With my ex-husband. 

First of all the first impression... It is sad to see how he lives.    My flower garden is filled with weeds and he wacked them down, hopefully after the flowers  bloomed.  The yard was mowed which was a good thing.  The lake was beautiful as usual.  Inside the house looks like a catalogue/magazine bomb went off...  in every room.  In addition, he never puts anything away, so the house is very cluttered.  The bathroom has six cleaning bottles in the corner by the tub, so your feet hardly fit when you sit down.  As usual his work shop is neater than the house.  It just makes me sad. 

We had a nice visit.  He did complement me and say that I was a good house keeper... and a good cook.  This year, it took him twenty minutes to say that I needed psychological help to get over what my parents did to me.  Last year it was within five minutes. 

He had spent last week with his friend George (I was with George's wife Linda on Mackinaw Island).  George told him everything I told Linda on the phone.  So he pretty much knew everything about me.  For some reason, he was angry/upset about my reconnecting with my sister.  I don't understand it.  Although he liked my being alienated from my family. 

I don't quiet know how I feel beyond sad.  He continues to live his life as if things have not changed, but they have.  I guess that is part of why I divorced him last year.  Although I loved my life in the country for a long time... after 30 years I needed a change... and he is still stuck in that old life.  He has turned into an old codger set in his ways and semi comfortable where he is.  I could no more go back to that life, than I could become thirty again.  I am glad that he is comfortable with his life.  I don't think he understands my need to leave anymore than I can understand his need to stay. 

I am heading to Ann Arbor this afternoon.  We are driving all night to get to Manitoulin Island... I am not looking forward to that.  I have never slept well in a moving car.  I hope on the way home we will drive on Labor Day during the day, because I want to leave for Virginia the day after Labor Day and not have to catch up on sleep.  It is an eleven hour drive to B'burg and I want to do it in two drives not one... Arrive in the afternoon to see Elizabeth and K and then take off the next morning for Savannah.  Time will tell.

Elizabeth I have been organizing my pictures and found the photos of K and the cows... So we can print them out. 

Hope your day is grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn  

I just found out I am listed on the MSN Canada Spaces... Being born in Canada myself, (Parry Sound, Ontario) it is nice... I feel as if I am back home... sort of.... in a wireless internet type of way.  Sometime in my deep dark past I actually represented Canada in swimming.... in the Olympics our freestyle relay won a bronze medal in Mexico City. 

Actually, next week I am heading back to Canada to Manitoulin Island.  I am really looking forward to seeing the rocks, pine trees and blue waters.  Oh how I love them.  It has been five years since I have been back...  Since I miss nature in Savannah... I am really looking forward to hugging some trees. 

I had a great time at Kathy's and my Aunt Buffie and Uncle Matt's.  We had dinner with Mary Lea with her husband and daughter.  Her daughter is interested in interior design at Lansing Community College.  So I talked to her about what she needed to do.  Of course, I know half of the people teaching at LCC and other programs in the state.  I just arrived at Sharon's.  It is great to see her. 

Hope your day is grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Tomorrow I am seeing one of my old students who adopted three brothers a couple of years ago.  I have not met them and am really looking forward to seeing them.  Then I am going to my Aunt and Uncles for dinner and a bed.  In the morning I was going to go to Sharon B's.  I have had really good visits and wonderful experiences visiting my friends, but am kind of tired... hmmmmm  Hope your day is grand.   Love and kisses, Marilyn

Well it is 7:30 and MA and I are getting ready to leave for Grand Rapids.  We are having lunch with Michelle and Deg and then I am spending the night at Michelle and Dale's.  Now I am skipping from hither and yon visiting friends having lunch with others... for the next two weeks. 

I worked on my dissertation for a while yesterday, but my brain turned off.  So I will set it aside for a couple of days.  Hope your day is fine.  Love and kisses, Marilyn   

In the morning I work on my dissertation in the afternoon we do something else. 

A couple of days ago... there was this barrage of stuff floating across the lake.  It looked like a garbage truck had dropped white plastic bags in the lake... MA and I watched as they floated over to us.  It took about an hour to make their way across the lake.  We were getting ready to go down and fish the things out... when I walked down to the dock... it turns out they were clouds of bubbles.... Don't ask me???.... but they unclustered at the seawall and we didn't have to clean up someone else's mess...Hmmmmm  actually it probably cleaned up our sea wall  instead.

MA said that at their lake meeting they said something about the bubbles and that they were not harmful... So we went back to enjoying ourselves. 

Last night we stayed up late working on a very addictive puzzle.  Soon we will form PWA... Puzzle Workers Anonymous.  I wonder where we can check ourselves in .... don't they use puzzles in normal rehab? Hmmmmm
 
Love and kisses, Marilyn

Hmmmmmm Earlier when I was here in Indiana, I finished the revisions to the three case studies chapters...  today I finished the revisions to the Washington DC conclusion.  Yes!!!... in the meantime while my brain was tired I corrected three or four conclusions that Cindy had modified when  I was in Michigan...

I still have to finish the conclusion for Virginia and Ohio.... and then the final conclusion... hmmmm This list is getting much much smaller.  I think I can finish the two conclusions for VA and OH and the corrections to the conclusions before I leave here.

Then Cindy wants me to go back to the Justification for Licensure section and make that work... then I think I will be done.  I probably will not be able to work much in Michigan since I will be flitting from house to house... like a social butterfly... but maybe I can get a couple of hours in here and there...

So I am still chugging along... chugging not slogging... things are looking up.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Hmmmm today I slept in until 10:00 AM I must have been tired from my Chicago trip, even though I slept well at Tao's, I think the two nights before tired me out.  Anyway.  I worked a little and then went to the hospital with MA so she could get a mammogram.  They had wireless so I could actually check my email and other stuff like my phone messages... I have Vonage so the messages come to my computer as well as my phone.  Hmmmm

Then we went to lunch... we were very bad girls, but we had cinnamon swirl french toast with apples.  It was three pieces of french toast smooooothered with about three cups of cinnamon apples.  It was like eating french toast with half an apple pie on top.  It was very yummy and I of course cleaned my plate.  Waldo and I went for a walk tonight to try to get rid of some of it.  Waldo is MA's dog...

On the way home we shopped for dinner tomorrow night.  I am making them fajitas and home made guccomoli hmmm can't spell that green stuff made with avocados...  When I got home I started back on my dissertation.  I think I finished the revisions of Ohio.  Now I am on to conclusions.

Hope your day was grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Had a great visit with Tao and Eric... they have an apartment that is so close to many great amenities in Chicago... two blocks from the shore line and beach, park...  one block from the train and grocery store and restaurants.  Tao and I had a great time at the Field Museum and then a really good dinner at an Italian Restaurant that was amazing.  I slept really well... and we were able to get caught up on each others lives.  I got back here and sat on the deck with MA telling her about my experiences... it was a great way to slough off some of the pent up emotion.  I slept in until 10:00 this morning what a lazy bones..

Love and kisses, Marilyn

My niece and I have been in Chicago since Thursday night.  She arrived at 1:00 in the morning and we talked up until 4:30 AM. Slept in until 10:00 and then walked around Chicago going over the family stuff.  She knew almost nothing about her father (my brother) and she did not know how much my parents not only manipulated her, but all of us.  It was a really emotional night and day...

Last night we had steaks at the Morton House.  It was really yummy.  We had a chocolate soufflé for dessert.  It was good. 

Of course, last night was hard for me to sleep.  I look forward to seeing Tao.      

Hope your day is grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Well yesterday I spent the whole day working on my dissertation... Well almost... I spent at least and hour probably two sharing my work with MA.  She is the woman who hired me to be an interior designer when I was 25.  She encouraged me to take the interior design examination and become a professional member of ASID.  So a lot of this paper comes from the ground work she laid in the 1970s.  Hmmmm I think I need to add her to my acknowledgments... she would be thrilled.  We had lunch on the deck looking at the lake and talking about interior design and universities. 

So I worked until about 5:30 and then we went over to Lillie's for dinner.  We had a really nice salad and watched the tv show about dogs... Best Dog in America or something like that.  It was cute to see the dogs do their thing...

Today I am back at her kitchen table with my cup of coffee... over looking the lake... getting ready to write the conclusion to my Washington DC section.  Hmmmm Slowly but surely.  This evening I am off to Chicago to meet my niece.  Tao I will call you when she leaves on Saturday.  Love and kisses, Marilyn    

Well here I am at MA's house in northern Indiana.  The first night we had a big big thunder storm and tornado warnings.... hmmmmmm The days have been beautiful in the mid 80s.  I am sitting at her kitchen table looking over Lake Wawasee and the sun is glinting off of the waters outlining fisherman peacefully sitting in their boats.....

Yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens in Fort Wayne and then went to rose gardens...

I am bumming the wireless internet from MA's neighbor.  It is another one of those holding the computer high in the air to worship the wireless god for access.  But at least I have internet.  I have been working on my dissertation a for a couple of hours each in the morning.   Today I am going to work pretty much all day.  See if I can get my corrections mostly done.  Hmmmm Cindy and I revised my conclusions on each section a little so I need to correct those too... AHaaaa on vacation and still I work.  Oh well. 

I will load photos of the Botanical Gardens when I don't have to worship the access god.  Love and kisses, Marilyn     

It is truly amazing how close one can become to blogging friends... Fabiolia and Carole have always been such amazing cheerleaders and support for me when I was down... Not that I get down very often... but you are both always there and I thank you for it.  We will meet sometime soon.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

The first night I was here Cindy told me that there are pine trees at the end of the house that threw pine cones on the roof.  They went thunk thunk... they really spooked out her mother before they figured out what the noise was.... I went oh, okay.... She also said the oaks do the same thing later in the summer, but they sound like a machine gun. 

This morning and  for that matter... yesterday morning at 7:30 sharp the noise started... nothing before and a couple a half an hour later... but it sounded as if someone was lobbing snow balls or something big at the house... Bang... BANG... bang bang bang... It shot me out of bed like a cannon... both mornings....

After much discussion and consideration over coffee, we decided that the sun hitting the trees caused the tree or cones to expand and drop off or fly off the trees and hit the house... 

Cindy and I worked on my dissertation today... We pretty much talked through the last piece of the puzzel to get this thing finalized...

We also walked on MSU's campus in the botanical gardens... it was a beautiful day and the gardens were lovely... they have put more signs out about what plant is what and where it comes from... than when I was a student ... hopefully you can tell from my photos,  My batteries ran out or there would have been more photos...

We walked across campus to the rose garden which has been moved... Cindy drove me to the new location... it was really a lovely day.  We came home debated my dissertation some more and then.... She made me watch Find*ng Nem*... she could not believe that I had not seen it.  It was such as cute movie.  I really enjoyed it and of course liked the moral of the story.  Nothing is certain and don't give up and working together we can accomplish many hard things... and friendships are so important.  Hmmm sound familiar?  Heard that a few times here over the years.  Love you all....

Hope your day was grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn   

the furniture selection for Cindy's house... then I worked on my dissertation for a while.  We walked to El Asteco for lunch... it is was really good... then went to Barns and N*ble to look around and walked home.  Once here I worked for a little while while Cindy did laundry, including my clothes... and we ran into a problem because she heard tinkleing... as the washer turned over.... hmmmm it was my car keys... they are very clean.... She fished them out and luckily they still work. 

We then went to see Momma Mia it was so much fun.  I encourage anyone of a certain age... over 40 to go see it.  I really enjoyed the humor and the music is terrific. Then we came back home and I worked for another little while on my dissertation... Cindy and I have also talked a whole lot about it.  I think totally today I only put in about three hours on my dissertation and two on her house.  (not including the conversations)  Hmmm we had a good time anyway.  Hope your day is grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn

Yesterday we worked for two hours on my clients project.  I took my car to get it serviced and came back and we worked another two hours. Then we had dinner.  It was really yummy free range chicken... Then I started reading her my conclusions for my dissertation... She really liked the changes I had made.  Corrected a few run on sentences... Then we got into a debate about justification for licensure... I still have not convinced her that we need it... hmmm then we took a walk and watched a movie.  When I went to bed I had problems sleeping because her arguments were dancing in my head.  I need to address it or say that interior design needs to address it... I will try one more time to write something... she gave me a really good place to start.  hmmmm

We worked for about two hours this morning.  We are basically done with our work.  Hope you have a delightful day.  Love and kisses, Mairlyn. 

Well here I am in Michigan and enjoying seeing my client/friend and editor... We are trying to decide what furniture she is going to bring with her to Florida.  So far we have made good progress.  Right now I am sitting in the car dealership, getting my car serviced.  I don't have easy access to the internet... so just a warning that I may not be updating like normal.

About the day before yesterday's blog... One of the things I have tried to be careful about is not putting our mutual friends in the middle of our break up... (no we arn't gay just what I thought was really good friends) doing things like trying to get information from them.  It isn't fair and they may have no clue as to why I was dropped cold as a friend.  I have been soooo busy, I have not been able to process all of this since it happened on April 19.  The day after my defense. 

Riding in the car alone for 18 hours gave me time to think.  In addition, when I found out when I was in Virginia last week (before my current trip) that a confidence I had shared with only one person had been broken to Ellen... It is not as if I would not have told Ellen this eventually, but it was my information to share, not hers... I don't know what to think or do.  Again I have not talked about this in my blog because everyone in Virginia reads this... but I feel as if I have been acting strange and maybe this will help them understand. 

My friendships there were so very important to me and the fact that I did not have to hide anything was truly so unique in my life... I don't know how to adjust my thinking to fit with this new order...  It makes me so sad.

Sorry... but this is the main place where I process the happenings in my life... The loss of a good friend is a painful part of life.... 
Enough of that... I am looking forward to seeing my friends here in Michigan... it is amazing that many of them have been my friends since I was in my twenties...

Tao I hope to see you when I am in Chicago... I have your phone number and will call you when my niece leaves...
Hope your day is grand.  Love and kisses, Marilyn