St. John Kansas Tea

Sunday afternoon Julie, Susan, Jan and I went to tea in St. John, Kansas. It's about an hour from Hutchinson. Julie and I have been two previous years. It's a nice event.

This year it was held for the first time in their museum, for which the previous 10 teas they've done have been raising funds.

This year the theme was a pioneer one, with the tea pourers wearing prairie bonnets and such. I have to confess that when I first read about it, I couldn't quite imagine what that would be like, but it was lovely.

Each of the tables was covered with a quilt. I could not imagine anyone letting their quilts be used this way. I would never be willing to do that. Fortunately, at our table, there were no mishaps.

We had three young sisters sitting at our table who were just delightful. They were all dressed in costumes and while I was taking pictures of the entertainment I happened to capture this photo by accident. I love it. The young lady looks so happy.



They were beautifully mannered young ladies and a delight to be with today.

Of course, I was tickled to get to see Susan. I miss her living in Hutchinson, but she has settled into life in Valley Falls quite nicely it seems.



There were displays in the museum of everything from clothes and hats to toys, and some extra displays around town to see.

My one complaint about St. John's tea is that it's a buffet and I don't like that when I'm going to tea. It's far easier, of course, but it just doesn't feel right to get up from the table and take my plate to the serving tables and serve myself. Others do it that way, too, for the ease. And they're very successful - they sell out three different seatings every year on this one day - and I always want to go, so it's not enough to keep me away.

I was more than a little sugar logged - as I often seem to be when leaving tea. When I started doing teas as a fundraiser for the MHA I realized why tea is always heavy on the sweets and short on the savories - the savories are much more work.

It's far easier to make more sweets, so that's why you get tons of them wherever you go to tea - from the Empress in Canada (the place to have tea), to the average tea room anywhere, to the fundraiser teas. I am proud to say that when I do tea I make an effort to have enough savories and sandwiches compared to the sweets. The tea I do is the only one where I think there's the right proportion of sweets to savories.

But, I expect that wherever I go to tea. And this was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

The entertainment today was Barry Ward, who was fabulous. He and Tony McGee performed some original songs and they were really wonderful. I was sorry we didn't have more time to hear more from them.



That's Barry on the right.



I am always impressed with people who write their own music. It's not as easy as it seems. Long, long ago - in what seems like it was another life - I wrote songs and sang them with friends in front of people none of us knew. Trust me, it's a terrifying proposition.

I spoke with Barry briefly afterwards and discovered he has recorded some music with Jim of the Prairie Wranglers and had just met Martha a few days ago. You may remember Jim and Martha's wedding this summer. He had also met Andrea at Winfield. It really is a small world.
After the tea, we went to see the antique toy display at the bank about a half block away.  I absolutely loved these little cookie cutters. I have a couple of these little pans, but I've never seen the cookie cookers. I covet them. I know that's not flattering, but it's true.


Another favorite were these paper horses cut out by a mother to amuse her children. The tag says "Animals made by Anna Minnis' mother for her children to play with. Note pattern and carbon paper."



There were some really interesting antique toys, and this lady demonstrating one of them. There was a ball on a string on the bottom - you bounced it and the chickens appeared to be pecking at their food.



I think some of these toys belonged to her. What really struck me was that kids today wouldn't get this toy on many levels - not the least of which is that most people wouldn't know how chickens peck at their food. It's sad, but true.

I was amazed at this toy cast iron stove and all the little parts that were still on top of it all these years later.



They had many cool things...





There was another collection displayed at the library - old fashioned irons. They were incredibly heavy. Some had numbers on them that indicated the weight of them - one was 18 pounds and belonged to the owner's mother. I don't like to iron with today's irons, so I know I wouldn't have wanted to use one of those things. Our foremothers had great upper body strength is all I can say.

Of course, you know I couldn't go to any tea without sharing photos of the table settings with you. I loved, loved, loved the quilts.

And, a bonus in the day - blog reader Deb Thomas, who I first met in Hillsboro, came over and chatted with me today and even brought me a Christmas ornament. I'm working on the tree so I'll soon be able to press that into service. It was fun to chat with her again. I also ran into some ladies from Pratt who've been to the MHA tea and also a couple that I've seen at many teas in the area. It was a fun day.

Caramel Corn

I made some caramel corn tonight. I'm just guessing it's not something that anyone with any medical training has ever suggested someone consume. But, given the time of year, caramel corn just seemed like the perfect thing to munch on tonight.

Of course, caramel corn isn't something I keep lying around the house. So, I whipped up my own.

I don't recall ever having made caramel corn before - don't ever remember thinking it would be something I wanted to eat before. But, it was easy enough to do.

I eat a lot of popcorn - not the microwave kind, but the normal kind. So, I popped a bowl of corn and meanwhile made some caramel sauce. I just poured mine over and stirred the corn a bit. I didn't coat it too thoroughly, but of course you can make as much as you'd like on yours.

Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white syrup

Mix and cook on top of stove. Let boil for one minute. It will look just like melted caramels. You just pour it over the popped corn and mix it up. If you're doing very much corn, it would be beneficial to do it in layers, instead of only pouring the sauce on top of a large pile of corn and expecting to be able to mix it well. I didn't worry too much about mixing mine completely.

All in all, it was a fine experiment. I have a bit of a sugar headache - how could that be with a concoction that is two-thirds syrup and sugar with the remaining third being butter?

Obviously, you can make this in any quantity you want - just use equal parts of the three ingredients. I used 1/2 cup since that's a stick of butter. Plus, I wanted to save some and see how it works later. I'm guessing just warming it up again will make it pourable the second time. We'll see.

Needless to say, I didn't consume the entire recipe. I like sugar, but that's over the top. 

Caramel corn seemed the perfect thing to have on a fall day. I guess people don't make popcorn balls for Halloween treats anymore. Pity.

Freedom is Tricky Business

The Worldwide Governance Indicators report ranks countries by the amount of freedom citizens have to voice opinions and choose their government. No doubt many Americans would think the US ranks high on the "freedom index." But, don't celebrate yet. The reality is that in the freedom business we're not failing, but we're not at the top of the game either.

The US ranks at 83.7%, making it in 35th place. Just a few of the places ahead of us are Denmark (100%), Germany (96%), Canada (94.2%), Australia (93.8%), the UK (92.8%), France (92%) and Chile (88%). Chile? The country of Pinochet? Yes. That one. The same Chile with a long history of socialist governments and military coups that passed a law in the last few years allowing divorce for the first time. Yes, that Chile.

The US has dropped in this survey - we were in 22nd place in 2005. The drop is due to a decreased trust in public officials and restrictions on the freedom of the press. Daniel Kaufmann, a lead author of the report, says, "The U.S. is not a model."
Of course, we're far better than Burma at 0% or China at 4.8%, but is that what one really wants to aspire to?

For a country that prides itself on "freedom," it seems we're headed in the wrong direction. This isn't exactly news to me, but I'm guessing it hasn't made the pulpits yet.

We're not exactly the best country to be busy spreading "freedom" around the world. Maybe those we're so interested in "freeing" would be better served by a liberator who is better at practicing what they preach. There are 34 other nations who are offering their citizens greater freedoms than we are. Maybe we should defer to their better judgment.

http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi2007/worldmap.asp#
to see a graphic and look at the other measurements as well as the data gathered

The Spoils of Fall

This afternoon I took a nice long walk at Dillon Nature Center recently. There's some color in the landscape, but not as much as I'd expect this time of year.





I decided to take some close-ups of leaves, just to preserve this moment in time. There's a tiny little stream, too, which is also full of leaves.

Halloween

Last night I had a bunch of trick or treaters. They were still coming after 9 p.m. There are so many places they can go now - the mall, the zoo, museums, churches, etc. - where they can get lots of candy at one place. I thought we might not have too many trick or treaters, but we had our usual amount - maybe a few more than last year.

I went to pick up a pizza for dinner and on the way back I was watching people in the neighborhood out in the twilight starting their trick or treating. It suddenly occurred to me that I don't ever want to live somewhere that kids can't go trick or treating.

Greg and I were talking last night that the costumes kids are wearing will one day be nostalgic. We saw a lot of spider man costumes last night and lots of princesses. Oddly enough, I saw very few ghosts and witches. Maybe those are passe these days, to make room for the more character driven costumes.



Regardless, I like living in a place where kids still trick or treat, going to the homes of complete strangers and gathering candy they'll gorge on until they're nearly sick. Once a year they do it with their parents' blessings and that was last night. It's quite a lovely custom.

Patsy Theory - Personality linked to Appearance

I'm a person who has a lot of "theories." I'm not sure why, but my brain just seems to churn them out on a regular basis. Maybe they help me define the world in some way.

One of my long time theories is that there are things in our appearance that give other people clues to our personality. I think they may be things we perceive on an almost subconscious level, but that they're there anyway.

How else can you explain situations, which are numerous, of people making snap judgments about people that turn out to be true? There was a case a few years ago in Wichita where a young lady didn't open the door of the fast food place where she worked to a man who was waiting at 6 a.m. She said she looked in his eyes and they were "crazy." When he couldn't get in that door, he went to the fast food place down the street and killed three people. What did she see? Something, obviously.

There are numerous studies where subjects make predictions about people they don't know, and they're always about 95% correct. I experienced this in a college communications class where a professor had us make predictions about her on day one. We were about 98% correct as a group. It stands to reason that there are some things we determine by sight, that we are not even aware of. I think these are tiny things that we couldn't even specify - that we just perceive them on a subconscious level.

Well, science to the rescue of this Patsy Theory.

Swedish researchers have determined that "pits" and "wrinkles" in people's irises are linked to various personality traits.

I'm guessing there are many other small things like this that we process on a nearly subconscious level that tell us something about our fellow humans. It's not good or bad - it just is.

And... the eye photo is mine from a Dec. 2005 post. I wouldn't want to expose someone else!

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from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6375381.stm

They have detected patterns which show warm-heartedness and trust or neuroticism and impulsiveness.

The team from Orebro University read pits and lines in the irises of 428 people.

Experts said the study in Biological Psychology showed that at least some aspects of personality ere determined by genetics.

Close-up pictures were taken of the study participants' irises, and they also filled out a questionnaire about their personalities.

The researchers looked at crypts (pits) and contraction furrows (lines curving around the outer edge of the iris), which are formed when pupils dilate.

It was found that those with more crypts were likely to be tender, warm and trusting, while those with more furrows were more likely to be neurotic, impulsive and give in to cravings.

'Trajectories'

The researchers suggest that a neurodevelopmental gene called PAX6 could also play a major role.

It is known to help control the development of the iris in an embryo.

Previous research has also shown that a mutation of PAX6 is linked to impulsiveness and poor social skills.

The team, led by Dr Matt Larsson a behavioural scientist, said: "These findings support the notion that people with different iris configurations tend to develop along different trajectories in regards to personality.

"Differences in the iris can be used as a biomarker that reflects differences between people."

Dr George Fieldman, principal lecturer in psychology at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, said: "This is very interesting. It shows that some aspects of personality have a genetic base and to identify them in the eye in this fascinating way is significant.

"It is surprising that this is possible. But it seems that the old aphorism that 'the eyes are the window to the soul' has some genetic basis."

He said it opened up the possibility that security services could one day use the technique to analyse people.

Airports, including Heathrow, Manchester and Gatwick are already testing iris scanning to identify people - but are not to check personality traits.

But Dr Fieldman added: "Security services would have to use such technologies with some caution. You would not want to arrest somebody on the basis of their iris."

Your Opinion Sought

I rarely write about work here. In fact, people who don't know me in real life sometimes ask me if I have a job. I assure you I do - a full time one. I run a Mental Health America affiliate in my county. It's a job that offers tremendous potential to be involved in people's lives in a meaningful way. I like it on many different levels.

There are more than 300 affiliates around the country and at the moment we're all engaged in a research project that's pretty interesting. Anyone can participate in it and it's pretty quick - about 10 minutes. No personal information is gathered - they're not even asking for your name.

We're surveying people to find out attitudes about mental wellness throughout the nation. What we learn will help shape our messages and determine our focus as we encourage people to be mentally well.

You can participate and help us out by taking the survey at the link below. Feel free to forward it to family, friends, coworkers, or anyone else you can think of.

www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=h2Af0smJ8zdmYq8TaNVPLg_3d_3d

Tired

I am weary. I think I've just been on the go too much this month. And, of course, I've been worried about my brother, Jackie. However, he seems to be progressing well. They moved him into cardiac rehab late Sunday so things are moving in the right direction. Tonight they're checking him for sleep apnea, so we'll see how that goes. Overall, it seems positive.

I realized today I was just moving through my tasks rather zombie like. I got quite a few things accomplished, but I'm moving slowly and not exactly at top speed.

Tonight Teresa and I went out to dinner and it was nice to chat with her. It seems like it has been forever since we've had time to talk.She has been occupied with things and I've been gone so much.

This weekend I have a tea to attend on Sunday but otherwise I'm free so I think I'll try to rest. I say that, knowing that I'll probably be working on Christmas things. There's always something to do.

I did go haul the tree out of the shed tonight. It's laying in the back yard in it's big "body bag." I want to give all the brown recluse spiders time to find other places to live before I bring it in.

I now know two people who've been bitten by those things - Diana and Angie. Diana was sick for months and Angie ended up having to have surgery. So, I've started taking them a bit more seriously and put a little extra effort into avoiding them.

Salt Lake City

In my continual quest to appreciate the beauty of daily life, I snapped this photo Thursday morning as we were flying out of Wichita on my trip to Salt Lake City. By the way, this photo was taken on the Palm Treo 755 phone. My camera was not accessible in my bag and I didn't want to miss the shot so took it with the phone.

One of my seat mates on the Denver to Salt Lake leg of the trip mentioned what a pretty flight this was, and I was glad she reminded me of that. I took the opportunity to take some photos of the mountains I'd seen from a different perspective on my last trip to Salt Lake some years ago.





In some ways, it seems that trip was a lifetime ago. I was naive about so many things then. But I guess that is always how you feel when you look back. I'll probably feel I'm naive today when I look back on it with a few years more life experience. Before I digress into my life at the time of that trip, I'm going to get back to this one.

I was in Salt Lake for a conference that was one of the most interesting I've ever been to. It was very nontraditional and I loved that for a change. The gentleman who organized it included many Native American speakers, who gave a very different perspective on things.

Lacee Harris of the Ute Tribe was one of my favorite presenters. He spoke a great deal about the medicine wheel, the Mayan prophesies, and many other things. It was refreshing to hear a different perspective.



He was really expressive.



He was only one of the Native Americans who spoke to our small group. We also had a local Reiki practitioner - Lilli DeCair - come in, who brought along a couple of her students (Kent and John) who did Reiki on those of us who were interested.



I volunteered immediately, as I love having Reiki. I've had three different people do it on me now, and it has been different every time. Jocelyn, of course, is a Reiki practitioner, as is Andrea's friend, Marti. They have both done me a world of good on various occasions.



When we had this done the other day I was suffering from a tinge of altitude sickness - just a little bit. My only real symptom was that I couldn't breathe deeply and was getting winded with the least bit of exertion. "Exertion" in this instance being defined as walking across the room - a small room. That's a typical altitude sickness thing. Anyway, shortly after the Reiki, the feeling went away. It may have been that I just acclimated at that point and it was coincidence. Regardless, I was thankful.

One of the other things we did was make life maps. It was an interesting process. The final question on the list was to define your personal symbol. Well, it was easy for me to know what mine is - a star. I love stars. I have star shaped earrings with ankhs I bought in Egypt hanging from them. One of my favorite pins is a star shape. I have star shapes hanging in my house. Well, you get the idea.

But, the interesting thing about this process was that it caused me to consider why that is my symbol. I came up with two reasons.
1. I like it that the points of a star go in every direction - much like my mind goes every which way. I like it the idea of not having to pick a certain thing and stay with it.
2. I thought about how when you look at a map and there's a star marking, "You are here," and it occurred to me that that's a metaphor for always living in the moment. - you are here right now so make the most of it.

At our final lunch together on Saturday I asked everyone if they lived in the past, present or future. For me there is always only this moment - there's no tomorrow - just today - just this second.

We didn't get a chance to really talk about life maps, but it was a cool experience to do them.



The woman in the pink below is the very first MHA person I met. We shared a room in Denver at a training about a month after I started my job. We had a great time together and have enjoyed running into each other at various events since then.



Sometimes in life you meet someone you just know you're meant to meet. I had that spine-tingling feeling when I met Susan more than five years ago. Over the traditional fare at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans a couple of years after our initial meeting, I knew why Susan and I were supposed to know each other. In that one lengthy conversation, we finished our "business" together, but it's still delightful to see her whenever our paths cross. Oddly enough, they crossed in an airport once when we were both surprised to see the other. We have met up in DC, Florida, Louisiana, Utah, Colorado and California now, but not in North Dakota where she lives or Kansas where I live. I've never been to North Dakota, and she tells me she has a guest room, so who knows...

I had that same spine-tingling sensation this weekend when I met someone new - that it was a person I'm meant to connect with. It doesn't happen on every trip, but it is something I often feel while traveling.

I've thought before that those of us who like to travel probably do so to connect with people we are supposed to meet in this lifetime - for whatever reason. In order to facilitate that, we have to move around to different locales. I get, literally, a spine-tingling moment when I meet someone I know I'm meant to encounter. I had that feeling this weekend, although what "business" we have remains a mystery as of yet. Hopefully that will be revealed eventually, and it's always an interesting ride.

To top it off, one of the other attendees at the conference revealed that she used to read palms. She quit because it was eerie how often it was true. So, she quit. But, she came out of her self-imposed 20 year long exile and read my palms at dinner Saturday night. I've had it done a couple of times before, but this was the most interesting one. Although she doesn't know me well, she pegged me as an "adventure junkie," which, of course, is true.

All in all, it was a great couple of days, with some new concepts and interesting experiences, including that spine-tingling feeling of connecting with someone you're supposed to meet with. Life is always interesting.