California Fever

A surprise!

Poetry Thursday came and went and not a poem was heard in my head.  Oh well.  Work was still very busy yesterday, but not the zoo it had been the day before.  I had J drive me to and from work yesterday.  After biking in the rain on Wednesday (not a fun way to start the day), I felt like starting my day in a more civilized fashion yesterday.  So I had him first drive me through Starbucks for a green tea latte (my new fave) before dropping me at the office half an hour early.  We had errands to run after work and found ourselves in Woodland (our neighbor to the north) before heading to the airport in Sacramento to pick up his rental car. (He took our car on the road last weekend and it's fine--he just doesn't like adding tons of miles to it.  And at $17/day, he might as well jump in a sporty-looking, candy apple red Chrysler Sebring.)  He leaves this morning for L.A.  They play in Santa Monica tonight...(I love L.A....wish I was going.)...and Fresno tomorrow night before heading home on Sunday.

For the last two weeks, I've been zipping back and forth at work between our conference room (which has been re-keyed as a secure storage room for testing materials for a few weeks) and the office.  I returned to my desk for a few minutes yesterday afternoon and as I walked by, Carolyn excitedly waved me into her office.  There was a lovely young woman sitting on the arm of her loveseat and a large stroller blocking her doorway.  I didn't know the woman, but Carolyn seemed to want me to meet her, so I squeezed by in the narrow space between the open door and the stroller, turned around and saw that it was TAYLOR!  Yes, Taylor Parker was in our office!  Tammy (Taylor's mom) and Taylor decided to surprise Carolyn at work. (I'd never met Tammy in person either.) I can't even describe how stunned I was.  After all these months, to finally meet Taylor in person...I just would have never expected that it would be in our office!  Carolyn gives me an update after each of her hospital visits, so I've been able to keep abreast of how Taylor's doing--her ups and downs.  But I didn't know she was getting out and about!  It's a recent development; the family has a new specially-equipped van.  (I don't know if what she was in is really a stroller, so to speak, but stroller-like.  Imagine a large stroller rather than a wheelchair.)  How freeing it must feel for Taylor and Tammy to be able to get out and do things after being stuck in hospital rooms for the past several months.  Carolyn has told me that feeling has returned to Taylor's arms and legs...but still no movement.  There's a fundraiser for Taylor tomorrow night in Woodland. 

I told Taylor that I was going to go home and post on my blog about her fabulous surprise visit to our office, because I wanted to let all of the people all over the world who've been sending her good wishes and prayers know how she's doing.  If you read the April 30th post on her blog, you'll read about how she got to see her horses and feed them with her mouth.  Reading that made me realize yet again how intuitive and empathic our animals can be towards us.

A few weeks back, Carolyn was having a rough week.  So I went to the Dollar Store and filled up a gift bag with some silly stuff.  One was a small lavender plush bunny.  Carolyn's very much into natural healing, and outside of our school's garden, her office is probably the most healing place on campus.  She has a small fountain and candles and aromatic oils.  She decided the bunny needed to live next to the fountain, on a corner of a long shelf near her desk.  I was only able to visit with Taylor for a few minutes before I had to head back to the conference room, but Carolyn told me later that Taylor had spotted the bunny.  Carolyn held it to Taylor's face (it's very soft) and then told her she could have it.  She said she started to put the bunny under Taylor's arm, but she wanted it by her face.  Carolyn set it next to her face, and she said Taylor leaned her face against it and seemed very happy to have it there.

Sometimes one small thing can be a very big deal.  A $1.00 plush toy nestled against the one part of Taylor's body that she can move.  I'm going to take that as a lesson today...and try to pay attention to the places in my life where I can do one small thing to give someone one bright spot in their day.

If you've been following Taylor's story--and many of you have shown her such an outpouring of love and support--please stop by her blog and say "Hi."  It would be nice for her to know that we're all still thinking about her.

Taylor's birthday

THANK YOU for all of your very kind and supportive comments.  I truly appreciate it.  I'm going to carry all of you with me as I head out on what will surely be quite a road trip...

Shadow #7 is here.  I ran errands after work and by the time I took this photo, Jeffrey was cooking a take-n-bake pizza and getting ready to head to a gig.  I walked to the park around the corner trying to find a slice of light in the setting sun.  Plopped my butt on the curb at the park and snapped--didn't even care what it looked like.  I was tired.  I am tired.  I'd made sure to cover anything that might come up next week at work, and my coworkers are all being very gracious in offering to help out any way they can.  I learned today that we not only get bereavement leave--we get up to 5 days for out-of-state travel for it.  So I'm able to take all of next week off with pay.  Even better, Spring Break is the week of April 9th.  That means that I'm off work for the next 16 days.  Just typing that almost makes me cry.  I've been really ready for a break--I just could have never expected my break would double in length because of a family loss.

The viewing is Wednesday night in Phoenix; the service is Thursday morning.  It looks like we'll hit the road sometime on Monday.  I'll keep you posted.  I'm hoping Marty and Chelle will bring their laptop--we'll see.

With everything that's happened, I completely forgot to mention here that TODAY is Taylor's 6th birthday.  I thought some of you might want to pop over to her blog to wish her a Happy Birthday.  I'm going to do that right now...

And then I'm going to put on my PJ's, grab the new Annie* and curl up in bed.  I might even have another good cry.

(*Hey, look, she's in Portland on Tuesday night.  The Bagdad is where they shot some of this film.  That Hawthorne neighborhood is my old stomping grounds.)

A Liar's Party

Betcha can't guess what I did last night...

Yes!  It was finally time to host "A Liar's Party" for Patry Francis!  We had it at the lovely home of my pal, Toni.  (Our place is way too small.)  The photo was courtesy of Bob, Toni's wonderful husband who went upstairs and left us to do our chatty thing.  Patry's husband, Ted, had dropped her at the party and then headed back to their hotel.

I was the only other blogger in attendance--the others are friends from my workplace (junior high).  The bloggers I would have invited all live some distance away, and I know it's hard for people on a weeknight.  I invited 12--seven of us were able to make it. 

From left to right:  me, Kathy (head of our English dept.), Patry, Toni (school nurse), Gina (teaches English and Drama--she recently won a grant for some training at the Globe Theatre in London this summer...our Drama students are currently in rehearsal for "Pirates of Penzance"), Esther (our much-loved former German teacher--she retired at the end of last year), Carolyn (head counselor...Taylor's grandma...Patry's granddaughters sent a gift for Taylor...so sweet!) and Debbie (our inclusion--special ed--teacher).

Toni and Debbie have lived across the street from each other for many years, and have been in a neighborhood book club for nearly as long.  So when I asked, Toni said she'd be happy to host us since her book club has previously hosted other authors.

And just to keep things really cozy...Toni's daughter, Lindsay, will be marrying Carolyn's son, Dan, this August.

This is a warm and wonderful group of women, and I hope that Patry enjoyed her evening with them.  I know that she has a game she somtimes likes to play with these book party groups, but we were so busy peppering her with questions that we never got around to it.  We learned that she likes to write in the mornings.  That she once read in a "Writer's Digest" publication to simply write 3 pages every day, even if one doesn't feel like it--so that's what she does.  About her earlier novels which were not published.  About suggestions her editor made for The Liar's Diary.   About some, um, interesting ways a few readers have responded to the book.  And how her oldest son waited 20 years to collect on a childhood promise.  See, you have to host a party so you can get all the juicy details, too!  ;)

Patry is just as smart and witty and sweet and delightful and wonderful as I'm sure you all imagine her to be.  She and I shared with the group the joys of blogging.  I started to say the highs and lows, but I can't think of a single negative that we mentioned, since we both love it so much.  (I guess the only downside would be that it can be a tad addictive.)  ;)

Patry shipped a box of books to my home late last week and since we all planned to buy books from her, after Jeffrey accidentally opened the box (not reading the label--thinking it was one of his usual Amazon shipments), I grabbed a copy and between Sunday and after work yesterday, devoured it.  (Well, the story, not the actual book.)  It's a page-turner!

And in a sweet twist for me, Patry and Ted spent Monday night in my hometown of Crescent City.  When I spoke to her after work on Monday, they were making their way down the gorgeous Oregon coast.  I had told them that Crescent City would be about halfway between Portland and Davis via the route they had mapped out.  (Laini hosted a party for her on Sunday night.)   So on Monday night Patry and Ted stayed at Hampton Inn & Suites, where old Seaside Hospital used to be located.  That was where my brother and I were both born and where we both had tonsillectomies--me at age 3, him at 12.  So imagine my delight when I phoned her from work yesterday morning and heard her say, "Oh, we're just leaving Good Harvest..."  She said last night that when the cafe staff had asked how they'd heard about Good Harvest, she nonchalantly replied, "I have a friend from Crescent City..."  Good Harvest is where we have breakfast when we're there--good food and great handmade willow furniture.  Patry and Ted had both been very excited to see redwoods for the first time--I told her she'd hit a big bunch of them just south of town, since 101 would take them through Redwood National Park.

The only disappointment about this entire experience was that Patry and I didn't have more time to hang out together. We had a few minutes as I drove her back to her hotel.  This morning she and Ted are off to Corte Madera to visit Book Passage, one of the country's best indie bookstores.  (I saw Natalie Goldberg speak there several years ago).  Her book tour continues in the Bay Area before they fly to Chicago later this week. 

It was a wonderful evening with a wonderful person.

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In Unity Week news...  Unity Week is kicking my butt!  :)  There are three of us on staff who have organized these activities.  We each took the lead on one big project.  My big project was working with the kids on our Darfur committee.  Yesterday was their day to present, which they did during both lunch periods.  They set up a slide show to run onstage in our Indoor Commons, which is also our cafeteria.  But that was just a tease to entice kids to check out their exhibit in our (unused this year) Home Ec room.  I can't post photos here, because that would break my 'no student photos' policy, but their presentation was a huge hit.  They wanted it to feel like night, so they put dark paper over the huge windows and strung a bunch of white lights.  They had a slide show running and built an example of a simple structure a Darfur refugee might have in one of the refugee camps.  They had an information table, where they provided handouts and answered questions.  They also encouraged visitors to their exhibit to write postcards to President Bush to encourage him to take action to protect innocent civilians in Darfur.  They made green ribbons that students and staff could be seen wearing the remainder of the day in solidarity.  And they created a green ribbon paper 'wall' where students could write their sentiments about Darfur on large green paper ribbons which we now have displayed in the school lobby. 

Our school district's school climate coordinator was on-site yesterday and I encouraged him to check out their presentation.  Afterwards, he told me that he'd told the kids he was so impressed that he wants them to take their show on the road--to do their presentation at our sister junior highs.  They were quite excited by that news, and I couldn't be prouder of them.

Today at lunchtime (all three grades have lunch together on Wednesdays) we're staging a cultural fashion show.  We had a dress rehearsal at the end of the schoolday on Monday.  The fashion show committee has pulled together some wonderful outfits for the show--from Pakistan and Ghana and Vietnam and Japan and China and India and Tonga, etc.  And the show is going to open with a special performance by our high school's award-winning Madrigals.  Yours truly will be the commentator, and this morning I'll be helping our decorations committee set the stage for the show.

Monday morning I helped our language tree committee hang their piece in the Indoor Commons.  The kids came up with this concept to show all of the different languages spoken by our students--as based on a language survey they gave to all students last week.

There's also a world map in the Indoor Commons.  Last Friday, every student was given an opportunity (during their P.E. classes) to put a dot on the map indicating the country or state or city they most identify with.

And yesterday during lunch the two girls heading up a hands mural project got students to write on paper hands the nationalities or races they most identify with along with one thought about unity.

Tomorrow is a minimum day so our teachers can join their fellow teachers at their sister schools in articulation meetings.  I'm looking forward to having a nice, quiet afternoon in the office just so I can catch up a little!  :) On Friday, our assembly committee will be doing two shows of their Unity Week assembly.

This weekend?  I plan to sleep.  ;)

Tour of California

The Amgen Tour of California comes through Davis around mid-day today.  This is the largest cycling event in the country, and the cyclists are going to zip through our downtown streets 2 blocks to the west of us, 1-1/2 blocks to the south and 2 blocks to the east. (I'll be at work, but I'm hoping Jeffrey will capture some photos.) They're coming into Davis on Russell Boulevard which borders the UC Davis campus on the north.  It's a street that's within maybe 4 blocks of my school.  I'm going to ride my bike to school this morning (for the first time in MONTHS), and if I can possibly get away at lunchtime, I'm going to zip over to Russell to see if I can witness the race for a few minutes.  The paper said it will only take about 15-20 minutes for the cyclists to make their way through town, and that the speeds will be amazing.  It's like having the Tour de France zipping through your town.

Here's the info on Stage 2 today, which takes them from Santa Rosa through the Napa Valley to Sacramento.  And here are videos from yesterday's Stage 1 event--Sausalito to Santa Rosa.  Scroll down to the one labeled "Peleton Pile Up."  Eeeek.  We saw that on the local news last night.

Today's stage begins at 10 am PST.  If you get Versus channel, you can watch each day's footage from 7-8 pm PST (10-11 EST).

There are some great shots up at Flickr.

I've got a busy day and week ahead of me.  It was nice having a 3-day weekend, but I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked.  I'd forgotten that we'd be gone on Sunday, even though it was nice to get out of town and take a nice drive.  I can't even remember now what we did on Saturday, although I do know we went grocery shopping.  Friday was one of those 'a day from hell' kind of days, so I think I was sort of rebounding from it on Saturday.  Oh, I remember now--Jeffrey went to hang out with one of his musician friends in Sacramento for awhile and I took my bike out for a spin.  It was a lovely sunny day and I rode to the library.  I did get through some stuff yesterday, but every time I'd sit down to get caught up online, J would need the computer again for work stuff.  It's hard sharing a computer when one of you is using it for your liveliehood.  So if I haven't been by for awhile, know that I'll get there eventually.  Yesterday I finally started making a list of all that I need to do (instead of trying to keep it all stored in my head).  And I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed as a result.  ;)

UPDATE ON TAYLOR
I know I haven't given you an update on Taylor in awhile.  Last week Carolyn reported that Taylor was beginning to have some sensation in her fingers.  The family was thrilled, even though the doctors appeared to act like it was no big deal.  You can read about it on her blog.  But (as of this moment) what's not on her blog is that on Saturday, SHE MOVED HER BIG TOE!   YES!!!  Carolyn asked me to share that with all of you, because we both believe that the power of your collective good thoughts have made a difference in her recovery.  Please continue to send healing thoughts her way.  We're not giving up hope!  Thank you.

Taylor update

Happy New Year, everyone!  Thank you for all of your lovely comments on the "Youth for Hope" post--I'll make sure the girls see them. 

It was back to work at school for me today.  As much as I was sad to have my winter vacation come to an end, it was good to be back in the office with Carolyn.  And there's been some rather exciting news in Taylor's situation.  But I'll let you read it for yourself.  :) 

There's no deadline to participate in Taylor's Flickr photo pool.  If you'd like to add a photo to her group pool, feel free.  Instructions are in the right sidebar.  And I'm happy to post photos for any of you who don't have or don't want your own Flickr account.

On another front, today is my stepmother Yvonne's 70th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Yvonne!

I have a feeling 2007 is gonna be a good year...for us all. 

sorrows AND joys

Driving back from my nephew's JV basketball game in Dixon last night, I was listening to NPR--to a piano jazz Christmas show.  It was a live concert somewhere and at one point, singer Andy Bey was introduced.  The female MC asked if this (holiday season) is a favorite time of year for him. "No."  They both laughed, and he said what a sad and hard time of year this is for many, especially for those who've lost loved ones.

This is a hard time of year for many of us, routinely.  But it's been an especially hard time for some of us.  So I'd like to dedicate this song to...

Laura, who has lost both of her parents within the past couple of weeks

Darlene, whose son Mark was recently in a bad car accident.  (He's Boho's nephew.)

Taylor, who's paralyzed below her collarbone

Kara, whose mother recently died

Liz Elayne, whose uncle has been diagnosed with cancer

To Meta, whose spirit has touched many of us

To the hundreds of thousands in Darfur who've lost their lives in a violent genocide and to the millions there whose lives are affected by it every day

To all of those who were affected by Katrina and are still struggling to put their lives back together

But with sorrow always comes joy, and we have beautiful gifts to celebrate this season...

Ben!

Julianne!

Rocky!

And Sam's announcement that she's expecting!

Life is always going to hand us pain in some form--we can't escape it, but we can take great comfort in the fact that we've developed this remarkable virtual community that surrounds us in our time of need.  To reach out with a virtual hug, a kind word, a gesture of support.  We have much to celebrate this holiday season through our tears--we can celebrate each other.  I celebrate each and every one of you, and thank you for the gifts you bring to my life every single day.

And as you know, I'm not exactly a religious person, but even I loved this song as a little Catholic girl sitting in Midnight Mass.  Hope you like Sarah's version...

Happy Holidays, friends.

some good news

I don't know about you, but I could use some good news tonight.  Let's see what I can round up...

ABC's Ugly Betty continues to rock my world.  I love this show.  I think it's beautifully cast and acted, and I think America Herrera is going to be a big, big star.  I'm seriously hooked on watching the episodes online (so much better than sitting through all of those commercials--only a handful of 30-second interruptions instead).  I haven't completely caught up yet, but this morning before work (and what a delightful way to start my day) I sat in the dark living room with just the tree lights on and watched last week's show (which was a repeat of the first episode, which I'd missed) with headphones while J. slept.

Carolyn was at the hospital with Taylor today--she called on her way home tonight.  She asked me to thank all of you for your continued love and support of Taylor.  She said Taylor is having a tough time of it, mentally and emotionally.  And who the hell could blame her?  But I can't help thinking that that sort of anger and feisty reaction might serve her well in her fight to regain movement and strength.  She asked if you would please continue to send Taylor your love and support and prayers and thoughts--she really believes it's making a difference. THANK YOU for all of the fabulous photos you continue to post to Taylor's Flickr pool.  They're greatly appreciated.  Oh, good news...there is some...I have the impression that our little buddy may get to move to Shriners Hospital even before she's weaned off the respirator, and that would be good news.

Saw in today's S.F. Chronicle that J's old buddy Todd Field's new film, Little Children (starring Kate Winslet), has won the S.F. Film Critics Circle award for Best Film.  Jackie Earle Haley (remember Bad News Bears?) won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film, and Todd and Tom Perrotta won Best Adapted Screenplay.  Todd's last film (as writer/director) was the much-lauded In the Bedroom in 2001.

Last Christmas Day, Andrea was in tears at Glide over her inability to conceive.  Last Friday, Ben was born.  (I'm SO happy for her and Matt.)  Now that's good news of the highest order!

And speaking of Glide...be sure to check out Will Smith's new film, The Pursuit of Happyness.  It's based on the life of Chris Gardner, who went from being homeless with his small son in the 80's to multimillionaire status.  He often went to Glide for meals and support when he was homeless, and Glide's Rev. Cecil Williams (still going strong!) has a cameo in the film.  (We haven't seen it yet, but it's been much written about in local papers.)  Here's the article from today's Chronicle.  (And when I opened the Datebook section this morning, there were the two movie features side by side--Will Smith talking about his film in which my old church plays a role...and J's old buddy winning a couple of awards.  Don't see that every day.)  ;)

Okay, what good news do you have to share?

Taylor update

I wanted to give you an update on Taylor.  Yesterday's fundraising lunch at the Elks Lodge in Woodland seemed to be a big success--hundreds of people attended.  (Yay for funds for Taylor's Hope Fund!)  She has been deemed a good candidate to get a mechanical diaphragm, which means she can be eventually taken off the respirator.  And that's particularly good news because once she's off the respirator, she can possibly be moved to Shriners Hospital and begin rehab.  Let's keep our fingers crossed.  She's expected to have the surgery in a couple of weeks.  You can check out her blog for more details.

I want to extend a huge, heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who've submitted photos to her Flickr fan club.  And if you haven't added a photo (or two or three) to her Flickr group pool, please feel free to join us.  See the info in the right sidebar--clicking the Flickr badge will take you to the pool.

Some of you who sent photos to the Flickr pool had ideas on how we could expand it:

Sam suggested we each add new photos to the pool every few days, so Taylor can continuously have new images to look at.  Good one, Sam!

Will thought it would be great if we could make Moo cards from her Flickr fan club photos.  It occurred to me that they could be pinned to a bulletin board or used to create a mobile for her room--with all of her Flickr 'angels' floating above her and watching over her.  I think Moo cards are definitely in Taylor's future.  ;)

When I saw the photo of Patry's beautiful family holding art from their recent art-making day, it made me wonder how we could use art to help Taylor.  Patry suggested that bloggers could create art specifically for Taylor and post photos of it in her Flickr pool.  I think that's a fabulous idea!  For that reason alone, I urge all of you to run out and buy Patry's novel as soon as it hits the shelves on February 1!  Even better, pre-order The Liar's Diary now at Amazon!  (She has no idea I'm promoting her book--hope she doesn't hit me.)

I hope my blog-pals will forgive me for using their Flickr fan club photos in this post--I wanted you to see them.

Some of you asked if you should spread the word about the Flickr fan club.  YES!  Please spread the word--let's make this a global community supporting Taylor's healing and recovery!

And then there was this email from my old (one of the earliest blogs I read) blogger buddy, Mark:

Hi Marilyn,

The kids cried when I told them Taylor's story. Then they decided to throw her a party. They decorated Alex's room with streamers and demanded I send pictures of the big event.

I don't have a Flickr account, and I'm too lazy to set one up, so I'm sending you these pictures for the fan club.

Thanks for letting us know about Taylor. We'll all be thinking of her.

- Mark













(If that doesn't make you teary, check your pulse.)

Thank you for your continued love and support and encouragement.  You guys are the BEST.

Taylor Parker Fan Club

I've set up a Flickr group photo pool for any and all well wishers for little Taylor.  Ha!  I just realized that my photo is the only one showing up there--the Flickr account I set up for the family only has a couple of photos in it right now, so their photos aren't showing up in the pool yet.  I feel like Tom Cruise in Jerry McGuire, "Come on...who's comin' with me...??"  :)  (I love that screenplay--it had some great lines.  Don't believe me?  Check it out.)

I thought it would be nice if Taylor could SEE the people who are sending her love and good thoughts and prayers from all over the world.  Because there are a LOT of people in her corner, and not just in her hometown of Chico.

So if you have a Flickr account, please consider adding your photo to the Taylor Parker Fan Club group photo pool.  And if you don't have a Flickr account but would like to add your photo, I'll be happy to host it at my Flickr account and send it to the group pool for you.  Just email it to me at blogfever at yahoo dot com.

There's a fundraiser lunch in Woodland on Sunday afternoon for Taylor.  Here's the article that appeared on the front page of the Woodland Daily Democrat.  (Ironically, as I was sitting in my hair salon in downtown Woodland last night waiting for my appointment, the receptionist reached behind me to post a flyer in their front window...about Taylor's benefit.)  Our choir teacher at school (who teaches at all of our secondary schools) has lined up about 20 students from our high school's award-winning Madrigals to perform at Sunday's benefit.  And when I say award-winning, I mean this group is serious.  Check out this blurb from Davis Wiki:

In July 2006, the Madrigals travelled to Llangollen, Wales to participate in the 2006 Llangollen Musical Eisteddfod. The Madrigals competed in four events: Senior Childrens Choir, Chamber Choir, Youth Choir, and Folk Ensemble. The Madrigal Singers won Second Place in the Senior Childrens event, Third Place in the Youth Choir event, and First Place in the Chamber Choir Competition. Because of the victory in the chamber choir competition, the Madrigals progressed to the Choir of the World competition, where the 5 top choirs in the festival competed for the coveted Pavarotti trophy, and the title of Choir of the World.

You can take a listen at their MySpace page.  And it looks like the Davis Enterprise will have a story about Sunday's fundraiser in that morning's paper.

Please consider taking just a moment to share a photographic smile with a little 5-year-old girl who could use all of our good wishes right now. 

Alright, who's comin' with me?  Anyone??

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12/9 - EDITED TO ADD:  Children and pets!  Why didn't I think to say that in my original post?!  Yes, please, please send along your photos of your children and/or your pets--we'd LOVE to have them (and there are some in the pool now).  Thank you!

Day 37

Well, this is it...DAY 37.  When I set out on this latest '37 Days Challenge,' the end seemed quite far off, but now it feels like it's gone by fairly quickly.  On this last day of the challenge, I'm not going to go with my original "37th page of a random book" prompt, nor am I going to write a typical Sunday Scribblings post.  What I'm going to do instead is recap the last 37 days--a quick hit of what I posted about on each day.  Today's Sunday Scribblings prompt is "In the last hour..."  And in the last hour, I've looked back at where this challenge took me this time.  Here's a recap:

Day 1 - Fred Astaire...and making a fool of yourself
Day 2 - a bedtime story (poem)
Day 3 - a take on worldview
Day 4 - Saucepans and the Single Girl
Day 5 - mining our authenticity...and seeing stars
Day 6 - Just be.
Day 7 - mindful eating
Day 8 - on demand vs. old school
Day 9 - morning meditation (and I'm still not doing it)
Day 10 - not judging others' choices
Day 11 - Doesn't matter if you know someone's name if you don't really see them.
Day 12 - Sweet Charity...and Molly Ringwald
Day 13 - Rejoice in your own bright life.
Day 14 - Stars like to be stars...and not just in Hollywood.
Day 15 - Idleness is a friend of creativity.
Day 16 - piloting one's own life
Day 17 - 365 Days/365 Plays
Day 18 - needing a vacation
Day 19 - a funny Phillip Lopate poem
Day 20 - my bitchy poem about the Cheneys
Day 21 - Taylor's accident
Day 22 - I didn't post, but I had posted twice on day 21.
Day 23 - the extent of my grossly embarrassing shallowness as a young person
Day 24 - trying not to unravel
Day 25 - search strings on my blog
Day 26 - "Thank Your First Commenter Day"
Day 27 - creative DNA...being a visionary instead of a revolutionary...being grateful for the hard stuff...the obstacle IS the path...desire lines...loving the blogosphere...AND some Ze Frank - Dang, this one had some good stuff in it.  I can say that since it was all about what other people wrote.
Day 28 - an update on Darfur
Day 29 - Ohmygod!  I totally missed day 29!
Day 30 - nemesis
Day 31 - Enchanted Cottage
Day 32 - flying keys
Day 33 - how blogging changed my life
Day 34 - if these walls could talk
Day 35 - the one word meme
Day 36 - an homage to my musician mate
Day 37 - A big thank you to Patti for being a never-ending source of inspiration and inspiring me to do this challenge in the first place.  All of my "37 Days Challenges" posts are here (both batches--I also did it last Spring).

Thank you to all of you for reading and for your wonderful comments and emails over the last 37 days.

And now for an update on Taylor.  She's been sitting up in a chair, and her little brother Tanner (2-1/2) has been to visit her.  You can read more on her blog.  A BIG thank you to Liz and Patti and Mari for sending goodies for Taylor--it was very sweet and incredibly thoughtful of you.

And just because I'm so blessed, let me just recap a little extra magic associated with those three blogging buddies.  Liz is the only person I know in Sweden and she's friends with my coworker's (Taylor's stepgrandma) daughter in Sweden.  What are the odds?!  Patti's gift for Taylor led me to a gallery in Eugene, OR where I discovered they sell the pewter pocket angel I lost a couple of months ago!  And Mari not only sent a box of custom cookies for Taylor, she sent some extra cookies for Jeffrey and me.  I just assumed all of the cookies in our box would be undecorated.  So you'll know I'm not kidding when I say that I gasped when I opened our box.  Mari makes the coolest cookies EVER! What a sweet treat to celebrate the end of...37 days.  May unexpected angels show up in your life in the next 37 days.