Away we go

Sorry - No time to write an actual post. I'm meeting Ron at Chipolte for dinner, so I've gotta run!

Caution - love story involved

This post takes us back to the museum. The reason why my posts often end abruptly is that the caretakers show up at an unexpected time and I have to go immediately, Believe me, when the caretakers actually show up, one NEVER sends them away. They are a hot commodity!"


While looking at the permanent collection, I found a picture of someone I'd never heard of before, but yet I am sure was me in a former life. His name is Bayard Taylor, 1825-785. He wrote travelogues for the New York Post" in verse! No, they were not in verse for any particular reason. He just liked writing in verse! He wrote parodies of Whitman, I am completely convinced he must have been me! The picture of him in the National Gallery just sort of leaped out at me and made me look at it. And, another similarity, the picture was of him sitting on a rug and smoking a hookah! Although this is not that picture. It's just a picture of a mouse on a rug smoking a hookah.

I called Mom this morning and told her about the exhibit, and we are going to go together next Monday. She doesn't think Dad will be up for it, which is probably true, but which is too bad.

I'll see if I can maybe arrange for a longer trip on Monday, 'cause Mom would be very interested in all the historical portraits. She majored in history.

Mom got her undergraduate degree in history about TWO WEEKS BEFORE I GOT MY DEGREE!!. You have to admire Mom's determination! She originally dropped out of college after her sophomore year. Her parents didn't have enough money to have 2 kids in college at the same time, so when her brother got in school, she had to drop out, She and Dad reacted to that by eloping! They didn't tell anyone in school, not even their roommates, except for a couple of friends they took along as witnesses. Then they ran off and married. They went to Cumberland Falls to honeymoon, and then went back to school and lived in separate dorms until the end of the year! At the end of the school year, they both went back to Dad's home in Wilkes Barre, PA to live with Pop and Granny for the summer. In the fall, they moved to Boston , where Dad attended Boston University and Mom got a job. Dad says that the bus that took her to work each morning would first go up their street one way, and then turn around at the end of the street and some back down, and Mom would wait in bed until she'd heard it go by one way, then would leap out of be and be waiting outside by the time it came back down the other.

Mom was determined to get her college deegree, though. She raised 3 kids, and managed to do all the Den mother, and Girl Scout leader, and Sunday School teacher, etc, etc, etc. stuff. She also worked, on and off, as a substitute teacher, and even as a full time teacher at the alternative school in Charlottesville - this was where they sent students who were suspended from regular school so that they didn't just get a vacation. More about this later - there are some funny stories! Anyway, through all this, Mom kept taking one or two college classes at a time. Finally, when Mom ansd Dad lived in Harrisonburg, she could drive across the mountain to Fredericksburg, and take several classes at Mary Washington. I'm just really proud of her for finishing.

art

Well, I did go to the National Portrat Gallery and the adjoining American Art Museum, and I did have a wonderful time, but, reading through yesterdays entry, I saw nothing that I planned to see. That's really great, though, because it means I get to go back and see the stuff I'd planned to see!

The first thing I toured was the exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings which were loaned to the museum by George Lucas ad Steven Spielburg. That was just plain neat. It ws all the wonderful Norman Rockwell pictures of Americana. Mom and Dad would love it, so I think I'll call them and see if they won't go back with me on Metro Acccess. They wouldn't have to do anything physical but walk through the exhibit, so I think even Dad could do it. I told Jolie, who is the only sensible administrator here, that the residents here would enjoy it and that they should take a bus load of residents to see it. Field trips don't fall in Jolie's sphere of responsibility, though, and it sounds like it would take work, so I doubt it ever happens.

I did see the Elvis exhibit, which is one of the things I said yesterday that I wanted to see, but it was pretty much nothing.

Plans

I didn't do anything or go anywhere today, so I'm very ready to blow this joint.

Just a side note, speaking of blowing this joint, the woman I eat breakfast with stuck her fork in her poached egg and there was an audible "pop", and the egg exploded. Literally. Pieces of egg went everywhere.


The reason I stayed at here today is because I went to church yesterday yesterday and then to Ma and Pa's for lunch, and by the time I'd returned from all that, I was content to just sit around, and forgot that I'd be crazy today if I had nothing to do.

So this afternoon I made plans for tomorrow. I plan to go to the National Poitrait Gallery because I've never been there, and because they have a really cool Elvis exhibit which is only there through 8/29. I see that they also have "From FDR to Obama: Presidents on Time", which is poitraits of the various presidents on the cover of Time magazine. . It should also be interesting to see the permanant collection. Of the presidential poitraits in the permanant collection, the Portrait Gallery Website says "Visitors will see an enhanced and extended display of multiple images of forty-three presidents of the United States, including Gilbert Stuart’s “Lansdowne” portrait of George Washington, the famous “cracked plate” photograph of Abraham Lincoln and whimsical sculptures of Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and George H. W. Bush by noted caricaturist Pat Oliphant. Presidents Washington, Andrew Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt will be given expanded attention because of their significant impact on the office. Presidents from FDR to Bill Clinton are featured in a video component of the exhibit." It sounds totally fascinating.

bummer of a day

Sometimes it just ain‘t easy.

I had an experience with two “caregivers” today that pretty much left me devastated. Lets hope they don’t kick me out of here because of it. I did not yell at anyone. I just sobbed uncontrollably, as can be attested to by the lovely caregiver that took over on the next shift and scraped what was left of me up off the floor.

I knew all along that I was not allowed to express any sort of disapproval to the workers. If the caregivers were to claim I yelled at them, they’d be lying.

Not that lying is unheard of. On Friday, there was no hot water, and thus no bath. Please remember that I pay a whole lot of extra money to get 5 baths a week. The normal fee only covers 2 per week. I was told, “Tyree will be here to fix it in 45 minutes. You can get a bath then.” That was a total fabrication.

So why did they lie to me? I wasn’t up in their faces demanding answers or anything. I just knew they had called Tyree, and asked what she’d said, and that is what I was told. Had they told me the truth, which was ”Tyree will come in and fix it tomorrow morning” I would have been content

choir jokes

CHOIR JOKES


Q: How many tenors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Six. One to do it, and five to say, "It's too high for him.”

Q: How many altos does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They can't get up that high.

Q: How many sopranos does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: One. She holds the bulb and the world revolves around her

Q: How many basses does it take to change a lightbulb?
A:None. They're so macho they prefer to walk in the dark and bang their shins.

What's the difference between a soprano and the PLO?
You can negotiate with the PLO.

What's the difference between an alto and a tenor?
Tenors don't have hair on their backs.

What's the definition of an optimist?
A choral director with a mortgage.

Q. What do you call a Soprano who can sight read?
A. An Alto

Q. How do you put a twinkle in a Soprano's eye?
A..Shine a flashlight in her ear

divine intervention

I went to church to assemble bulletins today and the weirdest thing happened... I was completely all alone in the church. The secretary and pastor are on vacation, so I was the only one who'd been there all day. I was just sitting in the little work room working away, when all of a sudden the Xerox machine started making ominous noises and then it started working, acting like it was copying something, and spit out a piece of paper. Being that I was at the church, I of course decided it was a message from God. I picked it up with trembling hand and read it with great trepidation...

It was an ad for roof re-tarring.

Had I a roof, I would tar it immediately. As it is, though, I don't quite know what to do with this, and am beginning to doubt that it is of divine origin.