The blogstream has changed my life. I know people now that I would never have known in a million years, and I am eternally grateful for that.

It will take me over an hour tomorrow morning to get to the airport from my lake so I will leave my house at some too early morning hour. Nothing is too early for meeting up with my little Pilar though. I will get to JFK before most people have even thought about opening an eye on a Sunday morning, at which time Pilar will pick me up and take me to her house. My heart is pounding just thinking about it. We're gonna let Monster sleep in, and come over whenever he gets up and is good and ready to brave that hilltop I hear tell he lives on now.


I've been to NYC a number of times in the past, a notable one was in tenth grade when the girls from my all-girl school took a field trip from Albany to NYC to go to the Metropolitan and Guggenhiem Museums. I will never, not for my whole life, forget the feeling I had when I was surrounded by the art of the ages. I am definitely not an artist, or a musician for that matter, but I have a great ear and a good eye, which helps me to appreciate art as much if not more than many artists who are so focused on their own perceived imperfections that they can't see the whole for the parts.

I'm not much for what is referred to as 'modern' art. I love Monet, Rembrandt, Van Gogh.......and of course my all time fave....Renoir. I've never had the time or money to go in that direction, and at this point in my life I'm pretty certain that that is not going to happen anyway, but I sure did like that trip.

I've also climbed the steps, up to the torch, inside the Statue of Liberty and been to the top of the Empire State Building. I saw "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium", with a performance by the Rockettes following (my father claimed to be 'a leg man' so this was a real treat for him!) at Radio City Music Hall and I have seen the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. We ate at The Rainbow Room.

The excitement that I feel for this trip though can't be compared. I'm not going to see 'things'....I'm going to see friends. I realized a long time ago that whenever I got an opportunity to travel in my life that it would not be to see the Eiffel Tower, but that I might see that as I go to visit my 'fashionista' daughter after she moves to Paris and strikes it big in the fashion industry (she's passing French II this year after not having room in her schedule to take French I before).

I realized when another daughter spent the summer after she was married in Germany, that I really had no interest in going to Europe (apparently she fell asleep on the grounds of the Westminster Abbey) unless they happened to move there permanently which they talked about at the time. You better believe that if my children and grandchildren live there I'm gettin' a passport and will keep it up for a split second departure! If I get to see Big Ben and hear The London Symphony in the process that would be wonderful. I'm not much for going all the way there just for that though.

Soooo, this trip to NYC is different......the feeling can't be compared. For me, as much as I would love to go to museum hopping, and see the Statue of Liberty again, seeing some inanimate object will never be the same as finally getting to meet one of my blogger buddies. In this case three. Plus the adored father of another who has delayed his trip to the West Coast just so he could meet me too. Whoo-hoo! God is so good to me.

I'm hoping sometime in the next year to take my well-thought out RV trip around the United States and meet anyone and everyone who wants me to stop where they live. For now though, this is just a huge blessing to me. I'll pop in when I get the chance....until then, sing a little New York, New York for me and know that I love you all.


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Before I go, I just wanted to show you my newest little gadget. I finally got my swimp3 player and this is what it looks like. You'll have to image it on me with no bathing cap though. POH does NOT do bathing caps. They are ugly and they never stay on me anyway. Just let me say that my new swimp3 is the COOLEST!

Yay!  I finally got this uploaded in the right format so that I could post it!  This is the most current picture that I got from Caleb and Jess in NYC.  Yeah, young love.....who can touch it?

 I defy anyone to say that God Hisownself wasn't in the midst of Caleb's trek from Misery (Missouri) and in the placement of his weary self on the top of a hill in a beautiful suburb of the Big Apple.  It was nothing short of a miracle as far as I'm concerned.  That boy is SERIOUSLY blessed!

He's applied for some jobs and has some interesting and interested prospects.  Stay tuned!

I didn't make this up, but having seven daughters I can verify that it is true!


10.) "Let me explain what deductible means concerning car insurance."

9.) "You're mother is almost ready Where are we going on our double date?"

8.) "Seems to me that last year's prom dress still has some life in it."

7.) "I signed us up for the pairs karaoke contest this Friday night"

6.) "We ate posseum toes like popcorn when I was a kid."

5.) "Let's get ice cream, my treat! Just let me grab my jar of coins first."

4.) "I am proud that you decided to keep the family unibrow."

3.) "You don't need to go shopping after all. I picked out a dress for you on my way home."

2.) "By the way, I had to borrow your deodorant yesterday."

1.) "I ran into Bobby at the grocery store. I told him that you're really hoping he'll ask you to the dance."

This is a departure from the last week of posts about Monsterbox and his trek to New York City. There will be some more about that later, but I wanted to share with you something that is very exciting to me.

I went to my swimming lesson today feeling somewhat frustrated that two of the new moves the coach has been teaching me have been so hard for me to get. In one case I understood the move but was finding it hard to perform. In the other case, it took me three lessons, a total of three hours, to even GET what she was talking about.

I mean, how do you do a move when you don't fully understand where you're supposed to be, what your arms are supposed to be doing, and how it's supposed to look, besides the fact that you can't see yourself doing it. If one were taking ballet, there would be a mirror above the barre....in synchro you are dependent on the coach to tell you if it looks right and sometimes when she says it looks right it doesn't FEEL like it looks right.

Also, it's easy...or at least easier to understand what she is saying when you are upright, hanging on the side of the pool, just listening. When you are upside down, your head facing the bottom of the pool, your legs lying across the top of the water in what's called a "pike", madly sculling (trying to keep correct form) to keep yourself from sinking like a stone to the bottom of the pool, and trying to focus on where your arms and legs are supposed to be, not to mention that correct form requires pointed toes and your feet keep cramping up because you've been working every muscle in your body to the max for the past three months........well, let's just say that when you add all of that it's a WHOLE different kettle of fish.

Anyway, yeah, I am motivated to keep working.......one thing about POH is that I am NOT a giver-upper. I never have been. I've never been the best at anything I've ever done but I've always been told that I am a hard worker and have endurance. Yep.

Still and all, I was getting discouraged. In spite of the coache's most patient demeanor, I sensed, whether it was true or just an old insecurity, that she was getting annoyed. Let's face it, she is used to working with 18-22 year olds who have been practicing since they were 8. I haven't done this kind of training.......well.....ever. Even when I was swimming in grammar and high school it wasn't this intense. And it was almost 40 years ago.

Well, I finally got both moves. Not perfectly, mind you. But at least I understood that I was supposed to do, and can finally perform a rudimentary version of it. I wasn't feeling great but I did feel somewhat better.

As I was finishing my lesson, she began setting up the underwater stereo system for the college team who were beginning to make their way into the pool area. She told me just to swim for the last few minutes, listening to the celtic tones that were coming from the speaker hanging on a large black cord under the water. Just flow with it, she said. I pushed off from the wall and took a few strokes.

I dove under, doing a very nice surface dive and I heard the music. It felt like it was all around me as it reverberated through the water. I didn't want to come up for air. When I did I immediately positioned myself for a back sommersault and the dreaded pike. I felt the water, I felt the music, I felt myself flowing in and out of it.

I felt like I was in heaven.

I didn't want to stop but out of the corner of my eye I saw the girls lining up and waiting for me to be done. I suddenly felt very conspicuous.

I pulled over to the side of the pool and looked up at the coach. She stared at me. She said, "You looked like a different person just now! A totally different swimmer!". "Is that good?" I asked tentatively. "Good?" she said. "It's GREAT! From now on you are going to have the music going during your whole lesson."

She told me that one of my biggest issues is that when I come into my lesson, I am so tense from the responsibilities of my life that I don't look relaxed in the water. She said that as soon as I heard the music I immediately released the tension and became the graceful swimmer that I used to be told I was. I almost started to cry. I felt so uplifted and encouraged. All the work suddenly seemed worth it. I've always known that I loved swimming to music, but I also know that when you are learning the moves you have to just forego the music a lot of the time, and focus on isolating the movements. I couldn't believe it when she said I could have the music going the whole time.

I'm sure I will have to keep working harder than I ever have to get the progressively harder and harder moves that I will have to learn, but she told me that I can do it.

Suddenly, I've lost my fear of looking like a stupid old lady trying to do something that is beyond me, and I feel like I can do more in this sport than I've ever done in my entire life, at an older age than I've ever been.

Well, I found this little device on the internet today and am ordering it this evening. It's called a "swimp3 player". You wear it on your head, and you can hear the music even though no one around you can. It will be perfect for my personal practice times at the Y. I won't need it at my lesson but most of my swimming is done on my own anyway.

 I feel renewed.

I can't wait to get back to the pool in the morning.