As the World Turns

One of my favorite things to do is to play bluegrass music with my friends. Originally I played fiddle. Actually, I was classically trained but then switched to playing music by ear. Now I also play guitar and I have learned a little banjo, enough to know how the banjo works. In my town, we have a music store that specializes in bluegrass. They sell CDs, instruments, music books, picks, and anything else you can think of that relates to bluegrass. On Saturday they have a jam session that lasts all day, from about 9 in the morning until 6 p.m. There are people who arrive in the morning and basically stay all day. That is a fun thing to go to. Often my husband and I have a jam session at our house. We cook up some pizzas and have several friends over who play different instruments. We play for two or three hours and really enjoy it. We have jam sessions about once a week. We also started a gospel bluegrass jam session once a month at our church. On a Friday night we gather at 7 p.m. We play for an hour, eat a potluck dinner for an hour, and then play for another hour. It is amazing the people who show up for the fun, both musicians and audience members. Playing music, particularly a form of folk music where you can pick up an instrument and play without worrying about written music, is a great hobby. It is something you can do all your life. I have met a lot of great people, including my husband, through playing bluegrass.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Celebrating the Sounds of Appalachian Strings (travel.nytimes.com)

My cupboards were running empty. I apparently need to go to the grocery store. But I had some cheese and bread so Grilled Cheese it was for dinner. I also had some peanut butter and my husband likes to eat Grilled Peanut Butter sandwiches, which I have never had, but now my daughter loves these too. So my husband and daughter had 1 grilled cheese each and 1 grilled peanut butter each. For me, I liked to add tomato slices and onions to my grilled cheese and a little bit of hot sauce. I also had some corn on the cob, so I fixed that too. I know, it’s a weird dinner but it was actually REALLY good. My husband was still hungry so he made some Top Ramen noodles. So he fixed those up but he wanted it a bit spicy so he poured some red pepper flakes in but he had opened the wrong end of the jar and put way too much in. So he took some out. He said the noodles weren’t that hot but when he drank the soupy part, his throat was burning. We were all laughing at him of course. I will be heading off to the grocery store today so we don’t have to have grilled cheese again tonight.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A simple salad recipe (timesunion.com)

We traveled for the first time by flight with the kids aged five and four. Before travel we had tried our level best to keep their excitement as minimum as possible as they have a tendency to get overexcited. We had planned a trip to Thailand, Bangkok and Pattaya. Our stay was for the period of two weeks. The children were fascinated by the airplane and the whole journey. Once we settled down in the hotel all they wanted to do was to get in the pool. The highlight of our trip was the visit to the Dolphin show. Here after the dolphin performed their act, we changed into our swim suits including the kids and got into the water. The guides there helped us with the commands like dance, sing, turn around etc. On each command the dolphin would perform the act. It was the best experience off all. We also had a ride on the dolphin’s back. The kids were taken by the guide. My son of four years enjoyed rewarding the dolphins by feeding fish after each act. This is what every family should get to do.

When I was 18 and had just graduated from High School I got a job working at the police station in Calgary. I had grown up in a small town so this was a real eye opener for me. I worked in the Identification Section. This is where they fingerprint and take people accused of a crime mug shots. I was the receptionist. My job was to greet people sit them down and fill out their forms including asking the accused if they had any tattoos or abnormalities. This was in the early 1980’s and very few people had tattoos at that time. What was shocking to me was when people from my home town came in accused of shoplifting or drunk driving. They were really embarrassed to see me. One day a man came in who wanted to register his hands as lethal weapons. He would not take no as an answer. Another day after a women had been fingerprinted the fingerprint tech said to her “wash your hands and pull up a chair” she though he said “wash your hair” so she went to the sink and proceeded to wash her very long hair. It was one of those -40 days of course. I really loved that job but had to give it up after 5 years when I got married and moved back home.