Addendum

Why I've been so quiet this past week? Just got back from the doctor - sinusitis. I've felt lousy, but I'll be all better now. The joys of pharmaceuticals.

Back home

I was out of town for a short visit at my mother's house. It was her birthday, and I wanted to time my summer visit so that I could celebrate with her. We couldn't do that as easily when I was working, so it's a luxury to be able to choose any time I want for a visit.

I gave her the Double Delight quilt for her birthday. Now, you wouldn't think that being given a quilt would be that big a deal, considering that her house is almost as full of them as mine, but she was very emotional - she cried. Then I cried too and everybody got all weepy. She was very touched I would give her the quilt and loved the pattern and colors.

Another thing I bought for her birthday was a pair of shoes. That doesn't sound very spectacular, but we both have shoe buying problems. I wear a large shoe, and she wears a very narrow show. Both end up being hard to find. When she told me that her favorite store had quit carrying the flats she likes in a narrow width, I jumped on the computer and found them at Shoemall. I wish she wanted to learn about computers; she would love online shopping. With her hearing loss, telephone ordering is hard, and retail pickings are pretty slim in my old home town.

No photos of her birthday celebration - she doesn't like to have her picture taken. I don't either, so I completely understand.

Now I'm back home cleaning for company this weekend. For years, we couldn't bribe family to come here. Recently, though, we've been inundated with relatives. Sometimes I wonder if our house is on the way to a good fishing lake or something.

National Quilting Day

According to my AQS calendar, it's National Quilting Day. I don't know what that will mean to me, exactly, except that I'm going to start applying the borders to the Quiltville Double Delight today after I run a few errands.

It's going to be a birthday present for my mother (although that's kind of like bringing coals to Newcastle. We both have so many quilts we can't close the linen closet door).

I had two choices - make more of these blocks until the quilt is queen size, or finish it as is for a full size bed.

It was a pretty easy choice.

The errands are the usual, with a twist. I need to run by the Rite Aid to drop off some film for developing. The two canisters are probably the last film photos I shot before going digital, and I had put them in my jewelry drawer to hold until I could get to the drug store - and promptly forgotten them. For YEARS. I don't even know what's on them, so we'll all be surprised.

I also need to mail my federal income tax return. Certified Mail. With Return Receipt. If I'm gonna pay them, the IRS is gonna work for it.

Well, now that my sneezing fit has finally stopped, I can take a shower and get ready to go. Sneezing fit, you say? Well, that's what my family calls it, we the Sisterhood of Terrible Sinuses. A sneezing fit is when you go "AH" but not "CHOO" - repeatedly, in close succession, until you think you're going to suffocate, and then sneeze hard enough to knock you off your slippers, and then you do it again. Dozens of times. Oh, dear readers, you don't want to experience it. And you don't have to be sick to do it. Any normal spring morning will suffice to set off the chain reaction. Zyrtek doesn't completely suppress it either. So some lovely mornings you sneeze and sneeze and sneeze and sneeze. . .

College dorms

Man, I just got my eyes opened as to the conditions on campus nowadays. Look at this Time photo essay on the evolution of college dormitories. To say I was amazed at college housing conditions today is an understatement.

Yes, this is a dorm.

I was in college in the 70's. We didn't have pool tables, rock climbing walls, weight rooms or fireplaces. I had a 11' x 18' room, laid out in a bilaterally symmetrical format. Along each opposing long wall (all built-in, no moving the furniture), was a closet, a set of drawers with a mirror over it, a twin bed and a desk with a bookshelf over it. Two people co-existed in that 198 sq. ft. box, with a shared bathroom down the hall. The rooms ran around the outside edges of the building (you got one window per room) and there was a 15'x 15' common area in the center of each floor of the building with a couple of couches. Laundry was in the basement. That was it. The cafeteria was two buildings away in the center of the complex, and there wasn't much pampering happening there either. You got what was on the line, no special orders. There was a TV room in the cafeteria building, but this was 1971, remember, so the television pickings were slim. About once a month, the dorm manager hauled out a projector and showed a movie on a screen.

And, oh yes, freshmen and sophomores weren't allowed to keep a car on campus. My big luxury was a small refrigerator in the room.

And you know what? It worked just fine. I am from Eastern Kentucky, as were many kids at that college. I dare say that for some people who moved into that dorm, the conditions were probably as good, and maybe even better, than their room at home. I'd guess the food wasn't as good, but in every other aspect it was a functional, no-frills home away from home. We were there for the purpose of studying, and other than a pretty good basketball team, there weren't many distractions from that task.

In contrast, if you came from a home where your parents gave you every little thing your heart desired (and that they didn't have at your age), and then you went off to a college that coddled and pampered you, what are you going to do when you hit the big, bad world and have to provide for yourself in the manner in which you have become accustomed? Well, a lot of them can't. I hear of more and more parents still keeping the kids financially afloat as they reach 25, 30, 35 and beyond.

I think about this in comparison to the first house my parents lived in when Dad came home from the Army. It had three rooms. Dad built it himself. And, at first, it didn't have indoor plumbing. They survived. And as they could afford it, they moved up in the world.

I am afraid in this economy a lot of people will be having to relearn what are the minimum requirements to live. And that doesn't include rock climbing walls.