June parade, and Grinch no more

Last weekend, I volunteered at a happy/sad event. Happy/sad because it was well attended fun meant to raise awareness after tragedy.

[Ollie's Bike Parade] is a charity organization that grew out of the death of 10-year-old Oliver Stratton. Ollie was killed after he was hit, while riding his bicycle, by a woman who was texting while driving. She received the maximum penalty of...drum roll... one year of work release. Talk about salt on a wound.

This was the second annual Ollie's Bike Parade. It was a beautiful day featuring lots of vendors, food trucks, lots of cute kids and their families, and yes, a cute and colorful bike parade around the CSU campus. The organization is about raising awareness and advocating for stiffer penalties for those who choose to text while driving.

And of course, there were somber reminders

Fifty-five ghost bikes representing 55 traffic related deaths of bicyclists in Colorado in 2024. Those children's bikes are the hardest to fathom. Sheesh, there was a tricycle among them!

Another large tent featured stories and mementos of several victims. It included pedestrians and motorcyclists as well. Ollie's ghost bike was in that tent.

Now, I've driven in the area where Ollie was hit. It's a residential area with wide streets, high visibility, and homes of young families. It's almost like one would have to go out of their way to collide with anything, let alone a person.

Yeah, don't text and drive. Please.

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Speaking of advocates, Grandboss is on my A-list now.

In the past, I've whined here about Grandboss. He's the biggest sufferer of Main Character Syndrome I think I've ever known. Woe to anyone who gets caught in one of his super boring stories about himself.

Apparently, I started working for him in June of 2021. I don't work as much in testing as I used to as I've gone more over to the tutoring side of things, but I'm still a "valued employee" of the testing center according to Greatgrandboss - my boss's boss's boss - Grandboss's boss.

Each month Greatgrandboss sends out emails to our organization, recognizing anyone with work anniversaries, so I made the June announcement... kinda.

Yeah, he totally misspelled my name. Both first AND last. He closed with:

"This group of employees brings so much positive energy in our spaces! We appreciate you and we’re glad you are here!"

So all of us in the testing center are having a good laugh at Greatgrandboss's blunder (because really, who makes a big deal about these anniversary emails?) when Grandboss chimes in on our team chat

Fully making fun of Greatgrandboss, but more importantly... he noticed.

Admittedly, my last name is often misread. 

My last name is Barker

Okay, be honest. What did you read?  Did you read Baker? Look again.

I've had this problem my whole married life.

Greatgrandboss went above and beyond, however, by mispelling my first name too! Yet, not only did Grandboss catch the error right away, he quickly informed Greatgrandboss about the mistake, and Greatgrandboss sent me a follow-up email, dripping with apology. 

Afterwards, I felt toward Grandboss like the grinch. You know the scene...

We'll see how many boring stories it takes to shrink my heart back, but I'm not holding my breath.

bricks and mud

[Brickies (don't call it Lego™ even though it's all actual Legos™) Creation Fest] happened once again in downtown Fort Collins this weekend. Once again, my PEO chapter volunteered to run various activity booths and will receive a nice donation from the organizers. 

Sure beats a bake sale, I say!

I rather enjoy this particular volunteer duty. Fun activities, cute families, downtown Fort Collins... What's not to like? Well, the heat, for one thing. But, what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger.

My duty featured a *Lego* horse race, but I won't bore with the rules. Suffice to say it was enjoyed by many a fest goer, and I somehow managed to make about a 0.4 second appearance in the [instagram promo video] enticing people to come on down.

As with the previous two years I've volunteered, it featured much wholesomeness - attentive parents, cute kids, friendly teens. I particularly liked seeing older kids actually trying to lose the horse race with their younger siblings/ cousins/ friends. One older brother actually confessed, "I'm sorry, I wanted you to win", to his little sis. But it all hinged on the roll of the dice, no real skill involved. He won, fair and square. 

Good times.

Later, last evening, we were absolutely DELUGED  by an aggressive unpredicted thunderstorm. Oh sure, after the thing already moved through, we got alerts for severe weather warnings. 

This morning I went for an absolutely lovely bike ride, and there was a lot of post-storm trash - limbs, mud, guck - around town. Many an underpass was still under a good amount of water along with heaps of "flood mud". 

I confess to actually getting off the bicycle and gingerly making my way through one particularly muddy underpass because it was too spooky to attempt with my skinny tires. That stuff is slippery!

But it's been so hot and dry lately, and this was a nice break from the heat bringing much needed moisture. Everyone I encountered while on my ride seemed to be in a good mood - cheerful greetings all around! Let's not think about politics for a minute!

And all this creation happening reminded me that I've not felt/been very creative lately. 

Feeling heroic from my nearly three whole hours of volunteering, I pulled out the sketchbook.

Tour de Fat

Yesterday was Tour de Fat here in Fort Collins. Party for a cause.

I'd only ever heard of Tour de Fat since it was cancelled in 2020 ad 2021 because of, well, y'know. This year, it was back, and what a hoot. 

Fort Collins is home to over 20 craft breweries, including New Belgium Brewing Co, which is the fourth largest craft brewer in the U.S. It's also a very bike-friendly city, as I've mentioned before with the huge turnouts for bike-to-work, etc.

Any event having to do with bicycles or craft beer will be well attended here, and Tour de Fat is all about bicycles AND beer.

It starts with a parade...

   SOURCE

Magnum and I had to check it out despite not having funky costumes or funky bicycles. I guess our usual riding gear would be sufficient. 

The venue was PACKED, to put it mildly. Everyone there to have a good time, it is a philanthropic event after all. There were food trucks and plenty of beer, but fun activities for kids too. And the costumes - so many costumes! Better than comic con.

There was a fun bike pit with various "weird" bicycles - challenging geometry, off-center hubs, assorted two-seaters - to try to ride

Parking was a bit of a challenge 😁, as it should be.

We somehow managed to stumble upon Wolfgang. We figured he'd be there, but the odds of finding him among the  masses were slim.

Alas, just as we were heading back to the bike racks for the humble task of finding ours, there he was with a friend, the odds in our favor.

Before we left, we made a pit stop at one of the ample port-a-potty stations. While there we witnessed the arrival of this guy.

As seen in the parade video above, Darth rode in on this large black tricycle adorned with quite the sound system.  

He had some party music playing at first - Tone Loc's Wild Thing - but quickly switched over to The Imperial March, A.K.A. Darth Vadar's theme.

What an entrance! And it was still just the parking lot. Stud! (speaking of John Williams, I know nothing about Darth Vadar guy...)

Then he switched back to party tunes and had random people - maybe a little drunk already - bustin' a move or two.

With that, Magnum and I headed out and took the long way home. The entire ride home and beyond, I had The Imperial March playing in my head. 

That's an earworm for ya.

I should go

I enjoyed an easy going run along a quiet pathway this morning after another busy week. Or I should say that this particular path is normally quiet, which was why I chose to go there. Lo and behold, not long after I hopped on the path, I was met with participants of a charitable 5k.

So I ran with that pack - them going both directions - for a mile or so before reaching their turnaround point. They seemed to be a happy crowd including some little kids and people dressed in superhero costumes. I will note that I passed Wonder Woman. 💪

I've since learned it was the 4th annual Be a Hero 5k, raising proceeds for victims of child sexual abuse. My running club was one of the sponsors, and clearly I haven't been paying attention to local charity runs. I'm glad they had a nice morning for it. Once they all turned around and I kept going on my merry way, I did enjoy the rather placid run I'd intended.

In other peacefulness news, I decided to remove Instagram from my phone. I would habitually open it only to be hit with a bunch of ads, stupid reels, and ultra filtered "influencers" with fake faces and fake lives. I used to enjoy seeing occasional updates from my handful of non-influential friends, but now there's so much crap to get through. Plus, I rarely upload anything myself.  I had an epiphany and uninstalled. I still have an account, but its days are probably numbered.

Blogging remains my social media of choice, and I've missed catching up with blog friends this week. With the start of classes and tutor onboarding, I've been hanging out mostly in my left brain. It's good to get out for a breather.

But speaking of content creators, this week I managed to stumble upon my grandfather's IMDb page. I don't even remember what led me there, but there he was.  My dad's dad was a silent film director way back in the day, hence the IMDb page. The page doesn't have much content, but enough to know it's him, and I did watch snippets of his movies. I never knew him personally as he died a couple years before I was born.  Nice work, Gramps!

As far as updates go, I've got the cat on some new healthier food, and we're weening off the remaining Friskies. Friskies are back on the store shelves, but I'm thankful for that particular supply chain shortage. 

The cat will thank me later.

sisters

With my sis, Running Sue, at P.E.O.
2016 Colorado State Convention

This week, I've been taking steps to get back into the P.E.O. groove.  

I've mentioned it before, but, in short, P.E.O. is a women's charitable organization.  I've been a "sister" since almost forever.  Anyways, we provide scholarships, grants, loans, and  friendship in support of women's post secondary education.  It's pretty much the only volunteer thing I do these days.

My mom was a P.E.O. and that's how I got involved.  I didn't know much about it back when I was 20, but it seemed rude to decline their invitation to join, so here I am. 

One nice thing about P.E.O. is that there are chapters all over the United States and Canada.  Move?  Hitch onto another one!  

So when we moved from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins a couple years ago, I knew I'd have sisters here to connect with.  There are 10 chapters in Fort Collins alone, and about 20 chapters if I include surrounding towns.  

Except... COVID.

Everything P.E.O. went to hell Zoom when COVID hit.  We still raised and gave away lots of money for education, but the social side of things  naturally dropped.  Typically, I would've started visiting other chapters shortly after moving here, but I got held in COVID limbo - Zooming with my CoSprings chapter until things eased up... which is now.

My phone and email have been lighting up with invites from local chapters to come visit.  This week, I visited two whose schedules meshed around my work schedule, and I'm on tap to visit another next week.  

Meanwhile, P.E.O.'s been working toward modernizing its image in recent years.  When I was a kid, this was pretty much what I imagined a typical P.E.O. meeting was...

peointernational.org

And this is what the propaganda circulating around P.E.O. looks like these days.

I'd say the current representation is somewhere in between the two images.  And it is still VERY much straight, white, Christian women.  Some are working to further change that up, while others offer strong resistance regarding changes to the Christian part. 

I will note that all of the women in this graphic are bona fide recipients of P.E.O. funds.

Meanwhile, no way will I visit all ten, let alone twenty local chapters.  I'll say five tops, then pick a spot to settle down.  Well... pending them liking me too. 😊

Until then, it's nice to be a sought after, wined and dined guest.  

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

5. Share something that you worked on this week.

run for the donut

Magnum and I did a thing today, a charity run.  It's named the Turkey Donut 5K.  "What is a turkey donut?", you ask.  So did I.  Here ya go:

I have no idea the origin of the name, but the local running club hosts it every year the Saturday before Thanksgiving for a fundraiser for the local food bank.  It's a predict run, meaning that the winner is NOT the fastest runner, but rather the runner who can  most accurately predict his/her finishing time.  For obvious reasons, no watches are allowed during the run.

I ended up 25 seconds faster than I predicted, which I thought was pretty darn close, but NO.  I ended up coming in 18th out of 103 with my guess.  The winner was less than 2 seconds off.

Well, at leat I made the top twenty.  Magnum, who doesn't usually do these kinds of things, came in about 4 minutes faster than he predicted.  So while he wasn't anywhere near the winner's circle, he learned he can run faster than he thought he could.  His prediction put him at 91st place

So it was a good time for a good cause.  They kept us pretty well spaced apart and actually had runners take off in two different directions to further separate us.  Gone are the days of mass starts and elbowing for position *SIGH*.  In fact, I felt pretty alone for much of the run and worried I might go off course like I did during that last event, but nope.

We raised over $1,700 for the cause, despite a pandemic, so woohoo for turkey donuts!

I did manage to win a $25 gift card for a local restaurant in the post-run raffle.  Sadly, our county is going to stricter COVID-19 lockdown restrictions next week.  I'm not much for visiting restaurants these days anyway.  

Remember the carefree days of going to a restaurant with a naked face?  Anywhere outside your house with a naked face?  I think covered faces are going to be with us for a while.  In the meantime, I came across this infographic:

Accurate?

Probably true for Colorado. 

New Hampshire?  Care to weigh in?

the cheese stands alone

Yesterday, I was headed home after a few errands and noticed the sign at the church near the high school:

Particularly, the "GRILLED CHEESE BEGINS SEPT 5" .

Several years ago, this church started offering grilled cheese sandwiches on Thursdays during the high school lunch periods.  It started out as something for the few kids who needed a break from the high school scene but maybe didn't have money or a car for a decent off-campus lunch.  A woman at the church thought it might be a nice bit of outreach since the church was so close to the school, so she volunteered to make a few grilled cheese sandwiches once a week.

Word spread and now EVERY kid and staff member know of the deliciousness.  Each of our kids has partook during the high school years and each has described the yum of church grilled cheese.  It's to the point now where the church coordinates teams of volunteers to make and serve during designated lunch periods.  There is still no charge for the food - they also offer cookies and such, I'm told - but kids often donate what they can.  It's open to juniors and seniors because underclassmen aren't allowed to leave campus for lunch, but c'mon, we've all been high school underclassmen who've "ditched" at lunch.

There's no proselytizing on grilled cheese Thursdays.  Sure, kids can ask questions about the church and programs, but it's really just about outreach.  I think that's a nice thing.

With school being back in session, no doubt some students were wondering, "Where's the cheese?"
Well, there ya go.  Nice of them to post it on their sign.

In related news, as part of my vegetarian adventures, I made an attempt to create some veggie quesadillas as yummy as the ones I had at Fuzzy's a few weeks ago.

I was pretty happy with how they turned out, but they needed more veggies.  They're not quite up to Fuzzy standards, but next time!

Now, to find a good wine pairing...

party talk

We seem to be in the thick of Holiday merriment now.  I don't have any decorations up whatsoever, but I see them popping up all around.

I'm not sure what I'll do for the house this year.  In previous years, I've filled our front windows with lights, which looked very pretty from the outside.  On the inside, though, it involved lots of tape on the windows.  Now we have these nice new windows, and I don't want to hang lights in them.

I might have to face my fears and get on a ladder.

Speaking of lights and festivities, my P.E.O. chapter had our holiday party on Saturday.  It was a good time, and we got the annual Von Trapp staircase photo:

While Dee, our hostess, was setting up her camera for the shoot, I leaned my head back to fake catch 40 winks on the pillow the woman behind me was holding - she'd acquired it during the gift exchange - noting how comfy it was.

"That's not a pillow", she informed.  HA!  Well, it was quite warm and comfy, nonetheless...

During the party, I had a vegetarian conversation with one of my sisters who is a longstanding vegetarian.  I think I'm going to be one now.  For a trial period at least anyways.  So far, I'm one day in.

Speaking of animals and not eating them, I thought I'd share this shot of the duck / goose pond as a follow up to the goose carnage that happened last weekend.  There are still geese a-plenty, and all the poop that goes with them.  Hopefully these know that mingling with motorized traffic is not a good idea.

So, I have a question for those who've managed to read this far.  During the P.E.O. party, one of the ladies gave a blessing before the meal, as we always do for meal get togethers.  Now, P.E.O. is non secular, however...

involves inspirational readings chosen by members, but P.E.O. meetings and activities do not reference, require or promote any particular religion or religious practice...

That said, I can confidently state that the majority of  P.E.O. members are Christian with varying degrees of piousness.  In a lot of cases, including my own, it's mostly a result of living in this country.  But the organization has been pushing for more inclusiveness in recent years, and I do know of a few non-Christians in the mix.

SO, back to the party and the dinner blessing.  It was VERY Jesus heavy.  In the past, whoever's done the blessing gave more of a generic blessing of the food and sisterly love, support, and fellowship, etc.  But this time, it was Jesus Jesus Jesus, and blood, and... well, perhaps you get the picture.

I don't think I was the only one who felt it over the top, but nobody was about to stop her.  I just wonder about the impression it made on the 4 or 5 guests in attendance who are not yet in P.E.O. but thinking they might want to be.

My question:  If attending an event thrown by a charitable organization of "no particular religion or religious practice" that suddenly turns very churchy, do you find that off-putting?

body mousse and the bionic girl

We had our P.E.O. fundraiser shindig last night.  By the end of the night, all of the wine and food was gone, and we'd sold all of the auction items.  Success!

I don't know the total headcount yet or how much moolah we made, but either way, it was a fun night.  Mag and I brought a white wine that supposedly pairs well with cheddar cheese, so I made some vegetarian quesadillas from a recipe I made up on the fly that included cheddar cheese.

I wanted to bring something vegetarian since I'm trying to not eat things that once had a face, and to have something to offer others in the group that don't eat things with faces.  The quesadillas were actually quite good, I'd say.  Maybe I should try making recipes up on the fly more often.  Or maybe it was the wine talking...

Anyway, it was a good time.  This was our second annual wine fundraiser.  I missed it last year because, well, this is high school marching band season, and that was Meego's thing.  We used to do Oktoberfest which had been successful too, but was more work to throw - all those brats!  Wine and potluck works better.

I also "won" some body mousse from the silent auction.  I really wasn't interested in buying anything, but, all proceeds go to the philanthropies.  One of my P.E.O. sisters teaches engineering at a local high school, and she's quite interesting and  knowledgeable about geeky things and also makes a crappy salary.  As such, she sells Mary Kay on the side.

Among the auction items were a few Mary Kay things, from whom we all knew.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm not in the target audience for Mary Kay items, but I saw a canister of  "body mousse" and was all, "What the heck is 'body mousse'?", and nobody really knew.  So I asked the Mary Kay Teacher Sister, "What the heck is 'body mousse'?"

She said it's like lotion, but thicker, "more like 'body butter'".

...which left me wondering what "body butter" is, but at that point, I decided to just bid on the darn stuff.  And now I own it.

Another highlight of the evening was the bionic girl.

See, the couple who hosted have three adopted Chinese daughters in addition to their four biological kids.  The youngest daughter was born with an incomplete arm - it ends just above where her elbow would have been.

Daughter had recently gotten this cool new prosthetic arm, and we all knew about it because her mom/our sister has been working on getting the arm, and there were several hurdles to clear, etc.  Daughter recently got it and began using it, just in time for homecoming, no less (she's 16).

I and others wanted to see it, of course, but didn't want to be all, "Hey Sis, bring daughter out and make her do stuff with her arm!"

But, without us needing to be obnoxious about it, Mom and Dad had her mingle with us while they talked about how cool the thing was, and Daughter did a few demo moves.  This isn't her arm/hand, but close enough:

 Anyway, it's pretty cool what these things can do.  And hers isn't even the most advanced.  I was impressed at how dexterous she was with the prosthetic, considering she just started using it after being one-armed her whole life.

Friendship, wine, faceless food, charity, body mousse, bionic Chinese adopted girl.  Three hours well spent.

*and I've fallen behind on Inktober, but so bet it...*

fancy foods and funny hats

Eesh, it's been a week!  Let's recap:

It began last Friday with yet another end-of-winter-percussion-season potluck.  It was a nice intimate gathering at one of the other parents' houses.

On Sunday we had a fancy dinner with my Father-in-law and Stepmother-in-law for Meego, as it was Mother's Day/Meego's Birthday/Meego's graduation.  I had salmon.

On Monday, my friend Jan and I crashed an area high school Senior Awards Ceremony.  Remember Holly?  Our STAR scholarship recipient?  I finally got her certificate from International on Friday and learned that the school's ceremony was Monday evening.

Jan and I showed up and found out that it's relatively easy to crash a Senior Awards Ceremony as we were readily penciled in to the program.  The fun part of it was that Holly didn't know we'd be there and she was pleasantly surprised.  She sent me an email after the shindig thanking us for coming out and presenting her scholarship "at my school!" as seen in this horribly grainy shiny photo:

Tuesday was a  normally scheduled P.E.O. meeting - and another potluck as it was our chapter's 66th birthday.  I brought fried rice, mediocrely presented.

On Wednesday, this happened:

See Meego?  In blue?

His senioritis has been flaring up ever since he was accepted to his college of choice.  We needed to remind  him that he still needed to graduate high school, which he managed to do.

Wolfgang is currently traveling for work, so missed the photo ops.

Thursday, I did laundry and groceries...

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Linking up with Mama Kat
4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: fancy.

the reject?

"Well, I am kinda wondering...", she politely began, "what's missing?  Is there something more I need to do or have?  Do you know why the other chapter chose not to select me?"

"PFFFTT", I responded cordially, "Beats me, I was actually wondering the same thing when I looked over your documentation:  'this is the one they DIDN'T pick?!?'"

I continued, "For all I know, they flipped a coin".

Y'all know I'm active in P.E.O., a charitable organization that helps women continue their education through scholarships, grants, loans, a college we own...  One of our scholarships is for high school seniors planning to attend college, starting the year following HS graduation.  It's merit based and highly competitive.  The girls who receive it are really exceptional.  In order to apply, a candidate must be sponsored by a P.E.O. chapter.

Because of the high standards, it can be difficult to find suitable candidates.  A few months ago, I got an email from the president of another local chapter.  They strangely had two strong candidates wishing to try for the STAR (that's the name of the scholarship), but a chapter can only sponsor one candidate at a time.  She was asking other local presidents if anyone wanted to work with their "reject" (not her term) - the one they didn't choose to sponsor.  The due date for the application was fast approaching.

I saw some other presidents had already responded, rather lazily..."Oh okay, I'll pass it on to my scholarship committee, blah, blah, blah", and I was all, "DUDES!  the deadline to get all the sh*t in is next week!"  Well, I only said that in my mind.   My actual reply was,

"Send me what you've got!"

And that's how I met Holly.

P.E.O. is more than just a source of cash.  What sets us apart from other financial aid is how we connect with our recipients, which is why applicants can't just submit some application and cross their fingers.  We get to know them first and vice-versa, and then decide whether to sponsor. We keep up correspondence with them during their studies and beyond, etc.  Many eventually join P.E.O. themselves.

So Holly and I got together and I learned that she was not only an academic powerhouse and community leader, but also a nice and mature young woman with a pleasant, unpretentious personality.  Might she be interested in marrying one my sons?

As we wrapped up our get-to-know-you, she asked the question above, and I gave her my honest response.  I saw nothing lacking in her credentials.

In a whirlwind of activity, the chapter voted (unanimously) to sponsor Holly, I submitted a lengthy letter of recommendation, Holly submitted a lengthy application and essay.   It all went to the international STAR selection board, and we waited. And waited.  For nearly five months until they would announce the recipients.

Tuesday morning, I received an email.  It started:

"Dear Abby and members of Chapter EA (that's us)..."

The next word was "Congratulations..."

I still don't know why the other chapter didn't choose to sponsor Holly.  Maybe they really did flip a coin...

...and we won the toss! 😀

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
2. Write about something that brought you joy today.

the week that wuz

We went to the movies and listened to people munching popcorn and slurping iced drinks.  It was eerie.

Have you seen "A Quiet Place"?  Omigosh, I was screaming in my head the whole time, I think.  Just don't.  Make. A. Sound.  Breathe after the movie's over.  Anyway, it was good *despite wondering who/why get pregnant during a monster apocalypse??*

In other entertainment news, we went to the high school theater department's rendition of "The Music Man" this week.  It was very good, it's nice to see kids putting on such a show.  Meego played double bass in the orchestra pit once again and had a good time of it.  It makes me wonder what will become of these  young thespians.  Will any of them make it big?  The odds of that aren't great, but if any do, I can say I knew them when...

The post office goose couple is at it again.  Last year, Mother and Father Goose set up a maternity ward at our local post office, and it's happening again.  I'm not sure if this is the same couple, or one of the offspring from last year - I guess I should brush up on my goosology.  Either way, there are goose babies in the works again, and the post office has the area taped off for them to gestate in peace.

The baby daddy hangs out in the parking lot waiting to take on anyone who dares cross the tape.  It's quite masculine.  His protective instincts seem to be making up for his poor housing location choice.

I happily offloaded another P.E.O. responsibility this week:  the monthly newsletter.  I'd been doing it for about two years, and parts of it were fun, but it's nice to not have that deadline anymore.  Someone else's turn, yay.

Speaking of which, we also learned that the woman who was killed in the Southwest Airlines accident this week was a P.E.O.  I'm certain I've never met her, nor have I likely ever even been in the same city as her, but knowing she was my "sister" made it feel all the more sad.

Rest in Peace, Sis.

cleaning the swamp

This weekend  marked the end of my term as president of my P.E.O. chapter.


It feels nice to have that responsibility lifted from my shoulders, but at the same time, I have residual feelings of needing to " do all the things".  And there were certainly nice aspects of the position...












I'm sure I'll get used to being just a Plain Jane "member", however.  The wrap-up involved a lot of business getting taken care of, so I feel good about checking all those things off before handing the gavel over to the next victim president.

And now I'm thinking about things I said I was going to get going on once my 2-year Prez term, which was preceded by a 2-year veep term, was up... if only I could remember what they are?

foodies and foundlings

Well, this week feels like it was a fly-by.  Wasn't it just last weekend?

It was a good week, though, from what I remember of it. We went through some position shifting at work, and I've got a new role - Fiesta Lady!  (a.k.a. I get to make and serve the Mexican stuff).  I'm liking it!  It's pretty.  Hopefully it tastes good too.  No, I'm not Mexican, but could pass for one in a pinch.

Did anyone catch the blood moon this week?  It was at its bloody peak just as I was going in to work - kind of an eerie site.  That day, it seemed that emotions were running high, and I attribute it to the weird moon activity.

A co-worker whose been struggling to get her teacher certification here in Colorado had reached a frustration peak.  She's normally a "tough chick", but I came upon her crying in the break room and listened as she vented.  Turns out she's a good candidate for help from P.E.O. which she, not surprisingly, had never heard of.

In a timely fashion, we had our annual P.E.O. Founders Day bash today, to celebrate the seven ladies who started this whole ball rolling.  Always a good time with about 200 of my sisters.

My chapter made a pretty good showing at the shindig:

If you ever find yourself crying in a break room on a weird-moon day and wondering how  you're going to pay for completing your master's degree, think of us...

that moment when you realize it's you

I was scrolling around in instagram a couple of days ago.  I got an instagram account a while ago because it's the platform of choice for geocaching pics, but I soon learned that I don't really want to post geocaching pics  *YAWN*

But I admit that it's kind of fun to find interesting things to follow.  I don't really follow my "friends" much, but I've found some fun artists and such to inspire me.  And I follow some gear companies and groups, because really, I like looking at happy pictures. 

So I was boringly perusing my instagram feed when I came across a familiar looking photo.  Then I realized it was familiar because I had just been living it!  My PEO chapter was adorning the screen.

Yeah, we had another party.  Yeah, we had to take the Von-Trapp-Family-on-the-staircase photo - complete with a coupla pooches.

Thanks to the Veep who has a great house for parties and then took some pics and then posted them to the PEO instagram.  You go, girls.  What did we do before the internet?

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Linking up with MamaKat for the prompt:
3. Share a recent photo or video you  somebody added to Instagram and give us the back story.

stars, daisies, and chicken

I convened in Denver over the weekend.  It was P.E.O. state convention time, and once again, I played the role of chapter delegate.

Running Sue joined me again along with another sis, Dya.

It was a successful convention.  We had a good time, and took care of business, but I'm a little sick right now of stars and daisies - both of which figure prominently in P.E.O.  Enough with the stars and daisies already!

In fact, those stars with the holes in the middle in the photo above?  They are there to be held up with your face poking through the hole while snapping pics.

We were all, "uhm... yeah... we're not doing that..."

So I got to catch up with a few friends from my hometown too.  I actually ended up knowing more of them than I did attendees from where I live now.  And one of our scholarship recipients is from my hometown and spoke at the banquet - bonus!

A good time with the Sisters.  Now I'm expected to report everything back to my local chapter, which could be summarized as

"Two and a half days of stars, daisies, and chicken"

I might need to add a bit more detail.

it's a wrap

... not a rap.  I think I tried that once on the blog, it was quite bad.

This was a pretty good week.  I recently read a tip in a book, regarding journaling.  The tip was to not think, "what happened?" but rather to think "what happened that was good?".  It noted that many of us typically focus on the bad stuff, the fails and/or embarrassing things, etc. So, okay, putting on my rose colored glasses...

Honestly, it was a pretty good week.  Busy, but not too.  The weather was very springlike - except for that sloppy snow storm - and I'm reveling in the sunshine.

On a related note, my lame-o foot has been feeling increasingly better since I went to that foot chiropractor.  I've started doing short bits of running.  It feels quite awkward since it's been a good five months since I've done any appreciable runs.  Really, this is what I feel like...

The running parts are a bit rusty.  But it's not like I haven't been doing any other forms of exercise in the interim...

Whatever.  I'll take what I can get.  In other news, Meego's hair has about doubled in length from last week - which isn't saying a whole lot.  He still feels the breeze on his head rather than through his hair.  I haven't heard any updates on the latest total amount earned for bald 4 bucks, but the event was another great success.

We wrapped up another fiscal PEO year, then started the next one about a second later.  They've elected me president for another term, which wasn't a big surprise, but it's nice to get the vote of confidence, a.k.a. acknowledgement that no one else particularly wants to do it.  

We snapped a pic of the new officers for the newsletter, then realized that one of us was missing because she was out sick, so we'll have to wait until next time for a more "official" officer pic.  But I kinda get a kick out of this one with the man-on-the wall photobomb.

In other other news, a friend who is single and childless and teaches high school (so has summers off) is looking for a travel companion for an exotic trip to China in a few months.  It's sounds amazing, but I don't know if I can quite pull that off for my needed adventure.  Fun to think about, though!

tutin', shavin', laughin'

Another busy week is in the books.  Had some P.E.O., had some tutin', had some job huntin', but not too much of any one thing, so it's all good.  I've taken on more tutor students and have accepted that that's still my job for now...

Friday was also the culmination of the Bald 4 Bucks effort at Meego's school.  The event has really grown over the years.  This year, they'd counted $50,000 raised with still lots more coming in.  The goal was $75,000, and looks like they're going to make it!

Meego somehow made it into the local 5 o'clock newsreel.  That be him with half a shaved head...

I did get a "before" shot just before he left for school, and the "after" later that evening.

 




It's just nice to see a buncha kids organize such a thing and then also make the symbolic gesture of shaving their heads.  I especially admire all the girl students and women teachers- mostly ALL of them - who get shaved. The teachers come up with fun and creative ways to get students to donate to their tills.

So now Meego's head feels like a big round cat's tongue.

Speaking of which, the mystery stray cat?  Meego and I were both willing to give it a try, but Magnum was the party pooper logical voice of reason, noting the high likelihood of our current cat having a major cow with another cat moving in.  After all, the reason we got him was because he was evicted for beating up his previous housemate on a daily basis.

In movie news, we watched I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore.  OMG, what a ride!  It's funny, and violent, and hilarious, and dark, and romantic, and funny, and sad, and spooky, and hilarious!  How they managed to get all those things into a 93-minute movie, I don't know!  I wouldn't be surprised if drugs were involved.

Anyway, we really liked it.  It's streaming on Netflix now.  Not for everyone, I'm sure, but I gave it five stars.  Plus, Elijah Wood's character is adorable in this.  He's quirky and socially awkward - probably has Asperger's.  Like I said - adorable!

Your week in three words?  GO!

I don't have any weed

I'm on my way to my grandmother's funeral in Kansas.  I stopped for gas and realized that I must've left my wallet at the last gas station.  Could you spare some money for gas?

We're college students on our way home for the weekend and our car broke down.  Can you help us pay for a tow?

My organization is collecting money for homeless vets.

Do you have nineteen cents?

Got any weed?

I've experienced these requests, and many others, from random strangers in parking lots, sidewalks, etc.  In general, I don't trust them.  Except for that unwashed girl who asked for 19 cents and the guy who asked for weed.  Yeah, they both seemed pretty legit.

Do you give to panhandlers or random "charities"?  If so, do you research the charities, or does dropping cash into a jug with a label taped to it outside of Walmart seem like the right thing to do?

I'm generally suspicious of random solicitors of charities I've never heard of.  I would much sooner give to panhandlers who are, at least, honest about their situations and what they want the money for.

I gave some money to the girl who asked for 19 cents because (a) there was something very honest about her, which (b) made me genuinely care about her well being, and (c) who the heck asks for 19 cents?!  I still wonder about that encounter, sneakingly suspicious that she was a student at the ritzy private college downtown conducting some sort of social experiment.

There are plenty of sanctioned charities around that support homeless vets, disabled vets, abused women, banished teens, sick children, etc.  So I don't bother risking our charitable dollars going to someone like this panhandler who drove away in a Mercedes to her exclusive beach community.

As I read that story, I couldn't help but notice the stylin' hairdo on her poor little homeless kid

I'm thinking about these things because Meego's collecting money for a haircut that won't be all that stylin'.  It's "Bald 4 Bucks" time at the high school.

This has grown into quite a large annual event with several teachers and students getting their heads shaved and raising tens of thousands of dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Participants carry around donation collection cans for about a month, and then hand over the proceeds for a quick sit in the barber chair.

Some may recall that Wolfgang went baldo 4 or 5 years ago at that year's event.

In fact, Meego didn't even make his own collection can.  He just asked if I knew where Wolfgang's was, and I directed him to the box that I threw a buncha junk lovingly placed cherished mementos into during the recent painting of the bedroom.

I mean, he didn't even put his own name on it.  It still has Wolfgang's...

Despite this glaring lack of originality, the can has been filling up more each day.  I wondered about him carrying this can-o-money around school everyday, but he assures me that it's all part of the process.  Okay, fine.  But I gave to the online donation page.

I trust it.

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Linking up again with Mama Kat for the prompt:
4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: trust

Up

This week's prompt at Illustration Friday is "Up", so I drew this dude headed for the slopes.

I personally haven't been downhill skiing in several years, although I always had a good time when I went.

Maybe I didn't go with enough frequency to get truly addicted.  Once we had little kids, and it was harder to get away for such things, skiing just became something we "used to" do.  By the time the kids got older, it wasn't a priority, although the kids enjoy going up with friends now.

I think I just associate some activities with a certain age window.  I know there are people who ski well into their ripe years, but I'm guessing the average age on the slopes is relatively young.





Yesterday, I went to our local P.E.O. Founders Day luncheon.  P.E.O. was founded on January 21, 1869, by seven women at Iowa Wesleyan College.  So, each year around that time, regional chapters get together to honor the founders.  Here, we have our luncheon on the first Saturday in February.

There are 13 or 15 chapters in the "Pikes Peak" region - I just know it's not 14 - and we had nearly 200 members at our luncheon.  It was a nice time.

Women are eligible for membership at the age of 18.  Then once they're in, they're a member for life.  This results in there being a lot of old ladies in P.E.O.  Many don't make it out to meetings much anymore, but they make it a point to get all spiffed up and attend Founders Day.

I enjoy chatting with my old "sisters".  Many have led rich, eventful lives, and their charitable spirit is what binds us together. I've sometimes caught myself treating old ladies like little kids, but then they'll surprise me by saying something really humorous and/or risque.  In fact, I bet a good sense of humor is what helped them get to such ripe old ages in the first place.

My chapter was responsible for registration and name tags, so I was there early to help get name tags handed out, and stayed late to help collect the name tags at the end of the shindig.

As we stood holding the door, 3 particularly elderly women came "bustling" through at a snails pace.  As they made their slow shuffle, complete with heavy cane action, one of them remarked,
"Don't worry, we'll get there eventually".

The woman next to me told them, "Take your time, there's a long wait for the elevators anyway", since we were on the 4th floor of the hotel.

One of the three, without skipping a beat, replied, "Doesn't bother us, we're taking the stairs!"

Another woman talked of how she'd divorced her first husband and was widowed by her second.  "What should I try next?  Women?  Bigamy?", she pondered.

"Then again, I think I'll skip bigamy.  Who needs all that laundry?"

Maybe a key to not getting old and grumpy is to never really grow up.