April 22, 2001

The 4/20 "appearance" at SSHS started on shaky ground, with Mr. Wolf (Head of the English Dept) censoring sections of my reading. First off I brought 50 copies of the exercise he wanted me to provide....he'd asked for 30, but when he asked how many I had and I said 50 he said he needed 100 more. So he went off to the Xerox room. I was reading the last chap of book one when he returned ... afterwards he said it was a bit too risqué for that group -- sophomores. He had told me when I first talked to him on the phone that all the classes were Seniors! To me they ALL look like babies. :O) After we broke for lunch I told him to pick what he wanted me to read from the book, plus, I gave him the first chap of "Fair Game" to see if it would be okay for the afternoon classes.... When I came back Mr Wolf was ecstatic over the new chap...he said ALL the teachers want to buy book two. BUT he'd marked the first part up to the last sentence and said it would be "okay" to read. So I didn't read that sentence -- it had "wiener" and "pee" in it. The kids seemed to enjoy the afternoon reading better as I didn't go all through the chapter without pause, but stopped and discussed what had been read. The morning group did the exercise and in each of the 3 afternoon classes at least one student came up to talk to me after class, among them a budding poet with writer's block, who hopefully, I helped. Mr. Wolf DID explain that there's some big to-do going on over a book he had on his required reading list. I believe he said it was "The Chocolate War" and a bunch of parents raised hell and want it banned. Oh yah, he didn't want me to read any of the swear words. Apparently "Choc." had a lot of those and that's what parents bugged out over. Unlike with Mr. Banker, who was in charge last year, I wasn't invited to eat at the school. Mr. Wolf said, "We usually have errands to do at lunch." SO....Muriel was supposed to come get me and we were going to lunch...WELL...she neglected to inform me she was working at the church, so she took me home at 10:45 a.m. and came back for me at noon - I was due back at 12:20. I had a can of Slim Fast because I hadn't defrosted anything thinking I was going out to eat. THEN she said she couldn't come get me but that her daughter in law would at 3:15 and the woman DID, but I felt guilty asking her to take me to the grocers, so I came home and put on my WINTER coat as it really got nasty - rain/cold and then I hiked over to the grocer to get a frozen dinner...I was STARVING> :o) So that was my day. Nothing was said about how/when we would be paid, but I think the teacher puts in the chit and then it's a long wait....up to 3 months. At least that's what happened last time. In spite of the aggravations I did enjoy "starring" again. Hope the kids got something out of it. They seemed interested and we did have a lively discussion about the 1950s high school scene as compared to the 2001 scene AND some of the tricks of the writing trade. * * * * * * * Earlier this week I went to a funeral for my former charge STELLA!, who passed away on Easter Sunday at age 90. She had a long, productive life -- eight children and many grand and great-grand children. And so the list of dear old friends who have left me behind gets a bit longer - The end of last year saw the sudden passing of long time banking friend TOM GAYAN (IL), just in his 50s and longtime Sons of Norway stalwart, GLORIA EIDE (WI). I miss them all.

April 6, 2001

I'm reading "Waiting To Exhale" -- saw a documentary on the author and found her intriguing. She recently went off to Jamaica and found herself a little joy boy whom she MARRIED!? - Hmmm too bad I didn't know ahead of time, I would have warned her about summer romances. Also picked up "Last Picture Show," though I don't care for the setting - Texas. YUK. I believe I've seen both movies. I'm suddenly into reading again, really missed it, too.

SOooo I'm back to my editing. Amazing - no matter how many times you look you still find little glitches. With the computer it's mostly spacing for some reason - I guess my eyes are getting worse. It's hard to find the spaces when you're working on the computer, but on the hard copy they jump right out at you. I have a problem with apostrophes too for some reason...am constantly rereading my grammar books. Sometimes they're like reading Greek. :O

We're into some shitty weather - rain/cold. Hopefully it's spring rain! - AND that it'll wash away all the FILTHY DIRTY SNOW!

March 30, - April 4, 2001

Had a busy day. Cabbed to the Duluth Public Library on 3/30 to get footnotes for the final step of book two, which praise the Lord(!) I finished on 3/26/01 at 6 a.m.!!!! Pretty sure I got everything I need. After I left I hootched east on Superior St. - heading for Ace Hardware for a garage light, thinking, "maybe I should call Savage (the Publisher) for a ride home," WHEN - here he comes up from Michigan St.! I about swooned! :O) He had a lunch engagement. I had lunch at Coney Island on lst... Didn't have coneys though -- had a Gyros sandwich -- it was HUGE. I ate it all though. :O) Then wandered around the Holiday Center. Geez...there aren't any bookstores on Superior St. anymore.... I knew there's some at the bay front , (on the way to Park Point), but the weather was too lousy to wander further.... Raw wind, rain, fog, etc.... really yukky. I took two busses home - Duluth and So End. Was glad to get home and take my nap. :O) Oh yah - the fog horns were going like crazy. I LOVE that sound. Meanwhile, Savage Press and I are at a crossroad in our negotiations. I wonder if it has something to do with the prominent Northern Lights/full moon/shitty weather.....YIKES! I may be losing it..... I don't rem. whether March went out like a lamb or a lion, but suspect it was a lamb as now things seem rocky PLUS there may still be some snow in the air. UFF DA! I survived my 66th birthday (the day the swallows returned to Capistrano) -- not that I celebrated or anything. Got 30 some cards, a few oldies (friends) missing -- but won't put them on any hit list. ahahaaa -- we are ALL having those senior moments. I appreciate all the ones I got, plus the monetary rewards ($116!), the bottle of Tia Maria from old buddy, Mirka Lange and book (on writers/writing et al) from old pals Jan/Jay Archie. Birthday cards are at the ready for April - meanwhile HAPPY APRIL BIRTHDAY GREETINGS GO OUT TO: niece, JoMarie Velissariou, Gr. niece Rachel Oliphant, Niece April Marro, 2nd cuz Lucy Green, cuz. Nicky Mockler, Gr. nephew Kosta Velisariou, fiends, Marie Jacobsen, Geo. Hardison, Marite Butners & Jim Christensen. My friend Bonnie Andrews Drake was away for a few days in the Twin Cities with her daughter Lisa (From CA) and two grandchildren; Barbara Johnson Turner is out in Omaha as we speak, helping her Mom celebrate her birthday (3/30). I sure miss them both when they're away as they are regular emailers.... Most of my other "regulars" are 'kind of' slipping up. WHAAAAaaaaa I'll be speaking at the SSHS on April 20 - to 3 Sr. classes -- an all day session. Hope I can "hold up!" :O)

January 1, 2001

Here we are...in the new year! Great to be alive and fairly well :O) - I started the year off right by doing FIVE snail mail letters, with lord-knows-how-many to go! These five include three Bank friends - R.P. Andersen, who's Christmas card was returned as I was off one digit on the address. HUMPH - in Superior the mailman finds me when people send my mail to the house I lived in five years ago! :O) Mirka Lange - ever generous friend, whose wedding I attended with my ex back in the 60s...never forget THAT soiree! ...Dave/Brenda Miller ...Dave worked for me in the security vault the last 10 years of my tenure at elbanko, ever faithful in keeping me posted on their activities; I mention the bankers first as last night I dreamed I was back in the bank working...in the vault. Had been to the cafeteria and gobbled up FREE shrimp for the holiday with Mr. Howard Wittenberg, a VP in my day and then went to the vault and the massive steel door almost crushed me...after which I had some trauma about some misplaced securities I’d forgotten to lock up the Friday before...hmmm....wonder why those work hysterics are still jogging around in my brain???? The only thing that I can figure triggered all that was, before going to bed I espied a pkg of shrimp in my freezer and put it out to thaw. hmmm. I also did some thank yous to new Superiorite friend Kathi Patnode & Floridian Jan Breitzmann Gagnon, Central Class of 1951, who has been a regular correspondent since reading my book. Am happy to report I finished reading "Tis," by Frank McCourt (sequel to Angela's Ashes) today. Thank you Barb Turner for the loan. It was a good read...not as good as the first one, but an interesting exercise into Memoir writing. McCourt has a way with words....as most Irish do, though a bit long-winded and sometimes confusing, due to the fact he doesn't use quotation marks around dialogue passages. Still...recommended for those who enjoy, as do I, any book on the immigrant experience. Available at www.amazon.com

December 31, 2000

This is it! The last day of a vintage year. Hope 2001 will match - maybe even be better? I'm rehashing some old memories...not all good ones. Gotta stop, though as it’s making me blue. BUT...blue is the color for New Years, isn't it? Sadness for losses ... friends, dreams. It’s also time for hope...I hope! Mostly I want to send out thanks for my family and friends...it’s been such a joy hearing from you all at Christmas. Your generosity is unparalleled - thanks MARITE BUTNERS, HELEN PAPPAS, MIRKA LANGE, DAVE/BRENDA MILLER, MIKE SAVAGE, SIS DAY, NEPHEW MIKE(SUSANNE), NEPHEW JOHN&FAMILY, KATHI PATNODE, GRANDNIECE HEATHER(JOHN)...for your wonderful/generous gifts.... Mostly thanks everyone for the gift of your friendship and love. Special thanks to my website webmaster, LARRY VERKEYN! who continues to make me look good!.... HAPPY NEW YEAR, ONE AND ALL!

December 28, 2000

Yesterday the 27th, cuz RM. of NM and MA got hold of me. We had a lovely chat. Not so with my medico, who also called. I had some prescripts. renewed, one of which had to be called in to the Doc. Meanwhile my 2nd medico called in a prescript. I needed. The first doc. wants to know what doses I was taking of HIS and then said she wanted to see me in Jan. for yet another blood check. I said, “I already have an appointment with you in Jan!” ... silence, then “oh.” An hour later she calls back and tells me to bring ALL my medications along. Like, she doesn't KNOW what I'm taking. Lord save us from medicos! I got HER prescript, but not HIS and HER’s has the dosage that should be on HIS. DOES ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON???? Last night, suffering as I am with the cold from hell, I didn't take the damn b.p. medicine - good thing too as the Nyquill dried me out and I kept drinking gallons of water (the blood pressure. pills have the same effect) - worse, I was wearing my “snugly” and had to pull it all the way to my ankles each time I went to the toilette! (Its a step-in). WHAaaaaaaaa....

December 26, 2000

Back to reality! It's 3:01 a.m. and I'm up. Slept most of Christmas due to an oncoming, humdinger of a cold. Missed three phone calls - from the Sis, who wanted to know if I still had the receipt to the robe I bought her (!?); the driver Muriel, who wanted to know what time KMart opens today!!?! and my cuz Rosemary Stone (visiting daughter Patty Stone Green & fam. in Mass) - darn. That last call is the only one I feel sorry about. I noticed this morning that one of my gifts still has the price tag on it. Why does that bother me? Is it because my mother always INSISTED that that was bad taste? OR is it because I'm sure the perpetrator either
a. wants me to KNOW the price, & wants me to be impressed, or,
b. was in such a hurry, didn't care WHAT they bought? Maybe it's simply the usual bitchy state the holiday puts me in. Bah humbug? Hmmm.... I think I'm getting to be a real grinch. An OLD grinch - wore a nightcap to bed last night...just like my grandpa Larsen used to. :O)

December 24, 2000

I am playing Christmas music this a.m., trying to “get in the mood.” Hmmm - this has been a strange holiday season. I've felt detached or something. No incentive. I FINALLY (on 12/22) got to my baking and even THAT was a struggle. Esp. since my sunbakkel dough wasn’t up to par and I had to dabble with it. They taste all right but look like hell....they all have cellulite ripples. ahaha. I made 5 diff. kinds of “fussy” Norse goodies. This afternoon I’ll be at the sis Day’s with her son John/family, and granddaughter Heather. Whipped up an ENORMOUS container of fried rice/pork- chicken adobo - the latter a Filipino dish that the X used to make & a year or so ago I got a craving for. HE prob. “turned over” in his grave site imagining ME at long last cooking one of his specialties! WHY am I feeling funked out? Have been contemplating that question. I think it’s got something to do with Christmas’s past. Do I sound like Scrooge? NOTHING compares to those days - even when, at their darkest, my family managed to make them joyful for us kids. That’s the answer I came up with. What do YOU all think it is? SPEAK TO ME!

December 23, 2000

Miss Muriel, my driver, tried to turn left on a red light this a.m. That was the FIRST thing that disconcerted me. The second was my liquor store Mgr. who, gentleman that he is, carried my purchases to the car. When I went to give him a “Merry Christmas” hug he stuck his tongue half way down my throat!!! YIKES! The weirdest part is that, after, walking through the grocer’s I enjoyed the feeling of wet lips. An almost-lost-memory. Guess I should get to Ireland & kiss the Blarney Stone.

December 22, 2000

The www.superior-wi.com site (Guestbook) has a new format, which has cut back a lot of participation. You now have to get a password and log on. No more inflammatory rhetoric or bad mouthing Drat....I miss some of it. :O)