A Charlottesville Kind of Day

John and I frequently are amazed at our life near Charlottesville, Virginia. Living at Lake Monticello is wonderful. . . it's a mixed in every way community. Because it's only 40% retired folks, there are families and kids around. . . I can always find someone to play with!!!

But some of the most amazing things happen when we go into Charlottesville, and yesterday was a Charlottesville kind of day.

I hadn't planned to go to Charlottesville, but John had switched our phones and it was imperative I retrieve my old phones number list. . and learn a little bit about how to use the new phone. (I still didn't know quite how to hang up a phone call. lol) So I stopped and saw Mom (John's Mom), grabbed a bite of lunch, fixed the phone, talked quite a while with my favorite geek nephew about the phone and other things, and headed to my lovely hairdresser for a quick trim. As I sat waiting for Quanisha (who is the best hair dresser in Charlottesville if anyone asks), the lady next to me started talking.

The gist of her story was: "I'm dying. . there are chunks of my body missing because of my cancer. But I was raised with Don Henley, the drummer of the Eagles. I helped him write lyrics of. . oh, I think, over 20 songs. He loves poetry, you know, and writes in iambic pentameter. He offered to put my name on some of the songs, but I told him, 'Don, you are famous right now and everyone wants a piece of you. I want you to always remember that we will always have the relationship we had as children. I will never take from you like the others. Our relationship is a special friendship.' They wanted me to travel with the band, and one of the other band members pursued me, but there was too much drugs, and too much pressure. And horses are my love." And she talked of her life a hundred miles north of Charlottesville, of her love for horses,and of the mare she had that injured a tendon in Spain and dashed her chances of a gold medal in the olympics. And she poured our her affection for Mr. Henley. . and her angst over whether to try to contact him.

True? I have no reason I have no reason to believe or to doubt her. I suspect she may have been in Charlottesville to see the wonderful UVA doctors about her cancer. But if her story is true, I sincerely hope she will find Don Henley . . or that he will find her so they have a chance to say goodbyes to each other. Her name? We were at the beauty shop. I have no clue what her name is. If you saw her on the street, you'd see an ordinary looking lady, with very ordinary clothes, but a beautiful, blue-eyed smile.

When I got home, I did a quick change and we headed for Charlottesville again. John cleaned up from a fun day playing golf, and my friend, Rose, was having an art show downtown. Rose is one of my Charlottesville friends. She's the program director for a wonderful nonprofit that tests the water quality of the streams in the Rivanna River watershed by collecting and counting the bugs that live in them. (No, I didn't make that up. Nothing in today's blog is made up. . this is all a true story. . it should be a movie, I think.) She also does beautiful pen and ink drawings which she was showing at her friend's massage studio. On the first Friday of the month, Charlottesville has "First Friday" and the various venues for art hold receptions for the artists, have openings, etc. You can roam Charlottesville for a few hours just munching, drinking, and enjoying the wonderful talent of the city. (It's a Charlottesville kind of thing,) Rose is also known as "Recycling Rose". She's been featured in one of the local papers several times for her ability to avoid any type of trash. Her average trash output in a year is half a pound. If it can't be recycled, or reused, or composted. . she doesn't get it. One of her biggest horrors is Christmas (well, that part may be made up). You get what I mean. But she is among the sweetest, nicest, least trashy friends I know and I love her dearly. (In a motherly/friend sort of way.)

After enjoying Rose' company, her delicious homemade cheese and bread and hummus, and the company of some of our mutual friends, (ie: the lady in charge of the VA master naturalist program and her husband, the guy who monitors all the county trails, a medical software tester, and one who monitors erosion and sediment control in Albemarle County. . I did say it was a Charlottesville kind of day. . ) we decided to go to the public radio station and view the art which our church supports, knowing we would be seeing friends from church. And indeed we did see friends from church.

As we arrived, they were having a drawing. "Oh," says I, "Is it too late to put my name in?" Since they had just drawn several names unsuccessfully, no, it was not too late. So I scribbled my name in red ink and folded the paper once (to make it easier to grab, of course) and several names unsuccessfully called later, voila!! They drew my name! The prize? Complimentary tickets to a show at the beautiful and historic Paramount Theater. . that evening!! We had half an hour to grab a bite to eat, and get there. Fortunately, since we were in downtown Charlottesville, it was all within walking distance. Gotta love our favorite, buy it by the slice, pizza. John got the BBQ chicken and I got the whole wheat crust, pesto sauce, artichoke heart, avocado, tomato, basil, goat cheese wonder. Mmmm. I did say this was all in Charlottesville, didn't I?

We settled into our seats to watch "Civil War Voices", a wonderful live production by the Barter Theater. There was wonderful period music intertwined with excerpts from the diaries, letters and book of the characters on stage. There was an emphasis on Joshua Chamberlain, the Gettysburg hero. . and we had just a month ago spent three days at Gettysburg. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln were movingly portrayed to the words of Elizabeth Ackley's book about them. . we met 'Father Abraham' at Gettysburg as well. It was absolutely wonderful! And free, and totally unplanned!! And we knew our friend, the Appomattox historian, whom we had invited to go downtown with us to begin with, would be utterly jealous. But as the game show hosts say, 'And that's not all. . '. I spotted a friend in the audience with her husband and stopped to say hi at intermission. It turns out their son was shot at Gettysburg. (I'll let that sink in for a minute.) He was in a 1998 reinactment, and someone did not check their gun carefully and got him in the neck! He survived, but. . .it makes a Charlottesville kind of story.

John and I just shook our heads all the way home. It was an amazing evening. Just another "Charlottesville kind of day".

PS God has been so good to us, blessing us in so many ways. That wonderful evening was just another showing off of His good Grace. It had nothing to do with any good on our part. . only wonderful blessings from HIM.