Monday, September 25, 2006

More softball after dentist, dermatologist, doctor

Gerald and I barely made it to Benton this evening to see the last inning of the regional championship game for middle school girls playing softball. The game had been rained out on Saturday. The scoreboard said 1-0 when we arrived, and it was a relief to ask a parent fan and find Johnston City had the run.

We had debated whether we should go or not since Gerald got out of the doctor's office later than expected for a quick follow-up. But when you have sat through two-hour games followed by extra innings as we have sometimes done, we could imagine that the game might be barely half over and we decided to go to the game. The final inning was quick as was the entire game. I am sure the quick game was a relief to Johnston City people since they needed to scurry on to see the Homecoming football game that had been cancelled also on Saturday. Was the trip worth it to see one inning? We both agreed it was. Now the girls will travel to Pinckneyville on Saturday for the state tournament. (There will also be a state tournament for the softball teams in the northern part of the state.)

I started my day with a 9 a.m. dental appointment in Johnston City. I am still being very careful with my tooth because all the dentist did this morning was to create a longer post for me and put a temporary cap back on. I got done in time to pick Katherine up for her appointment with dermatologist at West Frankfort. I enjoyed the renovation of the former city hall while I waited for the completion of the minor surgery she was having done. Only then was there time to refill the gas tank--and I wished I had waited longer when I saw the reduction of price during the afternoon. That is not exactly true. I get very nervous when the marker hovers near empty, and it is worth quite a bit to me to feel the relaxation that comes when the tank is full again. We were almost ready to do a bank errand at a second bank when Katherine realized the time and the reason for the increased pain, nausea, and dizziness she was feeling. We left the bank deposit errand to hurry in to O'Charley's where she bought my lunch and she was able to take her belated meds with her food.

After I took Katherine back home, she fellowshipped with Lucy, their new Golden Doodle, who'd been alone all morning. I got to see Samuel and Josh coming in from school carrying the terranium Sam had made for a class project with two lizards--one he had found and one Josh had given him. Then I dropped off the empty med bottles from our church for Hands of Hope Clinic and hurried on to the agreed-on parking spot to meet up with Gerald.

One of the blessings of my wait there was reaching down to retrieve a lunch mint that I had dropped, and suddenly I saw my lost cell phone there under the front seat. I had searched and seached both Thursday night and Friday morning so I don't know how I had missed it. Although I have a great dislike for cell phones, I sure was glad to have it back. That same day I lost the phone, I had also lost a coin purse, so it made me feel less incompetent to have at least found one item!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

MRI, Softball, Copyrights

I am really too tired to blog, but I am already one day late on my self-imposed Wednesday deadline. Rather than be two days late, I'll write a bit.

I started the day getting ready for the Southern Illinois Writers Guild meeting tonight and ended the day going to that meeting.

In between I took Katherine for a needed MRI and another medical appointment,and then we went through the drive-in for a burrita for a 3 p.m. lunch at her house. Next I tried to turn in empty med bottles at Hands of Hope, but for some reason they were closed early. On to UPS for finally getting my coffee pot returned there. I'd received a new one because of arcing danger, the warnings said. It has barely been much more than a year since I went through the same thing with this coffee pot and made perhaps a poor decision to accept a new one for the bargain price of $40 I think it was. The company made it as convenient as possible to return the faulty pot, both last year and this. I know the coffee pot would not likely arc, but we all want to be safe once we have been warned. To busy consumers, this kind of recall is one of 21st century's annoyances--kinda like the spinach scare. Then I ran up to the beautiful Benton City Park to see Geri Ann pitch for Johnston City as they played West Frankfort in the regional tournament. I finally found a place to park in lots crowded by those attending a track meet as well as all the softball parents. Thinking I was late, I hurried across the swinging bridge to the ball fields only to find out our game did not start until 5:30 instead of 4:30. I watched until 6:20 guessing I could make it to the Guild on time. We were far enough ahead I was confident we were going to win. I hurried on to Writers Guild. I should have left at 6:15.

Professor Sue Liemer of Southern Illinois University Carbondale gave us a fascinating and informative presentation on copyrights, and everyone left a little smarter than we began. Finally back home at l0, I ate my supper sandwich while I read the newest Heartland Women that Lois Barrett had brought to share with the Guild. And now I have even made a only one day late blog entry. Yeah for me. I am going to bed.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

After the Conference....

As Carol Cross explains, it is not expensive to belong to Southern Illinois Writers Guild--if you don't like to read, that is. Of course, almost all writers do love to read and need to read to perfect their craft. And being around writers with books to sell is a terrible temptation to people like me. As much as I tout libraries, I still love owning books. I like to mark them, take notes, re-read them, loan them, look at them on the shelf, and cherish them.

So after a SIWG conference like Saturday's, I not only come home inspired and with my brain buzzing with new information and ideas, I also have a new stack of books to peruse. I find it hard to get much else done because the temptation to buy the books is replaced with the temptation to devour them--whether I really have time to read or not. Some are for Christmas gifts, so those need to be wrapped.

Jon Musgrave had a few copies of his newest book The Bloody Vendetta shipped down overnight, and they were delivered to the conference, where I got my preordered one hot off the press with his inscription that I got the first copy. That was a thrill. Years ago I read the Milo Erwin book, but I am eager to read Jon's updated information combined with his. The rest of Jon's books were to arrive today, and he was probably already signing them somewhere as he will be this Saturday at the Women's Health Conference at our SIWG table there. We were at the same table yesterday with Deb Tucker at Club Day at John A. Logan College. We had two students become new members of SIWG!

One of our presenters at the conference was Doris Wenzel, who co-authored Ten Sisters, the story of her siblings and her, who were separated for many many years. Some of the children went to Cunningham Children's Home, where my friend and former co-worker Bunny Wolfe worked raising donations and educating about the home. Because of Bunny, I get the home's newsletter. I am sorry to say I've never donated, because Gerald and I naturally have given for years to the Baptist Children's Home through our church. But the book made me think again what I think every time I get the newsletter: I need to make a donation to this important place. I learned a great deal from the book about the resilience of children and of the pain of being separated from siblings. I am eager to see the PBS documentary about the sisters next spring. I loved the picture book version of the adult book called Ten Little Sisters.

I traded books with Wendy Culver, and that too was a sad story without the happy ending of the ten sisters. I started to read Velma Crow's book, which is a Bible study, but I realized I needed more time to concentrate on that type of reading.

Tonight I can barely stand to put down The Advocate, a murder mystery by Bill O'Shea, who is donating all his profits to CASA and women and children's shelters. Interestingly he has a four-year-old character named Michael, who echoes the superior ability to take care of himself that the ten sisters exhibited. Bill, who once worked as policeman in Chicago, intrigued us with The Foot Post, a few years back. Now living in Southern Illinois and volunteering with CASA, this private detective is an extraordinarily compassionate man who is raising awareness of sexual predators through his writing. I like to watch Bill interact with people. His empathy and skill with others' emotions is impressive. He always makes me feel understood and cared for. If you get a chance to have him sign a book for you, I am sure he will make you feel the same way. And you can also feel good about where your money is going to help children.