Odds and Ends

Saturday, we drove to Fort Lauderdale to see our friend Diane in Crazy in Love, the musical production her adult theater student class put on. While she had a non-speaking part, the lead was played by Sam, a young man we knew at our old congregation. He loves to dance, sing and act, and has hopes of a career. Tough life plan. Orlando is full of those hopes, but I guess a few pan out. As a confirmed audience member, I enjoy our local theater groups having a large pool of talent to draw from.

I get plenty of stage time through my EarlyBird Toastmasters group, with my (self-induced) commitment to speak and to tell a joke once a month. Frankly, telling a joke is harder for me than speaking.  But we’re there to learn and practice. The other weeks I’m happy to take whatever role is needed. 

September 16th, the club is celebrating its 60th anniversary. We are invited to come as we were in 1963. Way too early for hippies: the Summer of Love wasn’t until 1967. I found an original Minnesota Woolens heather plaid a-line skirt on eBay. My mother had sewn me one in the heather and another in the plaid, plus knitted me the saddle-shouldered sweater to go with them. Very fashionable, but wool in Naples? All would be perfect except the skirt is too tight, so I have seen the light and am being rigid in my diet. 3 weeks to go. To wear with it, I bought a Peter Pan collared shirt on Amazon. Not pin-tucked like the ones in high school, but the best I could find. Now I have to search my jewelry for a circle pin. I think it’s there. 

On eBay, I also found Grant an original Gant madras shirt, size large, again, too tight. He hasn’t been as rigid, but he is joining me each day in walking a mile, inside, of course, following Walk at Home on YouTube. My goal is to avoid having to move the skirt’s waist buttons. Grant can always wear his shirt unbuttoned over a white t-shirt.

I’ve now taken 2 beginner watercolor classes at Leu Garden. The first was mostly wetting the paper with water, then swooshing streaks of color across. We sprinkled a circle of salt in a couple of places, and viola, dandelions appeared. When the paper was dried, and the salt brushed off, we added stems and some more background. The 2nd class was a magnolia flower, which required us to copy the teacher’s sketch, then learn some watercolor techniques. More challenging. I’ve enjoyed the classes, so I’m going to check out the art studio here in town.

After my first class, we planned to have an early dinner at the Bosporus restaurant in Winter Park. With my usual parking karma, I found a space right on Park Avenue. Probably because it was 3:30 in the afternoon.Yes, I can parallel park my truck, and did. We stopped at the Wine Bar for a drink and met Joan and Bud, another couple newly moved to central Florida, trying to find people to play with. We exchanged phone numbers and have a date to see them at the Tap Room in College Park tonight.

At the Taproom, Dunsdread Golf Course 




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