Our Own MOAI...an album of Wag Falderal...More Fun than a Bowl 'O Pantyhose!

That'sa what I'm talkin' 'bout! Ellen helping Sue move to her downtown Lancaster abode with inspiration from Chris' wonderful art...we love those colorful women and that idea....ladies, let's dance!

I'm trying to get a new item up quick......that photo of the Bowl 'O Pantyhose has been up quite long enough! What would someone think if they stumbled upon this blog and found a bowl of pantyhose? Also, I want to see if I can put more than 5 photos up at one time. I've noticed that some blogs do that.....come on Wonderwags, you can do it!

I read this little snippet in an article about places where people live to be really, really old. I hope this is us....hobbling over to check to see if the other one has fallen down. haha! I like that! These women are over 100! Holy Mackeral, we've got lots of time for more fun ....

"Buettner found long-lived people have a sense of purpose and a strong support network. In Okinawa, women gather in social networks known as moais.
"Even at age 100, they're all getting together in their moai ... at 5 o'clock every day. They sit around, they drink a couple glasses of sake, they gossip, they talk about sex. If one doesn't show up to the afternoon gathering, the other four sort of hobble over to see if she's fallen down or if she needs help," Buettner said.
Women in Okinawa also tend to be spiritual leaders, which imbues them with a sense of purpose, or "ikigai," Buettner said."

Notice that these women are drinking SAKE.....Japanese rice wine, very potent....rather than tea. I think this is definitely a clue. Haha, these women are living so long because they know how to enjoy life. You go girls!

Rosetta's got the right idea!

I think Nancy's discovered the benefit of MOAI also.....

Terry is especially delighted to be part of a MOAI....

Even our Imaginary Friend Madame Fortune is enjoying the fun....

Recent Field Trips:

NYC Field Trip......

Philly Field Trip....Frida Kahlo....Nancy has her eyes closed again?!

Baltimore Field Trip....look close, Ellen, Amy, Fran and Carol ARE there!

Some recent celebrations:

I think this is the start of the BAND....whatever happened to that?! Maybe we can get together this summer for, you know, like, a few gigs....Nancy's Blast of a 5oth....

The Super-well documented Kathy Ross Kidnap and Birthday Celebration....

Just Fun Stuff.....

A continuation of Silliness...and a day of FEASTING and Competition....

And the winners are......

Beating the Winter Blahs.....

A WHOLE lot of silliness......

This is weird to have in this group of photos, but this is the photo I started with and I don't want to leave it out.....besides, I don't know how....

That's me, leaping into the future. No really, I went to Grounds for Sculpture with Anna and she had this bright idea to leap out under the Tori Gate Sculpture. I think it might be a sacreligious, I don't know, but when your 18 year old decides to have some fun, well, I just go along and enjoy that ride. I took a picture of her....got it right the VERY FIRST TIME. But, well, Anna's not used to my camera.....or maybe it has to do with my "hang" time. This is like, my 8th attempt at leaping (just ONE more time!), I finally made it into 'what's next' with my feet off the ground.......

HAHAHAHAHA! Still laughing over the bowl and the pantyhose....bphffft!! hahaha!!

OH MY GOD!!! I'm STILL laughing and it's a coupla hours later......

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I wear pantyhose, I don't know, like maybe once every three years.....more than often enough. BUT, for things like graduation, or say.....hmmmm, graduation, yeah, ya need 'em, so I do (or did) have a couple of pairs.

Conversation between Ellen and me:

Ellen: I need a bowl for Liz's boyfriend's mother (who she'll be meeting for the first time at Liz's graduation tomorrow)

Me: I got some of those, yeah, I'll get one out for ya.

Ellen, (a couple of hours later): I'm too tired to come by for the bowl, I'll send Brian to pick it out....put it on the table on your patio.

Me: OK, sure.

Ellen: Do you have any pantyhose?

Me: I think, maybe.....it's been awhile since I checked.

Ellen: Could you put them out on the table with the bowl?

Me: OK!....hahahahahahaha!

And so there ya have it, what are friends for anyway. When Brian came for the bowl and the pantyhose, I was laughing (more like cackling) my head off....hahahahaha!.... and taking a picture of the bowl filled with pantyhose. I don't think he was so amused as I was.

Will this be as funny tomorrow as it is now? It's hard to imagine, but I really, really hope so!

I STILL don't get it!!!

OK, we were going down to VA Beach for a hockey tournament and decided to go down the Eastern Shore way rather than down I-95. Rt. 13 is a great route, taking you through that
F-L-A-T farming landscape. All the spring wheat is tall now, limey green, cool, beautiful. I can't figure out why I love that landscape so much, it's just flat, but maybe it's just the sense of all that space with a few farmhouses punctuating the horizon.

One of my favorite spots along this route, actually, though, is going by the Dover Air Force Base, an odd thing to like, but I love seeing all those GIANT ugly, bug-like cargo planes. I don't remember seeing any of those planes in the sky as we've gone by, they're just hanging out by the hangers mostly, but I like seeing them and marveling about the size of them. When we go down to Charleston, it's the same thing. There's an Airforce Base right there along the right side of Rt. 26 just before you get into Charleston. You can't actually see the base from the highway, but if you're lucky, a plane might be taking off or landing. And if you're REALLY , REALLY lucky, one might even fly right over your car. These planes are SO huge!! Enormous!! I am in awe of these ugly, monster airplanes. There's such a sense of power to these planes....and I don't know, something so amazing about them as well. How in the hell, do these gigundo monsters....and it seems like they're just slowly floating along....stay up there in the sky??!! It's astonishing!

I remember a teeny bit about the basics.....the airplane wing is contoured so that air goes faster over the top because that's the curved part and slower underneath cause that part is flat. When I'm making a big deal about it (again), Steve tells me it's Bernoulli's Principle....something to do with a difference of pressure caused by differences in velocity of the air passing by. STILL! It's only AIR we're talking about here....and I don't know.....this same see-nothing, feel-nothing stuff won't even hold up my arm when I lift it.
BUT, this AIR holds up this monster plane! I once saw a picture in "National Geographic" that showed one of those giant cargo planes being loaded with TANKS and BULLDOZERS for heavens sake. These are not light items either....tons of poundage...and then all those people are on the planes too. How does this work? I still don't get it, never mind about Bernoulli or Sir Isaac Newton or any of those other brainy guys. Those planes weigh TONS and they're up there in the air floating in for a landing at the Dover or Charleston Air Force Base. Amazing!

We NEED this photo for the blog!!!

I just couldn't pass this up. A friend forwarded this, but I suppose because she's a teacher and all, maybe it wouldn't be too good to mention exactly who it is. Anyway, I laughed so hard when I saw this, I knew we HAD to have this posted here....hahahahahaha!!!!

*Warning---if you are drinking coffee, swallow it now* An elementary school class started a class project to make planters to take home to their parents. They wanted to have a plant in it that was easy to take care of, so they decided to use cactus plants. The students were given green-ware pottery planters in the shape of clowns which they painted with glaze. The clown planters were professionally fired at a class outing so they could see the process. It was great fun! They planted cactus seeds in the finished planters and they grew n icely, but unfortunately, the children were not allowed to take them home. The cactus plants were removed and small ivy replaced them and the children were then allowed to take them home instead. The teacher said cactus seemed like a good idea at the time!

NY, Philly, Baltimore and DC

Just recently I realized that in the last 3 months I've been to NYC, Philly (twice), Baltimore and DC! Wow! I've loved all these trips, each in a different way. Fun with Wags in Philly and Baltimore....fun with daughters in NY and DC. Oh, and I've been to Richmond and Charlottesville too.....work and to visit another daughter. All cool places.

My last visit to DC reminded me why I like it there so much. We biked there, our daughter whiz-guiding us from Georgetown into DC. It was a whirlwind......zooming past monuments, memorials, reflecting pools, museums, galleries.....dodging pedestrians and puddles, not stopping, just flying by all the familiar landmarks. I loved that....whoosh! But whoa! Stop! Gotta take at least one picture. OK, by the Capitol.

DC is cool, like NY, in the diversity of people. On the Mall where all the visitors go, you hear so many kinds of languages. Once stopped at a light.....I think this is the one we stopped at for a double light....there was a SEA of thousands (well maybe only a hundred) kids all dressed in bright lime green, coming towards us...so broad and wide there was no way for bikes to get through that throng. BUT, I heard a language where I thought to myself....hmmmm, that must be Russian. Ha! What do I know of Russian? It could of been any Eastern European language, Polish, Serbian...who knows, in fact, if I'd even heard OF this language before....or if it was really Eastern European....I'm just making that part up....it just sounded like that's what it SHOULD'VE been. DC is like that.....people from every pocket of the world.

I love the SCALE of the architecture there. Thank goodness there's such a thing as grandeur in a nation's capitol. Columns too big to put your arms around and so high....froo-froo filigree do-dads at the top. These buildings cry out that they are IMPORTANT.

And of course, I love the Metro....more modern and space-agey than the NY subway....almost futuristic to this small-town girl. But the escalators are so long! I can remember going down one with a small child thinking, hang on tight or that's all she wrote....down the tubes they'd be if they took a tumble. But so easy to get places! So much better than traffic clog-up!

The fourth and most important reason I love DC, though, is because of all the planes going overhead, taking off and heading west along the Potomac. It is such a wonder that so many people are going so many places. Planes taking off at a one-a-minute clip during heavy traffic time. I get goose bumps thinking of all the places people are going. Here, there, and everywhere....off and out and into the world....going places, going somewhere.....


Our Baltimore Field Trip was really fun.....a beautiful day, the Visionary Arts was great as always. I love that kind of stuff. Note the photo of Dr. Bonner's soap shrine. Hoho.....he was a nutcase! .....as are many of the artists at that museum. (and maybe the small group of women from Lititz visiting!) A trip on the Water Taxi over to Fell's Point and lunch.....WITH Loose Cannon and Small Craft Warning Beer....yep, I think that just about summed up our group. You know, I know how busy everyone is at this time of year. It's hard to carve out time for this sort of thing. In fact, if I hadn't been in charge, I probably wouldn't have made it either. But man-o-man, once we were there, all the usual stuff fell away and faded into the background.....and the fun and pleasure of the day took over. Way worth it! It's sort of like when I had little kids....lotsa little kids, whoa, it can wear you right out. But a day or night out, and phew!, your strectched-to-the-max personal rubber band shrinks back to normal and reshapes into the more relaxed and fun person you really are. Hubba, hubba, I'm glad I HAD to go to Baltimore!

A HOPE Surge

Whew! Just found my camera. SO new photos. New photos from when Obama came to Lancaster....photos of some of his hopeful spuuorters. I AM feeling more hopeful these days. I think Obama himself well and showed himself to be above the fray with the Wright business. I just hope people can see his leadership qualities and level-headedness when they go to vote in Nov. I always ask my Republican friends, "now exactly what has the current administration and the Republican party done for you in the last 8 years. Just think abou that." I hope they do.

Transposition Misrepresentation....

I LOVE MY CANOPY!!

In my last post about the Arts in the Park Show in Richmond....I made a slight but important error. I said I'd been going to that show since 1997. Actually, I transposed the last 9 and 7 and so it should've said 1979. What a difference.....almost a couple of DECADES!! And in reality, I may have gone in '77 or '78.

And what a difference those decades make too. When I first started doing this show, no one had canopies, those magical pop-up tents that are ubiquitous (woo, big word, that) at all arts and crafts shows. Oh no, back in the old days, at Richmond, you had to set-up on Saturday morning, take everything down on Saturday night and put it all back up again on Sunday morning. Oh wow! What a PAIN! I can't believe we did that. We must of been mighty young then cause I would never even consider doing that now. When I told this to other exhibitors, they looked at me funny like, yeah right, sure you did. Or maybe they were just looking at me like I was a dinosaur from prehistoric times. I don't know.

It was a funny thing. I didn't do Arts in the Park every year. There were a few years when I didn't do pottery. It was so hard to do when I had young kids. I mean, there were always reasons I had to stop in the middle of things....kids being hungry, or fighting or someone having to go to the bathroom. And when your hands are all gucky with wet clay, it's so hard to stop. So some years, rather than being resentful of the demands and interruptions, I just concentrated on mouths and bottoms and refereeing. It was easier that way. I wanted to enjoy my kids too....do fun stuff with them....rather than getting aggravated by what I couldn't do pottery-wise.

The first time I went back to Arts in the Park after a hiatus of several years, it was astounding. It was like mushrooms had sprouted in Byrd Park.....canopies were everywhere. I think I was the only person who didn't have one. And so I was the one sitting under an umbrella but still getting soaked and I was the one dumping water out of the bowls. I was also the only one who had to do the take-down and put-up-again routine.

So I got a canopy, the most wonderful invention in recent history. Some craftspeople gripe (craftspeople can be a whiney bunch) about their canopy. They sometimes blow away or crumple with wind if they're not anchored well, or the ceiling fills with water and collapses if there's not enough arch. However, I LOVE my canopy! I'm amazed at how easy they are to put up....by one person!...and how they keep me dry and shaded and best of all, of course, they keep things in place overnight. The inventor deserves a Nobel Prize or at least a Product Design award. How they work is so cool.

The one thing that I do gripe about with my canopy, is that the jacket that fits over the thing when they're folded up is way too tight. Why they couldn't have put an inch more fabric into that thing is a mystery, because it would've made life soooo much easier. It's such a struggle to get that tent cover over that my finger tips ache from trying to pull the damn thing over the canopy. So every time I fold up the canopy....by myself!!....in very very little time!!...when I get to the end, trying to make it into as small a bundle as possible, I hug that canopy. I hug it tight! And I always say, because it's a rule, beacause it's true, and because I want to remember it when I'm struggling with the cover, I always say, with fervor, "I LOVE MY CANOPY!!"

Trust and the Circle Guys

I always DREAD going to this craft show.....Arts in the Park in Richmond, VA. The first one of the season, getting my whole act together and in gear. I get in a funk for days beforehand. It's far. There's so much stuff to bring. The weather is so uncertain. Will people come out and buy. And the set-up is such a pain. But year after year I keep going back to this show. And every year, once I'm there, I always wonder why I got in such a twist over it. The anticipation is so much worse than the reality of the hardship of this show. In fact, I always leave feeling really happy because it's so neat. But I couldn't go, really, if it weren't for the Parking Guys. They are what makes going to Richmond possible.


The least favorite part of my pottery business is the set-up at a show. Jockeying the van into a good parking spot with other huge vehicles, getting close enough to the booth and then unloading, schlepping the stuff to #179 and then putting it all together, all that puts a certain amount of dread into my thinking. Getting into parking position is the number one anxiety. About half-way to Richmond, though, I remembered the Parking Guys, and whew! the day becomes instantly easier.

When I get to Richmond I remember all the reasons that I keep coming back. It's actually a wonderful show in a wonderful grand old park....Byrd Park....filled with huge hundred-year-old oak trees. There's a beautiful football-field-length, semi-sunken lawn that's boardered by rows of dogwoods....Dogwood Dell.... that's capped at the end by a towering Carillion. It's a truly lovely park. I used to live in Richmond not far from this park and the drive down Boulevard past all the statues of confederate generals is a real nostalgic blast from the past.....Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart and all the others.

There are actually many reasons I like coming to this show.....how can I forget these things in the week before when I'm in such a funk? I love seeing and catching up with the group of friends that I stay with and see once a year. Saturday night there's a pot-luck get-together and sometimes the slide projector is brought out and we can see ourselves when we all had long hair, short-shorts and huge glasses.....and our kids were babies. Oh my! And it's great fun trading stuff with friends and show neighbors. So much batik from my friend Sharon....and the wacky jewelry from Chris Pool. She's so funky....her mobiles, pins,earrings, and drawer pulls are funky....and so fun.

One of the very best parts of Arts in the Park is watching the community that puts this show on. Byrd Park is across the street from an older established neighborhood in Richmond and they've formed the Carillion Association to raise money for upkeep of the park and preservation of the carillion. I would say there must be 50 to 100 neighborhood volunteers making this show a reality. The person in charge is one Mrs. R. S. Lovelace, III. I don't know her name other than that, but she must be formidable to organize such a huge undertaking....471 artists and craftspeople in the park this year. These volunteers do all kinds of things.....the three black women that always hand out packets of info in my area are soooo friendly and having so much fun, that I want to be them when I grow up. There are women manning the check-in table and men and women over on Mrs. R. S. Lovelace, III's patio fixing coffee and giving out doughnuts each morning. (you have to eat the doughnut....it's a tradition). There are people who've laid out the booth spaces and people who clean up afterwards.

The people who make my day, though, are the Parking Guys. Parking Guys are in the artist parking lot preventing chaos. Parking guys guide the attendees to spots in the fields. These are all just neighborhood men. But the best and most truly amazing Parking Guys are on the Circle. The grass-covered Circle is probably 40 feet in diameter with a tight little road that surrounds it. About 200-300 artists unload and load their vans off this circle and if it weren't for the Parking Guys, it would be pure pandemonium. The main Parking Guy....an older, jokey but stern black man....has been in charge of the Circle for as long as I can remember....and I've been doing this show off and on since 1997 as near as I can figure. He now has two proteges....another older black man, sweet man....and a younger easy-going white man in his mid-forties. They rule the Circle. And they are SO good!

In order to both park these trucks and vans and also be able to get by the parked vehicles, you need to back in diagonally .....just so. Of course, the trick is to get in tight, so more vans can be there, get in without crashing into another vehicle and get in without scraping your tires or getting stuck against the curb on the inside of the circle. Oh, it is SO daunting!! But the Parking Guys are SO good! Their mantra is to look at them, look at them.... not behind you ...where you're going, look at them. I can't look anyway, it's too scary. And they ask you to just trust them. Oh yes, oh hallelujiah, it works! These guys have you turning your wheel in directions you don't think you should be going. And when you're holding your breath, sure you're going to crash into your neighbor's left headlight, you're missing by an inch. It is so tight, but they make every vehicle get in just right, threaded in without a mishap. It's an amazing thing to watch.

You can always tell when someone new to the show is being parked by the Parking Guys. The Main Guy is yelling at them, "Look at ME!, Look at ME!!! LOOK AT ME!!!" "Trust me, Trust me!" Later in the day, the regulars sort of casually sidle up to the new folks and just mention, "those Parking Guys are very good....they're amazing in fact. You gotta trust them." The new people will learn soon enough about the value of the Parking Guys.

When I was packing up on Sunday, I'd once again been threaded into my spot and was putting all the stuff in the van. This young man....late teens or early twenties... was helping a woman who I assumed was his mom, load up her truck. We both stopped for a minute to watch the Parking Guys guide another vehicle into place and then we looked at each other and I said something like, "they're amazing". The young man replied, "I've been coming to this show since I was a baby and I always remember them being here doing this. Amazing." Later I mentioned what a nice young man this was to the woman I thought was his mother, but she said, oh no, he lived in the house where they gave out the coffee and doughnuts. Oh my!! This must be Mrs. R. S. Lovelace, III's son! This might even be R. S. Lovelace, IV! In any event, as R. S., IV was finishing up with packing the truck, the Main Parking Guy said to him, "You know, I think you might soon be ready to graduate to CIRCLE GUY". Of course. CIRCLE GUYS. These were not just ordinary Parking Guys! These were the Elite of the Parking Guys. These guys, the ones who make my attendance at this show possible, they definitely deserve the Most Distinguished Honor of being the Most Highly Regarded CIRCLE GUYS. They're the BEST! And I trust them completely.