always a writer . . .

Did Kimberly ever tell you about winning the Lieutenant Governor's Essay Contest--not just for her school but for her entire school district--in eighth grade? And that she had to read her essay to the school board and its audience? Bet she hasn't, shy baby that she still is! But she was a gifted writer long before she knew she wanted to be a gifted writer . . . Then and now, I was and am so proud of her accomplishments :-)

and Mommy made both dresses :-)

how quickly she grew . . . but some things never change--like the smile on her lips and in her eyes :-)

Minuet and Dance of the Blessed Spirits

Even as a child I was intrigued by the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice . . . My first encounter with this musical selection from Gluck's opera of the same name (as the love story) was Kimberly's gift to us. Her first public performance of this piece? Her brother's First Communion--on his 9th birthday.

Not so many years ago she surprised me--made me cry, too!--by playing this piece in church during one of my visits to Pittsburgh. Of all the music with which she has enriched my life, this is our closest tie, our song. I guess that also makes James Galway, whom she had the honor of meeting in person when he visited South Carolina many years ago, our musician.


Thank you, Kimberly, for this gift, this memory, beyond price!

She has a reputation, I hear,

for creating the most original Halloween costumes on the block. What you may not know is that practice is what made her perfect at the art of disguise . . . Check out the gypsy and her impish brother captured for posterity here . . . Wouldn't you love to know her thoughts?

how book addicts are created . . .

You may have wondered how Kimberly came to be such a voracious consumer of good books . . . Here's the scoop: books were a breakfast menu staple in the old days when she was young! They still are . . . and she still is :-)

younger sister stories . . . on the occasion of big sister's 40th birthday

Kimberly....I can barely remember our childhood. Mainly I remember always being jealous of Kimberly. Hating her birthday came before mine...things like that. One or two things stand out about Kimberly. She'll hate me for this but, oh well. That's what little sisters are for!

When we were real little...I was younger than 6, so she would have been 8 or younger at the time. Apparently she had a penchant for butter. They didn't have tubs of butter back then, just the sticks. I guess Kimberly got extra hungry one night and decided to snag a stick of butter to munch on in our bedroom upstairs.Next thing we know, there is butter dripping through the floor down into the living room where our parents were watching TV! BUSTED!!!! Lesson learned, do NOT place butter sticks on the heater vent in your room!! Hee hee!

One other fine event: one afternoon Kimberly and I were playing around in my room. We were actually getting along for a change! We started thinking that tumbling on my bed was a brilliant idea. As in somersaults on the bed. Kimberly tumbled a little too far, and ended up putting her FOOT through the wall! Now this would have been bad enough, yet we decided to LIE about what we were doing to try to get out of trouble. I forget what we said, but Daddy did NOT fall for it. I guess because the hole in the wall was suspiciously shaped like a FOOT!!! We were almost banned from going to the fair that afternoon because of our lie. I'm pretty sure we ended up going.

Like I said, my memory is sketchy.

I am getting old, too, you know.

Not as old as Kimberly, though! :)

Love, Michelle

Easter weekend casuals

Back to the reality of the work week in the morning but, at the moment, everything's smiles and sunshine deep within. I've learned that microwaving a kid's meal is more complicated than cooking one from scratch, that a camera is a good excuse to play spectator, that we often miss what's most obvious, that a few minutes in a hammock swing is still worth its weight in gold . . . Other stuff too but I have those proverbial miles to go yet and it's almost bedtime :-)

a "park" of my very own . . .

one perfect morning . . .

This has been so.

65. walking a cool, early morning beach framed in sun glow and sea breeze
66. wearing sandy-hemmed sweats
67. being able to go the extra mile the day after the race
68. having just enough change for the parking fee you didn't expect
69. beginning with Amigos Para Siempre (both versions randomly back-to-back)
70. collecting not just one baby's ear but two :-)
71. remembering "here on the shore, turned into stone, lies a piece of a conch's one-spiral cone"
72. collecting whelk fragments for someday's frame
73. finding both Carolinas' state shells on the same morning

74. ending with Somewhere in Time (Michael Crawford with words :-)
75. eating breakfast both before and after

I would not have imagined that I would have been

. . . absolutely in awe as I drove over the Ravenel bridge for the first time today.

I have gone out of my way to avoid this encounter. They tore my beautiful bridges down, frail sacrifices to this aquatic demon. I wouldn't look in its direction on my few visits to its city. I went around, but never across, until today.

Today, because, in the morning, I will walk with thousands others the breadth of its span and more. Today, because this first encounter needed to be more up close and personal, more private.

Traffic crawled this afternoon, crawled enough for me to savor the marvelous intricacies of this giant Tinkertoy creation. Yes, marveling, wondering, agape with awe. . .

I can see its skyprint from my window tonight. Tomorrow it too will become one of my beautiful bridges, one that I imagine will live on this earth and sea longer than I . . .