Three days of light, beautiful snow and a bunch of ice skating shows are enough to get me in the Christmas mood. Time to touch base with friends far and near. My year consisted of finally getting the construction on my house finished, taking 3 respite vacations, and downsizing my many various activities.
With all the construction going on in my new addition, I just sort of ‘got thru’ Christmas last year. Didn’t even put up my little 3’ tree in the bay window. This year I have the time and it will be fun decorating my “new house”. The inside of the house finally got finished the end of May – 1 year after we broke ground and 15 months after planning started March 10, 2001. It took 2 more months to complete the back porch and other outside details. I held my Phi Beta Fraternity meeting here June 4 to inaugurate my ‘new house’ and held an open house for other friends the end of July when it was finally fully completed. If you kept last years’ pictures of studs and drywall and construction mess, its a stark contrast to these pictures of the finished product. If I didn’t enclose pictures, you have seen the ‘real thing’! I spent many hours last winter painting white woodwork (before it was installed), and finishing the natural wood doors and ceiling in the sunroom. While I was preparing the bathroom walls so Bill could help wallpaper, I slipped on the bottom rung of a ladder and cracked my back on the door jam, breaking a rib. Pain City! So we had to reverse roles with Bill doing most of the wallpapering while I helped him as much as I could. Now the entire 1st floor is ‘Homerama ready’, but I am still trying to put the rest of the house back ‘together.’ That may take a year at the rate I am going.
Three vacation trip respites broke up the year. In April I drove to Huntington, W. Va. for my 50th Marshall College (now Univ.) reunion. It was made extra special because our “College Hall (dorm) Gang” also had our own special reunion. All but 2 of the 10 members, plus some spouses, were there. We got hotel rooms together all on the same floor just like college; we all visited in one room sitting on beds, the floor – whatever; ate dinners together; had our own champagne cocktail party; attended most of the reunion functions and toured the campus together. 50 years melted away and we were college kids once again. So much fun and laughter and love–it was wonderful! I left home with big black circles under my eyes (from a year of construction stress) and when I returned home — the circles were gone!! In June I flew to Las Vegas, spending a week with the Muniers to celebrate Joseph’s high school graduation. He is now a freshman at UNLV, working 30 hours part time as a teller at Wells Fargo bank and will start in their banker’s program in Jan. training to move to a branch desk position – at age 19!! Suzanne (age 16) was bridesmaid in her cousin’s wedding in New York City, so Robin, Joe, and Suzanne (Fred wisely stayed home) stopped here in Cincy on their drive from Las Vegas to NYC and back 2 weeks later.
Then in August, I drove alone to Sarasota, Florida to visit with Susan Giles. We really had a wonderful weekend together and I got to meet her fiancé, Daniel Garceau. The trip down was broken up Wed. nite and Thurs. nite with visits to 2 friends, but I whipped back up north in 2 days once I got back in the driving goove. One year before I could not even face driving to Toledo without Bill’s help because of my anemia. Now I could drive 4000 miles down and back to Fla. by myself!
It is so great to finally be in good health again, having learned through trial and error how to cure and stabilize my anemia with medication. Brandy was very sick from June, 2001 to Feb, 2002. Her regular vet would not hear nor heed my cries of concern for her condition, so when she got down to19 lbs (from 32) I took her to a good friend, also a vet. Brandy had pancreatitis! She is fine now, but must be on a special food medication for the rest of her life. She will be 9 in March and Cookie is 11 in January. Hard to believe. Time is rushing by too fast. And in that vein, I lost a number of dear friends and 2 cousins this past year. As a friend said, at this age, there’s a lot of that going around. They will be sorely missed.
I have cut down on many of my activities, believe it or not! I may participate in a special choir program occasionally ( as I did in Sept-Oct.), but regular weekly voice lessons and church choirs are a thing of the past. The only thing I do with/for community theater is shoot history pictures for a show once in a while and serve as Drama Workshop Historian (I collect, file and store history memorabilia.). Mostly I just attend plays and go to Cincinnati Symphony concerts a lot (17) because our new conductor, Paavo Jarvi, is so great!! I go to F.I.G. (an intellectual group) meetings and am involved heavily only in Phi Beta, the fine arts fraternity alum. group. Except for Phi Beta and TDW history, I am mostly just an audience member with no responsibilities. It feels great – so much less stress.
Oh, yes, I almost forgot. I am ‘working’ part time as a “standardized patient” at Univ. of Cincinnati Medical School. They have a 2 page scenario of a sick patient and I play that role for medical students to learn how to interview, diagnose, and treat patients. It is just a couple of hours or couple of days a month and you get paid for something that is really fun. Also, now that my addition is finished, I am helping Paul, my builder, by running errands around the city and doing some office type work with my computer for him occasionally. Finally, 2 months each fall and spring I still am moderating the Inst. for Learning in Retirement play class. That, too, is little stress and lots of fun, keeping me in touch with many interesting people.
As the year ends, a new adventure is evolving with my helping Bill Giles buy land and a house back in the hills of W. Va. next to his son Michael’s farm, so the future promises an interesting year to come. I look forward to hearing from you with hope that you have had a good year and that the coming year will bring to you joy in good fortune, and strength in any adversity.
