My 35th Birthday!

My 35th Birthday weeklong vacation began with Michelle's arrival in the Fort and the opening of gifts. Mich had made 7 discs labeled "Mel's Radio Mix," which included bands that aren't on Fort radio regularly like Cage the Elephants, Neon Trees, and 30 Seconds to Mars. I've been listening to them non-stop. Awesome gift!


People expect Mich and I to party hard. I don't know where we've gotten this rep, but I can guarantee you, we visited 2 bars (minus Chicago), found Waldo at IHOP, had dinner at Cork 'n Cleaver, shopped for two days, started knitting projects, and played some hardcore UNO and Yahtzee with the hubby. Some of my favorite moments were watching movies and of course, tv shows. I had to hold her hand through Crichton's death on Farscape and introduced her to Supernatural. We have a habit of watching sci-fi shows together.

Michelle, Becky, Erin, and I traveled to Chicago for a fabulous night out. Our hotel even upgraded us to the top suite. Woo-hoo! We began with dinner at the House of Blues, followed by an evening of singing and dancing at Howl at the Moon. We briefly (for 15 minutes) tried some dance clubs, but hopped back in a roller coaster taxi ride back to HATM.

Overall a wonderful, relaxing, and enjoyable birthday week. I'm so grateful to everyone who went to dinner, to my gals for going to Chicago, and Michelle for flying up from Florida. It was a great way to spend my 35th!


Dancing Gals

Singing Gals

My Queen

When I was living with my sister almost a decade ago, this cat kept trying to jump in my car. It was quite aggravating as I didn't care for cats at the time and my sis was severely allergic to them. I left food out on the porch for the cat feeling bad for it until I moved out a couple of weeks later.Within a few days, we had a freezing rain storm, this being December in Florida, it was probably in the 60s. I was concerned for the cat and walked around the building in the rain and the beast came to me, so off to the vet we went. I tried to convince the vet that I didn't want the cat, but the vet informed me the cat had chosen me as the beast snuggled up to me. Little did I know I was acquiring a queen. My mom recommended naming her Cleo after Cleopatra because she carried herself regally.

Every morning I am awoken around 4:30 am. Notice: 4:30 am. It begins with the ringing of my wind chimes, which have been moved numerous times. Currently, they're hanging off my curtain rod, way up high. This is followed by everything on my night stand, alarm clock included, being knocked off. Then a great weight pounces near my head and I look up to see the beast, Miss Cleo, glaring down at me. She has figured out if she shakes the curtains, the wind chimes ring. Isn't she brilliant? I snapped this lovely photo of her when she woke me the other morning. She had knocked things off my night stand and jumped down to the ground. I felt her staring at me and looked down to this glare.

She can be a true darling when she bumps up against me, begging to be petted. Or when she curls in my lap or against my hip. But get in the way of mealtime and you're in trouble.

It's OK to Flirt, Right?

I grew up as a tomboy. I always felt more comfortable talking and joking with guys rather than girls, which has led to me feeling comfortable with flirty banter. I do it without thought. It has never really been an issue. All the men in my life have known I only mean it in fun and that I'm honest enough to let them know if there was more to the running commentary. The first closest friend I can remember is Jose followed by Chris, August, John, and the list goes on.

I've been friendly and flirty my entire life with the exception of when I suffered the bitter betrayal. Yes, a part of that is my divorce, which led to me not trusting male or female alike for a long time. But that isn't the betrayal I'm talking about. My biggest betrayal involved my friend August's wife. August and I had been friends for ten years. Yes, we'd tried dating and realized we truly did love each other, but only as friends. He married one of my best friends and managed to be one of the few remaining friends to survive my first marriage. When I was newly single, his wife informed me that she didn't trust my friendship with her husband. I can't describe the sense of betrayal I felt at my friend believing I would ever try to disrupt her marriage, much less hurt her that way. Without giving away too many details, I can say she insured I would never trust her again and I lost my friends during a time in my life when I desperately needed them.

After that experience, I avoided close friendships for years. I eventually became friendly with Kevin and Tim, hanging out with them at the pub, having lunch, and chatting about inconsequentual stuff. At one point, hubby thought I talked about Tim a bit too much, but he was used to it. Hubby jokes about the time he had to wade through a line of men to chat with me when we were dating because I flirted so much. But I honestly gave it no thought.

Now that I've become more open again, letting friends in, I've actually had two men step over the line. Though they know I'm married, that I despise cheaters, they felt the need to test the waters. I always felt guilt afterwards as if my flirting might have led them on, though I made it clear I wasn't interested. Those who know me can attest to the fact I've made it clear, under no circumstances would I ever cheat on my husband. I find the idea truly repulsive.

When I read my religious books, I feel more guilt because many of them state married women shouldn't flirt or have male friends. I find this a very disturbing thought. I don't flirt for the intention of cheating. I flirt to make someone else feel better and for me to feel better. Who can deny enjoying having someone else's attention for a bit? And I'm an equal opportunity flirter. Male, female, gay, straight. It doesn't matter. So I ask, is it okay to flirt?

Final Harry Potter Preview

It is a good thing that Kay wasn't around when I saw this. Yes, I squealed. Yes, I watched it multiple times. Yes, I plan to attend the midnight premiere with my gals. Let the squealing begin.

Zinged by a Photo

Have you ever seen a family photo and felt an immediate emotional reaction or connection? My aunt sent me this photo and I laughed initially then was struck by several emotions at once. One of my thoughts had to do with how disconnected I feel with my family or I should say my siblings. Looking at my sister and I hamming it for the camera cracks me up, but my sister would probably respond that she doesn't remember being this happy in childhood. Considering the rift that has grown between us, it's a bit sad to see this image. I'm also struck by how much I look like my mother in this image. In other photos, I look a lot like my father, but in this one, the similarities with my mom are eery. Another thought is look how young my parent's look. Then the realization sets in that I am currently older than the people in this photo.

Which leads to my second encounter with a photo, this one I didn't see, but can remember. Someone mentioned to me that a mutual acquaintance has a photo on her desk from a work party, in which I appear. (I'm using a family photo as an example since I don't have that particular photo.) I recalled how close I was with those friends, but it's been six years and we've drifted apart and live in different states, which made me sad because I can clearly recall the day the picture was taken. The person who mentioned the picture also commented on how different I look now. When I asked if they meant because of the weight, they hesitantly responded, yes. As you can see from a more recent image, I've lost a bit of weight in the past six years. The friend commented they've heard me mention the weight loss and they knew me back then, but had never realized the difference. Neither had hubby, until he looked at our photo albums. He thought I had been joking about the amount of weight I had lost.

So, in the last week, I've been zinged by photos and reminded of days gone by, friends lost, confusing family relations, and reminded of why I need to continue working out. Have you ever experienced multiple strong emotions from your personal photos?

An Amazing Ten Years

June 11, 2001 is an important date in my life. It was my first day as a part time librarian in the HCPLC's History and Genealogy Department. I had been in library school for a month and hadn't a clue of what I was doing. My job interview consisted of me honestly answering that I didn't know how to access the catalog or what databases were available or what genealogy was, but I was more than willing to learn if someone was willing to teach me. For some crazy reason, Lisa W. thought she could teach me and decided to hire me. Lisa was my first of many mentors over the years. She gave me my start and had faith in my abilities over the years.

Other genealogists and librarians touched my life and affected my career. Too many to be named in this post, but some of them appear in this pic of Elvia's last day in the department. Drew S. took the time to mentor me while I was in school when I wanted to be an academic librarian. After a fateful meeting at ALA, where librarian's were discussing the new HeritageQuest Online product and I met Curt W., who would eventually become my boss, I returned to school asking Drew to guide me into becoming a genealogy librarian. Through the years, I questioned his advice, such as the time he recommended I take a position as a general reference librarian instead of as a genealogy librarian when I graduated. He thought it would make me more marketable and he was right. Over the years, he had faith in me and offered me my first outside speaking engagement, talking to paraprofessionals about genealogy, and even recommended me to replace him in the University's MLIS program instructing possible future genealogy professionals.

Andrew B. would be the next person to have a major impact on my career. He recognized my leadership skills and thought I should replace Lisa as head of the History and Genealogy Collection, where I had begun my career. With his guiding hand in becoming a library supervisor, I started the next portion of my career. Even when I told him, I was ready for a change and needed to move on, he supported my decisions and still guides me when I face career challenges. When I left HCPLC and began my new experience, the group pictured in this photo were my employees (Cheryl was part of our group but not my employee).

The man I met at ALA eons ago, Curt W., would entice me during a phone interview concerning his views on genealogy instruction and its future. After our conversation, I knew where I belonged. I moved away from everything I knew to work in one of the premiere genealogical research facilities in the country, coordinating programs and seminars, and offering my expertise to others, while working with some of the most knowledgeable and wonderful group of people I've ever met. It has been a long and winding journey over the past ten years and I would never have made it this far, without my mentors. As I said there are those who I haven't mentioned, including the multiple researchers and society members, who made up my customer base over the years, but those I referenced have had the largest impact. Without their influence, I wouldn't be where I am today and I thank them for everything.

I Swear I Saved

Over the past few months, I've been scrimping and saving for my fabulous fall road trip with Michelle. I even have a sign on my front door reminding me not to spend money. I've been throwing away the L.L. Bean catalog as it arrives and ignoring all those email offers, in the hope of saving money. I was getting excited watching my savings grow. Then real life hit. Of course, as soon as you put a little money away, something has to break. Right? I had a nice visit with the eye doctor where for the third year in a row, my prescription changed enough that I needed new lenses. Plus, I've been squinting without sunglasses, so I had to buy new ones and their lenses, so I walked away with a nice big bill. Next was the visit to the car dealership for routine maintenance. Wiper blade replacements and hailstorm damage to the windshield set back my savings account again. I'm wiping my brow now, thinking I'm safe, but finally have to admit that my point and shoot camera is no longer functional. And I love my photos, so that is a required item. I can live without cable, but not the camera. And of course, I forgot that all of our annual insurance renewals happen this time of year.

I shall remain calm and remind myself, I still have another 3.5 months to save again for my trip. Especially cause it will be an amazing adventure!