Jan Curran Events

Catch Up Time

Meanwhile back in Ventura...

The days are mild, the evening cool, and it's a far cry from my former life in Palm Springs.  Pals call and tell me how hot it is , how humid, and although I miss that old life and familiar faces and places, I'm sure glad I'm not in that summer heat.

What have I been doing?

First off and best of all, got in some family time.   I met my daughters, Karen and Linda,  ( visualchronicles.com) and their mates and my grand children at a restaurant not far from here for a family dinner and gab fest. We had a great time, and all were giving my 12 year old grand daughter Emily high fives for scoring an A in Spanish at Moorpark University.  She was competing with college kids and got the highest score, or rather one of the two highest scores. Daughter Karen who took the semester class with her got the other A!

Emily is also part of another high scoring endeavor. Her softball team won the California State Championship, and are now getting ready to head to New Mexico for the National games. Emily and my son in law, Bill, are going to drive to New Mexico, rather than fly, and that will give them that extra treat of time together seeing other parts of the country.

If  I was a rich grand mother, I'd jet out for the week of games - -but can't afford it, so will stay here and get the news on wins by phone.

Last weekend I drove to daughter Karen's and then the two of us drove to the city of Northridge to watch Emily in yet another tournament. Not part of this national thing, which was confusing to me, but the bottom line is her team won that tournament, too.  Was fun to go to the game, get all that time with Karen in the car. Daughter Linda's husband Dustin showed up for the game, too, so it was a mini family event. Dustin was full of news about work, which is always interesting. He's a grip on the TV show, "CSI" and filming for the new season has just begun.

More filming news...

Son Lee ( leegoldberg.com) is still in Europe, now the family is in the tiny town of Lohr, Germany, where Lee did some teaching and then they all head back to Cologne today and then, I guess, eventually back to Berlin where Lee awaits word on the next step in this movie, maybe series, he's doing. The family has been in France for two weeks, so it's all been a summer they will surely remember.  They are due back in LA around August 9th and we have plans to get together on the 11th for dinner -- then hoping Lee can stick around for a few weeks and not have to jet back to Germany for more work.

Writing that is not on here...

Yeah, been putting fanny in chair, working on my novel. I am almost at the end of what is probably the first draft of the book. Keep your fingers crossed I don't need to do a second draft!

The dentist?

Ah, yesterday he bid me good-bye, wished me well with my new crowns and the end of the root canals and hours in the chair.. so you won't find more about me and teeth on here. My smile is showroom perfect now.

The "View"?

They've really lost me.  I've tuned in a few times and been so bored I've turned it back off.  Whether you liked Rosie or not, she was the one who put life into that show. Now it just seems like a bunch of women all trying to talk over each other until Walters changes the subject.....

My health?

I'm totally paranoid. The slightest thing, be it a broken finger nail, or wax in my ear and I'm sure it is the big C.

I've been "clean" now since April.  So the other day when I felt pretty rotten I got nervous, called the doctor.  The end result was just a bacterial infection and I'm on antibiotics for five days.  Whew!

My next PET scan is the last week in August. Same time each year. I want you all to start doing imagery, picture me getting on here to send out the word that there is no sign of cancer in the scan. 

Seattle is in my thoughts...

Trying to figure out if I should go visit my Mom before or after the scans.  Thinking  I might have a better chance for a miles seat after kids go back to school, so may wait until after the scans.  Besides that ,want to have this novel done and off to son Tod ( todgoldberg.com) to read and to my friend the agent.  I had given myself a deadline of August 1 to get this darn book done -- and think I will beat that deadline, or hope so. You can focus on that, too!

Books on my shelf...

Okay , so I read all the reviews that said the " Manny" was good.  Got it, read it, not that thrilled with it, thought it all rather silly and full of cliche writing... and that's a bummer cus I also bought it for a gal pal for her birthday.

Just got Anita Shreve's new book and will try and get it read this week ---  if good, will then ship it up to Mom in Seattle so she can read it.

Well, talk about timing!

Phone just rang, and to my surprise it was my grand daughter Maddie calling from Cologne, Germany where Lee, Val and Maddie are now.  They filled me in on what they're doing ,the great time they're having.  Lee has a few weeks off coming up so they are going to drive to Belgium and to other places in Germany.  It all sounded wonderful and it was so neat to get to talk to the three of them.

On that happy note, I'm going to sign off and go in search of some grub.

Jan

Walla Walla or bust...

I almost didn't make it to Walla Walla.  No fault of mine. Blame it on California traffic.

My flight was to board at 1 p.m., getting me in to Portland, Oregon at 2:45, then the four hour drive to Walla Walla and the activities for the high school reunion would begin the next day.

My kids were scattered -- Lee in Berlin, Tod in Vermont, the girls heading to New York so how to get to the Burbank airport from Ventura fell to me. I hired a driver and we decided on a 10 a.m pick up time. That would mean I'd be at the airport by 11:30, have a nice lunch there, board my flight feeling fed and content.

The driver showed up on time, loaded my bag in her car and we were off.

"There's a huge accident on the 101," she said. " We're going to have to take an alternate route, go on the 126 to the 5."

The minute we got on the 126 we were dead meat. It was one big parking lot.  A truck driver in the lane next to us told us there had been a huge accident up about 4 miles, a truck overturned. That was all the news he had.

We sat on the 126 for four hours, going a total of 3 miles in that time frame. At 1:00, when I should be boarding my flight, I called my travel agent in Seattle, told him of my plight. He reassured me, there was another flight to Oregon at 3:00 -- surely I'd make that one.

I called Walla Walla in an effort to find a cell phone number for my friend Charlie who had driven to Portland to meet my plane and drive me to Walla Walla.

"He doesn't have a cell phone," my friend Susan told me, " Call me when you land, and if he hasn't stayed in Portland or called here to see if you called me, we'll work out a plan for you to get here."

The 126 highway didn't open up, traffic didn't start to move until  --- you might have guessed - -until 3:00. I'd missed not only my flight, but the next one, too.

I was starving ,my bladder was full, and I had daytime nightmares of spending the night in the Burbank airport.

Luck was finally on my side, there was an evening flight to Portland and it had an empty seat.  I arrived in Burbank just in time to grab a burger and get the flight.  I worried that no one would be there in Oregon to meet me, and I'd have to spend the night at some airport hotel in Portland - -but as I approached baggage claim, there was my friend Charlie.  He'd spent six hours in the baggage area, watching flight after flight arrive, waiting for the sight of me.

"I knew you'd get here eventually," he said, explaining he'd gone to the Alaska Air counter and kept being told I was on the next flight.

We drove along the Columbia River to get back to the Walla Walla area , deciding since our arrival would be close to one or two a.m. that we'd go to the Tri-Cities and stay at his two bedroom condo for the night and then on to Walla Walla the next day, in time for the start of the festivities.

To say I began the reunion exhausted would be an understatement.  There were a lot of old people there and surely I looked the oldest, fighting to keep my eyes open. But, tired or not, I was so glad to be back in Walla Walla, to see all my buddies, and to enjoy the beautiful scenery and serenity that Walla Walla always means.

There were two and a half days of planned events, all casual, all fun.  I'd leave an event, get back to my friend Susan's house and crash -- slept like I haven't slept in years.  She has all these wonderful quilts made by her or her mother and the kind of  bed where you just want to crawl in and stay for days on end.

Going to and from events, ( one was in Dayton on a 100 acre spread that looked like a State park) we drove around Walla Walla, past the house where I grew up, past the new developments with houses that looked like they must be at least 15,000 square feet - but with price tags that read like the amount one would pay for a small condo in California.

My friend Charlie lives in a nifty two bedroom condo , complete with his own washer dryer and a charming patio and small yard. The rent? $500 a month.  Unheard of price -- like from the dark ages.

I checked the ads in the Walla Walla paper --  condos at the country club where my parents used to live rented for a lot more, $1200 a month, more like California prices -- but on a golf course with wonderful views of the Blue Mountains. House rentals were cheap.

It wasn't enough to sway me.

It was a major temptation - that thought of moving back to Walla Walla. I'd save money, sure, but it is just too far from my kids and when I thought about how difficult it is to get there, I knew it would be months and months between times my kids got to me or me to them. And how would I do in the winter months. Granted I had never minded the winters in Virginia, actually had loved them, but I couldn't fancy myself shoveling snow, or hauling in wood for a fireplace. In Virginia I had my "fella" and snow shoveling and wood hauling were his category. I'd not have him if I moved to Walla Walla. Don't have him in California now, either -- but that's another story for another day.

My visit to the northwest of my youth was too short.  I did manage to stop at the cemetery on my way out of town, visited the graves of my grandparents, aunts and uncle, my father and the people who had been my parents closest friends.  I noted there was room for me, next to where my mother will eventually rest. 

The trip back was uneventful, but long.  The drive to Portland, the two hours at the airport, the flight and then the two hour drive to get back to Ventura.

I'm looking forward to the next trip to Walla Walla -- maybe in August. Will see. Want to get to Seattle in August, too, see my mother  -- and August is the scheduled time for my next PET scan. Dr. said if I go out of town we can change the date - so have that option.

The heat wave?

Talked to my son Tod, sweltering in triple digits near 120 in La Quinta. As homesick as I get, the urge to get in the car and go there was gone!

The heat has hit all of the west, yet we sit here in Ventura with temperatures not going over 68 all week, cool ocean breezes and for the first time in a year, I'm so glad I live here.... you can't beat the weather.

Not much on my social agenda.  Kids are either in Europe or too far away ,but daughter Linda and I will try for a half way point to meet for lunch one day soon.

My teeth?

Did you think there would be a post without a mention?

My first morning in Walla Walla, I broke a tooth. No ,not one of the new crowns, an old one which left me with a gap in my smile, looking oddball.  Saw the dentist right away when I got home, now in the process of fixing that space.

My weight?

Gained two pounds, have 10 more to go to get back to where I was over a year ago.  Hard to gain weight when the food here is so lousy -- but come August and my son Lee and his family will be back from Berlin and Paris and he wrote me he plans to do a BBQ and make me a big steak!  I'll be counting the days. Sure miss them and that family contact.

The book?

Plugging away -- down to the last chapters, pushing at myself to get it done by the end of July.... then have an idea of what I want to do for a follow up book.  Hey, the idea of writing keeps me from getting too bored---- won't think about moving until I have two good PET scans under my belt, then can think of where to go, how I want to live, and if I want to leave behind these octogenarians I have learned to love.