Art Fair

Today was the 43rd Annual Hutchinson Outdoor Art Fair. It's done by the art association and it was a blast today. Jocelyn had a booth and did very well. By the time I got there a little before noon, she'd already sold about half the stuff she had. She also won an award.

Mia came out from Joplin and sold her jewelry. She and a friend were planning to do it, but the friend hurt her back so Mia came on her own. Her friend won a purchase award for a bracelet and Mia had a really good sales day. So, it was a successful day all around. There were three other people there I knew who had booths, too, so it was fun to visit.

This event may take the record for me running into as many people as I have in awhile, including a sheriff's officer that I've known for many years, but just don't see very often. He's a nice guy - he used to work in the media which is how I met him. But it was good to see him again and visit. He was tickled to see Mark, who's down from KC for the fair. They worked together at the paper. Greg and Mark were the official helpers today. Of course, Greg had Ace Jackalope with him in this American Gothic pose.

I lost track of who all I ran in to, but it was fun. I missed Diana and her daughter Sarah - they had been there before I got there. But I did see Eileen, Joan, Trish, Andrea, Mark, Debbie, Virginia, Jack, Linda, Lisa, Cleta, Doris, Becky, Matt and Michelle.

Jocelyn also introduced me to another artist that I liked immediately, Katie Flindall. She has a website http://www.moonhouseart.com. You can see her art there. I bought some notecards that have a teapot on them. I love her stuff - very whimsical and fun.

It was a good day. Mark and I did take time to go to Roys, and we brought it back for Greg, Mia and Jocelyn. Tonight the four of us went to Skaets. It was a nice evening. Now, Terry is over and the five of us are just chatting. I'm going to have to pack it in soon... I'm tired.

Abraded and Waxed

We decided today at about 4:30 to hit the Anchor right after work. Comedian Paul Rodriguez is in town tonight for a show at the Fox but I didn't go. But, it seems a large part of the town did and they were all at the Anchor before hand. So was he. Terry got to see him today with some school kids and said it was great.

Anyway, there were only five of us - Andrea, Susan K, Terry, Greg and me. It was so last minute and I was in such a hurry that when I emailed, I mistyped Debbie's name so she didn't get the message, and there was someone else's that I did the same thing to but I can't recall now who that was. I didn't see the bounces until I got home. Oddly enough, just as I was typing it, Diana called saying Andrea was there and wanted to know if we were going. So, it all worked out.

I left from the Anchor and went to the fairgrounds for Girls Night Out. It's a fundraiser for the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center here. It's a neat event. This is only the second year but they had a big crowd. Diana had a booth - her daughters Sarah and Taylor were both there to help.

I did only two activities. At the Head Turners salon's booth, I had the age spots on my hand abraded with a light therapy. I have had "age spots" since I was in my early 20s. I don't like it much, but so it goes. Anyway, it made a huge difference. But, it costs $150 a treatment or you can buy 10 treatments for $1,000. Uh... hmmm... I doubt I'll be doing that anytime soon. Did I mention I run a non-profit?

The other thing I did was stand in line for a $3 eye brow wax. Now, I have to tell you, I'm not a big makeup person to begin with and waxing... hmmm... can you say "ouch!" Well, I can. I've done it 2-3 times in the past. I don't pluck my eyebrows at all. You know why? It hurts. That's why.

Well, I've been thinking about getting them waxed again. It's been at least two years - the memory of the pain has faded.

So, Reflections salon was doing waxing for only $3. So, I stood in line and did it. I have to say that Valerie, who did it, did not hurt me nearly as much as everyone else who has done it in the past - including the person who first did it and was referred to as "Noy, the wax king." Well, move over Noy - and take your painful applications and tools with you. (Actually, Noy left town years ago, so it's not really an issue - but the story would be lacking otherwise.) The next time I feel the urge to harm myself in this manner, Valerie is getting my business.

So, here I sit, wondering about the wisdom of abrading and waxing oneself... much less having others do it for you.

Question of the Day

The question posed was:
"What was the first thing you thought of this morning when you woke up?"

My answer is:
The same thing I think of every morning -
"wow... great... amazing... incredible... this is fabulous... I woke up... nothing bad happened over night... I still have all my faculties... everyone I love is still safe... I can still walk, talk, see, hear, etc... thank you, God... it's going to be a great day..." And I run down my stairs, eager to get about the day, knowing this may be my last one so I'd better get about living it while I have it.

Psychic Medium Reading

Tonight I went to see a psychic medium. She lives in a neighboring town and Trish invited me to go. Someone she works with was hosting it at her house.

I invited Diana and she invited someone she just met through her store, who I really liked. It's interesting to be in a group of people, not knowing too much about many of them, and see how you bond together. Always fascinating.

I did get a reading tonight. I said I'd like to hear from my mom. She said my mom was saying that she was very well treated in the hospital - and she was, because we insisted on it. She said my mother calls me a nurse, that I was a good care giver. I did not feel like I was, but if my mom felt I was, that's all that matters. She then asked who was a huge coffee drinker. I said my father was. She said my dad was holding my mother's hand. They were not affectionate by the time I came along, but surely they were at some point. She then asked who the "Jim" was - my brother. Then she asked who the "P" was - of course I'm Patsy. Then she asked who the "Ann" was - that's my middle name. She asked who the "L" was. We have a lot of middle names that are "Lee" - including my other brother. Later I realized that my mother's mother's name was Pearl - that could have been the "P" and my father's father was Luther, which could have been the "L." I had a great aunt named Ann that I was close to, too.

She next said she saw a map spread out in front of me. Of course, I love to travel. She said I have many, many trips left to take - some that I can't even imagine yet. She asked if my glove compartment was a mess and said there was a card in there that was lost. She also asked if I was at the library a lot - and I am.

I was wearing my Klogs - red shoes - tonight. She said there was laughter from my mother about my shoes, which there would have been if she had seen them. She said there was tons of energy around me. And that my mother thought I should have been in a beauty contest - that I was very beautiful. I guess every mother thinks that about their daughter, of course.

After things were over, she told me that she saw a flag over me - it was a white flag of surrender - she asked me what I'd had to surrender. There's one thing I feel in the process of surrenderring but I'm not sure that's it. She also said she was getting the WW2 story about the Japanese that hid in the cave and didn't know for two years that the war was over. She said I needed to come out of the cave and it would all be OK. Obviously, I'm going to have to think about this some more.

One of the most interesting things she said tonight was to all of us and it was that, "We are a servant of all mankind." That no matter what we're doing that we're to be serving. Another concept I'm going to think more about.

All in all it was an interesting evening. This lady has a website - www.psychicmediummary.com but I haven't really had a chance to look at it fully yet - I just got home.

Tonight I was taking notes and ended up giving away all the notes to the individuals they were for, other than my own. Anyway, as a result I can't remember too much about the others and it's probably not appropriate for me to share it here anyway. But, some of the messages were pretty specific.

I feel there's a real shift happening in Kansas - that we are becoming more and more open to this sort of energy information that's all around us. There is a lot going on here. Interesting to be living here at this time. You can feel the shifts occurring.

Putnam and Painting

Tonight I had dinner with Trish and Peggy for the purpose of discussing Dr. Putnam's challenge to us to reinvent how we connect. It was a very interesting evening, with many thoughts flowing back and forth. I had also invited Debbie and Carlota because they were both at the speech too, but they had other commitments. Hopefully they'll be able to come at another time.

It's so very easy to go back to the idea of wanting to change how society is. I think that's unlikely to happen. As Putnam challenged us to do, we must look for a new approach.

We came up with a couple of ideas - more looseness in organization of groups and new approaches including making things together as an activity. We are contemplating if we can incorporate that into our NewComers Group.

I'm sure I'll be up for hours as my brain is in overdrive now, mulling all this over.

Tomorrow I have my United Way presentation. I would *greatly* appreciate your good thoughts for me as I try to communicate what my organization does for the community. I feel very inadequate to tell its story. We are limited, of course, by considerable confidentiality concerns.

I have stripped more wallpaper today - I woke up very early and decided that was a good way to start the day - before I took a shower. I'm getting close to the end of that project - I have only a little bit of the walls left, but they're in an area with lots of nooks and crannies so it will take a bit of work.

If you're going to strip wallpaper, assemble every tool on the market. At various times, you will swear any particular one is the key to making it easier. Basically, to sum up, it's a bitch. There's nothing else that can be said about the whole job. At one time I thought I wanted wallpaper. Let me tell you, I'm *way* over that. I may paint a design on the wall, but I doubt I'll ever hang any wallpaper. And I'll think twice about buying a place that has a lot of it. The house would have to be MAJOR cool.

I'm having company this weekend so I needed to get the paper bits off the floor today because that's the room Mark sleeps in. At the moment the bed he sleeps in is in pieces in my bedroom, which is next door, but it won't take long to put it back in there. And, it was good incentive to get more wallpaper stripped in there. I still have some nail holes to fill - 100 years worth of nail holes is a lot. When I took off the old wallpaper I could see multiple generations of nail holes that they hadn't patched because the wallpaper was going to cover them up anyway.

But, thank you to the former owners, who stripped the previous wallpaper before putting this up. Thank you Thank you Thank you. This was probably from the 40s and I can see at least two generations of painting on the woodwork, as well as the varnish, so this must be at least its third incarnation of wallpaper. Thank goodness the stripped off the old stuff before putting this on. And, blissfully, it's the old stuff put up with wheat paste, probably - which seems far easier to deal with than the newer stuff.

I went this evening before dinner and bought some of the paint - the base color. It's a Porter Paint color called "sweet rice." I chose the Porter Paint in a high hiding formula because the stuff is just incredible in its ability to cover and I really don't want to prime the walls. I hate priming - seems like a complete waste of time to me. I used this paint in my office in a sage color. This is just a warm beige. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do but I think sponge two other colors on top of this - maybe a creamed coffee color and a coopery-bronze color. We'll see how it goes.

I want to experiment with some colors in the studio and see what I like best. I'm fortunate to have a guy, Steve, who mixes paint at the local Star store, who is a true artist and can match any color you bring him in any form. He worked for an independent company and when they were bought out the local Star store was smart enough to ask him to run the paint store, and created a separate entrance for the paint area, so his years of loyal customers would follow him. Of course, we all have. I have yet to run into anyone in town who works on their house a lot who doesn't know Steve. I've taken in everything from a photo to embroidery floss and had him match the color.

I'm not sure I'll start painting tonight but I might. I think I'll be awake for many hours yet thinking about the conversation regarding Putnam's book so I might as well be doing something else at the same time.

Stillwater Altrusa Conference

I have been in Stillwater, Oklahoma at the Altrusa conference for our district. We are District 8, which is KS, MO, AR, and OK. There were thirteen of us who went from our club, including Julie and I. Unfortunately, Cynda and Carla are not in this photo. It was Julie's first conference and my second one.

Peggy got us both involved in Altrusa and I have found the women to be very welcoming and friendly. It has been a really good experience for me, even without that benefit Dr. Putnam mentions of it decreasing my chance of dying by half during the next year!

The first night of conference is a little welcome and time to chat and visit. Even though this is only my second conference, I knew quite a few people and also met some new folks.

Julie and I went out to dinner after the welcome. We decided to go to Eskimo Joe's, which is actually loved by the locals, despite being "famous" beyond the town's borders. I asked a number of local people for recommendations and it came up from every single one. Also mentioned by everyone was Hideaway Pizza but we didn't make it there this trip.

As we were walking out of the hotel, we saw a couple of ladies from the local group outside the door. They were so friendly and asked if we needed directions. Well, they ended up just going with us, which was wonderful.

The food at Eskimo Joe's is really good. They're famous for cheese fries and we had those, as well as a burger. Yummy stuff. Our waiter was fun - I took his photo with Julie. The only down side was that we got there late so they started blasting the music and we couldn't really talk. But, it was fun and an experience, of course. I hear the Eskimo Joe's t-shirt is the best selling right behind Hard Rock. I did not get one. I'm not really a t-shirt person.

The next morning my first order of business was to reassemble our gift basket. Most clubs bring one and it's a silent auction to generate money for a project of the local group. The silent auction made over $1,500 and included a variety of things. Ours was a Victorian theme in a hatbox. It made a little over $80, I think. Gift baskets generally make about half their value and this was over $200 worth of stuff so it was a little under, but not bad considering how much stuff there was and that there were only about 140 people there.

The morning was a business meeting for the district and then there were workshops in the afternoon. One of the best things about conference is getting to visit with people from other groups and seeing what they do in their groups.

There is a board that runs conference and the head person is the governor. At this conference, all 11 past Governors who are living were there. It was really neat. We have a past governor from our club - Cynda, who is second from the left. She was one of the youngest Governors ever, I think. Peggy is the Governor-elect for our district. She will be installed in Salina next year. It was really neat to have all 11 past governors there, so we tried to capture a photo. All of these ladies I've had contact with have been lovely.

That night, after a barbecue, we went shopping in downtown Stillwater. The stores stayed open late for us and we did our part for the local economy. I'm not a big time shopper, but some of these ladies are. I did get a few things, but nothing major.

We we got back to the hotel, there was a little reception by the Salina group. They're hosting the conference next year and using a safari theme so we had "jungle juice." It came in a spirited form with vodka or the less popular plain version.

The next morning we had more business and then the luncheon where the awards were announced. Our group won a membership award, which I'm very proud of. The afternoon was full of workshops. We heard about some wonderful projects that some people are doing in their areas - from a Drug Court where a judge takes her court room into the schools, to a program that provides fresh milk to children.

Saturday night was the big banquet. Some people get very dressed up. I'm not into that sort or thing, so I just wore black slacks, but it is kind of nice to see everyone all dressed up.

We absolutely loved Stillwater. And one of the reasons was how friendly everyone was. Considering what I've been mulling over since seeing Dr. Putnam, I have to say that the residents of Stillwater are as welcoming as I have ever seen.

Julie and I stayed at the Hampton Inn. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about them. If you go to visit Stillwater - and I do recommend it - be sure and stay at the Hampton. They were fabulous - from the time I made the reservation until I checked out this morning. Every detail was taken care of. They did a wonderful job. The hotel was full and yet there never seemed to be any problems with plenty of food at breakfast or cleanliness or any of the other things you might expect. They did a great job. To top it off, the beds were comfortable, the rooms had a fridge and microwave, and it was quiet. Every person we talked to from the front desk, to the woman doing our room to the guy mopping the lobby floor was pleasant and friendly. It's one of the best hotel experiences I've ever had, and I've had a lot of them.

In fact, every single person I had contact with in Stillwater was friendly - from the hotel to the downtown shops to the local Altrusa folks. People often don't grasp that when you visit a town for a long weekend, you have contact with very few people. As a result, one negative experience has a real impact.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see a lot of Stillwater. So, I'm just going to have to go back. It's only about a three hour drive from me, so very easy to get to.

One of the highlights was getting to know Cheryl, one of the ladies we met the first night. She was so sweet. We had lunch with her at a Mexican restaurant called El Vaquero before leaving town. She is just a doll. We both really enjoyed getting to know her and I think she'll be someone I keep in touch with for a long time.

This restaurant was a fun place and the food was great. They had an area with these wonderful tiled steps and a fountain that used to be the waiting area on a lower level. It's now closed because it's not ADA compliant, but you can still see it. Very fun place.

Mama

Today would have been Mama's 86th birthday. I miss her.