Rooted in Mississippi

I decided to do this Getting to Know You: Childhood Memories exercise from Create A Connection, even though my answers seem sort of depressing.  LOL  You can’t really control what you remember, but it was not a bright, shiny, happy childhood.  I am not complaining, but maybe this explains why I have so few memories from my youth.

1. What was your favorite childhood family vacation? Where did you go and what do you remember most about the trip? (this doesn’t have to be a big trip… even a camping trip – or whatever you remember!)

I don’t remember any family vacations, I am not sure we took any.  My folks were divorced by time I was three and the living was pretty lean for a while.  I do remember some of the trips to visit my father.  I flew as an unaccompanied minor, depending on the kindness and attentiveness of flight attendants, which was iffy at best.  I specifically remember one flight, where I was seated next to a creepy older man. Evidently he stole the stuff out of my kiddy purse while I was in the bathroom.  There was not much in there, other than my ticket and baggage claim stubs, but it was back when they used to actually check your stubs against the bags before you could leave the airport. 

2. If you knew your grandparents, what do you remember most about them as a child? If you didn’t know them, what stories do you remember being told about them?

My dad’s folks used to eat saccahrine tablets and split a single can of chicken and stars soup as a meal.  They were hard people, not the kind you hug.  They said “warsh” and “wrench” and lived in  northeast Arkansas.  My most vivid memory of them was sort of crazy.  They took me to be baptized when I was about six, which would be okay for most kids, but I am Jewish! 

My mom’s mom, for whom I am named, passed before I was born.  I have posted lots of pictures of her.  My zada was always an enigma to me, but I do remember the tailor shop and the coke machine, which dispensed bottles for a dime.

3. Do you have siblings or not? What do you remember about growing up with or without them?

I have lots of siblings!  Five half brother and three half sisters, but I grew up with my mom’s four children from her first marriage. There are 13 years difference between me and the oldest *and* between me and the youngest.  I shared a room with my two sisters until they went off to college.  I was never alone in the house until I was in high school and that was only because there was a snow storm and I walked home. 

4. What did you like best about summer vacation from school?

The one benefit of living in an apartment complex was they all had pools.  I lived at the swimming pool in the warm months.  

5. Did you like school or dislike school? What is your most memorable school moment?

I liked school. I really do not remember much before high school. Just random snippets. I suppose the most memorable moment was in first grade when the poor girl who was made classroom monitor peed on herself.  I still remember her name, but won’t post it.  I would hate for her to do a Google vanity search and find this post!  

Bonus: Post a favorite photo of yourself from your childhood!!

I think I have posted this one before….

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You won’t see any posts for a while.  I will not be dragging my laptop along with me, it is just too much hassle.  But fear not, I am taking my camera!  So I will return to regale you with stories and share some pictures. 

Everything is packed.  I managed to keep it down to two suitcases, one large and one small (carry-on size).  I am going to be daring and check them both.  I am dragging along my big Coach backpack style purse, so that the crochet and beadwork can stay with me.  I am wearing comfortable clothes and slip-on sneakers.  I have banished the underwire bras to the checked baggage.  I have all of my take-on liquids and gels in a quart sized ziploc plastic bag. I even put on make-up so that my face more closely resembles my photo ID.  I think I am prepared, but it seems like there is always a glitch these days. 

I am in count down mode. 

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I am taking a couple of tubes of beads and plan to do some rosettes, probably using circular peyote stitch instead of bead embroidery.  It just think it will be easier to handle while I am out and about.  I do not have enough delica beads to make a pair of rosettes, so I picked a couple of tubes of size 11 seed beads and packed them for travel.  I tucked a fair sized piece of ultrasuede into the bag, so I should have a nice working surface, even on a plane or train. I also found my old metal AOL CD tin, that has a sheet magnet on one side and wool blanketing on the other.  I bet AOL had no idea how many uses crafters would find for those tins.

I also packed several balls of crochet cotton and some hooks.  Becky’s thimble cozy pattern in the new issue of CQMagOnline can be modified easily to create a lovely little bags for zils.  You might have to add a round or two, but the first step is to use a slightly larger crochet hook and size 10 (bedspread weight) crochet cotton. 

I decided to skip taking a book, but I will tuck the latest issue of NeedleArts into my bag.  It arrived five weeks late and I have not had a chance to go through it yet.  Things have just been too busy.  I did not even make it to my regular yoga class today.

On the positive side, I did get a chance to talk to the person who will be watching the house and taking care of the cats.  She said she would water my herb garden too, so I won’t come home to a greenhouse full of dried up dead plants.  Yeah! 

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I have been thinking about what I will do on during the plane ride.  Right now, I plan to take some cotton and crochet a few zil pouches.  I might also bring some beads and work on a pair of rosettes for a tribal belt.  I just need to get upstairs and collect my things and figure out if I can make the beading portable enough to work on the plane.

I have been contemplating a Tribal Belt that had a Crazy Quilted base.  I thought if I could get enough inpsiration to go upstairs and piece it, I could do the embroidery on the plane ride.  However, now that it is pieced, I can’t see dragging all of that with me on vacation.  It will sit on the sewing room table and marinate for a few weeks. 

I also messed around with felting some of my dyed roving for tribal belts and hair falls.  It is so nice when my hobbies intersect! 

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Okay, you have to understand, I came of age in the infancy of MTV. It was so long ago, that they actually played music videos. I am ashamed to admit that I loved the Weird Al spoofs.  Well, today we were cruising through Borders and I heard his newest offering, White and Nerdy.  The lyrics are hysterical!  Of course, part of my amusement and delight might have to do with the fact that I am a nerd.  In fact, White and Nerdy pretty much covers my husband and I as a couple!  LOL

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We had to push up the publishing deadline, because of my vacation.  Volume 6, Issue 2 of CQMagOnline is live and we managed to get it is done ten days ahead of schedule. 

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I finally did it, I got up and danced twice with the girls at Aladdin’s last night.  It was so much fun.  I also had a lot of fun getting dressed up and doing my stage make-up, including dots around my eyes to ward off the “mal occhio” or evil eye.  I also managed to figure out a cover, so that I was not sitting around eating dinner in my tribal bra!

Cynthia and Rodger came up Friday and spent the night.  This morning, she and I went over to Trish’s to work on harem pants and a basic skirt.  Not only did I end up buying more stuff, Cynthia found some cool things too!  Then we got a tank of gas for me and some JavaWerks coffee for her and headed over to the Mississippi NeedleArts (EGA) Meeting.  Cynthia brought stuff to teach the chapter how to cover a small bottle with flat and tubular peyote stitch.  She also very kindly gave me some of her delica beads, beyond those I needed for the project. 

Cyn, Lisa, and I drove over to Logan’s for a nice dinner after the meeting.  Rodger and my husband came out to meet us.  I have to say, it was great to see Lisa again, seems like it has been forever since we last got together. As usual, we did a lot of laughing today. It was another great weekend visit.  Seems like we never do all of the things we mean to do when Cyn comes up, but we always have a good time and I am always sad to see her go.   

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Last night was the kick off of Arts, Eats, and Beats in Fondren.  We got to dress up for bellydance class, although we had very little traffic into the studio.  It was still a lot of fun.

The first photo is the outfit I wore to class.  I certainly have more to wear, now that I have been shopping at Trish’s!  My husband loves to take pictures, and it was fun to pose in the cool outfits, even with my big belly showing.

The second photo was of another outfit I bought from Trish.  I just wish it were not slightly out of focus!   

Scary, huh?

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I decided to play along in another of the Getting to Know You posts on Create a Connection. 

1. question #255 – If you had to change your first name, what would you choose as your new name?

Lulu-Belle

2. question #158 – What is your favorite saying, quote, or expression?

“The best way to avoid temptation, is to AVOID temptation.” This has been my mantra for close to a decade.  It seems so simple, but people seem to need to hear it.  I started saying it to other people when I was doing SugarBusters, but I have found it to be pretty much a universal truth. 

3. question #49 – If you could buy any rare collection in the world, which would you choose? Why?

I would not want to purchase any rare collection, but I would love to spend several weeks months years going though the Victoria and Albert Museum’s full collection. 

4. question #1 – If you could fly in a hot-air balloon over any city in the world, what city would you choose? Why that city? Have you visited there before?

Wow, who would have thought this would be the most difficult question to answer.  I have never been to Paris, but for some reason, it seems like the kind of place it would be cool to see from a hot air balloon!

5. question #221 – What is an item you own that has a minimal monetary value but has such sentimental value that you would not sell it for $5,000?

I suppose the lap quilts my sister has made for me.  Not just the three she made especially for me, but also the one that was intended for one of my siblings, who snubbed it because she was unimpressed with the design.  Ironically, that particular quilt is one my favorites and I use it all the time.

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I am trying to give my knees a rest, so I have cut back on my walking.  It is really hard for me to do, because both the dogs and I really enjoy a good long walk.  In the last few months, I have trained them to expect a daily walk and they start to get excited the minute I put on my sneakers.  I have tried taking them on short walks, but they really prefer the long route around the lake. 

I know only dog people will find this interesting, but Oscar and Louie just discovered geese.  Several water fowl seem to have made the pond their home since spring. In the past, I have taken the dogs to the water’s edge, but they were completely disinterested.  This past weekend, they got so excited by the geese that walked into the water,  but then jumped back up on the shore. Then on Monday, Oscar got so excited, he took off swimming after the geese!

This would not be such a big deal, except that Oscar is twelve and has never been the water, except for a bath.  If I had not pulled him back to shore, he would have gone after those geese until his little legs gave out. It was a scream! 

Anyway, I just wanted to check in with everyone.

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