Had the most fabulous two hour talk with my parents
last night. (Called them around 1030, my time. So you KNOW what that means
about when I got to bed last night - whoa, late!) Don’t know why I hadn’t
thought of checking before to see if the hotel had that kind of magic calling
plan where you can talk to people anywhere, anytime, for no additional fee –
and, of course, they did. Haven’t talked to them since I was at Leah’s one day
and called, the beginning of December. Unfortunately, the hotel is giving up their
plan at the end of this month, so I’ll have to make good use of it until then!
(The crazy thing is I am NOT to call my kids on their cell phones, as that
incurs an exorbitant fee to THEIR bill. Dumb!)
[My mom tells me she’s become a designated BLT –
not the sandwich (hahah), rather one who must NOT bend, lift or twist. She has only recently been able
to return home after being in a care center over a month due to excruciating
back pain, and I am SO happy to be reassured that she is getting stronger and
stronger by the day.]
There’s a big company retreat coming tomorrow, so
we have begun the ascent towards that end – lots of deeper cleaning, shopping
for supplies, readying rooms. The heat’s on! (Still wish Loraine had the modus
operandi more to my liking which would be start preparing well in advance –
instead of the day before – but that’s how she does it and it’s HER show. So,
just gotta go with the flow and do what you can to anticipate the storm.)
I transport Henry – and just as often, Hoover –
between floors in the lift . . . while I
take the stairs. I do confess to an unrealistic phobia of getting stuck in an elevator
– that claustrophobia thing – besides, I can always use the exercise. Henry –
not so much!
The 2013 Sundance Film Festival started today.
(Guess where I won’t be!) Excerpts from an online BBC article: Started in
1985 in the ski-resort of Park City, Utah by actor Robert Redford, this year it
has 57 world premieres and half of all the films in competition are made by
women - a first for any film festival in the world. Over the first
weekend, the Sundance Festival of film has featured a line-up that the Cannes Film
Festival would envy – where major stars have braved the freezing temperatures
and utilitarian venues to premiere their movies. They are joined by film
producers and talent managers, leading to Park City to be described during the
festival as ‘LA on snow.’ For ten days in January, this small town in Utah
really is the biggest place in the entertainment industry.
I see that Jerusha Hess, wife of Jared, has had
her mainly
‘British cast and crew, filmed on location in the UK’ film accepted
– Austenland, a story about an American woman that is SO obsessed with the BBC
production of Pride and Prejudice that she goes to England looking for her own
Mr. Darcy. With rave reviews from audiences, it's being touted as this summer's
Bridesmaids - although the low-budget, independent film can currently only
dream of those kinds of profits. Hess says she prefers to think of it as ‘the
anti-Downton Abbey.’
There were tears today, shed by Loraine as she
opened her mail – and they were NOT tears of joy. The ‘problem’ that she had
mentioned almost immediately back on the day I first arrived in Weymouth had
reared its ugly head again. Only this time in writing – and it was not good.
She was being socked with five thousand pound penalty by the British
immigration office for having had a young man from American help in the hotel
without the proper work permit. (He was a former missionary who had served in
the Poole stake and the fact is, she HAD compensated him monetarily.)
But almost more upsetting than the money itself
(and that was extremely worrisome because it IS a lot of money) was that the
young man - who she thought she was helping out, someone with whom she felt especially
close, almost like family – had virtually abandoned her as the situation materialized,
not even bothering to answer her email and/or phone pleadings for clarification
on what exactly had been declared to the board. She was really devastated and
hurt. I told her that, with me, she would never feel like she had been taken
advantage of, as she felt she had in this instance. In the desperation of the moment, she even
wondered if I could go on being here the way that I am, leaving it at this
point still kind of in limbo. (She was able to talk to an administrator in
immigration and found that making an appeal was a possible option, so she was
feeling somewhat better. Even with all that, later in the day she gave me the
nicest compliment when she said, praising me for my contributions to the
operations here, ‘Debbie, you’re a GEM!’ and gave me a hug.)
Photos_
1- Chloe’s discarded birthday candle (random digit
off because grandma got confused and picked up the year Chloe was leaving
behind as opposed to the year she was graduating into – oh, grandma!) pulled from
out of the trash where it had been dumped following last night’s party. Can you
see what I see? Chloe obviously, in her little child’s mind, could not resist
taking a little nibble – just this once
– to determine once and for all if what adults have been telling her really is the
truth – that candles are for looking – not for eating!
2- Look at this cool stuff I got at Wilkinson’s for
my frequent booboos (in fact, got a new one just today!) – plasters in England,
bandaids in America. It comes in an unbroken length, so you can cut it to whatever
width you want. See the cushion running down the center, and then the sticky parts on the ends? Why haven’t WE thought of that?! (I was talking about the
wonder of it to Stacey, and she said that was the only thing she knew – and
figured everybody had it like that.)
