I'm In Florida

I drove here all by myself. First time I've ever driven so far alone. It took me two days with an overnight stay in Alexandria, LA. There were near constant torrential downpours on the second day and every time I pressed down on the gas pedal, water would trickle down on my foot from a newly discovered leak. You can say that I was a wee bit tense, white knuckling the steering wheel a good bit of the time. It was a relief to finally reach my mother-in-laws house.

She looks pretty good considering that she has recently finished 14 radiation treatments. The only side effects are a very sore, red scalp, some fluid in the ears, patchy hair loss, and fatigue. She reports that she is feeling a little better the last coupe of days. I think her appetite is not as good as it once was, but she is eating regularly.

Tomorrow we pack the car, visit with a few friends and make sure the house is set up for potential buyers who will be stopping in with their Realtors. On Monday we begin our two-day journey back to Texas. The house needs to be sold, but it is hard to think of it belonging to someone else. So many changes have occurred in our family's lives over the last 3 1/2 years. There's been moves, deaths, illnesses, job lay-offs, new jobs, starting college, selling & buying homes...it hasn't been boring folks. It isn't over either. We have some challenging times ahead of us, BUT we are growing, learning how to adjust to change with as much grace as we can muster. There are gifts all around us if we consciously open our hearts to see them.

The weather on the beach was gorgeous today, the gulf water was crystal clear, the breeze refreshing and soothing. I dug my toes down into the cool sand and sighed with pleasure. I had dinner with my good friend Marie at a rowdy German restaurant where a young woman on the stage played an accordion with gusto. I set up a blog for Gayle so that she can write about all the new adventures that she will be having when she comes to Texas.

Oh, and I've been taking photos with Gayle's camera and will post pictures soon.

It's nearly 1 am. Time for this insomniac to try and catch a few winks. Nighty-night.

Discovered Photo

This is a picture of me doing a Friday Night Live story concert in September. I found it on Flickr. There are several marvelous photos there from past events at the Dallas Museum of Art. I had a fun picture taken yesterday, but it wasn't up yet. I will post that one soon. In the meantime, here I am telling my version of The Purple Gorilla.

Long Overdue Post

SO much has been happening with my family life and storytelling work that blogging has had to take a back seat. Oh and I love to post pictures on my blog, but my camera broke. It takes some of the fun out of blogging. Sheesh!

So here is an update on the last few weeks:

My mother-in-law has breast cancer that has spread to her spine and brain. She has just recently finished 14 radiation treatments for the brain cancer. Side effects have been very minimal and we are very relieved about that. She also has a type of cancer that responds well to hormone treatment, which she started last week. Tomorrow afternoon, I start driving driving alone to Florida where I will pick her up and bring her back to Plano to stay with us. She will recieve excellent medical care here, plus we can enjoy each others company. She hopes to sell her home in Florida (it is on the market) and relocate near us, hopefully in the same neighborhood. We all very much look forward to enjoying the holidays together again and seeing each other on a regular basis, just like we did when we lived in Panama City, Florida a few years ago.

Regarding my storytelling work, all I can say is WOW! There has been a lot going on.

I attended several storytelling concerts as a listener, including the Lone Star Storytelling Festival, and had a blast. The national level storytellers have been Antonio Roche, Barbara Freeman, Charlie Chin, Elizabeth Ellis, Lyn Ford, the Storycrafters, and Barbara McBride-Smith. I have heard several wonderful local tellers like Tim Couch (his spooky tales are SCARY), Gene & Peggy Helmick-Richardson of Dallas, Jyoti & Meena Subramanian at the Dallas Crow Museum, Greg Rodgers from OK, Lucinda Wise from Austin, Gary Whitaker, Genie Hammell...the list goes on. I love getting the opportunity to sit back and be a listener, to marvel at the vast variety of ways in which to tell a tale. This is a very creative profession to be sure.

I have been doing a LOT of storytelling myself. I have participated in a spooky story concert at the Dallas Bath House, and provided three concerts for the Dallas Museum of Art. The themes were Egyptian Mummy's, Elephants - met the author of Babar, Laurent De Burnhoff and Kings & Queens. In addition, I have designed a new workshop for storytellers and writers that I am very excited about. It incorporates visual imagery!

Speaking of visual imagery - If I can only get my blasted camera to work I can start sharing pictures again. I'm off to see about that right now.

Ciao

#$&@ I Forgot The Camera!

Okay, so I forgot my camera when Jeff and I went to Louisiana for the Tales Along the Bayou program last Friday night. Gosh dang it all!

Well, even though I have no photos to prove it, the night was a BLAST! I love the people in Louisiana. I really, really do. Everyone is so friendly & super nice. They truly appreciate the art of storytelling. There were over 1,000 families at this event. (Actually I think I heard 1,200, but that number is too high for me to wrap my mind around.) The setting was perfect for outdoor tale telling with a large grassy area behind the plantation house that was surrounded by various historical buildings, a well lit stage, great sound system, and perfect weather with no bugs. DELIGHTFUL!

Johnette Downing and Sylvia Davis performed during the first hour. WOW are they good! Johnette Downing is a children's author/recording artist with lots of awards. Check out her website http://www.johnettedowning.com/ Sylvia Davis performed at this years National Storytelling Festival on the Exchange Place stage and is just DIVINE! Oh my, she such a sweet person. Lord, I love the folks I meet in Louisiana. I would move there if it weren't for those blasted hurricanes.

Following their highly entertaining program, and after a 30 minute intermission (this was for the families with little ones to leave and others to arrive for the spooky tales), it was my turn to scare the $%&@ out of everyone with really scary stories. HAH! When I saw the crowds growing in number, their eager faces looking up at me, many coming up to me and telling me they were there to hear scary stories, I gotta tell ya, I about freaked there for a moment. BUT, I am at home with spooky stories, I love them! I have spent years, YEARS hungrily reading scary stories. So, I got up there and gave them my best by golly. I think they liked it.

Jeff, my super supportive husband who came with me began running a fever during the event. I did not know this, but when we got back to the suite (yes, they got me a suite for this job - sweet!) he obviously had a temperature. It was high! When Jeff gets a temperature, BOY does he. For the next several hours I put cold compresses on his head every 15 minutes or so. Thank God we had a refrigerator in the room so that we could ice the washcloths. It was several hours before the fever broke. He had a sinus infection poor guy. Today he went on antibiotics. He is a trouper and I so appreciate that he came with me. I drove all the way back by myself and let him sleep.

It is a fear of mine that one day I will have a gig while I am ill. Luckily, I very rarely get sick. Thank goodness.

Ugh

Off to Louisiana! Again.

Jeff and I head out to Alexandria, LA tomorrow morning. I will be doing an evening program of ghostly, spooky tales at Kent Plantation House (circa 1796) Friday Night. Should be a right eerie place for some Halloween tale telling! I am bringing my camera and hope to have pictures up soon from the trip. I also created a painting for the program. I am doing a Night Gallery type tale. If I get to felling better about the painting, I might just post it. The painting is a landscape scene of a swamp. Landscapes are NOT a speciality of mine, it was created purely to enhance the tale. It'll work fine in dim lighting without too much scrutiny. Hah!

What Happened!?!

There my family and I were merrily marching down the road of life when WHAM! We got blindsided.

Ten days ago, our family learned that a close family member has a serious illness. We have been getting near daily updates regarding the status of this illness as the medical tests have been coming in. What a shock this has all been - most especially for the sick family member. As we cope with the changes that treating this illness will have on all our lives, we get the added pleasure of coping with the current daily news in our country. The United States is in a gut-wrenching economic crisis, and the political rhetoric between the two men running for President has sunk to an all new, low-down mean & ugly level.

Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry, so you just do both.

On the upside, gas was $2.37 a gallon today. Yeah, lower the gas prices that'll fix everything.

We're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy.