My New Life

Read all about it at:

www.minnesotawestons.blogspot.com

Trust me-- it will be worth your while.

Mini Vacation

My birthday is this week. Unfortunaely, Jim has to be gone from today till Wednesday and my birthday is smack in the middle. We are mainly celebrating this coming weekend, but a few days ago we decided to take the opportunity to travel up north a little bit. One of the places we stopped was the amazing little town of Empire where the Philip A. Hart Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitor's Center is located. I've been there with my parents when I visited them while they camped up there. The wonderful thing about the beach is that it is within sight of the Sleeping Bear Dunes, but not that many people go there, which is such a nice change compared to South Haven. we were able to walk right out onto the beach and pick any spot we wanted. We relaxed and took a nap in the sun and listened to the few other famililes that were out there. we didn't have time to go to the dunes, but definetly will later on.

The scenery was so beautiful and the day sunny and warm, but not oppressively so. We even encountered a bunch of turkeys wandering down the road. We're hoping to bogart one of my parents fishing and camping trips that are coming up so that we can go kayaking on some of the small lakes in the area and go to the dunes. There are also some wonderful restaurants in the area that are not too expensive.

This weekend we also got to see my friends Angie and John who were visiting from England. I got to see their new baby, Andrew John, for the first time. It was great to get to see their uber cute baby and catch up on things in their lives. It was also great to see Jessica, a friend of Angie's who I hung out with when Angie was here. We even ran into Lisa on her way out and saw that her scrapes from her bike accident are healing nicely. She really is evidence that helmets are a necessary thing when riding a bike or roller blading. I was happy that Angie and John were able to meet Jim, because she's been hearing a lot about him. as we left, she said, "You take good care of her," which made me laugh but he answered with a serious, "I will."

My New Job

I was just recenlty hired by Calico Corners Preschool and Daycare in Kalamazoo!!! I get to work with wonderful, exhausting, delightful children once again. It is part-time during the summer, but in the fall it will turn into a full-time position. I am excited because of the work, but a little trepedacious because after 5 years at St. Mike's there are many small things that are ingrained in me that may be different, will likely be different at Calico-- such as the proceedure for clean-up time, or how they do lunch, that sort of thing.

I am very excited though because my mom actually knows the owners because she does their payroll for them with the CPA she works for. My mom likes and respects them so it is a relief to know going into the job that they are upstanding people and to not have this vague fear that they may be psychos and hiding it.

The place is housed in Second Reformed Church, a congregation of mostly elderly people who have plentiful space left over. It is near the Congregation of Moses on Stadium near the campus of WMU. Another blessing is that I can still freelance with KWeekly and with any other places I want to when I am not working. Hopefully this will allow me to appeal to local small daycare centers and do some communications consulting with them.

Jon Burns

My work was closed last week. Unfortunately, one of my co-workers decided to make a bad choice, which resulted in the loss of his life. Jon decided to mix painkillers and alcohol and had a very adverse reaction.

Accoring to the online comment from our boss and Jon's roomate Wrifton, "Jon Burns went into the hospital today because of a bad cobmination of pain killers and alchohol. His kidneys have failed, liver has failed, and lungs have collapsed and more." He died on July 9 and last Sunday we attended the funeral after church. Our offices were clsed for the whole week becuase of Jon's passing and when we went back to work Wrifton had us change some of the furniture around and made some other changes.

I will remember Jon as a happy guy, humming away in the vault as he worked, who was so excited about making signs (a new part of the business.)

Please be safe everyone. Jon decided to party one night and sinply didn't realize just how over-the-limit he was getting. Everyone has commented upon how tragic it is--how the loss of a 21 year old is so futile, and I pray that none of you will ever make the same choices.

Victorious Lumina

Yesterday I was driving up Milham toward Westnedge and I was just passing Circuit City and Old Navy when a car made an unexpected left hand turn from oncoming traffic toward the Southland Mall entrance and in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and laid on the horn, but still ended up crashing into the right rear bumper. The good old lumina performed admirably and has barely a dent, while the other car was losing its bumper.

What was a little bit crazy was that when I got out, the first thing that the girl that turned in front of me asked after if I was okay was how old I was. Curious. She was from Indiana said another curious thing having to do with this. There was some preexisting damage on the back of her car, and she said, "This happens every time I come to Michigan." She tried to tell this to the police officer that came to investigate the crash and it ended up sounding more like, "She didn't do all this to me." The officer then asked what had happened and of course he knew right away that she was at fault. She was apparently on her way to Circuit City to buy a cell phone charger, and the officer ended up letting her to get it because: the car wasn't hers, she was staying with people in Indiana who were on vacation in Europe or something, teh car wouldn't start after she had parked it near the store.

The officer was extremely polite and professional and directed me to rest in my car and gave me all of the information necessary to claim the accident on insurance. When I left he was trying to help the girl start her car or get ahold of the real owners.

I was working that day for my mom's boss doing punching and binding and sorting of old tax returns. It is not very exciting, but the plan is to put all of the money toward paying down debt, which is much needed, and I am happy to be a help to my mom as they just lost a co-worker there.

My Dad's Retirement

At long last my dad has retired from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. After 25 years on the force he spent his last week getting 72 hours of overtime and visiting most of the stations serving Kalamazoo.

His last day they had a ceremony for him at headquarters and he had cake at Station 7. Before Jim and I got there the Griffioen's and Justin's visited the station. Later we looked around the station and my mom took me aside to tell me about the "surprise" ceremony and then Jim and I ran to headquarters to try to get there before my dad in the fire engine. We ended up driving right past him and I hid by pulling down the sun visor and sitting up really high. Apparently I didn't need to because when we talked later he had no idea that we had passed him-- although I guess that means that it worked.

They had the ladder trucks form an arch and a large number of fire engines and police cars. We joked that for the time that the ceremony was going on Kalamazoo was left unprotected.

My dad wanted to end his last regular duty day with a fully involved house fire, but his shift Lieutenant gave him a direct order to not enter any building that was on fire. Instead he worked a grass fire, but that was even mostly put out by the time he got there.

He will still be working a few overtime days before he is really finished, but I think that it is just beginning to sink in that he is pretty much done. His plans are to work around the house and at his mom and sister's houses in Missouri and then to get a part time job doing something else, though he doesn't quite know what at this point. My parents would love to have him have a job where he could work more during the winter when my mom is busy with taxes and then have summers off to vacation with her.

Traverse City

I am sitting up in Traverse City right now-- or TC as someone likes to call it. I'm Horizon Books, this really sweet bookstore that has free wi-fi in it and also a nice cafe and discount section. I know-- it sounds like Barnes and Noble, but really its a lot cooler and they sometimes have live music-- though never when I've been here. They also have a fireplace where locals like to play chess or cards and such.

I'm working on what I am doing for my reading for Sena and Seth's wedding, but I needed a brain break sincde I'm exhausted. Jim and I have come here several other times, but this time we made one of our $1 bets for who would be ready to go first. He had to be sitting in the car with it idling when I got there. Today when I arrived it was 6:20 am and he was still in the shower. Ha-- I've also won $1 for Eric Bana's nationality-- he's Australian. Several more bets are out there unresolved, and Jim is vowing a rematch tomorrow for this bet.

Tomorrow we are driving to Ann Arbor because Sena is going to be briefly in town and we are going to just have time for breakfast or brunch and for me to show her myself in the dress for her wedding and then turn around for Todd and Jennifer's wedding in Kalamazoo. So once again we need to be on the road at 7 am (this time in our wedding clothes), but this time he'll likely be in the car at 5:30 or something. Oh well, even if he is, I'll still break even on this series of bets, and still have a chauffer to TC and to Ann Arbor.

After we get back and have Todd and Jen's wedding we've got the possibility of dinner with Jim's dad who will be visiting from Ohio and Jim's nephew Joey. I'm geeked to finally meet Joey, who is really close with Jim, and it might be nice because apparently his dad isn't the most talkative of guys. I'm sure if we do have dinner with them then I'll hear some lovely Jim stories. His mom didn't tell me too much, but I think she was afraid she'd scare me off and the possibility of grandkids. After that we need to go running. We have been exercising, but it has only been sporadically and we have been including kayaking on my lake and working outside in the sun on John's house for 4 or 5 hour spurts. We are trying to be more faithful in the actual running on the track. We are using the system where you run for a minute and a half and then walk for 2. It seems to be very effective, and soon we will move up to running 2 min. at a time. I'm excited because I was running up to a mile and a half regularly, but then I got my job and lost my motivation and I was really missing the feeling of physical fitness and the qaulity of sleep afterwards.

Oh well, enough to think about for today alone. We are going to have a picnic and I think Jim'll want a nap because he is battling fierce allergies. Thank goodness there are beautiful parks here and plentiful parking. The next time we'll come will likely be during Cherry Festival, so the parking situation may change a little bit.

Restaurant Recommendations:
Scalawags -- All I have to say is that I tried their whitefish sandwich and loved it and for those of you who know me, you know that that is saying a lot for a piece of fish. The decor is great as well. All of the lights are made out of little minnow buckets.

Noth Peak Brewing Company The building used to be a candy factory!!! That is enough of a draw for me, but also the food is stellar. I had the white cheddar ale soup and they use these yummy garlic mustard pretzel bits for croutons on top of it. I would say that it is in close competition for the best soup I have ever had.

Mmmm- my mouth is watering just thinking about it, so I need to stop because we are planning on grilling hot dogs. Still yummy, but in a food town, for 2 foodies its not quite the same.

The Real Jim

When Jim first began coming to small group we had this joking email challenge to write who the "real" Jim is, since we didn't really know what his job was and people were speculating that it was all a ruse and he really was a spy or something like that, which was also what people theorized in the emails that were sent around.

Oh, how wrong we all were. I feel fortunate to know the REAL Jim. The guy who saw that my headlight was burned out and bought and put a new one on my car without even being asked. The guy who stands in his doorway every night after we say goodbye and watches while a get in my car and get underway to make sure that I am safe. The one that was so excited after we had lunch with his mother that she liked me and that I could understand her that he skipped. The one that really doesn't want to spend a 90 degree Staurday working on painting John's house, but does anyways because he made a committment to do it. The one that sends me random "Black Hawk Down" themed text messages. The one that loves how the lotion I use smells and saw that I was running out and went and asked one of the Bath and Body works employees for help with buying me lotion. The guy that held up to his committment to not date until after Discovery, but then changed that as soon as possible once it was over. The guy that talked about me to several of the Portage Sears employees so much that when we stopped in to get paint for John's house they knew right away who I was. The guy that spent Father's Day here at my house with my family and also went up in the the ladder truck with my father (where the pic is from-- 100 feet above Oakland and Howard)

I'm glad that we were wrong. It also makes me wonder who everyone else is. I hope that I have the chance to get to know the REAL you. Probably not in quite the same way as I know him or else I'd be cheating on Jim, but to not just know the public face that you put on to show during small group, or church or at work, but the real and faulted, but complete picture of who God made you to be, and where you are in the process of being transformed into a more Christ-like person. It is so easy to live as Public Relations Carrie, and I am sure that I have not been the REAL me with you guys always and I am sorry for that. I look forward to meeting you.

Adieu Daisy

Yes, you assumed right from the title of my blog. I am no longer the owner of one of the most peculiar cats every created. She hated ceiling fans (thanks to one night, a tornado warning and a fan in the laundry room where Annie took her to be safe) she love kitty treats, and being bad. The daisy gate is down in the house and it kind of gives me vertigo when walking down the hall. I am so busy lately that I haven't had that much opportunity to think about it except when I come home and she isn't at the top of the stairs or running up or down the steps under my feet. She was my friend during the stomach flu and man drama-- why did she have to be so bad?

The day that I took her to the shelter was horrible too. It was deadly hot and I only have a fan in my car, no AC and poor Daisy was in her cage panting and crying. Horrible, and then I get to the place where I think I am supposed to give her up-- Calhoun County Humanse Society-- and they DON'T take her. They said they had a waiting list and it would be $100 to take her. I told them I'd called and someone said they would be bale to take her for $50. As I leave I am crying and I call my mom and she and her boss Max direct me around Battle Creek as I cry and Daisy pants and meows and gets quieter because she is so hot until we finally get to the no kill shelter. She was so good when they got her out of the cage and didn't complain as she was handed over. Maybe it was really a blessing because if she hadn't been hot she would have freaked out.

(I know this is a brief post, but if I think to much or go into too much detail then I will begin crying again.)

I am thankful that I have so many people that love me so well. I was feeling better when I got home but still had a headache and my mom came and gave me sympathy and said that after she had hung up from talking to me se had begun to cry because she could hear Daisy in the background.

That night I was supposed to fix Jim this dish that I had been wanting to try, but I called him when he was on his way home and said that I was just going to lay down until he got to his place, and would he mind if I didn't cook after all. He stopped and got delicious sandwiches from Martini's and gave me a hug and rubbed my back. It's kind of funny because he doesn't alwasy know what to say or to do with a crying female, but he is always willing to try, which makes all of the difference.

The next day my dad was napping on the couch and I was working on the computer and he popped up (years of waking up to fire alarms) and immediately began asking me questions to make sure that I was okay.

You know, I may feel like I don't have A TON of friends and I feel like I've drifted away from some of the girls from St. Mike's (not in a bad way, just I never see them-- when I do see them we are still friends) but I really am blessed next to a lot of people to have someone-- no several someones to worry over me. It makes me think about the kind of friend and the kind of woman that I want to be to those I love. Thanks Daisy.

Sena's Wedding

I finally got my dress for Sena's wedding. It is red, strapless and silky. I'm excited that I get to wear it even though I'm not technically a bridesmaid. I still need to get some cruicial pieces of undergarments to go with it, but already I think that I look pretty good in it. We all also have a cream colored sash that will be tied around our waists that matches the color of Sena's sash. I'm excited also that I will finally get to meet the other ladies. We've all been emailing about wedding stuff, but it will be nice to have faces to go with the names.

It is looking like I will be driving to Atlanta with Jim and Melinda. I'd prefer to fly, but it doesn't look like we'll have money for 2 plane tickets, and splitting the gas costs (despite the high prices lately) between three or more, of us will be more economical. Though then the issue is the wear and tear on the car and all of that. Another big problem could be getting time off of work because I WILL have my dream job by that point.

Since the wedding is at the end of September, things will be cooling off up here and one last shot of warm weather will be welcome. I'm not sure if we'll stay on a hotel or in Sena's place, which has been offered, but I imagine will be very busy.

Jim

It's official. Jim and I are dating. When I thought of writing this post I wanted to write just exactly what happened, but there is just so much to say, so I'll leave that for another time. Let me just say that I am very happy.

Last Night's Dream

Last night I had one of my weird dreams, the ones that mean something. Unfortunately this time I don't really know what it means.

It begins like this. I was in a Meijer-esque store. It also for some reason has seat like Barnes and Noble. I hear a man hitting and yelling at a female companion of his that she is worthless and a whore and need to lose 300 pounds (and some other stuff that I cannot remember fully and should not repeat in my blog.) I watch him walk toward me with the woman and another following and I see others looking disgusted but not saying anything, and I, sitting down, say that I think that what he said and did was inappropriate and it should be stopped. He says, "Oh yeah?" or something that could equally be heard from a television bad guy.

I stand up and turn to him and he is HUGE and sweaty and glares at me malevolently. He yells at me and slaps me across the face. I in turn, slap him back. (Yeah, because I'm just that brave in my dreams.) He lunges after me but I get away. I begin to speak to the cashiers and the passers-by to see if anyone noticed what he had done and would be willing to go on record. Curiously not very many people want to have their names taken down (This I can pinpoint as being due to my occupation and the inconvenience of having sources who don't want to be named. Grrr on them.)

I walk around and get some people who will comment and hopefully get this man convicted of assulting at least me and away from this poor woman. I speak to them and say that it made me feel like one of those "What would yo do segments on television, and didn't want to have to answer later why I hadn't interfered." A woman I was speaking to responded that this was interesting and suddenly Tyra Banks appeared like she was on her crap of a talk show and came out to interview me. Then I woke up.

Weird yes, the weirdest dream I've had? Not even close. I can pinpoint several sources of where things came from: I was in Meijer's the other day, having unnamed sources is inconvenient and I nostalgically watched Newsies the other day which has quite a bit of slapping and fighting. As for Tyra Banks, it seems as much as I try to avoid her she is on TV at all times, and always expounding on the wonders of her shows and her modeling career.

Swimming Monkeys and Werner Herzog

Today I was watching TV and saw a commercial which showed a swimming and diving monkey. This, of course :) reminded me of one of the most twisted and greatest movies ever, Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes or Aguirre, the Wrath of God. (if you click on the link above, my favorite characters are even referenced in the second paragraph of the "Production" section.) I mean, 400 swimming monkeys!

The film is in German, but is about Spanish Conquistadors and their search for El Dorado. This is also the movie in which the famous incident took place of Herzog threatening to kill his lead actor and himself if he walked off the set. Klaus Kinski, the actor, shot off the tip of one of the extra's fingers in the Peruvian jungle. Said Herzog of the jungle, "The trees are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing. They just screech in pain. …Taking a close look at what’s around us, there is some sort of harmony: it’s the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder."

I know that I've spoken of the movie before, several years ago on my blog. What really made me write about this was not just the sighting of my little aquatic, furry friends (They play a damn creepy role in the movie though) but the new movie that will soon come out, which features one of my favorite actors in a movie made by one of my favorite directors.

Christian Bale is starring in Rescue Dawn a film based on the ture story of a German man who joined the United States Navy and ended up as a POW during the Vietnam War. Herzog previously made a documentary on this same subject (His interest is probably partially due to his own German nationality.)

I was all excited because the commercial reminded me that the movie was being released on March 30 and I was geeked to view it and review it for work, but then I checked out IMDB and found that the date of release has been pushed back because of a dispute with paying the crew that worked on the film in Europe and Thailand. Grrr. How much money would it be to pay them?

~Interesting Trivia-- Bale's first major role, Jim Grahm in Empire of the Sun he plays an internee during Wolrd War 2 in China. The new film features him as a pilot, but in Empire of the Sun he plays a boy who idealizes flight and admires the Kamakazie pilots who depart from the runway that the internees helped to build. I wonder if the similarities had any influence on his decision of whether or not to take the role. I wish I wrote for a paper that was near enough or influential enough where I could aks him at a press funcation.

Mom's Surgery

To all of those that have been praying for my mom, thanks. She had her surgery on the 20th and according to the plastic surgeon it went well. The cancer on her eyelid was worse than they anticpiated, so they has to do 2 kinds of grafts-- one from behind her ear and the other from her upper eyelid's inner skin. she is understandably frustrated with not being able to see, and not being able to work and from the pain. Just think, if you had something in your eye, or your contact was lost in your eye how annoying that would be-- she has a bunch of stitches and a bandage sewn into her top and lower eyelid until next Thursday.

After that she goes back and gets the bandage off, but the grafts are still growing for a month and then she will have another small surgery to correct the crease of her eye and that sort of thing. Obviosuly I can't see her stitches under the bandage, but behind her ear where they did the graft looks amazing! Such tiny stitches-- for my knee surgery they were Huge! But I guess that is the difference between a plastic surgeon and someone checking for cancer. Also they were so sure I had it that I think that they just assumed they'd be cutting more of me away soon after. (Yay for enlarged muscle tissue instead of malignant cells!)

My mom would still really appreciate your prayers. But she is one hoss tough woman. Today she decided that she needed to go into work to do a certain project that no one else knows how to do. She called to say that dad is picking her up soon (I'm at the library just in case she needed to call me to get her) but she just is so determined to not let this ruin tax season.

Craig Ferguson

I stayed up rather late tonight and the Late Late Show was on and I was very impressed with Craig Ferguson's monologue.

He said that he was taking a break from what he typically did and was going to speak seriously to his audience. He said that he wasn't going to make any jokes about Brittany Spears because he understood what she was going through and that he just had his 15 year anniversary of his sobriety. He said that this was his mea culpa and that the media had been irresponsible as far as reporting things like Anna Nicole Smith and that "people are dying," (loosely quoted) to which the audience laughed somewhat nervously and Craig told them that he wasn't joking.

He also said that in reference to this sort of thing he felt like his comedy had been off the mark lately and that he wasn't going to make light of this situation. He encouraged people who might be having a problem with addiction (he didn't specifically direct this at Brittany but mentioned her frequently) to seek out help from people who understood what they are going through saying, "They are easy to find, they are near the beginning of the phone book."

He also described the trend in Hollywood rehab centers that portray addiction as something that can be overcome in a 28 day stint, as opposed to the truth of rehab preceeding a "lifetime of vigilance." He also said, "I don't have a drinking problem-- I could get one pretty quickly-- I have a thinking problem."

He could just be looking for another Emmy nod, but I really appreciate that he would take the time to be serious and make himself vulnerable. His wikepedia article already has the incident mentioned, as well as several other incidents where he has dropped the shield of humor to reach out to hs audience. I caved and sent a short email to the network saying that I appreciated his perspective and his honor in not mocking so easy a target. Ironically, during the break just after the monologue there was a David Letterman commercial and in it he said something about Brittany's head and the cold-- not so funny after a frank discussion of alcoholism and waking up being covered in one's own urine.

Yes I realize that I sound like I have a girlie crush on Craig, but don't worry, I'm sure as a comedian he will say something soon and put his foot in his mouth. Well, the show is over now and tonight he didn't except for maybe ogling Virginia Madsen's legs a little too much, but hey, they were nice legs.

I Covered President Ford's Funeral

I can't believe that I have forgotten to mention this before now! I looked back over my blogs recently and I was astonished to note that I haven't mentioned that for work on January 2 and 3 I had the honor of covering the Grand Rapids portion of President Ford's funeral. It was an amazing and likely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a State Funeral an hour away from my home, and to be able to have the chance to write about the event was extrordinary.

We drove up on the day that Air Force One landed in GR. We spent many many hours waiting on the footbridge over the Grand River under the watchful eyes of the Secret Service, Army, National Guard, GR Police and some other organizations that are not quite so open about their names.

Blessedly it was not snowy, but the frigid wind still whipped down the Grand and struck us. Nicely we were able to go to the bathroom and visit the cafe in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, and we saw the actress from the movie Signs, Cherry Jones. she is one of those actresses whose name you may not remember, but you would know her by sight. She was very gracious when a few people came up to speak to her-- we didn't-- and was there for something entirely unrelated to the funeral; she was in a play.

We stayed for most of the day, and were allowed in behind the scenes upstairs in the museum to photograph the visitation and to have a space to write and reflect. We also stayed rather late to interview the thousands of people waiting in line to visit the flag-draped coffin. The line stretching through downtown GR was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, as was the attitude of those waiting in line. Nearly everyone was in good spirits and perfectly willing to wait for the 5-7 hours they were told it would take for a few seconds with Grand Rapids First Son.

Someday I will tell you the behind the behind the scenes story, but for now and for the reputation of certain persons I work with, I shall refrain.

Below is the unedited version of my story, and above I pasted in the pic of the page simply so you can see the photograph.

West Michigan’s First Son Home For the Final Time

Community Perspective

The shockingly mild winter that Southwest Michigan has been experiencing has come as an added blessing to the funeral procession for President Gerald R. Ford and the crowds of thousands that gathered through the night and into the morning Tuesday and Wednesday. Some of those who came to pay their last respects were forced to wait in line for 4-6 hours, but for most, it was well worth the wait to show their appreciation for a man who meant so much to the area and to the nation.

The Grand Rapids portion of the state funeral began at approximately 4:30 with the arrival of the motorcade across the Grand River. A brief, private ceremony was held, and shortly thereafter the line began to form of the general public to pass by the casket. Those admitted first were Boy Scouts and former Scouts, in reference to the time that President Ford devoted to the organization and his rank of Eagle Scout.

Soon the line stretched past the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, down several side streets and through DeVos Place. Melissa Kent, a Grand Rapids resident was just one member of the line, along with her three children, Bryce- age 6, Alayna- age 5, and Wade-age 2. Kent spoke of why she had brought her children to pay respects to a President that served long before their birth. “President Ford was known as a moral leader, and there are not many moral leaders left in the world today. I think it is important to show my children someone with high morals.”

While many families chose to bring their young children to the event, many may not appreciate the significance of the event until their adulthood. Hunter Lammers, 8 year old son of Matt and Tisha from Hudsonville, Michigan was excited to attend the event, but said that he was excited “to stay up late and be in the city with all of the people.” The Lammers waited in line for two hours and were then told that they would possibly have to wait 4 or 5 more and made the decision to leave the line, due to their jobs early Wednesday morning and the age of their son. Their choice was the exception among the crowd.

Mary Mast, a nurse who needed to be at the hospital at a quarter past seven had been in line for 2 ½ hours at 10:30 pm and said that she expected to be in line for several more. Mast commented on her reason for staying in line stating, “I met the president three other times and I just had to come down and see him and thank his family for sharing him with all of us. This is what memories are made of.”

Mast’s comments echo the general consensus of the crowd. Most were more than willing to wait however long it took to participate in this historic event. Lindsay Malloy grew up in Grand Rapids, but has since moved to California. While she returned to Michigan with the intent of visiting family, visiting the President’s body as it lay in repose soon found a place on her schedule. “This is possibly my only chance to do something like this. It was either watch a movie tonight or participate in history. This won.”

After those in line traversed the several-mile long path and entered the Gerald R. Ford Museum, they were allowed to briefly view the flag draped coffin, surrounded by a Guard of Honor which was composed of a motionless member of each branch of the military and presided over by an armed Captain of the Guard. Throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday, Guard of Honor members worked rotating shifts attending the body.

Many visitors reacted with suppressed emotion, and quickly shuffled past the body in near silence. The black-banner festooned lobby echoed as passers-by were greeted by family and Ford Foundation members and given a memorial card thanking them for their part in honoring the President’s passing. A large Presidential Seal carved in the wall of the lobby was illuminated by a simple spotlight. Smaller versions of the seal were featured in the center of wreaths that flanked the coffin.

Ford Family and Friends Reaction

A nameless guest of the Ford’s (later possibly identified as James M. Cannon, President Ford’s White House Domestic Policy Advisor, journalist, and author of the essay on Ford, Character Above All,) gave voice to how touched the family and friends were that so many were so willing to wait so long for just a brief glimpse of his flag-draped coffin as he smoked a cigarette near one of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel’s smaller entrances. While this guest and Air Force One passenger declined giving his name, he did suggest that the Starbucks Coffee connected to the hotel should be opened so that the cold line members could have something hot to drink.

He went on to speak of his, and perhaps the family as a whole’s wishing to express their thanks to the crowd, “What would it take, do you think, to provide coffee for all of these people out here? They need some coffee or just something warm to drink. They look cold, but they don’t seem to care They deserve it.” When it was replied that it would take a great deal of money to give a hot drink to the thousands that were gathered, he stated, “Well, I don’t have the money, but it’s all about who you know.”

Indeed, the mood from the Ford family was one a gratefulness to be in their home state, relief to have the events almost over, and appreciation for the estimated 15,000 citizens who flooded the city to participate in the event. Betty Ford was quoted as being “Bowled over” by the attention that her husband was receiving and appreciative of the press’s positive response to the events taking place.

I'm In Recovery

The laptop that I have had for over 5 years was the floor model and I got it at a discount, which meant that it never quite worked exactly as it should. It has had power problems throughout its life and was on the third power cord and second battery when it finally quit working a while ago.

The new cord is working, and I also have a new battery in it that is functional, just not charged. It had 3% when I brought it home from the store, so I had my computer for the 10 minutes or so that it had left. The problem is somewhere in converting the energy pulled in from the outlet to useable power for the computer.

I am going to use a similie here and I really don't want to offend anyone, so please, please observe the important word LIKE that is being used here. Not having my computer is in a way like having a stroke or some sort of amnesia. All of the things that I have written are there-- I can hold my computer in my hands and know that the stories are contained in the circuits and memory, but I just can't get to them. Eventually I hope to figure out what the true problem with the power wasor at least have the new battery charged so that I can quickly go in and get the most vital pieces that I have written and put them on disk. I was stupid enough to only save a few and I did that far less frequently than I should have.

Now the things that I have poured out my heart into (not just creative writing but letters and old online conversations that I have kept, and pictures.) are trapped there, inaccessible but not forgotten.

I think that this is why I have begun to put some things that I have written here on my blog, even if they are in their very rough forms-- blogger works almost like a separate server. I've also finally put the last of the writings that I do have saved on the wonderful blessing of my graduation laptop, which was a beast of a task since we don't have 3 1/2 disk drives on either our home comp. or my laptop and that is what everything is stored on. Wow, I sound so complainative and meanwhile I'm discussing 2 laptops that I have had or currently have as well as the nice computer here at my house. I know that I am blessed beyond much of the world to even have one computer in my life, and I do appreciate that. I think I am chagrined with myself for the fact that I wasn't more cautious and frustrated at the loss of so many phrases surgically removed lie a piece of my flesh.

Illness

Stomach flu. Paul, me, Melissa, who knows who else eventually. We got sick in that order, and despite this Paul blames me for bringing germs into their house.

I think we all contracted it during the Third Annual Small Group Thanksgiving in February, which we held last weekend. Yes, every year once the holidays settle down we deep fry a turkey (this year it was actually a couple chickens) and have cranberry sauce and a rather traditional meal. For the second year I made bittersweet chocolate cake with white chocolate cream sauce and leaves and rasberry puree. It was better the first year that I made it, but it was still chocolate butter and eggs primarily, so who's to complain if it didn't hold its space quite as nicely as it should.

I feel primarily bad for Melissa since she got it about 2 days after Paul did and so she had to watch him be sick and then feel the flu coming on and know how bad it was going to be. Paul re-scheduled his 30th birthday dinner since Melissa couldn't be there.

Actually it may be all my fault. I should have known better than to read "Empire of the Sun," while eating Chinese food. A story about WW2 Allied prisoners in a concentration camp outside of Shanghi and cheap sweet and sour chicked is sure to incur me that wrath of someone somewhere. That is probably about as bad as at Kati's birhtday at Fandango where I ordered the rabbit and rattlesnake sausage. I think that everyone was watching my first bite to see if I suddenly fell to the floor as my stomach escaped from my body due to teh combination of a predator and its prey in one delicious dish. (Eventually many people tried it and enoyed the combination.)

Freaking Cold!

It is FREAKING cold in Michigan right now. Last Saturday we had a blizzard that was some of the worst weather that I have ever seen. I think that I noticed it more because I was supposed to cover an Ice Festival in Vicksburg, and I made it to the nearby town of schoolcraft but then had to trun back. In truth I found it rather fun. I had no definite time frame and I was able to drive excruciatingly slowly through the back roads of the south of the county. I was driving safely, but I came across many cars that were stuck in the snow. Eventually I came across one that still had passengers in it, and I lent them my shovel. Initially I remained outside near there car to assist them by digging out the snow with my boots, but then the gusts of wind hit me at a wind chill of -30 and I suddenly decided to retreat to the comfort of my car. we ended up blocking a couple cars going each way and so the man in the car asked to borrow my shovel, which reminds me that I need to return his call to get it back. The pictures that are included in this are from 12th street between Portage and Schoolcraft and on Center and 5th Street. I waited until I was out of the worst of it to use my camera since I was driving, albeit at 20 miles an hour, so this isn't the worst of it.

My favorite is the picture that is at the beginning of this post. All schools, churches and businessed were closed for several days, yes we didn't have church last Sunday, but many of the schools are finally opening just in time for mid-winter breaks and teacher in-service days. I felt bad for my fellow CWN writer Callie since our deadline is Tuesday and she typically stays home with her kids when there is no school. Her hubby stayed home on Monday and she had to bring them in on Tuesday. The wind chill is still down and it has been snowing since Saturday, so I'm hoping once it gets up above 0 to break out my snowshoes and take a hike around the island.

I am such a dork

I realized once again this morning just how much of a dork I am. I was laying in bed after I woke up (I didn't have to be in the office at CWN today) and I suddenly recognized that I was mentally composing an email that I had to write later in the day. I do this quite often and I get distracted thinking about each line and what turn of phrase will work best with the tone and intention of the piece. Then I realize just how much time has passed and that I could have already written the damn thing three times over and I am still in bed. I think that has confused my family and roomates when they see me awake but just flat on my back doing nothing, until I suddenly get up and make my way to email.

I'm Back

I finally took the time to reset my password for the new blogger. I don't really notice that much of a difference, but I haven't really had the time to investigate it.