One week left...

A week from today, I return to work. Ugh. Not that I don't like work, actually, it's one of the best jobs I've had in a long time, but it's that I've used up half my time off and have done NONE of the things on my project list. My family/friend dinner on the 26th was delicious, although my bro and nephew didn't come in from Palm Desert because Bob was sick. Big disappointment! (I really, really like my brother...in case you didn't know.) Good news: He's driving in today for leftovers. Bad news: it's another excuse to still not get started on my projects!

Yesterday, I helped my daughter by volunteering at the Community Faces booth for the South Bay Children's Museum. They were, in turn, helping another group, the Chula Vista Nature Center, which is being threatened with closure by the Chula Vista City Council because of--you guessed it--lack of funding. So, the Nature Center had a day of fund-raising at Bayside Park. It looked like they had a fairly good turnout. The media was certainly there! But, despite being in lovely San Diego, the SBCM's booth was in the shade, right in the path of a fierce wind from the bay and it was FREEZING! Well, at least it seemed that way to us San Diego wimps. We were all taking turns standing in the sunny spots and doing all we could to get warm. I think the cold kept a lot of the children from visiting the booth where they could draw a self-portrait or use the special paints for face-painting themselves and each other. I stayed about 2.5 hours and had to leave. I don't know how Connie and her friend Erica (the ExecDir for the museum) managed it for the full 4 hours!

When I left, I spent the rest of the day with my long-time friend, Connie Vickers (who happens to be my daughter's namesake). We visited at her house for a little while, then went to La Bella Pizza Garden for a DE-LEE-CIOUS late lunch/early dinner. La Bella has been around since the mid-50s, and it was a spot my family used to go to when I was a little girl! I grew up in Bonita and Sunnyside (little towns east of Chula Vista--so we had to go to Chula Vista to get to restaurants and stores back in those days), but when I came back to San Diego, I decided to buy a home in a completely different area of town, so I don't get to the old haunts often. Those old memories are nice when I want them, but I wouldn't want to have to live with them all the time!

Yesterday, I felt up to a little nostalgia and it was just fine...in fact, being with Connie and eating there was pretty special. (Side note: I went to La Bella with my new husband right after we got married by the judge in National City back in March 1967--Connie was there then, too! [The first Connie, that is! LOL!!] See? La Bella has a lot of memories that are usually best left in the past.)

It was a great day of both reminiscing and setting up thoughts for the future. Connie and I threw around some ideas for our Bucket List! Connie will be 60 this May, so she'll catch up with me then. We both need to add South America to our list of continents visited...so we discussed how that might happen some day... Hey! you've gotta start somewhere...

And, with 2009 almost here, what better way to spend an afternoon with an old friend?

Contented Christmas

It's about 7 pm on Christmas Day. I've had a peaceful, blessed day of connecting with friends, reading, and preparing a photojournal gift for Cheryl. By choice, I spent today alone. It's kinda weird, but it's been wonderful. My life is in a great place and my family and friends are, in most cases, better than ever. It's been a day of reflection and thought, and I've decided that I'm pretty happy to be me.

Don't worry, though...I'm definitely having Christmas events! Cheryl had a gathering of about a dozen family and friends at her home last night. She served us stew and a few loaves of killer garlic bread. Christmas Eve with her son, her granddaughters, my daughter, and various others who are all "family," is always a tour de force! Somehow, the love shows through and although we're all exhausted when they go home, we wouldn't have it any other way.

To meet my nephew's social calendar, tomorrow is my day to cook and act as host to the few remaining Garlands--Christine, Robert, and Parker (bet some of you didn't know that was my maiden name, did ya?). Of course, since Cher and I are family, she and her beau, Rick, and their good friend and boarder, Jim, will also be here. I decided to go all out for the dinner and bought a big prime rib. I plan to stuff it full of garlic (just like my mom used to do), season it, and roast it slowly until it's medium rare and juicy. I'm serving fresh green beans and a scalloped potato casserole to go with it. I wimped out on the dessert, though, and bought a frozen cheesecake from Sam's and a Dutch apple pie from Coco's. I can't seem to pull off the full Martha routine, although I do plan to have us all sit down together and use my grandmother's china. So, maybe being alone today was my way of making sure I had plenty of energy in reserve for tomorrow!

Some of that reflecting brought these things to mind (most are good things; a few are things that I pray will turn to good):

• Rick is still working toward getting back to normal 7 months after his stroke. He's doing well, but he has a long way to do.
• A good friend, Martin, is in the hospital with viral pneumonia. He's bad enough that they've put him into an induced coma so his lungs don't have to work so hard while they heal.
• My friend Suzanna's daughter has had a tough year with several complications from kidney failure and other related problems.
• My friend Janis, who has had breast cancer, has had it metastacize into her spine. At the moment, it's under control and the chemo is keeping it at bay, so we're all hopeful that prayers will continue to work for her.
• Bruce, the husband of my dear friend Carmen, has had wonderful success with bone-marrow transplant and is doing well after months of very scary times. They just took him off the drugs that help the body not reject the donor materials. Good news!
• My sister has been clean and sober (as far as I can tell anyway) for a few months. She's getting more together every day and although she may always have problems, they are fewer and less horrendous than they've been in a long, long time.
• My daughter is well and seemingly happy. She's in a secure job and has made some recent changes there that seem to be for the better. I see her a lot these days and that's good.
• My brother is happy, is a good man, and has been the kind of father my siblings and I all wish we had had.
• Jim and Connie R, cancer survivors, have had clear, clean, cancer-free checkups.
• Jeanne moved into her new home in Virginia and is playing nanny to her niece. Go figure!
• I lost a friend this year, by choice. This loss was caused by confusion, anger, and miscommunication. I don't know if I can mend it; worse, I don't know if I want to. I do know that I think of her often and care about her well-being. Maybe that's as it should be. I wish her well in her new life.
• I am blessed with a network of friends that support me and that I love dearly. My friends are my treasures. They fill my heart and give me strength beyond measure. My cup truly runneth over.

Here's a picture of me and Cher at the beach a while ago. It was rainy today, so not a good beach day!




Glory to you all; may your spirits buoy you through whatever rough seas you may encounter. Merry, happy seasonal blessings to you all! Whatever you celebrate, I hope you celebrate yourselves and this wonderful life...

Love always,
Linda

My dear, most longest-time friend

Yesterday I had a long-overdue visit with Jean-Marie and Vicky Cercley. Jean-Marie was one of five boys who lived next door to me in a little courtyard at 13 Rue de la MaMora in Pt. Lyautey, Morocco, from 1954 until 1956. He and his twin brother, Claude, were about 4, his older brother Guy, was 5, his younger brother, Alain, was 3, and Patrick Tom was born in 1956, I think. I was the older woman next door--I was 6 in 1954. The picture to the right is of me, my mom, and my dad when we were in Pt. Lyautey. (I can't find any pix of the boys right now, but I will and I'll post them in an upcoming blog.)

My mom and dad were in their twenties and they found life-long friends in the parents of the five boys...Maurice and Hughette Cercley. At that time, Morocco was Maroc, and it was still a French territory. The city of Pt. Lyautey is now Kenitra, and I have no idea if the French/American air base where my dad was stationed is still an airbase at all. It's certainly not French or American! When the Arabs won their independence from France--I think it was in 1958 or 59, the Cercleys, like so many Maroc-born French, had to leave Morocco. They settled down in a suburb of Paris and missed Morocco every day for the rest of their lives.

Yet, somehow, the connections of that 2-year friendship have lasted long past the lives of our parents. Two years ago, I visited France and visited with Guy and Alain and their families. Patrick Tom passed away a few years ago, but the other four sons are hale and hearty and with the exception of Claude, I have seen all of them now in the past couple of years. Jean-Marie and Vicky live here in California--but north of San Francisco in Santa Rosa, and it just isn't as easy to see them as I would like. But it's definitely easier than seeing the other three in France!

So, yesterday's visit was heartwarming, information-packed, and fun. All of my family collected (my brother and his son, my sister, and my daughter) to visit with them, and although neither my brother nor my sister were born until we returned to the states, they met various members of the Cercley family over the years during visits and through letters. My mother and Hughette were sisters of the heart and loved each other as much as two sisters could love--even though they only saw each other twice after my family left Morocco. They died just a few months apart, and I like to think that they found each other wherever it is that they are now.

They both struggled to write to each other over the years. Hughette never did learn English, but my mom managed to learn enough French to translate her letters and with painstaking precision, she would share as much of our lives with Hughette through her letters as her French dictionaries would allow. In those days, trans-ocean phone calls were exhorbitantly priced, and there was no email for them to use. Airmail was their main connection with the very occasional phone call allowed for special events such as deaths, births, and announcements of upcoming visits.

My mom took me to France in 1978--three years after my dad died. We stayed with the Cercleys for several days. The stories around the dinner table were mostly about my father and the events of those precious 2 years in Morocco. Anyway, that family has always played a part in who I am and I know that I am better for them. So, Jean-Marie and his three living brothers are truly my oldest-time, dearest friends...I've known them longer than anyone else still on this planet in this plane of living. And, it fills my heart to know that they are still part of me.