Be Kind by Sophia

Okay, only this one time!! Hopefully. Being sick is no fun.

I am thinking that today might just be a good day to (try again to) quit those evil and addictive Diet Cokes, as I have been caffeine free and aspartame free for three days already. Yeah! Fresh start?!?

While I have been curled up in a ball, Starr has been hanging out here doing her homework. The distractions at the sorority house have been just too distracting. I appreciate her presence, and I understand and support her desire to pass her classes, but I wish she would pick up a bit. Do a dish? Start a load of laundry? Or just not make a mess?? Oh well.

Before I dive into the catching up and cleaning up today, I am going to go vote. I love early voting.

Have you voted?

My apologies to Zeta kitten, but the whole “wearing the cone” thing is just too funny. He walks into the walls and the furniture and has this silly head bob when walking. I love watching him try to groom, succeeding only in licking the insides of the cone. We are giving him all kinds of love and ,despite the silly, we are looking forward to removing the cone for good. I am sure that he will be very happy to get back to normal.

My friend is adopting a little girl from China, they are hoping to be able to pick her up before her first birthday in December. There is going to be a baby celebration/shower for the family this weekend. Guests have been asked to bring an ornament for mobiles. I didn’t, and still don’t, know exactly what they have in mind but decided to make a paper flower ornament. I made paper by layering a copy of the ZenTangle that I made for Starr’s birthday and printing it out on card stock. I knew that I was going to cut it up, so I didn’t worry too much about the layout.

I like the result. I hope it works for the project.

I was also tasked by Starr to make her a pair of cat ears for her and some polar bear ears for her friend Christy for Halloween. Simple, but I think they will be cute.

When I was seven years old, our family moved to Athens, Greece. My dad was an airline pilot and his company contracted with Olympic Airlines to do some teaching/training. The plan was to stay there for a year, but life happened and we had to return to the states after about three months. I posted about it previously here The Summer of 1972. As young as we were, the summer in Greece left a big impression on us.

We rented the bottom apartment in a three story flat topped house. Our landlords, Constance and Sofia, lived on the top floor. The house was a wondrous place for a seven year old and her brother. Lemon trees, an aviary full of birds, the cats, a Koi pond, a guest house which also had a flat roof and was covered with lattice and grape vines. I loved to spend time up there in the shade where we could also look behind the house and watch kids playing in the neighborhood park. We could access the roof of the main house by climbing the iron spiral staircase at the back of the house. From the rooftop, you could see the sea and if I remember accurately, you could also see the Parthenon. The house was along the flight path, so we spent a lot of time up there watching for dad to fly over.

Sofia, our landlord

On the front porch

Some of the yard cats

The glassed in porch/breakfast nook

The main stairs to the upper floors.

My dad, fishing in the pond

DJ trying hard to pull up the fish

Oh, it was another one of dad’s jokes!

I remember eating the lemons from the yard, mom cut them up and would give me some sugar for dipping. Yum! Constance teased me about it, saying that the lemons were perfect fresh from the trees and would regularly pick and eat them, rind and all, just like an apple. I tried, and failed, to copy him.

One thing that I will never forget was when DJ and I were playing with a hose and a tub in the front yard one sunny afternoon. I am guessing that we were laughing and squealing, as kids tend to do when playing in water, because what I really remember is Sofia leaning out of her third floor window. Angry. Yelling at us in Greek, waving her hand. I was confused. We hadn’t broken anything. Later, I found out that we had disrupted siesta time. A very serious infraction. We tried to respect siesta time from then on and I do believe that she eventually forgave us.

I found this online:

It is not only considered very bad manners in Greece to make noise during the period from around 2 to 5 pm (and especially after 3 pm), but there is a law against it (though broken sometimes by those doing construction or using rototillers, because work is often excused if the workers have no other time to do that work). This is less so and rarely enforced in the city of Athens much to the chagrin of many local residents. In theory it is quiet time. Siesta time!

So if a visitor to Greece is staying in a rooms complex that is near the houses of local Greeks, it is not appropriate to sit outside talking loudly and playing a radio or live music at that time.

The same need for quiet holds for those renting apartments in Greek towns or cities. During the hot summer months the midday meal and nap may get pushed forward until it cools off a little, with the meal even as late as 4 pm, and the nap to 5 pm or so. Few rules are ‘set in stone’ in Greece, but to be on the safe side, in the heat of summer, one should be aware that many Greeks are still napping until maybe 6:30.

Many visitors to Greece learn to do as the Greeks do, and find that this way of patterning one’s day makes perfect sense, given the climate.

For years, if we were in trouble, or about to get into trouble, my dad would lift his hand like Sofia did and we knew that we had better stop what ever we were doing and shape up!!

Zeta this morning after a visit to the vet. I am guessing that Sammy accidentally scratched his eye while playing.

He is NOT a happy camper!

Okay, so I swiped some pics of Starr’s Friday adventure off of Facebook:

The plane

Starr, in shorts, with friends and the flying Marine.

The Marine

Starr’s turn to fly

So fun!!!

I can say that there were several groups of girls that went flying that day. A few of them “lost it” while still on the plane. One of them commented “always a great time getting sick in front of a hot marine lol ”! Starr managed to make it back to the sorority house before losing it and felt horrible the rest of the day, she ended up missing all of her Friday classes.

I think the experience was worth the pain and possibly the missed classes.

From the college newspaper about a previous visit to CSU by this Marine:

The Rocky Mountain Collegian: Marine aviation program recruits potential pilots in Loveland

Starr’s Facebook status when I woke up this morning:

On my way to fly with a marine!

My thoughts: What?! Who?! Where?! How long has this person been flying?? You didn’t ask for my permission!! (I know, she doesn’t have to ask for my permission anymore, but still…) How long until it is safe to panic??

I still don’t know most of the details except that she is fine, she had fun, he’s been flying for 8 years. From what I gather, it sounds like it was some sort of recruitment activity for the Marines.

While I was trying to remain calm, she had a blast. She was so excited. He let her fly the plane and he did some tricks. She said “I did two barrel rolls! Maybe three…I had my eyes closed!”

The first thing she wanted to do was talk to my dad, her grampa, who was a marine pilot and later a commercial pilot until he retired.

Second thing was to sleep off her motion sickness.

The good times at our house!

If it wasn’t all so ridiculous, I might just have a little breakdown!!

Send little Zeta some love, he is getting neutered today.

Starr and her sorority sisters woke up very early this morning so that they could volunteer at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Denver. Breast Cancer Awareness and Education is their sorority’s philanthropy and this is an annual activity for the girls. They provide pins and goodie bags to breast cancer survivors. Meeting and talking with these women is a highlight.

I found this picture posted on Starr’s Facebook this morning:

“It was so early and so dark this morning, but this is so worth it!”

Starr has always been emotional after the event. High on the positive energy, touched by the survivors and their stories as well as the stories of those who’ve lost loved ones. After a previous years event, I asked her how it went. As she opened her mouth to answer, she started crying instead. It took her by surprise, she didn’t realize that she was that close to tears, but the combination of joy, hope, courage and sadness that she experienced came tumbling out in an emotional jumble.

Cancer sucks. I love that the girls are involved in making a difference.

The cats left me a gift this morning.

So far I’m just walking around it!