MERRY CHRISTMAS -------------------- FROHE WEIHNACHTEN

I know, I know.. I am a bit late once again....    ANYWAYYYYYYYY...

Merry Christmas to you fine people !!!!

May you all have a most fantastic Christmas and holiday.  Since I have already updated you in regards to what is going on with me and my family, I shall not repeat myself.  For those who don't read mine or Lewis'  or even the girl's facebook, we lost our wonderful dog Jessie December 17.  She was diagnosed with nerve damage in her lower spine which was untreatable.  She had her difficulties walking and just standing, as her hind-legs would just constantly give in, forcing her to the ground.  She was almost 12 years of age and we'd like to say she lived a pretty darn good life.  We miss her greatly.     

To those who follow me on my research blog:  I've posted something new !!!  whoo hoo.. :-)  

My research blog .. walk with me

Have a great day !!!  tons of hugs and kisses and all that fun stuff ;-) 

H A P P Y __ T H A N K S G I V I N G .....

 (picture copied from: http://www.dandelionwishesphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dsc_3591_blog.jpg)


               ..... to you fine people.   It has been a long time since last I posted. At least it seems that way.  Time is not flying by at all and thus my semester is dragging on forever.  December 13th is my last day of finals and then I am off until second week of January.  This, my friends, is a much needed break.   However, believe it or not, I am thankful for my busy time, for it means I am doing all the right things.   That's always nice to know, isn't it?


       I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to "just be an anthropologist" and therefor, I changed it.  Come on, who doesn't like change, eh? ;-)   "Ethnohistory"  is the check box I am now checking off when stating my degree.  How did that happen?  I am not completely sure, but I think it went like this:   I was supposed to transfer to GSU for this upcoming semester, however, they did not take my current credit hours into consideration and thus, I fell short with the required transfer hours/credits.  I took the CLEP test (College-Level Exam Program) two days later and made a perfect score and earned 12 credit ours... on the phone with GSU once more, telling them that I now have the required transfer hours (I was only short by 4 credit hours), but they denied me again, stating that, although impressive, they cannot accept the CLEP credits for transfer credits, but will definitely count towards my overall hours.  This is not helping !!!   I met up with my adviser, Professor Tadros, who has been my history professor for two semesters (he should be familiar to those of you who read my research blog) to seek advice.  My GPA of 4.0 seems to be attractive enough for him to try to talk me into staying at my current university as a billboard to show what kind of student comes out of this new University (the university I am currently attending is only 5 years old).  However, GSU has a fantastic honor's program geared towards research and I want to take advantage of that type of program.  As it stands now, I am going to my current University for one more semester (all history classes, whoo hoo, I can't wait) and then transfer to GSU for the fall semester.    My professor believes that I should become a historian as he feels I am pretty good at grasping it all.  Plus, I already have my Ph.D. theses in the works (New England Colonies...).  I think, it also has something to do with him being a bit bias toward "history" as that's his field ;-)    This is one thing for which I am definitely thankful : having met Professor Tadros who is a phenomenal professor.   Because I love History and the Human Behavior (in the context of history), he suggested the field of Ethnohistory which is comprised of History AND Anthropology...  YIPEEE, the best of both worlds ;-)  


        Jenny has changed her future goals as well.  Not having gone to the University of Hawaii may have been the best thing for her after all.   She has picked up ballroom dancing again and fell in love with it once more.  Jenny decided to make "ballroom dancing" her future, however, it has become not only a future plan, but her life.  Another thing for which I am thankful : Jenny finally found her place in this huge world... she found her passion.     She has changed her major from Marine Biologist to a Business Major in an effort to build her own business, a dance studio.  We couldn't be more proud of Jenny.  And  those of you who are connected with me through facebook have seen Jenny "in action" ;-)  soon, she will participate in her very first dance competition (ballroom dance).  And I am thankful for my mother-in-law for it was her who introduced Jenny to ballroom dancing and who is supporting Jenny immensely in achieving her goals.


       Julia is faced with a decision of dual enrolling for next year.  As you all remember, Julia wanted to get a degree in Music from Julliard.   Her passion has been her Viola for the past 6 years.  I still tear up when I take my seat in the audience and look upon the stage; whether she is already seated or the stage is still empty... the tears don't care.. they will flow as they please.  However, Julia has changed her mind as far as her degree is concerned.  First, we thought she wants to have a degree in the field of linguistics, as she has said after her return from a summer camp where she studied Arabic (two semesters in 3 weeks).  But no... not even close;  Religious History is her field of study now, in particular the Crusades.   Another thing for which I am thankful.  Her decision, however, does not come as a surprise per se, as she is fascinated by various religions and their fall and/or progression.  She has been doing her independent research project for a bit over a year now and is doing a fantastic job with it.


    You all know how thankful I am for Lewis.  To this day, he is the best thing I could ever have come across.  I believe I have mentioned it somewhere that Lewis is "back to school" as well... his EMBA with GSU; a 3-year program in only 18 months.  He is so very busy with work and school, but we manage.  Family life has changed with all of us being in school, but we will be okay (if I say that often enough, it will be true, right?).  We try to put as much family time into this busy life as we can.   Next year, with Julia being in the dual enrollment program, all four of us are sitting at University-lectures. 


    I am thankful for all of you.. my family, my friends, my online friends and those who just follow either of my blogs.  I appreciate all of you... and more than you will ever know.    You all are soooo good to me.  I thank you all for sticking around, even though I am a sucky friend at the moment.  THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR BEING IN MY LIFE !!!    May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and may you all have plenty to be thankful for.      Tons of Hugs, Kisses and all that fun stuff !!!!!

The Final Touch?

Moi, age 16

I opened the shower door and reached for a towel this morning.  I barely open the door to avoid the cold air to enter and I am basically blindly picking an available towel.  My luck, I grabbed my favorite towel.  Yes, I have a favorite towel.  This piece of fabric has touched, wrapped and caressed my body since the age of 10.  This towel has gone with me to oh so many places of this wonderful planet and through a lot of life situations. 

My towel wears my most favorite color blue and displays my name on the bottom side.  It traveled with me eleven times to different places in Spain, touched a tip of Portugal, been thirteen times to France, rushed around a corner of Luxemburg,  seen the Netherlands, been all over Germany, enjoyed the water in Switzerland, gone to Austria, Hungry, Poland, has seen tons of America and the U.S. Virgin Islands as well as the B.V. I.’s.  

One can say, my towel and I are inseparable indeed.   It is not the prettiest towel you have ever seen, and it is not huge, nor fluffy.  Wrapping yourself in it does not make you feel as if you are in a spa.  It does not make you feel like soft hands are running all over your body.  None of these hold true for my towel, yet I don’t enjoy another towel more on my skin than this one.   And today, when unfolding my towel in the shower, I had to see, that my towel is succumbing old age.   A hole has formed in the middle of its body.  I have noticed that it has gone thinner over the years; dismissed it as typical wear and tear…  Seeing this hole makes me rather sad, as it only recalls the obvious.  Nothing is safe from getting old and eventually fading away. 

With this hole, memories are starting to fade away.   Often, I would just stay wrapped in my towel and dwell in memories of where we’ve been together or situation we have faced throughout the years.  This towel survived break-ups in which I would lose important documents, baby pictures and other memorabilia, but never did we get separated.   I never made the notion to make sure to safe this towel, it just always happened that way.  

Thirty years this towel was my loyal companion, my servant, my comfort.  Yet again I face the true nature of time.  The cruel presence of age.  And the realization that nothing is forever.

[This, my fine friends, is a re-post from a looooooooong time ago.  It's been a very busy day and it will get even busier for me come this Wednesday.  My free time will come to an end, my research will suffer once more and you fine people will again see much less of me :-(  .  Anyway,  this blog post came to mind earlier today and I wanted to post it, just because...   one more time as it hits home today as it did back then in 2009 or so when I first wrote this post.      Good night to you fine people ;-)  Perhaps you will wrap yourself in an old memory tonight ;-)  hugs, kisses and all that fun stuff ;-) ]

The trip ALMOST known as "The Great Cancun Vacation"

 

So there we were, all ready for the new frontier (for us) of an ancient civilization and the ocean blue of Cancun, Mexico.   The phone rings at 6 a.m., American Airlines on the line,  the flight from Atlanta to Dallas has been cancelled, but not to worry, we are getting on the flight from Atlanta to Miami and we will catch a connection flight from there.  Great, not too bad, it only puts us 30 minutes behind the original arrival time in Cancun.  We can actually leave the house a little later than originally planned.  After careful consideration, Lewis decided that we drive ourselves to the airport and will just park at one of those "protected" off-site parking places, since we have to be back earlier anyway.  We learned a couple of nights ago at a cocktail party that Lewis really needs to be back on Thursday as he has Exams Friday and Saturday and there is no way that he can miss those [He is doing a 3 year MBA in only 17 months... you can imagine the work load].  But it's all good, we got this, so we just shuffle around our plans for a week and make the most of it in 4 days ;-)    Let's go... we are soooo ready.


We are parking the car at exactly 11:37 a.m., hop into the shuttle bus and off we go.  Lewis had the pleasure of stepping into that round tube and be violated without a notice and as he stepped out, a young man felt that that wasn't enough and kindly informed him that he will pat him down.  After Lewis'  pleasure trip through the security check up was finally over, we had to hurry it up a little bit as I wanted to make sure to buy enough snacks as I just hate the airline "crap" they offer.  1:10ish p.m. and we board our plane, whoo hoo.   Settling down, out comes the ole Ipad as Lewis figured he can read his text books during the flight and I just take out my little head set and we are ready to take off.  Cancun, here we come... well, Miami first....


We get to Miami and the lovely pilot informed us that  we were put into a holding pattern due to some storm clean-up.  An extra circling had to be done as a machine was still occupying our gate.  Finally, we are on the ground, out the door and a quick stop at the restrooms before continuing on to our connection flight to beautiful Cancun.  Lewis checks the monitors one more time for the accuracy of our flight information, as he always does and "what's that?"  Our flight number is not to be found... not to worry, out comes the Ipad....   What?  The flight is cancelled?  And so the running begins...  Gate D10... "sorry, the flight has been cancelled, we can put you on stand-by for the next flight out to Cancun, but it doesn't look good, it's a full flight".  "What other options are there?"  There are flights to Cancun tomorrow through Dallas, but they are all fully booked as well, doesn't look good for a stand-by."  We were placed on standby for the next flight out to Cancun...  we didn't make it... the flight was super-full.  So, we rush to the counter of a Dallas-bound flight, thinking that we could catch a flight to Mexico from there [Miami and Dallas are the only hubs for Cancun].  We made it there in the middle of boarding.... "sorry Sir, the flight is full".  We pass the line for "re-booking flights" holding at least 200 people if not more.  By now, it is close to 8 p.m., we are not going to stand in this line and miss even more flights.  We found a quiet corner and Lewis is dialing American Airlines...


There is nothing that gets us to Cancun tonight, nor tomorrow.  There is nothing that gets us to Dallas, not tonight, nor tomorrow.  Okay, how about back to Atlanta? ... we made it to a different terminal, lungs are burning, but we made it and Lewis tells that nice gentleman behind the counter that he has just communicated with a lady from AA and she booked us on that flight.  "She is not supposed to do that, you have to go through "re-booking flights" this is a full flight....  step aside, I will call your name shortly".... Yessssss, we got on the flight, but our luggage will have to stay behind.  "What happens to our luggage?" it better not be seeing the airport of Cancun...  one should never ever be jealous of ones luggage, is all I'm sayin'.    "You have to file a claim in Atlanta".    This is the only flight to get the heck out of Miami and the most disorganized airport we have ever encountered.. [well, there is the story of Charles de Gaulle, but I shall not get into that one].   We get our tickets.. different seats, but by now, we just don't care.  Departure is at 8:43 p.m.   We run to grab a quick bite to eat; we only had about 10 minutes or so.  "Boarding Zone 2 now".. that's us.

Lewis managed to talk the guy next to him to trade places with me and our perk for the night: Exit seats... leg-room, yesssssss ;-)  We touched down in Atlanta at around 10:50 p.m., first stop at the office to report our baggage claim.  We arrive at our car and hit the ticket drive through at 11:35... two minutes shy of a 12 hour stay...   she charges us for the full 24 hours and she had no pity on us at all....   she smiled away Lewis'  remarks and opens the gate.   Off we go to "Home, sweet home"... ahhh.. Home... who wants to see Cancun anyway????  And who wants to go to Mexico, I mean, really?  We had our fill of Spanish as a first language in Miami...    so we are good on that foreign thing... what more do we need?   And thus, this day shall be remembered as the day we almost started a great Cancun Vacation.                [sigh]






(To add insult to injury, Lewis just got off the phone... jealousy knocked on the door, our luggage is in Cancun!!!!)

A well deserved update.. or just a sign of life...

Oh my gosh it's dusty in here !!!!     Haven't shown my silly ole face in a while, haven't I?    All I can say is that I have been quite busy.  School, research, my girls, and planing a vacation.   It's final !!!!!   Vacation is booked and we are leaving the second week of August.  Where are we going?  CANCUN, Mexico... whoo hoo.  We wanted to go to Aruba, but timing was just not on our side for that.  Then Lewis thought of a Caribbean cruise which would end in Aruba... same timing issue.. Puerto Vallerta...  same thing...  and then Lewis just booked a vacation and hoped for the best.  Well, turned out that there was a timing issue yet again, but he is done playing around with all of it and we will be going anyway.   I can't wait.

Chichen Itza, here we come ;-)  We will be gone for just a week.  While we are there we will go to, of course, Chichen Itza, to Tulum (for some site seeing and some sailing), we will be doing some cave diving and snorkeling (maybe this time I won't be so freakin'  paniky !!!).  We will be going to the Island of Cozumel, not sure what we will see there.  We will go to Ek Balam, an ancient Mayan City which is currently being excavated.  Since archeology is one of my degrees, I've got to go and see it.    And in between those trips we will be just hangin' by the pool and perhaps even by the ocean.  I am more than ready for this break.

I've downloaded a currency converter App, as well as the spanish-english dictionary to fill in where Lewis might draw a blank ;-).  I will brush up on my Spanish a bit too and then just hope for the best ;-)  I will be the good little tourist, giving it a shot.  My dilemma, however, I don't like Mexican food.  So what will I do?  Again, I will be the good little tourist and not at all that spoiled brat and will actually eat the real Mexican food.  To my defense, this will be a different kind of Mexican food anyway... this will be AUTHENTIC !!!  perhaps I like authentic Mexican food.  who knows.  I will give it a try!!!   Cross your fingers for me, otherwise I will go hungry.

Classes start up August 17th.  This will be my last semester before I transfer over to GSU to complete my classes.  Thus far, I kept my 4.0 (not bragging or anything).  But sometimes I feel like "man, I am too old for this ^&%$ . "     But I shall not waste another thought on school for I have to think about Bikinis, dresses, shoes, a cocktail or two, snorkel, another cocktail or two, lots of stuff to see, perhaps a margarita, and getting a lot of natural Vitamin D.   Come join me? ;-)    As usual,  I will blog while on my vacation, showing of said bikinis and cocktails.    So pack up your flip flops, your spf 50 and let's gooooooo ;-)








P.S.   I've received plenty of e-mails in regards to my other blog "...walk with me" with the questions of when I will continue those posts...  well, I will continue once I've made a connection from Caleb to John and when I have a program which prohibits copying the content (text and images).  I have found a few programs which are quite costly, so I have not yet decided on such a program.   Be patient with me !!! as always !!!             

                                                     Tons of hugs and kisses and all that fun stuff !!!

360 glitch

Good morning to you fine people...

As blogger decided to pull a yahoo 360 on me, I have no clue who commented on my previous post before the blog post disappeared other than my dear Sir Thomas ;-) .  Blogger was nice enough to return the stolen post, however, the comments seem to be lost in cyber space forever.  

Sir Thomas commented in part in regards to the mentioned non-existing green thumb and my avocado tree ;-)  So here you go, Sir Thomas,  a picture of my tree , tadaaa  ;-)  One more week and I can pick my first avocado..LOL

This past week has been nice not worrying about the ole classes (kept a 4.0, by the way..just sayin'  ;-)  )  I have been able to get a lot of sorting out done... lots of what I gathered in Rhode Island (will share soon on my other blog Walk with me ) has finally been organized and placed where it belongs and lots of it now makes sense.  However, the missing link still exists and a trip to Connecticut is unavoidable.  Lewis tells me that this might be a trip I have to do on my own as he is just not all that excited about sitting in a vault filled with old documents.. I just don't understand ;-).   So, instead he is planing a week trip for us somewhere else... it better be somewhere where there are lots of palm trees and the ocean and never ending flowing rum... I'm just sayin' ...

Classes start up this coming Monday again, the day of our 17th wedding anniversary.  Gosh, time flies, doesn't it?!  this time, I won't be going 6 days a week, just 5 days a week, keeping the weekend free for some fun.  During the week, classes will only be from 7:30 until 1:30,  hopefully leaving enough time for me to concentrate on my research.   Semester will be done July 18, Julia's 16th birthday.    Fall semester won't start until august 20th or so, leaving me with plenty of time to travel to Connecticut ;-) I need a travel partner!!! ;-)  Anyone up for it??? ;-)

Hugs, kisses and all that fun stuff!!

Good morning my fine people... 

Finally I find some time to sit here and write to you all.  Semester is done, I've made my A's and am now enjoying a two-week break before my summer classes.  Tuesday was my last final and it is nice to not have anything on my mind but to enjoy the day without having to worry about writing a paper, finishing a math program, studying for an exam...  Needless to say there were times when I asked myself why the heck I am putting myself through this.. where I wanted to talk myself into being way too old for this "&*^%".   But now that I am all done, I am already thinking of my transfer to GA State University.    Life is good !

August is coming about faster and faster.  Jenny will be leaving us in August to go to the University of Hawaii to obtain her degrees in Marine Biology, Zoology and Psychology.  Can you guess what our vacation destination will be for the next 6 years? ;-)    Yeah, that's right... aloha oe  ;-)  Lewis will bring Jenny to her new paradise and set her up and make sure all is taken care of.  Julia and I shall remain in Hotlanta as I have school to attend.

Julia has been accepted to a really neat summer camp.  It's a language camp sponsored by the FBI, CIA and Homeland security.  She will attend this camp for a few weeks learning the Arabic language.   This is nice as I have to study that language myself soon.  She will also do her music during the summer, as always.  She is finishing up her year with MYSO (Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra) and then join the one-year music program with the Emory University. 

We couldn't be more proud of our girls !!!

I will spend my short break before summer classes with some research.  For those who follow my other blog at Walk with Me know that I have had absolutely no time to catch up with my research after my return from Rhode Island.  I planed to go back up to Rhode Island during this summer, but, for now, there is no need for that.  My History professor sat down with me and we somewhat discussed what I should do.  I will be hunting down a lot of primary sources and build up my theses for my Ph.D.   So that's where that's at.

Hotlanta is currently treating us to temperatures in the low 90's.  Quite wonderful!!  Meanwhile, I've planted an avocado pit and it has become quite the little tree.  It is growing dramatically in the last few days and if it keeps up the speed of development, we shall have avocados by the end of next week instead of waiting ten years.  Crazy !!  You have to know, I don't have a "green thumb" at all.  So for this avocado tree to do as well as it does it is soooooo exciting.  Just smile for me !!

Let's see, what else should I update you all on?  Oh yeah.. Lewis is going to start his Master's Program as well.  Now this one is quite exciting...  During his program, he will be going on two trips.  One to South America and one to Asia (China, most likely).  Yes, yes, yes, I will be going with him !!!   You all know how much I love to travel the world.  Lewis can study while I play tourist.  

Well, now that I updated you fine people, it's your turn...  catch me up... what have you guys been up to???   Any special plans for your summer?  Tell me, what's new in your world?         tons of hugs and kisses and all that other fun stuff ;-)

A New Kind of Fight

           During her eight-hour travel, she could not help but keep thinking of his words.  A question he asked to which she very

well knew the answer but decided to rather give a more general than the true answer.  But now she wonders, where does her

faith lie?  Can she even truly answer that question anymore?  He has triggered a series of thoughts and a brief return to

her own past.  She started to question if her true answer to his question was just formed by anger at the time.  For

seventeen years she has not questioned, nor challenged her “answer” until the day he asked the question.  This question

shouldn’t even phase her.  It should not touch her in a way it did.  It never did before.  Her answer was the perfect answer…  at

least that is what she thought until he came along.


How is it, that one simple question can shake her entire belief?  Although the general answer she gave him has not changed

at all, the true answer seems to be on shaky grounds now, with repeated aftershocks.  She is trying to tell herself that the

answer is still the answer and to not pay attention to the falling pillars on which her answer stood.  Somehow, he keeps

finding his way into her head, creating yet another tremble.


What is the purpose of his question anyway, she wonders.  What does it matter if one person does not want to go there, even

though, her reason for not wanting to go the "path of faith", whatever that may be, is created for the wrong reason?  She had

tried to make sense of it, bring logic into the game, but the pieces are falling and she tries to stand them back up, but

they won’t hold.  One question, one simple question met by what she thought was a simple answer, while holding back the

truth.  And why is she not willing to openly argue her true reason for avoiding the first step?  Why can’t she just sit and

listen to his reason?  Why won’t she allow his words to just reach her?  Instead she puts on the gloves, ready to resist… 

but why?


All was well in her world before he stepped into it with that question.  All was perfect the way it was.  She was successful

in staying objective, while keeping her own reason as a watch-dog at the front gate.  There was just no way that she will

ever believe differently.  Nobody, no matter who would try, can persuade her otherwise.  She would not give anyone the chance

to come up with any plausible explanation to excuse what happened.  There just couldn’t be a right explanation and she would

never be able to feel forgiveness.  There is no such path of faith.  There is only the betrayal.


If that’s truly so, then why is his question still in her head?  Why does it linger?  Why won't he leave?  Why can't she push him

away?  Why won’t this question leave her alone and allow her to get back to where she knew her belief is.  After all, her belief was

strong and could not be questioned…  why did he have to ask that question?   She is fighting to hold on to her true answer…

but …

Long time no read...

      Good morning to you fine people.   Wow, I haven't been here in what seems forever.   I've been quite busy.  I have to say, i miss blogging and especially reading your blogs...  I keep asking for more hours in my days, but nobody is listening..

          This as well as last week were even more crazy.   My studies, tests and papers just keep piling up on me... but i guess I did ask for it, didn't I?    Our Simba (white cat) died and Jenny  is just not doing so well with the loss.  He was 17 years old...  I watch Jenny and I can't help but thinking that he wasn't just a cat in our household... to her, he was so much more... a life long companion...  Interesting how an animal can be this deeply connected with a human.  Today, she will plant a rose bush on his grave.

         Oh... other news... my research is taking me on a trip.  I am quite excited over this one... you can read about it (and hopefully follow me over there) on my other blogspot page (which is just for my research)

CLICK HERE

           May you all have a most wonderful weekend.   Tell me how you've been.   Tons of hugs and kisses...