It never fails I plan to post at least once a week to once a month, because that just seems reasonable. Then I don't get around to it.

I am better and have survived fifths. One of my friends keeps asking me when I'll get to sixths! I am not sure any virus is a good one, so I will pass!

My father has been fighting an infection for over a year and this past weekend he went in for emergency surgery. His is now home and all is curmudgeonly and argumentative so he is on the mend. His foot really looks much better after the surgery. Yet does losing a toe led to losing the foot to losing the leg or does it stop and heal? *SIGH*

Work is busy, but keeping a steady pace. I am working on bringing in a large presentation to the whole school on the Saint John's Bible and Calligraphy with a friend. It is history in the making. Oh read the site if you are interested: www.saintjohnsbible.org.

I was so overwhelmed by this past weekend that I had completely forgot to go to a teacher-certification training seminar and had to reschedule.

"To the Pain, Princess!" On Sunday was the beginning of some serious tooth pain for 3 days it held me in its grasp and wouldn't break free until I found the right balance of sleep, pain medication and an emergency dental visit for the next generation of my root canal. Ask me when I am done if it was worth it!? But today my pain is at a monotonous 1 versus the solid 5 or 6 from Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning. I am still irritable. I think next time I am going to have the tooth extracted, it's cheaper, there is less overall pain and less time with your mouth open!

I have a new library saga that I am in the middle of extracting myself from and trying to be reasonable, later update after the anger has subsided.

Completed reading the Ursula LeGuin Earthsea series. If you like sci-fi and dragons and magic and wizards and words of power, give it a read. I liked it so much it is on my Christmas list for the 6 hardcover volumes for my Sci-Fi library! That is saying something.

Have you ever been on a book hunt? Sci-Fi readers understand this more that other genre readers. There was a book that created a prequel before it completed the sequel and I found it in the hardcover version at a reasonable price on my errands on Saturday morning and couldn't pass it up. I have a great many other novels to read before I get to these precious jewels! There is something to be said for owning things, yet there is a freedom to not having anything. Of course now there is another book I am on the hunt for to see if the sequel was ever written. That will be the next order of business on my next library trip.

May life take you on unexpected adventures; remember to enjoy the journey for once you reach your destination there is only storytelling!

Today is the anniversary of both my grandfather's deaths. I was OK, most of the day. Well as can be expected when you're sick! I watched Missing Persons and some little kid in me remembered that there was something I needed to make sure I didn't forget. It is usually a rough day every year. I was very close to both my grandfather's.

I recently watched The NeverEnding Story II The Next Chapter. Cheesy maybe, but either way Bastian knew the importance of a memory. Some days memories are the only thing that get you through the day. Some good, some bad or just unusual. My family has gotten really small and I really miss my grandparents. All of them have past on to live another life somewhere out there. I love them. I miss them. I have grieved. I have been angry. I have been sad. I just miss the fact that I can't hug them!

Something so simple. A hug. Something we take for granted. There is a comfort in the embrace of someone we trust and love unconditionally and knowing it is returned. Family matters. I have tried to explain it before to other people and for all my verbosity I don't think I can ever articulate what I feel. I was in their lives for a very short time considering the span of their lives. I was blessed. I knew them both well. Very different in personality and ideas, but they both had fierce hearts and loved life and their families. I am honored to have known the light from the flames their souls brought to this life.

Sometimes I wish I had all the wisdom of their life experiences to make it through all the rough spots in my life. And then this stupid thing pops up... I was lucky enough to know my grandparents. I do not think that will be true of my children and I grieve for a loss that only the future will answer and yet this fear / grief feels solid and certain.

So here I sit spilling tears over the past and the future. When will we ever learn, right Gramps? We are supposed to celebrate their life and the accomplishments of their lives, one of which was me.

I love you and carry you in my heart and I will always remember!

My mom and I have a long standing tradition to sing midnight mass for the choir we belong to and I tried to take pictures with our digital camera, which I am learning how to use.

I am highly annoyed with being sick so much this year. Teaching gives a whole new meaning to endurance, when it comes to ones health. I am now having regular visits to my doctor, not one of my favorite things. I figure more than 2 visits a year is too much and I am already there due to this infection/virus whatever it is. I felt decent at the beginning of this weekend. I took a small visit out of town for something important to me and my sanity. Came home Sunday, relax chilled out, everything is cool. Woke up this morning like I have the worst hang over in the world and nothing is helping except sleep. UG!
Light and sound feel like torturous things that were made just to make me wince. My head is pounding as if I were wearing a crown that was too tight, or maybe a vice made of metal unforgiving in squishing my brains to mush. Food is only taking the edge off. I hope I don't wake up with this hangover feeling. I really want to have fun with my kids tomorrow and can't help the feeling like this is only some half-life of my former healthy self.

Unexpectedly I was invited to see A Tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a wonderful evening of beautiful music and toe tapping songs with amazing dancers dancing in the same style during the war eras. Jody Hess was an wonderful sight to see. Kirby Ward had an amazing ability to copy Fred Astaire's mannerisms and dance style.

The tenor at the beginning of the show gave a round of applause to all the veterans in the audience and I was highly impressed. That era was an entire different society, but a time when boys danced with girls and romance was a dream everyone desired. Beautiful dresses, dance steps, songs that stayed in your mind, and the thought of someone special right in the front of your happy moments. It was also a time of war, loss and people just trying to keep it together. People who enjoyed good cultural distractions and it maybe me realize just how much I miss the stories my grandparents would talk about "when we were your age..."

I got the opportunity to talk to Jodi Bensen AKA Ariel in the Little Mermaid. She was very down-to-earth and signed my program. What a great voice!

When I was a little girl and dreamed of being a dancer. Fred Astaire was my role model. He was plain to look at, but extraordinary when the music qued. A Hollywood producer was quoted saying "He can't sing, can't act, balding, can dance so-so." Just goes to show you what technology did for an entire era. When movies hit it big, so did Astaire and Rogers! Musical movies. Wonder what would happen if they put reality television with a movie musical...