The Great Cosmic Happy-Ass Card Company

Watch out Hallmark, this woman's cards are hysterical. If you want to laugh go to www.greatcosmichappyass.com and look athis website. My friend Kay met this woman in Asheville, N.C. and showed the cards to me. The one shown here is titled "Planning The Day". Many are irreverant and funny and RIGHT ON! Enjoy.

Friendships

It is amazing how you meet people who then become your friends and enhance your lives. I met Sue and Vandy in San Miguel de Allende although they live in Galveston. We met at a dinner and I knew by the end of the evening that I wanted to get to know them better. Alas, that was 7 or 8 years ago. We have had so many laughs and fun times together, both in Houston, Galveston and in San Miguel. The first photo is of a recent evening at the Chaine de Rotisseurs dinner in Galveston. The Chaine is the oldest international"gourmand" dinner club in the world. I have been to dinners in many different places and it is always an interesting group of people not to mention the exquisite dinner. Well, Sue and Vandy are a "one of a kind" couple. When we first met they talked about traveling in the 70's to the beaches of Puerto Vallarta and camping there. We all have a love for Mexico.
They have been coming to San Miguel for way longer then I have and used to fly their plane down here and land it somewhere..........now they drive in Vandy's black Caddy which I have dubbed "the Mafiamobile" - only because of previous family ties to the gambling world that used to exist in Galveston.
Vandy is a raconteur and can tell stories for hours about his BOI (born on the island) experiences. Sue is the quiet steady one who is always there to add to the joy. Below is a picture of Vandy in "one of his moments" that made me laugh when I first saw it and still makes me laugh.

Everyone in San Miguel always wants to know "When are Vandy and Sue coming?" because they are just so darn fun and interesting! I'm lucky to call them my friends.

A perplexing comment!

Last night at a lovely dinner party, a friend and I were talking about children and grandchilden. She was astonished when I said that I hoped I would be blessed with more.......truly astonished! And, her astonishment astonished me, truly. She doesn't like children.

I thought about the comments before I fell asleep and they have popped into my mind off and on all day. I guess I'm selfish in that I love the unconditional love of children I can't think of anything better then when a small hand reaches up to hold yours out of love or for reassurance or a hurling body comes at you with a great big bearhug ORRRRR when they let it be know that the ONLY place they want to sleep that night is with their snoring Grammy.

I wouldn't take a million or a zillion dollars for all of those experiences or memories. Equally I have wonderful memories of my grown children - those memories also are priceless.

Life is interesting and meeting people of all different mind sets is equally interesting.

Christopher and Grammy at the Houston Zoo

What a fun day this was in May! Christopher and I went to the zoo not only to see the animals but to feed the ducks and to ride the train (his favorite). We had a great time in the herpatology building trying to find the snakes and other creatures whose camouflaged skin is miraculous.
Speaking of miraculous, Christopher is our "miracle" kid. He was born at 7 months a few days after his mother was diagnosed with leukemia. Although he was in intensive care for a week or so, he is a happy, healthy, extremely smart boy. He's 8 now and his mind goes a mile a minute. He is always thinking of better ways to do things and things to invent. I'm astonished on a continual basis by his insightfulness. He lost his Mom physically 3 years ago but spiritually she's with him every minute of every day and it is that constant presence that gives me serenity. Grandchildren are such an unexpected joy

No mas papel

Oh my gosh, I'm a newspaper junkie! My family has said that in the past I made a career out of the Sunday paper. I'm back in San Miguel and found out that El Universal is no longer publishing the English version of the Miami Herald. It was sparce but it was a paper and had some good articles on various events in Mexico and good travel articles. I have been bereft for two days thinking that I have no paper anymore other then Atencion which is not exactly a "news" paper, to put it mildly.
So, what are my alternatives? I guess I'll continue to read the Houston Chronicle online and the New York Times but it's not the same..............I wonder how much it would cost to have the Sunday New York Times mailed to me? Probably a fortune. I guess I'll get over it and some day will forget that I miss it, I guess.

Wanda June

This woman single-handedly got me involved in more things then I could EVER have imagined. I met her in 1968 and the friendship was almost instantaneous! The next thing I knew I was Girl Scout cookie chairman for her troop. Then it was Girl Scout leader, PTO carnival worker, library reader, room mother and the list goes on and on. Wanda and I have known each other for 39 years. Years of tears and joy. Years of raising children and now enjoying grandchildren. We made Christmas lists together for years and bemoaned when we didn't have enough money for all we wanted to buy and now we can sit at lunch for three hours and laugh til we have tears in our eyes at all of our shenanigans and the people who have passed in and out of our lives. I treasure Wanda's friendship and knowing her entire family. These friendships are the glue of our lives.

Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting.

You'll see many of these sayings in the weeks to come. My friend Kay gave me a mason jar full of goodies for my birthday and in it were many sayings. The other one I LOVE is, "No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap". Don't you just love that? I do cause I LOVE naps.
Anyway, while in Texas for a month it was hard to act normal when I wanted to "stomp on people" (not actually) who made inane comments on illegal immigrants when they had NO idea what they were talking about. Instead I kept my mouth shut, well most of the time, and talked to the man from Guatemala at the zoo with his children about his beautiful country that I so love and to the nanny from Celaya who was thrilled that I knew where that was and many others. I won't go into the whole thing but, suffice to say, I certainly see a totally different side then the media and politicians portray. In my whole life it seems I always see things from a different perspective and it would be so much easier to just "go with the flow" - instead I find myself always standing up for the underdog. Maybe it comes from my mother and father - my mother worked in the Civil Rights Movement in the 50's in Louisiana and it was a dicey time. I learned to NOT be intimidated by being different.
It's interesting when I sit down to write on this blog I usually have no idea what I'm going to say and this alter ego comes out and does this.....I'm constantly amazed.

Eyeopener Tour

This latest trip to the Carolinas was my third trip with the Orange Show Eyeopener tour group. Every trip is like Christmas morning - you don't know WHAT you're going to see or what great present you're going to get in the form of the artist or his work.
If you're interested in knowing what "outsider art" is all about and the fun and wacky trips that this group takes, go to http://narrowlarry.com/eyepg-carolina1.html Each trip I take with this group, I think the next can't possibly be as great and each is better and more different then the last - in 2000 we went to Edward James' Sculpture Gardens called Las Pozas in Xililta, Mexico. A surreal trip and gardens! You can read about these trips if you go to www.orangeshow.org The other trip I took with this group was Wisconsin, a bit of Iowa and Illinois. Architecture as well as outsider art was the theme of that trip.
I couldn't write a better description of this latest trip nor do I have any better photos then the ones taken by my compadres. Yours truly is with Sam the Dot Man with one of my latest acquisitions, the Cathedral which lights up! It will be in the same room with the 30" red bull and the "Cock-eyed Optimist" facejug that will be returning with me to Mexico. It ought to be a riot as I cross the border.........I think I'll prop "Mr. No Bull" in the copilot seat with a seat belt and see what the Mexican immigration guys do, just for the fun of it!

This and That from Houston

I have been busy, busy with all the things I said I was going to do when I got to Texas. A trip to North Carolina with the Orange Show Eyeopener group was a blast! We saw "outsider art" and the beautful countryside of North and South Carolina. I'll write more in detail when I get back to San Miguel in mid-June when I can post photos.
I do believe I've eaten every kind of food since I've been up here. I've been out to breakfast lunch and dinner with friends and I don't think I can eat many more meals. I'm not used to eating more then two meals a day and sometimes only one at noon and this has been a test of my perserverence. Houston is truly the "eating outest mostest" city in America!
For some reason the heat hasn't been that bad even though I HAVE been out in it. Although I must admit when I took my grandson to the zoo on Wednesday I was happily "wiping my brow" to keep the sweat from falling in my eyes. It was worth it!
So, that's it in a very tight nutshell - I'll elaborate more when I'm back "south of the border".