Sunday, July 6, 2008
The 8 empty houses next door were boarded up this weekend.
I thought that they had sold at auction and were to be renovated, or finished with as someone else had started a renovation before running out of equity cash, I'm suspecting. Dos mexicanos were cleaning up, I knew by their music from Cananea and Monterrey that they were Spanish speakers. They could be gringos, but I spoke Spanish with them, I like to practice or I'll forget. They were hired to clean up the property, to board windows and were told that the houses were to be finished, luego,...
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Grandma is gathering boxes for cactus and for moving foreign students.
I am going to go find lots of small boxes for heavy nopal cactus today. Then, I am going to find larger boxes, AMTRAK says 36" by 36" by 36" for shipping. Did you know that it costs $154 to go by train from Tucson to Madison, Wisconsin? It takes 60 hours and there are reclining seats with foot rests for sleeping, a dining car and a lounge with music sometimes. A person may take two suitcases and three boxes, 36x36x36, 50#s each, all for free. The train goes from here in Tucson along the Mexican...
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Graduations Galore, The Pomp and The Circumstance
One host daughter from Pakistan/Saudi Arabia graduated this year. I attended her Honor's Graduation ceremony, her Blue Chip ceremony, her TCCC ceremony and finally her McKale Stadium graduation ceremony. My camera heated up from all of the photo ops and my old legs gave out on the stadium stairs and Student Union stairs and up and down the campus sidewalks, and I ate and ate and ate my way through the receptions. Then, she had to move from her Resident Assistant apartment in Kaibab dormitory...
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Sunday, May 11, 2008
Babysitting twelve kids each Tuesday and growing dirt.
My DIL is getting her real estate license and is taking classes to do so. I know, not the best time for this career choice, but, hey, it might just work for her. She has classes and testing on Tuesdays, so I take over her home daycare center with a few toddlers and lots of after school big sisters and brothers from the same families. I am Tata, Ita, Abuelita and Hey, hey, hey, and I arrive with watermelons or ice cream, cake or some other junk to make them love me. I paint faces or read them...
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Friday, March 28, 2008
And the Miami Dolphins are???
Funny story from my daughter, who used to be a space cadet, but she's older now, so.....she's a space astronaut? One minute my daughter is teaching math to fifth graders and the next she can't remember the capital of her home state, Arizona....That's just her and the family accepts and is entertained by her lapses. "What was I doing in school, Mom?" she asks. "Your hair and nails, as I recall," is my answer. She just moved to Weston, Florida. She was at an Easter egg hunt at a Mormon Church,...
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Monday, March 24, 2008
Teaching foreign students about Easter, both secular and Christian.
I called my host son from Mumbai, my host daughter from Zambia and my host daughter from Pakistan and invited them to Mom's house for an Easter lunch. I told them about Jesus dying and then coming back three days later and then told them about how that meant eggs and bunnies and baskets and jelly beans now. They said that we seem to celebrate most of our holidays with foods and candies. I picked up Rajeesh, I shall call him (getting a Master's in computer science) and Kaliani, her new name here...
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Monday, March 17, 2008
Face painting my DIL's home daycare kids...
I promised to babysit the six children that my daughter-in-law watches in her home. She had a college exam to go take.... I took my paints and brushes and other fun stuff, but with naps and all, there was barely time to paint everyone's face before my DIL returned home. My grandson, who is two years old, began to cry the minute his mom stepped out the door. I went over to pat his back and to try to talk to him. He just made the 'push you away' movement with his hand and said, "UHN!" at me as I...
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Saturday, March 8, 2008
Doctor referrals arrived. I thought that the doctor had written me off.
I walked out of my new doctor's office crying and had given up even trying to fight for my health, once again. But, she finally, it appears, read my old reports from the other doctors and referred me to two specialists. I shall make appointments with them and pray for salvation. I don't hate my new doctor quite as much as I did last week. Today, I am living on Imodium and am in serious intestinal agony. Bummer. But, I finally feel good enough, with the Imodium, to get to my work table, as I am...
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Thursday, February 28, 2008
Pray for us procrastinators, now and in the hour of our beginning.
I asked for prayers. I got comments. I created laughter and amused people and got not one prayer and you know HOW I know that I didn't get one prayer??!?!? I have NOT begun. I am still avoiding doing what absolutely, without fail, must begin today. I am writing here, I am painting a large canvas, I am answering email, anything to NOT begin. So, all amusing comments aside, please, begin to pray for this idiot procrastinator who can do anything in this house, in this life, but begin what must be...
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Monday, February 25, 2008
Today, I must work in clay again, without a psychologist there to aid me.
I have not done this work in so long, that I lack faith in my ability to do it. Opening the first box of extruded clay is the most difficult thing of all. I must spend a few hours preparing my work table and work area to do this. It is a ritual. The clay worshipping place must be cleansed and laid out and purified in a funny, normal prep way. It is a step that I cannot skip or I will not be able to start. I feel like Monk, preparing to get my hands dirty and to keep them that way for the next...
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