A face tune up - no botox

A couple weeks ago I had my annual skin checkup. Fair skinned folks like myself are prone to skin cancer. Dad and sisters have a history of precancerous spots that required removal. I have had several zapped with liquid nitrogen, plus one basal cell spot removed. #badskingenes

Hotties cooking

Toss in the fact that I spent a great deal of time in the sun growing up - we were pool rats! Followed by several years simmering in the sun on the Atlantic swim team and then as a lifeguard. Coppertone was applied to encourage the sun to caress one's skin - not to block it. Or we put on baby oil with iodine at times - I'm not sure what that was about. Later we did start adding Zinc Oxide - a sun block on our noses.

I fried pretty much every which way. Not only at the pool - but as an equal opportunity burner - on the mountain. I burned my face so badly in college I developed orange blisters and my lips swelled up so that I...well, had lips! (my nickname has been zipper lips through the years)

After all of these years am I considered well-done now? Do I get the plastic thingy stuck in my head like a steak? Unfortunately - my skin doesn't cook evenly. What I ended up with are well-done spots. Age spots. Oh I pretended they were my long-lost freckles come back for a while, but there's no denying it now. Aging skin - brown and even red little clusters right on my face. How nice for me.

When I had my skin check I asked the nurse practitioner about ways to treat some of the issues I was seeing with my increasing age. I don't think of myself as a vain person - I just want to be happy with who is looking back at me in the mirror. Just like chemical assistance for my hair my skin needed a lil help. For the bestest me!

Ellen

Ellen is a Clinical Aesthetician at Koch Facial Plastic Surgery and Spa. She was just the person to talk me through this thing - very professional in explaining what would happen, how it would work and how it would feel. Ellen asked a great deal about my genetics - how well this machine works depends on the skin type one has. She said I sounded like a perfect candidate. The best thing is that I'm no longer a sun goddess! I ended up having a partial facial treatment - on a machine that's not really a laser.

It's call photorejuvenation or Intense Pulsed Light. It kinda hurts and even with little protective glasses I could see a "lightning bolt" each time she zapped me. Ellen talked me through it. It was $99. Every spot she treated turned darker immediately. Then they'll dry up and go away. She said a few of the lighter ones may need to get hit again. The left side of my face had more spots...why? From driving! Subaru - put a filter on those windows!

Ellen used to be a dental hygienist. She loves her job she told me. I could tell! Ellen says I should put sun block on my skin each day. It should have zinc in it, she said - and not just be sunscreen. Hmmm. I don't think the type I have qualifies - need to find some. If you're tanning - you might consider fake tan - it might save you some treatment on down the line!

I'll let you know if my face dries up and falls off...

Happy Mom on Mother's Day Thanks kids!

 

If you've not tried Trader Joe's chips - they're like $3 - 3 thumbs up according to Pablo



Pablo made seared scallops for my special meal - even though I'm not his mother

The Lonely Goat herd

 

 

From the newsletter we receive at work each week - this one's a gem.

 

It's about my favorite movie of all time, The Sound of Music. My college roommates - Sal, Vic and Jane also loved the movie. Once, during our college years, we traveled to the Fleur theater in DSM just to see the movie when it made the rounds again on the big screen. We also liked to play the album during our beer parties. I have a lasting memory of Russ Euken dancing to the Lonely Goatherd late, late on night. I think Marci Merrick was involved.

 

If you're from Atlantic, you might remember the Eukens - they're from Cumberland. Sherry Nichol's big sis Jill married his older brother. Another brother came along with Russ to our parties. Or was that a cousin? He was pretty cute. I always think of Russ when I hear that song!

remember how the eyelashes batted?

There was really foam on the steins in the movie...

 

Iowa Outdoors

Celebrating 25 Years of REAP

Famous Puppet Collection Protected for Generations in Mason City

 

 

Thanks in part to Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) Funds, the “lowly goat herd” – an icon of the big screen - has been preserved.

The lowly goat herd puppets were a feature of the 1965 Academy Awards Best Picture, The Sound of Music” and the creation of Mason City native Bil Baird.

As the 25^th anniversary of REAP is celebrated, one of the great accomplishments from the program has been the preservation of some of Iowa’s most iconic historical and cultural treasures such as the Bil Baird puppet collection at the MacNider Art Museum in Mason City.

Baird was one of the world’s best-known puppet masters.  Based out of his New York City studio, once a Capone-era whisky still, Baird produced such works as the “Goat Herd” marionette performance in The Sound of Music.  He also performed extensively throughout Russia and India.

Before animation, Baird’s puppets were hugely popular in the advertising and promotional world.  His clients ranged from AT&T to governments promoting healthy agricultural practice — he even commemorated the USA moon landing. Baird became friends with founding MacNider museum director Richard Leet, and in 1979 began donating his collection of wood and newly engineered plastic puppets to his hometown, where he still visited family. 

The puppets came smashed and crammed haphazardly in old dusty wooden meat boxes with no clear labeling system.  In 2008, REAP funds matched by private donations enabled museum director Edith Blanchard to contract Sarah Carlson to inventory and photograph the collection with the help of Mara Linksey-Deegan, documenting condition and repairs. Now stored one puppet per chemical-free box, organized strings and fiber-filled bags support fragile structures ensuring proper preservation. 

The museum also features a collection of Bil Baird films, interviews, demo tapes, commercials and productions that have been converted from their original 16mm film format to digital DVDs.  Edward R. Murrow’s Person to Person interview with Baird and his wife, Cora, in their studio is included.  REAP funds purchased a special freezer that safeguards the flammable self-toxic filmstrips.

“These aren’t just puppets he owned.  He made all these puppets, that’s why we’re trying to save them in the way we are and preserve them,” said Blanchard.  “Baird is uniquely Iowan, very creative and educated both in the Mason City school system, and at the University of Iowa.  It really shows what talent you have possible in Iowa and we want to preserve that for future generations.”

 

I was sad to see that Maria Von Trapp - the last of the famous singing children passed away in February.

Of course they didn't call her Maria in the movie - that would have been too confusing since the nun's name was Maria. She's beautiful. Much more so than actresses who try to hold back the hands of time through surgery. I prefer the wrinkles. (though not on myself...)

When I am facing a touch situation (like a job interview) I still like to bolster myself with a rousing "I Have Confidence". I try not to wear an ugly dress like Maria did though...
I need to get to that museum in Mason City one of these days. the puppet-master. Genius.

 

The secret sauce

I've been pondering. In my last blog I talked about evidence that children do better when they feel connected to their families through their stories. I started thinking about all the stories I know about other families. Those have also had an impact upon my life.


A photo Fritz had of Dad from a JayCees event in Atlantic?

Growing up in a small town like Atlantic, we became part of each other's stories. Even now, when one of my father's best friends struggles with heath problems, I continue to think about the ways our families have intertwined through the years. My grandparents knew the Simpsons, who published the newspaper in Atlantic News Telegraph. Their son Frederick - called Fritz - was a couple years older than Dad. I don't know if they were pals in their younger years, but they sure were later in life. I can still hear Fritz calling Dad, "Bullock."

Fritz - in red with Ted and Mary Sue. Perhaps MS's daughter? One bad thing...they're Nebraska fans!

Fritz was married to Sue and they had two children, Ted - who is my age and Mary Sue who is a couple years younger. Sadly, Sue passed away much too young - even before my mom. I'm Facebook friends now with Ted (who is really also a Frederick) and keep up with the fam. Ted reports that Fritz, who lives in Omaha with his 2nd wife Dolly, is recuperating from having his leg amputated - the result of another medical issue. His attitude is good. Fritz is a fighter!

I believe the Bruce Feilor article about family stories could very well extend to those types of stories too - beyond immediate family. How well do we know those we live and work around?

In college, my roomies became like sisters. My college sisters' stories became my own. Vicki's father died tragically, drowning while canoeing in Alaska when she was only 3. Her mother, a young widow, had to make a living. She worked for a time as a secretary for a rich guy in California - Vic has some vivid memories from that time. Eventually Barb, Vicki's Mom, moved back to Iowa and met her 2nd husband, Jon. When Vic was 10, then had Krista, Vicki's little sis who invited me to her 10th birthday when we were in college - so cute. Jane's parent's made the kids ride in the car with their arms around each other if they were fighting - and her dad kept his eye on the rear-view mirror!

I already knew lots of Sal's fam stories as she was an Atlantic gal - I'd spent lots of time with 2 of my favorite people, Wayne and Anna Day Rodgers. One day Sally's sister's first husband up and left her - saying "I never did love you." Marcie survied and met Steve who was a much better guy. Wayne never liked that first husband anyway...he sucked with the horses...

After our time bonding with our pals in Creston, we laugh that we must end up in the same nursing home with them. That way we can finish each other's stories. Through the years we've enjoyed hearing about Jeff McFee's antics with (now Sheriff) Rick Piel, and his time as a cowboy in Wyoming. Jeff has shared many tales of brother Craig that are always entertaining as well. Phyllis and Willie had their hands full with that gang! Joan said kids used to pick on Craig because - his speech wasn't the clearest when he was little - so Carol would beat those bullies up! And who can forget Don McKim's stories about his cousins and the bb guns - it's amazing they didn't put an eye out! Perhaps that's why Donnie decided to be an eye doc.

So...the point of this blog is...if it's not family, it's your friends. Get to know people. Find out their stories.

Steps to success

My alma mater has some great marketing talent. Recently they purchased the stairs at Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines, near where we live. I've noticed that in the past five years since the mall has been here, Iowa State University has put quite a bit of $ and effort into attracting potential students shopping here.

But stairs - that's pretty clever! Other schools have mere banners.

 I'm not sure how these phrases hit high school seniors, but the statements on the steps pretty much summed up my college experience. I met several BFFs - Sal, Vic, Jane. Plus my guy friends (see below, under broomball). And my very best BFF - Paul.

I'm not sure I really had one aha moment, but my time at ISU certainly was a growth experience.

I did do a lot of doodling on my notes I took during all those lectures I attended. They really were just doodles. We attended a few late night broomball games at Hilton to watch our friends Moose and Steve play with their Stevenson House team. Until ISU I'd never heard of the sport, played like hockey, wearing shoes and using special brooms and a little ball. Then I actually had a chance to play the game myself - not in a cushy indoor stadium, but out in the cold, behind Beyer Hall with several softball players on a team my Atlantic pal Marci Merrick set up. Fun game - and I bundled up for the chill and for falls on the ice! No helmets back then though.

 The view toward the top of the stairs.

The bottom step here says "Hard work that doesn't seem like work". I believe that in retrospect. But at the time, it felt damn hard! Later, when I was juggling a job and a family, college seemed like it must have been a breeze.

Wearing cardinal and gold has become a bigger part of our lives post college. During school we took it for granted! Our basketball team wasn't very good back then so I only went to one or two men's games the whole time I was in school - and no women's games. We attended football - mostly for the party! We didn't have to worry about where to tailgate because we could take liquor right into games back then - nobody checked us.

Through the years I've gotten pretty fierce about my school pride. We enjoy going to football and basketball games and are boosters and financial supporters of the school athletic programs. As my blood donor shirt says - I bleed cardinal and gold.

Students can have a successful experience at any college they go to. But I wouldn't trade my experience for anything! I think Paul, Amy and Jud would tell you the same thing. Iowa State University certainly has been a part of the steps to success of our lives.   

My lover, partner, best friend

8/28/82

 

We didn't plan to have a memorable date for our wedding date...we were just trying to avoid Hawkeye (my parents) and Cyclone (Paul and me) football games! But it worked out pretty well in the end.

We met at 230 Campus Avenue in Ames

 

 

See - cute friends!

Paul and I met the first time in the fall of 1978. I don't recall being all that impressed - thinking more that his friend Scheid was cute. Besides, Paul was just back visiting that weekend - he was working that fall in SW Iowa at Forney Lake, near Riverton. My next memory of Paul is when he came to our door to sign me and me roomies up for a co-ed softball team with him and his buddies. Hmm more cute friends? And I was right - his friends Tom and Mike were handsome guys too. Not that he was dogmeat...but I'd seen him walk by our apartment holding hands with a girl with long hair.

 

 

That spring before my senior year we went on a date. I enjoyed his company but still thought it was a passing thing. That summer I became a softball groupie - his team Minsky's was pretty good, and so was he. I liked watching him play. We dated that year - he took me with him for a class project. He had to clip the nails of a vole, a little mouselike creature. He grew on me. By spring I met his sister Jean and fam, and then his parents. Then I graduated off I went to my new job in Sioux Falls, SD. Paul had started school a quarter late - he thought he wanted to be a carpenter for a bit. So he needed to finish up. He was working nights as a pre-sorter for UPS, so he fell asleep on some of our dates - sexy!

 

So there I was in Sioux Falls, all by myself. I had a few thoughts that maybe I'd meet Mr. Right there. Wrong! Paul came to visit - and without the distraction of college and roommates, we really got to know each other. We became best friends. That's when I was hooked! He wrote me the most romantic letters from SE Iowa, where he landed after graduating - trapping turkeys to transplant elsewhere. Then karma took over - and I was transferred to Omaha and he got a job in Oakland, Iowa not far away. We saw each other every weekend. In January of 1982 we got engaged, putting the wedding together in 8 short months, thanks to the Pat Bullock machine. My mom was good at that stuff.

 

 

Bridesmaids - my roomies, Vic, Jane, Sal and sis Betso. Groomsen - Mike, Tom, Fitz, Schneid with Moose and Brad as ushers. It was a great wedding, and the priest got us out of there in 45 minutes with a full mass. Paul's sis Jean played the organ and Pat McCauley played the organ. Music was gorgeous - the Sound of Music Wedding March was what I walked in to. (No...nobody sang "How do you Solve A Problem Like Leslie"). If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot. No singers, no flower girls. (Mom thought they were too dramatic).

 

 

Our friends decorated a van with a bunch of stuffed wild animals for us to ride in after the wedding - complete with duck calls. We went to the hospital to see my Grandpa Bubba. Others went to the White Rose and got drunk. There was a reception at the Country Club followed by another one at my parent's home - with roast beef my folks friends cooked for sannies. We had a keg and everyone had a great time. I got chilly and put on jeans and my mom's golf sweatshirt. Paul still had on his white tux - when we checked into the Wise Owl Hotel near I-80 the staff probably thought the groom ran away with someone other than the bride!

 

 

The next day we opened gifts at Mom and Dad's. When I walked in the door Dad said, "You look...different." Hmmm I was thinking I shoulda looked different a while ago...haha We still enjoy many of the gifts we received all those years ago.

 

 

We didn't go on our honeymoon for a few days as I had to close out month end books at my job at the grocery wholesaler in Omaha on the 31st. Then we flew to Seattle and took a Grayline Tour to Mount Ranier. Then we took a big ferry to Victoria Island, and then across to Vancouver. There Paul found out he had been hired by the federal government for a job in his same office in East Pott County. The beginning of a 30 year career.  

 

 

And the beginning of a beautiful marriage. Not always fun, but mostly. Thank God he's a patient man (a saint really). And good thing I like sports, and am able to entertain myself during hunting season. We aren't jealous types - trusting in each other. I pretty much tell him everything - so if you don't want him to know something, don't tell me. We've been through some tough stuff - our child's death, our parents' passing. I can't think of anyone I'd rather walk through this world with.

 

Happy 30th Anniversary Pablo - may there be at least 30 more!

 

Lifeguard confessions (Part 2)

Marci Merrick - as seen from the high guard chair

Those work/study basket kids got an education working at Sunnyside pool that summer. The two I remember are a boy and a girl - Sharon, a skinny 15ish girl, and Rod? a boy of similar age. Both were shy, at least at first. As they got to know us they loosened up though. I don't know if the education served them well or not...

Aha - I just remember Pat Allen was another guard I forgot to mention, along with his bro Mike - both really nice guys. They were Sunnyside neighborhood kids - blue collar parents. Cindy Sheppard and Kim Waters too needed to depend on their earnings and student loans for college. Thinking back, I was still at the age when I took it all for granted how much my parents had provided for me - a college education, money for a car. I hope I wasn't too snotty about how fortunate I was.

The lifeguards were on 15 minute circuits - depending on how big the crowd was that day. There was the tall chair near the deep end of the pool, a station where a guard hovered on the side of the pool in shallow end, and another chair on the other side in the middle of the Olympic sized pool. There were 3 diving boards - a spring low board, a high dive and a medium. Even though we didn't have slides and other fancy schmancy stuff - that high dive was as thrilling a thing as I ever got myself to go on in a pool! Three meters is a long ways down!

The lifeguard chairs had microphones - which made me all powerful. It's a godlike feeling. "No Running, 3 Springs and off the board, That's it you're outta here, Break Time". Or "Pool is closed due to lightning" was a fave when we were burned out and needed a break.

The sound system carried tunes from the day that still take me back to that time.
The only radio station we could get to come in was WOW, which wasn't our fave station, but I do remember hearing some good bands like Commodores, Foreigner was new - had to go to Omaha to buy their LP, my buddy Robyn loved Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town" because her bf was on an Henningsen Construction road crew and they traveled.

Sunnyside had a loft above the office - accessible via a wood ladder. Shag carpet and bean bag chairs were up there along with extreme heat. I spent a lot of time reading up there, sweat rolling off me.  I also made a latch hook rug that summer (remember those?).

Mark had sent me flowers to end the year...then he broke my heart..I found out later he was dating someone else too!

I was a little lovesick - I had been dating Mark, a guy from Fort Dodge who evidently decided summer was a good time to cut ties - but he didn't tell me, he just blew me off. In the pre-cell phone, email world, I sent him a couple letters that were un-requited. Perhaps all my wild partying was my way of dealing with heartbreak. Or it maybe it was just was fun to do...

Sometimes in between guarding gigs we'd sit on our towels and sun - you know with Baby Oil, frying like meat. We'd read Cosmo magazine and gossip. My dermo Ava Feldman is helping me remove evidence of that time in my life - annually frying off pre-cancerous spots.

After-hours in the loft we sometimes played a lil game called "Chugalug". Yes folks, the lifeguards were a bunch of crazy partiers. We never drank during pool hours - but at 9 p.m. - closing time, we got our party on. Heck, I learned to do a flip after a few beers. (I was too chicken without beer). And we didn't just drink at the pool - we drank all over SW Iowa - the Super Bowl, The Villa and other bars around town, Oakland, Greenbriar.

I remember driving over to Audubon on Saturday night with Kim and others to see a live band at a bar - (The band was called the Uglies from Creston with a singer named Mike Bullock. I can't remember my own kid's names sometimes but dumb stuff like this is stuck in my mind...). I don't know what we drank (did they have rufies back then?) but I ended up laying in the parking lot somehow getting pea gravel in my purse - I found it the next day. I hope I wasn't driving. Another time I helped at a swim meet - serving as a timer. After hours in the hot sun, I decided that was a good night to try gin and tonics at the Super Bowl. Five of them on an empty stomach. I still don't drink gin to this day..

There were no swimming lessons on weekends (thank goodness!), and Sunday was always a big hangover recovery day. But it was also pool cleanup day. Not always a good combo...We'd go early and float in the pool on rafts, rehydrating with water and laughing about the events of the night prior. But eventually Marci and Cindi would crack the whip. It was time to clean the changing rooms and pool deck. That's how I learned to clean toilets ya'll - you see at home we had Leona Wheatley - the cleaning lady. We'd also sprinkle stuff call HTH (it was like powdered bleach) on the bathhouse floor and on the pool deck and then hose it down, scrubbing with brooms.

Sunday nights were usually quieter - I needed to stay home sometimes! And please don't let me give you the impression all the lifeguards drank each and every night. I'm sure there were plenty of nights we didn't. I just don't remember those boring nights!

But it's no wonder my mother invited me not to come home that next summer. Who would want a crazy party animal like me around? Someone who was partying hard, only stopped at home long enough to sleep, eat stuff and do laundry. So even though most of the rest of the gang went back to the pool, the summer after my sophomore year I got to go to Grand Junction, Colorado to take a couple summer credits at Mesa Junior College and hanging with big sissies Susi (who lived there) and Cindy (who lives in Vail). It was much lonelier (I lived in the dorm by myself for a month), and less alcoholic, but  I grew up a bunch. And when I got back in early August I was still able to sub at the pool a bit before heading back to ISU.

You know they say, what goes around comes around. Our daughter Amy was a lifeguard the summer after her senior year in high school and the next summer. Her stories are just starting to trickle out. We were relieved when she stayed in Ames after that. You were right Mom.