Mare Mare’s place to ramble on…..

Oh what I wouldn’t do for a night off with no commitments……no fair, no play practice, no nothing.  Just me, my jammies, a bottle of wine, and a movie…..I really need a day to unwind.

I’ve been working almost non stop this month.  With play practice on top of it, I’ve been feeling a little dragged down and not quite myself.  I’m not saying I’m having any difficulties with anything….on the contrary, actually.  Play practice is going well.  There’s some parts that need a little tweaking, but overall, I think we will put on a good show!  Did I mention I have a very good cast?  I’m not just saying it because of the two fellow tangenteers that are involved, either.  They seem to be enjoying themselves, and having fun….and to me, that’s the most important thing. 

I’m very much looking forward to next Friday.  At this time I have no plans.  It’s one of those days I have desperately been needing.  I think I shall stay home in the jammies, make a yummy dinner, drink a bottle of wine, and maybe, yes, I think I shall, watch some of my favorite movies……Gone with the Wind, Troy, Braveheart, and possibly…..Love Actually!!!  No phones, no internet, locking the door and not answering, all me night! 

Well, as I sit here and daydream, I see that it’s time for me to leave for work.  Have a lovely night, all.  See most of you tomorrow night!

Peace & Love,

Mare

Uh huh.  I’m way behind on this.  I’ll try to finish this up quickly.  This trip was SO last month……

So, back at the ranch…..

We walked around this big old TB hospital and didn’t see a gosh darn thing.  I wasn’t scared, AT ALL.  Of course, other people in our gang of ghost hunters swear that they have pictures of  “orbs” and shadows and people in windows.  I call BS on it, of course.  They also took their little ghostie meters, and maybe, just maybe, if everyone in their group didn’t have their cell phones on and receiving text messages and whatnot, I would think that maybe there was something making the meter light turn red other than their incoming and outgoing messages. 

The place is fantastic and full of history.  I loved it.  Even though no ghosties to be seen, or heard, or felt.  I guess I’m a seeing is believing in this instance.  I would definitely go back again, just for the atmosphere and the fun we had! 

Alrighty then, I’m done with this post topic.  I have others brewing in my brain that are about ready to be written.  Hopefully within the next month or so, anyway….

Peace & Love,

Mare

We went, we saw, and we conquered!  This last Wednesday a group of people I work with, some of their friends, and a group of my Hicksville/Bryan  buddies ventured down to Louisville, Kentucky to spend the evening at one of the top 5 haunted places in the WORLD…..Waverly Hills Sanatorium.  We have been planning this trip since February, and the day finally came! 

The trip down was fun and went rather quick with only a few potty breaks and a chance to stretch!  Thanks to Megan and GPS we made it there in good time!  There were three vans full making the trip, and we all agreed to meet at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant not far from Waverly Hills.  The meal was great and a shout out to my new buddy Stephan for being a great waiter!!!

We had some time to kill before being allowed on the property, so our van decided to do a little site-seeing of the city.  I have never been to Kentucky in my life, so this was extra fun for me.  There are real hills in Kentucky…they looked like Mountains!!!!  We got a little mixed up with directions, and ended up driving around in a circle….but all was well, and our van had a good time making fun of business signs we saw on the way. 

It was finally time to head back and check in.  There was a very pleasant looking golf course on the drive back to the property….then the path got a little “tangled” looking and not as well manicured….and up the hill we go.  When we reached the clearing I was shocked at how big this place was.  Gi-normous doesn’t even describe it! Greeting us at the corner of the building was a large gargoyle with a sign “STAY OUT!”  (Except for us, of course!)  Apparently, and understandably, they have a lot of problems with trespassers.  It’s a shame, but I think if I had a place like that in my neighborhood to trespass, I’d do it too…..

We were instructed to take our coolers, blankets, and supplies down some stairs and  into a building that was separate from the main hospital.  This building was formerly the laundry room, but the owners have transformed this building into a “safe room” of sorts.  It has electricity, air conditioning, a lot of tables and chairs, and some relics from the hospital to view in cases.  There’s also a gift shop and two very nice restrooms.  There is a basement in this building where the owners of the property actually live!  (Brave souls!)  In this building we met our “guide” for the evening.  Her name was Julie and was very good at her job.  Let me add that all of the people that work there are volunteers.   They do this for a multitude of reasons.  Julie stated (if I remember right) that she had family that were patients there and also died there.  After a few rules…that I don’t really remember, it was time to go.  OH BOY!!!

Julie unlocked a door and she led us through a tunnel that leads to the main hospital.  Way cool stuff….she recommended we try not to use our flashlights, as eventually our eyes will adjust to the dark, and the flashlights tend to “turn off” any spirits if used the entire time.  She was right.  the moon was fairly bright most of the night, and the only time we really needed the lights were to go up and down the stairs and sometimes there were spots on the lower floors that were pitch black and nothing could be seen.  Not even a spirit!   Julie gave us a nice long tour of the entire building while it was still light.  She herself has had many run-in’s with spirits and shadows and she was very happy to share them with us.  I’m not saying I 100% believe every story she told us, but I appreciated it none the less, as it got my head set as to what floor I thought was going to be the scarier floor over another.  She also shared the real history of the place and the procedures that were used to treat patients.  The building was mainly used as a tuberculosis hospital, in which patients were kept comfortable and were happy, received the absolute best care available.  In the later years, it was a nursing home facility, and she didn’t get into it much, but said that it was not a happy place, and people were not treated well.  As a TB hospital, it was estimated over 20,000 people died.  20,000!  Amazing! 

After her tour, which I estimated at about an hour, it was still light.  She gave us the opportunity to do some roaming inside or outside on our own and get some pictures.  Our group headed outside, and did a walk around of the building.  Once it got dark, all of the groups met back at the “safe house” where Julie took us to the “Body Chute.”  This is a tunnell that leads from the back of the hospital near the morgue all the way down the hill to where there was a drive leading to a road.  To keep the spirits high of the patients, the staff decided it would be harmful to their recuperation to see the multitudes of corpses being carried out of the hospital.  One side of this tunnell is steps, and the other side is a flat slope, which the gurneys with the dead would be wheeled down the hill to a hearse.  I believe initially the tunnell was used for getting supplies up and down the hill in the winter time, and also staff members would use it to get to work in the winter.  It was kinda neat and again, Julie was very knowledgeable on the death tunnell…..

After the tunnell tour, we were set loose on our own until 4am….

This post is already too long….SO……

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace & Love!!!!!!!

Mare

Thankfully my days off this week coincided with tryouts for “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”  Work, on top  of all the weekend activities, would have been exhausting.

Tryouts went very well.  I had plenty of males and females tryout.  The downside is that I have to turn down some people for parts.  However, there are two of my tangent friends that have a part!  Congratulations to Jamy, whose dedication to the arts by growing a beard in the middle of summer got him the role as Barrymore.  (He’s got talent too, but seriously, how could I turn down a guy willing to grow a beard for me???) And then there’s Justj, who will be playing the part of Stapleton.  I’m looking forward to working with both of you this year!!!!  (Oops, I haven’t made the calls to the cast yet, so don’t tell justj yet!!!   )

I’m still stuck on a few parts…..I’m waiting on a phone call, and hopefully that will help me make the decision….ugh…..

Other than the tryouts, Friday night afterwards I got to sneak over to Bryan for a little game night and to meet C’s mom and sister and her kids.  It was a fun night, but I think everyone, including myself was pooped!  However, on the way home I caught a second wind, and I ended up staying at friend Beth’s house till 5 thirty in the morning!  These late night/early morning antics made it very hard to get up for Saturday’s tryouts, but I managed!  After the tryouts I ran home and did a quick clean of the house.  Jamy’s birthday was Saturday, so the small gang from Hicksville got together and we helped him celebrate.  Good times, and it included a trip over to Travis’ house to stare at the stars and Jupiter through his telescope.  Everyone left around 4:30 this morning….a little bit better than the night before!!! 

Today was the last day of tryouts and then we had a VP board meeting, which, believe it or not, only ran an hour!!!!  That’s almost a record!!!  The best thing was that we actually got things accomplished!  Woot! Woot!

Now, here I am ready for bed, but I need to stay up and wait for a call.  I’m hoping for good news, and anyway, if I go to bed now, I’ll be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow, and we can’t have that!!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

Peace & Love!!

Mare

PROS AND CONS OF HAVING NO HAIR:
PROS:  2 minute showers, much cooler in this hot weather, can ride with the windows down without messing up my hair, I look cool with a do-rag on, I’m saving tons of moolah on hair products!

CONS:  Having to wear Habeeb scarves to work because do-rags aren’t appropriate, I can see 10 million more white hairs coming in, I look like a boy with boobs unless I wear earrings and makeup, Habeeb scarves are hot on the head.

It’s a toss up, folks…..I do like the short, no maintenance thing….but maybe not THIS short! LOL  It was still SO worth it!!!

Hope you all enjoyed the 4th and are having a good week!!! 

Peace & Love!!!

Mare

If you all read jamiahsh’s blog, you know that the money was raised and I am no longer the owner of hair.  And to me, that’s awesome!

It was a very long hot day Saturday.  I’m not a fan of hot sunny days and most of the day I was feeling rather ill.  I did not perk up until the very late afternoon when the sun went behind the trees.  Night time is my time.  Much more comfortable!

Unfortunately it was a very slow Relay this year.  I’m sure the heat was a contributing factor, but by the evening attendance perked up somewhat.  None of the booths were really selling anything and not much money was made…..compared to other years, anyway!

We had a jar at the table, and throughout the day there was a lot of money thrown in that jar.  We were only going to 9pm, but I was talked into extending it an hour or two….and of course, the money was raised.  $527 in the jar.  That was my goal and it was achieved, thanks to the efforts of EVERYONE on our team and I appreciate everyone’s hard work.  The team goal this year was to raise $1000.  We surpassed it and raised over $1200.  Yay!

It was a pleasant night/morning with all of us just sitting around talking and laughing.  I must say we were the happiest team there!  After the luminaria ceremony we were the ONLY team there other than one other on the other end of the track.  Everyone else packed up and went home.  However, to be an ACL sponsored event, it has to be 18 hours long, and there must be teams all night.  We had planned on staying anyway, but it was sad that none of the other teams did.  We even did a good job at keeping someone walking “most” of the evening.  It was harder once it hit around 4am and after, but I figured it was ok.  We were all so tired!

We got everything packed up and hauled away by a little after 9.  I hit the wall about 7:30.  I got home, took a shower, and passed out about 9:30.  I slept through all the storms and woke up about 9:30 tonight.  I’m still kinda tired, but I’ll go back to bed here shortly.

So another Relay is history.  I’m throwing around whether I want to captain a team again…..it proved to be a little bit too costly…..but ya never know what a year will bring. 

Now, on to tryouts……….

Peace & Love,

Mare

Thursday evening Travis and I wandered over to Montpelier to see WCCT’s production of “Stepping Out.”  I was more than prepared to drink wine and eat cheese prior to the show, but once I got there, I didn’t feel as winey.  Go figure.  I’m kind of picky about my wine, and though I’m sure it was good, it just wasn’t what I am used to.   I must say that the company was very good during the pre-show and I enjoyed sitting around visiting with everyone! 

As for the show, I had some favorite characters!  I was impressed with two new faces to their stage.  I could feel the chemistry between most of the actresses/actor and that made it very pleasant to watch.  I’m not familiar with the movie so therefore I did not know it was a British comedy until Travis told me on the way home.  It made a lot more sense that way.  I must say I was confused for a good part of the show…..and I wish the story line would have ended with some further explanation of some things, but that was the writer’s fault.  I was impressed with the acting and directing and of course, the choreography!  There were some very funny moments in the show, and our own Cathy D was superb in her role!!!!

After getting home and dropping off my friend, I decided to do some shopping at Walmart in Defiance.  I had to run into the office anyway and drop some things off for one of the girls, so I killed a couple of birds with one stone.  I managed to pick up some more items for the Relay and I also bought some scarves for the hopefully inevitable loss of my hair!

Now I am doing some laundry and thinking I better get to bed.  I have a full day tomorrow.  I pick up my youngest niece Savannah and we are going to get our ears pierced together. (She has been waiting almost impatiently for me!)  Then off to run some more errands and pick up a few more things for Saturday.  Then at 8 we are setting up the miniature golf course for our team and making final preparations. 

I must say I will be glad when all the planning is over with and the actual day is here.  Then I can concentrate on tryouts….which I was pleased to hear that my friend justj is seriously considering.   

Goodnight, all!

Peace & Love,

Mare

Sorry for not posting lately, but I’ve blogging just hasn’t been on my list…..

I am officially off work for 6 days and have quite a long list of  “to-do’s” to get done.  After this weekend, a huge part of the list will be either completed or no longer needed….Saturday is the Relay For Life in Hicksville.  Being a team captain has been challenging….it’s a lot of work.  Finally, though, everything is coming together quite well.  I invite all of you to attend.  The Village Players has a team and we will be selling popcorn, water and flavor packs, apples with caramel dip, and pop.  We will also have a slip and slide for the kids (adults too if you want!) and as of last night, a miniature golf course!  (Thank you Hicksville Firemen!)  The survivor lap begins at noon and the relay goes on all day.  At around 10pm we will have the luminaria lighting.  I have been asked to sing during the first part of the cerimony and I have found a friend with a guitar who will play along with me.  Should be good….as long as I don’t start crying…..

I may not have any hair by Saturday night, either.  I pledged that if we could raise $500 in a jar between noon and 9 pm, I would have my hair buzzed off….which reminds me….I need to go get some scarves….   If any of you long haired freaky people want to join me, you are certainly welcome!!!

My sister in law and the girls will be there for at least the first part of the day.  They got home from Disney World on Saturday morning and they really had a good time.  Back to reality…..

I had to postpone my trip to Terre Haute to meet my boyfriend.  I have rescheduled for the end of July.  The money just wasn’t there to take the trip, and with everything going on this week, I felt it was better to wait. 

After this weekend is over, next is “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”  I’ve done something a little different this time, and I will have a “shadow” with me throughout the show.  Kate Murphy is a student at Hicksville and her father is Bill (he used to be Wild Bill Murphy on “The Bull” radio station and now is the director of the local cable channel and a board member of the Village Players and overall nice guy!)  Kate is an extremely bright teenager who loves theatre.  She is going to be my assistant director and “learn the ropes.”  I’m looking forward to tryouts and hopefully turnout is good.  If you are not planning to try out, but would be interested in sitting in on tryouts with me on July 9, 10, and 11, let me know!  I do not want to be the ONLY one making the casting decision.  Of course, my decision is final (ha ha) but I would like some different opinions, also.  So, if you’re interested, call me, email me, text me, or tell someone to tell me…..

Ok, must cut this short…..wait, this is not short…oh well….

Hope you are all enjoying the warm weather and sunny days!

Peace & Love!

Mare

For the last year or so, I have been trying to track down my mother’s roots.  My father knows some things, but not everything.  He has forgotten a lot of names, and doesn’t know a lot about my mother’s childhood.  I know I have a family on mother’s side somewhere…  My mother had 5 brothers and sisters, and they have all passed away.  I do know, though, that most of them were married and some had children.  My quest is to find these relatives and maybe learn some family history.

My uncle (My dad’s brother) is associated with a website, Findagrave.com.  People can request a picture of a loved ones grave site, and if it’s in my uncle’s area, he goes out to the cemetery, cleans the stone up, adds some flowers, trims the grass around it…makes it look nice, and takes a picture of it.  He then puts it on the site for the loved one to see.  It’s kind of a neat thing, really.  Anyway, I was browsing through and I entered my mother’s father’s name one day and lo and behold, the picture was on the site.  I immediately sent an email to the person who took the picture, inquiring about who requested the photo.  She said she would do some digging and get back with me.

I never heard back from the woman, so I figured she forgot, or couldn’t find who requested it.  Until Saturday….

I got the mail, and in it was a letter.  I was astonished to find that there was still someone alive that knew my mother and my entire family while they were growing up.  Mr. Ralph is 91 years old and living in a retirement community in Terre Haute, Indiana (that is where my mother is from.)  It seems his mother took my grandmother “under her wing” and helped her raise my mother and her siblings.  They all lived on a farm in the Terre Haute area.  Ralph has been a writing fool!  He has been emailing me stories and information on my mother and her family for the last two days!  We’ve already set up a “date.”  I’m going down there in a couple of weeks to meet him.  He wants to take me to the farm, in which he still owns.  The thought of seeing the place where my mother grew up is very exciting!  Ralph also remembers meeting me when I was a little girl.  When my mother was alive, we would pack up and go visit an aunt that still lived down there.  It seems Ralph remembers me because I was so cute and happy….(aw….)

I shared this information with my brother yesterday.  He, too, is excited to learn of this.  I’m hoping Sandy is feeling well and he’ll be able to join me on my visit.  If not, I will definitely be getting all the information that Ralph can remember.  Too bad he’s 91.  I think his mind just isn’t as sharp as it used to be, but I’ll take anything I can get. 

Peace & Love,

Mare

I’ll just throw this out there….the last two months of my life have been on the crappy downhill slide.  This week has been very trying, and I am wondering what else could possibly be next…..

1.  My loan did not get approved at the bank.  No new roof this year…..

2.  My air conditioner dies.

3.  My refrigerator is dying a slow, and painful death. 

I am trying so hard to stay positive about things.  These are just little things, and I need to just remember to breathe and get through day by day.  God doesn’t give anyone more than they can handle….I keep saying this to myself.  It’s just this last couple of days I’ve felt pretty weak and unable to hold everything up. 

Other than that, things are going ok.  I finally, FINALLY got the Hound of the Baskervilles script typed up.  Lordy, did that take forEVER!!!  I need to run to Office Max or someplace to make copies of it for people.  I will be mailing out copies to a few individuals who have expressed some interest….if any of you would like a copy, let me know.  I’ve started to outline my blocking and setting up the light and sound cues.  Seems a bit early, but I’d rather have it done now, so I don’t have to worry about it later.  I really should start picking out pieces for tryouts….maybe I’ll do that tonight.  I think working on this show is going to make for good therapy….or maybe just more stress!   

Ok, I’m sleepy.  I need to go to bed.  Have a good day!!!  See most of you on Saturday!!!

Peace & Love,

Mare