St Patrick’s Day activities

Mom took me to her church this morning. The pastor commented on it being St Patrick’s Day and asked if there was anyone who didn’t have green on. He had a green leprechaun hat, the green and white hat band which he took off the hat, and a green scarf to give out, but after that, he said anyone else without green was on their own!

Continue reading

67 years old!?

Today was my birthday. I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and as I was washing my hands, I was humming “Happy birthday to me!” I had to get up at 6:00 this morning to go to a tourism breakfast in Sturgeon Bay with my boss and co-workers from the Welcome Center, but it was fun. We have a new staff member and it was a good opportunity to get to know her better.

Continue reading

Weird weekend

Yesterday morning, while I was at work, Serenity texted me and said that Jose’s father in El Salvador had just passed. They knew he was dying of cancer, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise, but you’re never really prepared for something like that. It was because his father was dying that Serenity and Jose pushed their wedding date up to December. I picked up some flowers after work and took them over to Jose, and Mark had just gone into their trailer to give Jose his condolences. Jose showed us videos that his nephew has been taking of the funeral.

Continue reading

What a start to the season!

Working for Block Advisors this year has certainly been different! When I started working in my office, I was told that my boss, Victoria, has now been put in charge of two other offices in Tucson. Last year, she was about to tear her hair out at the end of the season with only one extra office besides the one I work at. Like she really needed more stress in her life!

Continue reading

How WWI and the Influenza Pandemic Changed Victorian Mourning Practices

The Noble House, where I work as a docent, puts out a bi-annual newsletter, and my boss has asked me to write articles along the theme of whatever our display is each year. We are doing A House in Mourning: Victorian Funerals this year, so last spring, she asked me to write an article about Lincoln, the Civil War, and embalming. This fall, she asked me what I would like to write about, and I suggested the topic of how WWI and the Influenza outbreak affected Victorian mourning practices. I see parallels between then and now.

Continue reading

What was that?

[I am hoping that by changing the date on this, it will go out again. The actual date it was written was on August 16th, but no one got it because of a glitch in the system.]

Today I was working at the Noble House. During the 10:00-11:00 hour, I had one couple come in for a tour and then another couple came in as they were leaving. It was during the second tour of the day that something happened that has never happened before…

Continue reading

What did the groundhog see?

We woke up this morning to light snow that wasn’t sticking, but by 4:00 this evening, it was coming down a little harder. People around here are sick of it. I have never seen it snow so close to May before!

Continue reading