Fall 2010

LIVE… from Saint Marten, Netherlands, Antilles. December 26^th, 2011

I cannot believe it has been months since my last blog!


 I do have some great excuses though!
So, please excuse some typos and grammatical errors. I have fled the country and left my editor behind. 



It has been a very busy and exciting fall for me. I just came up for air and put Christmas to bed a few hours ago.


 Let me recap a few exciting moments for my book, my life and the art world I live in. I PROMISE to do better in 2011. Pinkies swear.

My New Teaching Position…October, 2010

Lucky for me I was recently hired at a School in Florida this fall. It took me about a year to find a great position. But, fortunately it gave me one of the best years of my life. Without that time I would have never finished my new house. The new house we bought was “move-in ready”, but every room needed some paint and some of my touches. My husband wanted to find a house that was redone. He is always traveling for his work and it leaves very little time to do anything around the house. Besides that, I was very busy with all the marketing and traveling obligations for my little book. It was a good year off and also a very rewarding year despite not having a “full time 9-5 job!”

Anyhoo… I am now teaching Visual Art to over 800 beautiful, well mannered and intelligent students ranging in ages K-5. I call it “Camp Cupcake.” Everything and everyone is so cute and lovely. I teach 9 classes a day. Each class is 30 minutes long. This is all new to me but thank God they still have the Arts in the school. While I lived in New York, I had one of those wonderful (sarcasm inserted here) Carts. Yes, I was “Art on The Cart” for 5 years. I hated it. It was loud and the squeak in the wheels never went away. I spent more time rolling over my toes with it then teaching.

With my new position, it is so wonderfully ethnically diverse. In my glorious spacious room, at any given art table, I might have students from South East Asia, India, Haiti, Europe and of any Spanish decent represented. I have a few children that were recently adopted after the horrible Earthquake in Haiti. I also have a refugee from the Iraqi war in one of my classrooms. He is a beautiful little boy. Though, he is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and does not speak. He does enjoy sitting next to me and being my helper. I ask him weekly for a “high five or a smile.” He just stares at me with the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen on a child. I hope to hear his voice soon.

My past teaching experience was with the Special Education population stemming over 15 years. The experience I had in the past in New York was priceless but incredibly emotionally and physically taxing dealing with low socioeconomics families. Chicago was a great fit as well, but fate brought me here today. Here, I have dozens of parents volunteering in the school daily and a budget to make any teacher jealous. I am so grateful for the technology in the room. I am very excited to be part of the Bill Gates Grant Hillsborough County received. I am looking forward to be a part of the new change “Waiting for Superman” was seeking! The Teaching staff is extremely professional, courteous and educated. I have not met one person waiting for retirement or abusing the “Padded Rooms” you have read about in other Department of Education’s around the country. Every “great” teacher should be empowered and supported. I am looking forward to working here for years to come.

How I found the position?

It was an unfortunate accident where the art teacher died in a car accident last September. The school did a fabulous job supporting the students and staff with bereavement counselors and special help from the community. Over the past couple of months I have done special readings from my book to a couple of the classes. I participated in “The Great American Teach-In.” I spoke to a couple of classes on how to illustrate and the 10 year history of my publishing route. I get a kick out of the excitement the students have for writing. During any given week, students show me some of their illustrations and writings they are working on. My refrigerator is now filled with drawing of me and many of my students. I love how they portray my really long legs and they always make me look very svelt.

Wedding Bliss…

On another note…I am branching out in another direction that I can now add to my resume, “Save the Date,” wedding cards! One of My best friends is getting married this April at a quaint little winery in the north Georgia Mountains. It is a dream come true to see someone I care about so happy. I am doing an ink sketch of The Winery for the amazing couple. Stay tuned with the design!

The Panama Canal 2011

This past fall my family and my husband’s family have celebrated life with two amazing celebrations. My father-in-law beat his Kidney Cancer and my beloved Great Auntie Ann who I adore celebrated her 90^thBirthday. My family and I took my Great Aunt Ann to The Panama Canal. A place she always wanted to go. In the past year Ann has lost her sight but it did not detour our plans. So, with that frame of mind we all took off on our very own Trip of a Lifetime. We sailed around Aruba, toured Volcanoes, sailed through the Locks in the Panama Canal, ate Fresh Tilapia and Plantains with an indigenous Panama Indian Tribe in the mountains, sipped Rum on a Banana Plantation in Costa Rica, Toured  the Old City In Cartagena, Columbia and climbed waterfalls in Jamaica. As we dined with each other every night Ann shared stories of her life. Some funny, some sad, and some regrets. She is quite the survivor. The death of two husbands, breast Cancer and now her loss of sight has made her stronger. She has always been a great influence in my life. She always catches me off guard too. Comments to make anyone blush. This blog is PG so I cannot even retell some of her famous lines to me over the years.

My mom and I were walking through the colorful streets of Jamaica when she told me my dad always wanted to go to Jamaica for their honeymoon. She now regretted not ever taking a honeymoon. She said she spent that week after their wedding looking for teaching positions in Chicago instead. I tried to comfort her and told her, “Well, you kind of have dad here now…you have me.” We drove through the Fern Forest silently and I know she was hoping he could see Jamaica through her eyes. I know he did. He rarely never went anywhere without her.

I witnessed three women; my mother, my Auntie Jan and my Great Ann survive the deaths of their husbands in the past and yet they still smile and toast each other with great love and affection despite their grief they still carry in their hearts. It was moments like this that meant the world to me. This trip was one of the best moments in my life. I will never forget the look on her face when we watched out from our ship balcony sail through The Panama Canal. 

She waited her whole life to see this. Of course she was now blind made the experience very emotional. No person, no commitment, could of ever taken me away from this private moment I had with my family. One night at dinner, my mom told us she still talks to my dad daily. With that comment, we all burst into tears and cried for a moment. Two seconds later we signaled to the waiter, “More wine please and bring Auntie another Scotch!”

I am now sitting a few yards from the beaches of The West Indies. I still have sand in places sand should not be. I am still stuffed from Christmas dinner. My brother-in-law outdid himself again. He was a fine chef in another lifetime. Shooting and producing political commercials for Hillary is just a side gig in this lifetime. I am still a little hoarse from singing and laughing all night. My ears are still ringing from all the excitement. We put the French to shame last night. Everyone is still asleep on the island of Saint Marten as I write this. My husband’s entire family is all here celebrating the victory my father–in-law had this year being Cancer free. They remind me so much of my own family. They celebrate each other with great love and affection too. Though, they sing more after the 10th bottle of wine has gone dry. It is moments in life like this that make it all complete. My mother-in–law Gertie gave a toast at lunch the other day and said something so simple and true that will define this trip, “This is a dream come true. Thank you.” And again, within seconds, daughters, sons, sons-in-laws, grandchildren and me, burst into tears, waived to the waiters and ordered more Wine and Scotch.

This island is very special to me and my husband for many reasons. We had our first official date (we knew each other for a while) here two years ago. He flew me down from Chicago and picked me up at the airport and within days we were in love and months later we married. It means the world to me to be back here with the love of my life…my husband. Two days ago we walked the beaches in St. Barth’s and spent time on St. Jean and tomorrow we will visit Saba and The Prickly Pear for lunch and some snorkeling. Life is meant to be celebrated. I am starting to really
get that.
GFA