Fabulous, I tell you!

Yesterday my son and I spent 5 hours on the road driving to my daughter’s university to see her performing in The Vagina Monologues. 3 of those hours we spent listening to coverage of the shooting at Northern Illinois University. Did I mention I live in Illinois? And my daughter goes to school at an Illinois state university? Yeah. Not that one. But it makes you incredibly aware of how little control you have once your children are out of your sight.

The play was wonderful, very funny, very poignant and meaningful. Dani did a monologue about pubic hair, oh I’m so proud. :) And I am. She was very good; she was funny and has such a flair for the dramatic. Her 2^nd monologue was done as a 6-year old girl whom of course I found quite adorable seeing as I remember her at that age myself. Up on stage perched on a stool, swiveling and kicking her feet she was the picture of sweet innocence. Did I mention that her performance was fabulous? No? Well let me tell you, she was fabulous!

The sobering part of the evening was Dani’s boyfriend Tony telling us that one of the students shot at NIU earlier in the day is a young guy who lives just down the street from him at home. He was hit with shotgun pellets while trying to shield his girlfriend. He was treated and released but will have to have the pellets removed at a later date.

Dani had some frantic moments earlier in the day trying to find out if one of her close friends who attends NIU was okay, finally reactivating her own Facebook account to see if she could find news about her friend. She was relieved to discover he was fine.

When Andy and I arrived we went to the theater with Tony and settled into our seats. Looking up at the stage there was a black curtain behind the performers during the play and it was difficult not to picture someone stepping out from behind that curtain to confront those on the stage and in the audience. For the most part I was able to concentrate on the play in front of me but I will admit to feeling a bit unnerved by the comparison.

So very sad.

It was over all too soon and Andy and I needed to turn around and drive 5 hours back home. And listen to 5 more hours of coverage of the NIU shooting.

There was something surreal about seeing my daughter onstage, enjoying ourselves and laughing, sandwiched between the sad events of the day. Did I mention Dani was fabulous? Yeah, she was. Andy too. He spent 10 hours in the car with me to spend 3 hours with his sister. I love my kids and what happened yesterday was one of those reminders to hold them both a little closer, to enjoy them, and to appreciate them for who they are.

And they are fabulous!

Stuff to do, people to see

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Quick post this evening! My daughter is home from school so we had a Thai food feast for dinner, one of her favorites. She and my son are making plans to go Christmas shopping tomorrow, but it sounds like they are leaning more heavily toward going to the Field Museum to see the Darwin Exhibit. They are so much more intellectually curious than I am.

I'll be heading back into the bead room after I post this, and I wanted to put at least one picture up of some bracelets I have made. I'm loving them, I hope you do too! My picture definitely isn't the best, but click to enlarge and see more detail. :)



Before I run off to create - I want to say thank you to Holly over at The Spiritual Dog Blog who has decided that I am fabulous!! Woo hoo! I always wanted to be fabulous and I think Holly is fabulous too. :)


I would like to head south to pass on this award. I'd like to tell Dixie at Deep Fried-Southern Style how fabulous she is - but I tell you what - she already knows! She looks marvelous in green hair and she makes me laugh out loud. The next southern gal is Honeysuckle Rose who writes at Not Much Southern Comfort. Her posts frequently make me think but more often make me laugh. And that second bracelet from the top up there? That's named "Southern Comfort" after her because she suggested I make a bracelet with blues and browns. I think both of you women are fabulous!
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I really didn't have anything prepared ...

Apparently I have not been paying attention. Or maybe before I started using my Google reader I wasn’t catching all my favorite blogs as regularly as I thought I was. Or maybe I’m just a doofus. But whatever the reason – WhyMommy at Toddler Planet gave me a Schmoozer Award!!! Unfortunately it was like – 3 weeks ago! I apologize WhyMommy, for not seeing your generous nomination! If I had, I certainly would have said thank you for being so kind!

Here is what she said:

The Schmoozer is “an award for those who have the natural ability to effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.” This describes to me beautifully describes so many of my community here. I’m passing it along to Amanda, Oh Amanda, Gift of Green, and BetteJo. Always ready with a comment or a smile, these fine women are women I’m proud to consider my new friends — and all because of their willingness to visit, to comment, and to make new friends in this blogosphere of ours.

I am honored to be included, and I guess it is my turn to pass it on to some women I think deserve to be awarded The Schmoozer because they always have an encouraging word, a friendly response, or a virtual hug for those they visit here online.

I am nominating Mahala who makes me laugh and always has something nice to say. Also Lavender who has been unfailingly supportive of my war against spiders, as well as PawHealer in spite of the fact that she is a dog person as opposed to a cat person. She’s still a friendly voice out there.

And – now this is embarrassing, I was given another award by Stimey, in recognition of supporting her the day her bus driver tried to give her son to some other family. Oh the horror! Seriously!

I would like to pass this Nice Matters award on to Palette48 who is always kind, Amanda who is always thoughtful, Jenn who is always supportive, and Nutmeg who is just simply a doll.

This blogging world is something I had never even stuck my toe into 7 months ago and I still consider myself a relative newbie. But I have been welcomed by many fabulous women and a few great guys – yes they’re out there – and I would like to say thank you! This has been a wonderful experience and I hope to get to know more of you as time goes on.

Aw-w-w. Blog-love. Pass it on. :)