Clown Pictures

So here are the pictures from the first day; more to come when they are available! I am happy to say the second day was better than the first! As you can see there were even some changes made the first day...got rid of the white around my mouth and now my cheeks are heavy blush rather than the paint shown here! Now I have to work on my costume!

Clown Training

This is the most well planned and thought out training program I have been a part of for a long time! The men and women involved with the HaHa Clown Program at Stamford Hospital are extremely professional and dedicated to the program. The first day there was lots of role playing; community building and overall bonding. At the end of the day we spent some time putting on make up. What a fun activity that was. Most of us did not have experience with the clown style of make up and listened intently while the experienced clowns told us what to do and how to do it. Before we left for the evening we were given homework to work on our costume, name and how we wanted our make up to look.

Today was day 2 of the program. We watched a make up demo and then went to work on our own make up. Interesting how the second day went faster than the first and the fine tuning started to take place! Still some internal pressure going on since I don't have a name and haven't decided what I want to look like.

Here's me in my make up first day with the bright red circles on my cheeks and second day with freckles! Which do you like best??? You can also see how on the first day I started with the white around my mouth and decided I didn't like it. So, the evaluation continues!

Some technical problems with the pictures. Perhaps tomorrow?

So how do you blog on a regular basis?

I find that I have all these good intentions and then life gets in the way! Here's a brief rundown on what I've been up to...David is very involved with the UJF bike ride so I've been posting email addresses so that we can get his dollars raised up...you'd be surprised how much $18 can help! Then we're involved with a Mission to Israel from October 24th to November 2nd...more letters to send out. Maybe I'm just not up on the latest technology; I know how to do a mail merge for Word but can't figure out how to do that for email...thoughts? Anyway, by cutting, pasting and copying I sent out 90 letter...talk about time consuming! Then I have thank you notes to finish up from the Federation Campaign. The good news is I'll be done with this responsibility very soon (next couple of weeks) the bad news is I should be through with the notes by the time I am replaced! Family wise, Mom and I were honored by the JCC at their annual Gala! What a lovely evening standing there with my mom...she is amazing and would you believe spoke and thanked everyone for coming without a note in her hand! My friend Candace would be proud! Any excuse to have the family come to town works for me! Tomorrow I start my training as a clown for Stamford Hospital. I am so totally psyched! Can't wait to see where this new adventure leads me. I'll keep you up on things via this site!

Oh my, so much has happened!

Well, here's the good news! David and I have become grandparents! Who would have thought, who could have imagined how great this would be! The parents are Matt and Rachel and, their baby is Sam! I would say their little one, however, this is not a little baby! He weighed in at 9 pounds 10 ounces and is just the cutest guy every! As you can imagine, MD is now our favoritest place to visit! Matt and Rachel are an amazing parental team and Sam is the one who is benefiting from their tender loving care. Here's a picture of Sam at 10 days!

Reflections on the Inauguration

Well, considering it is just shy of a month since the Inauguration it makes sense that I should tell of some on our experiences. The day was amazing; we had some amazing luck and considering we were purple ticket holders it is a miracle that we actually got onto the mall! Our day started at 6:15 when we went to the metro only to have the door stuck and the train not able to move. We decided to get on another train going in the opposite direction and go to the end of the line...later we found out how lucky we were to do that. People who showed up at the metro a half hour later had to stand in line around the block for several hours because of the crowds in the station!

As we proceeded on the train there were announcements of stops that were not being made because of the crush of people! We finally got off and walked to the area of the mall. The closer we got to the purple gate the thicker the crowds! It was impossible to move, however, the good news was the sea of people blocked the wind so we really weren't that cold! We stood on a side street with 2 and a half blocks of solid humanity for over 2 hours barely moving! Finally we decided we were never going to get in so we left the area. In order to do this we moved to the left and as we did that David looked toward the Mall and there was a big sign that said Purple Ticket Gate and there were no people (or very few) waiting! So, we did get in and because so many of the "Purple People" didn't get in it was fairly comfortable standing and experiencing the excitement and being with the people! One minor inconvenience was the tree that was blocking the jumbo tron but you can't have everything!

Watching the people was worth every minute of waiting! more details to come! People had their head bowed as Obama spoke; men and women held hands and cried when he was sworn in! The other event that is memorable was when Bush left; we all cheered as the helicopter took off. Actually it became quite comical to me; I was certain that Bush thought we were cheering in support of him when actually we were so happy he was gone!

We stayed and watched the motorcade. The crowd was so excited...unfortunately we did not see the President when he got out of the car and walked. If we had thought about it we would have stood further down the route; we were too close to the Capitol!

The parade was endless and because it started late it went on forever! And, talk about cold! By this time most of the people were gone; they were smart, probably eating something hot!

Picking up Guys

OK, here's what I've learned...First, you learn Picking Up Guys from your mother (more on this point in a minute); Second, you can practice the technique anywhere!!!

Yesterday my mother wanted to go to the yarn store to pick up some Fun Fur, a soft, shaggy yarn. I had another errand to run so I told Mom to go do what she had to and we would meet in the yarn store. I finished my errand, went to the wool store and there she was, huddled in a corner having not gone up to the store at all. It seems the elevator was broken and she was concerned about riding the escalator on her own (thank goodness she didn't go up alone!). so, her plan was I would go first on the escalator so when she was ready to get off I could hold her hand and make sure she didn't loose her balance. So, that's what we did...when we got half way up the escalator, so it was too late to get off, it occurred to me, how was I going to get her back down???? Well, we got into the store and I secured a cart for her and sent her off on her shopping expedition while I tried for figure out how to get her back down. I went over to the manager of the store to see if perhaps the elevator was only going down...no such luck, it was totally not working. In the meantime there was Mom, shopping to her heart's content! Well, we finished picking out what we wanted to buy and now we were standing in line at the cash registers. I looked to my left and there was a strong looking, young, high school boy. No problem I was certain he would help me get Mom down on the escalator (which I should mention has a very large immediate drop and continues in a very sharp incline). Well, it seems that he wasn't leaving right away, was on his way to another store so he was sorry but he couldn't help! Now my heart was thumping big time...what do do! We paid for our purchases and went into the hallway and approached the roller coaster style escalator and what did I see coming up the escalator but a very good looking man! He was definitely the hero type, over 6 feet tall, broad shoulders, good looking...definitely worth a try to see if he would help. I asked and he was only too happy to help. He took Mom around the waist, held her hand with his big strong hands and away they went. Oh yes, I continued down the escalator as well! As we all road down Mom told him of her concern of loosing her balance and how grateful she was for his help. I told him that was baloney, she did this trick all day long picking up men! He smiled and said his English wasn't so good but he did understand my joke! Believe me when I tell you I was relieved to get into the car and drive home!!!

Pet Peeve

So, you know what its like to be exhausted...you were up late the night before and its 6:00 in the evening and, if you had your way, you'd be cozy in your bed with a good book! Well, just how I felt last night...maybe too much of the clicking on the Mah Jongg tiles (NEVER!)...I'm feeling like I can sleep for a week, look at my calendar and see I have a JCC Board Meeting. Ok, not a bad thing; the meetings are over early, so off I go! A light supper is always served! Tonight it is vegetarian chili and a big tossed salad, great! Dessert: assorted cookies! The topic of the meeting is the annual audit (just the meeting to go to tired!) and I've already heard the presentation at the finance meeting, double glazed over eyes! So, I zoned out on a double chocolate meringue cookie with choc fudge in the middle, OMG, delicious! Enter my pet peeve...I am sure there was coffee in that chocolate...I WAS UP ALL NIGHT! Well, not really up just never getting into that ram sleep! I can't believe it! Now I think I'm more tired than when I went to bed last night! Ok, napping is in my future for this afternoon!