More unhappy News in the newyear.

As it turns out my Aunt Betty in Georgia has also passed on. Her funeral is this weekend. I am not going.. It's quite a ways out there, and I can't miss the work. Not to mention, I promised a dear friend that I would come and visit her for the weekend. Hopefully to raise her spirits a Little. There has been a little bit of drama in her life lately.... we'll who am I kidding, there's been lots of drama for a good long while now.
I have put together what I think to be some good ideas to make her life a little easier, and some ideas to make things fun again. Some of the ideas I have are ...

-Start a online calendar - so she can keep her and her kids appointments and special events in order. I think if I use a email calendar like Yahoo, I can have it remind her too.

-Which brings me to - getting her up to date on the Internet... emails, picture, blogs, and games of course.

-I also want her to set up an "ICE" folder (or 'incase of emergency' folder). Here she can store important medical information such as her doctors, medications and diagnosis'. That way if anything every were to happen, all of the important information would be easily accessible. She can put the kids information there too.

-I want to help her set up a daily plan... including outings for her and the kids, chores, and visits to Nana's house.

-I also want to figure out some personal goals she has for herself, and help her to archive them.

These are just some of the ideas I have thought of to get her out of her rut that she's in. I will post another blog to let you all know how it all works out. Let me know if you can think of anything else.

January's unhappy events bring families together

January came with quite a blow. The same night that I was at the concert I found out later, was the night that my dear cousin Tony left this world. I had gotten a phone call at the concert, but it was so loud that I wasn't able to hear. I got the news the next day. It came as a shock, I didn't even kmow he had been in the hospital, not many people did. They are still trying to find out what happened.
The funeral was held Jan 5th 2009, luckily I was able to take off work to visit with my mourning friends and family. Even with such sad events to bring us together, it was good to see everyone come together. And as with the normal tradition on my moms side, we all decided on a meeting place to enjoy each others company and convers about the good times with our already missed family memeber.
With our tears wiped from our faces and food in our stomachs we soon found each others uplifting personalities to be helpful to manage our troubled thoughts. Our evening ended well, and there were laughs and smiles.

... part 2

My friend Nicky came into town for Christmas. We hung out allot, and visit mutual friends and family. The first couple days he was in town we went to D's house. I took my gifts for the kids out there with me. The kids loved them, but D said I broke the first rule of gift giving - you see I got John Wayne a (learner) guitar. Apparently i wasn't supposed to get them anything that made noise? Ha ha .

Regardless I figured a kid with a name like that needed a guitar, and a nice plaid jacket too. The kids loved their gifts and D loved hers too. I swear I spoil that dear girl every year. Nicky it seams had just as much fun with the kids toys as any child would. Momma Oakes stopped in for a quick visit too, but just to drop off the kids gifts that D couldn't fit in the car the day before.
Nicky and I said our goodbyes to the kids that night as they took off for their dads house all the way down in South Carolina.

Nicky and I caught a show at the 930 club in DC, together. It was a favorite band of Nicky's that I had gotten him tickets to for Christmas. "CLUTCH" was very interesting, kind of redneck meets rock with a really good beat. Their fans were awesome, mostly long haired tough guys with tattoos and Amish beards. If you have every been to the 930 club you probably have seen this huge bald guy with gigantic gauged ears (I totally want to meet this guy by the way)... this guy was singing along to the Clutch lyrics word for word, as he lifted crowd surfers off of the crowd and broke up fights between overzealous moshers. I'd say it's very addicting music - in fact we are going to go see them again in February I think.

A new year- missed events re-caped

When we last left our hero she had gone on a cold camping trip and was getting ready to face yet another. That thanksgiving camping trip has come and gone, with some interesting stories that ... lets just say should be kept quiet.

The Thanksgiving... family camping trip was one of intoxicating humor. I don't have may pictures from this one, as Witt wasn't able to attend, and I as usual forgot my camera. But the ones I do have give you a general sense of the merriment had by all.

The weekend before the Camping trip, I set out on a walk in DC to raise money for the homeless. My work pulled together a bunch of people who were interested and paid all of our entry fees. The experience was heartwarming, but the day was very cold. By the time we all got back to our cars we had walked almost 4 miles i think.

Somewhere around the 11Th of December I went with Jason to see "Manchester Orchestra", who was awesome. We drove all the way out to Maryland to see them and a few other bands play. We heard this awesome up and coming band "all get out". Jason bought their CD, and we both hope to see more of them in the months to come. My favorite part of this concert was the very last song- by almost all of the performers of the night. The did their own hilarious version of the theme to "The Fresh Prince", and as everyone and their mother knows that song... the audience sang along. It was GREAT!

... to be continued.