A Summer of Love

So the summer is flying by.
This past weekend, a quick but sa-weeet visit with Bro-in-law, Arthur, and his lovely bride, and now, mom-to-be, Toni. They are a cute couple, with Toni always up for new adventure(Hansoo & I treated them to a trip to "The High"(museum in Atlanta), and we enjoyed a late lunch at the Tavern at Phipps Plaza on Saturday. Niiiice. Married just under two years, they are now officially pregnant, with a girl.
She's due, wait-for-it......... on my birthday, November 4th!
For late August:I'm working on the cover-art/photography for two different collections of poetry; rewriting/editing a few poems I plan to read at the Decatur Book Festival(on the Java Monkey Stage), and am also working on dialogue for my "The Taste of Shapes", a play.
Readying myself for many visits, for late July:
*"Camp Theya (Greek for 'Aunt')Lisa" with my lovely niece, Breaz, which will include baking(brownies, and an ol'-fashion sour-cream-pound-cake), seeing plays, a book-signing, workouts at a gym, and whatever else Breaz wants to do(reading the hilarious children's book series, "Curious George").
* with my sis, Tina, for "Limelight: One More Night", July 30th!
* with my ol' friend, Sherry(a pal I've not seen in over 18 years!Thank you Sherry, for finding me, via Facebook);she'll also be at "Limelight". :)
*with nieces Rachel and Grace, for their "Camp Theya Lisa", which will include baking(brownies, and a peach-cobbler), seeing plays, hiking, walking our dog, Afton, and learning her "agility" classes with her, reading poetry aloud to each other,home-made masks for skin-care, and planting and growing an herb garden.
In September, more writing/editing on a new one-woman piece, "Grandma Barnes of Brown County". The piece is based on research into the life of the irascible, quirky, talented(she was an actress and wrote poetry), quite lovely Grandma Barnes.
I became interested in her life as I read about my home-state, Indiana.
I later learned that she was---gasp--my own great-great-grandmother!!!
Details, soon. :)
Peace,kids.

Travel updates. And one heckuva dog, "Louie".

So we had a great visit in Franklin area of Nashville, Tennessee.
Hubby Hansoo travels/works occasionally in that area, so I was delighted to get visit him and our "new town" for connecting, and re-connecting.
Speaking of re-connecting, I was thrilled to see cuz Jeff(the son of my mom's sister, my dear sweet Aunt Mary, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2003)who is continuing to make a name for himself in the music-land that is Nashville.
Jeff pens songs, plays a bad-a*& guitar, and sings eloquently.
I love having such a talent in our family! Check out the link to his site, under "Poets, Bloggers and Others", to the right of this entry.
Just scroll down.
From Franklin area of Nashville, Tennessee, we headed by car to Indiana, to both the area called "Little Nashville"(I am researching a woman called "Grandma Barnes"--a colorful character who was half-Cherokee, extremely beautiful and a subject for artists from all over the world, a poet and an actress...and my great-great-grandmother!)....and also, the Franklin area of Indiana, to attend 3rd-cuz, Robin Hall's outdoor wedding. It was a lovely, albeit extremely hot day(perhaps karmic punishment for my own, overly-cold wedding: a garden-wedding held in February, 2007!), and one I treasure:
Robin was radiant, and when her Daddy teared up as they danced the Father-Daughter dance, I recalled my own precious moments with my own Dad, who was sitting across from me.It was great to meet-up with Daddy, especially since I was(and still am!) extremely grateful he could be there:
his 4th heart-attack of the past 14 years, was the same day he flew into Indiana(he left just hours after!).His "saving grace" was the new (Fall, 2004) defibrillator implanted in his chest.
Whew.
We listened to children laughing, I danced the "Macarena"(the cheesy dance everyone else plays at their wedding; our cheesy dance-song was the gay anthem, "YMCA". giggle.), and we ate bbq and took pictures.
We listened to master-pianist, Larry Wayne(another 3rd-cuz of mine) play Preludes he'd written.
And then, we returned home to see our beloved(adopted from Golden Retriever Rescue Association of Atlanta in October, 1998) Golden Retriever is losing his footing, partly due to his hips weakening, and partly because he is suffering from a very nasty bacterial infection of the ear(he's had this "Pseudomonas" several times, but this time, it re-curred, and got to his inner-ear/brain area.sigh.). He's in a constant state of extreme sea-sickness, combined with a loss of balance.He appears to be nauseated, as he is refusing all food,though he's not vomiting.
He weaves, and often, falls.
The library in our house now looks like a small obstacle course of pillows and cushions, to prevent him hurting himself.(double-sigh).
At age 13(approximate, since we're not certain--he could be as young as 12-and-a-half, or closer to 14), we know we're luckier than most, having him for so many fun, great years.
But that doesn't mean when I look into his huge, wet brown eyes, his head tilted in a ridiculously amusing way (horribly, it's from the infection making him dizzy), that this is any easier.
It's so hard to do what I know we must do, to prevent him suffering any further.
We originally just wanted to clear up the infection(minimum time for healing:3-6 weeks, possibly months), and then have a few great weeks to celebrate his life.
It seems, however, that we must now take it not day-by-day, or even hour-by-hour, but moment-to-moment.
If you believe in prayer healing, I would humbly ask for you to pray for healing of any/all kinds.If not of Louie's illness, then may it be a healing of our hearts.
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Peace, kids.