IHOP Girl

Saturday, November 07, 2009

This was our fun Halloween day. Some girls from work and I went to a pumpkin patch, and enjoyed getting lost in a corn maze, freezing on a "hay-less" hay ride, and talking for over an hour to the 85 year-old owner of the 400 acre farm. We had a blast!!! Then we went to a little restaurant that I didn't realize was local favorite. You have to wait almost two hours for a table if you don't call ahead. I'll try to make a post about Mr. Gentry soon. He has an amazing story!

I hope that you're all having a wonderful Fall, as Thanksgiving is fast approaching!!

4 comments:

shrunken_frontal_lobe said...: looks like a great time!

did i tell you the story of when i took WOT on our first hayride?

well, i'll let WOT tell you that story when she feels like it...; 4:44 PM
Clair Bannerman (alias) said...: I don't think I know that story....Time for story hour!; 12:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Writtings by WOT? This very idea intimidates me. Why you may ask? Well, the few things I have read by WOT have had such strength, it's own flow very bold, like Hills Bros. Coffee was, yet a bit smoother and satisfying. (sorry, the coffee thought got me side tracked). Intellect is cast through the shadows as a hush rolls accross the land in aww of her uber wordly goodness.

Ok, so I could find anything to poke fun about and this came to mind.; 6:43 PM
Anonymous said...: The imfamous first hayride...yes, I remember it well. I was a mere youngster at 15 years, 9 months old, when I received an invitation to a Halloween hayride. I was elated since I had lost hope of ever seeing my prince charming again. At our first meeting, when he had told me his name, the dance music was so loud I thought he said his last name was Miller, and the next day, it was like Cinderella in reverse because no one had heard of one with that name in our school...

But alas, he called...unfortunately, it was 3 months too early to meet the age requirements of my parental guidances. That did not stop my inquiry and persistent petitions with much emotion and logical entreaty. Thankfully, I did prevail, or poor Clair would not be with us today...

The hayride itself was horrible! It was cold and rainy, and only the infatuations of youth could serve as a positive lens through which to view the evening. Naturally, Thal was his rascally self. Being my first date, I wasn't expecting him to be so, but it was best I got to see it from the beginning.

What came out years later is less romantic...I found out that Thal had invited a large number of girls before thinking to invite me! How wonderful that destiny prevailed in spite of that moment of Thal weakness.

So, now you know the story of our hayride. ;-)
WOT; 6:14 PM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.