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.

another year older

I am beginning my new year by having lost some items I have been holding onto for, perhaps, too long. Much as earlier this year I gave away the futon I had in my life since 1981, I now have other longstanding items no longer in my possession. These items were not consciously remanded to another. No.
The first items were my eyeglasses and their case. I had this pair of glasses since 1978 or so, perhaps a year earlier. They had large frames that matched my hair, being a tan tortoise-shell pattern. I had different lens prescriptions fitted in over the years, of course, adjusting for aging eyes as needed, but continuing to use those same frames. The latest set of lens were polycarbonate, shatterproof for use in the lab. The left lens had been damaged by continuous exposure to tears after my mother died in 2001.
I knew the glasses had run their course, and run it long and well, but I could not - would not - put them aside. I had already purchased new eyeglasses, with a new prescription, in December of 2007. The new glasses waited, unused, while I continued to use the old pair. Now, almost four years later, my well-worn glasses, and the soft case in which I kept them, are gone. Somewhere in Richmond, Virginia, a little over a week ago, the glasses' case didn't make it into my purse, and I didn't catch the loss until the next day. I thought about calling my friends in Richmond, to ask them to search their home, search their yard, search their car. I considered asking them to return to the restaurant and ask if my glasses were perhaps still there.
But I did not. I already have new glasses waiting at home and I have purchased a pair of reading glasses to use whilst away. I decided that this was as good a time as any for change - and I feel good about my decision. After all, I am beginning a new year of my life and change is warranted at such a time.
Then, two days ago, I accidentally erased all the text messages in the "inbox" of my phone. I had thought I was in the "sentbox" and I was trying to free up space to send pictures from my phone to elsewhere. I had quite a few pictures to send, as I use my phone as my camera, especially when on vacation and with sister-friends, as I am currently.
My phone had told me it was out of memory, so I meant to remove those images which were duplicated in my "sentbox". You know, the pictures I had already sent away for safekeeping. But the hour was late and I was not in the "sentbox" but my "inbox". I didn't even realize what I had done until I tried to send out more pictures... and again received the "out of memory" response. And when I rechecked my "sentbox", I realized my error, too late.
My "inbox" had preserved the last three text messages from Sam Johnson, dead these past two years. In one message, he wrote his support after meeting my bird on April 10, 2009. In another, he had forwarded a joke: "These guards won't let me see you in the zoo. I have peanuts." or some such silliness. That one was around April 14, 2009. The third, and final text was sent on April 17, 2009, and read: "@ comicbox. wanna meet for dinner b4 steeds?"
I had held on to these messages. He didn't seem so permanently gone as long as I still had words he had written specifically for me... right? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps it was time for me to let go of that grief and my subconscious mind took over and caused that mistaken elimination of those messages. However it happened, the end result is the same: those text messages, as well as a few others I had saved from other friends and family, are gone, vanished into the ether from whence they came.
And I'm good. I have even been gracious in my acceptance of the loss of these items. And now that I have documented them, and their loss, in this ethereal space, they don't seem lost after all. They are simply put away for safekeeping for all to see as well as more deeply into my memory.
And that is better and a good way for me to begin a new year.

it's a ... PLAY FESTIVAL!!!

This year, I'm commemorating my birth month by giving something back to the community. Specifically, I'm supporting the creative spirit in this lovely city near the sea. I do adore Shakespeare and the very thought of helping to bring new life to his works is - is - mindbogglingly exciting! I am so excited about June 10th and 11th!!!

here we go now!

As Ozzy would say, in "Flying High Again", here we go now!
April, thank God, is O V E R at last.
I seem to have gone through this same overwhelmed, terribly sad thing last year, too, with the madness blowing out the window with the sweet spring breezes. I know this from my blog. My very first entry in May is back to gratitude for the changes in my life, rather than mourning for people and times lost in the past.
Again, I say, THANK GOD.