More old photos coming right up!
Karen
Showing posts with label Friendship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friendship. Show all posts
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Flashback Friday #5: College Compadres
Here's a quick scan for
Flashback Friday.
From left: Evelyn Orlando (now Dee Wolke, then nicknamed Schmendrick), Betsy Cronin, whom I lost track of immediately after leaving school, and me, circa early 1979. Evelyn was my sometime roommate and friend through most of my first stint in college, and ultimately my co-maid of honor in 1979. Betsy was also a close friend at the time, but I could never find her again afterward. We hung out together, played D&D together, went to see Superman (the first Christopher Reeve one) together.
More old photos coming right up!
Karen
More old photos coming right up!
Karen
Friday, February 10, 2012
Round Robin Challenge: No End to Her Yarns
Okay, yes. I had ulterior motives for assigning this week's Round Robin Photo Challenge: Crafty. For the past month I've been absolutely overwhelmed with yarn, beads, needlework, costuming, embroidery, crochet, tatting, jewelry-making supplies and who-knows-what-else, all from the estate of my friend Jan Lockett, who died January 21st. In early January we packed up the contents of her shed and bedroom and moved it all into a 10 ft. x 20 ft. storage space, completely filling it. By the time she died I'd been given the task of disposing of it all. Other than furniture, I swear the majority of what was in there was yarn or thread, along with many cookie cans full of beads, and bags full of half-finished projects.
There must have been over twenty bins, bags and boxes of yarn, knitting needles and crochet hooks. A member of the church's Knitters and Quilters group took home five bins to hand out at future meetings, and I carried another eight bins or boxes and three bags of the stuff across a crowded parking lot into the church's Bride's Room one Sunday afternoon. The photo above was taken in the storage space after all that. Everything you see on or next to those shelves is yarn and related supplies, except for a roll of tape and a pair of scissors. Oh, and the filing cabinet, but she also had lots of knitting, crochet and needlework patterns on file, along with books and magazines on the subject.
We had a mini-estate sale after Jan's memorial service a week ago, which we carried over to after church the next day. People from several different knitting groups carried off yarn and partially completed scarves, blanket panels and so on. One person needed specifically pink and blue, non-wool yarn for charity baby blankets. Another group makes comfort shawls or blankets (I forget which) for injured soldiers.
Even after all that, there was plenty of yarn left in the Bride's Room, along with crafts made (or partially made) from yarn...
...much of which is colorful and attractive, but hard to identify!
Now let's see what crafts other Robins have come up with:
Linking List
as of Midnight MST
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com
Mary Tomaselli - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photography
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com
And as always, you're welcome to join in too!
Karen
Sunday, February 06, 2011
EMPS: My Doggie Friends
This week's Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #110: Friendship was a little tricky for me. I tend to be shy about taking pictures of humans, except as part of my photography for St. Michael's. Fortunately, Carly mentioned that the friends in the photos didn't have to be humans. This leaves me free to make one of my periodic attempts at my favorite photographic subjects: Cayenne and Pepper, my doggie friends!
Pepper and Cayenne both like to hang out with us on the couch, which can be a problem. There just isn't room on the couch for two humans plus two dogs. Sometimes when John goes to get something from the kitchen, he returns to find Cayenne or (more often) Pepper ensconced in his place! Also, they're even worse about knocking the cover off the couch than I am.
One of their favorite pastimes is to run outside and bark, either because the dogs next door are barking, or someone is in the alleyway, or one of the neighborhood cats turns up. This can be a problem when I'm trying to sleep, or when John is trying to keep the laundry room door shut because it's cold outside, and thereby keeps the dogs in as well.
Generally the dogs get on really well with each other, licking each other's faces, following each other in and out, and even lying on top of each other. However, Cayenne is definitely top dog. She will harry Pepper, momentarily blocking her from coming inside.
Still, it's definitely a strong friendship, as such things go, with each other as well as with the human members of the family!
Karen
 |
| From Trouble Dogs |
Pepper and Cayenne both like to hang out with us on the couch, which can be a problem. There just isn't room on the couch for two humans plus two dogs. Sometimes when John goes to get something from the kitchen, he returns to find Cayenne or (more often) Pepper ensconced in his place! Also, they're even worse about knocking the cover off the couch than I am.
One of their favorite pastimes is to run outside and bark, either because the dogs next door are barking, or someone is in the alleyway, or one of the neighborhood cats turns up. This can be a problem when I'm trying to sleep, or when John is trying to keep the laundry room door shut because it's cold outside, and thereby keeps the dogs in as well.
Generally the dogs get on really well with each other, licking each other's faces, following each other in and out, and even lying on top of each other. However, Cayenne is definitely top dog. She will harry Pepper, momentarily blocking her from coming inside.
Still, it's definitely a strong friendship, as such things go, with each other as well as with the human members of the family!
Karen
Monday, July 26, 2010
The New TV: A YouTube Video by KFB
My friend SB has poor health, no money and very little human contact, so a TV is pretty much essential to her wellbeing. After her ten-year-old TV broke down, John and I decided to loan her the cost of a new TV. But can I even get the new TV to work?
Karen
Thursday, December 25, 2008
So This Is Christmas
Merry Christmas! I probably shouldn't worry about getting into the Christmas spirit, because I usually get there eventually. This year it didn't come from shopping, or reading the Bible, from certain Christmas songs or a Christmas tree or looking at lights. This year it was about people, and little ways the holidays help to connect us to each other as well as our better selves.
I already told you the story of the cat adoption on Monday. My friend's cat had just died, and it was a disaster for her because she's disabled and basically alone in the world. I took her to a no-kill shelter where she got herself another cat. It cost me nothing but a little gas and my time in order to make a difference in the life of someone who really needed it.
Today I did a lot of running around in a vain attempt to find cranberry orange relish and pfferneuse, and to get stuff to fill John's and the dogs' stockings. At 4:15 I found myself one traffic light away from Eva's senior facility, with 45 minutes to get her to the Christmas Eve Family Mass at St. Michael's. The dogs were still in the car from the dog park, but it made more sense to pick her up and then drop them off than the other way around.
It ended up taking a long time, because she had moved into their assisted living wing, and I had to get there, and arrange to pick her up at the back of the building. I tried to pick her up at one end of the corridor, but she had gone out the other, so I had to track her down. We ended up about five minutes late to church. The Family Mass was full, so we couldn't see the kids helping Father John set up the creche at the altar. He had the congregation sing quite a few familiar carols and one that I didn't know at all, and sent the children through the church to tell the secret he had whispered to them: "Jesus is here!" He asked for volunteers to run the collection baskets down the aisle, so I volunteered - one more little task to add to my St. Michael's repertoire. Eva wasn't up for a long communion line from the back of the church, so Father Smith brought it to her.
Afterwards I took Eva for a drive to see a few displays of Christmas lights in my neighborhood, including the one with the Big Tree that I've been posting photos of for the last week or two. Tonight I took a few more photos, a little more close up to catch details. Then I took Eva home, and did a little last minute shopping. The big find: alcohol-free fruitcake, deceptively called "Fruit and Nute Dessert Cake." Presumably they're aware that basically the whole country has been socialized to believe that fruitcake is inedible. No wonder Walgreen's and pretty much everyone else stopped carrying it!
Back home at last, I had just a few hours to set up the vintage aluminum Christmas tree before heading out to pick up Kevin for the "Midnight" Mass, which actually starts with Christmas Carols at 10 PM. I got to be crucifer (carry the cross), and we went all out with little flourishes in our part of the ritual. Once I dropped Kevin off at his home, I was well and truly ready to be home myself. As John worked on moving boxes and hunting unsuccessfully for our Christmas CDs, I put ornaments on the tree as we watched A Christmas Story on cable. After John went to bed, I did my meager wrapping and stocking stuffing, photo editing and some laundry. I also sent my dad and brother their Amazon gift certificates, this year accompanied by a new e-greeting service that allowed me to incorporate my own photos. Now I've got a shot at about three and a half hours of sleep before going to Mass one more time, at 10:15 AM, to help out and to see another friend.
And here's the trite but true revelation I had today. What does it matter that this Christmas the tree isn't surrounded by a multitude of brightly wrapped stuff? Surely I gave and received more
holiday joy from taking S. to the cat shelter on Yule, from taking Eva to the Family Mass, and kneeling before the creche, leaky oil candle in hand, during the Eucharistic Prayer at the late night High Mass, and listening to period carols played on a lute during communion. And you folks online have been outstanding with you holiday greetings! I'll try to reciprocate before Christmas Day is over. All these experiences are far more important than how many presents I was able to buy, much less how many books and other media I can knock off my Amazon wish list.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night - although I expect some of you are waking up to morning already. Happy Holidays, folks!
Karen
I already told you the story of the cat adoption on Monday. My friend's cat had just died, and it was a disaster for her because she's disabled and basically alone in the world. I took her to a no-kill shelter where she got herself another cat. It cost me nothing but a little gas and my time in order to make a difference in the life of someone who really needed it.
Today I did a lot of running around in a vain attempt to find cranberry orange relish and pfferneuse, and to get stuff to fill John's and the dogs' stockings. At 4:15 I found myself one traffic light away from Eva's senior facility, with 45 minutes to get her to the Christmas Eve Family Mass at St. Michael's. The dogs were still in the car from the dog park, but it made more sense to pick her up and then drop them off than the other way around.
It ended up taking a long time, because she had moved into their assisted living wing, and I had to get there, and arrange to pick her up at the back of the building. I tried to pick her up at one end of the corridor, but she had gone out the other, so I had to track her down. We ended up about five minutes late to church. The Family Mass was full, so we couldn't see the kids helping Father John set up the creche at the altar. He had the congregation sing quite a few familiar carols and one that I didn't know at all, and sent the children through the church to tell the secret he had whispered to them: "Jesus is here!" He asked for volunteers to run the collection baskets down the aisle, so I volunteered - one more little task to add to my St. Michael's repertoire. Eva wasn't up for a long communion line from the back of the church, so Father Smith brought it to her.
Afterwards I took Eva for a drive to see a few displays of Christmas lights in my neighborhood, including the one with the Big Tree that I've been posting photos of for the last week or two. Tonight I took a few more photos, a little more close up to catch details. Then I took Eva home, and did a little last minute shopping. The big find: alcohol-free fruitcake, deceptively called "Fruit and Nute Dessert Cake." Presumably they're aware that basically the whole country has been socialized to believe that fruitcake is inedible. No wonder Walgreen's and pretty much everyone else stopped carrying it!
Back home at last, I had just a few hours to set up the vintage aluminum Christmas tree before heading out to pick up Kevin for the "Midnight" Mass, which actually starts with Christmas Carols at 10 PM. I got to be crucifer (carry the cross), and we went all out with little flourishes in our part of the ritual. Once I dropped Kevin off at his home, I was well and truly ready to be home myself. As John worked on moving boxes and hunting unsuccessfully for our Christmas CDs, I put ornaments on the tree as we watched A Christmas Story on cable. After John went to bed, I did my meager wrapping and stocking stuffing, photo editing and some laundry. I also sent my dad and brother their Amazon gift certificates, this year accompanied by a new e-greeting service that allowed me to incorporate my own photos. Now I've got a shot at about three and a half hours of sleep before going to Mass one more time, at 10:15 AM, to help out and to see another friend.
And here's the trite but true revelation I had today. What does it matter that this Christmas the tree isn't surrounded by a multitude of brightly wrapped stuff? Surely I gave and received more
holiday joy from taking S. to the cat shelter on Yule, from taking Eva to the Family Mass, and kneeling before the creche, leaky oil candle in hand, during the Eucharistic Prayer at the late night High Mass, and listening to period carols played on a lute during communion. And you folks online have been outstanding with you holiday greetings! I'll try to reciprocate before Christmas Day is over. All these experiences are far more important than how many presents I was able to buy, much less how many books and other media I can knock off my Amazon wish list.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night - although I expect some of you are waking up to morning already. Happy Holidays, folks!
Karen
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday Photo Shoot Results: The Unrelated
Last week for the Monday Photo Shoot, I asked to see a photo of someone you care about, even though the person is unrelated to you. The results were sparse but interesting:
Laura shows us her daughter's best friend.
Carly pictures Paula Poundstone.
Kiva introduces us to her friend Wendy, Joe's wife.
Marsha shows off some of her J-Land friends.
And I'm showing you my friend Eva again. I don't know if you can tell, but this is a different shot from the one I posted last week. She asked me today how many pictures I have of her. I said four or five. And I chickened out on asking to photograph her again.
New MPS topic coming right up! And by the way, for those who wonder, yes, I accept late entries to these things. But more people will probably look at your blog if you post your entry on time!
Karen
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Why Goodbye?
My friend is disappearing, and the situation is cloudy.No, I'm not talking about Scalzi this time, although his recent announcement does exacerbate my angst over what happened today. An offline friend dumped me, in a one-paragraph, handwritten letter.
I'm not going to tell you who this is or the exact circumstances. You don't know this person, and my friend is extremely unlikely to ever see this blog entry. But that's not the point. My sort-of-ex-friend deserves privacy. Still, this situation has thrown me, so I'm going to ramble on in generalities for a bit.
See, even though the letter ends with "Goodbye, Karen," I have reason to believe that for once this isn't about me, or something I've done or left undone. I was given a heads-up weeks ago by a third party that my friend has been systematically severing ties with other people. Nevertheless, I saw no evidence of this until this morning, when I read the letter that John had retrieved from the mail and put in my purse. In it, my friend indicated dropping out of an activity and social group we've attended together for years and years, and going on to do something similar elsewhere. To the extent that the letter indicated a reason at all, it was about being drawn to this change of venue, not some acknowledged fault in the old arrangement. But I was not invited to the new place. Instead, I was essentially blessed and sent packing.
Naturally I've spent hours today considering what, if anything, I should do. My first inclination was to go pound on my friend's door, and demand a full and honest explanation. I didn't do that, of course. It's far too confrontational, and would undoubtedly upset both of us. A phone call would not be an improvement, and I'm not sure the situation calls for an intervention. My current plan is to write an honest, loving letter, expressing my surprise and concern, supporting my friend's right to explore new avenues, and leaving my door open for future contact. But this isn't a letter I'll be sending tomorrow. As another friend pointed out, there's a possibility that this will blow over, and things will be more comfortable for my friend if I don't force the issue now. Unless I'm supposed to force the issue, just to prove I care!
But really, I can't begin to judge whether this new direction is a healthy one for my friend. If it means withdrawing from the world, or at least personal relationships great and small, and replacing all that with nothing but internal monologue, then it sounds like a very bad idea, a case of agoraphobia or at least depression. If it's part of an attempt at self-reinvention, though, it could be a way to get a fresh start, leaving interpersonal baggage behind while going on to meet new people who won't react based on shared history. Is that what's happening? Would that be a bad thing? How can I tell? And there's the possibility that this dumping of this particular group really is about personal growth someplace else, as the letter sort of indicated.
Can we emerge from the shadows?My concern here is for my friend, and the fact that I don't honestly know what I can do to help at this point, because I don't know what's going on in my friend's head. Still, I can't help feeling just a smidge sorry for myself as well. If I really thought this was about me, I'd probably be pretty devastated, especially in the wake of other recent events, arguments, failures, setbacks and, you know, day to day life. Other people have had a far tougher time of it than I have, but 2007 hasn't exactly been my year. There's nothing I could have done to save First Magnus, probably nothing to get that one job I was up for, and definitely nothing to prevent Tuffy's cancer or Scalzi's departure from AOL as an independent contractor. We've done what we can for Tuffy (and she's doing pretty well right now, I'm happy to say), but we can't actually cure her. Is there something I can do for my friend? Is there something I should do? Or is it just another situation over which I have little or no influence, except to make things worse?
Karen
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
RR: Friendship, Digitized
It's Wednesday morning, 1:11 AM (better than 3 AM!), and time for another Round Robin Photo Challenge! Teena of "It's all about me!" has chosen "Friendship" for this week's topic.
Listen, I don't have anything clever or offbeat this time out. All I can do is show you a bunch of friends. First up: this group above, enjoying each other's company at Coffee Hour after the 10 AM Mass at St. Michael's. Many of them have known each other for years and years. They're in ECW together, or the Altar Guild, or the choir. They're friends. I didn't ask most of the people in the shot for permission to photograph them for my personal blog, so I've put it through a filter or two. The point is not who these people are specifically. The point is to show the type of friendships that arise from community - in this case a church community.
And here are some people at coffee hour who are my friends, specifically:
This is Jan. She likes science fiction and mysteries. Jasper Fforde is a fave of hers. She's had heart problems and lung problems and an injured arm over the past year or so, but she seems to be doing all right at the moment.
Here's Kevin. He was in the local Doctor Who club with me a decade ago, and now I give him a ride to church. He's intelligent and funny and very shy, has a fantastic baritone voice, and writes fiction and poetry.
Toni Sue was only baptized just short of two years ago. Now she's considering a vocation to some form of religious order - whether to be a deacon, priest, or something else, I'm not sure even she knows yet. She's a cancer survivor.
Let's leave coffee hour now, and consider other places one meets friends. Here is my new friend at work, Fran. She's another cancer survivor, a widow, and she knows more than a little about wolves. She likes Heroes and House and Doctor Who, and just today she brought me a couple of back issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF).
Not shown here is my best friend, one John W. Blocher, the love of my life, who says he will roust me out of bed at 4 AM if he gets up and I haven't done dishes as promised! He doesn't like me to post his photo, so here's a picture of his chair, and his other chair.
If you're reading this, you know the other major source of my friendships. It's you folks online! Over the years I've met very few of you, save for those I knew in real life first. Julie, which came first, Prodigy or the cons? I forget. The only recent photo I have of an online friend (aside from arguably John Scalzi, who can be seen in the entry below this one) is this rerun, taken a year ago when Sarah (that's Sarah with an h!) came to Arizona. We met on the H2G2 boards on Prodigy in the early 1990s, when Sarah was still in high school. My friendship with Sara (without an h) comes from the same time and venue. I hope to meet her next year. Sarah is a vegetarian, a fiction writer, a poet, a thespian, a cat lover (as is Sara), and a sometime volunteer at a wild animal shelter.
That's it from me, folks! Here's the Linking List: go and meet some friends!
Karen
Listen, I don't have anything clever or offbeat this time out. All I can do is show you a bunch of friends. First up: this group above, enjoying each other's company at Coffee Hour after the 10 AM Mass at St. Michael's. Many of them have known each other for years and years. They're in ECW together, or the Altar Guild, or the choir. They're friends. I didn't ask most of the people in the shot for permission to photograph them for my personal blog, so I've put it through a filter or two. The point is not who these people are specifically. The point is to show the type of friendships that arise from community - in this case a church community.
And here are some people at coffee hour who are my friends, specifically:
This is Jan. She likes science fiction and mysteries. Jasper Fforde is a fave of hers. She's had heart problems and lung problems and an injured arm over the past year or so, but she seems to be doing all right at the moment.
Here's Kevin. He was in the local Doctor Who club with me a decade ago, and now I give him a ride to church. He's intelligent and funny and very shy, has a fantastic baritone voice, and writes fiction and poetry.
Toni Sue was only baptized just short of two years ago. Now she's considering a vocation to some form of religious order - whether to be a deacon, priest, or something else, I'm not sure even she knows yet. She's a cancer survivor.
Let's leave coffee hour now, and consider other places one meets friends. Here is my new friend at work, Fran. She's another cancer survivor, a widow, and she knows more than a little about wolves. She likes Heroes and House and Doctor Who, and just today she brought me a couple of back issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF).
Not shown here is my best friend, one John W. Blocher, the love of my life, who says he will roust me out of bed at 4 AM if he gets up and I haven't done dishes as promised! He doesn't like me to post his photo, so here's a picture of his chair, and his other chair.
If you're reading this, you know the other major source of my friendships. It's you folks online! Over the years I've met very few of you, save for those I knew in real life first. Julie, which came first, Prodigy or the cons? I forget. The only recent photo I have of an online friend (aside from arguably John Scalzi, who can be seen in the entry below this one) is this rerun, taken a year ago when Sarah (that's Sarah with an h!) came to Arizona. We met on the H2G2 boards on Prodigy in the early 1990s, when Sarah was still in high school. My friendship with Sara (without an h) comes from the same time and venue. I hope to meet her next year. Sarah is a vegetarian, a fiction writer, a poet, a thespian, a cat lover (as is Sara), and a sometime volunteer at a wild animal shelter.That's it from me, folks! Here's the Linking List: go and meet some friends!
Karen
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