Working Woman

I really did enjoy working for the US Census in 2020.  I love talking to people so the part time job as a census worker was a natural fit for me.  When I got an email saying that the Census Bureau was looking for part time workers, I decided to apply and I got the job.  

What does a Census worker do in the years between the decennial census? Well, collect information on employment and unemployment, health, crime, education, consumer spending and much more.    The particular survey I will be working on is called the Current Population Survey. Each month, during the week of the 19th, I will be asking carefully selected households about their employment, hours of work, earnings and other demographic and labor force characteristics.  The "unemployment" report that you hear about in the news at the first of each month comes from the survey I will be involved with.

Before I could start work,  I spent a week in training in Burbank.  First time I have even flown into Bob Hope Airport.  Much nicer to fly into this small regional airport than into LAX!

The foothills around Burbank actually look a lot like our foothills.

Except for the palm trees!  

All week the Californians apologized for the hot weather, noting how hard it must be on Idahoans.  We had to tell them that it was 10 degrees hotter in Boise right now.  There is a heat wave with 'dangerous' temperatures every day.

I spent the next 4 days, 8 hours a day in class learning all I would need to know to use the laptop to record and transmit responses; encourage participation and work with my team.  

I was glad to find out that my 'old brain' can learn new tricks!

The government rents office space from one of Netflix's beautiful buildings.

It was their 'animated division'.

The whole week wasn't work and studying as I did get to watch some soccer games in the hotel lobby bar, including an Argentina game.  Fun!

I got back on Saturday and the 'survey' week started on Sunday.  

You receive 'cases' on your laptop that you are supposed to interview during the week.

Some challenging cases, some easy and cooperative.

Truthfully, I still believe that the number of 'nice' people far outweighs the number of 'not so nice' people.

I come home exhausted every evening.  The 100+ temps don't help.

I am really glad that I'll only be working about 9 days a month.

And I have a new appreciation for full time working moms.

How do they do it?

 

Assateague Island

Assateague Island has been on our 'West Virginia trips' bucket list for the last few years.  Finally we made it happen.  Having George along made it even better! Assateague National Seashore was established in 1943 to provide habitat for migratory birds.  The island is also home to a couple of herd of ponies.

Legend states that the ponies descended from Spanish horses shipwrecked off the Virginia coast on their way to Peru in the 16th century.  DNA studies of the horses and the existence of two sunken Spanish galleons give weight to this theory.  There are about 150 of them on the island.  Each July 50,000 visitors gather to watch mounted riders bring the herd from Assateague and swim them across the channel.  That would be something to see.  They are then sold and the profits go to the volunteer fire department.  In 2022, a record $240,000 was raised from the sale of 63 ponies.  

Naturally, Jackson needed his own pony, who he promptly named, "Spottie". 

This was Jackson's first time on the beach and he loved it.  Naturally, he had his construction vehicles in the car!

I think his favorite part of the trip was the hotel room.

That boy explored every drawer and closet and was thrilled that there were games to play in one cabinet!

George and I enjoyed spending time with our one and only favorite daughter!

 

Crystal Grotto

Mark and Mary know all the most interesting places to visit.  As I have said many times, if your daughter lives on the other side of the country, then it is wonderful that she lives in a area with an unending list of things to see and do.

Crystal Grotto near Bonesboro, Maryland is billed as the 'most naturally kept cave in the world.' First opened in 1922, it has more natural phenomenon per square foot than any cave known to man.  

The crystals formed by calcium carbonate are six sided.  At the rate of one cubic inch every 100-150 years, trillions of these crystals add up to create a whole range of delicate formations. 

Those are some seriously old stalactites. 

Funny how being in a cave caused me to remember learning about caves in elementary school.  You can remember stalactites because they 'hang tight' from the top of the cave and stalagmites grow from the floor and you 'might' trip on them.

Jackson really enjoyed using the 'gem mill' to sift sand and look for gems.

The gems he found were all treasures!

We loved spending the day exploring with this cute family! 

Little Things that Mean a Lot

 When my mother died and I was faced with the task of cleaning out her house, I was very grateful that during each visit with her during the last 10 years of her life, she had insisted that we clean out her closets, storage house and attic.  Her feeling was that if I didn't want something that she had, then she should get rid of it.  Of course I did want a lot!  My mother had saved many things from my childhood and those are treasures to me.  Now that I am getting older, I'm also sorting and deciding what is worth keeping.   It isn't easy for me to let things that my mother saved for 60+ years go.  Maybe taking photos of some of them and sharing their meaning will make it easier for me.

Here are 3 souvenirs that I bought during the period of time we lived in Sicily - 1960 - 1963.

The blue vase is from Syracuse,  Italy.  I have no idea why this particular place made such an impression on me.  I was just 6 years old but when we went back to Sicily in 1999 with the boys, I remembered it very well.  Don't you love that in the 60's when you were a tourist in Italy, women wore dresses?

The 'leaning tower of Pisa' was a weather forecaster.  It had some sort of sparkling glitter on the sides which changed color depending on the weather.  Of course the glitter is long gone.  I bought this in Pisa when we made a trip up through Italy to Germany.  

Can you believe there is not one photo of me in Pisa?  My mother didn't take a lot of photos and Daddy was using his movie camera that day.  

I am glad that my Grandma Boyle also was a saver and kept this postcard that my mother sent her.

I especially love the seven cent airmail stamp!  And I guess I did 'take it all in' since I remember the day in Pisa. 

One of my clearest memories is that there were a lot of children receiving their first communion and the little girls wore white dresses that looked like wedding dresses.  Oh, how I wanted one of those dresses since I loved playing 'bride'.  

I found this photo on-line from that time period.  Can't you see why a little girl would really want one?

I never got one.  My parents probably thought it was a bit sacrilegious and I also imagine that they were expensive.

Here is what my mother wrote about that day in Pisa in her trip journal.

I guess the line of girls in white dresses didn't make the same impression on her that it did on me.

I don't really know for sure where I got the small pink vase.  My mother gave me a large round cake plate that is the same color.  I am confident that it came from Catania, Sicily which is the large city close to the base.  When I google 'pink Sicilian Glass' I find that  Williams Sonoma has pink "Sicilian' tableware.  No one around that knows for sure anymore!

All of my treasures aren't from my childhood!

This one was a gift from George when we were dating.

He was a Sunday school teacher in our student congregation.  In one of his lessons he was teaching on the importance of spreading joy by doing little things.  Since it happened to be my birthday, he gave me this small trinket.  Quite the object lesson and I have kept it all these years.  It has been stored in a box but I just put it on display to remind me of the JOYS I've experienced since that Sunday in 1974. My kids may throw it away but I will keep it always to remind me of that skinny young guy that I fell in love with.

Don't we look young?  I was 21 and George was 23.  We WERE young!

The last 'treasure' is one from our time living in Barcelona.  

For most of the 5 years we were there, I led the music in our church's children's organization.  Among the many adorable children were 6 girls from one family.  I loved them and they loved me.  The youngest would often come and sit on my lap during meetings.  George and I have been lucky to attend several of their weddings in Salt Lake and get reacquainted with these girls, now strong women!

Unfortunately I only have a photo of mom and 3 of the girls.

One Sunday they very excitedly gave me these little swans.

Tucked inside were several notes they had written me.

After mentioning that they loved me, they practiced all the English words that they had been learning at school, and wrote a scripture from Genesis.  For more than 22 years I have kept this memento of these little girls and one of the sweetest times in my life when I learned that love knows no boundaries, not language, culture, or age.

In the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up when discussing how to sort 'sentimental items', Marie Kondo writes this, "It is not our memories but the person we have become because of these past experiences that we should treasure.  This is the lesson these keepsakes teach us."

So what have the experiences associated with these keepsakes taught me:

1.  Travel changes you when you 'take it all in'.

2.  Find and give joy with simple things.

3.  Love cuts across language barriers, cultural differences and disparate ages.  

 

 

Joy Montgomery Cummings

My cousin, Joy Montgomery Cummings died yesterday. I grew up following in the footsteps of my three cousins - June, Joy, and Janie. I looked up to them and observed their lives as they went through high school, got married and had children. They were always one step in life ahead of me. 

When we lived in Spain, I had the thrill of traveling with them from London, to Paris to Carcassonne, France and finally to our home in Barcelona. Oh, the memories we made! Finally we were just 3 adult women enjoying the sights! So glad we shared those weeks!

Feeding the pigeons - Trafalgar Square, London

Eiffel Tower - Paris

Castle walls in Carcassonne, France

Cathedral in Barcelona

Three Montgomery girls

COVID Fatigue

Like everyone else in the world, I am sick of COVID-19.  I am tired of Covid numbers going up, of hospitals filling up, of worrying every time I sneeze or cough, of trying to figure out if I should go to an activity or the store or church.... or even have family over.   I am just done with it yet I know that vigilance is still necessary and no matter how much I want it to be OVER, it isn't. 

I am aware that my life has merely been inconvenienced by COVID.  I shouldn't whine.  Life goes on but I haven't felt inspired to add to my blog lately. It just seems that nothing exciting is happening. After reading this quote from Jean Webster that was in the 1912 novel, Daddy Long-Legs, my thinking changed. 

"It isn't the great pleasures that count the most; it is making a great deal out of the little ones."

Here are a few of the little things that have given me pleasure and reminded me to make a great deal out of them.

My 2nd trip to Portland was wonderful.  Mount Hood looked pretty bare of snow as I flew in.

Martha did have the surgery that was delayed during my last visit, so I was able to help her during recovery.  After many attempts at making friends with her cat, Kiki, I did succeed.  For the first weeks, she would walk over to me, look up and then quickly turn around and race back to the basement.  Finally she decided that my lap was ok for a nap.  I felt so honored!

Scott's dog friend loved me immediately. I guess Gus sensed that I am a dog person.  So fun to go on some walks with Scott and Gus in beautiful Lake Oswego!

Jackson started pre-preschool and seems to be enjoying it.

I also hear that he is 'helping' cut, spilt and stack wood!  I am glad he is earning his keep!

Isabella continues to love kindergarten.  She had cold symptoms so had to miss 10 days of school as per the district protocol.  If she were tested for COVID, she only had to miss 8 days but John and family were going on a trip to Salt Lake so they had already planned for her to miss a couple of days.  The reason for their visit was so Monica could meet William Zabka from the popular TV Show Cobra Kai. 

I remember him as the 'not so nice' Johnny Lawrence from the old Karate Kid movies but Monica assures me that he is no longer the mean teenager.

In the new series he reopens the Cobra Kai dojo in an attempt to rebuild his life.  Monica told him that he had lots of fans in Argentina. 

Isabella continues to love kindergarten and is making friends.  That makes my Grandma heart so happy!

George and I enjoyed an evening out at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.  A beautiful night and since there was social distancing and everyone was required to wear a masks in the venue, we felt safe.

The play we saw was "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).  The writers were clever and the acting 1st rate.  From the program, "We figured old Bill was a pretty good playwright, but he used too many words. So we simply cut out all of Shakespeare's incisive character development, the seamlessly woven subplots, the philosophically rich musings on the human condition and skipped right to the sex and killing." Often it was a bit too much sex for our tastes but all in all it was an enjoyable date night with my husband of almost 46 years!

Next week we start out on a trip that I believe will be one of the 'great pleasures' as we leave for Iceland where we will spend 10 nights in this beauty as we explore the Land of Fire and Ice!

So excited!!!!