You Call Her "Doctor" Riddle, Doll!!! Part 2

Or so I thought.

I started my Comps in January 2010. And that was okay. I had four questions I had to answer. By March, I was finished with that, and passed with flying colors. Then I spent the summer starting the first of my research classes, (in the middle of recovering from surgery to straighten out a deviated septum), and was well on my way to getting this whole business accomplished in a timely manner. I continued to work on my Concept Paper (CP), because it had not been officially approved. This was EXTREMELY frustrating, as I watched these reviewers hemhaw over a period here or a parenthesis there. 

That summer we started watching Bones on Netflix, from Season One on. I saw all these characters with all these higher degrees and I thought, "Hey, you know, maybe I could get another doctorate."

And I told Poppa Don that he had permission to punch me full in the mouth if I ever said that again.

The CP was finally approved in October 2011, right after we moved into the Plantation, so I scrambled to turn it into my Dissertation Proposal, get it approved, and get it all done by December. Well, no such luck.

Christmas 2011, as the work semester ended for me, my proposal was finished. I submitted it to my illustrious chair, Dr. Jamillah Grant, and it was still getting bumped by the Office of Academic Research (as it was called at the time). The whole situation sucked. It was in the back of my mind all through the traditional holiday trip to New Orleans. It was during that trip (I think) that I got to meet Jamillah, who has a home in Kenner. We had lunch one day at a place called Zea's on St. Charles Avenue, where I discovered I really love shrimp creole. (It's not there anymore.) Even after we came back from that trip, I set up my laptop in the dining room and did yet another edit. 

"Change the word "ten" to the numeral "10". Oh, no, wait. Change the numeral "10" to the word "ten." Oops, wait. Change the word "ten"....

Seriously. I'm not making this up.

Finally, I had enough. I wrote some scathing e-mails and told Dr. Grant to send it as is. I wasn't doing anymore.

Then it passed. Go figure.

So...I started data collection in April 2012, while still attending physical therapy sessions to recover from shoulder surgery in January. (The band was still playing, too, but with a new bass player.) Ten interviews, transcriptions, write ups. By May, I was ready to submit to the Graduate School, the Entity Formally Known as The Office of Academic Research. 

It went once: I had to fix one thing in the last chapter. It went twice: All it needed was a change in the Table of Contents and some APA stuff in a couple of places. Then suddenly I get a message from my second advisor that she was leaving to go to another job. NO!!! I liked Nancy Bennett. She was so nice, especially at Christmas when everything was so screwy. Anyway, I was re-assigned to Amy Welch. More about her later.

We went to Killeen after the Fourth of July to Lisa Mendoza's birthday party. I got a message from Jamillah that there were "lines" on my table. Huh? There are no "lines" on my table. (It's a Word setting that shows lines for formatting but once printed, they're gone. This means some people still don't really understand Word. Hello!!!!) Anyway, dropped everything to fix that sitting in a Baymont Inn & Suites in Killeen. Sent it back again.

(Oh, and we were dealing with a stalker that entire year. Just throwing that out there.)

Future Dalai Lama

Then, in July, we went on the Epic Vacation of All Time, with the future Dalai Lama (Trey) in tow. We went to the Petrified Forest, the Grand Canyon, Great Basin, Craters of the Moon, Glacier National Park, and then....

I'm standing beside a swimming pool at the KOA Kampground in Dillon, Montana when I get this message that I have an all-out new dissertation chair.

WHAT THE %*#*)*^!!!!!

I had just got off the phone with our housesitter telling me a bunch of our fish had died and now this. That conversation took up most of the roaming minutes on my phone, so right in the middle of the conversation with Jamillah about how they made her take her leave of absence early instead of waiting until the end of July and had cut off her access to all of her students' files, the phone just went, "BLIP!" (MetroPCS, how I hated thee that day.)

Needless to say, the rest of my evening went to shit.

So....for the better part of our three days in the Grand Tetons, I'm messaging this new guy who I thought was supposed to be my new chair, the chair of the School of Education, the secretary of the Graduate School, and my new advisor who ended up being the most worthless individual ever employed by a major university. I was finally able to get a callback from her on the day we had to fix not one but TWO flats on the car. It was like speaking to a recording because she sounded like she was reading from a script: "I'm so glad you made it this far in your program. I'm so sorry you're having difficulty."

This, on the wall at the Tire Store in Jackson, Wyoming.

Ugh. More about that in a bit.

Anyway, I was forced to take ANOTHER DISSERTATION COURSE. Great. Thanks loads, NCU. (I was however able to get financial aid. God bless you, Sue Ellen Buhrman!!) I was powerless to do anything until the new course began: August 1, 2012, the day we rolled into Devil's Tower National Monument. My correspondence with the "new" chair and the grad school had yielded some success in working out the bugs, but when I logged into the new class, on the slowest wireless Internet connection I'd had on the entire trip and in the shadow of one of the creepiest National Monuments ever (cue Close Encounters theme!!!), the name of the instructor was NOT the guy I'd been talking to for the past week. 

Who the hell is THIS guy????

Okay. More emails back and forth. I re-submitted my manuscript. Again. And I didn't hear from this guy for almost a month.

I filed a grievance with the Graduate School.

We returned to Texarkana. Ted (the Cat) and I went back to the Hut. (Anakin and Bug disappeared after an MLK long weekend in 2010. Only Ted came back.) Fall semester 2012 started. Finally I got a message: "Oh, sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I've been very ill and haven't been able to work."

"Well, I'm sorry about that. Hope you're feeling better, and that we can get the ball moving again."

Well...nope. This did, however, settle the FIRST grievance. 

Dr. Willis and the worthless new advisor received scathing reviews on the student discussion forums. Nobody could ever get a response from said instructor and What's-Her-Name was referred to as a Stepford Wife. It was sad, really. Eventually she was fired. Dr. Willis resigned, being a brittle diabetic and too ill to continue working for NCU.

NOW WHAT???

I got an email from a new advisor named Brian Rubin. From the first phone call, I could tell he'd been called in to clean up whatever mess the other advisors had made. I was certain that day that we'd get along swimmingly.

My new chair was Dr. Patrick McNamara. I kept wanting to call him Peter, even up until I sent him my PowerPoint presentation for my defense. He was very nice, and very understanding. Even featured in the NCU newsletter as the big newcomer. He looked over my manuscript, I suppose thinking I was still at the proposal stage (NOOO!!!!). Then I get a message saying, "Oh, I didn't realize you were this far along."

Duh. He sent it to the Grad School. Granted, we're now in the month of OCTOBER...

I'm in the middle of a breakout session on the new features of Blackboard at the (then) AATYC Conference (my first year to attend) in Hot Springs, when I get a message. Manuscript has been bumped. AGAIN!!! And why????

"Take the "retrieved from dates" out of the bibilography."

HUH???

One of those APA 6th edition changes that wasn't caught back in 2010 when the new manual came out. Seriously??

So after meeting online with the Spanish class at 12:30, skipping lunch and I think calling Sherri Hodges about the APA changes, I took the "retrieval dates" out of the bibliography and went to give my off-the-cuff speech as a candidate for the faculty position on the AATYC Board, then off to the elections. I was starving by the time the banquet rolled around at 6...and I won the election. By a coin toss, no less. Sheer dumb luck.

I ate, hung out with some of my fellow co-workers, enjoyed (a lot) of free vodka and Sprite in the Arkansas Broadcasters Association Hospitality Room right next door to my hotel room at the Austin, and crashed.

I went back to The Hut the next day. Took one last glance at the dissertation and sent it on its merry and final way, praying it would get approved by the next course end date.

Which didn't happen. It took ONE extra day.

My grade posted. CRAP!!! You have to be ENROLLED for approval. No, no, NO!!! I had another grievance letter ready to go. I was on the phone all morning leaving messages to the appropriate people again. Then I get this direct email, not from the NCU message system, but from Sherri Jaramillo:

DM: Approved.

I nearly fell out of my office chair. I emailed Sunni. "Is this right?"

Yes. Yes, that's right.

Hallelujah!!! Holy $%**!!!!!

Brian Rubin and I played phone tag. Dr. McNamara and I played phone tag, but conversations did happen. Now it was all paperwork and formalities.

My oral presentation was scheduled for November 19, the Monday before Thanksgiving. 9:30 Eastern Time, 8:30 Central Time. Ugh. Way too early. But first we had to do a run-through with a guy from the Grad School. We did a conference call in my "new" office on the Ashdown campus one afternoon. I was told my dissertation was "interesting" and well-written. Not as dry and dull as most academic stuff. Well, that was good to know. At one point Dr. McNamara wanted to do a second run-through and I said, Nope, I'm good. Let's go with it. 

(I ran off and left my purse in my office that day. Way to go. Then I did the same thing before Winter Break this year. Must be a "thing.")

I left for the Hut on Sunday, November 18, so I could rest and relax the night before. I got up the next day, put on my good black suit, made my coffee, and went to my DeQueen office. I set up the video camera. Don showed up around 8. Sunni came down to be my proctor.

I called in at about 8:35 as instructed. Jamillah was there, too!! Yay!! As well as Dr. McNamara and Dr. Graham, my last remaining committee member after they switched to the new setup with two people instead of three. Dr. Graham was my mentor from my Ed tech class, I believe.

I don't know who else was listening in - I'd given the number out to those who were interested. (Memaw listened in, of course.) My advisor did, too.

Anyway, I actually got nervous and said, "uh," about 80 times in the first two minutes. Sad, really. But once I got into the part I really knew, like my actual results, I think I did better. I answered some questions, and that was that. I was put on hold while they hem-hawed, then they came back on.

Congratulations, Doctor!

Then it was all over. And I nearly fell to pieces, but managed to keep it together to get through the rest of the day. In Fall 2012, we still had classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Thanksgiving Week, so at 12:30 that day, I taught my first class as Doctor Riddle. I told the kids I wouldn't be too militant about the title until next semester. HA!!! A student brought chicken mole to Spanish class as her culture project so at least I was able to eat that day. And I was able to enjoy Thanksgiving, with a houseful of family!

I officially moved out of The Hut at the end of November. I hated to leave my landlady, who was so good to me for three years, without a rent payment for December but it was time to go. I'd already turned off DISH Network a year before, and even though I had wi-fi there and could use all my gadgets...I was bored senseless. Even with Renegade Ted around to keep me company. It wasn't worth the time and money to live away from home anymore. I made arrangements with work to move my permanent office to the Ashdown campus and that worked out well. I even got a new office, then a "newer", bigger one in Fall 2014. I finally managed to get ALL of my stuff from DeQueen to Ashdown and must have had more stuff in that office than I did at The Hut. All my classes are AV or online, and Spanish in-class hasn't made since Fall 2013.

Everything started to wind down after that. I didn't get my ProQuest information email until mid-December. Here's where you can read it, if you so choose:

 http://search.proquest.com/docview/1313569752

We left for our annual Christmas trip to NOLA. I didn't even take the laptop. I barely checked email. I didn't even check Facebook. I didn't have to worry about due dates. Or Financial Aid. Or anything.

Wow.

I mailed publishing paperwork after we got back. And waited. Finally I got a call from Brian saying everything was good to go and a week later I got an email saying my degree was officially conferred and I was an official NCU graduate. Diploma would arrive at the end of the month, meaning February. On Monday, March 4, Don walked into my new office in Ashdown with a rather large package. And there it was:

It was done. It was really, really done. So...now what?

I'd had so much I wanted to do for so long that I didn't even know where to start. I was so overwhelmed by the "free time", and being at home EVERY day. I spent a lot of time just starting into space thinking, "Isn't there something I'm supposed to be doing?"

I did decide to present my dissertation at NISOD in 2013. I figured I needed to to do it as soon as possible while it was still current and didn't become outdated. Anything related to technology pretty much has to be done quickly because nowadays it's obsolete before you even have it out of the gate. So I sent in my proposal and it was accepted.

I was still at the point where I was zoning out but interestingly enough, one day in April, I got an email congratulating me on being nominated for Dissertation of the Year.

What?? Did I read that right??

Yes, I read that right. I had to send in my abstract and this hokey thing for the Grad School poster session Commencement in June. I used the stuff from my PowerPoint presentation and sent that off. Then later I got an email saying I didn't make the poster session, so that probably meant I didn't get the big prize but it was pretty cool to be nominated, out of all the graduate students. There were 25 nominated. It was also pretty cool to announce that to the Little River Leadership Class I was in at the time. We were on a school bus, touring the county.

I happened upon a Tweet that had all of the nominees listed, from NCU's Facebook page that I was pretty sure I followed, but obviously didn't at the time. I hooked into all their social media. I think I posted that I was presenting at NISOD, and I presented at AATYC that following fall. 

(And was TOTALLY slammed in the session reviews. The only session mentioned by name in the feedback reports, saying it was just an excuse to present my research. Isn't that what we're supposed to do??? I wondered who had it in for me that day. But special thanks to Molly Sirigiri. I wouldn't have made it through that day without her!!)

I never did send out press releases, though I wrote some up. I suppose three years after the fact is slightly old news?? I think I stalled because I was waiting to see about the Dissertation of the Year thing.

I didn't win. If I had, I would definitely have gone to graduation in June 2013, but I was hanging out at Lum & Abner Days that weekend instead. I didn't have my regalia anyway....didn't order that until LAST Spring, 2015. As expensive as THAT was, I should wear it once a week! 

And I did get a raise, most of which goes to student loan payments...so, yeah.

But that's the story. I have that title I'd never even considered until that graduation ceremony in 1988. Am I smarter? Well, I know a lot more "stuff", and I learned to jump through some major hoops I never expected to jump through. There are drawbacks to being "over-educated," but that was my decision, and if I can encourage my students to achieve that same dream, that's a major plus. I wear my "costume" and read names at our commencement festivities, watching their faces light up when they get their degrees for hard work and dedication.

(No matter how much I know they HATED my music class....)

I still get email digests from the NCU student group and see the struggle unfold for others, and all I can think is....

GLAD IT'S YOU AND NOT ME!!!!! :)

You Call Her "Doctor" Riddle, Doll!!! Part 1

November 19. A date which will live...in...uh...well...it's an important date. And the best way to sum that up is to step back in time to the day I started this "essay" of sorts. I may have started it on November 19, 2012. That was a Monday. Or the next day. Anyhow, this was how it started, with the working title of:

Endings & Beginnings

It's finally over. Four years, three months, ??? days. At last I can write "Doctor" in front of my name.

This was actually a dream about 24 years in the making. I still remember Spring Commencement 1988 at Henderson State University, sitting in the sweltering heat at (then) Haygood Stadium, wearing a sleeveless yellow knit dress. Sitting with the band while Mr. Evanson conducted "Procession of the Nobles" as graduates filed in, followed by the faculty. Dr. Branstine, Dr. Hesse, Dr. McAfee, The Doctors Rye, wearing their doctoral regalia.

I thought to myself, "THAT'S going to be me one day. THAT'S what I want. I'm going ALL the way."

I packed up my saxophone and climbed into my 1984 Pontiac Phoenix, loaded down with a ton of crap from the sixth floor dorm room in Smith Hall that I shared with Stacey Fraser and contemplated this idea all the way home to Mena as I cruised down Arkansas Highway 8. Most likely speeding, I'm sure.

[I don't do that anymore. I was told by a person we all know and love to "Slow down. People love you."]

Anyway, I did the Masters' thing at University of Northern Colorado in one year. I went to school, went to work, slept, and that's all I remember doing for nine months. But that was worth it for sure. It landed me a good college job that I still enjoy. And I didn't even have to quit or go adjunct to start working on the PhD.

Starting sometime in '04, I started looking at doctoral programs. Finally, in the summer of '07, I applied to Boston University, which at that time had the only DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) Program offered exclusively online.

They ditched me. Here's the letter:

(Looks like a cat peed on it.)

IMHO: They saw Southern school (HSU's BME), and Western (Division 1A) School (UNC's MME), turned up their proverbial Yankee noses and thought, "Hick."

Next, I found a doctoral degree - I think it was a PhD - in Creative Writing from the University of Louisiana Lafayette. The dissertation was to write a novel. (Hmmm....basically had one of those in the can!) It was offered totally online so I called about it. Dr. So-n-so Snobby-Ass said, "Well, this isn't for people who can already do hands-on workshop type stuff." Or something like that. He talked about a woman with a Masters in Creative Writing who was turned down because she just didn't have the right kind of background. Maybe I didn't understand what they were wanting as a student, which really shouldn't have mattered too much: If someone already had a Masters...(I mean, Creative Writing? How different can theory be versus applied use? How....I digress).

Basically the guy was just a dick. He didn't do much for recruitment, I'll tell ya that. I think I actually went back and filled out a survey on ULL's website about "How was your experience?"

The word "shitty" wasn't an option.

I kept looking. Sunni, aka Dr. Davis, turned me on to Northcentral University. So....I went there. I don't remember the person I spoke to first, but I chose the PhD in Education degree program with the emphasis in E-Learning and Online Teaching, or whatever it was called at the time. (It changed to E-Learning and Teaching Online. I don't know why reversing the word order makes it different, but that's higher ed for you. Upon further research, now it's just E-learning. Good grief.) 

The lady I originally spoke to knew people from Cove, so I thought that was a good sign. Maybe.... My advisor was a very nice lady named Mary Okada. Since I didn't have to have the GRE and all my other stuff looked good, I got all my paperwork in for my VA money, got a big loan with my tuition rate locked in, and started my first class, Philosophy of Education on August 1, 2008. My mentor was Dr. Barbara Gerard. At first I thought she looked like a drag queen, but online pics are many times not very flattering. She was extremely pleasant and the first months went by without too much fanfare. I didn't even have to buy books, because Sunni already had them and was kind enough to loan them to me.

Philosophy. Plato. Aristotle. That goofy English guy with the "let kids run wild" school.

Riveting.

Since six hours is considered full-time according to VA Education Benefits Standards, I started two more 12 week courses in September '08. So I actually had three that overlapped at once. This was not an issue time-wise really. We'd since moved to the loft in downtown Texarkana, and I was, in Fall 2008, staying at the old Garth Vader Studio on 3rd Street in DeQueen. I had plenty of time to work. When I wasn't, I was watching old episodes of Dark Shadows on DVD and reading Liz Taylor bios. In order to keep my sanity, I decided I'd always read a "fluffy" book before going to bed every night. I usually read one of those cheesy paperback Gothics that came out in the 70s. 

Much like this one:

(I became of huge fan of Phyllis A. Whitney, Victoria Holt, and Jane Aiken Hodge during this time. I read Jane Eyre finally. Women getting forced into marriages with mysterious men who lived in big scary mansions were a great inspiration to me.)

And this is how it all started. Interestingly enough.

In mid-November of '08: Lilly's Pad, (now Stillwell's), located in the front of the building where the studio used to be, caught fire one night. I escaped with the help of Renegade Ted (the Cat, not the Guitar Player), who woke me by squealing at the top of his Siamese feline lungs around four in the morning. I gathered what I could, which included 4 cats (!!!!), and jumped into the car. (That blog could once be found on MySpace. Now's it a "note" on Facebook. And it's become hard to find those things...).

After all that, and Thanksgiving, I needed a new place to hole up in DeQueen. I was teaching in Nashville on Monday nights in Spring of '09 and still had to be at the DeQueen campus during the week. For that semester I rented a room at Barbara Reid's house out on Dogtown Road. I had my own bathroom, kitchen and laundry privileges, and could stay up and watch TV if I wanted. No Internet, though, and the cell phone (complete with QWERTY keyboard!) I finally bought that February would barely work outside of Texarkana. (This was before MetroPCS started extending its areas.) Barbara liked having me there because Sonny, her husband, worked the night shift at Cooper Tire and was gone most of the time. I enjoyed staying there. I was able to ride my bike on occasion and it was quiet and I was able to get my work done. It was in my room there that I finally came up with the idea for my dissertation topic: Information overload, and I narrowed it down to its effect on nontraditional students. Because many of them are unfamiliar with newer technology, have different perceptions and responsibilities regarding continuing education, so...there it was.

It was here that I moved from black and white episodes of Dark Shadows to the color episodes (there's a blog about that somewhere....). This was the same period of time the big tornado practically wiped out my hometown. (Blog on that, too.)

When the semester began to draw to a close, which was in the middle of an NCU 12-week term, I realized that I needed to move on. Staying with the Reids was nice, but I always felt like I was in the way somewhat. And I needed my own "tech" access. (This was LONG before smart phone and tablets had unlimited data. How tech has changed just in so short a time.) So, the week I left the Reids I went searching for a cheap rental in DeQueen. I first called about a place out near the dump (yay). One morning I drove through Horatio, stopped at EZ Mart and picked up either a DQ Bee or a Thrifty Nickel, then drove out to see "The Shack."

Oh, hell no. I wasn't staying there.

In whatever newspaper I bought, I found a number for someone renting a one-bedroom house. That afternoon I drove out on Red Bridge Road and was introduced to "The Hut."

Perfect. I'll take it. Here's $100 to hold it through the summer and I'll move in in August.

I had just started one of the toughest classes I knew I had to take: Statistics. And one other on...something. (I'll have to review my transcript.) I took 3 cats with me: Renegade Ted, Anakin, and Bug, The Old Man. 

I would usually leave out Sunday night and come home Thursday night, so I'd at band rehearsal at the Dowd Building. (Groovetones were still going pretty strong then.) I scheduled Friday morning office hours in Ashdown. At that point my in-class Spanish class was scheduled as a hybrid so I only had to go to Nashville on Mondays.

At The Hut I had a landline, Internet, and DISH Network. Dale Qualls, former Groovetone guitarist, installed the dish for me. I had everything I needed. It was not too far out in the sticks, it was quiet, and work was only 5 miles away. Again, I was able to work. By the end of 2010, over a year later, I had finished my Concept Paper, which is essentially the "condensed" version of the first three chapters of my dissertation. And that left me just one more year to finish my degree.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!!!

From the "For What It's Worth Department"

Dear Younglings:

This wasn't exactly what I had planned for my second post to this blog, but in light of current events, here goes:

So...TVLand has pulled reruns of "Dukes of Hazzard." 

I didn't even really watch the show in its heyday; I don't watch it now. I wasn't a fan, but it's a big part of American Pop Culture. This is a slap in the face to the cast & crew of a successful program that still has a huge fan base. Here's my Tom Wopat story:

After their reunion tour in the early 2000s, Wopat, and co-star Sonny Shroyer (RIP), signed autographs and posed for photos for THREE hours after playing a 90-minute concert. Every kid & adult who stood in a line that stretched all the way around the Springdale Rodeo Arena got to have their moment with Luke Duke & Deputy Enos. That says a great deal about the kind of men they are. I've been around a lot of entertainers, and this was a rare sight to see.

Both Wopat and John Schneider still have very active careers. Wopat performs regularly, and will be in Livingston, LA for the 4th of July. John Schneider is a co-founder of the Children's Miracle Network and can still be seen in movies & TV. I'm not sure about the rest of the cast (most have passed on: Denver Pyle, Shroyer, James Best, Sorrell Booke), but I'm sure they didn't spend their time being racists, or whatever else they might be accused of just for being on a television show that featured a Confederate Battle Flag on the hood of a '69 Dodge Charger. They seemed like good people.

I've tried to lay low on the whole flag thing, but pulling a 36-year-old TV show is a little ridiculous. I assume Andy Griffith and any of its franchises are next? Those were "Southern" shows. The Battle Flag probably creeped into one of those episodes somewhere. "Designing Women," maybe? Dixie Carter passed in 2010. If she were still alive, would Hollywood make her change her name because it's "offensive"? 

I don't believe the South will rise again, any more than I think Texas would ever be able to secede and become its own country. (Mainly because it would really chap my hide to have to go through customs every time I crossed Stateline Avenue after coming back from the mall.) But I do hate "Southern Bashing." I can't help where I was born and brought up. Having lived in other parts of the country, I always had to brace myself for that "look" one occasionally gets when I explained I was from Arkansas. Someone even had the gall to ask, "Do you really have bacon with every meal?" (No joke!) I think I said, "No, but I wouldn't have minded!" Then I had to tell them that I did actually wear shoes and every place I lived had indoor plumbing.

"I got one-a them edu-ma-cacions, too!!" As well as all of my teeth.

It's also no secret I'm a "Gone With The Wind" fan, of both the book and the movie. One thing you have to remember is that Margaret Mitchell didn't create a story where the South won and slavery continued. WE LOST, and she didn't sugar-coat that. And the rest is FICTION.

In fact, the smartest character was Mammy, who never put up with any of Scarlett's junk. And...it's not a "happy" story. Scarlett lost her favorite child (Bonnie), her "best" & only friend (Melanie), and her man (Rhett) in the last few pages. So, I guess Karma and Scarlett are one and the same. (Get it?)

One thing I do hate is censorship. And that's the aroma that's in the air here, along with our bacon, our fried okra, and our sweet tea. Take down the flags from public buildings...fine. Pull the image from the shelves of Wal-Mart...go for it. Vilify a harmless TV show and its cast, that's just stupid. Especially one that's pretty "wholesome" compared to what passes for "family-oriented" programming these days. (I'll rant about that some other time.)

Frankly, my dear, that's my two-cents. Then I'll think about something else tomorrow.

P.S. I'm good with the gay marriage thing. And as fellow Southerner Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that."

Number One

Before I begin, it should be known that I thought a long time about the title of this blog. It's too long, yes, but somehow I had to convey what this blog is about just from the title alone. It has a purpose and the title must reflect that purpose. It's also only fitting that I should make its inaugural post on the birthday of Number One, Kobe Roberts, my first grandchild, who arrived when I was only 32.

Kobe, at Texarkana Comic-Con, 2014

Yes, that's right. 32. Odd that I became a grandmother when I have never actually given birth to children. The ones I helped raise were, at that time, either finishing high school or were midway through elementary school. It's hard to explain that briefly, so...hence this blog. There will be many explanations of this phenomenon, plus a lot of other stories and anecdotes and rants and who knows what else.

How did I become a Gigi? At least literally? When Kobe was about...3 (or so?? I just remember him being rather tall even then, and there were other kids there, because after he was born, all these others starting turning up)...I was sitting on the couch in my mother-in-law's living room, and she was talking to Kobe, pointing to different people in the room, asking, "Who's that?" When she got to me, he said, "Gigi!" And well, that was that.

There are now eleven children, ranging in age from 2 to 14, who refer to me as such. And I have been "Gigi" even longer than I was just "Mom." Only 5 individuals have the option to call me "Mom," even though this wasn't something anyone insisted upon. It was entirely up to them. This is another story for later. I'll tackle my views on motherhood some other time.

8 of the Younglings, with their Poppa Don, 2013

Trey, doing his Captain Kirk impression, 2013

        


Here's the thing: These eleven "Younglings" are my legacy. Hopefully, like myself, they will wonder what their grandparents were like before they were grandparents. My grandparents are gone and I still wish I had known them even longer. They didn't really keep journals, or even take that many pictures. They certainly didn't have social media to record their every waking moment.

Gabriel, December 2014

So this is where the Internet can be our friend, versus the bane of our existence. It's where I can keep a ready-made "memoir" of sorts, should one of the Younglings become interested in what someone who will eventually be an old lady had to say about..."stuff." I'll tell some stories, not just about me, but other family and friends and pets and their adventures. I'll post some pictures of places we've been and things we've done, and those will of course include travels and events that they were present at as well.

Luke, getting ready to rock climb, 2014 

So this blog is for them. They can read some of it now, or read it later when they're all grown up when it might be slightly more interesting to them. This is for other people, too. All are welcome. 

And this is kinda for me, too. Because part of me still wants to be a famous writer, since I did the rock star thing already.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!