MaryAlice Musings and More

Today we drove south of Houston to an auction,  Jackie has gone to the auctions of this family owned business for a number of years.  She had not been for awhile so there were lots of "greetings" and "how are you" and "glad you are here", they were glad to have someone from Maine and I was happy to be out on a glorious day.  This auction started out with selling the property and house, I had never seen a real estate auction before, and this was not very exciting as there was only one bidder.  First round ended, and the owners needed to be called, they had the final say on accepting a bid, they did not.  Round 2 started and the same bidder raised his price by $8,000.  One more phone call to the owners and once again they said no.  The auction ended, and the bidder and the owner and people from the auction house had a private phone call and a price was agreed upon and the house was sold.  We then started the with things in the garage, the video ab...

I have to say at the end of this week, I am happy, grateful and feeling good.    I am very aware that it is Passover and Good Friday and both of these traditions have held big spaces in my life and have helped to shape me into who I am today.  And what about today?  I spent all morning on my genealogy search,  I have never spent this amount of time doing research on my family lineage.  I have family linked to 17 states and three countries (Canada, Germany, England) so far!  I have been in appreciation and awe of the names of the women:   Mary Emma, Alta Effa, Mary Thelma, Stella Grace, Drysilla, Rosanna, Alice, Joyce Colleen, and the best Pearl Sunshine!  Not one of them except Joyce Colleen went past 8th grade even if they went to school at all!  Many had more than 10 children, most were wives and homemakers,  some servants, one was a dressmaker!  The more time I spend the more excited I am to get my DNA results....

It was slow going this morning,  I was up many times in the night it was not quite a mid-western sounding thunder storm, but it was intense and loud!  The thunder rolled in a way that I hadn't ever heard, it was low and grumbling and went on and on.  The rains came down, and then there was the drip, drip, drip just outside the window.  After who knows how long I was able to go back to sleep.  I was glad to sleep and slowly started my morning.  Late morning I got word that my glasses had arrived and that they were ready to pick up!  I have my new glasses, they feel great, I am seeing great, and I think that we figured out all the adjustments so that they fit just right.   I like the new look, whimsical, fun and a little studious! With new glasses in tow I went back to the house and spent time doing more genealogy, found out the years the my birth father was in the service.  My fraternal grandmother is still a mystery and I hope that I...

I started my morning browsing on FB and found a post by Madison friend Lynn linking to an Atlantic article  that included a video with incredible water colors and pastels by Jeff Scher and vocals by Joan Baez performing, " The President Sang Amazing Grace"   .  I opened up the video and listened and watched the video and I hope the you will to - I linked it for you!  Such a sad and powerful song, such a poignant moment in our history.  What a important work of art capturing  the violence and horror of a young man opening fire and a President comforting us all as he sweetly sang through our collective grief and loss.   I was reluctant to blog about this, it is not easy to be reminded of those mass murders but all day I kept hearing the song in my head, remembering what it felt like to hear my President singing Amazing Grace in that church.  The weight of racial injustice, such senseless loss.  And our President softly singing to us, comf...

Tuesday is the day of our Operations Committee at the Millinocket Memorial Library.  So I was up and about and ready for my "Skype Hook Up" at 8:30 this morning.  I had my materials all lined up on my desktop, agenda open and a big cup of Earl Grey Tea ready to drink.  I knew before I moved full time to Millinocket that I wanted to volunteer at the library.  I didn't know how important that work and the library would be in making Millinocket my new home.  So when I told folks that I would be gone for almost three months,  I did make it clear that I was wanting to continue to do whatever work I could do while I was on my spring adventure.  So every other week on Tuesday morning I get to virtually connect with my library team!  Everyone is working very hard and we are doing all that we can to help make sure that the operations of the library is as much a part of the Future Library Project as the physical remodeling and redesigns.  Such fine a...

It was just another monthly Monday Happy Hour at Alma Latino's. a small Mexican Neighborhood Restaurant and Bar.  They host the Lesbians Over Fifty Social Group Monthly.  The cars pull in, many with a handicap sticker hanging from the rear view mirror.  Some in this group have been meeting together for over 30 years, some have been friends for over 50 years, and there are newcomers as well.   I was told Alma's have the best margaritas in town.  How could I say anything but YES when Scotty and Janice said they would drive by and pick me up. At today's gathering there was a birthday cake,  celebrating 83 years.  There was a nephew and daughter who was visiting an Aunt.  Then there was me the long distance member of this long time social group of lesbians. I asked Janice and Scotty about how and when they met,  and found out that they will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary this fall.  I told them I would come to the celebrati...

It was a stay at the house day.  I have been exploring, doing, and moving around all week.  It felt good to have a "I am not going anywhere" day.  Had a good talk with daughter as she was traveling to WI to pick up the grand kids! This afternoon I went on a Call of the Midwife marathon.  Steamed some tamales and had yummy tamales, black beans and Mexican rice.  I am still battling the biting insects.  If anyone has a secret weapon to stop the itching, I am ready to try it.  Still savoring all the energy from the Marches yesterday, and needing to take a time out.  I am aware of what a privilege it is to be able to have a "day off".  I have been needing to do lots of cheering for my teams today while watching the watching Elite Eight games.  I love watching these women leave it all on the court.  The day ends and I am thinking that there will be more movies and museums  this week as there may be some rainy days.  And...

Today I shed tears of joy, of pain, of respect and love for the children, these emerging empowered young adults who are demanding, who are not wavering, who are pure in their knowledge and are emboldened to tell their truth.  Without blame, without violence, without hesitation they expressed a unity, a hope for democracy and a demand for change.  I found myself singing one of my favorite songs from Sweet Honey in the Rock, it is taken from a poem by Kahil Gibran.  Please take a moment if you would like and listen to On Children and below are the words from the song not the entire Gibran poem.  Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomo...

Well we are not quite at the Final Four, but I so like to be reminded that Mississippi State beat Connecticut last year at the Final Four and I was in Dallas, I watched the game and it was really really fun!  Now as I type I am watching Mississippi State roll over North Carolina State in the Sweet Sixteen. Today I began my house sitting duties and companion to Boo the kitty.  Jackie is off for a week with her family, they are going to be spending time on the gulf coast and I am continuing my urban living. After Jackie set off for Corpus Christi I continued my very low key day with a walk that included another stop at the optometrist to get my new glasses fitting better.  Then some time for reading, napping and reheating of Chinese leftovers! I spent several hours on Ancestry today filling in my family tree.  I have been able able to get to great great grandparents for everyone except my paternal grandmother.  So far I am finding nothing except her name...I...

What a beautiful day it was today in Houston.  I woke up still thinking about "Three Billboards..." and what happens when we make anger our home.  So hard to find your way out of the depths and self righteousness that comes along with anger.  So easy to to objectify everything, lose our humanity.  I believe that the arts do play a pivotal role in helping us to examine our world, who we are in it, and show us parts of ourselves that we would never see if we had not seen a play, read a book, gone to a movie, looked at a piece of art, studied a photograph.  So it was poignant and wonderful that I had an adventure in the arts and culture today. I started out late this morning, getting an Uber and was planning to go to the Rienzi House , which is part of the Museum of Fine Arts System.  I wanted to stroll through the gardens and take in the beauty of the house and the collection.  I plugged in the address, the Uber arrived and after a few errant turns w...

Oh my,  I am still reeling after seeing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri .  What a movie, what acting, and what a story.  I knew from the trailers and reviews that this was not a "easy viewing" movie, but WOW! Before watching the movie I walked to Whole Foods Market    I had to find something to ease the itching from bug bites and find another something to help deter them from biting me!  I know that this is a problem that my friends on the east coast and up north would wish they had at the moment. But the bad news is that there are no-see-ums and whatever else flying around inside and outside and they are loving my ankles and more!  So it was off to the store to find some effective, good ingredient stuff to help me out!   This walk was further away and took me over to the Montrose Neighborhood check out the link here on the neighborhood it is a little more juicy and diverse than the Hyde Park Neighborhood   and I actual...

Today is the day when there is equal day and night, the vernal equinox.  Eggs, rabbits, flowers, seeds, cleaning, and planting all are parts of the rituals and celebrations of spring.  Spring feels and looks different even for us in the northern hemisphere.  What is not different for us, is the light.  The sun rises earlier and sets later, it is higher in the sky.  You can begin again to feel the warmth. Modern-day druids massed at Stonehenge in England to celebrate the spring equinox. They were granted special access to the ancient monument to mark the day when the length of the day and the night are equal.  Zoroastrians carry hyacinths as a part of their spring celebrations.  There are rituals and celebrations happening around the world.  In Austria they do a ritual where they literally burn winter away, I am sure that particular ritual would be much embraced by my friends in Maine and Minnesota. Because I left Millinocket before the of...

This morning I decided that I was going to walk around the four major streets that frame the Hyde Park neighborhood.  I have been in the car with Jackie as we have driven to the house from all of those directions, but I decided that I wanted to really get a sense of all the businesses, interesting sites and maybe find some places that I would like to check out.  I spent over two hours walking and made two stops before I headed back to the house.  After about  an hour I somewhat surprisingly came upon a eyeglass shop.  I had just read about the shop yesterday but had not idea when I set out to stretch my walking area that I would walk right past The Eye Gallery .  I do love my glasses.  Even though I had my eye exam in December when I was in Minneapolis, and my prescription had changed a little, I decided that I would not get new glasses at that time.   For the last couple of months every know and then I found myself thinking that I might want ...

It is not Easter yet but there are big eggs in the neighborhood! The picture is of the “across the street” neighbor’s yard.  Every day the eggs move around!  I wonder if the Easter bunny will take them or what an egg hunt will look like!  There are four year old twins a boy and girl who play with the eggs! It was warm today and I put on long sleeves because the air conditioning was running!  There was a weather alert earlier today, I heard it and thought it would be about heavy rains, but there t was about a fire warning.  The humidity was below 20% and the winds higher so there was beware of fire risks. This when it was 15 degrees in Maine. This afternoon I went to the “LOAF” meet and greet.  LOAF stands for Lesbians Over Age Fifty!  This social group has been meeting regularly for over 40\years.  I was introduced to members of LOAF last year when I spent one week in the hospital in Houston.  There was s a great  lesbian network ...

This morning we went to Central Market , it is an incredible grocery store and for those of you who know my love of food coop knows that I love to roam and touch and just take in all the good stuff, especially the vegetables and fruits!  They had an entire section of olive oil and vinegar.  Incredible  pastry cabinet and bakery.  Jackie kept asking would I like this or that, and I would just answer, " No, I am just looking (or more like drooling, I said to myself!). "  Back at Jackie's home and it is Day 2  of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament there have been  some very good games already today and of course the obligatory blow out by Connecticut, breaking all NCAA records for most points scored in a tournament game - 140!  I am for sure a b-ball fan, not only am I watching on TV but I also have the other games on my iPad.  I a have completed 5 Tournament Brackets,  have my own bracket group and joined three others!  ...

Forty-four years ago today Sasha Christine Sappanos came into this world, and she was right on time!  I remember, who can ever forget, that first moment that I saw her.  It was a complete "Hello Sasha",  I am so glad that you are here in the world and picked up to be your parents.  Sasha was born in a mostly unused delivery room at Viroqua Memorial Hospital,  the other two delivery rooms were in use when Sasha decided now was her time, and I was absolutely ready for her to make her entrance.  There were seven babies born that afternoon, all of them were boys except Sasha. For many years Sasha's birthday was the most important birthday of the year for me.  That Sasha had grown and changed and made it one more year was an incredible joy and somewhat of relief that I had somehow managed to keep her alive!  When I woke up today I texted and left a voicemail, singing happy birthday very offkey but with a lot of love.  Sasha was working at th...

I am really enjoying being on vacation.  I hadn't really thought about this trip as a vacation.  Being retired for the past year, it is not always clear what is and is not vacationing.  Going away on a train, ending up out of snow land, and not having many daily responsibilities seems to be vacationing. This morning I spent quite a lot of time filling out my women's basketball tournament brackets.  I joined several groups this year and have four different teams winning the tournament!  Who says Connecticut can't be beat!  I loved mulling over each game, examining the statistics and deciding to go with a surprise win or the more predictable.  I did some of each while completing four different brackets.  Tomorrow the fun begins and I am going to have quite a bit of basketball viewing time. I did go out several times today for walks and managed to NOT take any pictures of flowers.  It was a warm and sunny day and I enjoyed roaming around the...

I am still in awe that I get to walk outside without a coat and that flowers are blooming everywhere!  March in Houston looks a lot different than March in Maine!  I like that I am  being curious about my days and that I am allowing space to just be.  For the second morning I woke up and made my favorite tea and read the Houston paper.  Well, I would say that I browsed through the headlines and spent the most amount of time doing the Sudoku puzzle!  Then a NY Times and Bangor Daily News check in...that was the extent of my news today.  I am a little more unplugged than at home.  Today I like that feeling.  My big plan for today was walking to the movies.  The River Oaks theater is an old Art Deco building,  there was an attempt to tear it down, but the neighborhood banded together and successfully stopped the demolition.  The inside has many of the original features, and the upgrades are all Art Deco.  I loved the old ...

There was no train ride today, I slept until 8:30, which for me is really really late.  There was a little bit of a chill in the air when I walked to the neighborhood Kroger.  Kroger was a Chicagoland grocery when I was a kid.  The store still has its original Art Deco facade and is just a few blue cos from the house.  I took pictures of all these great azaleas and other blooming bushes but I have not figured out the technology on my iPad, a little learning activity for me this week.  I love grocery shopping, I have the same feeling in a grocery store or coop as some people have in a mall.  I love to see local items and check out the veggies and organic items.  How fun to walk in the sun and feel the warmth on my face and seeing all the wonderful signs of spring.  There are flowers blooming, the azaleas are everywhere, and  there are flowering trees just starting to bloom.  There is green grass, lawn mowers and leaf blowers making...

Just announced we are in the great state of Texas!  Already things are bigger, there is a lot of space in this state.  The first thing I noticed is that through most of the ride in Louisiana the yards and outdoor areas were all so incredibly neat.  Over and over again I saw as we passed along town after town these neat cared for yards.  No matter what kind of house or store or building it was neat, we crossed into Texas and it just changed. Beaumont is the next stop, not quite sure how long until we get there, but they made an announcement.  In less than three hours I will be in Houston.  That is where the azaleas are blooming, I missed them last year, and the rest of the spring flowers will be everywhere before I leave. Today I brought along several Millinocket folks with me:  Anita Mueller the great birder- I saw so many birds this morning water birds, falcons, pelicans, many I couldn’t name but fun to see.  I woke up to birds singing in N...

It is 7:15 a.m. and it is dark very dark and when we roll past lights you can see the dense fog.  We are somewhere in South Carolina and I just got a weather alert regarding the fog.  Later there may be rain as we continue to move south towards Atlanta.  The morning movement and the grey skies lulled me back to sleep and when I woke at almost 9 a.m. there was a gentle rain and we were on the outskirts of Atlanta.  The tracks are smooth as we travel along and I enjoy the rhythm.  A land boat that chugs and sways and at times lurches along. You don’t have the opportunity to meet as many people when you have a sleeper car but one of the Ways you do is in the diner car.  Last night at supper I met a young woman traveling from NYC TO Charlottesville.  She is a sophomore in college and moved to NY from a Little Rock Arkansas.  She was going to visit a friend for a couple of days and then her boyfriend was flying into Little Rock to meet her and go to ...

Months of planning, two snow delays, an overnight in New York City, and I am just listening to the conductor welcome us aboard the Crescent to New Orleans.  There is snow on the ground in New Jersey and bands of blue in the sky.  I love the big windows and the rolling of the train.  Just passed Whole Foods in Trenton and some beautiful big old homes and now a brief stop in Trenton.  Passengers hurriedly getting onto the train, bu died up against the wind and cold.   Rolling along backyards and the places you don’t see from the road.  It is quiet in the sleeper cars.  The train just moves along whizzing  past stations and towns.  It’s a train trip, 28+hours.  Traveling routes I have never traveled before.    On my  way to green, warm, azaleas and the southern pace.  It’s an adventure and I am ready to go and to bring you along with me.  May the stories begin.