A Baby arrived and a Mother was born

I'd like to take a moment to thank my mother for all she did to encourage me to become a Mother.She downplayed the work, pain and heartache that comes with the job and treated me like I was carrying the Christ Child! ( as it turned out, I was) Though I couldn't hold a candle to my Mom, she often told me I was a trooper and could handle anything. She even wrote those things down in letters. What I am most grateful to her for is that she gently led me towards the most rewarding job I would ever have and the 31 years of the love for my children and from my children defines me. It's all good. I miss you Mom
Love,
susie

Justice or Mercy

One Sunday morning during the High Mass at St. James, a bat disturbed the congregation by swooping at us from the choir loft. Coats were pulled over heads and mothers covered their little Christians and chaos stopped the Homily in mid sentence. Calmly but quickly, Dad raced to the back of the church and using his coat as a net, he caught the bat. I expected him to throw the coat on the floor and stomp what was fluttering beneath it but he simply carried the bat outside and flung it to the sky. Church goers mumbled about the bat being rabid as it is abnormal for a bat to do this during the day, that the bat could have infected someone with all sorts of diseases they carry and some even said that bats were the devil's birds. On the way home I asked Dad why he didn't kill the bat. "The bat was more terrified than we were and it was suffering".
" Justice would have killed the bat but Mercy let it go".
Max, this one's for you. I am proud of you son.

who knew

As many of you know, I am now employed by the city of New Orleans at the Lakeview Public Library. I am coming off of week 3 and I thought I'd share with ya'll some of the things I have learned!
1) You have to be quiet at the Library.This is particularly hard for me as I am ( and was in the last 4 previous lives) a chirping bird!
2) As a city employee and serving the public, everyone is entitled to their opinions and I am not allowed to reveal my own. Again, this is particularly difficult for me.
3) All non fiction is filed using the DDS and all of the numbers are microscopic and it seems that every book I have to shelve is located on the bottom shelves which requires me to lay down on the floor and place one side of my face against the floor to see the numbers and find it's spot. ( I am more amazed that the same lengths were taken to borrow the book!
4) Lunch is an hour long and it's my favorite part of the day! The Library is conveniently located in a sweet little neighborhood with coffee shops and market, little cafes and a drugstore.I also get 2 breaks.I love the breaks, especially after shelving.
5) Not all children like story time but all children like sitting on my guitar case and huge stuffed animals and everybody loves stickers.
6)There is justice at the Library! If you are late returning an item, you are fined. You don't get to dispute it, you can't bully your way out of it and even if you refuse to pay the fine, it will show up on your profile FOREVER, Nobody really pays their fines, but I like that they are there.
( I am glad this justice system did not exist back when I was an irresponsible borrower)
7)People that work at the library are VERY cool.
8) I love this place

There is so a me in team!

I was walking in the French Quarter this morning and passed a band playing I fall to pieces and without hesitation, I harmonized with the chorus. In continueing my walk, I slipped into a tee shirt shop BECAUSE it was blaring Seven Bridges Road where upon I took the high notes. Just as I was leaving the French Market and heading for work, a few pieces of brass second lined in front of me and I echoed the lines of when the saints go marching in.
I'd like to credit my teamability to bowling( the only sport I ever participated in ) but I cant. There was no me in bowling! My Dad could not sit in a car without singing. I learned to be heard by harmonizing. He had a beautiful tenor voice and an ARMY of songs. When he was singing he wasn't yelling and I learned to use that to my benefit when the phone bill was about to arrive.
But the real Team feelings emerged when I met Patte Gaeble. She brought songs and harmonies but also guitars,banjos and the occasional mandolin. DEPTH! Like all great wide recievers, she came in where ever you needed her too. She made my simple things complex, she made the Team look good even when I screwed up.
It's true, there is no me in music
Fortunately theres a U and an I
Today, I thought I heard her backing me up

You are only young twice

My friend, Sue Trembley, came to New Orleans Friday and our lives were transformed into those of 2 teenagers escaping the house for the first time! Sue and I met in the first grade. We shared the same catholisizing education, developed similar souls and retain the same scars from growing up in a small town in a big family. ( not to mention having the same name) Having spent most of our school years plotting our escape, we later spent a decade of our adult lives returning home! We put a lot of water (and pink Catawba, tango, Genny 12 horse ale and assorted tobacco products) under that bridge that divided our towns and made an infamous name for ourselves: The Suesters! Oh, but marriage and children, Jobs and opportunities straightened the wrinkles in our colorful quilts and it was amazing to kick off those blankets for a couple of days and just be 16 again. I have not laughed with this much enthusiasm in 20 years. I also can't explain what , exactly, made everything so funny. The Carthage police department had me in stitches at the mere mention of it, My side split open when we attempted to talk about a broken window at the school that I dared a certain someone to kick, and I am still hysterical about why Mrs. O'Brien (our 4th grade teacher) did not like Sue. ( Sue knows what I said) Anyway, I just want to tell you that it is possible to go backwards in time for a little while with someone who was really back there with you and I want to remind you that if you let these friends slip away too long you will never know what I am talking about. This weekend was our emotional face lift, soul rejuvenation and a derm abrasion on the jagged memories that need to be erased. Thanks Sue, I love you

Friend ships

My friend from childhood ( a period that spanned the first 21 years of my life) is visiting from Colorado! We hadn't seen each other in 30 years. We hadn't talked in 25. We have been jabber blabbin' for 2 days ( minus the 3 hours we were trapped at church by the Spanish service that was a high Mass , included announcements, 2 Baptisms and a Confirmation at the end...) and we have yet to surprise each other with any of our stories. No re-friending needed here- we really knew each other well! Karen is still Karen and I am still Me and We are still standing in spite of ourselves. The same basic survival skills we used to get from Herrings to West Carthage were employed for the hundreds of thousands of miles that have been between us all these years.
There will be many thousands more in the future as it has ALWAYS been the journey for us and a destination is only a place to begin one. It is so wonderful to be reminded of that!
She brought me a scapular ( in case I die on the road)

Lombardi Gras

Dat Tuesday! I saw the Saints in our superbowl parade. I saw the trophy. 800,000 people (possibly more) attended the 3 mile route from the Super Dome. (half the distance of a regular mardi gras parade)I stood in the fiftieth row of the 50 deep crowd, in the freezing cold, having waited 5 hours, having walked from home ( 38 blocks) and having to walk back when it was over and NOTHING WAS GOING TO KEEP ME FROM MY MOMENT! After all they did to 'get there', it was the least I could do.
Now what?