CKC-Portland

I spent Friday at the Creating Keepsakes convention in Portland. Wow! It was the first time I'd ever attended and I had a really good time. I participated in four classes and did a little shopping. The best class was an organization class. Of course, being sponsored by an expensive system company, they would've liked me to buy their system, but I think I could do something similar, cheaper. I'll think about that. It would require a ton of work. The vendor faire was a bit overwhelming, but I came home with some good stuff. Now I just need to carve out some more time for scrapbooking.

Traveling....

This time of year I start to get the travel bug really bad. I think it stems from a combination of things. First, I'm tired of the weather. It's been raining for months and I'd like to see the sun for more than a moment or two. Second, it's less than ten weeks until graduation and I'm going to be working very hard between now and then getting seniors done with their requirements.

The other day I was surfing the internet and found the following list of 15 Places Your Kid Should See Before 15.

1. Grand Canyon
2. Redwood National Park
3. Monticello
4. The Freedom Trail
5. Niagara Falls
6. The National Mall
7. Colonial Williamsburg
8. Disney World
9. Independance Hall
10. Alcatraz Island
11. Ellis Island
12. Yellowstone National Park
13. Fenway Park
14. Craters of the Moon
15. San Diego Zoo

I didn't read the entire article, so I'm not sure what the qualifying criteria were. I'm older than 15 and I've only been to see nine of the listed places. I guess I'd better finish the list.

Mystery Concert

KRKT, one of the local country radio stations hosted a mystery concert tonight. It required a bit of faith to just show up and see who was going to play. I'm not sure many people would've except that the booking was done with the help of the Oregon Jamboree, which traditionally books some very good acts.

So, my sister and I went to the concert. The opening act was Jackson Michaelson, who won the Oregon state Colgate Country Showdown last summer. Then the lights went down and came back to reveal....James Otto. Neither of us had ever seen him live, so it was a nice surprise. And I have to say that small venue acoustic concerts really do rock.

The Stuff of the Past

Not long ago I was doing some cleaning. The type of cleaning that means digging through old boxes in hopes of condensing into smaller boxes. I know, I should just throw them out without opening them, but I just can't seem to do that. Anyway, this is one of the little things of the past I found.



At the time I tucked it into look-at-it-later pile, and today was the day I finally did. I flipped through the pages reading the names of people I'd highlighted. Most of them are now my Facebook friends, so I know what they're doing from time to time. Other names I can't place, and I can't recall know why I marked them. So I went digging further into the past hoping to jog my memory. I dug out my college journals. Wow, that was weird. It's amazing how something so innocuous as a directory can send you to a journal, and then to another place altogether.

My First DAR BOM

Cryptic title, huh? Sometimes it seems I live by initials and acronyms. For those not in the know, the title stands for Daughters of the American Revolution Board of Management. It's a meeting that happens three times a year where the state officers, chapter regents, and committee chairs gather to give reports and share information. This weekend was the first BOM I'd ever attended. A couple months ago I was asked to take over as state chairman of a national committee. Like many things, it's a learning process, but today I had to give an oral report. Oy!

I spend my days talking to teenagers, and it doesn't bother me to get up in front of a group of them and talk. Put me up in front of a group adults and the story's a little different. My report was brief, and it went well according to some of the ladies, but when I sat down I noticed that my hands were a bit shaky. Thankfully I don't have another report to give until State Conference in May...I think.