Category: To Occupy my Time

The day of the Rose Festival Walk dawned gray and cold.

Heidi, Kelly, Miss Nomer and Christi gather at the beginning of the walk.
We saw all the floats lined up waiting to parade.
Walking into Memorial Coliseum where people can watch the parade indoors.
Inside the coliseum where Miss Nomer waved to her first crowds.
For unknown reasons there was an entire Ikea living room in the arena.
It was fun to walk along the parade route. I got to see places where there were still good seats thirty minutes before the parade started. They have been filed away in my memory banks until next year. One big surprise was that there were several announcers along the way. I had no idea they existed until today. They make announcements about the sponsors and tell the parade crowd what they are looking at. “This is the Regence Rose Festival Grand Floral Walk, a four-mile fitness walk…” The first two announces said something to the effect of “They look good now, but we’ll see how they look at the finish.” To which I replied, “HEY! Way to be supportive.” Plus, it’s four miles, not really a marathon. For a lot of walkers that’s an easy day. And, it’s not like we were zipping along.
One of many cute kids being carried.
Walking over the Burnside Bridge. All participants got the bright orange workout bags.
Some people came in workout gear and others were more festive, like these two women in rose hats.
Walking along the route I did my best elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist. It was pretty fun to have people read my sash. “Miss….Nomer. Oh! Misnomer! Honey, she’s Miss Nomer!” Others would say, “Miss…Nomer. Hmmmm.” Or, one of the announcers said, “We now have Miss Homer, walking by. What’s that? Oh, Miss Nomer.” He didn’t get it.

These ladies had very cool crowns.
Another cute kid being carried.
The finish line. (By the way, lame early announcers, I felt fine.) One surprise was that they had chairs ready if you wanted to stay and watch the parade. That was a nice touch.
And there was a very cool drum corps playing.
The real reason I never paint my nails. Not even 24 hours and it has already started to chip.
Grrr. I took it off immediately.

However, the next day my elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, shoulder was not at all sore. I took that as a sign I was meant to be a parade beauty queen.

When I heard about the all-new Rose Festival Walk I knew it was the walk for me. Getting to walk the Rose Festival Route before the parade? When all the people are sitting there waiting for the parade to start? Who wouldn’t want to do that? And I knew that I was going to go as my best beauty queen self. So I spent the evening before preparing to be Miss Nomer. Miss Nomer may be a misapplied or inappropriate beauty queen, but she tries her best.

Miss Nomer has to make her own sash. Luckily she has access to a large font in Word and a printer. That made tracing her name much easier.
Miss Nomer put on a mud mask for sparking skin and braided her hair to achieve appropriate “big”-ness.
You too, can make your own crown. All you need is a file folder, stapler, aluminum foil and glue.
After the glue dries, the crown is easily secured with a paper clip.
Miss Nomer even painted her nails. As she was doing this she was trying to remember the last time her nails had been painted. It may have been in college. Maybe. But it might not have been since high school.
Now it is off for a good night sleep for Miss Nomer.

Well, the blogs, as you may have noticed. But also reading the entire paper. Every morning I arrange the paper in the following order: “How we live” section (formerly known as the Living, this section has the very important advice columns and the comics as well as the “fluffy” parts of the paper, including my TV review boyfriend Peter Ames Carlin.) After the Living section comes the Metro, then the Business section and after that the Front Page. That way, I can read my way from inconsequential (my favorite) to the local news to the national and international. But because of the Math class, some days I don’t even make it through the local section, much less to the international. That’s annoying because two days later I don’t understand what half of the letters to the editor are talking about.

I also don’t have as much time to garden, or read. The math class is necessary, but it’s not exactly pleasurable. But non-Math class things have been happening. I just don’t get to post about them. Alas. Maybe soon I will get to at least tell about the books I have been reading. And the movies I’ve seen. I’ve just watched three especially good ones. Not to mention the fact that I’m still writing letters and getting letters. Why today, I just got three postcards from one Sara Sterner. And I just spent 2 1/2 days as juror #4 on a civil case. That was fun. And Matt graduates June first.

So that’s what’s going on now.

Until later,
pcc

I’ve been waiting my whole adult life to get called to Jury Duty. You could say I’ve been chomping at the bit to do my civic duty. Way back in 1997 I was called. It was a perfect time to miss a day of school; my classes had just started and there wasn’t much going on. But all I was required to do was call a number the day of and see if I had to come in. Which I didn’t . So that wasn’t any fun.

10+ years later I get called again. This time: Jackpot! I not only got to go down to the courthouse and sit in the big room with the comfortable chairs, but my name got called and I got to experience voir dire and then! I got to be on the jury! It wasn’t the most exciting case–a civil case where we had to decide if the injuries the plaintiff sustained in a motorcycle accident in 2005 were limiting her activities today–but I enjoyed the entire experience. We had a great judge and it was fun to see how an actual courtroom compared to what happens on t.v.

In my case a lot of the procedure was the same, but what the lawyers said wasn’t quite as polished as in the movies. It makes sense, though. In the movies the actors get to memorize lines that someone else has written. Actual lawyers have to actually talk off the top of their heads. Also, when one lawyer objects and both of them and the judge go into chambers to discuss the matter? We don’t get to find out what they are talking about. The most surprising thing to me was that the jury could ask questions of the people on the stand. There was a whole procedure involved, but all the questions that were submitted by my jury were asked and answered. It provided extra insight into the case we wouldn’t have had.

For the deliberations portion, I got to be the Presiding Juror. That’s what they are calling the Jury Foreman these days. I got to help run deliberations and to write our findings on the official sheet of paper. And then I got to hand that piece of paper to the clerk so the judge could read it. I enjoyed deliberations and thought that people were fair and thoughtful. Afterwards, the judge came back to the jury chambers and we got to ask him questions about the case, which turned out to be very enlightening.

Overall, it was a fabulous experience and I’m glad I was picked.