Sophie's Story

   My friend, Paul, sent me an email that was supposed to contain some pictures. When I noticed that there were none attached, I sent him a reply to that effect. The answer I received started out with one word, "brazzlefratz". I had never heard the word before. I like it.   One of the things I'm trying to do is be more mindful of my language. I am quite capable of using some rather unSophielike language on occasion. This isn't a good idea especially when grandchildren are around as they are notorious for copying what you say.   When I was in junior high, I spent a week at a Lutheran bible camp. Since some campers used shall we say, interesting, language at times the camp counselors taught us some alternatives. The only one that I still remember is "frog snot".   We all know that swearing is bad. Using foul language is unnecessary and uncouth. With the wealth of words we have available to us in the English language surely we do not need to use profane an

     C and I had the opportunity to spend some time with Carrie after a show over the weekend. We went to a restaurant near her apartment to have a bite to eat. She will be graduating from college in a month or so. We were talking about the immediate future and what her plans were. At one point she mentioned that she owed us a lot of money.    I was pleased that she recognised that. When she graduated from high school,she had asked if she could move in with us. Her mother was moving out of the house she grew up in and we were closer to campus. We agreed and also set up what sort of financial help she could expect from us. When she moved out, we revised the original agreement. We would help her as long as she stayed in school and met the requirements of the program she is in. She kept her side of the bargain and we have kept ours.   I wasn't sure just how much of this she took for granted. Many of her friends come from wealthier families where college is the next step and there

   Once in awhile I read about someone and wish I could have lunch with that person. In all cases this is never possible as the person I've read about is either very famous or no longer among the living. It's still fun to think about it though.    Like many people, I have been following coverage of Pope Francis. I'm not sure why, I'm not Roman Catholic. I just find all the traditions around the Papacy interesting. (Maybe it's because I have been to the Vatican.)    I think he would be an interesting person to have lunch with. For starters he's in his middle 70s. Most people at this age are retired or at least thinking about slowing down a little bit. He's just been elected by his peers to take a new job in a foreign country far away from his home and his family. He seems to have a good sense of humour I read that shortly after he was elected he said to the Cardinals that elected him, "May God forgive you for what you have done." How about that.

   C and I were invited to go out dancing with two other couples. It sounded like fun. I had heard that my friend Mandy and her husband Jonathan love to dance. They take lessons and dance about once or twice a week. They often attended dances with Annie and Bruce, the other couple.   I really wanted to go, but I was a little nervous. The dance lessons that I took 20 some odd years ago would not help me. C and I have danced a little mostly in the living room or in the kitchen. We would be a pair of real novices.   We hurried through the last of our errands and dressed for the dance. I wasn't quite sure what to wear so I put on a pair of dark blue jeans with a black turtleneck and a red velvet jacket with sequins and beads. I figured this would be good middle ground as I didn't know how dressed up the other ladies would be. We got in the car and headed off.    Mandy, Jonathan, Annie and Bruce were going to eat at a restaurant where the dance was being held. We arrived late a

   Sunday was an anniversary day for me. Twenty years ago the state board of pharmacy gathered to sign the licenses for the people who had recently passed the two day licensing examinations. Mine was one of them.   It's not customary to celebrate such things, but to me this day was important. I had accomplished something that I wanted to do. I worked had and had a few bumps along the way, but I achieved what I wanted. I was a licensed pharmacist.   I wish I could say that my choice of career had been the product of study and thought. It wasn't. I knew I wanted to help people and knew I wanted to be in the medical profession. I considered nursing, physical therapist and occupational therapist. All of those were discarded when I spoke with a pharmacist at a career day at school. Pharmacy involved studying chemistry, a field  that I liked a lot. I would be helping people and I would not have to spend half my life in school. It also paid well enough that I could live on the sal

   When I was a kid, I was a terminal klutz. I could trip over a piece of thread. I also had hand-eye coordination problems. My hands and eyes not only didn't work with each other, I'm not sure that they knew they were attached to the same body.    Someone suggested to my parents that enrolling me in dance lessons could help. I was willing to take them so my parents signed me up. Besides dance steps, I learned a few other things and I'd like to share those with you today.   I was put in a class with girls that were younger than I. They were blond, blue eyed and had perfect dancer bodies. Their blond hair was either put up neatly into a chignon or in a bouncy, curly ponytail. Since I refused to comb or fuss with my hair in any way mine was short. They were thin and dainty looking. I was,well, bigger. Not fat,just bigger. (I think the women reading this will know what I mean.)   I wasn't very good at first. I'd mix up my left and right hands. I'd be a step o

    C and I both got new "toys" this past week. After the last big snowfall we finally decided to buy a snow blower. We had been talking about it for months and had budgeted money for it. We kept putting it off, because..well, it wasn't snowing that much. Why spend money for something that we may not be able to use. It looked like we were going to have a period of heavy snowfalls. We decided that we really needed to get a blower of our own. Our neighbor was very kindly clearing the entrance to the driveway, but we felt we needed to be able to take care of this ourselves.   C went down to the nearby dealer and bought it. It was delivered a few days later. C used it to clear off the parts of the driveway that had not been packed down by our cars. He also cleared off a spot by the garage. He liked the new blower and was looking forward to the snow so he could use it some more. It turned out the the big storm fizzled out. C has not had another chance to use his new toy.