Have a beautiful Big life, filled with happy people and wondrous places, by sharing my many strengths and talents for fun and profit! =)

Just managed to have a good day with fun and all. Saw magical gardens with my granddaughter. Spoke with friends. Did calculus and work a little. Did good tweets and books arrived from amazon. All this in one day, lucky me.

I’ve just finished putting my photos from Nice up on Flickr. Such wondrous places! The night we got to Nice, we walked down to the Placé Massena, with its black and white checkerboard concrete and its glowing statues, towering above the plaza. We watched street dancers. I put my feet in the Mediterranean Sea. We ate dinner at 11 o’clock at night and saw a carousel that was built in 1900.

The next morning, we ate unbelievably exquisite croissants and pastries at a patisserie around the corner from our hotel. The Hotel Comté de Nice was a charming little establishment, but the best part of the lodging was that my daughter, who was just finishing up her Study Abroad program, did her first bit of grown-up negotiating in getting us the hotel, and was waiting there for us when we got to town.

Looking through the photographs would have been like being back in France again anyway, but as I was using Google maps to find the sites in my pictures, I discovered that the little yellow man can actually jump down from the arrows and show the street view of wherever you are. That is so AWESOME!!! So I virtually wandered around Nice all over again, completely enveloping myself in the city to the point that when I looked up from my computer, I actually had a little shock to find myself back home and in America.

There was a free slack key guitar festival in Waikiki this afternoon that I managed to get to. One of the treasures of living in Hawaii is that there are tons of opportunities to hear fabulous music free at rand times. Today I heard John Cruz but missed Makana. You never know when you’ll stumble onto it or you can just plan and find it. It’s just wounderful.there was a hippie lady dancing with suggestive abandon, a guy in a wheelchair singing his heart out, and a little girl in a white cotton dress with pink embroidery that refused to sleep leave or stop dancing.usic touchs peoples souls in a way that nothing else can.

I’m developing smile wrinkles from my job! I noticed them yesterday after realizing that I have a part time job that requires that I not only smile but also play. Really play, which comes from a good place in my brain. How cool is that.

I saw my friend at church a few weeks ago. After the exuberant greetings were exchanged, she said, “So… you sew, right?”

I uttered a very cautious, “yeah… why?”

Well, her daughter is going on a Pioneer Trek and all she needed was 2 aprons and 2 bonnets to lend some authenticity to the experience.

I made some really cute bib aprons with secret pockets on the inside, and a couple large-brim sunbonnets with back flaps for neck protection.

They turned out fabulous and she gave me a big hug when I delivered them to her between meetings at church on Sunday. To “pay” me, she’s going to treat me to lunch one of these days.

My peeps are already in a little uproar over who gets what part of me next weekend.

I’m not sure what to think of it, but it’s kind of nice that they want to spend time with me.

My user friend finally got her RN today. I tutored her through algebra FOUR times, and helped her write all her papers for nursing school. I know a lot about nursing school now! ;)

Anyway, my mom and I went to her graduation and pinning. Nice little ceremonies. Her sister dropped by at the graduation. That is the nice way of saying that she asked me to save seats for her entire family and then they showed up late, climbed over everyone, and after about 20 minutes, left early. The graduate never even got to see her that her sister was there. Flake. That is no doubt why I have to pick up the slack for this girl. Both her parents are gone, so my mom fills in, too.

After sharing my strengths in math, science, and paper-writing, I was pleased to see the fruits of my labors coming to fruition. The whole situation reminds me of the Andy Griffith Show—how whenever poor old Barney was floundering, good old Andy would show up and bail him out without Barney ever realizing what a screw-up he was. I got her through the course work. Now the REAL work begins and she will have to learn for herself. I wish her luck!!! :)

My middle daughter graduated from college today. 2 ex husbands and their families attended. Time passes and life goes on.

I started a twitter account to see what it might be like. I like it. I reconnected with people of similar interests. Lots of poetry in those short little messages.

The ocean was glassy smooth this morning so I whipped out the cell phone to shoot the view between the mangroves as we chugged along. This is why I ride the bus, besides other reasons. I get to look at this part twice a day.

We woke up to 58 degree weather. Freezing cold and pretty clear.