the privilege to spend this unforgettable time with my daughter
during this summer between her graduation and the beginning her first job as a teacher of music!

"It's better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times." 
~Asian proverb