Picture Time!!!

Some more blasts from the past:

Good 'Ol Summer Time! ♥

I joined the crowd last night for a time honored summer tradition: the outdoor concert; With lawn seats no less! Thank God there was no rain, but dang was it HOT!! I could feel rivulets of sweat trickling down my back making their journey south-ward to my denim pedal pushers as I forged on with blankets and coolers in hand. My frustration steadily increasing, as I passed closed gate after closed gate and Cincinnati's finest flagging the endless line of cars on past the REAL gates of Coney Island and Riverbend to the far flung outskirts of the horse fields. I had pre-paid parking but still found myself east of the race track with a 2 mile walk to the concert and my feet were killing me.

Finally made it in and grabbed a primo location on the lawn- close enough to see the stage fairly well and also the large performance screen. Took me back to my first concert in the late '70's with Peter Frampton and his "Frampton Comes Alive Tour" at the Meriweather Post Pavilion outside D.C. Surveying the crowd around me, I thought "Man, did I ever look that young or scream that loudly??" Back then you could smell smoke of a questionable origin seeping out from the darkness around you. Last night I smelled lots of Bubble Gum lip gloss and cotton candy. Instead of lighters flickering in the distance, I saw glow sticks and lit cell phones. I think I counted about 10 males under the age of 40 in the whole place. Hmmnn, you are probably wondering about now who the artist was. Well the 15,000 member audience included every girl between 7 and 14 in the Anderson area and lots of parents, like myself, who were trying to get through a concert with 3 bands and a bunch of unknown songs. How weird to be at a rock concert and unable to belt out the words. Well, I have to confess that I know the Year 3000 song, but that's cuz it was in the movie "Meet the Robinsons". The night was all about Avril Lavigne and the mega bubble gum cute Jonas Brothers. The youngest Jonas did a nice spiel on how he is dealing with his Diabetes and played a beautiful song that he wrote.

And guess what.............I survived my first tween concert!!!!!

A GREAT QUOTE

"Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option"

The Rape

I was going through some old files and found some pieces that I wrote many years ago that continue to touch me profoundly today. This piece was a sequel to one that I wrote detailing the shock that I and others in the Anderson Township community felt when we heard that a female shopper at our local Beechmont Mall had been abducted from the parking lot in broad daylight, kidnapped and raped. The first piece talked about how our seemingly safe and homogenous neighborhood had been transformed by the evil that entered its gates. The second piece speaks to...... well here you go, read it for yourself and you will see where I was going with it.

The Rape, Part II.

The power of information

A signed affidavit

Releases your identity

I stare at your name

I recognize it, yet I can’t picture your face in my mind

Perhaps I do know you

Perhaps our paths really have crossed

Sometime long ago.

I know that when you were nameless

Just a local victim whose life was torn apart

In the middle of my bubble universe

I thought about your ordeal

And wondered how something so awful could

Occur here among the peaceful people

A generalized fear settled in my bones

As my world was rendered no longer safe

I had no photograph then, just scant details

From which to conjure your image

But with the powerful reach of the internet

I searched your perpetrator’s name

And discovered the police file with your name in full

No longer blacked out or written in code

Due to an administrative error

I now know who you are and where you are

You are just a few years older than I

We have mutual friends, yet you do not really know me

And I can not really know your pain

Only reflect back on how your attack

made us all feel violated and afraid

And I see how closely our lives really do intersect

One bubble floating by another

Free to roam, until an intruder’s presence

Pierced the spheres and

dribbles of your life and my life

merged with each other resulting in tears.

8/20/03

rev. 8/23/03

Michelle Beckham-Corbin

Goodbye

It is so over and done with.

The Effect of Gasoline Prices on Church Festivals

Had a great time this weekend participating in a time-honored ritual of summer: the annual church festival. I worked the Saturday BBQ dinner at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Festival in Anderson. The food was great, but the crowds were thin. In fact, it seemed to me that the foot traffic throughout the festival weekend was on the light side. Friday and Saturday were quite hot, oppressive days but that never stopped people from turning out in earlier years. The BBQ dinner was served inside in the chilly confines of air-conditioned dining halls, and still no takers. I really think it is due to the domino effect of the economy. When your budget has to morph to include astronomical gas prices (like $4.09/gallon), then some things have to go. I'm betting a lot of the festival goers chose to eat dinner at home before coming to spend their hard earned money on entertainment- otherwise known as donations to the church.

In any event, I had a great time. Saw some friends who have been missing since late Spring and had a frozen Margarita or two to hold back the heat. Talk about the true meaning of a brain freeze!! I even met Jeff Cavens, in absentia (see picture), who will be back in person to give his Great Adventure Bible Study program at IHM on November 15th. If you notice, Jeff was smiling all night, despite the heat and the excess of BBQ in the kitchen.

Church festivals................gotta love em!!!

Who is That GiRRlll??

Hmmn, some readers may be wondering why Cameron has been featured several times and the The 7th grader has been described as "she who has not been named". Well, for some odd journalistic reason, I want to keep her identity private, but here are some pictures of her. She is a fantastic kid- the kind that is popular in the truest most pure form of the word: a person who is caring and nice to ALL- no hidden agendas ever with a fantastic self image, confidence, athleticism and extreme intelligence (one of those 99 percentilers on standardized tests).

Here is THE 7th grader:

Charmin to the Rescue and no Mr. Whipple in Sight!

Ok, here is a slightly humorous story that will give you a laugh at my expense.......... The soon to be 7th grader had her final basketball game tonight in a summer league. The temps outside were hovering in the low 90's and the gym was so hot and humid that you would be hard pressed to light a match in there. The parents in the stands were fanning their faces, unaware of what my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Doherty, used to tell us kids when we did the same thing on hot days. She told us that when we frantically waved our hands clenched with a notebook (to bring on a breeze of relief), we were in fact really just creating more heat by creating energy with our motions.

Because of the heat and the lack of a concession stand, I decided to hit the water fountain and then the restroom before the game began. For some unknown reason, I hung my keys on the little hook thing on the inside of the stall door and then promptly forgot about them when I left. I probably owe the forgetfulness to the hazy affect the heat was having upon my body and brain. After a great game (we won of course!) and no hand waving on my part, we departed the hot gym for the less hot, but still humid outdoors. Most of the Sharp Shooter families parked in the east lot and I had parked in the west along with The 7th grader's team mate "Nacho" (otherwise known as Anna) and her family. As I furiously dug around in the depths of my purse, which sometimes feels as large as a steamer trunk, I realized that my keys were not there. Hoping that I had not had another toilet incident (that one involved flushing a brand new $350 high end LG cell phone at another basketball game), I was going to race back to the bathroom to check. The 7th grader yelled out to Nacho that we were still stuck in this sickly heat because her (insert pre-teen adjective here) mom couldn't find her keys. Nacho's older brother stuck his head out the sliding door of their mini-van and said that he had found a set of keys with a moon and stars emblem (my P&G key chain) when he was searching for toilet paper since the men's room was out. He turned them in to the referee. Now how many coincidences occurred here:

1. The only team member that we parked near happened to have info on my keys
2. Nacho's older brother actually listened to the girls' conversation about the missing keys and spoke up about it (he will be a freshman next year).
3. He had to use the bathroom to go #2 as we said in the old days and didn't feel embarrassed in the least to tell us that he was searching for TP in the ladies room.
4. The ref was still there and had the keys!!!!

So a major problem averted thanks to the above. I was out in East BFU, so having my husband bring me keys would have been a royal pain while we roasted in the open air or the lovely school gym.

So the lesson is: keep track of your belongings and be nice to all teenagers that you encounter; you never know when they just might have your back!

4th of July Parade Pic with my Spinning Buddies Janice and Su

Friendship

I am truly a people person and I treasure my relationships with others. It is an amazing process that some people can enter your life and play an integral part in it for a time and then move on through the natural course of living. Others play that same role, but somehow become entrenched in the ebb and flow of your life and become a constant. Some friends are a mixture of the two in that they loom very large in your life for a time, fade out and when you reconnect it feels as if no time has passed in between.

I still maintain friendships with people from my grade school days all the way through college and from my professional roles. It's a lot of fun to come together and trade memories of the past and maybe share some photos from a long ago event. I always find it interesting that two people can have vastly different memories of the same event depending upon their perspective at the time.

If you have some good friends that you haven't interacted with in a long time, then take some time out to think about them and try to make a connection. Remember this line to a popular song way back in our past: "Reach out and touch somebody's hand, make this world a better place if you can......"????

You never know if your phone call just might be the thing that makes someone's day a whole lot brighter!

Journey

Ok, time for my Steve Perry obsession. I have always loved Journey; in fact they are the soundtrack to my life. So many memories come flooding back when I hear certain lyrics of theirs play on my Sirious Satellite Radio Network or on my I-Pod. Who can forget slow dancing to Don't Stop Believing, especially after $1 beers at Dana Gardens or one of the on-campus parties at Xavier University.

Journey - Don't Stop believing

Just a small town girl, livin in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in south detroit
He took the midnight train goin anywhere

A singer in a smokey room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night

Working hard to get my fill,
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

(chorus)

Dont stop believin
Hold on to the feelin
Streetlight people

Truly Random Thoughts

As I sit here at my desk on a rainy pre- Fourth of July morning, many thoughts are swirling through my head. They run the gamut from practical to the truly bizarre; but hey, I have always been an eclectic thinker! Some of these random thoughts:

• updating my palm pilot calendar for July
• notes to self to buy jr. high student new school uniforms prior to the store rush
• mental grocery list for holiday soggy cook outs
• the remarkable ability of Journey's new lead singer from the Phillipines to sound exactly, and I mean EXACTLY like Steve Perry- so uncanny, because when he speaks (vs. sings) he really sounds like he has a French accent
• the further remarkable ability to be transported back to my college years through listening to Journey's Greatest Hits on my IPod- more on this later!
• the legalization of gay marriage
• researching a disorder to help a friend who was recently diagnosed
• where to go for lunch
• thoughts about postings read on a Runescape Addiction site
• whether "Hancock" will be better than the ratings portrayal
  

(Told you they were eclectic and totally random!)

I am truly bummed that the extended weather forecast is calling for rain. We have a lot of holiday plans for the next couple of days that also include two family birthdays. I was looking forward to this holiday more than ever because I was asked to be part of the Mercy Health Plex Float in the Anderson Township parade. I have been an avid spinner for years and a long-time member of the Plex, and will be on a spinning bike wearing the Team Plex Americana Jersey. (Watch out Lance Armstrong!!) I actually participated in a Live Strong Ride sponsored by the Lance Armstrong Foundation last spring. It was a lot of fun and we raised a good amount of money for the foundation. So if you don't mind getting wet, come out to Anderson and watch the parade on the 4th starting at 11:00 a.m. down Beechmont Avenue.

Ok, the above list is weighing on my mind now. I had better make my list and hit Krogers before it's packed. And btw, I received a lovely voicemail from them this morning warning me about possible E Coli contamination in the ground beef I might be harboring in my freezer. Good thing I have been using Laura's Lean Ground beef for years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More on my fascination with Journey in a later post.........................

CYA- as in See Ya, not Cover Your Ass!

Michelle Therese Gabrielle