Dance Fever

When Josh was four I decided he was going to be a famous tap dancer.....I loved watching Gregory Hines and Gene Kelly dance....so heck, I had this little boy who was pretty good at doing Michael Jackson's Thriller dance and I thought if I just start him early he will be able to dance his way to Broadway by the time he is 16......after all sister, Elizabeth was a fantastic dancer and I figured it must be in the genes. Jim had taken ball room dancing when he was about 10 years old and he learned to waltz, fox trot, and basic box step. (I don't think he learned the samba or anything that is too hippy dippy.) Mom and I always fight over Jim when the band plays a jitter bug. He wouldn't admit it, but he really is a natural. If he was a star I would sign him up on Dancing with the Stars.

But alas....Josh's heart was never in dance class and although he loved he got to jump on the trampoline after the dance lesson was over, he just never really cared whether he went or not. I rationalized it this way... if he doesn't turn into a dancer it will help him with coordination. After all I was reading about Roosevelt Greer taking dance to help him with football. Josh was good at remembering the routine and I remember two little girls watching every move he made and doing whatever he did. We thought it was and indication of talent....a future choreographer maybe? hahaha...

Josh has been successful blocking this trauma from his mind and I guess he might need therapy some day and bring all these repressed memories forward and purge them...or maybe he should just consider this a blessing and leave it alone. It also may explain the fact that he doesn't dance at all. It makes me sad he never gets to "cut loose" or "cut a rug". I used to love to dance until I was truly pooped out and it was a lot of fun. Although the way we danced was a bit different than the way kids danced at his school dances and I think the gyrations he observed just didn't look like anything he cared to tackle. I think he would "slow" dance now and again, but for the most part he has been avoiding dancing ever since.....But maybe it all goes back to dance class.

Speaking of the Thriller dance....do you know it? Look it up on YouTube. I don't know why I like to watch it so much....there is one video that shows all the guys in a Korean prison doing it. Nuts! There is the Penn State Band doing it and just a bunch of different people attempting this. In that movie 13 going on 30 Jennifer Garner does the dance and it is just fun to watch.

Mom's 77th

Mom and Dad on the day before Mom's birthday.....she is 77 and he is coming up on 81! They sure don't look like it.

Hannah, Ross, Lauren and Paulie in the middle. Ross is nearly 16! He is nearly 10 years younger than Josh. (Josh wishes he could have been there, too) The grands are changing so fast! It is nuts how fast time flies by! Seems like they were all tiny little people.....I can't take it! Maura wasn't there either, but she is in college and had some tests and papers....so it was understandable as well.

Marcia, Lori, Julie

Mom & Dad

My family gathered together for Mom's 77th birthday and as usual I was here and they were there. I know she understands that it is very hard for me especially at this time of year, to come north. I wish she had been born in June or July....July 4th would have been perfect for me. hahaa.. It is a looooonnnnnngggggg drive (23 hours) and there is no airport real close to where we are from, so we would still have to rent a car and drive a couple hours if we flew.

They went to a nice restaurant (The Old Library in Olean, NY) and had a great time. There were several friends of the family that joined in, too. I know Mom enjoyed it so much. When we were little kids there was never much made of her birthday....so she is past due. We are thankful she is in such great health and still going to the fitness center two to three times a week. After going through the whole breast cancer scare several years ago we are especially thankful....also Mother's Day takes on a new meaning to me since she beat the "big C".

Anyway, it won't be too long before see Mom. We will take the new pup and travel to the upper woodlands of PA....and it will be great to be home again and to smell the grass...which is skinny and soft and smell the woods and have to wear a jacket after the sun goes down ..... there is no place like home especially in the summer time!

Eeny Meeny Mieny Mo.....

Before....

& After

I was the sort of kid who had calluses so thick I could walk on rough stones and hardly notice. I ran around barefoot for most of the summer months and never ever thought much about how my "toney nails" looked. (I think one of us said that when we were little kids and we just kept it even after we knew it was the wrong way to toe nails.) I cut them when they needed cut, but I was either barefoot or was wearing my red ball jet sneakers. I guess I did have some flip flops from the five and dime store. They would last for the whole summer. We wore the color right off so the flip flops are going to end up white with foot imprints so deep your foot was almost on the ground. My point is that I went years without giving much attention to my feet and they looked fine. Keeping my nails short was the only thing I did other than the occasional layer of polish.

But suddenly I am very concerned with the appearance of my feet.....but I think as you get older they just look worse. New things are happening to them.....they crack easier. Used to be they would look fine no matter what, but no more. Sooooo today I headed off to get a pedicure. I had to wait nearly thirty minutes .... so I felt like I was there a long time. I knew it was gonna take a while since they needed a lot of attention. I have only ever had one other pedicure.....before Josh and Randi's wedding....almost three years ago.

Ok....so I am sitting there in a line with all these other women. A lot of them are mere girls with lovely smooth feet. What are they doing here?! They don't even have stomachs to negotiate while trying to paint their toe nails. I am just here because I can't get my feet to look as tho they belong to a 25 year old without some help.

I am just not comfortable in these places. The first thing that gets me is the SMELL. It just smells like strong chemicals in there....I kept thinking that breathing that stuff all day can't be good for the people who work in there day after day.....also, seeing someone cutting on my feet is scary....at least I didn't bleed like I did last time....and then there is the idea of all the other feet that have been in this tub before mine. All this is going on in my head at the same time my back is being pummeled with the massage chair. I am just not good at relaxing in a situation like this. I know people who love this, but sorry. I guess I would rather sit with my feet in bucket of hot water in my family room while watching a Life Time Movie.... who cares if your feet look 25 years old anyway!?

We rented two movies this weekend....Charlie Wilson's War and Becoming Jane....which I loved. Anything about Jane Austin is interesting to me.

Tree Tenacity

I was walking Sophie the Schmoof...she has a lot of nick names....and I noticed we have a couple trees that were cut down and now there is follage growing out of their stumps. What is up with that?....I mean....here is this tree who we thought was gone, gone, gone showing us that it is still here with us....smaller, but here nonetheless. There is a magnolia and a dogwood doing this. Well, they are starting to look like nice little bushes...and now I am wondering if we will get blooms. I am afraid Jim will hack them down at some point and not think one thing about it, but I am in awe of their triumph and am watching and wondering what new form they will end up taking. The magnolia had been so large and strong...a favorite climbing tree for so many and now it is so tiny and weak...but full of hope.....and life. The dogwood was never a big strong tree, but a bent tree which reminded me of little bonzais in planters....maybe now it will get a second chance to grow straight and strong.

So what is the message.....some how these treelets are speaking grace to me this Friday morning and I feel like shouting.

Happy May Day memories....

Happy May Day....when I was in third grade I made May baskets and hung them on people's doors. "Whose doors?" you ask. Well, I don't remember all the baskets I hung or who all got chosen...by the way these baskets were made from construction paper cones with handles glued on to hang on my bicycle handle bars......I would put flowers that I picked....mostly daffodils and candy in these make-shift baskets and hang them on door knobs and ring the door bell and then run hop on my bike and tear out. Hahaha...didn't want the lucky recipients to know who left the daffodil in the paper cone. haha....it was fun to do this and I don't think I ever told. It was fun to have a secret. I remember taking one to my teacher and I had to ride farther away then I was used to and I feared being chased by dogs and I was even a bit afraid of not finding my way back. Looking back on this it cracks me up. Port Allegany isn't big enough to get lost! I rode to my best friend's house and left one and to friends of the family...I really felt like I was on a secret mission!

I was also thinking today of the time the first grade picked a mother to come and sit in the middle of the cafeteria...which also served as our gym after the tables were all moved aside.... Mom was sitting next to the May pole and we all danced around her holding ribbons tied to the May pole. Mom still shudders to think of that embarrassing experience. She just didn't understand why she was the only mother there and why we were dancing around her singing some May day tune...hahhaha I probably volunteered her for May Queen when nobody else wanted to freak their Mom out. Who knows, but I was thrilled to have my mother there. I wish I had a picture of my Mommie the May Queen....1961.

After a person leaves grade school May Day just isn't any big deal.....so let's all change this. Next year we will have a May day event...baskets with flowers and candy for all! We will sing a little song, do a little dance.....you've got the picture.