Kissed By a Cow

When I was a kid we never went to the fair.  I think the first time I went was well after college.  Mom was working for the local Soil and Water Conservation District and had to man their booth at the fair for a couple of shifts.  She gave me one of her "comp" tickets and I met her for dinner one evening after work.  I remember her drinking birch beer and me having some of the best onions rings ever.  We went to see the draft horses, but had to leave the barn because the smell of ammonia was so bad we were getting dizzy.

Fast forward a couple of decades and a different county.  Tim and I went to our fair last year for the first time.  We enjoyed it so much that this year I took a day off from work and we spent a good while just wandering the grounds and seeing what was there to see.  And, there was a lot to see.

Animals were definitely the best part. I don't remember ever seeing so many rabbits in one place. One cow seemed to like me, a lot.  She gave me lots of "kiss licks" as my niece would call them.  There wasn't anything dainty about it, unless getting kissed by 100 grit sandpaper counts. 

I've decided that I like goats much better than sheep.  Goats are cute and curious; the sheep were whiners, bleating loudly, just because.  When one of the sheep decided it didn't want to go to the ring for its showing, it took off running.  Through several barns it went, until it was cornered by nearly a dozen people and a movable fence.

The arts and crafts were okay.  As I wandered through both the photography and quilt exhibits, I kept thinking I could do better than that.  But, the exhibitors did one thing I didn't do.  They entered.  Maybe next year.

Who knew that there was a competition for alfalfa? And the choices in Fair food are almost endless, but once again we had Philly steak sandwiches.  Some things are just tradition.   Like watching poised young ladies, and one young man, make their big beastly horses dance in the ring.

We'll definitely be back next year!

AMDG

Time Marches On

I look at the calendar and am amazed that we are two thirds of the way through June already.  It feels like it should only be sometime in May.

 

In a couple of weeks we are going to celebrate my niece and God-daughter's fifth birthday.  I remember Sis and BIL bringing her home from the hospital and now Sara is about to start kindergarten.

 

Again I look at the calendar and remember that twenty years ago today, I met the man with whom I would spend the rest of my life.  Who knew that spinning the “Lucky Number Wheel”  at the parish carnival would pay such great dividends? 

 

The invitation I received in the mail recently reminds me that my college thirty year reunion is coming up this weekend.  College, people, not high school.  And thirty years?  That can't be. 

 

There's no stopping time.  I'm not sure I would want to if I could.  But, I often wonder if I am using whatever time our good Lord has given me on this earth well. 

 

Do the things that I do, and not do, honor God, my family, my faith?  It's as simple and as complicated as that.

 

 

AMDG 

The Dinner Party That Wasn't, or Was It?

A couple of weeks ago I called my husband's aunt and invited her and her husband over for dinner.  We planned on Sunday, the 18th, at 2pm.  Himself and I haven't seen them for a while, probably at a graduation or First Communion party, and were looking forward to their visit.

 

We spent yesterday cleaning and picking produce from our garden.  I made an apple pie and a loaf of pumpkin bread so that we would have a couple of choices for dessert.

 

Before church I prepped the carrots and potatoes that were going into the crockpot with the pot roast.  While I was setting the table, I mentioned to himself that we should do this more often, but just for ourselves.  He looked at me quizzically. 

 

I am admittedly not a good housekeeper.  I am great at keeping clutter at bay but I don't dust, vacuum or do all those other cleaning type things nearly often enough.  But, oh how good I feel when the house is clean!  I figured that we should do a deep clean more often and have our Sunday dinner in the dining room at a prettily set table.

 

Well, two o'clock came and went.  One of the roads nearby is closed for construction, so we thought that they might be delayed by the detour.

 

At about two thirty we started thinking that maybe they thought we had planned on 3pm.

 

When three o'clock passed, we started to get worried.  We were hoping and praying nothing bad had happened.

 

Finally, at about twenty after three I called his aunt.  Since she has caller ID she knew immediately who it was on the other end of the line.  She asked sheepishly "Are we supposed to be there this weekend?" 

 

Yep, she had written down our dinner plans for the 25th, not the 18th.  She felt so bad and couldn't apologize enough.  As long as they were okay and nothing bad had happened, we didn't care.

 

And, actually it worked out okay.  We did just what I had wanted to do in the future.  We had a dinner party for two.   

AMDG

Gone But Not Forgotten

I finally started going through my closet and dresser before Mass on Sunday.  It’s a chore I’ve known that was needed, and have avoided, for a long time.

Some (Himself) might say I’m a clothes hog.  It’s not that I buy that many new things each season.  After all, a girl’s wardrobes needs some refreshing.  It’s that I never get rid of anything.

Until about a year ago I had a sweater dress that I bought my freshman year of college.  That wouldn’t be so bad if I was thirty and had graduated less than ten years back.  But I graduated in ’87 and acquired the dress a few years prior to that!  The dress was thirty years old and looked it.

Then there’s the blue sweater I dug out of the back of the dresser.  It must have shrunk greatly because it is much shorter and more “snug” than I remember.

Neither the dress or the sweater has any great fashion significance.  What they both held are memories.

The dress was the first  real good article of clothing that I bought for myself.  Until then, most of my clothes were from discount stores like Gold Circle’s, Uncle Bill’s and Kresge’s. 

I remember needing a dress for a student government event at college, so I went to the local mall.  There was a Laura Ashley store in it and the dress caught my eye.  It was perfect, simple.  It could be dressed up with a scarf and heels or made to look more casual with a pair of leather boots (that I still have).  The problem was the price tag - $99.  That was an especially steep price for a college girl who working at McDonald’s. 

But, I bought it anyway and it served me well.  Throughout the years I wore it to all sorts of events – orchestra concerts, dinners out, Mass, Christmas celebrations, and more.  Then the wear and my changing size became apparent and it got pushed to the back of the closet.

The blue sweater doesn’t have quite a storied history.  It was a cheap purchase, I think at Sam’s Club.  But one of my favorite pictures of myself was taken while I was wearing it.  It was after we have moved to where we live now and Himself and I were enjoying some patio time after work.  I was sitting on a rock in the garden and he snapped a picture of me.  I was relaxed and content, and it showed.

Like the dress, the sweater is showing signs of better days and will go out with a pile of clothes making its way to the resale shop.

I am finding that I attach meaning to clothes that slows me down from getting rid of them when I should.  Just because the item is gone doesn’t mean the memory that went along with it is.

Perhaps by letting it go someone else can make a memory in it.  Or else they can have a pretty rag!

AMDG

Picture This

A couple of Saturdays ago Himself and Sis threw me a birthday party.  It was epic.  No, really, in my mind it was.  They invited family and friends that are important to me.  There were a few friends I hadn't seen in far too long (my fault, mea culpa)  and others we see frequently.  It was fun to catch up with all that was going on in everyone’s life.  Afterwards I promised myself that it is not going to be a year or two or four until the next time we see each other.

For some of the decorations Himself put together a number of picture boards.  He spent weeks secretly, and then not so secretly, going through photo albums, boxes of trinkets, and scrapbooks finding mementos of my life.  He created boards of my travels and hobbies, friends and family.  Oh what fun it was to look at them all!

“Around the World in Fifty Years” had pictures of a Jaycee trip to Hawaii, and my adventures in Europe and Russia.  Our engagement pilgrimage to Rome was also featured as well as our trips to Chicago and Virginia Beach.

One board was mostly things I did with the Jaycees.  There were the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame run and the radio celebrity golf outing projects that I chaired.   Parties, mud volleyball, bowling, and a night at the races were on that board as well.

Himself found photos and artifacts that I had forgot existed.  When I earned the Girl Scout Gold award way back when I received a letter from President Reagan congratulating me on the achievement.  I didn't remember that at all.

The best part of these boards, though, was the stories they invoked the night of the party and the days since then.  It was such a joy to share the memories with everyone.  I often heard Remember this? and I forgot about that and Did you really. . . ?

We remembered where our lives joined and intersected, times that were important or fun.  Weddings, graduations, family vacations - they were all there.  We thought about people who aren't with us any longer and ones that are a distance away.  Silliness and seriousness were pictured, too.

I have always been a prolific picture taker.  But all too often I take the photo, look at it and then file it away, never to be seen again.  If that occurs, what was the point of taking the picture in the first place?

Yes, the party was epic.  I viewed my past, thought about the future, and, most of all, enjoyed the present.


AMDG


 PS. And, no, I didn't really run with bulls or jump out of an airplane.  Himself is just really good with Photoshop!