Amy Currioman

I’ve never tried karaoke myself.  Only once have I been to a nightclub where karaoke was being “performed.”  A lady from the audience was on the stage singing a song (I can’t even remember what the song was) and she was singing off-key.  She was pretty enough, but she was singing off-key.  She was having fun, though, and I’m sure that was the whole point.  She was with a group of friends that apparently had encouraged her to go up there and sing.  They were having fun, too.  As for me, I sat there and wondered about how I would feel if I were up there on the stage.  I’m a fairly shy person, and I’ve been told by many people that my singing voice is terrible, so I’d be inclined to NOT go up there.  I’d embarass myself, and I don’t like being embarrassed.  I wish that I was not so easily embarrassed, though, because it looked like she was having a lot of fun, even though she was singing off-key!

Guest post by Dee Johnstone

I was really glad when the white lab coat that I ordered from the http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/ arrived yesterday. I had ordered for my son to  wear as part of a Pokemon costume at the Pokemon tournaments that he has planned for the kids where he works.

He works at a residential school for “at risk children” ranging in age from six to fourteen, and he has a small group of kids assigned to him. They have a variety of issues (which is why they are there) but he has had really good luck getting the kids to settle down and learn to cooperate and follow rules by teaching them how to play Pokemon and holding tournaments once a week.

Every kid that plays wins cards, but the ones who win the games get extra cards. The kids love it. I’m really glad that he has found a way to incorporate his love of games into his work and that it is helping the kids to learn life skills.

My older sister invited me to attend her 40th high school reunion this past weekend.  I’ve never gone to any of my own high school reunions; almost all of my friends were a year older or a year younger than I was so I really didn’t see the point in going to a reunion where I would be surrounded by people who didn’t like me 39 years ago and probably still wouldn’t like me!

So I was happy to go with my sister to her reunion, hoping to meet up with some of the people that I was friendly with back in our glorious days of youth. Let me tell you, this class went all-out when it came to the reunion – it was an entire weekend of activities, starting with drinks at a local restaurant on Friday night, an open hospitality room at the motel all weekend long, dinner and dancing and tours on Saturday, brunch and picnics, it was jam packed!

I enjoyed the hospitality room the most because it was not too noisy to hear people talk in there. Also, my sister had donated (temporarily) a lot of memorabilia from our school days to be put on display to bring back more memories. She had a lot of custom lapel pins that were sold at school by the spirit booster clubs in support of the various sports teams, photographs, strings of love beads, old magazines, performance programs, award ribbons… the list goes on and on.

Although I did not get the chance to visit with as many people as I would have liked (I only participated with the Friday night activities) I did enjoy myself and wished that I had been able to participate in the entire weekend.  Maybe next time!

One of the things that I find very interesting about living in a rural area is how much time is spent with neighbors discussing things like cell phone coverage and television providers.  I can remember when there was no such thing as pay television (except in motels!)  Everyone simply had bunny ear antennas or rooftop antennas for the free local channels.  And there were only a few local channels – the big networks and a public television!

The months of September and October are filled with a large number of family birthdays and I try to organize one large family gathering to celebrate all of the autumn birthdays at once. Doing it that way seems like a big deal but in reality I think it is a lot easier to pull out all of the birthday party supplies one time and and one great big party than it is to have eight different parties space down over a period of six weeks.

Having one large party like that is reminiscent of a Christmas party because so many people are celebrating and exchanging presents. Having a large family gathering and party in the early autumn is another good way to keep in touch with the extended family. After all most family gathering events run from Thanksgiving through Easter with very little family contact through the summer time.

The biggest hurdle with any family gathering is trying to make certain that any family squabbles will be left out of the party. That can be a big challenge when a big family is involved.