Celebrity sightings

Hey there! I'm back from my long weekend in Ft. Lauderdale and am wishing I was still there (sort of . . . I am glad to be back home with my boy!) I had a wonderful time seeing my friends and getting some time to relax by the pool. Other than going to church, Target and Publix, we didn't venture out much, and that was perfectly fine. Leanne and I got to do some of our favorite things: talk, read, lay out in the sun, walk on the beach, eat (but not too much) and watch movies. Not too exciting for some, but it was great for me! Doug was fine with it, too, since he got to go fishing every day.


Now for the celebrity sightings: On Friday night when I got to the gate to get on the plane, I looked over and saw Jevon Kearse, "The Freak", a former/now-returned Tennessee Titan player! One of the un-fun things about traveling alone is that when something like this happens, you don't have anyone to commiserate with (or who can vouch for you), so I did the next best thing: I texted Daniel. He didn't respond, so I sent the text to a friend from work. She responded with, "I don't know who this is." I thought she meant Jevon, so I texted back that she should ask her husband. She came back with "He's at a loss, too." I thought that was kind of strange that they wouldn't know who Jevon Kearse is, but still wanting to share my celebrity sighting with someone, I sent back a message telling who he is. She came back with "I know who he is, I don't know who is texting me!" Talk about deflating my balloon! She knew who Jevon Kearse is, she didn't know me (or thought she didn't)!!! I quickly solved her mystery and we got another laugh over it at work today.


After all that, Jevon got in line (he must have printed his boarding pass the night before, because he was in the A line . . . couldn't have been his celebrity status) and while I waited for the B line to be called, up walks somebody else who was at least dressed like he was a celebrity. I'm guessing he is a rap singer and REALLLY wish I'd had my camera (more to get this guy's picture than Jevon's). He was wearing a bright green suit with matching shoes, a hat and rhinestone-studded sunglasses. He had someone with him who I guessed was his body guard, plus another one or two people. They didn't even have to wait in the A line, they got to pre-board with the people who needed assitance and families with young children. I still don't know who he was, but he at least thought he was somebody.


I got to thinking about these famous (or somewhat famous) people I saw and what it must be like to be recognizable. I pretty much live my life in obscurity (some people I know don't even recognize my text messages!) and can walk through the airport without anyone knowing who I am. I do have some important claims to fame, though:

• Daniel's Mom


• Jeanette's Sister


• Nancy and DeLane's Daughter


• Friend


• Child of God

Maybe I'm not living in obscurity after all!

Endings and Beginnings

Endings: The last day of school is always a little sad for me, even when I'm not the one in school. I went to the awards assembly at Daniel's school today (he got to stand up and be recognized for perfect attendance all year and it was the second year in a row for that accomplishment, not that they recognized that, but thought you'd like to know). Daniel has finished the seventh grade, and in my opinion, is now an eighth grader (he says he won't be in 8th grade the first day of school in August). I can't believe he's already gone through three years of middle school. I don't think it would be good idea for me to think about what we'll be doing five years from now when it's a big ending! Yikes!

It's also (almost) the end of a busy week/month at work, and I'm NOT sad about that! Twice a year we have these insane rush times of getting insurance policies pushed through to finish up the year ("Awards Year" in May, Calendar/Fiscal Year in December). Unfortunately, my company didn't think about how extremely busy the months of May and December are for people who have things to do other than their job, so it makes life really challenging and (un)fun. But, it's almost over. At 2:00 tomorrow, when the office closes early for the long holiday weekend, I plan to not be there much longer.

Sadly, there's a well-known family who is grieving and mourning the way-too-early end (in human terms) to their daughter's life. The family of Steven Curtis Chapman lost their youngest daughter in a tragic accident yesterday and ever since I read about it, I have been praying for them. I encourage you to pray also for this family and for the sorrow they are experiencing that I can't even imagine.


Beginnings: To me, Memorial Day weekend is the start of SUMMER! I can't wait to get on the airplane tomorrow night to fly to FL to visit my friends and spend the weekend relaxing with them. I think that is a good way to start the summer. I hope you all have a good start to the summer, too, whether you're doing a yard sale, doing yard work, relaxing by a pool, or whatever you find to do.

I think the ratio of endings to beginnings is a little off here, but right now, I really should not be sitting at the computer. I need to go to bed and get some rest, but I can't usually sleep before I go on a trip. Like the little boy in the Disney World commercial says, "I'm too excited to sleep!"

What's been going on?

To all my blogger fans out there (all three or four of you), here's a post! Sheesh! You'd think I hadn't come out of my house for a month or something, just because I hadn't posted in a while. To borrow a phrase from a fellow blogger (one who didn't nag me about why I hadn't posted, I might add): "So, what are we doing?"

Well, I won't bore you with every mundane detail of the past month, but suffice it to say that I've been too busy to blog (but not to read others' blogs) and didn't feel like what I had been doing was much to write about, I guess.

One pretty cool thing I did was volunteer at a water station for the Country Music Marathon on April 26. I had volunteered alongside my mom with the group from FBC, Nashville, the first couple of years that the marathon was in existence, but had not done it since 2003. This year I had thought that I'd like to sign up just with the CMM organization and see where I got placed, but then my mom invited me to join their group again, so I did. The FBC group typically gets the station at mile 3, which is on Belmont Blvd., not far from Belmont University. This is a great time to see the runners before they start getting tired, sick, and whatever else happens to them after miles of running. The downside is that the volunteers at this station have to get there at 4:30 AM to start setting up! Yes, you read it right. I was there before dawn on a very rainy morning to set out paper cups (which got rain water in them before getting filled with drinking water and Accelerade). Thankfully, the rain let up by the time the race started and by the time the runners came by. Even though it was not my first marathon to watch, it still was very exciting and gave me a thrill to see the wheelchair athletes come first, then the Elite runners, and then to see the throngs of people running and walking in a steady stream for probably an hour. I cheered until my throat was hoarse, handing out cups of Accelerade and just trying to give encouragement. Someday I think I'll train to walk the half marathon, and who knows, maybe the whole thing!

Other than that, things have just been busy with normal things like:

• the end of Daniel's school baseball season (not a great record for the team, but Daniel had a couple of high points and personal accomplishments)
• the winding down of Daniel's 7th grade school year (only 2.5 more days to go!)
• a busy season at work
• helping get things ready for my niece
• trying to figure out if now is the time to get a different car

I'm looking forward to some time with my good friends, Leanne and Doug, down in Ft. Lauderdale, this coming weekend. It will be nice to sit in a lounge chair by the pool/beach after a busy month or so at home.

Thanks to all of you who check my blog and who care whether I post something. I'll try to stay more current and will keep you posted on the progress with my car search and the things we find to do this summer. You can be sure that we're not bored or becoming hermits. And now you can go find other people to nag, like Jennifer Box, for instance, or Robin Adams. :-)