midnight in Paris

Tonight, I drove out to a new cinema to see a movie. I didn't know much about the film, and this is the only cinema showing it. Mostly, though, I was escaping my hot house, in hopes that night air would cool it enough that I could sleep. The air conditioner was on the fritz and help would be coming the next day, but not tonight. So, partly to cool off, partly to see the movie before it left town, I left town to catch it.
"Midnight in Paris" is a movie about appreciating the time in which you live. In other words, ejoying the present, not mourning the past or yearning for the future. Time only moves forward, one fraction of a second at a time, and no amount of human pining will alter that pace or direction. To have regrets of time lost in the distant or near past simply robs an appreciation of the time at hand. To wish for a time not yet come to pass in the near or distant future is to miss the richness of the time all around.
What a fine message for this last day of the first half of 2011! This was a fine message for me, indeed, given the many changes brought about in this short thirty-day span of time.
For now, it's a hot house, with anticipation of a cooler night to come.

what a long strange trip it's been

Yesterday was a merging of friends past and friends present. Who can say who will be friends future?
I went to the wedding of my ex's best friend yesterday evening. My ex had come to town and was there as his best man. The mutual friend who had introduced me to my ex so many years ago was also there.
Playing music at the reception site was a new friend from one of the social groups I have been part of since the divorce. There was also another new friend from another social group I have been part of since the divorce. Both of these folks know the groom and one of them also knows my ex. Small world.
As you know, I've had to start over with my social life, AD. The friends I had before the marriage, who never left my side, are still with me, though they are scattered geographically around this continent. Almost all of the friends I thought I had during the marriage have scattered away, though they still live in this very town. You would have thought divorce was contagious. And perhaps, in a way, it is. People in marriages, relationships, couplehood, find themselves shining a harsh spotlight on their spouses, partners, significant others, searching for any hint of a fatal flaw that might unravel the threads binding them together.
A bit of questioning is a good thing. Any truth, belief, credo, which cannot withstand close scrutiny is not worthy of being a truth or belief or credo. So much of what we hold to be true is based on partial knowledge and subjective perception and not on verifiable and objective facts. My favorite definition of truth is "conformity with fact or reality". It's close to being a scientific law, which is hailed as being a rule held to be true in every instance... but is it? Those laws are based on the outcomes of repeated experiments, but usually have some caveat added in. For instance, all the laws concerning the behavior of properties of gases include the phrase "for an ideal gas" - of which there is nonesuch. Still, the gas laws do give scientists a starting point for understanding and predicting how a real gas will respond to various stimuli.
Perhaps that is how personal truths are of best use. If those beliefs are held to be guidelines, not nonmalleable facts, then those beliefs help make some sense of this world and the people we meet. Guidelines. "Indications of a future course of action", by others known and unknown and by oneself. THAT is helpful.

hasta la vista!

Until my next trip out to the other coast, my love and a piece of my heart stays with my li'l' sister and her family.
My elder niece wondered one evening why they had not flown over to my beach. I explained that the trip was rather expensive and that it would cost them five times as much since there were five of them.
That would mean they would spend $2800 JUST on the flight. That would not include food on the plane (no more free meals) or in the airport between flights, checked baggage fees, or parking fees. This time, for me alone, the trip was $560, round trip. (Of course, the websites make it sound like less, but those posted prices don't include the various fees and taxes.) I also spent about $35 on meals in the Dallas terminal (Pappasito's Cantina, Gate A28, highly recommended!) and $40 to retrieve my car at the Savannah airport (parked in the Economy lot for $8 per day). Two years ago, the same flight was $549 total. Different airlines, but quite similar in price and in baggage allowances. Hopefully, that price will be about the same when next I travel in that direction... or some few years later when she is old enough to fly out to see me.

Glitter Bomb!

Glitter Bomb, aka my elder niece in San Diego, is phenomenal on roller skates! As a trainee of the Starlettes, she shows great promise, fearless and fast. I sm so blessed to have been able to see her in action!

penny souvenirs

Most of the time, I don't bother with buying souvenirs. At least, not for me. I may purchase an occasional item which I think will appeal to someone with a birthday coming or to save for Christmas or such. Rarely do I purchase something specifically for ME.
The exceptions are these little stamped pennies, which cost me two quarters each. I delight in choosing the image I want to be imprinted form the three or four possibilities. Then I find just the right penny to serve as the raw material. I try to select an older penny, one of those which are pure copper and not simply copper-clad. I firmly believe the solid copper gives a more legible image.
Anyway, when the coins have been placed in their designated slots and the image desired has been aligned in the machine, then, and only then, is the coin slide inserted into the machine. I turn the crank, trying to maintain a constant speed for the penny's progress, then scoop it out of the drop slot while the coin is still slightly warm. Success!!! And a low-cost memento is mine!
I have introduced my California angels to the souvenir penny phenomenon. Good! Something to remind them of their Aunt so far across the North American continent! I fortunately had enough quarters AND pennies for the three of them and myself. That was incredible! So I showed them how it was done and allowed the youngest to help produce mine. Then they each made their selection and grabbed them up to run outside and show mom. Look, look!
I managed to snap this photograph at just the right moment, as the newly-imaged copper was taken into a small hand. Timing this good is pure luck!

CA angels

Fun with bubbles on a sunny afternoon during "June gloom" in southern California. Beautiful! Giggles and smiles all around! And later, I was treated to a three-act floor show starring these nieces and nephew. Sign language, dancing, and singing!!! Wow!

serendipity

Serendipity is defined as "the act of making desirable discoveries by accident" at dictionary.reference.com, one of my favorite websites. A word not in existence until 1754, the man credited with first use defines it as "discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things ... not in quest of". One of the best examples would be Alexander Fleming's research of bacterial growth and finding a contaminant that had ruined one of his samples - a contaminant that would become penicillin.
As told elsewhere, Alexander Fleming's start into bacteriological medicine came from an unlikely string of events. After playing water polo with his brothers and Scots during the Boer War, he returned to England to an inheritance and no particular goals. Based on good test results, a brother's advice, and a chance water polo game, he selected St. Mary's Hospital, in London, as the medical school to attend. After graduation as a surgeon, Fleming decided to forgo a surgical career and stay on at St. Mary's, to work in the Inoculation Service. WHY? Because the captain of the rifle club wanted Fleming on his team. So, Fleming was doing postdoctoral research in a field not his major, at a place first chosen for its water polo team and then selected for its rifle club. And today, because he was in the right place, and he took notice and PUBLISHED the scientific problem he had witnessed, we have penicillin. Serendipity!
My love of theatre, as a participant both on and off the stage, are part and parcel of my love of teaching. I knew before my days in the Navy that I enjoyed being on the other side a classroom desk, shy as I was. During my senior year, I volunteered to be a teacher's assistant to two sophomore English classes, as that was preferable to taking two study halls. (I had completed all my course requirements except senior English, but was required to be on campus for half a day; hence, I was enrolled in senior English, two study halls, and senior Spanish.)
That teaching experience led me to work at the now-defunct Savannah Science Museum, where I did odd jobs which included being the snake handler and voice-altering storyteller for children's parties there. That choice of employment my senior year was also a direct result of the love of science nurtured in me by participation in the STERI program (Student-Teacher Environmental Research Interaction) my junior year. This program had included trips to the marshes, to the beach, and on shrimp boats to study the variety of life in those environments.
While working at the Science Museum, I was introduced to what life would be both as a sailor and working with electronics by the maintenence technician. Fun! Biology, physiology (we had a walk-in model of the human heart!), physics, chemistry, history - what a place for young minds!

that bird has flown

Well, not completely. My bird and I have parted ways, both now admittedly "single", still friends. He and I have not been quite right for the past few months and our time in Virginia, the state which is advertised as being "for lovers", pretty well cinched it. The sputtering spark has flickered for the last time.
He is such a good guy and I do wish him well. When I broached the matter last Friday by stating that "I don't think of us as a couple anymore and haven't for a while." he was as relieved to hear it as I was to say the words. He agreed that he had felt that way for some time, too, but he didn't want to be the one to put an end to things. He was patiently waiting for ME to gain the courage to say the words. I'm sure it must have been quite a strain on him, but he waited. It was important to him that I be the one to formally end what we had. How very considerate!
I think this has been a good learning experience for me. I have found that I am definitely not ready for a relationship, for a commitment to another person. I am certainly more at peace with myself, thanks to the Mississippi plum, that's for sure. And I feel that one day in the distant future, I will once again be ready for full-tilt boogie immersion in love... not any time soon, but perhaps in a few years. Time will tell, as it always does, as it always will.
My heart has found a beat again, not in rhythm with another, but a rhythm of its own.
Thank you, my friend.