Rooted in Mississippi

I finally got together with my younger brother Andrew!  My husband and I took him out on our anniversary…to my favorite Chinese/Japanese buffet, Ichiban.  Even though we noticed that the new Ichiban Sushi & Grill was open, we had already made plans to meet him at the old place and it was very enjoyable.  Not only did I get plenty of soup and sushi, I was able to just chat with Andrew for a few hours. I am so glad that I got the notion to call him again and this time he followed up and we actually made plans.  The older you get, the more important family becomes.

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But, I just have to share a recent email that I received by someone who is offended by my needlefelting.

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Bryan Tankersley <email deleted> wrote:
> Hello,  I am just curious about something I saw on your web site. It appears
> that your needle felted teddy bear and rabbit have “protruding parts”…???
> Is there a reason for this. It seems kind of perverted to me. Would be cute
> without making them obscene.
> Bryan
> Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

My gut reaction was to respond, even though it probably would have been wiser to just delete it and move on with my life.  That said, wise choices are difficult in the heat of the moment and here was my reply.

First of all, it was one animal, a polar bear.  I do not find the
“protruding parts” to be obscene, it is merely bits of wool shaped
into a figurative representation.  In fact, it was that precise
attention to detail that helped me get juried into the craftsman’s
guild.

Secondly, I was not going for cute, I was demonstrating my skill in a
manner I found both whimsical and amusing.  When you are the artist,
you can make your own choices.  As for me, I would not change a thing
about that piece.

I suppose it says more about me that I felt compelled to respond to an to email complaint about my “perverted” and “obscene” needlefelting.  Since there is only one such creature in my menagerie, I suppose it says more about him that he is seeing “protruding parts” where there are none.  While most of my figurative animals are gender neutral, that particular one is not and I have my reasons.  I get more positive response from that one item than any other, because people think it is funny. Maybe I should knit some pantaloons to cover his naughty bits…NOT!!

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I did not post about my mama drama before leaving Atlanta.  First, I took her to the dentist, because she had broken off and swallowed a crown a couple of weeks ago and was too cheap to take a taxi to the dentist.  I could see she had done more damage to her tooth than just lose a crown, so I got her to make the appointment while I was in town.  Unfortunately it was even worse than I had thought.

After a while, her dentist brought me back to look at mom’s radiographs.  Some how she had not only damaged what was left of the tooth under the crown, she managed to break the tooth behind it.  Since the break was actually under the gum line, her dentist was not willing to extract it.  So we made arrangements to go to an oral surgeon for a consult.  Since my mother refused IV sedation and would not have reliable transportation after I left, they were able to take the tooth that afternoon.

Anyway, she was a terrible patient.  She wandered around instead of reclining with her head propped up on pillows.  I was changing her gauze every hour and constantly telling her to leave it alone, but she was like a little kid. Every time she spit out the clot, she knew it would upset me, but saved it to show me anyway!!!! Very late that night, I finally had to have her bite down on a wet teabag for half an hour to help stop the bleeding.  It was just about more than I could deal with after all the drama with my other father.

So the next morning, after making sure she was all right, I took off for Louisville.  I admit I made a stop along I-75 to check out the Coach Factory Outlet, but I was hoping the drive would not take all day. I was relying on my husband’s GPS and somewhere in Tennessee it decided to send me the most scenic route.  After hours on Tennessee back roads, I wound up on one of the Kentucky Scenic Byways. Now you know why I went through Glasgow, Kentucky. LOL

It was beautiful, especially with the fall colors, but I was longing for major highways after my fourth or fifth winding and wet mountain pass.  About an hour outside of Louisville, my brother called and was really upset, because mom would not answer the phone all day.  Turns out that while she was supposed to be resting with an ice bag on her cheek, she decided to run errands on the shuttle and gave us all a good scare.

Needless to say, my nerves were shot by time I checked into my room at the Seelbach and that was before I realized they were charging me $23 a night for parking!

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More details to come, but I wanted to let you know I arrived back in Jackson safe and sound late this evening.  It was an eventful trip with lots of ups and downs. I promise to post more later, but I wanted to leave you with a little tease, since I last posted, I was in Glasgow and Lebanon!

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OK, so I got to Atlanta and things went boom.  On Saturday, I brought mom back to my brother’s house and just as we were about to head out to dinner, the phone rang.  Turns out that my other father, David, was having a stroke, but refusing to go to the hospital.  My brother convinced him that time was of the essence and David finally consented to let his wife take him to the ER.  He had a bleeding stroke and was admitted to the ICU.  Thankfully, the bleeding stopped and he did not need surgery.  They actually released him from the hospital late this afternoon.

My sister Vicki did not want us to tell our other sister about what was going on, because she is dealing with her own stuff right now.  Janice’s husband’s brain tumor is not only back, it is looking very scary and they have been flying all over the country trying to pursue any possible treatment options.  Anyway, as I predicted, keeping her father’s stroke a secret was futile. It made it through the family grapevine back to Janice and Jim today.  At least by time she learned about it, her father was out of the woods.

I will be here for a few more days, then I head to Louisville and EGA Headquarters for an extended study program. I definitely feel like I need a vacation from this vacation.

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My official loss with Weight Watchers is now 33.5 pounds.  With one exception, I have really been working the program.  Well, even that exception (some fried clam strips and steak fries from the buffet on Sunday) was within my points range for the week.  I was worried that my weight loss was slowing down, but three pounds this past week changes my opinion.  I hate that I will miss my meeting next week.

Now, for some more photos.  I took these on Halloween, when I was testing costumes. I bought both of these beautiful costumes from a local dancer.  The Bollywood Fusion one on the left fits now, except that the skirt is a little big and a little too long.  The Turkish vest (on the right) is just a little too tight, but the rest fits and it is BEAUTIFUL!  I can not wait for it to really fit.

I also wanted to add some updated photos in the same outfit as from my August 20th post.

You can not really tell in these photos, but these pants are USELESS for yoga now, they just fall down!  Actually, most of my long yoga pants are sliding off my butt and my muffin top does not help. I also have to admit, the choli top is now tied as tight as it will go. I guess I really am losing all over, even though it seems to be coming off much faster from the hips down!

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