Memory and Friendship

Went to a Celebration of Life today. Rather, a funeral service without the body or ashes of a colleague and friend. She had passed away last Friday from leukemia and there never was any good moment to have a great big all out cry. Either we had guests or there was school. The timing just never seemed right.

So, I waited for today. My friend Eileen said that these Celebrations never really allow her to get her cry on and for that reason she dislikes them. She said it was a purely selfish reason. I was able to introduce myself and my husband to her son and daughter in law (although I had met them before in the hospital). As we were walking to the actual Celebration, I started talking with a former teacher who is a friend I haven't seen in quite a while. She held out her arm and said, "I wore our wristband." I nodded. And then I realized I hadn't a clue what she meant by that. So I asked, "What wristband?"

"Don't you remember? From Bok Tower? When we went with Mo on a road trip?"

And all of a sudden I felt so happy because here was a memory that I had completely forgotten. One great day when the three of us took a summer road trip and meant it to be just a morning lunch thing, but we didn't get home until after 5. Earlier in the week Fred had asked me what stories I had of Mo and I couldn't come up with a really good one. Now I had one whole day.

Of course there were many moments with her. Lots of memories. Lots of wonderful times and times when she was exasperated with kids during retreats or at graduation. And it will be very strange now to go to our graduation and not have her there to run it. To not have her there to sing the march for us to walk to our places. To not have her tell US to be quiet. 8-)

And when the pipe and drum corps played Amazing Grace I had my good cry, even though it was a Celebration of Life. So Eileen was wrong.

Where I was when I first heard about our SEGDI guide dog puppy!

On Thursday at 2:45 pm at Bok Gardens and Tower in Lake Wales I saw that I had a voice mail message, so I listened to it while I was waiting for our 3 pm tour of the Pinehurst Estate, a lovely Spanish-style house from the early 1930s that is also part of the Bok Gardens. It was from Chuck Heitala, the SEGDI area coordinator for Pinellas county, who had left a very casual message asking that I call him back. I thought he might need a puppy sitter and since we had my parents visiting and were already sitting a friend's pug (Kaia, see earlier post) I thought briefly about not returning the message since we couldn't puppysit, but then realized that wouldn't be polite. So I called him back.

When I got him on the phone he got right to the point and wondered if I might be interested in taking home a male, black lab puppy! OH MY! He said that he would be ready for us to pick up on July 21st if we were interested! WOOT! Talk about doing a happy dance out in public. That was me. In the Bok gardens, in front of Pinehurst, doing a happy dance.

So the next step is to call SEGDI and to set up an appointment to sign the papers. Once we sign the papers, we can start visiting our puppy for private puppy hugging sessions. Yep, that's the ticket! Earlier this week I went with mom and dad on a secret puppy scouting mission to see what kind of puppies they had and to hug some of the puppies, but was bitterly disappointed by the puppy hugging: see photo at right. There were four puppies and about 30 people in a circle all vying for puppy time. It was awful. I felt really bad trying to get a puppy's attention from a child. I mean, what kind of person does that? So, I didn't. One of the volunteers, brought a puppy down to our end and gave one of the black labs to the lady next to me (could it have been my black lab? Perhaps?! ;-). She kindly passed him to me for a cuddle. I passed him to the person next to me. Then stood up and looked in the kennels and told mom and dad we were leaving. I really just wanted to find out the types of puppies that they had: mostly labs and goldadors and one litter of collies. So I just crossed my fingers and hoped for a lab or goldadore as that is the kind we have the most experience with and lo and behold that is what we got! And a black lab at that! The kind we love the most! How fabulous.

Buddha and Thud and Matt and Bear would be so happy.

Things to do when mom and dad visit

I have a list of things I think that mom and dad might be interested in going to see (and places we haven't seen and sound cool to us as well) when they come to visit on Saturday. Here they are:

1. Florida Southern College in Lakeland. The only college campus designed entirely by Frank Llody Wright Watch this cool video:



2. SEGDI is the Southeastern Guidedogs for the Blind organization in Palmetto. Mom and Dad have never been and it is an amazing operation. Very impressive. Of course, if we go on a Mon, Tues, Wed. or Friday from 9-11 am then I can check out what breeds of puppies are available as we are currently on the waiting list for a guide dog puppy. Of course there is no guarantee that we would be getting one of those puppies, but it wouldn't hurt to go look! 8-) And the outlet mall is near by and St. Armands is only another 30 minutes away. Woot.

3. Bok Tower Gardens I went here once a couple of years ago and I wasn't able to tour the house or go to the famous restaurant for lunch. I want to go back and do both of those things! the tour of the Pinewood Estate historic home tour is at noon and 2. Chalet Suzanne is the famous restaurant and they do serve lunch from 10 to 2 Tues. through Sat. although it is a bit pricey. It has been written up by all the specialty magazines and has a bunch of golden spoon awards. We would have to get there for an early lunch and make it for the 2 pm tour. and then walk the gardens. It is really cool. Or just skip Chalet Suzanne and eat at the tea room at Bok, which was ok, if memory serves, and tour around.

4. Dade City is a cute little town and Lunch on Limoges is an excellent restaurant in this quaint little town. Dade City also has some cute little shops and artist galleries.

5. Cross Creek, Fl. Home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings author of The Yearling and Cross Creek. It is now an historic state park, but a very interesting place. the neighboring town of Micanopy is pretty cool as well. It is chock full of cool shops and antique stores. I haven't been for several years and would like to go back. Tours only on Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. It's a full day trip there. About 2, 2.5 hours up to Cross Creek. It might be combined with Lunch on Limoges for a split trip, but a long haul back. Something to think about.

Anyway, there are some ideas for things to do when Mom and Dad come to visit. If anyone else has an idea or a new restaurant or something else we should do, just chime in.