"Dreams" @2005

WHAT: This nifty idea came up in a posting to the Journal Writing group. I decided to take on the task of not only compiling a list of 101 things I'd like to do, but of ambitiously completing them in 1001 days. Then, come to find out there is a whole website devoted to this topic but what the heck? http://triplux.com/dayzero/

Here’s my short-term life spelled out. No more time to waste.

START DATE: September 1, 2007
END DATE: May 26, 2010

WHY: Why should I work through this list? I will be taking time to savor life and create random acts of enjoyment. Organizing and tracking my goals makes me feel useful and gives my life a purpose. I like the idea of planning out my pleasures, measuring my progress and being surprised at the results.

HOW: Make the list and a possible time frame for tackling the “big ticket” items. These are too broadly defined goals that have multiple parts to them but I’m too stingy to give them more than one spot on the list. Mark off items as they are completed. Allow myself to make revisions if I want to but note them in red.

THE LIST:
Exciting Adventures
1. Go river rafting
2. Visit the zoo
3. Pamper myself by going to a day spa
4. Spend an afternoon antique shopping
5. Enjoy a bonfire
6. Watch a sunrise or sunset at the beach
7. Visit a waterfall
8. Watch a play
9. Go to the movies alone
10. Have a picnic in the forest
11. Visit the aquarium
12. Play tourist for a day in Atlanta
13. Visit 10 museums

Literary and Artistic Pursuits
14. Listen to a live jazz band
15. Organize the books in my library
16. Read all the books currently on my nightstand (count & name them)
17. Write a poem
18. Read all 7 of the Harry Potter books
19. Weave the ground fabric for the Alphabet series
20. Join a women’s book club
21. Embroider and finish the Alphabet series (26 pieces)
22. Write a letter to my favorite author
23. Make a collage
24. Make enough work and book a solo exhibition by the end of 2010
25. Make the Identity Litany series (24 pieces)
26. Make the Dichotomy series, (6-8 pieces) influenced by C
27. Finish the Opus mark making course
28. Sign up for and finish the Guilds certificate course for embroidery
29. Organize the upstairs studio
30. Organize the basement studio

Travels
31. Get passport renewed by the end of this year
32. Visit Ireland in 2008
33. Go on tour of South Africa 2009
34. Visit Charleston, SC
35. Go to Hawaii in 2008 for TSA conference
36. Go to Florida for work (Convergence 2008)
37. Take hubby to Cooperstown NY to Baseball Hall of Fame

Culinary Explorations
38. Try out 30 Rachael Ray recipes for a month for dinner
39. Grill hamburgers and hotdogs
40. Have a chocolate fondue feast
41. Bake no-fat, sugar-free cookies
42. Make weekly menu planning a habit with shopping lists too
43. Eat a hot dog at a baseball game
44. Find a good Italian restaurant and have dinner
45. Take my mother out to dinner
46. Make a homemade pizza
47. Eat at a downtown restaurant for my birthday
48. Buy a new stove
49. Have a crab cake in Baltimore

Spiritual Motivations
50. Practice yoga every morning for a month
51. Pick a topic from Parabola to study for a month
52. Visit the Hindu temple in Lilburn
53. Practice a centering prayer for one week (start a new habit)
54. Memorize three prayers (for loved ones, morning, evening)
55. Conduct one fast
56. Visit a church service
57. Read the Transformational Book Circle book(s)
58. Observe the Sabbath as a day of rest once every three months
59. Go through the house room by room and get rid of clutter
60. Spend one weekend day in silence (while hubby is not home)
61. Repeat a mantra for one day
62. Go one week without buying anything unnecessary
63. Add spiritual quotes to my journal once a week for a month

Crafty Endeavors
64. Dye up fabric in gradations for Litany series
65. Sew a vintage-style dress on my sewing machine
66. Knit a sweater
67. Make a monthly journal of inspiration photos
68. Make a Christmas tree ornament
69. Paint Easter eggs
70. Learn how to make origami paper cranes

In Motion
71. Walk the mall daily for one month (and daily thereafter)
72. Lose 80 pounds by June 2008
73. Learn belly dancing
74. Fly a kite
75. Make a snow angel
76. Dance in the rain
77. Hike in the mountains for at least one day and night (at a state park)
78. Climb Stone Mountain
79. Practice my yoga AM & PM routines daily for one month
80. Take an adult dance class
81. Swim in two oceans
82. Ride the exercise bike 5 nights a week for one month
83. Learn to tango
84. Walk the Suwanee Creek Trail one weekend day a month

Miscellaneous
85. Write a letter to three friends
86. Watch 10 movies a year
87. Organize my papers in the studio
88. Go to my 35- year high school reunion in Oct. 2007
89. Teach a semester textiles course
90. Learn to weave tapestry
91. Build a sand castle
92. Reupholster the old sofa and move it upstairs
93. Do a jigsaw puzzle
94. Paint the house
95. Plant a flower bed in the front yard
96. Spend a week day exploring a small town
97. Create a boudoir in my bedroom
98. Buy a pearl necklace by my 55th birthday (Sept. 2009)
99. Write a letter to myself, to be read in five years
100. Pick a bouquet of wildflowers
101. Spend a vacation visiting a state park in West Virginia

            What was your favorite meal when you were a child?  What made it your favorite?

I remember my aunt making homemade bread and I absolutely loved the smell of bread baking in the oven. My mom didn’t make bread so it was a novelty to me. One of my favorite meals was a sandwich of homemade bread just out of the oven and peanut butter and blackberry jelly. Boy, I'd kill for one of those right now. 

Then I also had another aunt who made the best spaghetti sauce in the world. I would request it whenever we went to visit her. I still love spaghetti but nobody’s compares to Aunt Marie’s spaghetti sauce.

            What was the name of your favorite pet?  Why was it your favorite?

I had a white cat named “Winter”. One day she followed me to the school bus stop. I tried to get her to go home but was unsuccessful so I got on the bus. She was missing after that and for a few days we didn’t know where she was. I looked everywhere for her. Finally, she turned up somehow (I don’t remember the details exactly) but something was very wrong. Her back legs were dragging. We took her to the vet right away and her tail had been run over by a vehicle and there was no feeling in her tail so she underwent an amputation. She was all right after that but didn’t even have a nub left.  She often had phantom tail syndrome and used to chase it as if it were still there.  She looked odd, like a Manx, but I got used to seeing a tailless kitty. It did freak out strangers who would first see her.

              What chores did you have to do when you were growing up?  Did you get an allowance?  How much was it?

I was responsible for cleaning up my room, folding laundry, and putting the dishes away from the dishwasher. We were one of the few families I knew that had a dishwasher at that time although it wasn’t a built-in model. We used to roll it up to the sink and hook the water line up to the faucet and make sure the drain line was aimed down in the sink and the stopper wasn’t in. Otherwise the sink would overflow and that was a mess.

The chore I remember the most, because I actually liked doing it, was polishing shoes. I used to line up everybody’s shoes on the steps to the basement and polish them because the cabinet where the shoe polish was kept was on the wall there and I would sit on the steps and do the polishing. I liked the smell of shoe polish too. Who polishes shoes now?

I got an allowance and it seems like it was 50 cents a week. As I got older it went up to maybe a $1 or something.

            Tell me about your first job.

Ah…my gfirst job was the summer between my junior and senior year in high school.  I was a waitress and made $1 an hour plus tips. I worked at a little café that was open for breakfast and lunch. My morning customers were mostly regulars from the car dealership just down the way who always ordered the same thing. Somebody would come in the door and I’d start pouring his coffee just the way he liked it. There was a jukebox in the corner with mostly country & western records in it and the song that got played over and over again until I was thoroughly sick of it was “Help Me Make It Through the Night”.  Just thinking about that song makes me gag. The food at the restaurant was pretty good. The cook made everything fresh. No horror stories. It was a good experience for being my first job.

            Share a story about a severe winter storm.

I remember getting stuck in a snowdrift once. I kinda fell in and was afraid that I wouldn’t get back out but I finally managed to get myself free. On another occasion I remember staying out too long sled riding and I got frostbite on my toes. To this day, I hate being cold because I could never get warm enough in the winter.

            Who was your favorite teacher? Why?

Humm…I mostly liked school but really can’t recall favoring one teacher over another until high school. I liked the science teacher, Mr. Hart. He was cool and later on briefly became a pro bowler. But, during grade school and junior high, I had some teachers I disliked more than others because they were just plain mean, but nobody who really stands out in my memory as exceptional. Isn’t that awful?

            Describe one of your favorite dress-up outfits as a child.  On what occasions would you wear it?

I was lucky because I had dancing lessons as a child so I always had my recital costumes to play in afterwards. I loved the sequins, the satin fabric, the feathers, the bright colors, my silver-sequined top hat, and my ballet slippers. As a bonus I always had a costume ready for Halloween. There was also a phase that lasted for several years where Santa would bring me animal pajamas. I was a leopard one year, a lion the next, a bunny. I loved my bunny tail and I hadn’t even heard of Playboy yet

            Did you ever have a special hideaway or playhouse? What made it special?

My special place was somewhere quiet, hidden and dangerous. There were woods everywhere but behind the school the woods led to cliffs that overlooked a valley below and I liked to sit on a particularly rocky outcrop that was isolated from the regular paths we kids had through the woods. I didn’t sit right at the edge, but close enough to feel like I was flying and I could look out to the mountain on the other side and see the little village below with the houses lining both sides of the road that snaked through the valley. I felt like God looking down upon the earth.

 What extracurricular activities were you involved in during high school? Why did you choose those activities?

I was in the band, President of a club called Y-Teens, and a member of the French Club. The band was the most time-consuming of course, with practice every day in addition to the regular class period that was band. I played the flute and wasn’t a very good flute player. I needed private lessons to get better but we couldn’t afford those.  I liked marching in parades though and doing the half-time shows at football games. Our big trip was my sophomore year when we went to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl parade. That was very exciting. That trip was the first time I had dinner in what seemed to me to be a really elegant restaurant. I still remember the name of it, “The Pepper Tree”.  I also remember going by the Texas Book Depository where Pres. Kennedy was killed.  First time I’d physically been to a place that had a significant impact on history.  I also remember getting sunburned on the face during the football game on New Year’s Day because it was relatively warm and sunny. That was something that would never happen in my hometown on New Year’s Day. I had to give up the band after my junior year when my flute died from frozen pads at the Christmas parade at home that year and it didn't play right after that. My parents weren't going to buy me a new flute for only one more year.

            What crazy fads do you remember in grade school? 

Constantly passing notes to my friends and creating folded paper fortunetellers. Trolls were popular dolls then. Remember those ugly/funny-looking little things with the wild colored hair?  All the girls had them and everybody's troll had different colored hair. They decorated our desks.

There was an unwritten dress code. The girls had to wear dresses to school but some of us were tomboys at heart and liked to climb on the monkey bars so we wore shorts under our dresses because we weren’t allowed to wear just shorts and because some of the boys put mirrors on their shoes so that they could look up our dresses. You had to be tough to grow up as a girl in my neighborhood.  

            When did you have your first date?  Tell me about it.

I always had boyfriends in school so don’t really remember what could have been called a “first date”. I went to school dances, and movies, and bowling parties and things like that while in junior high before any of my boyfriends were old enough to drive so a parent always took us and picked us up.  As it turned out, the first boy I went out with who could drive a car went on to become my husband.  We went to the drive-in on our first date and saw a movie coincidentially entitied "The First Time". It wasn't a very good movie  but we spent most of the time making out so who cared?

   What do you remember about your first kiss?

That I remember!  It was the summer before junior high and I was at the local swimming pool with my girlfriend. There was a grassy area beside the pool where everybody put their towels and hung out sunbathing when we weren’t in the water. An older boy from our neighborhood came by and sat on our towel with me. We were flirting and lying in the sun when he put a smaller towel over our heads and he leaned over and kissed me.  It felt funny, he tasted salty, but I liked it. I never did date him actually after that. Later he ended up married to my best friend and they are still married all these years later.

       What did you do to celebrate birthdays when you were growing up? 

My own birthdays I don’t remember so much as the celebrations at my house were haphazard. I had one birthday party when I was seven years old where most of the kids in my class were invited. We played the standard “pin the tail on the donkey” game and I don’t remember the rest. Most years my Mom either couldn’t remember it was anybody’s birthday, or sometimes she would bake a cake. She still doesn’t remember half the time.

But my girlfriend, Kathy, I remember her birthdays very well. She was allowed to invite one  special guest for dinner and it was me. Her mom always had a special birthday dinner with her favorite foods and her grandparents and whole family came to eat. There was a homemade birthday cake with candles and ice cream for dessert. Then she would open her presents. Birthdays were cause for a special celebration at her house.  Now I make them a special celebration in mine. 

De   Describe what the family living room looked like when you were a child.

 It was what is now termed  "mid-century modern". In other words, very 50s architecture. An enormous picture window dominated one wall that birds used to fly into. There was a big stone fireplace at one end   of  the room with a wide mantle that had a built-in light that shone up onto a framed print of Venice towards the top of the fireplace with tall, black wrought-iron candleholders sitting on either side of the mantle. A three-foot tall statue of Michangelo’s "Moses" sat on one end of the fireplace stone platform.  It always fascinated me because it looked like he had horns. An antique large copper apple-butter kettle sat on the other side full of firewood. There were hardwood floors with a large green rug in the middle of the floor. The rug was a remnant from the carpeting that had been in my great-grandparents' house. My piano was in one corner of the room. Mom had made a needlepoint covering for the piano bench that had musical instruments in the design. There were arched entryways into the kitchen, hall and into the small vestibule by the front door.  A plastic screen divider separated the living room from the dining area. There was a large door chime on the wall that chimed the Big Ben melody. Kids were always ringing the doorbell and running away because that door chime went on for so long. A grandmother clock stood next to the door chime. It was called a grandmother clock because of the smaller scale of the footprint of the clock and it had shelves full of knickknacks where you would normally think the clock mechanism would be located.

The couch was a sectional sofa that had been reupholstered with beige faux leather. An Italianate coffee table with marble slabs on either end (that piece of furniture is in my living room now). A very 50s style lamp that is impossible to describe except to say that the curving arms of the base were turquoise and it had these spaceship-shaped shades. Another floor lamp had a spring post that went from floor to ceiling (a 60s style monstrosity). There was a blond, glass front china cabinet that sat on black, spindly legs that my brother once accidentally kicked over (there went most of the good "china").  A couple of yellow faux leather armchairs, a foot stool that my Mom had reupholstered with a Cathedral window pattern in bits of colored velvet with green brocade. Hexagonal end tables with a lamp on each table were on either side of the sofas.  For the life of me I can't remember what was on the walls or what color the walls were. ...Oh yes, there were two pastel chalk portraits of my brother and myself on the walls. Geez, I have those on my dining room walls now. Strange how selective memory is?

2.       Where was your childhood home located?

In a blue-collar neighborhood in West Virginia. At the time there was only one paved road into the area, all the rest of the streets were dirt or gravel covered. No sewer system, everybody had a septic tank. There were woods everywhere there wasn't a house. 

Did you enjoy living there?

Yes. It was a paradise in disguise as a blue-collar neighborhood.

3.       Describe your grandparent's houses.  Did you visit them often?  Why or why not?

My Dad's parents lived in a green-shingled cottage a few miles away.  My memories of my grandparents' house were the grape arbor buzzing with bees in the side yard and the big porch on the back where we would hang out in the early evenings. She also had a treadle sewing machine in the dining room that I loved to play on the treadle. This grandma always kept a stash of raisins in the kitchen drawer. Grandpa died when I was 5 years old, Grandma 4 years later.

My Mom's parents were divorced and my grandmother never lived in the same place very long. A series of cheap rented apartments. She always had a cat and she loved bakery cookies. I inherited these traits from her. She was the cookie grandma. My grandfather lived in a pretty, older home but we didn’t go there very often. He had a vicious dog and was an alcoholic and not that pleasant to be around.

4.       List one special memory about each of your brothers and sisters.

My brother is six years younger.  I was out of the house by the time he started Jr. high. My favorite memory is when he was little and he planted Tootsie Roll wrappers hoping for a bumper crop. He was disappointed when we told him you couldn't grow Tootsie Rolls.

5.       Recall for me some of the most important lessons you have learned in life.

"It took me more than twenty years, nearly twenty-five, I reckon, in the evenings after supper when the children were all put to bed.  My whole life is in that quilt.  It scares me sometimes when I look at it.  All my joys and all my sorrows are stitched into those little pieces.  When I was proud of the boys and when I was downright provoked and angry with them.  When the girls annoyed me or when they gave me a warm feeling around my heart.  And John too.  He was stitched into that quilt and all the thirty years we were married.  Sometimes I loved him and sometimes I sat there hating him as I pieced the patches together.  So they are all in that quilt, my hopes and fears, my joys and sorrows, my loves and hates.  I tremble sometimes when I remember what that quilt knows about me."

Marguerite Ickis, quoting her great-grandmother

I liked the above quote so much that I used it in my thesis show to represent my personal philosophy. How good memories and bad ones are all sewn together into a person's life. Everything is there: whether I like it or not.  But, how I present my life by re-arranging the pieces so that they fit together into a whole that pleases me, is my most important work. It is the doing that is just important as the finished project. What do I have to show for myself?

6.       Share a memory of your grandparents or an older person you loved.

See above, I think I already answered with some of those memories.

7.              Describe a memorial Valentine you received.

My husband gave me a dozen red roses this year. He is my lifelong sweetheart since I was 15 years old.

10.    What scent or sound immediately takes you back to childhood?  Describe the feeling it evokes.

Humm...The scent of pine trees. We always had a real Christmas tree (something I haven't had for quite a while as an adult).  Christmas time was special: Mom always made sugar cookies, which we decorated with frosting, the wrapped packages under the tree, the anticipation of snow, the Christmas pageant at church (I was the head angel one year), a fire in the fireplace. No fire on Christmas Eve though, how could Santa come down the chimney if there was a fire?  We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve. My brother and I were sent to bed early until after Santa had made his stop and then we were up and at it before midnight usually.

Sometimes I miss looking out onto a winter landscape at night with the moon and snow reflecting light onto every shape, every tree. We don't have the calm, cold, blue beauty of that special nighttime light here in Atlanta very often.

1.       What was your favorite pastime as a child?  Did you prefer doing it alone or with someone else?

Pla  Playing outdoors. In the summertime I would leave the house in the morning and stay out until dark or Mom yelled my name to come home, whichever came first. Outside was full of things to do: picking wild blackberries, building a fort, playing hide and seek, playing softball, playing house by drawing out the floor plan with sticks in the dirt floor of the picnic shelter on the school grounds and making rock/cinderblock furniture, swinging on the big school swings, the seesaw, exploring the woods, climbing down the cliffs (forbidden but every kid in the neighborhood did it anyway), playing in the creek catching crayfish and building dams, walking to the neighborhood store to buy candy, rolling down the hillside lawn at my best friend's house, climbing trees. I was a tomboy outside but a girly-girl at home playing with my dolls and going to dancing lessons. I loved it all.

As I  As I think about it, probably my time was split 50-50 between playing with my friend or friends or being by myself. I was fearless as a child and spoke to everybody. I was constantly "running off" as my Mom called it but to me I was just exploring. I was always the lost child being paged in the stores because I'd take off and go see whatever it was I wanted to go see. I knew she was around somewhere and that I'd find her so never thought of myself as lost. So different from the way things are today. 

2.       Who gave you your name and why?  Did you have a family nickname? How did you get it?

           I don't know exactly how I got my name. There might have been a popular song with "Linda" in it at the time but I definitely wasn't named after anybody. Nickname?  My Dad used to call me "Toady" with much affection but I don't know where he came up with it. My Mom hated it when he called me that but I never minded and it was my only special name. I never associated it with frogs or anything  yucky. Now days my brother calls me "sister-poo", which I am secretly fond of.

3.       Describe your childhood bedroom.  What was the view from your window?

My  My bedroom was furnished with a bedroom suit that I inherited from my grandmother's house after she died. I was the only kid I knew who had a double bed in grade school. This was good for sleep-overs with my girlfriend though. We would compare whose mother was making the best dinner before deciding where we wanted to spend the night. Also, I had dozens of stuffed animals lined up like solders across the pillows. The furniture was old fashioned: 30s or 40s style dark wood with a dressing table with a big round mirror in the middle and curved laminated wood on the headboard.   

I co  I couldn't see out my bedroom window without climbing up on something or standing on my bed. Our house was a 50s ranch and the windows were high up on the walls.  It let in lots of light but nobody could see in.  My secret pastime was I used to climb up and jump out the window to go play when I was supposed to be in my room. This eventually got me into big trouble after I hit a girl with a rock and she got a nasty cut above her eye and I was supposed to be in my room at the time. No more jumping out the window after that.

4.       When did you first go to church?  What are your earliest memories of church?

I dI  I don't remember when but I know it was before I started grade school because we didn't live in our house then.  My earliest memories of church are getting to play with playdough in Sunday school. I wasn't allowed to have it at home for fear I'd eat it.  

5.       Where did your father go to work everyday and what did he do?

My Dad was a coal miner. When I was very young and in grade school he worked the swing shift so I never saw him except for weekends. He was asleep when I left for school and at work by the time I got home and I was asleep when he got home from work.  Eventually he got to work the day shift so by the time of junior high he was home for dinner.  We ate promptly at 5 pm every day. 

6.       How did your mother spend her day?  Did she have a job or do volunteer work outside of the home?

My Mom was a housewife. We only had one car and Dad had that all day so she didn't work outside the home. I really have no idea what she did during the day but she was very creative and was always decorating or planting flowers so it seems she kept busy.