Trump's Inauguration Celebration

Trump's Inauguration Celebration
Sad, Bigly Sadon the National Mall
Washington, DC 
January 19, 2017 


It was eerie, dull and sad.  Few people were there and it felt as if they were there in obligation rather than celebration. There was no energy to the moment at hand.  Mostly high school students attended and it appeared as if they were only looking for a place to hang for the afternoon.


There were musical groups who were unknown to me.  At one point, The Rolling Stones were piped in to the audio system and we watched a blank screen offer subtitles to "Let's Spent The Night Together" and "You Cant Always Get What You Want". I wonder if they picked this songs on purpose.

The event started around 4:00PM and we stayed until 6ish, just as Trump got up to speak.  But by this time, much of the crowd was leaving in boredom. After his quick speech, there were fireworks. But lots of people didn't even stop to watch them.  We hurried off to the metro and headed home.

We walked in to the enclosed area on the Mall at 4 and this was the crowd.  The event started at 4.

There was plenty of room for everyone.

An hour in to the event and there still is a strong sense of emptiness.

The Washington Monument

Much of the crowd left before the sun set.

WAWA

WAWA
East Coast, USA


I love WAWA.  It is the greatest convenience store in the world.  I can get gas there and coffee and a newspaper and a sandwich and a quart of milk for my coffee in the morning.  I can use their clean restrooms. I can use my debit card at their "no fees" ATM machines.  They have pretzels just like the kind I used to get in grade school.  Their sandwiches are tasty.  They have a turkey bowl that has roasted turkey, stuffing and cranberries in individual serving. So if I am in the mood for a taste of Thanksgiving, I can get it here.

They are opened all the time.  I don't think they even close for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  I can count on them all the time. And because they are always busy, it isn't scary to stop in there in the middle of the night, on the way home from somewhere.

They have the best coffee and they have a Free Coffee Day that is now considered one of my annual holidays.  Thousands and thousands of people come through their doors on these days and hoard coffee and no one passes judgment.  That's life.  that's how we do Coffee Day.

A friend of mine was in from Germany again.  She was with her family. He son wanted to know, "What is WAWA?"  She responded, "It's a place you go to a few times a day."

Cow Invasion

Cow Invasion
Varanasia, India
July 2015

He stood right outside my hotel and his presence frightened me.  I don't know cow behaviors and I don't know what ticks them off so much that they might charge at me.  This cow blocked my way and I turned around and found another way to the market.

My Top 10 Favorite Places In The World

My Top 10 Favorite Places In The World

1- My mother's house- It was always nice to go home to my mother.  she greeted me every time with kindness.  She was always happy to see me.

2- India- I love this country.  It is full of extremes of colors, smells, food, people, cows, monks, incense, prayer offerings,

3- Long Beach Island- my family owned a home on this island for 30 years.  And my uncles owned homes there as well.  So I got to see lots of my extended family during the summer months.

4- Penn State- I have three degrees from PSU so I spent a lot of time there. It's like going home when I go back there.  Zeno', The Phyrst, and the Rath Skeller are my favorite bars.

5- WAWA- This store is the greatest store chain in the world.

6- England- It is so easy for me to travel to England and wander around with ease.  I love the theatre, the museums, high tea and the pubs.

7- The Bryn Mawr Film Institute (BMFI)- I could go here everyday.  This movie house shows nothing but great movies.  They mostly show foreign films or indepemndet films and all of them are great.  There is a coffee show right there which is a great place to meet before or after the movie.

8- China- I don't think China is a particularly beautiful country but I have fallen on love with the people.  I've taught there twice at a university and my students are delightful.

9- NY, NY- I always love going to New York even though this city intimidates me. It is too expensive and too fast paced for daily living.  But going there for an afternoon or a weekend is great fun,  I like to go the the 1/2 priced theatre tickets.  I live to go to a deli for a huge pastrami sandwich and a beer.  And there are plenty of museums to capture my attention.

10- Reading Terminal- Philadelphia, PA- I love to go here for lunch and to shop for cheeses.

Advice From My Father

Advice From My Father
Philadelphia, PA
1975


As I was approaching my 21st birthday and about to become a legal drinker, my father offered me some very sage advice.  "Lookit", he told me, "whenever you go to the bar with a group of friends and you are ordering pitchers of beer, always be the first to order the beer.  Buy the first round.  You see, as the night moves on, everyone remembers who bought the first round but no one remembers who bought the other rounds.  So, you get excused from buying the next round. If you play it right, that may be the only round you buy.  Always buy the first round."

Marching For Our Immigrants

Marching For Our Immigrants
PHL Airport
Philadelphia, PA
January 29, 2017


I marched in Washington, DC last week in the Women's March and that moment was joyful, hopeful  and filled with good will.  It was a high.  After 10 dreadful weeks after our disastrous election, I finally found my voice again.  I was surrounded by like-minded people who said, "ENOUGH, we aren't going to take it anymore."

But then just a week later, the idiot passes a ban on immigration for some people from certain countries.  So I find myself at the Philadelphia airport, along with 5,000 other people, to protest yet again.  But this time, it was different.  There was no joy here today.  I only felt fear.  Unlike the Women's March, which was dominated by black and white women, I saw men and women of every race, color, country, religion, ethic group.  I spoke to citizens whose families could be or would be affected by this ban.  I saw a large Jewish presence which shoveled a message. of the hateful Hitler and the Holocaust, in our faces.

I saw an America that I did not recognize.

Don't Eat

 Don't Eat

Johnnie's Sushi House

Perryville, MD

October 2014

This showed up on my plate at Johnnie's Sushi House. I'm glad the waiter told me not to eat this carrot sculpture because I was going to take it home and eat it later.  "No, no, just decoration, Many parts glued. Not good for you," he warns me.

At The Library

At The Library
Cecil County Public Libraries
Cecil county, MD

I go to the library about three times a week.  I go for two reasons: (1) I don't have Internet at my house, (2) I get to work on a clean, uncluttered surface.  I love my library.  It's just great.  As a mater of fact it was named library of the year in 2015.  So I'm not the only one who holds this opinion.

My library in the 1960s was so different. It was musty, worn out and gloomy.  There were beaten up library tables and chairs.  There was absolute silence and obsolete books.  Tired, old women patrolled the stacks and silenced all of us.  It was lifeless.

But not this library.  The CCPL is alive and well.  It is filled with people and noise and movies and audio books and computers, and and DVDs and CD and puppets and microwaves and soda machines.  People speak openly and in normal voices.  Students study together and science programs are offered and well attended.

A handful of veterans wander in to the library every day and they work on job searches.  Individuals come in here and log in to the computers so that they may participate in virtual classrooms.  Middle school kids come here because they have nowhere else to go after  school.  They are bored but at least they are surrounded by books.

Libraries today are alive with a pulse on the community. I love my library. 

Coveting My Things

COVETING ALL MY THINGS
Haiti Family Initiative Program
Jaime, Haiti
Summer 2013

I arrive in Jacmel and head to our summer program.  Word is out that the white people are here.  So the neighbors come running to find us. Many of the women only one phrases in English. They tug on my arm and point to something of mine, "OK, WHEN YOU LEAVE." 

Then they shamelessly point to themselves.  They want my hat, my purse, my blouse, my eyeglasses, my water bottle, my phone, my pants, my water sprayer.  Someone actually pulled on my bra strap.  My $8 Wal-Mart slips on sneakers are a very hot commodity. I have had several requests for them.  

I wonder what the USA Custom’s Official would say if I did come back sans everything that has been coveted.

Mr. Flatley

Mr. Flatley
Philadelphia, PA
1919-2006

The Flatleys lived down the street from us.  In addition to the parents, there were 10 kids.  And our families were intermingled with each other.  My parents were very good friends with Mr. and Mrs. Flately.  My siblings and I were friends with their children.  As a matter of fact, Kathy and I went to grade school, high school and college together.  We were college roommates.  I was in Kathy's wedding and we have mourned together as we said goodbye to our parents and siblings.

Mr. Flatley was very unusual.  He never seemed to get angry about anything.  Nothing seemed to ruffle his feathers.  He could go with the flow and then be oblivious to the aggravations of the moments.

• He built a skiing rink in the back yard during the winter. The whole neighborhood came over to skate.
• 
  
• He once held a contest to see who could throw the ball the highest. When the ball went off course and went through a garage window, he just shrugged that off and said, "Well, we will have to get that fixed.  Don't tell Mother what we were doing." And the contest continued.
• 
  
• He cleared out the master bedroom once and invited his friends over for an evening of ballroom dancing. All the adults came dressed in formal wear.
• 
  
• They would go camping as a family and somehow, got everyone in the station wagon (up to 12 people) and strapped everything to the top.  It looked as if that car was never going to make it to the end of the block.
• 
  
• He was 87and at my house for a party.  One friend brought her 12 year old step daughter who tried to make herself invisible all night.  Sensing her discomfort, I left her alone and let her be invisible.  Mr. Flatley went right up to her and sat down and asked, "May I have the pleasure of your acquaintance?" They talked to each other for the rest of the evening.
• 
  
• My most memorable moment with him was in my horrible college apartment living room.  He just drove 4 hours to see us and he was tired.  He found a spot on our lumpy, trash-picked couch and made himself comfortable. "Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lay down", he told me as he closed his eyes and took a nap.

I wish I could be this content with life.

Austria

Austria

Salzburg

January 2012

We stood on top of a hill, looking down on this beautiful city of Salzburg.  It was cold and windy and I wanted to find some place to sneak in to just to avoid the cold.  As I readjusted my hat, I noticed I was missing an earring, one of my diamond earrings. My heart sank. I looked everywhere but to no avail. I gave up.  But I hope that some nice young man finds that earring and uses it in an engagement ring for a marriage of a lifetime.

Fireworks

Fireworks

Post Graduation Ceremonies

June

1994-2007

When I was a high school principal, we had fireworks at the end of our graduation ceremony.  It was great fun and added to the celebration.  The tradition started in 1994 at Stroudsburg High School. We realized we had too many people attending our outdoor ceremony and every attempt to get out of the parking lot quickly was null and void.  But we had a lot of old, sickly, fragile grandparents. So we started the fireworks as a way to weed out the crowd.  The grandparents snuck out when the ceremony was finished and the rest of us stayed behind until the last rocket expired in the air.  And then we cheered and cheered and cheered.

In 2000, I changed schools and mentioned this tradition.  The Springfield people jumped on the idea as well.  At the conclusion of  our indoor ceremony, we wandered outside to a community party.  Since the crowd was already there, it was so easy to add this little extra attraction.

When I retired, a co-worker told me I had done great things as a principal but she was most grateful for the firework. "Every burst of light is one of our kids going off in to the dark to light up the world," she told me.