Free coffee and humanity

Lately, with the political season, I have been losing faith; losing faith in our country, our citizens and our future leadership.  I feel like I'm in an arena of racism, prejudice, hate and Islamophobia.  It's quite disheartening and one can get sucked into the dark vortex of media and wonder about the fate of our world.  I worry about my future in this country as a brown Muslim.
And then Friday happened, but before I talk about Friday, I will turn back the clock to a few years ago.  My cousin (who stressed out about everything) came to one of get-together gathering at my parents and as always started talking about her stressful day. Her story had a good ending though.  She talked about about how much she had to study and all her tests coming up and then in the midst of her stress she went to the Starbucks drive through to get a cup of coffee.  When she drove up to the counter to pick up her coffee and pay, to her surprise, the coffee was already paid for. The person in front of her in line, had paid for her coffee and in return my cousin was beaming about it. She told me that it had changed her day. She was completely transformed by such an act that she was convinced that she wanted to do it for someone else.  I don't know if my cousin did pay it forward for someone else, but the change I saw in her was remarkable.  Her face was so much brighter.  This was my cousin who would find a reason to be stressed out.  There was a joke we would make about her.  We would say, "Oh my gosh!  It's raining.  Time for her to stress out!"  It didn't take much to get her riled up.  That day, after I saw her happiness, I thought to myself, 'If all it takes is a free cup of coffee to make such a change in a person, why not more people do it?'

So, I decided to start buying coffee for the person behind me in line at the drive through. Sometimes I would get a glimpse of their face.  Some of them waved at me, mouthing the words "thank you".  Sometimes, I would just drive on, not knowing if I made a difference, but hoping.  One day I was on the car phone on blue tooth and while I paid for my coffee, I enquired about the bill of the person behind me and offered to pay for them also.  My husband on the other line, after I got done with my transaction asked, "did you just pay for the coffee for the person behind you?"  I said, "Yeah, I do that once in a while." and I narrated the story of my cousin.  My husband said, "remind me to be behind you on the drive through line next time!"  "Ha ha.  Very funny," I retorted and forgot all about it.

I don't do it to get the favor returned to me.  I just do it to make the world a better place.  I do it in the hope that the person whom I do it for will do it for someone else and make their day brighter.  Maybe start a chain of positive energy in this world that could most certainly use it.
Fast forward a couple more years and one evening at dinner with a friend, we were told that our bill was already paid for.  Wow!  Really?  First, I thought it was a joke and then when I was convinced that the waiter was telling us the truth, my first thought was, "I never considered a restaurant.  Coffee yes, but a meal?"  That's some serious pay it forward.  I should try it, I told myself.  Meanwhile, my friend was all confused.  "Why?  How?  I don't understand.  We have to pay for this."  I explained to her about the coffee that I pay forward and so I explained how this was OK.  I told her that I never expected it being returned, and most certainly not with a meal.  My friend was just glad that there was an explanation for why it happened.  It was because of myself and the coffee, she had concluded, that our meal was paid for.  I didn't wish to dissect it.  I just thought that such was life.  You see a glimmer of hope in humanity and you smile and try to pass on that hope.  It's as simple as that.
Fast forward to last Friday.  The times now are far more hateful I feel than I have encountered.  I feel more suspicious of people in general.  I am constantly evaluating what people would do if they found out I was Muslim.  I can't hide my skin color though, but I wonder how much hate people feel when they see me.  I'm at the airport.  I have read stories of people being detained from the plane just because someone didn't feel safe.  Maybe someone spoke in Arabic and people reported them and the people were detained from their flight?  It doesn't take much.  All it takes is for one person to say, "she looks weird." and I could lose my flight while they re-search me and all that jazz.  Who knows?
I'm in the Starbucks line.  The line is long.  The woman in front of me is wearing a US Army uniform.  I watch her eye some coffee mugs.  I call out to her.  "You like coffee mugs?  I'm addicted.  I have a collection and I can't get enough."  She tells me that she too, like myself, enjoys coffee mugs.  I tell her that if I had the space in my home, I would start the Starbucks city collection.  I tell her that wherever I am at a Starbucks, I want to buy their mugs with the city name on it and I just haven't done it.  "City mugs?" she asks me.  "Yes," I say looking around for those mugs.  "They have to have them here."  I see them and point them out to her. "There they are!"  She picks it up, eyes it carefully and say, "I'm buying this.  I figure I'm not going to be in St. Louis again!"  "Where are you from?"  I ask.  "So Cal," she replies and we talk about my trip to LA and my feelings about the city.  We talk about the place where they have amazing apple pie.  Soon, we find ourselves at the head of the line.
There are 2 people at the counter.  Counter A and counter B.  The woman in front of the woman with the uniform goes up to Counter B.  Counter A had another customer.  She announces to the person at Counter B that she was going to pay for the coffee for the woman in the US Army uniform also.  That's cool, I thought because I was going to offer anyway!  Well, the woman in the uniform steps up to the desk and orders a drink at counter B.  Then she falls back in line, in front of me.  Counter A is still busy.  I approach counter B and the man at the counter says, "this is only to pay!"  So, I step back in line, behind the woman in the uniform.  She steps forward to counter B again.  At this point I'm not paying attention.  I'm so confused about how this Starbucks system works.  Then the woman in uniform is done with her order at counter B.  Made sense.  She went back in line to pay for her city coffee mug although her coffee was paid for.  I'm still standing in line waiting for counter A to open while the man at counter B is calling me forward.  I'm so lost at this point.  This was the man who told me this was a pay only line and now he was going to take my order?  OK.  Whatever.  So, I step forward with my iPhone app opened and ready to scan and after my order he says, "Your coffee has been taken care of!"  "What?  By whom?"  I was shocked.  It was the woman in uniform who had paid for me.  I couldn't believe it.  So, after I gave my order I went to the woman in uniform to thank her.  The woman who had paid for her was there.  I was like, "This is so neat.  It's a little pay it forward chain."  No, I did not pay for the person behind me.  I was too much in surprise, I almost forgot I had to wait for my coffee.  It was a great feeling though.  In that microcosm, in that tiny universe at the Starbucks at STL airport there was a feeling of hope and humanity.
On my may back to St. Louis, our flight was delayed.  Several people on our flight were anxious about making their connections and getting home that night.  As I got seated, I made small talk with the guy on the isle seat (I was the window).  "Is St. Louis home?" I asked.  He stated that his home was in Detroit and that he was nervous about making the connection.  I told him to talk to the flight attendant and in some cases, they can let the passengers with short connecting flights out first.  He said he did talk to the attendant and he wasn't convinced that they were going to do anything.  I told him I would talk to him also.  I explained that my home was St. Louis, but I understood what it felt like to not get home the same night you planned to.  I told him about missing my AA flight at MIA (was supposed to blog about that) and I told him to keep his fingers crossed and to be hopeful.  It was difficult to interrupt the flight attendants as the man assigned to us was very busy.  They were making announcements about how short a time we had in air and that we should finish our drinks ASAP.  There was no small talk.  It was get your order and next person.
While we were landing, I found a brief opportunity to stop the attendant and explain that the person on the aisle seat had a tight connecting and that I would be OK with sitting back till everyone with connecting flights got out.  He said, "We know what we're doing.  We have done this before!"  I look at the gentleman in the aisle seat and say, "I tried!"
We land at the airport and they do not make any announcements to let the people with tight connectings out first.  I stand in front of the middle seat.  The person at the middle seat had gotten up and was standing in the aisle in front of the person with a tight connecting.  She did not have a connecting and I wondered why she wouldn't wait for the person sitting next to her to stand in front of her.  He needed to get out sooner than she did!  I look at the person behind the person who was seated in the aisle seat.  I ask him, "Excuse me sir.  Do you have a short connecting also?"  He says, "Yes, I do!"  I tell him that I would wait for him to go by me before I deplaned.  The line on the aisle is waiting for the doors to open and as people start moving ahead, the guy who was sitting at the aisle seat on my row says to me, "You are coming with me!"  "Excuse me?"  I reply.  "You are not standing there waiting for others.  I'm letting you ahead of me!"  So, he did!  The attendant on the way out told me that the connecting flights were waiting for the passengers.  The man at the aisle said, "thank you.  That was really nice of you!" when we got off the jet bridge and were in the airport.  "You're welcome," I reply.  "Good luck.  Go get your connecting!" and he left while I stopped to get the coat out of my back pack before I had to walk out into the chilly air.
It felt good.  I felt human again.  It was indeed a day of positive energy and hope.  I wondered, in all that, if it mattered that I was a Muslim.  I wondered why that thought had even crossed my mind.  I wanted to somehow make it known that the 2 billion Muslims around the world, would also have stood up to help a fellow human being.  I have to focus on the light.  I have to stop thinking about defending my religion even when it wasn't called for.  I have to keep the faith.  I have to.  I have to believe that there is still a glimmer of hope for humanity and that at the end of the day, we as a human race, will take care of each other, despite race, ethnicity or religion.  Do we have any other choice?

Best wishes everyone and let's go out and spread the joy.  Pay it forward.  Help another person.  Let there be hope!

TTR

A man called Christopher Todd

Yes, that's his name.  Yes, this is a true story.  I wonder where to start with this story.  I guess I'm going to have to start with myself.  Most people think I'm an extrovert but I really am an introvert.  I do not like meeting new people very much.  I don't mind it, but it takes me time to warm up to a person. I would need to have done my personal research (either by observation or by getting more information about the person) before I am comfortable meeting them. I'm pretty private, or at least, I try to be.  It's hard to explain.  I guess, I like to reveal myself by my terms.  I need time.

Anyway, when I was going out with my future husband, Brad, he would talk about his best friend from high school - Christopher.  It was Chris this or Chris that.  I listened, but kinda listened, if you get my drift.  Well, then one day, Brad says to me, "Christopher is in town."  See, Chris lives in the Keys, in Florida.  So, I guess he made his way up to see his family who still lives in the St. Louis area.  Brad wanted to spend some time with Chris and I said, "Sure!  No problem.  Of course.  Go hang out."  That would have been great except the next thing Brad says is, "You should come!  I want you to meet Chris!"  At this point, I'm panicking and shaking my head, no!  "I'm scared!  I don't want to meet him!  You go!"  Brad says, "Christopher?  You are scared of Christopher?  He's my best friend and he's really nice.  He will love you.  It'll be fine."  I'm still hesitating on the fence and wasn't sure what to say.  What should have I said?  "I need time to investigate him?"  What?  I didn't know.  I don't remember, but I told Brad that I would meet the two of them a bit later.  After they had gotten to hang out a bit.  I might have had something to do or made up something to do.

So, Chris and Brad are hanging out at the Barnes and Noble and I'm trepidatious.  I got to the mall and called and apparently they were just hanging out there and I had to go and look for them.  I told Brad I had to use the rest room so I'll be there soon.  Well, as luck would have it I had to use the rest room in Barnes and Noble because the other rest room was out of the way.  So, I enter B&N, made a quick scan around the room and dash into the rest room before I am seen by Brad.  When I get out of the rest room, I'm in a semi-good spot to observe.  I look around slowly coming in, trying to duck and hide behind shelves.  I'm in a corner and I see Brad, looking for me and he's looking towards the door.   I'm looking for his friend to evaluate from a distance. When Brad looked away, I would step closer to another shelf and another position.  I needed, a few more minutes, but as I stepped to the next spot when I thought Brad was not looking, Brad turned around, saw me and waved.  Oh the heart break!  No.  I couldn't hide for longer.  Now I had to meet this man without any more investigation.  So, I do and squeamishly smile and try to talk but then something happened.  I didn't need to talk at all.  Chris was a talker.  You couldn't get a word in edge wise if you wanted.  Brad, who's also a talker was trying to keep up with Chris and I was just "there".  In a sense, I got to observe up close, without being intimidated or interrogated.

I usually do not like a lot of people.  I'm quite picky about the people I value and truly care about.  Brad has introduced me to a few people and I'm quick to be judgmental and point out what I dislike about them.  Funny thing.  When it comes to Chris, there was nothing.  I am happy to know Chris.  I tell Brad that of all the people he has introduced me to, Chris is the only man that I respect whole heartedly.  Why?  I can't explain it.  This man has a heart of gold and I have learned a lot just hanging out with him.  Now, when I find out that Chris is coming to town, I'm the one telling Brad, "We have to go meet Chris.  He's coming to town!"  I find out before him!  It's been a blessing in my life to know this man.  We visited them in the Keys a couple of years back and Chris' wife is a fabulous baker and I have learned a lot of baking skills from her.  You know when they say, "good wholesome people", I would think of Chris and his wife.

Last week, I'm at a Subway with Brad, doing dinner just before our show started.  I got a text from his brother Dan.  It said, "Jamie told me that Chris was in a head on collision on the Hwy.  He is being airlifted to the hospital now.  Too early to call them.  I'll let you know, when I hear anything."

That was a week ago.  Last night, Brad and I were at a Steak and Shake for a late night dinner and I got this text from Dan, who was with Chris this weekend.  "Good and bad times today.  On a good time he told the story of how you two met.  He will be very happy to see you!  While speaking so long and so well about you and Brad, Julie and Beth looked at each other and said he is much better.  In that way, you made them happy. :-)"

I looked up from the text and read it to Brad and we laughed about the time when I was hiding like a child.  I told Brad, "I got out of that rest room and I was sneaking around those book shelves and looking and you saw me too soon and I was like, darn it!"  And we laughed.

You all know I'm a Muslim.  I wish I was a better Muslim and wish I prayed more, but let's just say that when I heard about Chris, there was no way I was going to bed without saying my prayers and praying in all sincerity for a man who has truly shown me the meaning of respect, love and acceptance despite your race, religion, socio-economic status or other things.  He's just a good guy.  6 broken ribs, a broken sternum, a pneumothorax, a shredded diaphragm, a broken left femur, a broken right knee, tibia and fibula later, I'm just really thankful to God that Chris is still with us today.  We weren't sure last week...

Please keep Christopher Todd and his family in your prayers and remember to appreciate every moment and every gift God has given you.

Best wishes,
TTR

Muny Magic - An evening with Beth Leavel

This blog was pending from November...so I think I'll post this one first...

Muny has become a part of my life.  I remember the first time a few years ago.  One of my favorite shows as a child, Sound of Music was playing.  I decided to take my 3 nieces and I still remember that we walked along one of the fountains in Forest Park and my nieces were singing, "so long, farewell" as we were all walking towards the Island garden gazebo, in front of the Muny, it felt magical. That was it.  I was hooked and the Muny has become a part of my life since.  That day we had caramel popcorn.  These days when I go, I take strawberries and cucumbers.  It has all become a part of me.  If you follow my blog, you would have read about my first time watching Oklahoma, or my luck with My Fair Lady this year (I did write about it, didn't I?).  What I have not talked about are the memories that the Muny have created for me.  Every year, as a subscriber now, I take a different person to each show.  Although I must admit that my husband has gotten more shows in one season, just because, but this post is about something more than that.

When I talk about memories, what am I talking about?  I'm talking about eating strawberries and cucumbers with my cousin.  Of course, my nieces first Muny.  I still remember watching Chicago for the first time with a dental friend of mine.  The image of the two of us in an appalling giggle when the song "they had it coming" is forever etched in my brain.  Last year, my good friend bought me ice-cream and introduced me to a new tradition.  The Muny means so much.  Getting there early and watching the Muny kids or the Muny teens was always a fun time.  I remember a few years ago, I got together with 2 of my cousins, my aunt, family friends and we just picnicked before the show.  We ate and then we played a card game and then we watched Shrek.  The next year, it was my husband, family friends and my mom watching Tarzan.  Still remember that opening scene.  Did they have real chimpanzees on the stage?  How?  When you figure the answer, you also figure that the Magic of the Muny had just blown you a kiss.

Is it an obsession?  I can't get enough?  Or is it the memories that I think about - the people I go with. Is it the power of the shows and the music?  Is it myself talking in the office about what shows have been selected and who I'm going with?  Is it about receiving my subscription notice?  I don't know.  Every part of it excites me.  It's a fabulous feeling.  This year, like every year, I waited like a child in anticipation of Santa Claus, for the announcement of the next season.

The Muny was doing something different this year, however.  They were having a show.  "Muny Magic" where they were going to announce the Muny Season.  Myself and all at the audience (with the exception of the Muny board) would be the first to hear what 2016 will bring.  Oh!  What a beautiful feeling!  Guess who got tickets?  I cannot begin to tell you what it felt like being there when Mike Isaacson announced one show at a time...  Wizard of Oz ...42nd Street...Music Man...Young Frankenstein....Mamma Mia...Fiddler on the Roof...Aida.

There was history and a briefing about each show.  I have watched Mamma Mia live several times at the Fox.  This will be their Muny premiere.  I've never seen Aida but have always wanted to and have always voted for that show every year.  So this year's line up was great.  So I'm with the audience and am having a wonderful time.  Then it hits me.  I wasn't just there only for the announcement of the shows, there was also going to be a live musical performance.  So, after Mike Issacson left, Beth Leavel took the stage.
She was the voice in Hello Dolly.  What a voice!  I was there enjoying a wonderful evening of music.  My husband who's a trained singer himself said to me, "what a set of pipes!" and then I remembered a concert in LA that I had been to a month ago.  Yes, that blog is coming too, but for now, I'll just say I don't like loud head banging screaming music.  Maybe it's a generational thing, but here I am and, she's singing all these songs that I've never heard and yet, I'm having a marvelous time.  When she belts out the song "don't let the parade pass you by", the O'Fallon marching band came in on both sides of the isle, and that was it!  I needed no more affirmation.  I thought about the Concert in LA and this cozy evening.  Ya.  No comparison.  Every incident in ones life defines you.  That concert defined who I was not.  This one, defined who I was.

Yes, I'll work on my blog posts of my LA trip.  The concert one is a draft.  The trip blog has not been written yet.  So, hang tight.  More to come... eventually...

TTR

Several pending and yet...

Hello everyone,

It has been a long hiatus.  Interesting enough, not really.  I would come home several times and write a quick blog, save it and move on.  I figured I would get back to it all and then post.  Well, so here I am.  I log on today after a few months and see about 5 drafts.  I can work on those blogs and finish and publish, but then I feel I would lose my continuity and everything would seem random.  Yes, my blogs are random, but I would like to think there's some sort of a time arc and connection.

So, this past week I went to Columbia, MO for a dental conference.  I have begun to make the mistake that I was warned about when I started writing my blog.  "You will have all these ideas for a blog.  Write them down or you'll forget!"  Well, this weekend I felt that was true.  I unfortunately did not write any of my thoughts down.  The good news is that I feel it's an on going topic.  It will return. Why?  It's embedded within my soul.  The topic of gratitude for everything I have in life.  The topic of perhaps feeling like I'm making something of myself.  I don't know.  I know it's along those lines and I could lead this blog in that direction and pull my brain there, but for now, I'll leave those words out in the air.  Out like a boomerang.  Out to return to me.  I am trying to get some focus and order in my blog.  Then I fight within myself.  Why do I need that?  Isn't a blog a form of a creative outlet; to relentlessly let go of all your thoughts with wild abandon and see what happens?  I guess writing can be that, but I am beginning to remember advise from years ago.  This is a friend who's a prolific writer and one who can knit words into a magical garment.  She told me that the difference between someone who's written a book and someone who's a writer is just that.  The person who has written a book, wrote everyday and completed it.  It's called completion.  It doesn't have to be great.  There's always someone who might think so; I shudder at that thought and celebrate it at the same time.  It's coming back to me.  To finish something, I just need to sit and do it.  Period.

If I want this blog to go anywhere and if I want to post all my blogs that are drafts and pending, well, there's only one way to do it - To sit on my computer and post the darn thing.  So, here I am, making a start but giving you all a perspective on myself and my blogs and why things have been kinda out there.  I have been pulled in several directions lately.  I know it's nothing new, but I'm trying.  We'll see where this goes.

I won't make any promises, because I don't want to say that I'll post a blog a week or a blog a month and fail you.  The only thing I'll say is that I'll try.  I once told someone that I write because I don't have a choice.  That is the truth.  I cannot stay away from this medium.  I haven't made an active effort to, but the one thing I know for surety is that when I wake up every morning, I feel like I have to write.  All these thoughts and topics just come at me and they come in the form of full sentences and paragraphs. I just need to put them on my computer.  That feeling lasts for several minutes and then I poison it by opening my eyes and reaching out for my cell phone and Facebook.  I'll admit it.  It's a pathetic habit.  Pathetic.  Maybe I'll find motivation within myself to be better than that.  Maybe, like today, I'll make the effort to sit down and write.

I'm going to leave you all with that for now.  I will try to work on more blogs, either thoughts from this weekend or today, or my trips in the past.  I really need to finish the one about my trip to LA and there's my trip of a lifetime where I found God.  Yes, but all in good time.  I will get there.

So, a very late Happy New Year to all.  Wishing you all health, happiness and peace.

Best always,
TTR

I am still Muslim!

My heart is broken.  A whole city under attack.  What is going on?  Not to mention that I'm affected by this through reading the links on Facebook.  I have not turned on my tele.  If I did, it would be far worse.  Then I read the comments.  Some horrific comments about Muslims and Islam.  Of course, there are those who defend the religion and try to give perspective.  My favorite is the one that we are accusing people without knowing who is behind these attacks.  Oh dear God!  Stop!  Please.  So many people died.  Can we slow down and stop these accusations and focus on what's important?
I should not make light of this situation but I have to be honest.  At the back of my mind, I can see the news 3 days from today.  I see a young caucasian being arrested.  "Mentally ill individual blamed for the attack on Paris" will be the headlines and then I'm not sure how the media will take it.  Flip side.  Do we really need to know what the flip side is?  Some mentally ill idiot who has a Muslim name and/or mentions the words Jihad or Islam and we all know how that story will go.  We have lived through our 9/11.  You haven't truly lived through 9/11 unless you've been affected by it, as an innocent Muslim; as majority of Muslims have been.  I cringe to think this is Paris' 9/11, but the result will be the same.
Memory flash back.  2001.  I wear a head scarf and pray in the resident's room.  One of the resident's silently watch.  A faculty member walks in as I finish prayer.  "Here you are praying and over there your people are destroying our country"  This when the wounds of 9/11 were very open and sore, in all of us.  My wounds were only torn apart more and salted because the perpetrators of such insults never considered I had wounds.  They never considered that it was an attack on humanity and that my religion does NOT stand for that kind of insanity.
I see a post about bomb blasting in Lebanon or Syria yesterday and many were killed.  The post talked about our "first world" concerns with bombings.  I guess, if 1000 people died elsewhere, but 200 died in Paris, what's worse?
Then there's the article I read or saw about empathy and how we can empathize with 1 or 2 people dying, if we put a name and a face to it.  The moment we say a million people died, our empathy is not as much.  It's an occurrence.
I don't know every nook and cranny of my religion, but I know one thing.  I know my religion, the religion of Islam absolutely CONDEMNS this and all acts of terrorism.  No ifs ands or buts.  That's a period.
This is not a time for hate.  This is not a time for finger pointing.  Actually it never was the time for such judgements.  I was going to write this article yesterday.  How ironic that I didn't and Paris happened today?  I was going to write about the climate of hate on Facebook.  There are some posts that are very anti-Islam.  Then there are posts by Muslims in defense that are anti-Jew and back and forth.  I think it's time to step up to the plate and recognize if you are part of the haters or the hated.  If you are a hater, then it's time to stop.  It's time to stop using your confirmation biases and posting against any group or religion.  If you are a hated, it's time to stop retaliating by hating someone else for something else.
Our world whether we like it or not is transient.  At the end of the day, we all go 6 feet under, unless we are cremated.  We are all humans.  We have one planet.  Can we not take care of our planet and each other?  Why must we continue to destroy and hate because someone else is doing it?  I challenge you all to stand up for respect and understanding of all religions and human beings.  Walk a mile in their shoe.  Let's not let these acts of terrorism poison our minds with distrust and vengeance.
Tonight, I'm praying.  I'm praying for everyone in Paris and all the families and friends of those affected around the world.  I'm praying for the protection of our world and the protection of all human beings.  I pray for community and thoughtful leadership.  I pray because I believe in a higher power and I believe we are insignificant dots on the landscape of time and space.  I pray we all can be better people and more accepting of each other.  And I just pray...

Please join me in prayer for all our humanity.  Please join me in love.

Best wishes always,
TTR

More HMS Victory modeling

I know I haven't posted about my model for a while.  It's been a work in progress.  If you look at the picture below, you'll see all the paint; yellow and black on the outside.  You can see the little wire stairs on the side, also painted in black.  Painting is not the big deal.  Do you see the threads sticking out outside the ship?  If you can't, look inside.  Those were little loops I had to make, and it was a royal pain, let me tell you.  This step was holding me back for the longest time.  When I first did a few, I had them backwards, so I had to re-do them.  Arghh!  It's not easy.  Sometimes the knots would go through the hole and I had to redo it.  It was just a mess.  Solution?  I finally got a glue gun and made the knots bigger and it was very time consuming to get all those loops on the ship.  

Loops done!  Time to put the two parts together and I finally took the leap of faith.  As you'll see, the 2 sides have been glued and are clamped together quite nicely.  The clamping part and all was easy.  Looks like it took 6 clamps.  It's the fear and excitement that I was taking a step forward that made this journey a tad nerve-wrecking.
Here's to the start.  A new direction to the same journey.

This picture on the left, is the second step after gluing the 2 main pieces together.  This forms the cross bracing for the decks that will go over it.  I painted it white as per the directions, but in retrospect, it was a waste of time and paint to do that.  No one is going to be able to see these braces when the ship is all complete.  Why the instructions had me do that?  It's a mystery to me.  Or you can blame it on the French! I don't mean the language, I mean the people.  Their ways are just their ways.  Most certainly doesn't make sense to me

Here's the first deck that was glued on.  It looks simple but I will be repeating myself quite a bit.  It's not simple.  The process has not been intuitive.  The deck had to be bend and pushed to make it settle in place.

Remember the loops and knots I spoke about earlier.  Yeah!  Putting this deck in place meant having to be careful to not displace those loops.  I think I displaced a few and had to re-do them.

On a side note, being a dentist, you would think a 1mm loop should not be a bit deal for me.  I was trained to eye 0.3 mm chamfer margins on a tooth, but this is not about eyeing it.  It's about physically working with it.  Holding it and tweaking it and to be blunt, doing dentistry is easy.  This part is more painstaking.








And here I am painting the bottom of my ship.  Bronze!  How did I pick the colors?  I followed directions!  I know.  Boring!  I do believe the color works though.  If not, I would have changed it.  I don't have all the recent pictures in this blog.  My ship has progressed since I uploaded these pictures, but in my next post about this model, you'll see how I used my judgement on painting!




Look at the pictures on the top and bottom.  You can see the cannons sticking out of the cannon ports.  Do you remember the blog from a few months ago about making cannons?  Well, I finally put them to good use!  I think it looks gorgeous.  So happy about it!






This last picture above is my favorite for this blog post.  Just more complete and shows the most growth.  I promise I have more pictures.  It just takes a while.  It's on my iPhone and I have to send it to my blogger app and then it takes a while to upload.  I prefer to edit on the Macbook itself, so the process takes a while and meanwhile, the ship grows!

Until next time,
TTR

Iris

I love flowers.  In trying my hand at gardening, I've come to the conclusion that no matter how much I love flowers, the deer love them more.  Of course, the good news is that the deer are moody.  There are times they eat my chrysanthemums and sometimes they don't, but this is about the Iris.

This beautiful blue flower is a spring flower.  I used to not know my flowers (I still don't completely), but I was introduced to the Iris when a friend of mine bought me a bunch  and told me that she loved this flower.  She was right.  It was beautiful and I loved the flower so much, I decided to plant them.  That's when I realized that not all Irises were all blue/violet.  Some of them have combination white and blue petals with a beautiful vein striping on them.  The petals are just gorgeous on these flowers.  The flaminco dress was probably designed from this petal;  flow and frill.

As you'll notice it is the fall season currently and I'm talking about an Iris; a spring flower.  Well, a lonely Iris showed up to brighten my life a little over a week ago.  It's funny.  I've been running around these past few months and one thing after another has been going wrong - mostly in my office but it's been a constant battle and a constant stress that I bring home.  For a moment, I thought I was cursed.  Honestly, I did.  It's a very scary thought.  I thought that perhaps God was not happy with me.  Another scary thought!  While I entertained such thoughts, my friends tried to explain to me that it wasn't true and then I would tell them of something new that had gone bad that day.  This went on and on.

Last week, as I was driving away, I noticed one lonely Iris bloom in my front yard;  the only flower there as the deer had eaten all my mums.  I can't recall where I was driving to because my mind has been in a haze for the past few cursed months but I looked at the flower and said, "Hmm.  It's a spring flower.  I didn't know Irises bloomed in the fall!" and drove off.

This continued to happen and about the 3rd day, I realized I hadn't had the time to even go out and appreciate the flower.  I made a mental note that I needed to do that when I got home.  Well, 2 more days passed and the flower was slowly getting old.  I remember telling my husband about it.  How life had just passed me by that I didn't even have the time to walk outside my front door to look at a flower.

The next day, my husband and I walked out the front door to address some issue we had with the home (painting, cleaning) and I talked about cleaning out the weeds at some point.  My husband stopped me and said, "Look at your Iris! You keep mentioning that you haven't had the time to even appreciate this flower and now you are out here.  Get a good look."  I looked at this flower, all beautiful still, holding on to its last moments of grace.  It had been waiting for me every day for several days.  Everyday, it was holding the message.  "You life is not cursed and I'm proof of it".  I was just too busy to even go out and get it.  Finally, I was able to appreciate the last bits of the weak crinkled petals, wet in the rain and too weak to hold on.  The color of its youth had faded, but it was still beautiful.

I have several Irises planted in my front yard.  None of them bloomed this fall.  Just this one flower.  The one flower that would defy exception to come into my life to tell me that there's still beauty in this world and that I need to stop and take a look.

Best always,

TTR