Gentling Ginger V It's a girl!

Bob's been in much closer communication with Ginger, and we can now say with confidence--Miss Ginger. Maybe considering her beat-up appearance we should say Ms. Ginger.

Now a new dilemma--an official name? For reasons, or nonreasons, I'll go into later, we use presidential and first lady names for our pets. We've had Eleanor and Frankie D. (Also Miss Lucy Mercer--but, again, a story for another day). The current ruling feline is Dolley Madison Pando--sometimes known as Dolley Mae. A fella cat was going to be easy--Thomas Jefferson, but a chick cat?

We have two choices--going for the nickname, we can dub her Elizabeth Virginia Truman, or going for the red-headed angle, there's Thelma Catherine Ryan Nixon. (She named herself Patricia when she started college.) I'm leaning toward Thelma Ryan (Ginger) Pando. She quiet, a bit aloof, and from the looks of her left ear, able to endure adversity. Seems like a natural. Besides, do you think that there's ever been a cat named after our 34th first lady?

Here's Thelma. I'll try to get a close-up of that right ear.

Gentling Ginger IV More Contact!

We did it! Rather Bob did it. While I was out roaming Texas, hanging out with friends, generally having a good time, he was back here in Georgia bringing out food three or four times a day and crooning, "Here, Gingie, Gingie, Gingi."

I'm not the only one to be wowed by his sweet words. Ginger is now definitely his cat. I don't speak kitty very well, but I can translate the plaintive meow I hear when I try to be the bearer of good food. "Where's my fellow? He's the one who feeds me."

Ginger has (except for some of our recent rainy days) abandoned under the house and taken up permanent residence on the kitchen porch. Bob made a bed from the rug that used to live in front of the sink.

Moon over Bainbridge

Thank goodness my daughter called. All day I'd thought about the lunar elipse, and then I forgot.

Sometimes I love living in a little, tiny town almost in the country, and then, other times, I ache for city lights and more to do in the evening than be a political junkie on MSNBC or a zombie watching Law and Order reruns for the fourth time. Last night, the dark skies of the Georgia countryside won hands down.

Notes from the Road

Home again. I’m still relishing the heady excitement of Stories from the Heart and wonderful visits later in Austin and Houston—a great balance to my usual quiet small town living; although Bainbridge is beginning to share its early spring glories. (We all run around warning each other that we’re likely to have another frost.) More about this on Valentine’s Day.
Meanwhile, I’ll share a few more conference and Austin memories. At the conference, we gathered for panel discussions and writing practice sessions. Nancy Aronie’s presentation was inspiring—someday I’m going to one of her workshop. We ended the Conference on a true high note. At the closing luncheon, Austin singer/performer sang and chanted, and then, she had everyone in the room on their feet singing and chanting joyfully. What a sendoff!

Fellow board member Joyce, and I stayed over for the Monday night board meeting. What to do? Books! Of course, as if we hadn’t had enough of the written word. Sunday afternoon we headed to the legendary Austin book store, Book People and loaded up. Monday afternoon, tired and with time on our hands, we took our books and notebooks and headed for Jo’s Coffee, a hangout on South Congress. The view from the table included the legendary Austin Motel and in the distance the State Capitol.

We enjoyed books, each other, new friends and some balmy Austin weather.

In Austin with Stories from the Heart

I've left Bob to tend to Ginger--the votes are coming in for her in the her/him mystery--the adopted tree and all the Bainbridge doings, while I'm in Austin at the Story Circle Network's Stories from the Heart Conference. I wouldn't miss it. Women from all over, this year 17 states and Canada, gather to tell and listen to our life stories.

It's been a wonderful, and busy, day. First everyone pitched in with the set-up. All must be ready and bright and shining when registration opened at noon.

Next, Story Circle founder and President Emerita Susan Wittag Albert led an all-too-short pre-conference workshop on writing about place, "Mapping Our Stories." We did lots more than write. We all had crayons and traced our lives out on a map, and then drew maps of our personal community. The air was alive, you could about hear the popping of insights.

The evening closed with an energy-filled presentation (speech doesn't do it justice) by Nancy Aronie, author of Writing from the Heart: Tapping the Power of Your Inner Voice. Here she is with Story Circle Executive Director Peggy Moody. Nancy is on the right.

This hotel if full of fingers itching for tomorrow to come so we can grab our pens and write, write, write.