The Christmas Ghost

We had something of an experience that's well worth relating. When we first got our warehouse this year, we couldn't wait to explore it. It's huge, and way at the top floor of this mighty warehouse. It was a company that made spice packets to season chicken with. George told me that when they took over the space, it was incredibly filthy. We were all kind of stunned just because the company had to do with food. Anyway, George, Pat and some of the others cleaned the place from top to bottom before taking it over.

We went up there the first time a week or so into the season. I avoid everyone when they clean warehouse space just because of my asthma. George told me she didn't have asthma, but understood because she was having some problems breathing.

So we made our first pick up and took it to the warehouse. Once in and situated, we started exploring. There is a rather large factory space, and a small office with two private offices and a bank of cubicles. We wandered in and out. We checked out the refrigerator to see if Pat stocked it with anything good. Like Pepsi. Helped ourselves, and then checked out the private offices.

In one was this huge wrap around desk. We were standing in the doorway oogling it. Becki got all excited. "Now I would really like a desk like that. I wonder if anyone would notice if it disappeared." She was joking. Anyway, she walked into to check it out when someone or something kicked her in the back of the leg.

I talked to George later. She wanted to know how much food we brought in. I mentioned how Becki was kicked. She didn't say much, and I figured she probably thought I was nuts.

Tonight she told me that a week later, the psychic who checked out my house back in September was actually in the warehouse, in what they called 'Toyland', wrapping presents. 'Toyland' just happens to be the outer office. George asked her how things were going. The psychic said, "You know there's something wrong with that back office. Did someone here have an experience in there?"

Instantly George answered. "Ah, Becki said she was kicked in there."

"There's an old man in the back office. He says no one is going to take his desk."

Okay, daughter. One more time you left me with goosebumps!

It's been a busy week. I want to say that we are winding down our Angel program, but we aren't. We're hot in the middle of it. Today was suppose to be our first delivery day. Funny thing happened, though. The electric was shut off at the warehouse. Now this is donated space, which we only operate for about a month or two tops, and someone usually picks up the utility bills. Well we were able to get in, but we couldn't work at night because we couldn't see what we were doing. So my friend, George, paid the bill. We missed a few days of work. So she crammed last night and today in order to catch up. (I work hard, but she works so much harder than everyone else. It's her baby, and I'm one of many, many babysitters.)

Usually what happens on delivery day is that about 80 people and about 30 cars follow one another from house to house dropping off Christmas cheer. We usually have a lot to go into each house, but as we deliver, we find there are so many people, we are tripping over each other. As Becki says, it seems that there is one group that works their tails off packing the stuff, and then one group who show up for delivery. It's like they revel in the credit for all the work we do. It was frustrating that the first in line to go into each residence were the ones that never helped out. After about 50 people piled into a house or apartment, the rest of us would be standing out in the cold. So we stopped going after a few years. George was always upset with me because of it. 'You did the work. You take the credit.' Well, we know what we did. We don't need someone to tell us 'Good job.' Okay, it's good to hear though. I've told her every year, 'We don't care. We're just happy to do what we do.'

Anyway, Gloria wanted to experience delivery this year, so planned to take the day, and she and Jon would follow the group around. Jon wasn't looking forward to it. When they got in this morning, they found that they had to help finish packing before deliveries could be attempted. George took a new approach because of the emergency. Once each family was packed, she sent it out in one car, and then began packing another family. Jon was thrilled to be on his own and not following a mob. Not only did he and Gloria get to experience the best part of delivery, but so did everyone else. Top that off with the idea that they pushed 30 families today. The way they used to do it, it took all day to get rid of 18 or 19 families. Then they picked up where they left off on Sunday. George is thrilled. She isn't working at all tomorrow. Next year, she says, this is what they're going to do. 'Fine,' I told her. 'Expect us on delivery day then.'

Of course I had families I asked to have help for. When Jon called to say they were almost done, he asked to me to please pick up for those family. Bill and I delivered to four families. Becki asked for help for 2 families. She has the first delivery in Chris's car. They will deliver it out on Wednesday. Once the other family is packed, they'll deliver that as well. It was a good day all the way around.

Ed is working his butt off on his end of the semester assignments. For his Music Appreciation class, he was expected to take in two concerts. He searched around for something that would qualify as his teacher's idea of a 'concert' and decided that maybe he'd take in an opera. So a few weeks ago, he talked Jon into going with him. It turned out that the only thing available was a Wednesday afternoon performance. So Becki volunteered to take Jon's ticket, as Jon was suppose to be in St. Louis that day. Ed met her at the train station after both finished school, and then walked from there to the Lyric Opera House. Becki goes to school on Michigan Avenue, which is like eight blocks east of the Lyric. She doesn't know that part of Downtown Chicago any better than Ed does. Somehow they found their way there, and home again.

Anyway, long story short, they sat way up in the top balcony, and they loved it. The music, they said, was exquisite, although it was hard to see. They warned me that I could never sit that high.

Ed still had to squeeze in another concert in order to finish the class. So this time he went online and ordered tickets from the Chicago Symphony at the Civic Opera House. He wanted to know if I was interested. I jumped at it. I figured no matter how high we sat, I would make myself enjoy it. After all I enjoyed my one and only time in the upper deck at the Cell. Of course after the game I swore I would never do it again.

So, we paid $22 each for what was called Gallary Seats. When Ed and Becki's friend, Richard, found out we were going, he went on line and ordered a ticket for himself. He spent $40 for a ticket on balcony below us. And better yet, he drove. We were prepared to take the train. The Civic is on Michigan, just down the street from Becki's school. It wouldn't have been a long walk at all. The way it worked out though, we actually saved money because we parked for less than 4 round trip tickets would have cost. (Barely. Parking for the afternoon was $25.)

We got there very early and rode up the elevator together. Richard got off on the fourth floor and we got off on the sixth. We found our seats immediately. It was the very last row at the top of the balcony. As we slipped into the theater, I turned to face the wall, and hugged it until we found our seats. I actually sat down. Then I kind of quietly freaked out. There was no way on God's green earth I could sit there and watch. I had to leave immediately. I very quietly asked the first usher I saw if I could hear the music if I sat in the lobby. I was really too frightened to move my lips enough to shout. I mean every move made me feel I'd fall forward. I guess I must have really paled because he understood me immediately. He promised to find me a place in the 'ballroom' where I could watch it on TV, and then he escorted me out.

Later both Becki and Ed felt guilty about me not watching the performance live. They almost went looking for the ballroom at intermission. They would never have made it back ontime to take their places if they had. I guess they thought about that and stayed put. What they didn't know is I never made it to the ballroom. Instead the house manager found me a seat on the ground floor. I couldn't freakin' believe it. I had the very last seat in the very last row, all by myself, in a small theatre. I literally traded in my $22 seat for something worth quite a bit more.

Talk about incredible. We saw 'Beyond the Score', which was a discussion about how Gustav Mahler wrote his 4th Symphony. It took him 12 years. The first half of the program had actors reading out what he did, how and why he did it. In between explanations, the orchestra played the passages the actors talked about. I hate to admit I almost fell asleep. I caught myself a few times during that first part. Even so I'm glad I didn't. I understood more about the piece than I expected I would. When they came back from intermission, the Orchestra played the entire 4th Symphony without a pause. I looked for those things they talked about. At one point, the actors described how closely together Mahler had written a passage for a low clarinet. That was followed by a louder clarinet, and by a third clarinet which was lifted into the air. All three came across differently even though they played the same notes. At another place in the first movement the actors described how this passage was to be really creepy. Believe me, it was. Anyway, we really enjoyed ourselves. And I'm glad.

I didn't really expect my kids to open themselves up to this kind of experience. Like I told Bill, I remember when at that age when the subject of classical music came up among my friends, they rejected it as something weird or odd. I've always liked classical music. No, I like all kinds of music. Unfortunately, where I enjoy almost everything, I am not educated in anything outside of classic rock. Anyway, we have promised ourselves that we will return for another concert. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Merry Christmas - It's that time again.

A very happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope it went very well for everyone.

I want to say that I hate Christmas. I mean I seriously used to. I hated the idea that when Christmas came, my kids would want something that everyone of their friends would normally expect, and I wouldn't be able to give it to them. I know that sounds so shallow, but the fact is every mother wants the best for their children. I hated disappointing them. And I couldn't stand the idea that my kids were teased about not having what other kids have. Plain and simple, kids are cruel.

Life has changed since those days. We've been involved with our Angel Group now since Becki was 4, so that makes about 15 years. Almost immediately we realized that as bad as any of us thought we had it, we were really very lucky. We figured this out by reaching out to families who had insurmountable problems, more than just 'Why can't I have this special gift for Christmas," type of problem. None of us have cancer or other illnesses, and we should be around after Christmas.

I tell the story year after year about the 8 year old who requested a blender for Christmas one year. He wanted it because his mother had throat cancer and all her food had to be pureed. Then there's the story about how the woman who escaped an abusive marriage. She called a number she found in the Penny Saver for a moving company. The people showed up, loaded all her furniture into a van and skipped town. They even took her bird. To make matters worse, her son had diabetes, and she had to take him to the hospital daily so he could get his shot. I can't remember why she couldn't give it to him, but that's the way it went. And there were a couple of years when we helped families who were about to lose members. One young man was going to be forced out into the real world prior to finishing high school because his father was about to lose his life to cancer. His mother had died the year before.

After hearing stories like that, I can't feel sorry for my children, or anyone else's because they weren't going to receive the new hot toy. Life is just too cruel at times.

I held the second 'sort' party of the year tonight. When Becki graduated last year, I was afraid I wouldn't have any help sorting canned goods. Each year I've depended on my kids' friends. As the boys graduated, their friends have gone off in other directions. I thought maybe Becki would make new friends at her new school. A lot of the kids she is meeting are from out of town, and they live on campus, which is Downtown. Getting from there to here and back again would be a problem. Anyway, I was confident that I wouldn't get much help. So I told all three, 'Make some calls. Get me some help.' So tonight, all three called friends. Louis, who is always there for me, came again, as did Mikey, Ed D., Stephen, Mel, Chris, Matt, Matt, Yellow, Gloria, her friend Vickie, and Leon all showed up. We had so many people, we blew through three pallets of food in no time.

Just as I think my days are numbered or my resources have dried up, someone steps in to help. Each year five local schools have completed drives for me. This year I lost three because the principals have changed. As I'm wondering how I'm going to make up for them, three cemeteries, an office and a township office have stepped in to take their places. One more time, I am overwhelmed. And thankful.

Merry Christmas. It's really not a bad time of the year.

Veteran's Day and Fort Hood

I wanted to offer my thoughts on both Veteran's Day, and the tragedy at Ft. Hood. I've been feeling so crappy lately, I haven't done half of what I think about doing.

It's just that we can never say thank you enough to our vets. What I find unsettling though is the fact that they are fighting in Congress about benefits. This should be a no brainer. We are stretching our military as thin as we can, and we are over using each and every person we can. The thought that any man or woman serving in the U.S. military should ever have problems finding help, whether for a physical disability, a stress issue, or even help with education and loans, is unconscionable. How can we ask so much of so few and then turn our backs on them?

The bill before Congress has to do with veterans needing continuous care and support for their caregivers. I don't have a bill number, and I believe it is in the Senate now. The only thing I am aware of is that one man is holding up the vote because he wants to know how it is to be paid for. I could understand that if it weren't for the fact that he didn't think twice about voting for the war that put our military in this position to begin with. Shame on you, Mr. Senator.

Okay, I've expelled that, and I apologize because I hate allowing myself to form an opinion without having all the facts at hand. Too many politicians have voted on bills with less information, and look where it has gotten us. I don't believe in hunches unless desperate.

As far as the incident at Ft. Hood is concerned, I can only offer my condolences to family and friends. I can't imagine how it would feel to think my loved one is out of the line of fire only to be shot at home. There were two individuals from this area who died. It was hard to watch the coffin of the young man's passed by his high school on the way to the funeral chapel. It was like reliving the death of the Captain Ed wrestled with in high school. The Captain's loss touched this entire community. I can only imagine how hard it would be to know there are 13 communities suffering through this loss.

H1N1, Birthdays, Cats, etc.

It's been a long week. I swear most of us have dealt with H1N1. Bill and I are still sick. It seems where one thing feels better, something else feels worse. I've had colds before, but this is worse than that. It has to be a flu. All last week I had swollen tonsils. That turned into a just a sore throat, a cold, stomach problems, etc. Right now my sinuses are draining, but my head is killing me and I'm constantly coughing. Bill isn't doing much better.

We told Ed to take a bus to the UCLA main campus this morning, and he begged. Bill finally relented. He got sick on the way home. I wouldn't have made it. I haven't been sleeping right. When I walked in the door after dropping Ed at the Uptown campus, I sat down in Bill's chair and immediately fell asleep.

This past weekend was Becki's birthday. I tried to make a big deal out of it. I made lasagna, and I bought a cake. We had presents and the whole deal. The thing is we were all so sick, no one said much of anything. Chris was worse than all of us. He looked gray. Gloria's birthday was also Saturday, and she was suppose to join us. We had gifts for her, too. (She and Jon are back together.) She had to work late, which is no surprise. It was really kind of a sorry affair. Where we are usually boisterous and loud, we were very quiet. The only good thing is that no one brought up this weekend last year. That's when we lost Pizza. (I still see her now and then. As my new friend, the ghost hunter said, cats have more of a tendency to return more often than other animals do. Oh, and we've seen Blacky around, too.)

After the party I had to run Uptown. The paper was holding a wine and cheese fundraiser. I wasn't asked. I was told. Which was fine. It was a very nice affair. It was held at an art gallery. I wanted to visit before and never got a chance. This time I had an excuse. I will say that some of the amateur artists in town are very good. I felt good. I told the lady about the school that Becki attends. "Oh, that's one of the best art colleges in the country. Have her bring her portfolio in, and I'll see what I can sell for her." Becki hasn't got anything to sell yet.

Which brings up two other things. First off, you can't count on male cats. As much as I love my two, they don't do their jobs. I hate mice. We had this one. It ran out of the weirdest places at the weirdest times. Always inconvenient. We'd be sitting quietly, watching TV, when suddenly Becki would scream. She'd grab a cat and throw him in her room, and he'd run out as fast as he could. It wasn't that they wouldn't hunt, it's just that they'd play with the mouse for a while. Then they'd get bored and wander off. J.J. finally finished it off and dumped it in someone's bed. Okay, gross. You have to understand cats. I love my cats. It's just that when they kill something off like that, they have to brag. What better way to see it than to put in bed with a loved one? I honestly think they take secret enjoyment out of the scream and cursing that follows the discovery.

So anyway, Becki came home one evening. "Did I tell you Lisa's cat is having kittens?"

"No more cats!" I told her. "It better be a female. No more males."

Well, you get the gist of the conversation. Now we're arguing names, and we haven't even seen it yet. A few weeks from now.... I think Rosey is a great name. Becki and Jon insists I need to see it first. Now how we're going explain why this kitten is wandering around the house to Bill, I don't know. I guess he'll deal with this when it happens.

Next thing we're hiding from him: Ed and I are talking about opening a coffee house. We are researching now. Hopefully this will work better than the last money making scheme we came up with.

A Bitch Session

There are a few things I really want to get off my chest.

1. Big headlines yesterday! Kate Gosselin was ticketed on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. She drove 15 miles an hour over the speed limit and had to pay a $107 fine.

My bitch: Who cares? And why would anyone waste the time to report it?

2. Vice President Dick Cheney and Daughter, Loopy Liz, claim that President Obama is 'dithering' on sending more troops to Afghanistan. Fine, they have a right to say anything they want to. So do I. In my humble opinion, Cheney and Bush should have 'dithered' a little longer about going into Iraq. Maybe, just maybe, if they had, the war in Afghanistan would be over now, bin Laden would be in custody or dead, and we wouldn't have lost 4,000 men and women in Iraq. Maybe they would have thought this through and not just played it by someone's under educated gut. I also don't appreciate the fact that two men who actively avoided going to war themselves had the absolute gall to send others off to fight. Afghanistan was one thing. Iraq was quite another story.

No, I'm not a liberal. I am a moderate. Sarah Palin is an idiot, and Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Rielly and the like are liars and hate mongers. Their behavior is immoral.

3. I disagree with several of President Obama's policies. I think he should press Congress harder about the public option. My teeth hurt and I can't afford to have them pulled. And it irritates the hell out of me to hear people like Congresswoman Foxx claim that health care reform would be worse than Al Qaeda. Ah, obviously she didn't lose anyone at the World Trade Center, or she wouldn't say something that stupid or heartless. But then again I never received any campaign funds from health insurers, and I never received so much as a Christmas bonus when I worked for AIG. I resent giving money to banks and insurance companies that are too big to fail. Why were they allowed to get that big?

My biggest political bitch of all of this is simply that it took years and years of abuse to get us into this mess. And here we are 8 months later. The economy is beginning to come back. Health care reform is almost a reality. I just pray health care reforms comes with a public option as I truthfully can't see how we can force competition and reduce premiums otherwise. We need to reform the financial system, and we need to replace a lot of the regulations the Roosevelt Administration placed on the financial industry so that we will never again go through another near meltdown. To finish that thought, though, my biggest bitch of all is simply that change doesn't happen over night. To expect everything to be running the way it was before we all went broke is dumb. It took time to get into this mess, it will take time to get out of it, too. Of course when someone is out of work, waiting is nearly impossible, especially where creditors are concerned.

4. Citibank raised their credit card rates to 30%. That's frickin' usury. For the love of God and Country, that has to be stopped.

5. Now my biggest bitch: I saw someone in my yard last night when I took out the trash. It had robes on. Not cool.

A Really Good Day

So yesterday was a big day. I started the morning with a drop of gas. I got to the gas station, where Becki was suppose to put $5 in just so I could get her to and from the train station, only her ATM card wouldn't work at that pump. I dropped her off, and then drove to work to get my check. I figured I'd walk to the currency exchange rather than drive. I had that little gas that I honestly didn't think I'd make it to the closest gas station if I didn't walk.
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Anyway, I'm walking down the street when this woman sees me. I wasn't sure if I should run, figuring she'd probably ask for a hand out. But then half way across she yells at me, "Do you belong to the United Way? We contribute to the United Way at work and I wanted to be sure you guys would get it." No, I told her we didn't. I was relieved anyway. I didn't have money for me let alone her. Then she starts telling me she saw me on cable access addressing City Council. She read my work and she knew of my connection with our Angel Group, but until she saw me, she didn't know what I looked like. She hugged me and told me that we helped her years ago when the IRS put a lien on her paycheck. She and her 6 kids were surviving on next to nothing. She didn't know how she would have made it without our help. She said she wanted to do something and thought she might be able to collect canned food at work. I'd never turn that down. She made my day. Right after I talked to her, I called my friend, George. I wanted to make her day, too.
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Needless to say, we are up and running for the year, and it is going to be a good year. One of the Smith brothers called Ed to ask if we could use a food drive for Thanksgiving. His mother is a minister. She was asked by a cemetery administrator if she knew of anyone who could use it, and she thought of us. No, we don't do much at Thanksgiving, but, yes, Christmas is coming, and I really need all the food I can get my hands on. So they called me. There's this group of 3 cemeteries located on the same intersection, and owned by a much larger corporation. All three will be holding food drives for us. George told me, too, that a bank is going to hold a hygiene and beauty aids drive. It's been quite busy and things are coming together well.
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So last night was the big night when the Library, in conjunction with the Historical Society and the paper, previewed the film we made back in September about 3 haunted homes in our town. And you know who owns the 3rd house. It was cool and a lot of fun besides. They showed about six minutes from each interview, and then asked the homeowner to talk about the house and answer questions. It was packed. The first lady, Janet, told about how she knows her mother and her ex husband are around, and how she's seen some people she didn't know in her home. She said she wasn't afraid at all, that if anything, her home has a homey feel to it. At the second house, the homeowner described waking up in the middle of the night and finding people walking through her bedroom and out through a wall. As things progress, she'd find these characters face to face with her. Our sensitives weren't comfortable with that. They felt that a portal had been opened up somehow, and that some of these characters were evil. And we talked about our place. On film, they showed Becki, Jen and I talking about taking photos, and how Becki would point at something and say, "Mom, quick, take a picture." And sure enough, there's this big orb in it. As I talked about this on film, they showed the photos. There were a lot of oo's and aw's. I was surprised how they showed the one of the baseball guy coming out of the bush, but not that one of the smoke that I put on the sidebar. Later we talked about the people running and walking down the street. We talked about shadow people, and fairies.
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I loved the story the ghost hunter told about fairies. She said she visited a farm in Indiana. The owner said that there was a lot of activity in her barn and on the hill next to it. The ghost hunter brought a sensitive with her. The lady investigated, and came back with her assessment. There were fairies living there, and fairies are good luck, so she better feed them to keep them around. "So, what do you feed fairies?" Good question. Neither the lady, the sensitive nor the ghost hunter had any ideas as there aren't many fairies in North America. The sensitive told the lady to experiment. Leave different types of food out. So she did. She left chicken and beef, and toast, veggies and other things. She found that when the fairies liked something, that the food would disappear in the time it took to turn around. And it seems they like brownies, Cheetos, coffee and blended whiskeys best. The ghost hunter said that she has photos taken during another visit of people visiting the barn where the fairies were suppose to be. They would hold out both hands, each having something the fairies liked, and in the photos are these huge orbs landing on each hand. The food would just disappear.
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Now I wonder if that lady would be interested in a trade. Say one hooded figure for a fairy? Well maybe not. Hopefully our hooded figures floated off somewhere else where people and dogs aren't going to be haunted by their presence.
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The night ended with the ghost hunter selling and signing her latest book. I had read one of her earlier books about Chicago Cemeteries, which she wrote with her husband. I told her I would purchase this on payday. "No, let me give you one." So she signed a book and handed it to me. I can't wait to read it.
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So, if you're interested in this subject, her book is called Chicago Haunts 3, and her name is Ursula Bielski. She's also wrote Chicago Haunts 1 and 2, and Chicago Cemeteries.
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My only disappointment was to see myself on film. I'm very conscious of my weight, and I was concerned about it as we went into this project. I thought for sure I'd come across as this huge lump of blubber. Instead, I swear I came across as all boob. I knew I had a big rack. I didn't realize they took over everything.