Top 10 Coming Home Curiosities

Good Morning,

The A-lo production studio has a new address, i.e., I have moved!

Please get out your address book and pencil me down. I might need to call once I forget all these numbers.

XXXXX (sorry removed address...)

In addition to the move, I've been doing a little traveling. Last week you may have noticed there was no Monday Morning News. I was in Ohio visiting my folks. Things did not go as planned. My intention to provide an encouraging update from a remote location quickly left as too much sitting on Dad's back porch sniffing citronella left me adle-brained.

so this morning what i have left are simply my "Top 10 Coming Home Curiosities." I hope you enjoy and to my family- thank you for always being the love and source i can take on this life journey...wherever it may lead.

1. The decorative trash can- There's clean and then there's reeeeally clean. I can tell you there was a note of pride in my grandfather's voice as he shared the housecleaning lady at the new assisted living apartment had taken my grandma aside and marveled "yours is the cleanest place in the building!" My father (and Judy) did not fall far from this tidy tree. It was with this same "Grandpa's" pride and a little panic that I watched as a friend who stopped by at the house to pick me up headed off to use the bathroom. There's a trashcan in there i'm afraid to use. Since I've been traveling home since adulthood, i have never seen anything in it. Any deposits are swept away at the drop of a Dixie cup...

A trash can without a liner is just unsettling...

and out walked my friend momentarily confused "um, i didn't know where to put this?"

she held an empty cardboard toilet paper roll. A clear sign that what one is facing is a decorative trash can.

2. The holy relics- Off on a sight seeing tour of my dad's boyhood home we drove through Maria Stein, Ohio...home of this country's second largest collection of holy relics. That's 1,100 items that include things like body parts from saints (usually bones) or objects that belonged to saints...

Driving past the large red bricked living quarters of the Sisters of the Precious Blood very curious to me how much i did not want to stop...

"Dad are you driving me out in the country to drop me off at the convent?"

The Sisters keep constant prayer vigil over the relics.

3. The typewriter- At the Dorothy Love Retirement Community under constant care and supervision of my grandfather, I found another holy relic...a new typewriter!!! a. I didn't know you could still buy these and b. how can a man with double-vision in one eye use this to line up his signature?

4. St. Henry did they ever think of calling the town St. Hank? St. Henry (Dad's home town) a small town that lives and breathes high school football. A quick pit stop at the gas station with all of the waves and friendly slap on the back greetings suggests "Henry" might be too formal.

more universal curiosities?...

5. Thought arisings- When stuck without wheels there's a point where this thought starts creeping into your head "I wonder how I would reaally look driving Dad’s car." It is no secret I'm not the most comfortable person behind the wheel of a car. There's no real physical reason for this...I can turn the wheel, step on the pedals...it's just like in my head i can't fully reach out and encompass the vehicle...I can't command it's dimensions in space. my athlete's sensibilities want to have precision and control over the entire car body.

so...driving a large luxury sports sedan is like getting behind the wheel of a boat...parking it like docking a biiiiig boat with no bumpers...

but about after the third day with no wheels you begin to wonder...hmm, i wonder how i'd reeaaally do behind the wheel. running errands takes on simply needing a back roads itinerary.

6. The curio cabinet. I had heard so much about a new curio cabinet. I was curious...The "curio cabinet" is a beautiful piece of wood furniture with doors and windows, filled with curious items like delicate china and Hummels...

(this is a Hummel)


7. Grandma’s Velcro shoes...very curious. I have no answers for these.

8. I learned my other Grandma does not like fish. Just curious, how many Friday Night Fish Fries did this woman suffer through during the Lenten Season?

9. The term “Okies”

It is a myth to think we have no impact or place in the world whatsoever…Overland Park, Kansas is already circled in G-ma’s atlas and Kansas curiously received a nod in the Steinbeck classic Grapes of Wrath. Dad is reading this book and noted Kansas as the starting off point for those “Okies” (Oklahomans?) the Joads as they make their journey out West.

And last...

10. How hard it is to say "I'm writing a book about my muscles!" (and life experiences) when sipping tea with your mother and a good friend at The Sanctuary for the Arts. You can check this site out if you're curious

http://www.sanctuary-for-the-arts.com/

you will probably feel inspired too but not too muscly. : )

alright, thanks for letting me workout my creative muscle this morning.

Happy Monday,

Amanda