Camera Come-back, St. Anthony, the Dentist

There is always that let-down when special guests go home, isn't there? Our house is quiet this morning and it feels a bit empty. Ah, me. The price of having had so much family close.

And then there is the getting it back together. I didn't write about our "surprise" sightseeing because I cannot find my camera - the good camera, mind you - so the pictures are missing. I am searching. I have called in St. Anthony and I am hoping, ala Mr. Micawber, that "the camera will turn up."

I am retracing all my steps. Yes, yes, I know when I used it last - when we dropped Robin and the boys off at Dulles. It was in front seat of the van. We came straight home. My fear is that it tumbled in with the trash. Yesterday was the pick-up.

I am sorry about the camera, yes - but I can get another one. Its a loss you can throw money at and heal. Its the pictures that I am really worried about. They cannot be replaced.

AH - Do you believe it! Jim just this minute walked in waving my camera. He found it in a plastic bag downstairs!!!!
Saint Anthony to the rescue!.

Jim is named for Saint Anthony

and a few years ago we visited Padua

to pay homage to his patron saint.

From the time I was a kid I have heard family stories of how St. Anthony can find things. How he always comes through. My grandmother and later my mother always said, "say a prayer to St. Anthony. He will find it for you." And he always has.

Oops. I will finish this later. Now I have to leave for the dentist. Teeth are another thing you can throw money at.

Later

Back from the dentist. I survived - to return another day.

New experience this morning. My dentist has moved his office. Tensed, I lay back in the comfortable leather dental chair. Then I noticed the flat tv screen installed in the ceiling over the chair. Ah. Ha. It works. 'Can you turn that to the USA Channel?" And they did. Wrapped in wide ear phones I had a different view of today's NCIS Marathon. Sweet.

The Group Shot and Stories

Sunday night, just before we broke up , Jimmy

herded everyone - including Princess Leia - together for this picture of our group.

Always before we have taken these group photos on the stairs, everyone seated, everyone in the frame. This year we could not fit all these folks in so we lined up. Next time Danny goes in back and Jim steps forward.

Yesterday Robin and her three boys flew back to California. Their Jet Blue flight landed safely just before midnight (our time).

In the afternoon Jim and Monica drove Alison back to The College of William and Mary for another year of smartening up.

We will reconvene our clan - years ago the kids named us the Jimowee Clan - in December at Avila Beach for Christmas.

Until then we collect stories to tell.

MORE STORIES
I have more stories to tell. We finished off the sightseeing with a surprise find that is quite moving. I will write about that later today. Robin is telling her stories of the trip on 93 Words.

Ford's Theater

We had a great day for our trip to Ford's Theater.

Its located on a quiet block of downtown Washington, DC where modern day high rise buildings tower over narrow historic row-houses and the reconstructed theater where Abraham Lincoln was shot April 14, 1865.

After a brief wait in line we can enter the newly re-done museum in the basement of the theater where carefully planned exhibits tell the story of the period and of the plot and day that John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln.

We have several generations of exhibit readers in our group. I was happy to see the youngest, Scotty, so caught up in the story that he stopped to check everything out. And not surprised at all to see that our son Jim stills reads all the fine print. Its something he learned

by watching his father.

The curators have skillfully produced videos to complement the telling of this story.


This is the "Show Stopper" - - the gun that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot Abraham Lincoln.


I was particularly interested in the panels which showed profiles of the members of the conspiracy as this was a new inclusion in the exhibits and widened the story.

The first part of the "tour" is a self-guided

visit through the museum. After that comes the presentation in the theater itself where a Park Ranger tells the story of the building and of the event.

Ricca, our narrator, was a terrific storyteller and she brought the story to life and filled in with details that took you into the moment of the story.

"it was Good Friday, the box was not always decorated like this - they prepared it specially for Lincoln's attendance, John Wilkes Booth found out Lincoln would attend that night when he stopped by the theater to pick up his mail, the door to the box was unguarded, it was a 12 foot jump from the box to the stage, one shot to the head at close range, he never regained consciousness."

Three doctors carried President Lincoln's body across the street to Petersen House. He was shot at 10:22 PM. He died the next morning in the back bedroom on the first floor of this genteel boarding house. His family and members of his cabinet were at the bedside.

The shop is filled with all things Lincoln. I bought inexpensive and easily packable pencils as a souvenir for each of the kids. I wanted them to remember the day and more to remember me telling them that they descend from Tunis Hood, NC pioneer, and that "all the direct descendants of Tunis Hood are kinsman of Abraham Lincoln." (page 351, The Tunis Hood Family Book) You know you have to chose your teachable moments.


A nice day for standing in line. And, standing in line is time for talking.

For memories.

Ford's has been a working theater since 1968 and we have memories of family outings in the 1970s for GodSpell and Joseph and His Technicolor Dream Coat.

Robin was reminded that when she was in Junior High School she came to Ford's Theater with another family on her "first date."

"I also came to Ford's in the big yellow bus when we were studying Lincoln." she told the boys.

Next day it was fun to find our group talking about the trip to Ford's with the boys joining in adding what they remembered, what they read, things they saw.

We set the memory. We added ourselves to the story.

Sunday

A great day yesterday.

We did make memories

in the shadow of the Capitol.

Ford's Theater, Museum of Natural History

and all the wonders in that grand old building.

And topping it off with

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

in the Imax theater.

An eye-full.

Later feasting on Chinese take-out at Jimmy and Monica's to tie up the day.

But the very best part
was that whatever we were doing
We were together.

We laughed and talked and talked.
and agreed.
We can't all be together often but when we are we make it
a Festival.

Marking this visit - our grand kids together. Last time Juliana towered over them all. There has been a role-reversal with Jamie topping the pyramid and Danny just behind.

Making Memories

Stil Life Memories of a day in France.

We are starting out early this morning to make some memories here with a sightseeing trip downtown with our grandsons. Ford's Theater is stop #1 and then on to the Spy Museum.

Looking forward to the fun of it.

Friday- White Plume Hat,

Thinking of my sister Kathy

and wishing her a day

of many blessing

when

"all will be well."

Elie Hall Keasler Baer

Mama's "mama"

Love this hat!

I look like Granny but I can't wear hats

and I am really sorry about that.

The stack of hats

on the top shelf in my closet

shows how often I try.

Does that say something

about not accepting what is?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Last night while the grandkids were gathered here they were looking for a game to play. "Check the plastic tub in my studio", I offered, telling my grand-daughter where I keep my stash of precious savings. A bit later she came back, empty-handed and laughing, "that's a museum of games. Nothing worth playing." And, the others laughed too.

I did not laugh. I listened and took note. What's the message?

This morning I woke up envisoning a new art work - an assemblage which somehow incorporates the pieces of those relics - those games that have out-lived their newness. Perhaps wrapped in a heavy black plastic bag.

Doll Table at a Flea Market in Nice, France

Thursday- Happy Birthday RBD, NC, Grandsons.

Happy Birthday Daddy.

Robert Bernard Diggle

August 13, 1914

August 29, 1994

Daddy was 39 years old when this picture was taken for the Snips and Cuts, my high school annual. He was pictured as a sponsor for me when I was an editor for the annual.

When I look at this picture today I hardly know him. My memories of those days are such a mixed bag. Home life was turbulent. I would leave to go away to school only a year later - the oldest child flying the coop.

I would never live in Charlotte again. Yet I still feel tied to the place and the people.

TALKING ABOUT NORTH CAROLINA

Robin and her boys arrived last night after their sojourn in North Carolina - Robin is enjoying the after-glow of seeing old friends and re-visiting her Alma Mater. Chapel Hill and UNC captured the boys. They loved it. Impressed by the campus and the great tour they had. Oh, yes, lets not forget the new basketball museum - which is a winner. All would like to cash their "legacy" chip. Who Knows. Its a long way from California. But, I tell you, I loved hearing them rave about Carolina and I do believe they learned something about their Mom - a Phi Beta Kappa grad of a great school. That alone is worth the trip.

GRANDSON

Boy have they grown in a year. Taller, broader, louder, more social, fun, a pleasure to be around. I have forgotten how growing boys forage for food - standing in front of the refrigerator, peering in, "just checking". Scarfing down two angel food cakes in a swallow. I will be back at the Safeway again today.

Sleeping in. Spreading out. Filling the space with their presence. All is good.

Today is set for sightseeing downtown - the Archives, Ford's Theater, and the Museum of History and Technology.

"Just a bit" says Robin. Hmm. I may take a by on that and stay here to re-load the refrigerator, and cook supper.

Tomorrow Jimmy has set up a tour of the Pentagon. He (an active Army Reserve Colonel) had to get special permission to bring in a crowd of guests. Talk about walking. I have to rest up if I plan to go for that.

GIFT FROM CHAPEL HILL

Robin stopped by the Ackland Art Museum and picked up the catalog for the Alwyth show - the artist Jim and I saw when we were there recently. I am so glad to have it. The essays are great, giving more insight into her work. The illustrations are pretty good. I am glad I have seen the work though and am not relying just on these photos. I woke up early this morning and studied the catalog for an hour. My head is filling with ideas and my fingers are itching to cut and paste. Hmmmm. Don't talk. DO.

AND DO I MUST

But I have to remind myself right now - before I can cut and paste there is the storytelling work to do. Fanny ( the producer) called last night to check arrangements for my ERA performance in Hagerstown, MD September 20. I am telling in Kensington September 2, and in Frostburg, Md September 19. And over all of that - looms - the taxes - as Jim reminded me yesterday. We extended because of Jim's surgery and recovery. He has completed what he needs to to - and he is waiting for mine. I have been saying "tomorrow, Rhett, tomorrow." for weeks. I guess my tomorrows have just run out. ARGHHHHHHHHH.

A Preview

Robin and her sons have been in NC since Sunday checking out colleges. When we spoke briefly last night she told me they were "having a blast".

I see this morning that that she left some clues on 93 words.

More will be revealed when they get back tonight. I am eager to see them and looking forward to their stories. Especially of the time they spent at Carolina, Robin's alma mater. How was it for her to go back with her sons in tow?

Tuesday-Three Beautiful Things: Wisdom, Friendship and Storytelling. Happy Birthday Juliana

Granny's Collage
e. schoettler













Three Beautiful Things

1. Being at a meeting this morning with a room filled by wise women who share their wisdom.

2. Lunch with my artist friend Pat. We have been having lunch together on Tuesdays at a funky Tea Room in Kensington for more than five years. We talk about art and movies and anything else that comes up. We know each other well. Its good time.




3. After lunch I wandered the shops in Kensington for a while on my own - perusing the old treasures in the Antiques Market. Looking for prompts - things that could prod my memory for new stories. The Northlands Storytelling Journal was in the mail when I arrived at home. Proud to have my article on Using Photos as Story Prompts included in this issue.

Special Day!

A rose for Juliana on her birthday.

Monday Three Beautiful Things - Susan Gordon, Storyteller, Friend Lucy and NCIS

Gold Collage

e schoettler

Three Beautiful Things

1. Taping my Focus on Stories tv show: Susan Gordon guest storyteller. Susan was at the top of her storytelling game telling Barney McCabe. Interview on her work in therapeutic settings also solid. I can't wait to see our program.

Susan is a powerful storyteller.
With gestures and her amazing voices

she takes you into the story with her.

I am always facinated by her hands - they convey the tension and emotion of the story.

In the Channel 16 virtual studio we are photographed with a plain grey background which - using computer magic - becomes the interior of the Kensington Row Bookshop.

2. Nice and cool in Starbucks this afternoon as my friend Lucy and I chatted and chatted and chatted.
Always enjoy being with Lucy. We have history - a very precious connection.

3. Watched two new NCIS programs. Catching up with all the back stories. I want to be ready for the season premiere September 22. Jim says, "how long will this obsession last?" I assure him it is running its course. "Not much longer - I am just about caught up." Actually I am studying - gathering storytelling techniques. Seeing how they construct the stories; how the characters interact; enjoying the chemistry between the cast members; how the writers tie the various plot lines together; how all that works to tie viewers to their world. You know how that goes. Research. Or maybe you don't work this way. Could it be that this is my own peculiarity? Naw.

Red-eye to Reunion

Dulles at 6 am is mostly deserted at baggage except for the stalwart souls who come at dawn to pick up passengers on red-eye flights from across the country. Like we were. Waiting at the Jet Blue baggage carousel for Robin and her three boys to arrive from California.




Jimmy drove out with us. We drive vans true, but with this crew it would take a bus to fit us all in one vehicle so we brought two vans. Robin took one for her trip to NC.


While we were waiting Jimmy whipped out his Blackberry and he and Jim spent time checking locations for a near-by IHop for breakfast. Robin sent a text. " we have landed. too early. have to wait for a gate." Nice to know what the hold-up is.



And there was an IHOP - fifteen minutes away in Chantilly.

So here we are - laughing and checking menus like they had not just flown 3,000 miles to order eggs and pancakes for Sunday morning family breakfast. Jim and I agreed the food tasted better -
we were together.

Jim's surgery pre-empted our planned visit to California in March so it has been a year since we have been with our grandsons. Look what's happened? And to think we once towered over them.

Gosh its good to see them - and grandmothers still rate hugs.

When they get back on Wednesday we will gather with Jimmy's family - all our grandchildren together - Lovely!

Alphabet Soup, Re-visiting, Planning and Doing

Alphabet Soup
For a couple of weeks we have been swimming in a murky Alphabet Soup - all consonants like MRI, CT, PET - as machines scanned Jim's body again. Checking. Checking. Nervous making. Great relief to get the all clear reports last evening. So far. So good.

Would have been nice if the surgery last February had meant the end to any worries but its never that easy is it? I am learning that you have to accept the worry or the worry takes over your life. And what fun is that.

So on with the fun!


Revisiting Yourself
And fun it is! Robin and her boys arrive tomorrow. Well, to be more accurate, they touch down tomorrow morning. They are going on to NC for a couple of days and then returning. We will meet them at 6 am, hand over a car and they will be off. This is a look-at-colleges trip for Jamie who is a rising high school senior and its a good excuse to bring him ( and his brothers) out to take a look at UNC-Chapel Hill. Carolina is Robin's alma mater and we lived in Chapel Hill when she was in kindergarten. She can show her sons something about her life and re-visit it for herself. I urged her to stay two nights in Chapel Hill even though it will cost us one night of their trip. If you read this blog often you know I believe re-visiting yourself is important to knowing who you are today. I am still enjoying and processing our visit to Chapel Hill last month.

Planning and Doing
There is a valuable lesson on Travelin Oma yesterday - about planning and setting goals. I love the way she works out her plans - its a good model to adopt. I want to add something to her recipe - - that was brought home to me yesterday.

I am way behind on a fistful of lists and feeling pressured. Yesterday I had two and a half hours to wait at Sibley Hospital while Jim had his PET scan. I made a list, and in a flash of brilliance decided to only list two things. Then I packed up the computer and what else I needed for those two things. And no other toys.

It worked. For the two hours I waited - I worked. Sitting on the deck outside the cafeteria, surrounded by shade trees and flowers and serenaded by cicadas, and the roar of the near-by AC compressor, I stayed on my list and worked in my alfresco office. But I know and maybe you do do - that the real key was that I DID it.

So I add two more ingredients for Travelin Oma's recipe - discipline and follow-through.

Surfing redux

Here is a post I wrote when I first started this blog. It still holds true.

8/12/2005

Discovering Surfing
When I woke up this morning I lay in bed thinking about things I might or could write about on this blog. Then I realized - I am becoming addicted to the computer.

I love working on the computer.I have loved working on the computer since we bought our first luggable in the 1980s.

I like the sound of my fingers touching the keys - the light click of my fingernails against the hard plastic.

Typing makes me feel so productive. I love email. Being connected to people - immediately. Recently we set up WiFi in our home. WOW! The freedom of not being tethered to my desk upstairs in my office is exhilarating. I can use my laptop in front of the TV, on the dining room table, in the bedroom, everywhere. Instantly I am completely linked.

I have become fascinated by the internet itself - linking and linking and linking - moving further and further afield from where I start. I have discovered surfing - - surfing widely on the web. I did not understand what they meant - its a wild and free ride - - -I feel so unfettered, yet so productive as I hear myself clicking and clicking and clicking

No matter that the dishes are in the sink, the bed unmade, my work behind schedule, my lists growing longer and due dates looming larger and closer.

I AM SURFING - WHEEEEEE!

Thursday

Jim and I drove over to Kensington to drop off our cleaning. I stopped to take a look around - to appreciate the familiar territory. Kensington is only a short drive from our house but it could be a world away. It is a bit of memory a block off Connecticut Avenue, a jammed traffic artery into Washington, DC.

Howard Avenue is the main street. One side is a line of small shops in old buildings. This line-up of shops - called collectively Antiques Row - faces active train tracks where freight and passenger trains rumble past frequently night and day. People travel from all around the area and further to browse the treasures. They stroll these several blocks and wander in and out of the small stores hoping for a find.

Mixed in with the Antiques shops are a small cleaners where a woman sits at an old Singer with her German Shepherd at her feet, a shoe repair shop which is ripe with the pungent smells of glue and leather, an inviting second hand book store where you are welcome to sit in a rocker and sample the books and a former art gallery that is now GIG, a guitar studio - offering lessons and instruments.





Many of the antiques shops set up sidewalk still life arrangements to lure buyers inside.













I was intrigued by this set-up, particularly the antique wooden cigar box.

Two turn of the century beauties tempt folks into Elizabeth's.

Storytelling tip: Look, notice the details, remember the world around you. It is the stuff of story.

.

Wednesday

Little Birds

collage

e. schoettler

My Blog Anniversary

Looking back through the Blog archives reminds me I started this blog August 2005. Four years. Amazing.

Storyteller Stephen Holland is the person who inspired me to start blogging. Meet Stephen here on his blog. I hope you enjoy his writing as much as I do.

I have always carried a journal - and the boxes in my studio prove that. I still do. Its my brain. I tell it where I have to be and when, what I have to do and how I think I will manage it and I talk to myself in it - you know, try to keep myself on my path. The journal is the gathering place for ideas and images that prompt stories. The journal feeds the blog. They make a great pair.

Tuesday

I was stopped at a red light this morning when I noticed a Pepperidge Farm delivery truck parked across the street. I did not have time to dig out my camera so I just made a note in my journal of the large slogan lettered on the side of the truck:

NEVER HAVE AN ORDINARY DAY

I call that a message! Don't you?

Snippets of the day.

I heard a woman say," I did not really know I was wrong so much." I have to think about that.

A woman wearing a smart red jersey sun-dress with no pockets had her white ear buds in her ears with the white wires hanging down to her iPod which she carried in a little plastic bag swinging at her side. Clever and great image.

After Mass Jim and I stopped for coffee at Einsteins and sitting outside we read the Washington Post. Jim was reading about serious matters like the Health Care Debate and I was laughing over a Style Section article about an in-town shopping center - bringing surbuban fixtures like Bed Bath and Beyond to this changing inner city neighborhood. The clever writer makes the point with comparisons like the image of young hippie-ily dressed shoppers emerging with their matched towel sets while a pedestrian is mugged several blocks away at the subway exit. I know the area and it all fits.

The article was dotted with examples of the new language - adultification and gentrification.

One of those words I like - staycation. get it?

Sitting next to a courageous friend who has just received some grave heatlh information and knowing there is nothing ordinary about her as she told me, "I have decided to be well." Yes!

Monday - Oops

On the blog

I forgot Friday.

Its true
I do have too much going on.

Lists and life are rolling over me.

So, scrambling to my feet
I will dig my feet into the wet sand

And hang on
as
the sands slide between my toes.

Sunday

Saturday Night at the Movies

Frost/Nixon came in the mail from Netflix a week ago and we did not open the familiar red envelope until last night.

It was a good history lesson and brought back memories of a time we lived through and watched on tv and around the city we live in. In those days I felt so much anger at Richard M. Nixon I could not see him on TV without ranting. Last night I was surprised when the movie did not stir those coals. I guess time does dilute anger, does soften hardened hearts - for the man - not for the crimes.

Actually I was most surprised by how self-serving and shallow I found the portrayal of David Frost. In a phone call scene Frank Langella as Nixon lays out the ways they are alike - how they are both after the same thing - a return to the lime-light. And both will do anything to get there - in this instance Nixon is the prey for Frost's ambition.





Ron Howard does make good films - even though it was not as enjoyable to me as seeing Harry Potter.






So I enjoyed the co-incidence of surfing for a movie to keep me company while I unpacked a few more boxes and found Dave. Dave - a 1993 comedy starring Kevin Kline who stars as a look-alike stand-in for the secretly moribund President. Frank Langella plays the evil Chief of Staff who puts in the imposter rather than lose his power.
The juxtaposition of seeing Langella in the two roles was delicious.

Saturday

A few weeks ago we finished the re-carpeting - there were still two rooms to do- - my studio and my office. I did not do these two rooms before Jim's surgery because I knew it would be a "big deal" - packing books and emptying all the studio cabinets. So I put it off and off and off until the carpet people called. They were tired of storing the rest of the carpet and were we ever going to have it installed.

If anyone is saying - that woman is crazy to carpet her studio - you might be right - except that four years ago - looking for better light - I moved my studio into what is/was the living room. Here is that story. Some things don't change.

Packing up the office and studio did not disappoint me - it was a BIG deal and we stumbled around boxes for weeks afterwards as I prepared myself to put it all back. Well, I did the office first. Yesterday I started opening boxes and putting things back in my studio.

Why is it that things go IN boxes so much easier than they come OUT?


One reason it takes longer to put stuff back is sorting - hoping to get rid of stuff.
And in this case, besides the big things, it means
fingering bits of papers I have saved thinking they will be part of a collage.
Or twisting bits of string into a new ball
Or smoothing and folding odd bits of fabrics.
Or flipping through old photos.
Or browsing books I had forgotten.
Even finding a box of sand from the Holy Land. No, I cannot throw that away yet.

And it means finding lost treasures
little gems in a a small sketchbook from years ago
still-wrapped storyteller cds we bought last year at the National Storytelling Festival
old magazines with new possibilities






















And a "lost" family picture that Jim's mother kept.

Jim's mother was also an archivist - a "keeper." When Loretta died Ila gave us a large manilla envelope with letters, postcards and picture we had sent to Loretta over the years.

I know this picture is from the mid-seventies by the clothes and hair styles. Since its a studio picture I imagine we gathered because there was a "passage" or a "first" as I have always wanted to mark those. My guess is it was taken around the time of Jimmy's graduation from St John's High School




Jim marvels that my putting away takes so long
that the throw away pile is so small

I am more surprised by how long I have had some of these things
By how fast the time has slipped by
And by how each item carries so many memories
How they can put me right back where I was when I touched them first.

I guess the better question is
do I need two of everything?