This newsletter is green – no trees were harmed to make it!
Preface
Writing for my blog and writing a holiday newsletter are very different. You may ask, “What the hell is the difference!” For one, a holiday newsletter is usually enclosed in a cheerful, sentimental Christmas card wishing you good tidings for the season, so you wouldn't normally find words like “hell” or political commentaries or the often cynical ramblings of a woman who suffers from writer’s irregularity, so when I do write, it becomes a version of diarrhea of the fingers. Also, a preface isn't typically part of a standard holiday newsletter....nor is the word diarrhea. So keep in mind this isn’t a holiday newsletter. It’s a long over due blog post. To paraphrase that popular song from the 50s, “It’s my blog and I’ll write whatever I damn well want to write about!” And be sure to check out the photo album 2008 – A Year in Pictures. It's a better representation of 2008 than this post will be!
2008
What a year! Of course the big news is we have a new president– President Barack Obama! It’s been a long time (over eight years!) since I’ve been able to feel excited and positive about a president and about our country. The election of President Obama has restored my faith and pride in the citizens of the good ol' U.S. of A. At the beginning of 2008, I believed our country was infested with too many fearful, ignorant people who hated anyone who didn’t resemble themselves. And during the past eight years, I believed we condoned and even celebrated mediocrity. A nation does not achieve greatness from mediocrity or from losing respect from our foreign allies or from not valuing intelligence and intellectuals or from allowing divisiveness to define us as a society. But those characteristics no longer need to delineate who we are as Americans. President Obama has monumental challenges ahead of him, but so do we – the people of this great nation. We need to join together in the spirit of tolerance, unity and intelligence and rise above negativity – as Obama did during the election campaign – and help restore integrity, compassion and respect within our lives, communities, states and nation! God Bless America!
The other big news is that Rachel is going to the inauguration!!! On March 12th, I received an email from the Dir. Of Admissions for the Congressional Youth Leadership Council inviting Rachel to the Jr. Presidential Youth Inauguration Conference. Rachel is an alumni of the National Young Scholars Program and the Jr. National Young Leaders Conference - both are under the umbrella of the CYLC. In elementary school she had been nominated for NYSP and thus began her association with CYLC. For David and I there was no question about it, she was going to the inauguration. Fortunately, Rachel felt the same way. Her previous experiences with the leadership conferences were very positive. So 40 minutes after receiving the email invitation, I submitted Rachel’s enrollment information and the payment fee (and racked up some nice airline mileage!)! But let me tell you, from April until mid October, it was like being on an out of control rollercoaster – “it” being the election…the negative campaigning….the debates....the winking. At one point in the madness, I told David we weren’t sending her to the “wrong” inauguration and I would demand a refund. As always, he was the voice of reason (i.e. he aced Persuasion 101 in his one year of law school!) and gave me several reasons why it would still be important for her to go. I cannot recall one of his reasons, only that he punctuated them with, “And anyway, Obama is going to win.” Hell, if David says so, then it is so!!
Rachel with her information packet for the Jr. Presidential Youth Inauguration Conference.
Besides experiencing inauguration day events, in the five days that Rachel will be in D.C., she will learn about the many roles of the president and about the electoral college; she will attend a conference with special keynote speakers, Gen. Colin Powell and former Vice Pres. Al Gore; and she will attend an inauguration ball - probably a gala specifically for the Jr. PYIC students, but she still gets to dress up (semi-formal)!
So here we are, with President Barack Obama about to take office in 18 days and my darling, Rachel Ann will be there to witness it! So will David and I, but we’ll be one of the four million people standing on the Mall…not unless I’m one of the “winners” for inauguration tickets from my senator. In November I filled out the online request form on Senator Barbara (the original Pit Bull with lipstick!) Mikulski’s site and wrote an “essay” about why I deserved tickets. I put everything in that essay including that my Jamaican grandmother never became a U.S. citizen due to racism that she experienced. And I told Senator Pit Bull that Rachel would be attending the inauguration and how wonderful it would be if her parents could witness this historical event too, and the stimulating, thoughtful family discussions our inauguration experiences would inspire. It was so good even I was weeping by the time I finished writing. You can imagine, though, how disheartened I felt when I got the electronic response saying that due to so many requests for tickets, there would be a ticket lottery! My essay was not going to be read….not even by some intern!! Oh well....we’re going anyway and will be staying with our dear friend, Kandace, and viewing the parade from my cousin Darryl’s apartment building rooftop. And on that day – Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009 – Washington, D.C. will temporarily displace Disneyland as the Happiest Place on Earth!!
More about Rachel!
2008 was a great year for Rachel! She officially became a teenager in September; attended a leadership conference in Boston in July; went to a two-week ballet intensive program in Philadelphia in August; and saw her first “rock” concert this past summer (the American Idol Tour concert)! And she continues to be a good student and always makes the honor roll; still takes piano lessons, although despises practicing, but loves her teacher and the actual lessons; dances five nights a week for love of the art and for the special dance friends; swims on the summer swim team for fun and friendship and the occasional trophy or ribbon is pretty nice, too; is the Queen of Text Messaging; adores her girlfriends and continues to bring David and me great joy with a minimal amount of frustration. (Have you done your online math? Have you practiced piano? If you just did these things we wouldn’t have to nag and make you miserable, blah, blah, blah!!)
The Jr. National Youth Leadership Conference in Boston was Rachel’s first conference that was outside of D.C. Well...actually, the two weeks at James Madison Univ. in WVA for NYSP four years ago was the first time. But that doesn't count because it was West Virginia and I left for California a couple days after we dropped her off in an attempt to reduce my anxiety. So I wasn’t ready to send her to Boston - a big city - on her own, so Boston/Cambridge/Cape Cod became our summer vacation destination! While Rachel spent the week in Boston, David and I spent the time in Cambridge. We picked up Rachel on July 4th and spent two more days in Cambridge. After Rachel’s brief time exploring Cambridge and Harvard Yard, she decided she wants to go to Harvard. Almost six months later, Harvard is still her university of choice!
Each time Rachel goes off to one of her leadership conferences, her lack of hesitation and insecurity never ceases to amaze me. Tears are streaming down my face as she walks off into a room full of unfamiliar faces, and yet she barely glances back at us. And after that week she's away, she returns to us more confidant, more secure and even brighter and happier. Being on her own in that environment truly brings out the best in her.
On the other hand, two weeks at the ballet intensive in Philadelphia, with two other students from her studio, resulted in her saying I’m not sure I’d do that again and if I do, I want to go somewhere that I don’t know anyone!
David
Hmmmm, what to write about David? Well..for one...he has done a damn good job of masking his anxiety as our economy (and investments?!) went into a terrifying tailspin with little evidence of improvement. I find myself intently watching him...searching for tell tale signs (waking up way too early, lots of sighing, to name a couple). Just because he appeared to be calm, cool and collected didn’t mean that he was. He has yet to ask me to remove my Harriet Nelson pearls and apron and pull my head out of the sand for a real grown up talk about our finances, so it can't be all that bad!
In addition to the stressful job of staying on top of family finances, David is responsible for helping Rachel with algebra….and will be until she graduates from high school! Rachel is already beyond me in math comprehension! Part of David’s Math Overseer role includes monitoring Rachel’s online math tutoring program. I had suggested we supplement her math education with a Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth online course. Rachel, of course, was not happy about having additional math, but when given the choice of moving to another country to insure she’d get a better math education or do the online program, she opted for the online program! She is close to finishing the program and we have decided not to further torture her by renewing it. Instead we got her some Johns Hopkins computer math games for Christmas! You can imagine her delight when she opened that gift!
But I digress…I’m suppose to be writing about David! We celebrated David’s 63rd birthday with a weekend in NYC to see “A Sunday in the Park with George”. David loves that show - we love that show! While in Manhattan we also visited with Tony and Laura and their wonderful spouses and children; had two dinners at great restaurants and a fabulous brunch on Easter Sunday. But it was the walk up 5th Avenue that made Easter Sunday a very unique one. And I thought the parade of Easter hats and clothes was Hollywood fiction! (“Easter Parade” starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire.) Make sure you check out those photos in the 2008 photo album!
In June we lost a couple trees from a storm, so David spent the latter part of the year tending to the fallen trees. He chopped fallen trees, split wood, brought in a traveling mill wood dude and turned logs into planks. David claims he’s going to build me that pool/guest house that I’ve been hankerin’ for the past six years. See...just writin’ about splittin’ and millin’ wood does somethin’ to a person….makes them different…more woodsy…folksy…wink, wink! Next up, squirrel huntin’ from helicopters!
When David isn’t chopping wood or milling wood or carrying wood, he’s often in the barn doing God knows what or he’s having lunch and smoking cigars with Bill or goofing off with Fred or having coffee with Craig or playing online chess with Igor in Siberia. Oh, and his all-time favorite pastime, driving Miss Rachel to school in the morning!
Moi....
…..or Leslie…..but I can’t bring myself to write in the third person, which isn’t uncommon for holiday newsletters…yet I can’t do it…..for some reason it creeps me out! Who wrote the letter?! The family dog?! Anyway, this isn’t a holiday newsletter, it’s a blog post! If I was a true blogger, I’d suggest everyone go back and read all the posts I wrote in 2008 to see what I’ve been up to but I only wrote four…..and two of them don’t count! On the other hand, in 2008 I was quite prolific for Rachel's dance studio, sending out over 50 email newsletters which represent no aspect of my life except my inability to limit my volunteer commitments!
Writing about myself and what I did/do isn't as easy as writing about Rachel and David. I run. I volunteer. And as a former friend so aptly described, I dabble in substitute teaching. Former Friends - I seem to have a perverse affinity for them. In 38 years of living in Los Angeles, I think I had two “former” friends. Yet after only 14 years of living in Maryland…..on the Eastern Shore….in a county where I still often feel like the stranger in the strange land, I have quite a few former friends! Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I haven’t accepted I’m no longer in Kansas (a big metaphorical stretch for Los Angeles), and should finally and fully embrace the munchkins, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion, and learn to adapt and keep my opinions to myself. Okay, that is never going to happen! And what's so wrong with pointing out that some of the liberal Democrats here would be mistaken for Republicans in Los Angeles….liberal Republicans, but still Republicans. So why not just come out of the closet and be a liberal Republican?! And isn't turning a blind eye to something the same as condoning it? I couldn't sit quietly during McCain and Palin’s negative campaigning with its underlying racist tones, so I wondered aloud...more than once...about how many Grand Wizards were members of the GOP....and living amongst us...safely esconced in their waterfront homes....sending their children to predominately white private schools? When a person (who definitely fits the latter two descriptions), in a fit of frustration because her candidate is doing so poorly, says out loud, in a public place, "Black people shouldn't be allowed to vote because they're only voting for Obama because he's black!", well...what's a mixed chick like me suppose to think? Who's got white sheets in their closets and who doesn't?!
As I was saying……besides being highly opinionated and nearly friendless in 2008, I ran the L.A. Marathon in March and the Big Sur Half Marathon in November; at the end of September I took a long over due vacation with my soul-sister, Sharon, to Cancun; spent a little time “babysitting” middle school students (and actually enjoyed it!); entered my eighth year as a RISE volunteer (I love reading one on one with first and second graders!); sit on the local arts council board (a worthy organization that supports the arts in our community and schools); am a member of the Chesapeake Chamber Music YouthReach committee (which provides a wonderful violin introduction program to elementary school students); and I’m the hyper volunteer for Rachel’s dance studio…which could be a separate (whiney) blog post in itself!
Running in my birth city was my most memorable race to date and definitely a highlight of 2008! Hearing Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” at the start, which was about a mile below our old house in the Hollywood Hills, made me all verklepmt. So many L.A. icons were part of the course – the start was at Universal Studios; running down Hollywood Blvd.; passing the Coliseum and Staples Center; crossing the Olympic Bridge (concrete, built in 1925) and the 6th St. bridge and finally seeing downtown Los Angeles (the finish!) in front of me and the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance off to the right (God how I miss seeing mountains!). In my head (since my iPod had died by then), Randy Newman sang, “6th Street!!! We love it! We love it! We love L.A.!!” As I approached the finish, above the noise of the crowds that lined the street, I heard my name and the shouts and cheers of Mary, Nadine and Butler and I wept! The three of them were with me all weekend long. They went to the expo, the pre-race dinner and Mary and Nadine even spent the night with me in my hotel room so they could be with me at the start. And there were more friends at my celebration dinner at my favorite L.A. Mexican restaurant, El Cholo – Molly, her son William; Renee and her husband and oldest daughter; cousin Lisa and, of course Mary and Butler. (Nadine had to catch a train back to Fresno right after I crossed the finish.) I spent my remaining two and a half days with Molly and William at their beautiful Hermosa Beach home. Molly is the most gracious host ever and William is the most well-mannered teenager ever! My race experience would not have been as memorable if it wasn’t for my cherished friends!
And it was the same for the Big Sur Half Marathon except better because David and Rachel were there, along with Nadine (again!) and her three children – Dixie, Gemma and Marco - and Butler, who made the six hour drive up from SoCal to spend the weekend with us. They all saw me off at the start and then I saw them at three different places on the course and at the finish. It was a challenging course – quite a few hills – so their support made a difference. How can you beat this type of enthusiam from your race course support. (That's Nadine in the fabulous orange coat!):
The hills became my running joke with Butler. He had driven the course the day before and told me there were only a couple small ones. So you can imagine my surprise as I approached the third, fourth and so on hill! My first thought was “WTF Butler?!! There are tons of hills!!” It’s possible I yelled that at him at some point on the course since I’m prone to runner’s induced tourettes. I understood Butler's reverse psychology. Had he told me about all the hills, I might have allowed the course to intimidate me. Instead I just used my anger at Butler to battle up the hills...maybe that was part of his reverse psychology, too! In spite of the hills, it was a great race. The scenery was spectacular. The weather was almost perfect race weather. The drizzling of rain at the beginning was okay and then was partly sunny for most of the race. But I could have done without the full on rain as I finished. Fortunately the weather for the rest of our trip (Santa Cruz, Napa, San Francisco) was gorgeous, with temps hitting 80...in San Franciso!?!
My bro, Michael and his friend, Celaine, drove in from San Jose after the race to spend the afternoon and evening with us, adding to what was an absolutely perfect day!
So those were some of the highlights of 2008....there were more, like the rest of our Fall vacation in Northern California that included visits with Jacques and Denise, Steve and Betsy, and cousin Katie and her friend, Chad. There was the weekend in NYC to see "Hairspray" and countless day trips to D.C. Look at the 2008 – A Year in Pictures photo album. I’ve already written too much, more than any normal person could tolerate reading in a holiday newsletter. If I were to print this out and mail it, it would require extra postage!
Epilogue (holiday newsletters don’t have one of these, either!)
If you read this entire post, you are probably Kim - my biggest fan - who I dedicate this post to! Thank you, Kim, for your support and praise about my writing. You inspire me to keep writing…as torturous as it seems at times!!
Have a healthy, enlightened, open-minded, compassionate, tolerant, color-blind New Year! It is time for a change and change is upon us!!! Yes We Can! And Yes We Did!!!!
Epilogue - Part 2
Compared to What" got me through the last couple miles of the Big Sur Half Marathon. It's a great power song - that song you need when all you want to do is quit! It's almost nine minutes long and I played it twice to get myself across that damn finish line! It was recorded in 1969 as an ant-Vietnam song, but when you listen to the words, it could've been written last year! The song features jazz bassist Leroy Vinnegar who was a good friend of David's. Leroy died almost 10 years ago and he is greatly missed by all who knew him. Fortunately, his music lives on forever as will my memory of hearing his very deep baritone voice on the other end of the phone saying "Where's Hamburger?" The phone would literally vibrate from the tone in which he said "Hammmm-burrr-gerr!"
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