CRYING IN THE DARK

Creature Within

Jumping out of my skin
So sensitive to light
Crawling and burning.

Eyes of my palms staring
Seeing as I hold them near
Face to Face.

Die creature die
Smirking smile laughing
At me.

Standing On The Edge

Be careful, the rocks are slippery
Be careful, the granite's sharp
Hellfire and brimstone beyond the chasm
Oh God, it's so very dark.

Hell's numeral is six six six
Heaven's numeral is three
Make a place in Purgatory
For especially
Most particularly
me.

RESPECT FOR THOSE WHO SERVE

All have served and now serve with dignity, honor, pride, and have this American's heart

THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED:

Curt Pearson, my Dad, was marine Air Corps in the Pacific in the Solomon Islands on Beauganville in WWII.

Uncle Carroll Simpson served in the Korean Conflict.  My first memories of a president was President Truman coming on our Muntz TV in the evenings and talking to the country about how that war was going on.  Daddy had bought the Muntz TV because he thought he would have to go to Korea but it was Momma's baby brother Uncle Carroll who went instead as a young Marine.

My brother-in-law Mike Burke from Vienna, Va. served in Viet Nam.  He had his R&R in Hawaii and my sister Linda flew over to be with him.

My brother Fred Pearson, a young Marine, served during Nam but was never sent overseas because he was an only son and I wonder if they still do that.  He would rather have gone.

Nephew Nick Starzer served in the Army in the Iraq War.


THOSE NOW SERVING

Nephew Brandon Quackenbush serves in the Navy.

Nephews Shane and Justin Abold, brothers, both serve in the Coast Guard.

Cousin Patricia Kutch, Coast Guard.

These are my family members.  Thank you for your service.

Who else will serve?  Will my grandsons be called?  We will never be without conflict.  God Bless America.

HORSE WHISPERER.....NOT!

Not a kid story, not a bike story, not even a hometown story but if you're talking about horseback riding stories here's my memory.  1978 San Francisco CA.....

My boyfriend Aaron, nine year old daughter Robin, and I went to the stables  and rented horses at Thornton State Beach.  The only horse I had ever been on I was in fourth grade and the horse was pregnant at my cousin's farm in Aldie VA and I didn't ride her I just sat on her.  Oh, I forgot the pony rides at Bailey's Crossroads when I was a little kid and the guy led you around a ring.  Anyway, someone said  tell them you know how to ride so they'll give you a good horse.  So we saddled up and with a guide and a group we headed down the trail through the cliffs to the beach.  On the way down I lost the reins they kinda slipped out of my grasp and I was holding on to the horn of the western saddle and the guide looked around and yelled at me.  I did manage to get back ahold of the reins after that.

When we got down to the beach the guide left us and went back up to the stables and everyone rode off, even Robin.  I tschked tschked tschked and hit my horse's side with my heels and said "gitty up!" and tschked tschked tschked  and shook the reins and couldn't get the horse to do anything.  After trying I don't know how long to get him walking I looked around at Aaron and his horse was bending down on his front knees and before you knew it he was rolling over.  I'm exclaiming to myself  "Oh, no! We're going to have to walk back up the trail to the stables and tell them their horse is dead on the beach!!!!"  What I didn't realize was Aaron didn't know how to ride either and this was the horse's way of getting him off his back.

Well, Aaron is now standing on the beach and his horse takes off at a run.  I climb down and we start walking back up to the stables leading my horse who has decided he was alright with being led.  At this point my daughter comes running down the trail as her horse had headed back to the stable and she was coming to find me.  Robin got up on the horse and rode him back to the stable with Aaron and me following on foot.  Aaron's horse had gone back to the stable, too, riderless.  I have never been back on a horse and don't really mind that I haven't.

The only thing I could add to this story of inept horseback riders is what my co-worker at the time, Nancy, told me about her experience at the same stable.  She mounted her horse and it took off galloping out into the traffic there on Skyline Boulevard and her wig went flying off her head.  I can just imagine that wild ride.....


EPILOGUE:  Almost forty years later.

Robin...I didn't walk back to you guys and ride your horse.  My horse decided to go back to the stable.  I was fighting it all the way up the cliff trail to turn around and go back to the beach.  It finally reared up, I lost my stirrups and it charged all the way back to the stable.  It was amazing that I didn't fall off.  I spent the next 45 minutes waiting for everyone to come back.

Me, Yikes!

 I found this picture of me taken in Cameron Valley, Alexandria, Virginia.  I'm sitting, not riding or being led around a ring, but it's my first encounter with a horse.  What a cutie I am!

I

WHAT DO I MEAN ?

Words that sound alike but are spelled differently or spelled the same but have different meanings and a language comprised of parts of all languages spoken worldwide.   ENGLISH  Ain't it great!

principle...principal  /  here...hear  /  we...wee  /
born...borne  /  sleigh...slay  /  so...sew  /  moose...mousse  /
whether...weather  /  which...witch  /  red...read
bite...byte  /  steel...steal  /  night...knight  /  break...brake  /
led...lead  /  bail...bale  /  threw...through  /  meant...mint  /
hour...our  /  two...too...to  /  some...sum  /  reign...rain  /
pair...pare...pear  /  by...buy...bye  /  reed...read /
there...their...they're  /  can (tin)...can (butt end)...can (able)
wood...would  /  horse...whores  /  piece...peace  /
fair...fare  /  lie...lye  /  see...sea  /  bough...bow  /
write...right  /  dye...die  /  deer...dear  /  genes...jeans  /
bass...base  /  plain...plane  /  mail...male / pore...pour /



Thanks to Nancy Maiorana, Barbara Woodward, Holly Lee Harris, and Frances Spindle Bindon for all their  great add-ons to this list.   If there's someone I've forgotten..I lost my original list just let me know.  My friend Rosanna Blair, who was born in Italy and is a retired Virginia Art Teacher, remarked during the compilation of this list  about the difficulty of learning English due to the confusion of sound alike words.  I know there's more combinations but this is good for a start.  If you think of more or if I come up with more I'll add on.

ALMOST

Oh dear.  What am I worried about now?

What is it about me that makes me feel so responsible for everything and to everyone.  It's exhausting.  Is it that I'm the oldest sibling, my parent's practice child?  They say the oldest is the child that says "How will I do this?"  The youngest is the one that says "Who will help me?"  I forget for the middle child they have problems all their own.  Lord help them.

Did my parents ever get it right?  They tried to be the best parents they could be.  Did I ever get it right?  I tried and sometimes I think I did.

Sometimes I failed miserably but don't tell anyone because that's just life.  I'm always trying to fix things, adjust things, make things right and that can annoy a lot of people and make them resentful. Cringe.

WORRIER......................Fix it.
WARRIOR.....................Fix them.
WEARY.........................Fix me!

 



   

ROBIN

Ginny with crayons and paper.

Here's a portrait of my daughter Kimberly Robin  drawn by her daughter, my granddaughter, Virginia Mae.  Ginny was five when she drew this picture on her mother's birthday.  See the three tiered cake in the lower right hand corner with the candle on top.  When Ginny was very young Robin sat with her at the dining room table with crayons and paper and they would draw layer cakes and decorate each layer.  I love the balloons and the sun shinning from behind her head making my daughter look like a Madonna.  Ginny drew pink cheeks, clear blue eyes, and a sweet smile.  It fills my heart with so much love.  Ginny will be nine this summer and she makes me laugh.

Robin's last pair of Buster Browns..bronzed. 2nd grade.

Robin could really put a spin on words and phrases.  How about "Frunky Fried Chicken" for Kentucky Fried and "Fweeping Booly" for Sleeping Beauty  (3-5 years old) and "two neeks wotice" when she was much older.

When Robin was a little girl she was very flexible and was forever running ahead of me and doing cartwheels and round offs.  One time my BFF Tommie Centeno babysat for me and when I got off work Tommie and her kids and Mary Carlson and her son and me and Robin went to a restaurant in the Mission District in San Francisco for dinner.  The restaurant was long and narrow with tables down each side of a center aisle which I think Robin found a little too enticing.  I looked around and caught her after the first cart wheel.  Believe me, she was normally very well behaved.

We moved back to Virginia when Robin was eleven and she went to the sixth grade at Fairview Elementary School.  She was the third generation to go to Fairview.  Mom had gone there when it was a one room school house with a vestibule and  a wood stove for heat.  This was during the depression and the parents got together and donated vegetables and the stuff to make a big pot of soup on the stove.  I went to Fairview when it was a brick school house with multiple classrooms and a beautiful full stage and my Aunt, a licensed dietitian, ran the cafeteria.  My being the first year of the baby boom they closed off the auditorium in fifth grade to make a much needed classroom.  By the time Robin got there they had restored the auditorium for use but they had opened walls between classrooms. The first time the bell went off signaling a fire drill Robin dropped under her desk because she was used to doing earthquake drills this way in California schools.

First dance class at Schmacher's third grade. 

She went to Robinson High School and was an average student, happy and healthy with wonderful friends.  The spring of her sophomore year she needed to fill out her schedule for the next year and looking over the courses offered we found Accounting.  I had read somewhere that that was one field where there was no difference in the salaries of men and women and suggested she take it junior year.  She did and fell in love with it and continued from Robinson to Northern Virginia Community College.

 From third grade all the way through high school Robin took dance classes.  At Showcase Dance Studio in Manassas VA under the direction of Carol Haute Gil Montero Robin took tap, jazz, ballet, and toe.  She was in the performing dance company there and continued dance at Northern Virginia Community College and choreographed several shows while there.

Robin married Rick nine years ago and they've given me two beautiful granddaughters.  He's the best son-in-law in the world and I love him very much.

Rick at Ocean City.

Evie about three with her baby.

Geneva Lorraine, Evie, is six years old now and about ready to graduate from kindergarten.  She's smart as a whip and absolutely fearless.  I can vouch for this because last year I watched her at a water park in Arlington slide down the water slides from 100 times higher than her height while all the other kids splashed under the  sprinklers.

 I wish we lived closer to each other so I could bug my daughter more often.  Thank goodness I'm retired United Airlines and can fly from California to Virginia.  I'll use those passes as often as I can.

ROBIN AT HER DESK IN HER KITCHEN

                                                               I LOVE YOU, KID!
                                                               Happy Mother's Day