I saw the musical, "Phantom of the Opera" for the third time last night.

It was a fabulous performance with incredible scenery, props, and makeup.

The gentleman who played the Phantom had a voice that went from softly angelic to powerfully demonic in his singing.

I was in tears at the end when he finally let the innocent Christine free to go to be with her true love, Raoul. This only came about as she tenderly accepted her "Angel of Music" as a man and not a monster.

On the way home I began to think about the "Phantom" in each of us. Even with his deformity and "ugliness", there was a beautiful person inside wanting to be exposed and acknowledged. He had the gift of his music to share, but no one to accept him and connect with his soul. Thus, he was imprisoned in his own mind.

People can be so judgemental at times without taking the time to really "see" the true person inside. First impressions can, unfortunately, set the tone for how we may ultimately treat each other.

Adding to that, we are now living in a world of "instant beauty" as a large percentage of our population work on their "outer" selves through plastic surgery, etc. We are all looking to slow down the aging process by tightening and plumping and enlarging and reducing and sucking and tucking whatever we can. Unfortunately, we may be producing a generation of pretty people who are lacking the authentic, inner character traits to match.

Although we are frightened by some of the Phantom's horrific antics, the musical slowly allows us to see a glimpse of the gentle soul deep inside this pained and tormented man. When it comes down to it, all he is wanting is to love and be loved.....

Those simple realities are pretty much true for all of us, aren't they?

Owen's First Haircut---A Photo Journal

I don't think that he especially liked this first haircut experience... : 0

Thank Heavens that's almost over with! : )

St. Simons.... in-between rain storms

Neither Dave nor I had ever been to this quaint, little island off of the coast of Georgia.

We arrived there on Thursday afternoon after a seven plus hour drive from Birmingham. Unfortunately, most of our drive was in torrential rain along the way as well as in St. Simons. (everytime that I write "St. Simons I think that the "s" at the end should have an apostrophe before it....however, the name is actually "Simons" with the "s") : )

Thursday night was a "pre-party" at my friend's lovely home right on the marsh. By the time that we got there, the rain had lightened and then actually let up for a bit....so the indoor/outdoor party was not adversely affected. Two gentlemen were roasting oysters (yum!) in the backyard for the guests...and Dave and I spent a good deal of time back there enjoying this delicacy. Inside were raw oysters on the half shell, shrimp, chicken strips, and assorted other munchies for all to enjoy. The bar was a popular spot as drinks of all types were being downed and people were meeting and greeting and old friends were getting reacquainted.

It was a great beginning to a lovely weekend...

High tide at St. Simons...

After a long drive back home to Birmingham this afternoon, I am too tired to post much tonight....but, I promise more about the weekend tomorrow.

In the meantime, the wedding at St. Simons was great....here is a snapshot of Dave looking out on the ocean at high tide as we arrived on Thursday afternoon...

Later.

A wedding weekend....on the road again....

Tomorrow Dave and I are off to St. Simons Island.

My dear friend's son is going to be getting married there...and it should prove to be a wonderful weekend!

Everything that they have done in the past has turned out to be such fun, so I am really looking forward to celebrating with them. There will be lots of dancing, drinking and great eating I am sure...and that is the good news.

Unfortunately, it is a seven and a half hour drive from Birmingham so we will be heading out first thing in the morning in order to get there in time for the first party, Thursday night.

I have already packed some books on tape as well as some good music in preparation for the long drive. I am sure that Dave will be listening to his favorite talk radio shows so these book tapes and cd's will help to keep me occupied. He and I have very different tastes when it comes to some things--for example, his views tend to be very conservative (but he calls himself a "moderate")...while I tend to be a bit more liberal (I call myself "open-minded" ha ha). We have agreed to disagree and pretty much avoid discussions of a "political" nature if we can help it!!

They say that "opposites attract"...and tomorrow's long drive may be a good test of that.

Stay tuned...

I'll try to write from the Island if I can....

xoxo

Pottery Class

I had to stop and remember what it was like to be 13 again as my students arrived for their first pottery class last night...

I had one (brave) boy and six (giggly) girls. (There will be one more boy next time, but he had to play in a make-up football game last night.)

I realized that thirteen year olds are seemingly much more sophisticated than we were back when...especially the girls. They each had their own color coordinated cell phone with them and they are certainly much more technologically advanced than we were then. Of course, we didn't have access to i-pods, text messaging, etc. in my day. It was all that we could do to run the record player without scratching the record! (Am I dating myself?)

I noticed that they wanted to get to the final product with their clay even though I kept emphasizing patience and care in working slowly and carefully. This, to me, is all part of their fast-moving generation where instant gratification is the norm. So, this will be a challenge to me as I attempt to teach them to explore their creativity in a well-thought out manner.

As they worked on their pinch pots and built small bowls with coils (picture is of their work), I enjoyed their teenage chatter. It brought me back to a time long, long (did I mention "l-o-n-g"?) ago....

During the class, one of the conversations led to my mentioning my age. Their was a group gasp as they said "59 years old????!! You don't look THAT OLD!"

After the shock of being "that old", I guess that I was a little flattered?

When class was over, the little boy's mom was a little late in picking him up so we had a chance to chat as I put things away. I asked him if he minded being the only boy in a class full of girls.

He had a wide grin on his freckled face as he said, "No, not really."

"There are some really cute girls in this group, aren't there" I asked.

"YEP", he said as his face turned red.

Ahhhh, I guess that some things never change... : )

Hmmmmm.....

"Nude gardener sows seeds of discontent around neighborhood"

Those were the headlines on page two of my newspaper today right next to the story about Britney Spears having to give up custody of her sons.

Hmmmmm....

It must be a slow news day today as far as important things going on in the world.

Back to the nude gardener...

So, this 56 year old NUT CASE gentleman enjoys mowing his lawn and working in his garden totally nude.

The neighbors in this Happy Vally, Oregon, community aren't very happy about it. In fact, they are very offended. So, they have scheduled a public meeting in order to propose outlawing "nudity visible from public locations".

But, there seems to be a glitch in this proposal in that Oregon law does not "...prohibit nudity on private property unless the exposure is sexual..."

The way I see it, if he keeps this up, his thumb won't be the only body part that is green. What is this guy thinking? Why not just walk around nude inside his house when he waters his indoor plants?

I'm all for personal freedoms....but...

Hey, even Adam wore a fig leaf!

: 0

<-----click here for video

Little Drummer Boy

Oh, how I remember those days!

When Adam was younger, he loved to bang on play the drums.

We sensed right away that he had a pretty incredible sense of rhythm and purchased him various types of drums through the years...ending with a full drum set.

This set was downstairs in the playroom, and I can still remember feeling the floor shaking upstairs as he beat out the rhythms.

It is pretty amazing that the neighbors didn't complain back in those days...

Well, I may get my "payback" in that little Owen seems to have a propensity for playing the drums, too. Here are some recent pictures of him discovering the joys of making noise.

I'll be mailing some cotton balls to Adam and Jenny asap...

: )