This was always my and my sister's favorite scene from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.  Just a friendly reminder not to be a Scrooge ;~D

Happy Holidays!

It doesn't get much better than this.

Enjoy

Somewhere between dropping out of Grad School and focusing on my new career, I forgot I was an art photographer. These were taken on Sunday. I'm hoping to get out again this weekend and capture some more colors.

Please enjoy these photos from my walk in Toledo's Wildwood Metro Park. These shots were taken at the Wildwood Prairie.

Leave it to SNL to sum it all up.  What a week!

Click here if you are unable to see the embedded video.

The 2009-2010 school year started with great emotion for me.   I've been very busy and am just now posting this.  Grieving the loss of our last Kennedy brother has been more intense for me than I had anticipated.  I'm a Kennedy girl.  As a child I took their way of being in this world to heart and it has influenced almost every life choice I've ever made.  I believe the tone of this blog proves my point.

To quote my good friend Nicol, "Good night Teddy."

So, what are you going to do to "keep hope alive and make sure the dream never dies?"  Parrot and blindly follow right wing political smear or put "your money where your mouth is" and really get involved?

In order to cut down on overtime, the City of Toledo has changed the schedule for holiday garbage pick up. I, along with the majority of our city's citizens, have been confused as heck ever since this new schedule started. Basically, what has happened is that our trash pick up days are always changing. Instead of picking up twice the trash the day after a holiday, the pick up day gets pushed up a day, thus eliminating the need for overtime hours.

I walked out on my porch Monday morning to one of the more funnier scenes I've witnessed in my neighborhood.  After hearing the garbage truck outside our house, I walked out to make sure all of our trash had been picked up.  At the same time, my next door neighbor walked out to the curb with his trash.  The truck was half way down the street at this point.

He stood there, trash can in hand, looking down the street at the truck.  He then looked down the street the other way (probably checking to see if anyone he knew was out and about).  After that he looked back at his house with a scoul, obviously contemplating what would happen if he returned with an unemptied trash can. 

After one last look down the street to make sure no one he knew was watching, he started running the opposite way after the garbage truck, full trash can in hand.  He succesfully caught up with the truck and returned home with an empty can. 

And I thought running for the bus was embarrassing

After a stressful end of school year and another panic filled two weeks of waiting to see if we'd get unemployment for the summer, I was finally able to relax.  I was able to relax just long enough for a tooth to act up on me, which will be my project for the next week or so. 

So, I'm not going to pressure myself to blog since nothing is coming to mind these days.  And I've decided to just enjoy the summer.

Of course, it would be nice if the weather got on board too

(I've been blogging for a couple of years now.  Feel free to peruse the archives.)

I went for a hike in the park today.  I started at one park, didn't feel comfortable (too many people) and went to another.  I drove in and everything suddenly felt right.  I was pleased to see a nearly empty parking lot and got out of the van and started walking.

Once I got warmed up the interesting experiences began.  I worked my way deep into the park and came upon a bridge that was on a bit of an incline.  I thought I was seeing things, or that I was disoriented, but I saw a woman running backwards up the bridge.  She was shuffling along at a quick pace and I was relieved to see that she was moving backwards.  When I passed her I commented that it was good for the mind to do that and she giggled and said, "I don't know why, but I love doing that."

I clipped along, soaking in the sun and enjoying the early signs of Spring.  A few minutes later I decided it was time to step up the pace and chose to run up the next hill I came across.  When I got there I had to stop. Another hiker had stopped as well, which alerted me to one of my favorite things about his particular park.  A lone doe was walking through the woods, she was beautiful and I looked around for more deer because they rarely walk alone.  Not seeing any I continued on.  When I got to a second inclined bridge, four young deer were coming the other way.  I stopped to let them pass, the other hiker, a man wearing headphones, stopped too.  We smiled at each other, but I was determined to run up a hill.  I looked at the gentleman, smiled again, said "Here I go!" and started running.  As I got to the steepest part of the incline, he started singing along with his music and it seemed to lift me up the rest of the hill.

When I got to the top, I looked down and there was a leaf shaped like a heart lying in the middle of the path.  Breathing heavily, I smiled at the synchronicity of it all and kept moving.

On my way out of the park, I saw a couple walking three dogs.  The woman had one dog on a leash and the man had two small dogs.  One was on a leash, the other was in a baby stroller.  I looked at him and started laughing, I couldn't help it.  He did not look pleased and was probably wondering what I was wondering: 

This had to be the woman's idea, so why wasn't she pushing the stroller?

I've noticed something quite interesting lately. 

Since Ken and I purchased our minivan I've discovered that we are now part of a nondescript group of people that I never realized existed.  We're everywhere.  I see us everytime I go out driving: at the gas station, the grocery store, the auto repair store.  I'm referring to the owners of obscenely old minivans.

These vans were either new buys that have never been traded in, or great finds that have been purchased for next to nothing and fixed up for a steal.  With a knowing glance, we understand that we are owners of great treasures.  Our family prize provides comfortable, safe transportation with room for a group of friends, or simply empty space for hauling things from recycleables to those great curbside finds. 

And if we lose our jobs and lose our homes, we also have a place to live

Oh my poor neglected blog

I have no excuses ~~ I've just been extremely uninspired the last couple of months. 

I have a night photography project in the works.  I have many more articles just about ready to go at HubPages, but, of course, none of them are completely done.  I've been focusing on my teaching career and am eagerly waiting to hear from the Ohio Department of Education to find out what dances and jigs they want me to do so I can start working on my certification.

I'm on my high school's reunion committee and have been busy looking for missing classmates.  This lead me to pay more attention to my FaceBook account and I must confess that this is where I've been wasting most of my Internet time.  I'm having too much fun reconnecting with old friends.

I got rid of the home Internet connection to save some cash and ended up having to refer to one of my own articles to adjust to the change.  I also spent some time in a bit of a panic over turning 40.  I thought I was more stable than that, but even I was not immune to a small midlife crisis.

Well, I suppose I did have a few excuses

This is my favorite exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art.  By Marisol, a Venezualin artist who was part of the 1960's art scene in New York City, the piece is a commentary on feeling completely isolated while in a social crowd. 

It's called The Party and I could be in its presence for hours ~~ if I had the time.

Well, I found out that my sub license wasn't on hold.  I made my checks out to the wrong party.  So, once Lucas County has the proper checks in hand, I'll be back in business. 

It's safe to say that I've moved on

Well, it's a new year and we have a new President.  A President who has instilled hope in a weary nation.  An African American President who has set an amazing example of what hard work and dedication can bring to those who apply themselves.  It's only been 24 hours since his joyous inauguration and unfortunately the entire country's not in the same place as Washington, DC.

Yesterday, while helping a friend move, Ken was standing in a hallway watching our friend's belongings while waiting for her to come back downstairs on the elevator.  An African American gentleman was waiting for the elevator with Ken.  When the elevator arrived, our friend wasn't on it, so Ken let the man know not to hold the elevator because he was waiting for someone.

The gentleman looked at Ken and said "You better watch it now!  'Cause Obama's gonna take care of your bullsh*t."  Obviously the man jumped to the wrong conclusion.

Racism seems to still be alive and well in Toledo, Ohio