Southern Girls

We have a new coffee shop, called Roaster 2 Cup Euro Caffe, which may soon be Bruce's. Martha mentioned it the other night at Chicks but I hadn't been there yet. As you might guess, Bruce is the owner. He is roasting all his own beans every day and told us you can't be doing anything else food wise while doing that because the coffee will pick up the flavor.



Today Kate and I decided to get together and went there to give it a try. While we were in there, Amy popped in so the three of us got to chat. Kate is in the pink, Amy in the blue.



The coffee shop is comfy, with some cushy seating, and a nice selection of magazines. This is one of my favorites - Scientific American. Oddly enough, that plays into my weekend plans. I'm going underground tomorrow to attend a roundtable lecture by scientists who discovered ancient bacteria embedded in salt. I'm excited about talking to them. And, no, I'm not being funny. I'm really looking forward to it.

But, back to the topic at hand. Amy, Kate and I are all southern girls. Kate is from Georgia and Amy from South Carolina, while I'm from Kentucky. We decided today we're going to start our own little club for southern girls and those with southern ways.

Topics of conversation today were:
1. how can people possibly not know what cheese straws are - it's scandalous, I tell you
2. the horror of no derby pie on Derby Day - none of us have quite recovered from that
3. how can people not know their history -  i.e. "where are your people from?"

We didn't get much further than that, but went away with the task to come up with a name. Of course, we thought about GRITS (Girls Raised In The South) but that's been done. We considered the Sweet Potato Queens, the Ya-Yas and some other things, including our own twisted Junior League, but decided we need to come up with our own name.

I was sharing this with Greg at dinner and he asked what southern girls would say about food.  My response was, "butter, heavy cream, cheese or gravy - or some combination - can improve almost anything."

It's comforting to talk with other southern girls. I do miss my own kind.

And I do declare, those southern men are a special breed as well. I didn't fully appreciated them until I wasn't around them. But, that's a-whole-nother topic for a-whole-nother time.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.

Meeting Bob Aronsohn and Baxter and Riley

This is Baxter the dog. I met him today and fell completely in love with him. He already has a human, however. Even if he didn't, I'm afraid I would not be a good dog owner because I'm gone too much. Besides, I'm not even a dog person. Baxter didn't seem to notice that, however. And, frankly, it kind of slipped my mind, too.

I also met Riley, his canine counterpart, when we went to look at a garden for the tour on June 22. Greg went with me to take photos. Have I ever mentioned he's the best ex-bf a girl can have? I'm sure I have - like 40 dozen times - but it bears repeating.

I petted Riley, too, but Baxter was jumping up on my legs, giving me this look of, "hey, pick me up, what is wrong with you, don't you see me here, pick me up, what are you waiting for, pick me up." How could I resist?

I've been doing the garden tour for a few years now and it's always interesting to find the gardens and go meet the home owners. Some people are a little concerned about one thing or another, understandably so, and some people are so casual it's amazing.

This homeowner, Bob Aronsohn., falls into the latter category. He met us at the door and motioned for us to come on into the house and we went through it into the back yard, which is as lush and green as you can imagine a yard being. Just look at the part Riley is not covering up there.

Mr. Aronsohn is a legend in hunting circles, and his house is filled with the evidence of his prowess - from Africa, Argentina and other locales. It was fascinating to talk with him. He is particularly known for crow hunting. I'm working on a passage in my novel now the involves a crow. I didn't know I had such a great resource just a few blocks away.



I was telling him about my brother in Kentucky who loves to duck hunt and Mr. Aronsohn mentioned he is going hunting with a friend from Lexington soon, and knew another hunter in Paducah. I grew up about 25 miles south of Paducah and graduated from the University of Kentucky in Lexington. I guess this would fall into the "small world" category.

Maybe he would let me come visit Baxter again. He said the dog rarely let anyone hold him for any amount of time, but Baxter was so cuddly with me. Did I mention I'm not a dog person?
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.

Memories

Does this scene just remind you of small town America? I snapped it today at Fraese Drug. A grandma brought in her four granddaughters, all dressed alike, with the same hats. They had shakes, malts and sundaes. It was just too cute for words to see them all sitting at the counter.

I realized that granny was making some memories for those little girls. I'm guessing these two in the middle are cousins, but it's only a guess. I can imagine them talking about this day at some point in the future when they've got their heads together talking about more important topics than I hope they have on their minds at this young age.

Making good memories seems to be the point of life.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.

Beauty

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
                                Ashley Smith

For the past year or so I have been thinking a lot about beauty, and how I need more beauty in my life. When we did our vision collages, my focus statement was about having the freedom and inspiration to create and appreciate beauty. I came to that statement after a large amount of journaling over some months, and it was the result of focusing on what was wanted from me, not for me.

I can't say I've figured out exactly how to manage this in my life yet, but I know it's what I need to strive for, and continue moving toward. Of course, the problem is that sometimes it's hard to tell when you're moving, much less what direction you're headed.

I try to always move toward something instead of away from something. But, of course, it's hard to focus on the unknown you're moving toward, and pretty easy to focus on what you want to leave behind.

While I'm struggling with these issues, life has this seemingly magical way of working itself out with little input from me. Things fall into place, almost as if there's nothing for me to do. But, in retrospect I realize there were steps I was taking, I just didn't recognize them as such.

Every day I'm doing things that are moving toward something new. Something wonderful. Something long wished for and intensely desired. I hope the life I lived today moved me closer to the dream of tomorrow.

In that tomorrow, beauty will surround me and I will be able to appreciate it and create more beauty as a result of that inspiration.

Mars Landing

This is a shot from Mars. Isn't that an amazing thing in and of itself? That we have a photo of the surface of Mars, and that I can download it right on my computer and send it out again to others in a different context.

This top photo is from "day 0." The lower one from "day 1."

I've been transported back to 1969 and the moon landing in many ways during this. I was too young then to comprehend a whole lot about what was going on, but I was old enough to know it was cool. I remember going outside and looking up at the moon and thinking, "wow, people are up there now."

I'm experiencing the same wonder now. Somewhere I have a little toy of the Mars Rover, which I loved. Now this. Space exploration is the ultimate in long term planning in many ways. It takes many years for the science and the desire to take us to new frontiers. When astronaut Jeff Ashby spoke here a couple of years ago he talked about NASA's motto of "The Moon, Mars and Beyond." It's exciting to be living in these times where technology is such an amazing part of our daily lives.

I love the feeling of delight I have on a daily basis about technology. I can sit in my home office and look at photos from Mars and write and share thoughts with people around the world. It's an incredible time to be alive and to be experiencing all this.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.

This was the fourth day in a row that Kansas has had outbreaks of tornadoes. It's starting to seem like this is just the norm now. Fortunately, we just got rain tonight - nothing more.

I've had a very laid back day, working on stuff at the computer, and enjoying Mark and Greg's company. Mark headed home tonight, missing most of the bad weather.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and couldn't get fully back to sleep. I did rest some more, but just couldn't sleep deeply. I sleep so little. I try to sleep. I mean, I really try. But, four hours after I go to bed I'm awake. If I go back to sleep, I'm awake six hours after I went to bed. After that it's nearly impossible for me to actually sleep any more. I may doze, but that will be about it. Every once in a great while I go to sleep and stay asleep for 7-8 hours but it is rare.

I get so frustrated when people say you need to rest. You have to sleep. Well, don't you think I'm trying? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do? I go to bed. I even make myself stay in bed sometimes, although it nearly makes me bonkers, but I still can't sleep. I don't think I've slept more than five hours any night in the last three weeks.

Of course, there are a whole slew of drugs for such things. But, after my last go at antibiotics and steroids I decided the fewer chemicals in my body the better. I'm almost recovered from all those and I don't want to add anything else to the mix.

But, all of this to say, I'm tried now. Very tired. I'll go right to sleep as soon as I go upstairs. It's the staying asleep for an extended period that's the hard part. I'm glad tomorrow is a holiday.

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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.

Peace Demonstration in Hutchinson Kansas

One of the things I love about my life is that I just never know what interesting thing is going to happen on any given day. Today I met Mark and Greg at Roy's for lunch. Mark is covering the antique truck show at the fair for his XM radio show, Landline Now. Greg has been hired to do photos for the magazine so they were both headed back to the fairgrounds.

I intended to hit Smith's Market and then head home. As I approached the intersection of Main and Avenue A I saw something that made my heart sing. There were about ten people gathered, holding signs promoting peace. Yes, PEACE, that ever-elusive thing.



All of the photos here were taken by Greg. You can see his blog at www.thelope.com.

Well, I couldn't resist stopping and talking with them. So, I circled around and came back and interviewed them, discovering that they're the Hutch Action Alliance. Their facebook page says, "The Hutch Action Alliance is a group of concerned citizens' attempt to put good intentions to good use. We aim to aid the community through service, dialog, activism, and social justice advocacy." One of the organizers, Hutchinson native Jon Dennis, 24, said, "we're people trying to find solutions for the problems plaguing our world."



Today was their first public event, although they did volunteer as a group at the Soup Kitchen last week.

A core group of five people has been meeting for about a month. They were inspired after hearing Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness speak about that organization. The goals of the Hutch Action Alliance include finding ways to bring peace into the conversation of the community. Dennis said, "people will be talking about this tonight."

I'm sure he's right. It's not every day you see a group gathered in downtown with colorful signs stating a point of view.

The signs were created by artist Mikaela Trim, 23, who moved to Hutchinson about a year ago. Her parents are missionaries in Japan and she lived abroad most of her life, but would come back periodically to live near her grandparents in South Hutchinson. She was seeking a place of her own, and chose Hutchinson.

She is one of the organizers. She said, "I'd like to see the community come together, agree or disagree, come together and talk. And this is one of the ways to manifest that - to start a conversation."

The most recent addition to the group is 22 year old Mason Hitchcock. He said he was out there today because he had wanted to be able to do something but didn't have the means to get involved.

Another of the organizers, 17 year old Jason Depew, who will be starting his senior year of high school this fall, said he'd heard many people express that desire to do something and this is one way to provide an opportunity for that. He said he's involved because, "I'm really passionate about the causes."

The other organizer who was there today was David Coon, 24, a member of the National Guard. He said, "I was deployed to Iraq for a year and certain experiences I had over there prompted me to do something more with my life."

I asked him more about that, but as I've seen before when asking anyone who has been to war about their experiences, he didn't seem to want to talk about it much. Because this is my personal blog, and not journalism, I had no reason to press him. But he did say, "It forced me to evaluate my place here in the community. I wanted to make sure I could make a difference. I didn't want my life to go to waste."

After I was done with the interviews, I picked up a sign, and finished out the event with them. I choose a sign that said, "Support the Troops, Bring Them Home," which, as you know if you've read here any amount of time, is one of my favorite concepts - how can my desire for the troops to be home and safe be construed as anything less than supportive?

I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the people in passing vehicles were supportive. One man yelled out, "Peace, Brother," as he drove by. Many folks flashed peace signs and thumbs up signs.



I was thrilled they allowed me to jump in on their event at the last minute. It was a joy to be involved with folks who are interested and motivated to do something in our community.

They have another Peace Demonstration set for June 7 at noon, at Ave. A and Main. Everyone is welcome to join in. I'm going to be unavailable that day - sure wish I could be there. But, I'll be eager to read your report about that day's event.

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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.