MATILDA

D'oh! now you done it, waysider...can't get that tune outta my haid, now... My sweet Lord (do-lang do-lang do-lang)...

waysider! Your mufflerized flamingo is so telling :) Lotsa peeps down here have birdage on their lawns...must be a union thing...even me, 'cept my birdie is one honkin' big raven...lol...got it for 90% off in an after halloween sale last year...lol...couldn't resist. It stands (predominantly) in the base of a stand of royal palms in front of my house...almost year round (currently been retired for the yuletide and replaced with a sparkly "mufflerized" penguin). I like it...and it really is the size of some of the birds here, notably the turkey vulture (some of which have been disappointed when they come to check out my Target special...) One set of Flanders-type neighbors took umbrage with the plaster beastie for who-knows-what fundamental reason to which I replied that "sometimes a big, black, bird is just a big, black bird...now won't you step inside for a little taste of rooster blood?" Sigh. Talk about neighborhood watch. My other immediately adjacent friend and neighbor, (the one with a neon menorah in the front window) commented on the bird last year. I told him "wait...if you like this, then you'll love the 'Jesus Loves You' smiley face lawn art I have for our combined lots...") We toasted truce with some Man-o-man-o-chivas, hence the holiday penguin (non-denominational non-sectarian, non-flying foul.) Happy Hanukkah!

Mmmmmwwwaa! Happy B-Day Wishes to you that last year round. Some of my favoritest people have a December tag...even among some of my siblings...Dad surely had more than a few springtime furloughs back in the day, I guess:) My little Holly-Dolly will be 12 on the 12th...yikes! Here's a Texas toast to the best T!

I'm so full of myself, I just might live another year... I have birthday gift cookies for all of you...Chocolate Pillai Chip...but you have to come to Florida to munch 'em. ...I triple-dog-dare-ya... HBTM X M

Those years were still filled with great things...I was so very committed to it all, but I gotta tell ya, it never totally owned me. I still thought and chose to do things...even if not what the twi-issue mandate was. I was blessed with a great family, (dare I say, my natural family) whose moxy, patience, unflagging love, and strong sense of self served as a support...even tho the head of the clan was adamantly opposed to this werewille guy and his band of oh-my-gods. By 1977, I was a vet "in-state WOW," "Area Booster," 2 X College WOW and good doo-bee...lol...an adv class grad a few times and doer and see-er of signs, miracles, and wonders. For real. It really was grace that kept me from being killed any number of times...by friendly fire, even...lolol. Met a guy in '75, also in Theatre, (a profession not readily adaptable to the idiot demands of The Way) and together we laughed, loved, and moved da woid and had a pretty great time. We met and dealt with lotsa categorial jerks in "the ministry," but filtered it thru and kept on with what (we thought) was our prime directive in those years...to love God, and serve Him, first hand and by example to others. Each one win one, some, or whatever. Married him in '78 (proposed to him while on tour in Dick VanDyke's hometown)...celebrated 30 yrs. together this past year. I wrote, performed and toured for the foremost comedy house in the country in those years, and all across the land, I sought out "fellowships" to hang with bee-leavers...often they would come (as a guest) to our show and be amazed at our "freedom in Christ." Born again groupies, some. Funny to think back on it. When home in Chicago during those years, we had a (rightly-divided) comedy group (lololol) that often performed with the likes of Bob Stanley, New Horizons (when they were first invented), at the Rock, the Indiana campus, and other venues where Ralph D. and Johnny T. were overseeing some travelling music faction of the ministry. Sheesh...got a troll full of memory chips there... May not be a popular thing to say here, but thinking back on it...we had a helluva good time...not easy, often, but good. I don't think we (me and the hubster) ever really lost sight of who we are in Christ, instead of just being absorbed into a globular vehicle of sorts. There was all the hub-bub about "corn field cults" and such in the Chicago papers...Jonestown...and cult, cult, cult awareness. I remember that we often joked that as far as cults went, we #1...lol...scarey... We had long passed out of the peace and love era, and were long into the new "me generation" thing...a lot of flat out unorthdox things were being promulgated as far as allegiance and do or die-ness...we took those things one at a time and considered their efficacy before application. I can understand how people can be manipulated and mooooved along...how a frog in a slowly brought to boil pot can end up dinner...and alot of other badly mixed metaphors...lol...nothing happened quickly or overnight that was overtly or perceptibly wrong. It was conjured with a madmanical accuracy and a sighandmystic percision by a host of peeps. That little bend of years probably marked the apex and clocked in the beginning of our end with The Way... Great folks...alot of them at the top of their game...there was a very strong sense of community among us, very real and abiding. I miss the heart and soul of that.

Lead on, McDuffster... here's to this year and those yet to come... X M

I am affected today knowing that George is younger than me and that it was before Geisha can remember... I was in 7th grade at St. Linus (2nd Pope, doncha know) Grammar School. I was passisng out the "spellers," when the obligatory tapping, blowing, and static preceded the announcement made on the "overhead p.a." I dropped the spellers, but knew I wouldn't get in trouble for it. We were assembled in church...remember Evie O'Connell saying "he'll pull thru, I just know it <remember me thinking it was too late already and very sad>...once in church, we said the rosary....THEN I knew it was really serious...Evie slumped onto the kneeler (still don't know if it was cuz we were into it for the duration of the rosary, or the event at hand) School was recessed for all the funeral tendings...I watched it all on b&w TV, and I definitely remember being totally cognizant that it was history making history... It was the daze that the words "rotundra," "entourage," and "grassy knoll" entered my vocabulary and the melody of Hail to the Chief haunted me for a long time. I remember Jackie as stoic, Caroline as obedient, and John-John as darling in the direst of circumstances.

It was a two story house in Pikes Peak... actually, I googled "paloma translation" and connected with the Babylon Portuguese English Dictionary not that google is anything authoritative necessarily, but it'll do in a pinch you say tomato, I say tomatoe, you say potato, Quayle spells potatoe, tomato, potatoe, paloma, a slutta, let's call the whole thing off... ...wait...depending on where you consult: if paloma is a dove of peace and paloma is a bird that gives a piece then a collaboration might yield an effin bird... hence, the origin of the one finger salute... those clever portu-geese I vote we change the name from Paloma to Dirty Bird (from the critical Portugreek text message) I wish you could have seen it in the original, Mark...

who's the guy with Jon Lovitz?

processing... hurricane...landfalls...debris, deconstructions, fragmentations, hard to really get a fix on without help... ...like Picasso (the philand(fall)dering cubist)... ...whose daughter's name is Paloma. "Hurricane, thy name is Paloma," was once uttered by someone of note... Steak and paloma sammiches... Every time Popeye was surprised he said, "well, paloma down..." In Spanish, paloma is "dove;" In Portuguese, paloma is "prostitute, whore, or meretrix." Meretrix...now there's a good name for a hurricane, followed by "Pimp Daddy" way too much java today...help me, Obiwan

The Way never dampened my spirit on Halloween...it was a day for everybody or anybody to dress up. Once, there was a "believer" costume party...now you must understand that the bulk of the folks I hung around with then were wonderful, but some (truth be told) were still as thick as a brick. Supposed to be bible characters...so imagine my surprise when I got to the party, knocked on the door, invited in, but looked at with some kind of dismay, for I was wearing a habit. The guy said, we were "supposed" to be characters from the b-i-b-le, not c-a-t-h-o-l-i-c-s...lol. Silly white man. I then reproved him by telling him I was, in fact, the prophet Joshua's mom... I still don't think he got it...lol Joshua 1:1

Happy B-day, Z-babe... best wishes any day every day.. X (the e ) M

Meow meow mellow yellow? Happy Happy Burpday to you, CC...and best to the geek and the kit-tay. Hope you have time to nestle together and enjoy the day! XXX M waysider...that is the poifect pic!

isn't readily a parent...

MATILDA now, MATILDA then (at Waydale), along with lots of folks...amazing how time flies... There were so many unanswered questions, or unresolved feelings, a kind of limbo once gone from The Way. I, the ultimate cyper-spaz, searched for "stuff" to little avail until I came upon The Royal Tapestry and "links" therein...it was there that someone had written an express warning about this place called Waydale...not to go there...lololololol...so I immediately went there, natch. It was a total and complete absorption of any free time I had back then...it was very amazing, if not cryptic at times with the psuedo names and such...the chat wars and thread baring was addictive...definitely could write a colorful book about internet recovery groups... Extwi was gutsy and tenatious. It was a safe haven and a welcome, necessary reassessment spot...was sorry to see it go. I wrote the damndest things in there..lol...a real kind of therapy, I think. I wish I had access to that stuff! AND THEN THERE WAS PAW, the duffster of all duffsters...picked up, invented, re-invented, continued, built, and committed to the ongoing evolution of GSC...a herculean task (even in conception, let alone execution & maintenance)...a yeoman among yeoman...a cyber-mensch.The billboard was amazing...Wacky was well-traveled, Catcup was astute, Z was articulate, Socks is still my hero, and who knew that Chas was a girl...lol...we were chatty midwives to Rascal's last kidlet...so much to remember. Need a new pair of sneakers to travel that road down memory lane... Merci beaucoup, mein duffmeister...you done and is doin' good...

Tonight, debate night, I am off...woo hoo! I have enjoyed my two drink limit here at home whilst I am biden my time im-palin another shrimp on me barbie...ready to move on to three with no apologies... I think the real discernable issue here...that TWI was wacked...is more than abundantly evident by the fact that leadership got their rocks off drinking, of all things....Ouzo.....lol. Metaxa, Galiano, even Campari for goodness sake...even getting wrecked was problematic with the spiritually elite among us...rather on par with buying Beta...lolololol.

I think the two drink guideline is good in a cult and out of a cult. Drinks are costly, often...and alcohol, no matter how cool you are, affects your rational thinking capabilities. Yes, lots of folks can hold great groups of libation...they are so together...lol. I am a bartender...albeit a really smart one...but a bartender, nonetheless. I see people excel at stupid on a regular basis. I am all for a good time, (and as a McCarthy, I bear verifiable proof of many proofs) but having a pre-designated designated driver is a wise precaution that can save a whole lot of hurt if you are planning to get cranked. "Just one more Jaeger...one for the ditch..." As an overall guideline, when out and about, two drinks is not a squelching thing...it is a safe bet. Now, who's buying the next round?

I'm Chiquita Banana and I come to say.... ...bet you won't be hearing that anytime soon...

Hi Sandy Paul Hurlburt will always be thought of fondly by me. He was in my Chicago twig back when the earth was still cooling...circa 1974. He was "Buffalo"...a big, hulking, gentle man with a heart as big as could be catalogued. Quite a while back, here in GS, there was a brief, rather unhappy update about him...and I think there was a short correspondence from Rueben, his son. I believe I may have replied to him from a different perspective, reminescing from a time when things were much better. I only knew Vicki thru Paul...pretty sure I sponsored them in some measure in the Corps. Perhaps if you have time, you can scroll baaaaaack and glean some more info...or, hopefully, someone else may come along who knows something more current. THis much is certain...all of us can be benefitted from heartfelt prayer...pretty sure on that. :)

...I remember when you were just a little anklet... Happy B-day to my favorite argyle and best to all the J's! Anytime, X M

oink oink...hit a nerve... At the other college where I taught, my classes were small...theatre, y'know...but we still needed to deal with these events, and did. How big and yet how small is this freakin' world, anyway? Two out of my 19 students in that acting class suffered close family loss in the attack. Jesus (hay-sues) and Chris both lost family members...was hard cuz they couldn't get a flight into NY right away. Imagine the irony of having your first lines of total emotional upheaval and uncertainty spent with your Theatre professor. And, for real...this very day, earlier this morning...I met my new neighbor. He and his brother just bought the place behind mine. They take September 11th off each year to "celebrate" the life of their older sister (who was 28 then) who died there. That ubiquitous Disney tune takes on a macabre tone as it swirls in my head.

...the feeling (and this is/was all a kind of selfish projection) was the same as when I was a kidlet, and "we" were on the brink of total annihilation with the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis...or Saigon '75...or the real time TV broadcast of the Challenger...or the pronouncement of declared war in the Gulf...or when the USS Cole with a hole ripped thru her side was wedged between two idiot commercials on daytime television... frozen action The boys were both safe at school, Holly was already with Miss Lulu, I was preparing to go teach at FSUS and how to best serve the student body who I felt, no doubt, was confused and scared, at best. When I got to school, it was controlled mayhem. Freaked parents were coming to get their kids and such...the thing is, the older students knew more and better what REALLY was happening becuz they were watching CNN in their classrooms. Our leadership watch phrase directive was "don't talk about it unless they ask." Silly. In my classes, we talked about it as we learned about it that day. We dealt with it for a few days, as it applied to circumstance. The kids got saturated with it pretty quickly and, in the way kids do, they "clicked the remote" to the safer waters of Sponge Bob. Survival denial, I think.

I was reading in the chat room, my tv was on behind me, muted. Typical of the time, there was new turmoil and drama in chat, but that morning's was especially urgent. A plane hit one of the towers. "Sabotage," and a lot of who, what, wheres and chicken little-ing was going on in print. I thought, "sheesh...don't these guys ever let up on conspiracy theories?" Surely, it had to have been a terrible, horrible, unfortuante and certainly unplanned accident...like the plane that hit the Empire State Bldg. so many years before... I turned around, unmuted the tv, and the surreal reality froze my brain. Watching the history unfold in real time, like a stupid Bruce Willis action movie or something...the horror was not being able to click the remote and escape. The chatty spoonsters were right. It was an attack. It was unreal. It was happening...

I'm believin' for your eyes to be healed... let me lift it for you...cuz it was heavy revvy that I do so... your want must equal your need, however...

allow tearing of processed & pressed spudage to commence... Dear Oakspear (if that's your real name...) You obviously have an opportunity with possible possesso's...but it is available to renew your mind abundantly. ...a quick examination upwards of the clavicle area may be in order Bless, M