A Week In Review

A Week In Review
April 13- 19, 2018


April 13, Friday: Philadelphia to Wisconsin to Minnesota

I was up by 4 AM and on my way to the airport to fly to Madison, WI.  I have a goal of visiting a new state every year.  I didn't make my goal last year so I took a long weekend to make up for this deficit.  I picked up a car and drove to Minnesota. I crossed the Mississippi River and it was a small thrill. Unfortunately, it was pouring down, raining so I didn't have the opportunity to explore the area. Nor could I take pictures as it was just too dark and dreary.  I did go to the Karst Brewery.

April 14, Saturday- Minnesota to Iowa

I woke up to a snow storm.  I asked the woman at the hotel desk if she had any idea as to the conditions of the road. "It's getting bad.  We Minnesotans are hearty but we don't mess with ice.  the roads are supposed to get icy by this afternoon.  Do you want to stay another night?"

I didn't want to stay.  I slowly drove an hour south to Iowa where it hadn't started to snow yet. I drove passed miles and miles and miles of farm fields.  For miles, I didn't see any evidence of homes or communities.  Sometimes, I see a sign that indicated a community with 498 or 723 or 235 people.

By the time I got to Dehora, the roads were covered in snow and everything was shut down.  I made it to Pulpit Rock Brewery for lunch and Toppling Goliath Brewery for dinner.

April 15, Sunday: Iowa to Wisconsin

Today's weather forecast warned of snow and flooding. And I had a 3 hour drive back to the Madison area.  I was staying in Mount Horeba which prided itself on the number of trolls that are tucked away in every corner and crevice on the main street.  I had plans to wander around and photograph them.  Unfortunately, it was pouring down, raining so I didn't have the opportunity to explore the area. Nor could I take pictures as it was just too dark and dreary.   I did go to the Grump Trolls Brewery.

April 16, Monday: Wisconsin

It's my final date and I had a state park on my itinerary but it was snowing so much that I couldn't go there. I spent the late morning at the hotel pool and hot tub. It was lovely.  I did go to the Great Danes Brewery before I returned my rented car.

April 17, Tuesday: Philadelphia

I arrive home around 2:30 AM and I'm exhausted. I spent the unpacking, doing laundry, catching up on my mail and getting back in to a routine.

In the evening, I meet up with two friends and we go to a church in the Mount Airy area.  It's Bobby McFerrin's church.  Bobby McFerrin, a multiple Grammy winner, is one of my musical idols.  For years, I have dreamt of going to one of his workshops where the participants get to sing with him.  And tonight, I sang with Bobby McFerrin.  It was a thrill.



April 18, Wednesday: Carpenter's Point, MD

I still have my damn house which I haven't inhabited in a year and am putting it on the market soon.  I spent the day with a woman who cleaned for me for 8 hours. She talked the whole damn time.  The furnace man put in a service call and he left with a trunk load of my things I don't want.  A neighbor stopped by and he left with two truck loads of things I don't want anymore.  A landscape guy came by and he left with a trunk load of garden tools.  He told he if felt like Christmas morning to him.

I cant wait to unload this damn house.

April 19, Thursday: West Chester, PA

I got a call from a friend.  Her mother can't make it to the theatre today and she has an extra ticket to see "Noises Off."  It was a bit slapstick but still fun.

I got back just in time to participate in a beer tasting event at my apartment.  About 15 of us were there and they were good company.   Everyone brought something different to taste. I moved to this apartment just to meet more people and do more fun things.  But I did drink too much.

1991

1991
Stroudsburg, PA

My age: 33-34

School: I wasn’t in school but I was paying my monthly school loans.  I borrowed $6,000 for my Master’s degree and $3,000 for my doctoral degree. I think I paid $71/month for ten years.

Work: I was the Assistant Principal at Stroudsburg High School, Stroudsburg, PA.  There were 1250 students in the school.  The community was struggling with the influx of families moving to the area from New York City.  There was a real clash of cultures.

Music- I listened to Casey Kasum every Sunday morning.  He would play the top 40 hits and I would try to record the songs I liked on my boom box.  This was a good year for music.

• Pearl Jam - wasn't a fan
• Whitney Houston  - wasn't a fan
• Michael Jackson - I thought he was very creative.  He wasn't as kooky then.
• Queen - wasn't a fan
• Bryan Adams  - he was OK.
• Phil Collins - I liked him
• Guns N' Roses - wasn't a fan
• Mariah Carey - she's ok 
• Metallica - wasn't a fan
• Amy Grant -  I liked her.
• Beverly Craven - never heard of her
• Cher - I liked her
• Gloria Estefan - she was OK
• R.E.M. - I liked this group
• Janet Jackson- wasn't a fan
• Extreme -never heard of this group
• Boyz II Men - wasn't a fan
• U2 - I like this group
• Van Halen - wasn't a fan
• The Clash - wasn't a fan
• Paula Abdul  - she was OK
• Billy Bragg - I liked him
• Garth Brooks - I liked him.
• Nirvana - wasn't a fan

Movies

• The Silence of the Lambs - creepy, creepy, creepy
• Hook - I love this movie.  I think I've watched it 6 or 7 times.
• The Addams Family- bizarre.  the TV show was bizarre and so was this movie.  But I still find this family to be entertaining.
• Father of the Bride- this was a stupid, predictable, light movie.
• Beauty and the Beast - I took my nieces to see this movie.
• Backdraft - this movie was intense.
• Thelma & Louise - I know everyone loves this movie but I thought it was just alright.

Books

• The Kitchen God's Wife- Amy Tan- this book started my obsession with Amy Tan.  I have read everything she has written.
• Wild Swan- Jung Chang- I amy not have read this book this year but I did read this very well written book.
• The Firm- Grisham- This is the only Grisham book that I've read but I have seen several of his movies.
• How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent- Julie Alvarez- She is a talented writer.

Travels 

• I went to the Touchstone Art Institute in the woods, near Pittsburgh, PA where I spent a week painting on fabric.  My sister and mother joined me but they were in a different class,
• I spent my summer weekends on Long Beach Island, NJ at my parents' house on the bay.

News events

• Boris Yeltsin wins the first free elections for Russia's first popularly-elected president.

• Winnie Mandela, the wife of Nelson Mandela, is given a six-year prison sentence or her part in the kidnap of four youths. And the rest of the world just couldn't believe this news.

• The Following Countries all gain independence when the Soviet Union breaks Up
  Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Axerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, 
• 
  
• The Dow Jones average topped 3,000 for the first time.  I don't remember this as I didn't have any money to invest at this point in my life.

• Mike Tyson is arrested and charged with rape.  And no one was surprised as he is such a pig.

• Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested  after the remains of 11 men  are found in his  apartment. The world was repulsed by this brutality.

• Lech Walesa  is elected President of Poland and it seemed as if communism was collapsing all over the world.

• Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen, issues a public statement confirming that he is stricken with AIDS, and the next day he dies of complications

• Journalist Terry Anderson is released after seven years' captivity as a hostage in Beirut 

• Terry Waite, the special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, was released after more than four years of captivity

• Police brutality is caught on tape during the arrest and beating of Rodney King  and LA broke out in anger and riots.

• Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union officially ceases to exist.  I thought he was a courageous leader.

• 911 Emergency Number tested in US northwestern cities 

• Operation Desert Storm  led by the United States bombs Iraq Forces in Kuwait and after 1 month of bombing Land invasion forces Iraq Forces out of Kuwait and back to Iraq. 

Family and friends

• December 29, 1951 was the day my parents were married.  This year was their 40th wedding anniversary.  To celebrate, we sent them on a trip: two days in London, a trip through the English Channel for Paris where they stayed for another two days, a night on the Orient Express and then three days in Vienna.  They loved this trip.

Montezuma

In the Halls of Montezuma
Our Home in Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia, PA

1965

I decided to ask my siblings to write their stories of our childhood.  Our mother had just died.  Her parents were immigrants and we had very little information about their childhood.  My father’s family was dying off.  And so was all of our oral history.

“If we all write just 10 stories each, we could have 70 of them”, I tell them, hoping to ignite some excitement around my very clever idea.  They show absolutely no interest in my request.  They weren’t just indifferent to the project.  They thought it as stupid.

“You don’t even have to type the stories, I will do that for you and I’ll do all of the formatting. I will put a book together for all of us to have,” I pleaded with them.  They continue to be unmoved by my request.

“It must be nice to have no kids.  When you don’t have kids, you have time to waste on stuff like this, said one sister.

I never got any takers to write even one lousy story.  But occasionally, one of them would call me and say,  "hey are you still writing that stupid family book?  I have a story you could write, remember when…” and then the story would be retold to me no matter how much I pleaded with them to write it down.

They didn’t. Not one of them.  But consistently a few of them remembered one particular story.

It was 1965; our uncle, an officer in the Marine Corp, was serving a tour of duty in Viet Nam. We worried about him every day.  We prayed for him.  And every Friday, we added his name to the long list of servicemen who got letters from the students in our grade school.

At the same time, someone gave my father a cheap, play-by-numbers, electronic, squeaky keyboard.

We put it in the hallway and we all attempted to learn how to play it. I still remember Mary Had A Little Lamb: 321 2333 222 333 321 2333 322321. Sometimes I would get the threes and the twos mixed up.  That really messed up the flow of the song.

We learned Happy Birthday and Twinkle, Twinkle and Oh Susanna.  We all seemed to have a particular favorite.  However, we all felt a great need to learn the marine’s anthem, In The Halls of Montezuma.  We played that song too frequently and too poorly. It was dreadful but we played it with a thought that this act alone would bring our uncle home safely.

As my siblings reflected on this story, they all remembered how dreadful the others played. Individually, they all bragged they were the best.  But that is a ridiculous thought because, really, truly, I was the best.