I Got My Drum!!! Craig’s List is Awesome!

After I got back from my trip to West Virginia with my friends I started casually looking on Craig’s List to see if I could find something nice but reasonable in close proximity to my home. On Wednesday I got lucky and found exactly what I was looking for at a great price. I made a call to Shawn (Sean?) who was very nice (a kindered creative spirit) to see if the drum was still available and went over to pick it up this morning.

My New African Drum

We won’t be getting together for drum lessons until January, but in the meantime my new instrument is going to get a lot of play time between my girls and me.

Me with My New Drum

I look forward to getting together for a lesson with my friends. They are three lessons ahead of me so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!

Goddess 64 Weekend in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

Finally! A weekend away with my best girlfriends! It’s been over a year since I’ve seen them and that is way too long between visits. Last year the Berkeley weekend coincided with the holiday parties for both my husband’s & my company. We chose to go to my husband’s party because he’s a much bigger dog in his organization than I am in mine (I’m a teacup Chihuahua at my office!), plus his company always pulls out the stops with food and venue.

What I missed on that trip was the impromptu jam session of the century. My friends had wandered into one of the many quirky shops along the main drag after a wine tasting and found a bunch of drums that the store had for sale. Next thing you know they were all pounding away and having such a fabulous time. The store owner even joined them in their ecstatic outburst and became a good friend.

Since then my friends have had several drum lesson sessions (with a trained professional) and most of them have even gotten drums of their own. I have missed every single one of these sessions because of schedule conflicts. Happily I was able to join them for a trip to Teresa’s cabin this weekend.

Berkeley Springs is enjoyable anyway, but add a bunch of crazy goddesses circa 1964 and you triple the fun. I drove up with my friend Alexa riding shotgun. I’ve known her since I was five and we’ve stayed in touch over all those years. We had a nice drive catching up on all the news and stuff. We talked so much I missed one of the exits and had to double back.

We got into town, parked and did some shopping. My first stop is always The Rag Shop which is a consignment store that benefits multiple charities with the proceeds of their sales. After that we just worked our way down the main drag looking for the new age store where the frenzied drumming occurred last year. While on our search we stopped into the Lion’s Lair where both of us found some amazing hand painted tiles. I think they’re meant to be used as trivets or hanging art, but could probably be incorporated into a backsplash in a kitchen. Here’s a picture of “Lucius” the store’s colorful mascot and here is an example of the tiles we had to choose from:

"Lucius" Check him from the back and find out he's all boy!

Amazingly Beautiful Hand Painted Tiles

We lugged our bags up the street and found ourselves at Tari’s which is a combination restaurant and art gallery. I recommend the cream of crab soup – super yum! It’s a pleasant place to eat and it’s cool to be surrounded by art while dining. We went back for lunch on Sunday. Here’s a picture of my club wrap:

Tari's Club Wrap - Yum!!!

We finally found the new age store around the corner near the hot springs and had fun poking around and talking to the owner. I got a few pieces of jewelry and Alexa scored her second green shirt of our spree!

We drove on up to Teresa’s cabin after we got all of our loot stowed in the back of the car and spent the majority of the weekend eating, drinking, talking and laughing. There is something really magic when we all get together up there. All the stress of every day just dissipates and leaves a lovely lightness of spirit. We took a couple of walks along the bank of the little river that runs along the property and the dogs ran on ahead and then back to check on us.

Me at the moment that my book idea came together

Beaver's been after a tree down by the water

Tucker & Turbo, Our Good Dog Companions on the Trip

I feel so lucky to have such great friends. They are all really unique and talented. Each one of them touches people’s lives in some way in the work that they do. I admire them and am so glad to have their friendship.

We never did get around to doing any drumming, but I’m on the hunt for an instrument of my own. Wish me luck!

P.S. The store where my friends jammed with the owner (Tom) is called Portals. They have a really great variety of items. I got a ring & a couple pair of earrings there as well as some pretty rocks for my girls. You can buy drums there if the fancy strikes you. Tom is a wonderful fellow and very helpful if you’re looking for something specific. Do stop by to see him (near the hot springs) if you get the opportunity to visit Berkeley Springs, WV. Hopefully my post has inspired you to do so!

Gait Test – Adventures with Cerebral Palsy

Long story short, my middle daughter was diagnosed with a mild form of Cerebral Palsy about two years ago. The surgeon determined that she needed surgery (tendon releases, hamstring releases & bone staples) to correct the problem and she used the data from x-rays and gait analysis to determine how much to release for each leg.

My little sprite came through the surgery and following physical therapy really well. She never lost her sunshiny outlook even though she went through a tremendous amount of discomfort along the way.

It’s been a year since her surgery and her surgeon wants to take the bone staples out (one at a time, meaning two more surgeries). We went back for a follow up gait test and since it was really fun the first time, I came prepared with my camera to take some pictures of the process. The engineer who has run these tests on Hannah is just a great guy and explains everything about the test while he prepares for the different parts of it.

The first part of her test was simply walking and being video-taped so that there would be a visual record of how she walked. Pretty simple.

The second phase was much more complicated and involved the engineer attaching reflective balls on her feet, joints, back and shoulders. This takes some time because placement is crucial in getting the most accurate information for the cameras. There are eight cameras placed around the room and when activated they send out pulses of light and collect the data from the reflective balls and send it to a computer which processes that data. Pretty cool.

Below are some pictures of Hannah with the sensors:

Waiting To Get Started

Sensors on Hannah's Legs

Covered in Reflective Sensors Which Were Lit Up By the Camera Flash!

Standing with Reflective Tape - No Flash

Standing with Reflective Tape - With Flash! Looks Like A Light Saber!



Standing with Reflective Tape - No Flash

Standing with Reflective Tape - With Flash! Looks Like a Sword!

During our first trip we were able to see a skeletal rendering of how Hannah walked. It was disturbingly accurate. This trip we looked at a bunch of graphs that showed how much her gait (and efficiency in walking) had improved since her initial evaluation. After the testing was completed, the head of the rehabilitation department joined us to look at Hannah’s results. He was immensely pleased and said that everything about her gait was within normal range and that she should be happy with her results. He also gave her a great deal of credit for keeping up on her stretching which helped a lot in her recovery and improving her gait.

Side note: If you have any interest in more information about my family’s experience with CP, please post a comment and I will be happy to provide more information. We went to Sinai Hospital, Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics and I can not say enough good things about the care my daughter received at their facility.

Another side note, charitable donations are way down and many non-profit organizations are not receiving as much in the way of donations because of the economic downturn. The Shriners had 25 Gait Labs around the country but have had to close many down because they are expensive to run and they lacked the money to operate them. There are currently 15 operational gait labs run by The Shriners though that number may drop again if they do not get enough donations to keep them running. If you have an interest in donating to a charity, The Shriners do a lot of good work to help children – completely without charge to families.

Ocean City, Maryland Weekend

My girlfriends and I have been going down to Fenwick Island, DE every April ever since the year we all turned 40. This past spring things just didn’t work out and we wound up not renting our funky little beach house. I missed seeing my friends for our annual escape and have been yearning to hit the Maryland/Delaware shore ever since (even though we had a wonderful family vacation in North Carolina in June).

Hubby had the wonderful idea that we do a weekend in Ocean City together so that I could over my yearning for our local beach.

It was a wonderful weekend for weather. We got up early on Saturday (drove down Friday night), got Slammed at Denny’s (breakfast) and drove over to the park area in Fenwick. It was a windy day so in addition to my hoodie, I also had on another fleece jacket and earmuffs though I did decide to go barefoot. We took a long walk north towards Bethany and I was surprised at how many shells and debris were washed up onto the sand. I did the usual beach combing and was particularly looking for sea glass, but anything unusual or beautiful was fair game too.

I found a bunch of sea snail shells. I love their shape and color.

I didn’t realize sand dollars were up this far north in the Atlantic, but I found two tiny ones and a medium sized one! So cool!

I did okay on sea glass with one good sized frosted clear, two amber and two green ones.

Oh so sad though about the pieces I had to throw back – one intact clear bottle neck, an amber beer bottle base and a lovely emerald green thick glass neck piece which was probably from a wine bottle. That one hurt my heart a little as I flung it back into the ocean. I tried to feel better about someone finding it after the sand and waves had smoothed its sharp edges and frosted its surface.

After we got done walking the beach we did some shopping in Bethany. We drove up to spend some time at the boardwalk in Rehobeth but couldn’t find a parking spot anywhere. The place was packed. Since the whole point of going to the beach in the fall is to avoid crowds, we just moved on. The Tanger Outlets along the highway in Rehobeth were fun, though I know we spent more money than we had intended to.

Lunch was wonderful. We stopped at The Cottage Café and had the best cream of crab soup I’ve ever had, and then fried oyster sandwiches. Yum!!! So good.

The Most Delicious Cream of Crab Soup Ever! So Creamy!

A Piece of Art for Sale at The Cottage Cafe

After we got back to the hotel (Holiday in 1300 block – very nice), we decided to take a short walk on the boardwalk. We had noticed that there seemed to be an awful lot of Corvettes out on the road when we were out and knew some sort of event must be going on that weekend. Well, we walked smack dab into a parade of 600 of them while we were out walking. We sat on the steps of our hotel and watched them roll by for a while. I thought the ‘57s were especially pretty. I couldn’t get over how much the bystanders were getting into the whole thing and many of the passengers had puppets or flags they were waving around. It would be a cool to know the gross dollar value of all of the vehicles that rolled past us.

I didn't have my camera during the parade, thus I "borrowed" this one off line.

The rest of the weekend was very leisurely and we had a good time. It was nice to get back home to our home and family though. I guess I’ll just try to keep winning the lottery so that we can all go down there regularly!

Fond Memories I’d Like to Relive

For the last month or so I’ve been thinking about elements of my childhood that were fun or interesting and that I can no longer do. I’ve comprised a short list of things I’d like to do again.

 

I’d like to be nine years old again for a day just so I could zoom all around the part of town where I grew up on my cool bike with the banana seat. Of all the retro things that have made a comeback from the 70’s and 80’s, banana seats have been overlooked (sissy bars too, but those were generally a boy thing).

 

I’d like to be ten years old for a day during the week after school closed for the year. My mother was a public school teacher in a junior high (middle) school. The teachers had to work for an additional week after the school year in order to close down their rooms and take all the stuff off of the bulletin boards. My mom would always take me with her and even though I brought along stuff for activities, I would usually get bored within a couple hours of being there and I’d be out in the halls running around.

 

The custodians would open all of the lockers and spill their contents out into the hallways. There would be row upon row of all kinds of school supplies strewn down the tiled floors. I was free to take whatever I wanted from the rubbish as long as I got there before the custodian came back with his trash bin. I had an absolute field day picking out notebooks, pencils, pens, loose-leaf paper, mechanical pencils and the little cases of lead refills (for some reason I always loved the sweetish smell of that lead).

 

When I’d had my fill of trash picking, I’d head to the gym and climb under the bleachers in search of coins. Occasionally I’d be rewarded with a nickel or even a quarter when I got lucky. Back then teachers were allowed to smoke in the teachers room and they way they made worksheets for the class was on a mimeograph machine. The fumes from these sheets were reputed to get one high. I never knew anyone to even get a buzz from them.

 

I’d like to be twelve again for a day when I would visit my dad at his job. He worked at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The museum itself was remarkable in its diversity and attractions (my favorite was always the gem room). The behind the scenes aspect was even better. The collection outside the public domain is huge and ungainly and really cool. Large rooms house case upon case of specimens and the things that are too big to be stored sit on the tops of the cases or along the hallways. In weaving my way around the upper levels of the rotunda, I would routinely pass a section of shelving containing human skulls.

Since my father valued people being useful, I would always be given a job of some sort to do when I visited. Most of the time I got boxes of bird skeletons which I would number. Each set of bones needed to stay complete and numbering was essential so that the parts wouldn’t wind up in the wrong set. The museum sends specimens out to universities on loan so that students can study them. The process of using the Indian ink pen did improve my handwriting considerably, though I’ll never have “draftsman” perfect form.

 

One year right after the museum got computers (probably Radio Shack TR-80s) someone decided that the egg collection should be merged with the nest collection. A program was set up to match eggs & nests. Of course there was a problem with the proper matching which was how I wound up in the attic of the museum with a group of people trying to sort out the collection. What a neat place! Everything that was too big to fit on the main floors was up there – elephant skulls, antelope skulls, full sized mounts that weren’t needed for display. It’s all gone now. The attic was full of lead paint and asbestos so the collection was disbursed other places for storage but one summer I got to spend a week there.

I ‘d like to relive one day when I was five or six and my best friend’s mother took us to the Enchanted Forest (also gone now) which was an amusement park not too far from our homes. I don’t remember much about it other than it was magical and I got to drive a little antique-type car (on a rail) around a wooded track.

Time goes on and I have my memories. The best part now is that I get to help my daughters build their childhood memories. Hopefully they remember all of the good ones when they grow up!

More Random Snaps

I was going through some older pictures on my flash drive and found some interesting ones from before I started this blog. Enjoy them. Or else.

Shots from the fall when I was between jobs:

Fall 2008 - Leaves Changing Color

Fall 2008 - Horse Tails in the Sky

Trip to Washington, D.C. 10/17/2008

Trip to Washington, D.C. 10/17/2008

Trip to Washington, D.C. 10/17/2008

 Thanksgiving:

Sunset Thanksgiving Colonial Beach, VA 11/27/2008

Weekend with my girlfriends in West Virginia: 

Berkeley Springs, WV 12/14/2008

Berkeley Springs, WV 12/14/2008

Berkeley Springs, WV 12/14/2008

 Photo op on my way for a check-up:

Icicles 3/2/2009

 Fenwick Island weekend pictures

Treasures from Fenwick 4/23/2009

Statue at Fenwick Island, DE 4/23/2009

Mailboxes - Fenwick Island, DE 4/23/2009

Weathervane at Fenwick Island, DE 4/23/2009

 A storm of petals at the strip mall parking lot:

Petals in the Parking Lot 5/1/2009

 The robins chose an odd spot for their nest, but we enjoyed watching them care for their brood. This picture is right before the babies fledged:

Robins on the Downspout 5/19/2009

 

Random Snaps

Here’s a collection of pictures I’ve take over the past few months.

Coat Rack at the Dentist's Office

Art at my husband's office

Even more art at my husband's office

Modern Pacifist Message - makes me think of Viet Nam

Middle School Writing Project - how the students connect with each other

Harris Teeter Sushi as Art

The local Harris Teeter near my office has a sushi section right next to the sandwich counter. I am a regular there (meaning that when I walk up to the counter all the sushi-making folks greet me enthusiastically).

They make a pretty good tuna roll with avocado which is my regular selection. It’s great with the spicy sauce they sell separately.

 

Recently they’ve had this crazy looking selection of rolls with green roe on the top. I was intrigued. I bought some and took it home to share but it was not as tasty as it looked (sort of bland actually), but it did look pretty so I took a picture of it.

 

Obviously the best food is that which looks and tastes good, but Teeter at least gets points for presentation. I’ll stick to my tuna rolls until they make something else eye-catching.

International Festival in Columbia, Oct 2 & 3

I had been seeing fliers at the little shopping center where I go to get lunch most days about an international festival being held at a church near the mall so my family & I went to check it out on Saturday.

It was a fun little festival with vendors, raffles, lots of different kinds of food and even bands.

We tried food from four different regions with varying results.

 

The lamb kebob & hummus were yummy but the grape leaf wrapped rice stuff was on the gross side (I tried it twice just to make sure). The Mexican food left much to be desired (Taco Bell makes better Tex/Mex) and everything else was so-so. The girls were pretty good about sampling the different foods.

 

We ate in the big tent where an Eastern European rock band was playing. They seemed like they were having a good time and we jammed along with them while we sampled the ethnic fare.

It was a really fun afternoon and I’m glad we had the chance to enjoy the festival.

The only downside to the afternoon was the persistent yellow jackets who wanted to share our lunches (primarily the sodas). It’s a good thing the event programs were of a good size for whacking!