Places That Belong To You...

Leslie and Pea had me thinking today about that Mimosa trip we are going to do next summer - and hearken well!!!! - I said "Going To Do". Not "What we dream about".

The travel dates are set, the route has been plotted, the sights picked out.

Leslie said, name the places you want to see! Make a plan!

And that got me to thinking about places that I've always longed to see for some reason or other, and probably never will.

Like this one here: Hollywood.

I've always, since I was a teenager, wanted to see Los Angeles, for obvious reasons. Nothing mysterious here: Santa Monica Pier, Malibu, the Greek Theater, Hollywood Boulevard. And Disneyland. And Neil Diamond's house, of course, but only a glimpse while driving by in a car, I'm NOT a stalker.

Or this one: Chesapeake Bay.

Because in 8th grade, I had an English teacher who had a sister living on the Chesapeake Bay, and she told us often how she went to visit with that sister, and how beautiful the United States were, and Maryland in particular. I think it was she who first directed my attention in that direction, and the image of that huge bay is connected with fond memories for me.

Or here: Roanoke Island, the Lost Colony in Virginia.

Why Roanoke?

I like "Matlock". Loved to watch those crime shows, and in one of them he goes to Roanoke for some reason or other, and I loved the atmosphere, even if it was only a silly TV episode. Also, William Least Heat Moon visited the island on his travel across America, and what he wrote about, I wanted to see.

Gloucester, Massachusetts, because of the movie with "a boat that goes out to Sea and never returns", as the director put it, "The Storm", and the atmosphere of that film, no other reason.

Oh, and this one is really important: The Shenandoah Valley, because the song is so haunting and beautiful. I don't even rightly know where it is, but a place that inspires such a lovely song must be extraordinary indeed.

Oh, and this one is really important: Savannah.

Again, atmosphere. "Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil". I wonder if that graveyard really exists....

About this place: hey, do you really need an explanation? I love fun, and people, and the show. Where else would that be?

Is there one place in the whole wide world as wonderful as New York City? That town has everything, simply everything. Including my love.

Okay, I lied about New York. I've been there, but I want to go there again, very badly.

Now that I'm torturing myself editing html and uploading pics, so many more places come to mind that I really want to see in the States.

Memphis, Nashville, Paducah, Chicago, Wabasha, Atlanta... have always wanted to go to Atlanta.

What's that? We're going there?

The dream goes on......

What's It All About.....

Too bad music cannot be uploaded on a blog, or you would be hearing "Alfie" now.

Yes, that old Burt Bacharach howler that pulls some people's teeth, but I had to include it in the setlist because my sister says no one can do it, with the exception of Cilla Black.

I just love to prove my sister wrong, and it worked.

There is a tiny, blond chit among my girls here who sings it just as good as Ms.Black, and when my dear sis is here next weekend, she'll hear it sung by Jasmin and be blown out of her shoes.

Even if she's wearing her Jimmy Choo boots, hear me, dear?

Today we're rehearsing Greensleeves.

These kids have never learned to read music, and they have no ideas what a score is, but they learn so fast, and when he go on stage in April they'll be able to sing it in three voices, Soprano, Alto I and Alto II, and a cappella at that.

They would never listen to a song like that on their own, or "Alfie", or "Someone To Watch Over Me" or "I Will Follow Him" or, even better. "Strangers In The Night".

But they love those songs, and they fight over them like terriers.

Isn't that the greatest?

Some are shy, some are really bursting with the music that is caught up in them and wants out so badly, but they all love the stage and the songs and the weekends spent here in the hall.

No better way to spend a Sunday!

What The Bunny Did

Just incredible.

Imagine: you wake up because the cat is sitting on your chest, yowling into your face because he wants to be let out "Real BAD!!!" and you crawl out of bed at eight in the morning after everyone else has already left the house. You stumble into the living room and open the terrace door and the stupid creature takes its time to decide if it wants to go or not. The newspaper is spread out all over the dining table, the kid left his tea standing there, too, there's some mail, mostly advertisements and magazines, and among that pile, a brown padded envelope with a green customs sticker........ huh????

Didn't order anything from overseas, and no one announced he was sending anything either, so what the hell???

Sender: Bunny Hipps, Virginia. Right. I know that one!

Inside, a card with a note, and a small, white box with this: see above.

The note tells me that I have a friend in Virginia. Not a nice-to-know-you-let's-pass-some-time kind of friend, but someone who tells me that I am well loved and who values my friendship and is looking forward to meeting me in person.

And to underline that, the Bunny sends me one of her lovely pieces of jewelry!!!!

A rose star-flower with a hidden St. Christopher medallion on its backside to keep me safe.

Well Bunny, let me tell you, you are loved just as well from here. I'm not a good crafter, and the best you might expect in return is a crooked origami bird, but from here to Virginia, my heart goes out to you, and all the virtual hugs you can take.

Thank you so much!!!! What a wonderful, sweet surprise that was, and hey, I'm looking forward to meeting you (and the other Mimosas) just as much!

We are not unreal, and also not virtual. The proof is lying here right next to me.

A brief post scriptum for the Captain: If you ever feel like really making a fool out of yourself with your adolescent son: ask him what kind of Warhammer figures he has when he doesn't.

Turns out his friend has those, and they talk about it all the time, and what I took to be Warhammer were, in truth -and if I hear you laugh now, I'll clobber you!!!! - Star Wars figurines.

Peppers Melt The Laptop!!!!

Keeping a blog updated is harder than I thought.

It's supposed to be original, witty, entertaining and very clever at the same time, in short, it is meant to always show you from your best side so that people will be impressed.

But, the terrible chore of finding a subject!

This time I took the easy way out and asked the Mimosas to inspire me. This blog is, after all, about them.

Sara said, "Write about the significant others in our life and how they react to us hanging out here on Twitter all the time."

Huh? Significant others? Well yes, husbands, boyfriends, the like.

And while she said that I glanced over at my own "DH" who was busy reading his mySpace comments and mails and chatting to a friend who lives at the other end of the city on msn and in between asked me what the Captain had said again to make me laugh.

"A lack of rubber gloves," was my reply, because she had prepared jalapenos with her bare hands and was suffering from the repercussions.

"Don't touch ANYTHING!!!" someone advised her when the Captain said she was going to have a shower, which resulted in another deluge of humorous, biting or kind comments, from each according to her character.

I promised to have a go at her produce seller next summer.

She does not have a significant other, the Captain was pleased to let us know, but did her cat count? Because the kitty sure has an opinion about hours spent on the internet.

Blue's DH must be a little bit like mine: too lazy to twitter himself, but curious enough to let her read out selected tweets to him. A Twitter lurker.

Pea's DH ("The Ken Doll") is glad she has found like-minded company via twitter with whom she can talk about crafting, sewing, the arts and music to her heart's delight.

Sara's husband does not think we are "real people", and he does not like her to spend time talking to us.

Well, "really"? So is there a thing like "unreal" jealousy, and why waste energy on it then anyway?

How unreal, I ask you, can a jalapeno be that gets handed around all over the US for laughs, starting out in DC with the Captain and for some obscure reasons ending up in Los Angeles and messing up Moe's laptop (and why, tell, oh CaliMoni, does your laptop melt once the word "peppers" turns up on its screen? Very scary!!!)

And on it's way to LA (NICE song btw.) it swept up the dust under Pea's bed and got rolled up in bacon and stuffed with cream cheese in Austin. There might have been a detour via the arid steppes of Washington State, but that must have passed me by.

The Poisonwood Bible.

My favorite passage is where the Preacher father tries to get his new congregation to join him in the river for baptism and they look at him as if he's lost his mind. Which, from their point of view, he has, of course, because no one wants to be eaten by the crocs in the muddy water.

This I noticed anyway: every day, among all the chatter and the fun, there seems to be a different, underlying theme to the hours spent tweeting with the others of this group, and the astounding thing is, there always ARE new subjects to talk about.

So maybe the significant others do have reason to feel that spike of jealousy.

But then, they might get off the couch and away from watching car races or rocket simulations or playing chess against their silent PCs or simply snoring.....

and twitter with us?????? Heaven help us, no!!!!!