Day Four-Fifty - Barry Recap!

Wow!  Last night was about 38 years in the making.  You see since about 1975 I have been a BIG Barry Manilow fan.... or a Fanilow.  There have been those that have made fun of me over the years when they found out that I was a once a 12 year old obsessed with Barry Manilow.  But it never bothered me.  I love Barry and if that makes me a geek, I'm OK with that.  In fact, I like to think I OWN it.  So last night Barry did a show at Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie and I went with two of my friends from the 1970's.  Both of them had been to see Barry over the years.  But for me it was my first Barry Manilow concert and it did not disappoint!

At 70 years old Barry is just as entertaining as he ever was.  The show was fabulous!  I couldn't wipe the smile off my face all night.  Even when a man yelled out, "BARRY!  I LOVE YOU!!!!" during a particularly quiet moment while Barry sang Weekend in New England cracking Barry up and resulting in him stopping the song while he recovered I was still thrilled and wouldn't have changed a thing.  Say what you will about all the plastic surgery he has had, it hasn't effected his talent in anyway.

I don't know if it would have been as much fun if I hadn't been able to go with my friends Dana and Krista.  We had a great time catching up.  It was the first time that Dana and I had seen Krista since we each moved away from Nacogdoches.  I moved in February of our freshman year of high school and Dana moved during the summer between our freshman and sophomore years.  So last night was a nice reunion.

During the year leading up to our moving Dana and I, with the help of our mothers, started making an embroidered and painted workshirt that we planned to send to Barry.  It was the 70's and those embroidered workshirts were very popular.  We spent months working on the shirt.  We would trade out who got to work on it.  Right in the middle of the work, my family moved to Lumberton, Tx. which meant that we had to start mailing it back and forth to each other when it was the other ones turn to work on it.  We took months to complete it.  When it was done I got to go to Dana's house for a visit and we took pictures of us with the shirt before it was mailed to some address that Dana's Mom had gotten where we were pretty sure Barry would get it.  I don't mind telling you, it was a master piece as far as folk art goes.

After it was mailed we waited months and months expecting to hear from Barry personally (or at least I was expecting it).  I laid awake at night and imagined that Barry would come to see us personally to thank us for the amazing shirt we had made.  But that didn't happen.  When Dana and I went to each others house in the summer for week long visits we went to the mall and got on a pay phone with all the quarters we could come up with and tried calling Barry's agent or someone else that we thought could get us through to the man, himself.  It never worked, but each time we would get a New York operator on the line as we called information my heart would race so much that I thought it would pop out of my chest.  Finally Dana's Mom wrote a letter to someone on our behalf and a year or two after we mailed the shirt we got a letter back saying that Barry had gotten the shirt and it was "one his favorite around the house shirts".  We were thrilled.  I got a copy of the letter and for years it was framed and hanging on the wall in my bedroom.  Unfortunately, the print is so faded now you can no longer read it.

Last night as we enjoyed the concert, on the video screens, various album covers were shown.  It was so cool to see all those old album covers again.  I still have my entire Barry Manilow LP collection in a box in the closet of my guest room.  But I have no turn table.  I think I am going to have to download those old albums so that I can start listening to them again in their entirety rather than just the greatest hits off of them.  If you've never been to see Barry in concert, I highly recommend it.  He is a truly great entertainer.  If I can figure out how to download my video I'll post it.

Have a great weekend!

Day Four-Forty-Four - Tales of Spiders!

Okay, so I've taken several weeks off from writing any blogs.  My life has been busy lately!  I won't bore you with those details.  But I'll just say that the spare time has been minimal.  The other issue is that I can't really think of much to write about.  On my other blog, the work blog, I try to write about travel.  I was in the middle of a mind trip to Tokyo and Hong Kong.  Right in the middle of Hong Kong I lost all interest.  I wasn't seeing a lot of people reading it and there were no Likes, Shares or Comments at all so I figured the readers were no more interested in it than I was.  So, I stopped.  Someone did mention to me last week that they were hopeful that I would finish that mind trip and post more about Tokyo.  But I decided that if it was of so little interest to them that they couldn't even be bothered to at least click a simple "Like" then it must not be that big of a deal.  It's hard to keep spending an hour or two everyday writing something and then publishing it and getting no indication whatsoever that anyone else even saw it much less had an interest in it.

So last week, I went to Toledo Bend with my Mom and Dad.  We only stayed one night.  I'm not much of a lake person.  I like looking at a lake.  But the issue I have with lakes is that they attract spiders and I am terrified of spiders.  So, I got no sleep, it was hard to relax because each time I sat down, I imagined a spider crawling on me.  I didn't actually see that many spiders, but there were a lot of spider webs which indicates to me that the spiders must be off somewhere doing spidery things.... like crawling up on me looking for a good place to bite.

I'm not sure where my fear of spiders comes from.  There were never any incidents in my life in which I was attacked by a spider and I've never been bitten by any poisonous spider that I am aware of.  Yet it is my greatest fear.  If you hand me a snake and tell me to hold it, I will hold it.  Want me to hold some creepy crawly lizard for you?  No problem.  But if a nearly microscopic spider walks across the floor, I become almost paralyzed with fear. My issue is that they are so small, quiet and they weigh practically nothing so you can't even tell if they have gotten on you.  Then they can bite you and we've all seen those pictures on the internet of a person's arm rotting off following a spider bite that they didn't even feel!!!!  FREAKY!!!!!  They are silent, deadly killers!

Spiders are the one reason that I really regret never having gotten married.  I can do without a husband in my life to talk to, to go out with and to even have a little bedroom fun with.  But I NEED a spider killer.  A number of years ago, while I lived in my last rental apartment in Dallas, I had a one car garage.  I had Jingle then who was no different then than he is now.  He liked spending time in my garage.  The only difference then from now is that at the time, I would open the garage door while I grilled just outside of the garage and Jingle would walk around in the garage and even out to the grill without fear.  Now if the garage door opens he runs back in the house.

On this day, the door to the house was open and the garage door was open as I prepared to cook on the grill.  Jingle was in the garage and I was getting a steak ready to go on the grill.  When I walked out of the house and through the garage to move the grill out to the parking lot, Jingle remained focused on a bag of potting soil which was in the corner of the garage and partially opened.  When I walked back by, he was still staring intently at the bag of potting soil.  I thought it was strange and called his name.  He never looked up or acknowledged that I had attempted communication (much like the readers of my blogs).

I went back in the house for something and when I came back out, Jingle was still completely focused on the potting soil.  So I decided to see why he was so interested in it.  I picked him up and he began clawing at me to get back down to the potting soil.  I put him down and moved the bag a little... and that's when I saw the TARANTULA!  It was enormous!  It was sort of on the lip of the open bag of potting soil.  I would say that standing up, it was probably as big around as a softball if you counted the legs.  I freaked!  I thought about just grabbing Jingle and running in the house.  But then there would still be a spider in my garage and something had to be done about that.  My lease wasn't up for several more months.  So I couldn't just move.....  So, I took action.

First I decided that I needed to stun it.  So I ran in the house and grabbed a can of Raid.  I came back outside and soaked the spider with Raid.  When I had emptied the can on the spider at point blank range, I threw the empty can at the spider like they do in Western movies when the six-shooter has been emptied on the bad guy.  There was Raid pooling everywhere and the spider only seemed to be getting angrier.  He barely staggered after being soaked in poison.

I knew I had to find something to strike the spider with that would not have me getting too close to said spider. My previous rental had been a duplex on Lake Ray Hubbard... again, a property near water and therefore near creepy crawly creatures.  So I had shovels, hoes, rakes and so on.  Okay, I admit the gardening tools were more for the yard at the house on Lake Ray Hubbard and not so much for the creepy crawly creatures.  But they come in handy for that sort of thing.  So, I got the hoe out and decided to use it to kill the spider.  But it was still in my garage and the only thing that creeps me out as much as spiders is splattering a creature in an area that I will then have to clean up.  It's one of the reasons I know I could never kill another human being.  I would never be able to deal with the mess.  So I began to sort of rake the spider out of the garage using the hoe.  At the same time, I was looking around for any other humans - preferably big, masculine, strong men who were not easily frightened to help me.  There were none.  How can you live in an apartment complex in the middle of Plano, Tx. full of hundreds of other people and be in distress late in the afternoon after everyone is home from work, but before dark and not see a single suitable person to help?  What are the odds?

So I had worked my way almost out of the garage with the spider using the hoe.  It got away from me a few times and had just gotten away again when I saw a man carrying his trash to the dumpster which was just across the parking lot.  So, I yelled for him to "pleeeeeeease come and help me".  But somehow I had come across the most flamboyantly gay man in all of America at that exact moment when I needed a really manly man the most?  Don't get me wrong.  I love the gays.  Some of my very good friends are gay men and they are the best guys in the world to have around in most instances.  But this guy might have been more afraid of the spider than me.  He did come over but he kept getting behind me as I was trying to give him the hoe and get him to kill the spider.  REALLY??!?!?!?  It finally took the spider walking toward the man to convince him that he had to kill it.  He did.  It splattered all over the parking lot.  The sad thing is that by this time, I had almost convinced myself that this spider had probably escaped from a spider habitat in someone else's apartment within the complex.  I mean after all, it never even tried to get away from me except when I was using the hoe on it.  We probably killed someones escaped pet.

But this is what happens when you keep pets that God never meant to be pets.  They get away and people kill them in a state of hysteria.  I never found out if the spider was, in fact someones pet.  It's just a feeling I had mostly because you don't see a lot of Tarantulas in North Texas.  But I suppose anything is possible.  The man who finally killed the spider for me did not become friends with me.  You would think that the incident would have resulted in a long lasting friendship and years later we would still be laughing over the time he came to my rescue and killed the terrifying spider for me.  But in reality, I think what happened is that he began using a different dumpster on the property to insure that he would never have to come near me again because I might bully him into killing something else for me.  He probably still tells his friends about the crazy spider lady who freaked out on him and forced him to kill a Tarantula against his will.  Sorry dude....

Day Four-Twenty-Three - Another Graduation

My niece graduated from high school on Friday night.  She was one of 17 graduates at her school.  Even though I am from east Texas, the small school thing is foreign even to me.  I went to three high schools and graduated from Bay City with a couple of hundred other people.  At any of the three high schools I went to there would have been at least 200 other graduates in my class.  Nacogdoches was the biggest high school I went to.  Lumberton was probably the smallest which means Bay City was right in the middle.  

I didn't get to attend my graduation because I was sick.  Very sick.  So sick, I honestly believed although I never said it out loud, that I was dying.  I survived and have since attended the high school graduations of many other people.  I often sit in a graduation and wonder what my own would have been like.  I'm a crier.  So, I always wonder if I would have cried all the way through it or made it through without a tear simply because I would probably have been concentrating so hard on not falling down.  That is where my attention is always focused when I have to walk in front of a group of people.....  Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall, don't fall.....  But the good news is that it keeps me from crying at events like that since it redirects my attention.  

My oldest nephew graduated from the same high school that my niece did.  So I already had an idea of what to expect.  Their graduations are very personalized.  The class historian actually talks about each kid and then there is a Power Point in which photos of each kid from birth to graduation are shown.  In various high school graduations around the Metroplex, you hear about situations where the graduate is given a certain number of tickets for their family and friends to attend because the venues where the ceremonies are held won't hold all the people who might come otherwise.  At Douglass, each graduate gets a row of 12 seats on the gymnasium floor with their last name on the row.  Those 12 seats are for whoever you want to use them. Then the rest of the gym is available for whoever else would like to attend.  There are no limits.  It was actually pretty full Friday night for the 17 students graduating.  

Rebecca had a pretty big crowd attending on her behalf.  Aunts and uncle on her Dad's side of the family along with all her cousins except one were there.  Additionally, some cousins on her Mom's side of the family were present.  Plus her boyfriend and his family were there.  When my brothers and I graduated from high school we never had anyone attend our graduations other than one aunt and uncle.  My Uncle EC and his wife, Aunt Ida always attended graduations.  In fact they showed up for my graduation even though I was too sick to be there.  We always thought it was weird that Uncle EC and Aunt Ida always attended graduations.  Now, as an adult who attends all the life events of my nephews and niece I wonder, was the rest of my family weird or were Uncle EC and Aunt Ida the weird ones?  It's sort of hard to say.... you know because I might incriminate myself if I do.

Maybe it's because both of my parents came from such big families.  But my aunts and uncles just weren't involved at all in our lives.  Uncle EC and Aunt Ida were the only aunt and uncle without children of their own.  So I suppose that's why they attended other people's kids events.  We never got birthday or Christmas gifts from aunts and uncles and my parents didn't give gifts for birthdays or Christmas to my cousins.  There were just too many.  On Dad's side of the family I have 14 cousins.  On Mom's side of the family I had 27 cousins.  I'm only counting 1st cousins.  Quite frankly I have no idea how many kids all of them have had on either side.  There are many second cousins that I have never met and never will meet.

When I became an aunt I decided that my main responsibility was to spoil my nephews and niece.  I'm not their parent.  I'm no one's parent.  So, I really know nothing about raising children.  My expertise lies in making them want to spend time with me because they know it will be fun.  That's not to say that I don't draw lines when they are around.  When they stayed with me as children, there were always rules and lines that couldn't be crossed.  But for the most part, they were with me to have fun and fun was had.  Rebecca will be an aunt for the first time in September.  I hope she carries on my tradition with her nephew.  Since she only has one sibling she won't have many nephews and nieces.  So, I really think she needs to take advantage of spoiling them and then sending them home to their parents every chance she gets.  Even though she will probably have children of her own, you can't spoil your own children like that because as a parent you sort of have to play the part of the bad guy every once in a while.  As an aunt you may have to be the bad guy 2 or 3 times in their life.  Even grandparents have to be the bad guys more often than aunts.  Aunts sort of have it made and I think most of them don't really take advantage of that.  

Anybody who knows me knows that I take my nephews and niece on a trip when they graduate from high school.  Jacob went to New York, Matt and Chris each went on cruises.  Rebecca will also go on a cruise.  I'm not sure what Tim will do (he's the youngest).  A lot of people say nice things about me because I do this.  But I'll tell you a secret.  It's just as much for me as it is for them.  You see, I love them all dearly and I know that once they have graduated from high school, they will go out in the world and start a life of their own, with their own families and I'll only get to see them at family gatherings and even those will become fewer and farther between as they have to spend time with in-laws.  So, I consider it my last time to spend with them one on one with nobody else there to garner their attention.  I get them to myself for a whole week.  Plus we get to go some place together and create memories that neither of us will ever forget.  I think about it like this, I could give them $500 and 20 years from now they might not even remember that I gave them anything for graduation.  But if I take them on a trip, 20 years from now maybe they'll share a memory of that trip with one of their kids.  Even if they don't share the memory with anyone else.  It will always be there.

Have a good week!