SueBears.com Blog

A 12-year old boy, visiing the Detroit Institute of Arts with his school group, inexplicably smooshed a wad of gum on a $1,500,000 painting called The Bay. This painting by Helen Frankenthaler was considered to be one of the museum’s most valuable works. A staff member removed the offending wad right away but it did leave a small stain.

A curator tried to explain the seriousness of his action to the boy and compared it to messing with the beat in rock and roll which would lead to the absence of any beat in rap (which he likes). Huh? well, maybe 12 year olds understand that kind of logic but how about, “don’t mess with other people’s stuff?” That works for me. Here is the painting which I also don’t understand.

Actress Betty White (remember “The Golden Girls”) was honored by the Los Angeles Zoo Monday for her commitment to animals. She was made an Ambassador to the Animals at a Zoo ceremony attended by our Mayor Villaraigosa. A bronze plaque next to the zoo’s gorilla exhibit will mark this honor. White, 84, joked that she would be “tough to live with from now on.” I have had the pleasure of meeting Ms. White at Zoo activities and she is absolutely delightful! She co-authored a book entitled, “The Leading lady, Dinah’s Story” with blind entertainer Tom Sullivan (a story about the retirement of Tom’s guide dog, Dinah) and attended a book signing at the Zoo with Tom. As I app0roached with my book to be signed she noticed my docent uniform and made a special point of telling Tom I was a docent and thanked me profusely for my service to the Zoo. Very nice indeed and a special lady! Be sure to check out her appearances on the Ellen Degeneres show - she is hysterical and a quick wit!

Anne Abernathy, also know as Grandma Luge, has withdrawn from the Winter Olympics due to injuries suffered during the practive run. But the best part of the story is her perserverance in being the oldest Olympian to participate and she is a fellow red hatter, member of the Red Hat Society, proudly displaying her Red Helmet in support of women over 50! What a courageous and spirited woman. Because she has no sponsors, she is apparently out about $100,000 of her own money. Come on now sponsors out there - there must be one of you who could step up to the plate and help her out. She truly represents the spirit of the Winter Games. She also has her own website to explore!

The Opening Ceremonies of the 2006 Olympics were absolutely spectacular. I am an absolute fanatic for the Olympics and watch every moment I can of both the summer and winter shows. It is hard to point to just one element as the best but the picture below of the gymnast/ariaists forming the dove of peace was one of the highlights. The Italians did themselves proud with an artistic and beautiful beginning.

By now you have watched and are probably tired of the Super Bowl but did you happen to see the Puppy Bowl? I kid you not - Animal Planet televised the second annual Puppy Bowl - a three hour extravaganza of 14 puppies playing, chasing and chewing on toys and each other in a playpen designed to look like a football stadium. There was even a water bowl cam so you could watch them get a drink - one adorable puppy put his foot in the bowl so you could see the bottom of his foot while he was slurping. Unfortunately I missed the half time activities - a group of kittens! If you have absolutely nothing else to do you can drop on over to http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/puppybowl/puppybowl.html
and check it out. I should note they also ran information on pet adoptions as well. And while you are at the site you can check out the puppy “players”. I was especially fond of Agatha, a 2-1/2 old Beagle pup.

On January 21, 2006 my family and I held a Burial at Sea and Memorial Service for my husband. The arrangements, handled by the Neptune Society, were dignified, elegant and strangely beautiful.
About 35 friends and family joined me as we sailed out past the 3 mile limit and scattered his ashes. Since he had served in the Navy a Petty Officer from the Naval Base in Ventura, California, played taps and presented a beautiful folded flag. I was also given a certificate showing the exact coordinates of our location signed by the Captain. A wreath was thrown into the sea along with individual red roses for each participant. The weather was cool and sunny and the whole experience was heart wrenching. Each person was given an awesome memorial book created by my youngest daughter with photographs and remembrances from family members.

Although it may seem strange to take photographs of such an event, all six of our children were together in one place
for the first time and I now have a treasured keepsake.

Family members came in from Florida, Ohio and Indianna and we were able to spend time with my husband’s brother whom I hadn’t seen for some time. He is 82 and traveled here with his son. The night before the buriel we convened at a local restaurant and when my brother-in-law walked in everyone literally gasped. He had grown a beard and looked so much like my husband it was amazing even down to small gestures and mannerisms. Throughout the weekend we were able to spend quite a bit of time together, getting better acquainted and making plans to visit each other again.

The whole experience was heart wrenching, incredibly emotional, and touching. My family handled many of the details since I am currently undergoing cancer treatment and could not handle the arrangements. They did an absolutely magnificent job and I am very proud of them.

I am a happy camper - Hugh Laurie won a Golden Globe for his performance on “House”. His acceptance speech was hilarious. I love that show - probably my second favorite at the moment (behind “West Wing”). I am also pleased that the writers seem to be expanding his role a bit this season, not so one dimensional. There is just so much growling and snarling he can do. Of course, I also enjoy watching all the gowns and for the most part everyone looked wonderful. My pick for best dressed has to be Terri Hatcher. But one question - what was Pamela Anderson thinking?

I have been working on a project that I wanted to share with you. I have been scrapbooking pictures of family events for years. But I have lots of pictures from my childhood that I realized that no one but me could identify. You see I am the last remaining member of my generation. Parents, grandparents are gone and I was an only child, and never had any cousins (believe it or not).

During the 1940’s my grandmother and aunt owned a restaurant and bar called the Alhambra in Denver, Colorado. I have some fabulous black and white photos of the art deco bar, tile walled restaurant and soldiers from Lawry Field that frequented the place. My aunt and grandmother were very good looking ladies and the guys loved them. Well, I decided to do a scrapbook with just my childhood photos, pictures of my grandmother with her mother, those photos of the Alhanbra. The project has developed into a scrapbook/book so to speak. I have identified the photos but then have included typed pages of remembrances in between. So it is developing into quite a project but I believe very worthwhile for my children and grandchildren to read. There are greeting card type books available in Hallmark stores from the year of your birth and I included some of this material too - great stuff like prices of houses, cars, food, who was President, wonderful ads from the times.

This has turned out to be great fun to assemble and brings me back to a lot of things I had forgotton about. Give it some thought - it might be fun for you to do too!

It is my ferverent hope that 2006 will be a healing year for myself, my family and my friends with some respite from the pain of December 2005. As you read earlier abut the death of my husband, the return and treatment of my cancer, this family needs to recoup. But I wanted to talk a bit about sympathy cards and telephone calls. I don’t imagine, unless you have been through it, just how much help it is to receive a card or call from a friend, a lovely greeting card, and wonderful calls from family members to check on how you are doing. It takes just a moment for the person making the call or writing the note, but the effect lasts for hours and makes me feel all over again that people care!

I remember one friend who said she was afraid to call, didn’t know what to say, was worried that the call would do more harm than good - NOTHING could be farther from the truth. If you have a friend in one of these situations, just call and if you are uncomfortable, say so. Say something like, “I don’t know what to say but at least I wanted you to know I was thinging about you!” And then maybe just ask how things are, ask what you can do, and then share a story about normal life. It is not rude to talk about ordinary things even through your friend is going through extraordinary times. That little distraction can be a godsend and I find I am thinking about their story hours later and smiling about it.

I just have to share a quick experience with my son the other day. He was driving me to a medical appointment (which was guaranteed to cause me some discomfort). As we drove there were fuzzy palm frawns all over the street from a ferocious wind the night before. He said, ” well, there seem to be tribbles all over!” In case you have forgotton there was a wonderful early Star Trek episode in which furry, pregnant little tribbles were brought aboard the ship and soon over ran everybody. But that little comment brought many smiles for days. Another story - I was supposed to attend a holiday party for the Red Hat Society and, of course, couldn’t. But each attendee signed a two page note with well wishes, expression of sympathy and such and it is a real treasure.

So when your friend is hurting please call or write - it means so much!

Here’s to a wonderful holiday season to each and every one of you! Hold your family and friends close - they are immeasureably more important than presents or the hussle and bussle of holiday shopping and preparations. But a great meal holds everyone together especially the favorite dishes every one expects at this time. Be safe, be happy and enjoy!

Here is a little bear who hasn’t quite got the tree decorating thing quite right yet but she is working on it! Happy Holidays!