Bringing Back the Pack

When I moved to Omaha, I was starting 5th grade so the Richman-Gordman Zooland animals weren't for me as I was a big girl. But I remember them. And remember my sisters playing on them. I think it is great that the Omaha Children’s Museum has brought them back together.



Video Promo: http://www.youtube.com/user/OmahaChildrensMuseum

100 Things | Singing

11. I like to sing.

I have always liked to sing. As a little girl, I remember my Mom singing a lot so I am sure that had some influence over me as I loved hearing her sing. My Mom played the piano - so often my sisters and I would sing with her as she played. We had quite a few sing-along type book. Quite a lot of hits of the 70's - like the Carpenters or Debbie Boone's You Light Up My Life. I remember sitting in the living room and flipping through the song books just to find a song to sing. No accompaniment just to sing acapella because I enjoyed singing.

My Grandparents had a pretty little garden in their back yard and we often used it as a staging area to put on "shows" for them....my sisters and cousins. Our Grandma often sang to us and taught us songs so often we used those songs in our "shows." When I was a very little girl, I was in singing contests -- I have a really clear memory of one in Bottineau, North Dakota(one of my favorite places we lived when I was growing up).

We moved when I was starting 5th grade to Omaha and I became shy. But I still was in the youth church choir. I did solos and duets. But then one time I was picked for a solo. I am up there ready to sing my solo. I was looking out at that crowd in the church and I felt this fear grow inside me. I was shaking and my palms were sweaty. I sang a few words and then stopped. Stopped...Stopping singing right there in the middle of my solo. I just stood there petrified. I developed stage fright over night it seemed. After that I stayed in a choir for a while but didn't do another solo. I couldn't get past the fear that I might do that again. I really didn't sing publicly that much longer. I still enjoyed singing just was too scared to sing publicly. I let that fear hold me back. When I didn't keep up with the singing of course the control and breathing started to slip. But I still enjoyed it even if I was more out of tune. Usually just singing by msyelf or to the radio.

I had a roommate when I lived in Cleveland that had a really good voice. She played the guitar and sang. One night she was playing in the dining room after dinner. I was cleaning up the dishes humming and singing along. She finally stopped and told me that I needed to sing louder. We were harmonizing really well together. It was a Stevie Nicks song and we just had lots of fun singing together. I think she reminded me how much I liked to sing.

Now Michael always says he knows I am feeling good when I sing. Michael and I like to sing on road trips too. Michael has a very good voice and we just have fun singing together. We sing to musicals -- RENT and Across the Universe are our current favorites to sing to.

I know my voice isn't as good as it was when I was younger. I just don't have the control over it like I once did but it doesn't stop me from singing and it won't. It makes cleaning, doing things around the house and road trips go faster and better. And it does make me feel good to sing.

(photo of one of our "shows" at my Grandparents -- I am in the yellow dress -- left to right -- my little sister April, my cousin Nikki, me and then my sister Michelle)

Dear Diary....

In July I picked up a box while visiting my parents. I looked through it a little bit when we got it home but really it has just sat in my studio. Well tonight I was making room in a closet and decided to just take a peek in it again.

Wow the stuff in it....

I found the cut out bow with my name on it that the RA in my dorm put on the dorm room door. I am not kidding...why on earth did I keep that? I also had a big folder of cut outs from magazines with Adam Ant, Duran Duran, Matt Dillon, Tommy Howell and lots of others too - some that I don't even recognize now. I have a ton of letters from a friend I had in Junior High that moved away. But was the most fun looking at was my diary from 1979 to 1982 so I was 12 when I started it and 15 when it ends. Now it isn't a daily diary it is here and there during that time. But it is so funny...like one entry I talk about how we got cable and all I said "I am excited we got cable." That was the whole entry. Then the next entry talks about I am not sure who I like and list 7 boys. But 4 days later I narrow it down to one.

(photo of the diary - what can't be seen is that I had keep out wrote on all the sides ink but the edges of the diary were gold so some of it is faded.)

Another amusing entry that I had to show Michael is the one that it says in HUGE letters..."I got my first kiss! YEAH! It was GREAT!" And then it has his name added too. You can tell that I added that later as I am sure I thought someday I might not remember who I kissed so added it to remember. Of course I remember.

My favorite parts of the diary are when I talk about Brian - who is someone I liked on and off from 7th grade all the way through high school. I "went with" him during Junior High for a month. Anyway in one of the entries quite a while before I "went with" him, I wrote about that a friend of mine liked him. And I say that I didn't understand why she liked him.

The entries of when we "went with" each other in Junior High are so sweet. I talk about the dance we went to before he asked me to "go with" him. He asked me to dance and we did 3 dances together. He held me really close. I talk about how tight his arms were around me and how he smelled so good. We then stopped and sat on the bleachers to talk with friends (Kerrie & Mark.) He then went somewhere but told me to stay where I was because he was coming back for me. When he came back we spent the rest of the dance together.

The next day I have entry talking about that I called him to ask him to go with a bunch of friends to pizza hut. He says no. But then a little later calls and tells me yes he will. I was so excited. I talk about how much fun we had even though he ended up being the only boy there as all the boys said no or maybe and then didn't show. Later, years later, we talked about going out in Jr. High and that group outing to pizza hut. He had wanted to go but didn't have any money. So he called a friend to see if he wanted to buy some Dungeons and Dragons stuff so that he could go be with me. I thought that was very sweet that he did that - just to be with me.

The Monday after the dance the entry was very odd. I was in class - a full class and the teacher in front of all the class asks me if I had fun at the dance. I just blushed and a boy said "yeah she danced with David all night" and then another boy Tad said, "no she didn't she danced with Brian all night." And the whole class cracks up except Brian and I. Later after class Tad teases me and Brian tells him to lay off. Isn't it weird the teacher did that? And I named the teacher in my entry but I don't remember him or the incident at all.

I really should throw most of the stuff in this box out but it really just hard to part with it and I am not sure why...well one reason is my memory at times sucks so reading the entries, letters and other odds-n-ends brought it back more easily. I know the diary is something though I will always hang on to even if I throw some of the other things in the box away.