Addendum:
Well, with all the excitement of the almost wedding, I forgot to say that last year, I got a call for Decorative Painting and ended up doing Rod Stewarts house in Beverly Park!  Not bad for a really old broad who retired and figured she was all through with the painting business...I crawled around on my creaky knees and created two different floors...one a diamond pattern on the kitchen floor with a small motif wherever the lines met...really french...and the other entwined acanthus leaves edging the breakfast room floor with fleur de lis at one door and winged lions at the other...super french.
I had to add this because it it a testimony to the fact that it is never over until it is over...I was 77 when I did it...not bad. (I could do it this year too, if I had to and I am 78)

OMG...what a difference 2 years makes

OK...well, it has been a long long time since I have blogged...but here goes...I did move in with Pete in 2011 and we have been living together since then...with me alternately fleeing to my condo in Santa Monica determined to be really single and then returning again to Huntington Beach to be with Pete...anyway...On St Patricks day of 2013..He had been sick for a few days and would not do anything about it...and the same day he got sick..I awoke with a bad pain in my side and I had to take myself alone to the emergency room...when I got back, he was sicker...and sicker...and finally I just got mad and made him call his son...who came and got him right away.  (I could not drive, because I was taking a serious pain killer for the pain in my side)  Sooooo...we got to the hospital and it was serious...he had emergency surgery and was hospitalized for weeks and then in rehab for weeks...When he was in Rehab, he proposed to me and I accepted....It was so sweet...I was pushing him in his wheelchair out doors and he said he thought I should rest and sit on a flower laden wall we were passing and I, of course, said...No, I am okay and returned to the rehab...all efficient...so he proposed to me in the room...he had wanted me to sit on the wall because he thought that would be more romantic.
Anyway...we are not married legally yet...but we did have a nice ceremony attended by his two children and their children and my two children and their children...so everyone was there...and we exchanged vows and he gave me a ring (a slim platinum band) which I have worn ever since...we did a "mock" wedding because Andrew was here from Ohio with his wife, Melissa and their daughter, Maya and I knew it would be a real challenge for him to figure out coming to California again so soon for a wedding...the wedding has to be later, mostly because of needing a prenup because of the children and inheritance and all of that...anyway, now I am mostly in Huntington Beach, sort of married and feeling that a new wave of creativity is building inside of me...we will see what that will bring to my future...It might be another 2 years, or maybe only 2 days...but I am glad that my blog is still sitting here waiting for me patiently.....This is Carole (almost Healy) Free..................I wonder if I should change my name?

Notime

of course i have no time to write this right now...but here goes.  I just got back from weekend with Pete on his boat and I am racing to fix dinner and get some sleep and take off for my house tomorrow early...I sold my house and only have a few weeks to clear out totally!  30+ years of accumulation of stuff and ... wow!

Pete has kindly offered to store my stuff in his warehouse...nice...BUT I do have to pack, sort...or, make that sort, pack I guess....etc.

I feel sort of overwhelmed, but in the long run, this will be a good thing over all...finally cashing in on all the hard work of keeping that house going and going and going.  

I will stay with Pete and sometimes Melly while I look for a new place to live...Pete is an hour away from where I am now and I still have to teach at Otis in the fall...soooo....

Anyway, he is a wonderful friend and I love him...he doesn't try to take over and boss...but he just offers to help and does so sincerely, it seems.  

well, just wanted to post a little something, and really need to get my show on the road, so bye for now...C

Sunday at Pete's

Well, here I sit at Pete's looking out the big windows at the water and the boats. The sky is pale blue with puffy clouds and the water has just enough ripples to make the reflections of the houses across the way look like abstractions. I feel happy. I am here for a few days just to be here.

I feel safe and happy and cared for. Tomorrow is Valentines day and Pete made me a pair of wooden tongs out of teak and embellished them with hearts. One carved into the handle and one on each blade defined by tiny drilled holes. It is a perfect pair of tongs, nice in the hand, and, it picks up everything cleanly and surely. My favorite kitchen tool, they will be. I am touched in my heart that he made them for me.

I have nothing clever or whatever to say...I feel thoughtful.

Andrew and Melissa were here at the end of January with Maya. They spent a lot of time with me and we went to the beach at Malibu. It is a memorable beach...tide was out and there are myriad tide pools with anenomes between the rocks and a LOT of rocks. The day was beautiful, as this one is, and there were a bunch of otters in the ocean...or at least we speculated that they were otters...popping their heads up here and there in the seaweed...also, a large population of birds in a small lagoon...snowy egrets, terns, and further inland, near a bridge, a blue heron!

It was wonderful to spend so much time with them...and especially wonderful to get to know Maya as she grows...she is not only beautiful, but she is mostly happy all the time and she laughs a lot...Andrew is a WONDERFUL Father and Melissa a WONDERFUL Mother so she is a very lucky little girl...they TALK to her and she understands them....lucky.

I am so quiet inside that I do not have very much to say right now, so, I will go.

still 2011

Well, came to the library today to attend the writing class I went to last week and brought my own computer so I could email Alison and Drea.. I am so happy to be in touch with both of them...In my old age I am becoming more and more aware that the only things that are really important are relationships...especially those based on honesty and real communication instead of formal blah blah. Anyway, I am happy here.
Talked to Pete this AM and he is feeling better (he was sick while I was at his house) and I am happy to hear that...He is a really good man and I am also happy that he is in my life.
I got a call from Andrew that I went outside to answer...watching my computer through the window...and he got a call from Ohio State that was very encouraging. He and Melissa arrive tomorrow and go out to Simi Valley with Stephen and I guess I will talk to them on the phone and make some plans to be able to see them next week...I am sort of putting everything on hold while they are here so I will be able to spend optimum time with them and spend time getting to know Maya better...They send pictures and I can see her growth physically, but am missing all the other stuff...
Anyway, I am having a lovely day, feel happy, but hungry and so I will close and go somewhere to eat something and then go home...more will be revealed.

OMG it is 2011!!!

Wow...it has been a LONG time since I went to the library and posted on this blog.
Well, a lot has happened...I went to Folegandros with Melly, Albhy and Jacob this summer, also Paris and London...what an adventure! Folegandros was amazing and lived up to all the hype I have heard over the years...THEN I went to Philadelphia on the way home to meet my new GRANDBABY!!! Andrew and Melissa had their first child, Maya, at home on July 13 and I got there about 9 days later...we got the news of the birth on Folegandros...I spent a week with Melissa's family, Bill and Suzette, and visited the baby and Andrew and Melissa every day...wonderful.
(I am racing to tell stuff because I only have 10 minutes left on the computer)
THEN, this fall, I heard from Shirley Finneran, my old friend and she wanted to know if she could give my number to Pete Healy, a man I dated when I was 18-21, about.
Anyway, He called, we had a visit, and the old sparks were still there and we have been seeing each other for the last 2+ months. He said he always loved me, and I know I always loved him and we are really into each other. Only the future will tell what will happen, but I feel happier than I have for years. He makes me laugh and feel like a girl again and I just love to be with him and talk, etc...also he still turns me on...who knew? He is now 79, and a widower and I am 75...
He lives an hour away in Huntington Beach and he has a boat. God has a sense of humor because I have such terrible motion sickness/vertigo...but I will figure it out. Life is really wonderful and you never know when a surprise will come to you...this is a wonderful surprise and I am enjoying it thoroughly...just have to stop the old brain from clicking and picking and enjoy the ride.
In addition to a sense of humor, God is thoughtful. My house was on the market so my home had no little messes of Artstuff and books AND I just got diagnosed with Diabetes, so I have lost weight and was wearing tight jeans the first day he came over...we have to be grateful for these little gifts.
speaking of the diabetes, I have lost even more weight...now in a size 12 that is too big...so a diabetic diet is the secret to weight loss...I am glad I did not know in Folegandros, because I lived on ice cream and Pasta on the island, and can no longer eat either...don't care...living on love is so much nicer.
Had a lovely phone call from Alison, my stepdaughter, and was so thrilled to hear from her. She is a lovely woman and called me from Switzerland, where she lives.
This is a LOT of information to shove into this little blog...next time I am at the library I will allow more time...but this time the hour was eaten up with finding and printing letters from Andrew so I could make sense of them by having them on actual paper to look at and make notes on...I just LOVE my LIFE!!! Right now is the best time EVER!!!
YAY!!!

March on

Now it is March, and I did all the testing, and meeting, etc...well, feel a little frustrated with myself... having a hard time making a firm decision...pie in the sky is leaving and REAL is getting closer....Melanie invited me to Greece this summer, and I am going, of course, to Pennsylvania in July to see my new Grandbaby...I am at the library, researching job stuff and also looking at sites Melly wants me to see, Re: Greece. Just looked at Andrew and Melissa's site and saw their little animatronic bird...so sweet.
This will be, I think, a wonderful summer. Maybe my house will be sold this summer as well...then I will march into my new state of being with money and pizazz!! Yay!!