We Are Waving Hello

I haven't been sewing since I came down to stay longer at my Mom's area.  It seems every day is packed.   Morning consists of walking the dog, laundry, cleaning, breakfast.  Then heading over to Mom's and on the way home I stop to pick up things I still need for the apartment.  Or groceries.  So the day is pretty well shot by the time I get home.  Then walking the dog and eating lunch or making dinner.  So this week I made a vow to finish one quilt top. 

My good friend Vicki loves Minions.  They make her happy.  In her honor, I bought a Minion panel and planned to create the borders.  The panel has been up on my wall beside my bed for weeks.  Those cute Minions have been waving to me every morning when I wake and when I go to bed.  I finally made the borders and reached my goal to complete one quilt top.  I will quilt it when I get back to Portland.

Every day when I visit Mom, I see my other friends who also live at her Health Center.  There are the Sunny Outside Greeters, a few friends who sit outside in the morning sun and solve world problems.  There are J and B and J2 and R.  B moved back into Assisted Living but he comes over to see his friends frequently.  J2 and R have been married over 75 years.  When R needed 24/7 care, J2 moved with her--they have never been apart.  I love talking with J2.  So intelligent and warm and funny.

Inside the Center are the Inside Greeters.  There is great activity around the Nurse's Station and many of the residents are brought around to be part of the activities.  Two of my favorite people are J3 and W.  W has the prettiest smile that lights up her face when she interacts with others. 

We talk about her sons and every day things.  We hug and laugh.  When she isn't feeling well, I just sit with her for a bit and then let her nap.  

J3 is another matter.  J3 doesn't talk.  Mostly he stares at me.  He will often laugh at me or get teary as we interacted.  But I had no idea how much he comprehended.  And then one day as we talked (okay, I talked and he looked at me), I asked him if he played baseball as a kid.  He nodded.  And then--this was even bigger--he put his hands together and raised his arms a bit like he was holding a bat.  Wow!  That was when I knew he comprehended every thing. Now I talk about anything and every thing and ask him yes and no questions when possible.  He told me loved chocolate and chocolate ice cream :)   

And I can't forget L!  He and his wife raised some 40 kids--their own and Foster Kids, all who still live close by and visit.  One is a professional football player.  One is a professional baseball player.  He is 88 and his wife, he told me, is 93.  I would never have guessed her age as 93.  L says with some pride, "She looks maybe 65, doesn't she?"  He is the sweetest, one of the most delightful persons in the Center.

It is difficult when a friend of mine passes away.  I look around for them and they are not there.  I have to ask...so sad.  I miss them because they gave me so much love and  delight.  There was D, who's face lit up like a Christmas tree when I said hello.  She rarely talked but she adored my pup and talked to her like an old friend as she rubbed her face and ears. I miss her still.

So many people in my life waving hello, enriching me, adding to my adventures.
peace~~~

A Place to Lay Our Heads

My childhood home in Pomona, CA

July 21, 1950 important events:

• The Korean War/Conflict/Police Action/"The Unknown War"/"6–2–5 Upheaval"/ "Fatherland Liberation War"/"War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea" was officially announced by the U.S.
• My father finished building our house.
• I was born.

I lived in the house my father built my entire childhood through graduation from high school.  Sometime in 1962-63, Dad added a master bedroom to the front of the house and my sister and I now had rooms of our own.  In 1968 I moved into a place on my own.  It was a large old house in Pomona, California that was broken into four apartment units.  My apartment was the sun porch with 24 steps up to the outside door.  I had an inside door but never used it.  That was where the mailbox was located...I never got mail...why bother?  It was a tiny one-bedroom, if you consider it a bedroom.  My double bed fit, but the dresser had to be in the closet.  When the rains came, the roof leaked and I had to move the bed out into the "living room area."  Made for interesting dates...  The kitchen had room for a small three-burner gas stove, a tiny table with one chair,  a sink, and my 6' plastic plant, Edgar.  I loved that place.  Kinda funky.  It was my first and last apartment.

In 1969 moved into a duplex with my spanking-new husband.  In 1970 we moved into a small house in Grants Pass, Oregon, then moved to Portland in 1974.  My children grew up in that small house until 1989 when we moved from the corner to the other corner.  Much larger house that allowed my sons to have rooms of their own.

The house where my mother spent her teen years in Ontario, CA

I bought my first house sometime around 1992 when I was hired at my college.  Then a bit after Doug and I were married in 1999, we sold it and bought our old Victorian farmhouse.  The point is I have only lived in an apartment for a very short (but funky-active-eighteen-year-old) time.

But my oh my how times have changed!  I became exhausted driving from Portland to Southern California once a month for a week to visit my mom.  The cost to drive back and forth was about the same as to fly and rent a car.  Doug and I discussed renting an apartment down south and staying longer at a time.  The monthly cost was about the same as traveling.  So, yep!  I am now the proud renter of a small "junior one-bedroom" apartment in Upland, California.

The house where my father spent his teen years in La Verne, CA

I have no idea how to live in an apartment!  My pup barks at everyone walking by...she makes friends with them face-to-face but she barks at them as they walk past.  Other people's dogs bark as we pass their apartments.  My radio is great as I am streaming my music, radio stations, podcasts.  But is it too loud for the neighbors?  I actually had to ask the woman sharing one of my walls...no problem she said.  *whew*   But the cost...yes, the rent is about the same as traveling monthly, but initial setting up house has been a bit costly.  Then there is electricity and water and trash.  Oh yeah...and laundry.  Carrying my laundry to the laundry mat up front of the complex, having enough quarters.  I don't remember ever washing my clothes back in 1968...but I must have because I had clothes. I wasn't that funky.

I am making friends all around me.  Ida lives across from me.  Anthony lives upstairs with Rico, his pup.  Rita, who is 88, lives upstairs across from Anthony.  Sarah and Adam live next door to Ida.  And I don't know the names of the people next door to me.  I call them "the people with the mean dogs."  Those two pups are fightingly nasty!  Zoe and I have been taking longer walks most days which helps with her boredom the rest of the day.   

And every day I drive to see Mom.  She has been more often in a good mood since I have been here, although I did buy her a Snickers candy bar that said she was "Cranky" when hungry.  That woman can slip from sweetness outdone into a crankypants at the snap of fingers.

Doug and I talk every day and miss one another but, except in the moment, not enough to come home early.  

So our adventures continue.  In an apartment.  Who knew?
peace~~~

Many Many Quilts for the Kiddos

In 2003 I started making a quilt for the family I would adopt for Christmas.  The program to adopt-a-family was through my college, Portland Community College.  It was our Cascade campus who first started this tradition of having staff and faculty adopt a family selected from the student population.  So Doug and I decided to adopt a family and shower them with the best Christmas they could think of having.  It always involved the addition of a quilt.

Sometimes I would make a quilt for each of the kids in the family, sometimes a quilt for the mother.  One year I made a quilt for the mom and the gramma.  And then the fun slowed down when Doug had lost his job.  We couldn't afford to adopt a family that year, so I made a few quilts to give to kids who didn't receive as much that year.  

After a couple of years of making a few quilts, I told my quilting forum about this idea and some of the quilters wanted to be part of this tradition.  That year I received about 15 quilts from others from across the nation and Canada

Adopt-a-Family quilts 2012

This wonderful tradition has continued for many years.  That first year I simply brought the quilts to the student body office and the students distributed them, with only some of the younger kids receiving a quilt.  The next year I bundled up the quilts per family, labeled the family each bundle was for and which child received what quilt.  That year all the little kids up to age 14 received a quilt and a pillowcase.  Some received knitted hats.  Each year the number of quilts provided rose until we were giving a quilt to every child in a qualifying family through age 19.  Last year we gave away over 60 quilts to the program.

This year was more difficult and I wasn't sure if we could make it so that each child could receive a quilt.  See, we lost two of our quilters.  But now the rest of us had a goal: to honor those two by making as many quilts as we could.  We realized we might not have enough quilts for every child, so we focused on making sure the little ones had a quilt.

Quilts waiting to be sorted

To my  great surprise, I received enough quilts from all over the United States that, added to my own contributions, provided quilts for every child 18 years of age and under.  And each child received a pillowcase as well!   But wait!  There's more!  There were 20 quilts left over. 

Here's the stats: 

• 47 children ages 18 and under
• One mother who asked for nothing--I gave her a quilt
• 20 leftover quilts!  They were given to the Bradley Angle House.  This is an agency that provides women and children of domestic abuse with a safe place.

 All this is thanks to our wonderful caring quilters Valerie Bradley, Peggy Tripler, Sharon Gratz, Gayle Nunn, Cathy Berg, and one quilter who wished to remain anonymous.


It was a glorious Thanksgiving!
peace~~~

Oh! The Drama!

Oh yes, she looks sweet enough.  Zoë is a little three-year-old Maltese/Australian Silky Terrier.  She was a rescue from California, sent up to us for a Second Chance.  We adopted her from the Oregon Humane Society in 2012.  She loves her people and wants to be with us where ever we go.  She hates the car...but hates even more to be left behind when I drive to Southern California once a month.  She hates the water; she loves to roll in stinky stuff.

Mostly she would like the kitties to live elsewhere so she can have us to herself.  The kitties, on the other hand, love it when I take her with me when I drive to Southern California once a month.

Kittles is our oldest kitty at 15.  She is a playful little calico who used to be able to jump from the floor to my shoulder.  She is slowing down a bit and waits until I sit down to jump on me.  Always startling...always painful.  Expectedly unexpected.  She is about the same size as Zoë and will allow Zoë to play with her on occasion.  She is way smarter than Zoë and always tricks her into searching for her behind the TV as she sits on the cabinet, staring down on Zoë like a vulture.  She is also the kitty that Zoë growls at the most, not wanting to share space.

Tyler is our Baby Huey cat.  He is a 19 pound lethargic sweet orange tabby.  We adopted him, along with his adopted brother Toby (who died in 2013) from the Oregon Humane Society.  He mostly ignores Zoë, who would like to play but she gets the ignore aspect.  They are uneasy friends.

Zoë has a favorite chair.  It has been my chair since we bought it, but I recently moved it and am using a different chair for the time being.  She sleeps on this chair when I am away or I am in the sewing area and she doesn't want to hang out with me.  

Lately Tyler has been sleeping on this chair.  I have an old quilt that Tyler loves and if I don't fold it up and lay it across the back of the chair when finished in an evening, he will lay on this quilt.  According to Zoë, he will stay on this quilt in this chair F*O*R*E*V*E*R.

When Zoë comes downstairs in the morning and sees Tyler on the chair, she doesn't know what to do.  She will stand in her little terrier stance near the chair, looking at me.  It's like, "So what are you going to do about this?" look.  She will stay there for a long time until I just pick her up and set her in my newest chair or in Doug's chair.  If Tyler gets down, she will immediately run to the red chair.

So then this happened: Zoë finally gets up the courage to jump on the red chair while Tyler is still there!  This is bravery for her!  And she stands on the ottoman for a long while, staring at me, like "So what now?"  Tyler watches her carefully.

Finally Zoë settles in uneasily.  Tyler never takes his eyes off her.  Understand, they share the bed just fine.  But apparently the chair is a different thing.

And then Tyler decided is is time to mosey on....  And Zoë sleeps happily ever after.

Who says just because one retires that all the petty infighting doesn't continue?

You would think after 20 years as the chair of the Theatre department (Theatre, Music, Dance, Speech Communication, Journalism) I would be used to drama.  But like having little kids in the house again, we have drama at every turn.

peace~~~

Weird Portland Wednesday: A Stache and Dash

We do love our costumed races here is Portland.  We may have more races wearing costumes than anywhere (I just made up that statistic).  Like the Urban Beer Hunt just last month. 

Urban Beer Hunt

The Mustashe Dache is no exception to our fun.  Held last Saturday in SW Portland/Beaverton area, the 5k run, children's run, and family walk was everything it should have been.

The announcement for the The Mustashe Dache was perfectly Portland:

It’s only the biggest, baddest, hairiest running series on the planet. It’s a mustache-themed run that’s a little bit Freddie Mercury and a little bit Ron Swanson.  It’s a fundraiser to help end prostate cancer through our charity partner, ZERO – The End of Prostate Cancer and it’s the best excuse you’re going to find this side of 1976 to grow a mustache.

The organization's cause is am important one.  It says:

The Mustache Dache isn’t all fun and games.  Or, more accurately, it is pretty much all fun and games–but with an express purpose in mind;  raising funds and awareness for men’s health.  Here's the link if you want to read more about it: http://mustachedache.com/the-cause/

You may have missed it this year, but there are plenty more chances to wear a costume and run.  Next week on Thanksgiving is the Tofurky Trot.  Why miss something this fun? Running, walking, family fun IN A COSTUME!!!

Come join us and help keep Portland Weird. 

peace~~~