I Want My Email!

My email server isn't working this evening. It would seem that there is some maintenance going on that is effecting our ability to send and receive email. I can't even check in through Safari. It used to be that if I had a problem with my email I could go online to the WWW and check my mail. Now that doesn't even work. Or, until recently, I could even check my email by using the computers at my school where I work. But our school district decided that Earthlink posed some sort of threat to education and that site is blocked. So I won't even be able to view my personal email from school. I can only use my school email account.

Ugh! I'm so addicted to my email and checking it several times a day. I've tried to forget about it during the workday and I suppose that is all for the best since I can't use it at work anymore.

So, if you are reading this blog and you are one of the people that I regularly email with, I'll check on you tomorrow. Hopefully, Earthlink will get all of their kinks out overnight.

Have a good day!

Nine Chicks

I recently went back to Abilene, Texas for Abilene Christian University's homecoming. This is a picture of one of my college friends, Lois, and me. She lives in Abilene and was our gracious hostess for the weekend. We had such a good time visiting, going to the homecoming play, touring the campus to see all of the new structures and of course, worshiping together on Sunday. I'm so happy that we have this close friendship. However, it has only been the past several years that she and seven other college friends started our email chats.


This is a picture of us in 2004 standing outside of our old dormitory which is now an office building. There are nine of us 50-something aged women that once lived together in Zellner Dormitory on what was then the Abilene Christian College campus. One of our group, Nancy, nicknamed us the Zchicks. The Z stands for our old dorm, Zellner.


One of the Zchicks lives near Boston and couldn't make it to Abilene for our reunion picture. So, I couldn't leave her out. Here I am visiting my friend, Patty, last summer.

Even though we live in different parts of the country today, the friendships planted during those years at ACC has continued to grow over the past 30+ years through the wonder of email. At one time all of our conversations involved school, social activites and of course, boys. Now, much of our communication deals with our everyday lives, religious faith, children and grandchildren. We still have a lot to say about husbands, boyfriends, and past loves, but what has been so wonderful is to open email most every day to see that I have mail from one or more of my friends.

May God bless our friendship with 30 more years.
I love you Zchicks!

A Little Black Dress

Recently I came across a piece I'd written as part of an exercise in a writing class. The instructor's objective for the class was to be able to recall and write about a memory. The memory I wrote about was actually from my mother's childhood and was prompted by an article of clothing that is in my possession. So, I decided to reproduce that short piece of writing along with photographs of a little black dress and a picture of my mother. The picture of Mom was made in April, 1944 and she would have just turned 24 years old.

"My grandmother made a little black dress for my mother when she was 2 years old. It was hand-stitched with little yellow flowers embroidered around the neckline. (on the bodice front) I didn't even know this little dress existed until my grandmother gave it to me after my mother passed away. (in 1993) Every now and then I take it (the dress) out of the drawer to look at it. I imagine my grandmother stitching and sewing. I visualize what my mother looked like as a toddler wearing this black satin dress in the 1920's. Then, I touch it and feel my mom and my grandmother that both touched that dress."

Not exactly great prose, but it did make me take the little black dress out once again and look at an article my own mother wore more than 80 years ago. The black satin fabric is beginning to fray and should be placed in a display of some sort to preserve it. I don't possess many items from my parent's past. To glimpse back to an era before my time, a time when my mother was 2 years old, provokes many thoughts. It bridges the past with the present. My mom's little black dress is a precious treasure I hope to keep until it can be passed on to the next generation.