Sonnystone Acres

my birthdays are like a scheduled breakdown….my life flashes before my eyes and i think thoughts that are profoundly deep deep down.  it used to take a week or so before i could break through the funk, but these days i’ve pared down the drama.  however, my self-obsession took up most of last night and i didn’t have a chance to prepare an interview.  i have a couple in the works, but they’re not ready. 

so to keep you occupied i have decided to interview myself…..this is real time, kids.  i’m going to answer the questionaire even as we speak.  but first, let me introduce myself:

I was born yesterday 57 years ago in Fairfield, IL, the third child of Bob and Ruby Mayne.  I was welcomed by my brother, Rick (who I always called Brother), 5 years old, and my sister, Donna (who I always called Donna) , 17 months.  We lived in Albion, IL till I was 3, then we moved to Gary, IN.  We moved to Evansville, IN when I was 7 and it’s my hometown; there was a brief sojourn to Santa Maria, CA when I was 14, but let’s not talk about that.  I graduated from Harrison High School in 1971 and started nursing school at Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing.  We wore blue-checked below-the-knee pinafores with white stockings, clinic shoes,  and caps bobby-pinned precariously atop hair that had to be above the neck and not in our face. I didn’t last long in that environment given I was more prone to hot pants and no bra–and the farrah fawcett layers were not conducive to an upsweep; I left in 1973.  Due to a long run of bad decisions, I married Bill (Beaver) Bass in May, 1974; we had a daughter, Melissa Beth, in December that same year.  We divorced (the last time) in April, 1977.  I worked as a waitress at a club here in Evansville and the late 70’s were a disco daze.  I married Mike Casey on August 15, 1980 and finally settled down.   We bought our first house just before our son, Michael, was born in September 1981.  We moved over to Harmon Court in 1986 and lived there for 18 years.  During those years, I went to USI and earned an Associate of Nursing degree (1991) and started working as a nurse.  My kids grew up, went off to college and never came back.  People started dying.  Dad died in 1997; Mom died in 2002.  We bought a falling-down house on 4 acres in 2003 and named it Sonnystone Acres, after our cat, Sonny, and the giant “S” on the chimney.  I have been faithfully blogging since 2004, making my life an open book–but there’s so much more… I am currently working 20 hours/week as a school nurse, but I really want to be a writer when I grow up.  Could you tell?  

Age:  57

Bed size:  full — with a fan nearby

Chore you hate:  cleaning the toilet, followed by dusting

Essential “start your day” item:  coffee

Favorite color:  red

Gold or Silver?  gold

Height:  5′1″

Instrument you play:  piano, guitar, autoharp, dulcimer, percussion of any type, kazoo

Job Title:  Registered Nurse, PH Middle School

Kids:  Melissa and Michael  (can I mention Emma and Olivia?)

Living arrangements:  husband, cat, big yellow house

Mom’s name:  Ruby

Nicknames:  Bug, Elf, Tina, Doe Tina,

Overnight hospital stay (other than childbirth):  kidney infection, sometime in the 80’s; hysterectomy, 1988. 

Pet Peeves:   people who invade my personal space–and sometimes my personal space is an acre or so. 

Quote from a movie: Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.  Rhett Butler, Gone with the Wind

Right handed or left handed:  right

Siblings:  Rick and Donna

Time you wake up:  6am.  I get out of bed about 6:30.

Underwear:  yes

Veggie you like and dislike:  I have never met a vegetable I didn’t like. 

Ways you cope with stress:  You don’t want to know…

X-ray vision (have you ever predicted the future correctly?):  not very Far into the future, but yes.

Zoo you like best:  I’ll go with Mesker Park Zoo, but I haven’t seen any others lately. 

cat & bird, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

we’ve had 2 beautiful days of 50-degree temps and plenty of sunshine. i’ve been outside checking out the dream-garden, using bricks to outline the area i want to till and plant. the last night of my bird class was thursday and the lecture included a lot of birdscaping, birdhouse-building, and ideas for water features, so i have been enthusiastically planning. it was an unexpected treat to be able to be outside — comfortably — and see all of the small green sprouts of the perennials, hear the birds singing about love and nesting, confirming my hope that spring will be here in 4 weeks…..

and i’ll be in walt disney world…YAY!

as you can tell, everyone here is a birder…even wink. he quickly identified this black-capped chickadee and added it to his backyard bird count. and the cat shall lie down with the bird. Peace.

allison carr rugani, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

Ali’s eyes are a shade of blue that causes a lot of red-eye; I could only correct one eye, not sure why…..

Allison Lynn Carr was born April 25, 1977, second daughter of my sister Donna and the ever-bubbly Leonard.  I wanted Donna to name her Lindsay, only spell it like Lennzee or Lensee or something catchy like that; later, Ali changed her middle name to “len” after her dad…if they’d only listened to me.  So technically, she is Allison Len Rugani, now; married with 3 boys, a career as a speech therapist, and an active church life.  But she started out as Ali, a little scamp who was always into something, usually with a couple of friends in tow.  She had some speech problems in her early years and I think that made her want to pursue her education in speech-language pathology and I’m sure it has made her a patient and understanding practitioner.  She earned her undergraduate degree at IU in 1999 and married the Love of her Life, Jason Rugani, that same year.  She and Jason had dated since, what? Ali’s sophomore year?, but there were times when we wondered…..Ali got her Masters Degree in SLP in 2001, living up in Indy during those years.  She and Jason returned to Evansville after her graduation and they started right in having boys.  It was Ali who referred me to a temporary nurse job at Joshua Academy, piquing my interest in school nursing.  I think I thank her (most days).  Ali is a great mom, a loyal friend, and I love giving her health advice, even if she doesn’t always take it.  She answered the generic questionaire, but left a blank.  I had to fill a part in, but she was warned that editors have this option.   

Age:  32 

Bed size:  queen

Chore you hate:  cleaning the shower/tub

Dog’s name:  Casity “Casi”

Essential “start  your day” item:  coffee with flavored creamer

Favorite color:  purple

Gold or silver?  silver

Height:  5′3″

Instrument you play:  prefer to sing–used to play clarinet, but didn’t like the wood reed you had to put in your mouth.  (quirky, I know)

Job title:  Speech/Language Pathologist

Kids:  Benjamin Andrew, Noah James, Samuel Len

Living arrangements:  house

Mom’s name:  Donna

Nicknames:  Ali

Overnight hospital stay (other than childbirth):  none

Pet peeves:  people who feel sorry for themselves; people who drive in the passing lane; “close talkers”; bad smells

Quote from a movie:  Ali could not provide an answer, so I chose for her a quote from the movie “Cars” because I know she’s Very Familiar with it:  Mater:  My name is Mater.  Lightning McQueen:  Mater?  Mater: Yeah, like Tuh-mater, only without the “tuh”. 

Right (handed) or left (handed);  right

Siblings:  Lauren Kathleen Bell

Time you wake up:  7am

Underwear:  bikini

Veggie you most like and dislike:  dislike: overcooked broccoli; like:  onion

Ways you cope with stress:  take a hot bath with a good book

X-ray vision (have you ever predicted the future correctely?)  only when people make stupid choices and I can predict the future consequences.

Zoo you like best:  St. Louis

mr. tree, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

maybe they need to put snowplow blades on the front of the school buses. if they keep calling off school, we’re going to be making up these snow days till the middle of june. and the library was closed, too, so i didn’t have my birding class. but i do have some good books to read, so i’ll stop griping. be careful.

birthday party 2010, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

it’s worth getting older just to have an excuse to party with my favorite animals. we all got together around 11am and had sandwiches, chips, cupcakes and cookies. we played music—our favorite is “we are the dinosaurs” and these kids can roar.  we played ”pin the tail on the donkey” and everybody won a prize.   

as you can tell, olivia is in town this week-end, so i seized the opportunity to have my annual soiree’ –though my birthday is really the 23rd. i love having the kids around. i don’t mind loud, actually encourage it, so this party was perfect for me.

from l-r: lauren bell, berkeley neikirk, ben rugani (his face is stuck that way), alex neikirk, jo-jo with olivia on her lap, briley neikirk, noah rugani, ali rugani with sammy r. on her lap.

thank-you, wonderful nieces, for always making me smile….thank-you, son and daughter-in-law, for your presence and help. xoxo

birthday party 2010, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

this is the surprise present from my nieces and grand-nieces and nephews. It is a garden stake that has on it (as explained by berkeley) husband, me, emma, olivia and wink. i can hardly wait to get it properly placed in the garden—though i’m sure i’ll move it around frequently..

On September 3, 1981, a boy-child sprung from my loins into his dad’s waiting arms.  In a bit of domestic hormonal stupor I named him Michael, like his father; Mayne, after my father—thus began the inevitable confusion–too many Mikes!  His 6-year-old sister Melissa’s first words on meeting him:  “oh, Mom, he’s cute!!”   And cute he was, with red curls and and an imagination that kept him occupied making forts with the couch cushions and pretending to be Indiana Frog. He attended Stringtown Elementary, Thompkins Middle (where he met his future wife), and Central High School.  He and his dad had started scouting with the Tiger program and they took it all the way–camping every month, working on the badges, completing the projects.  He became an Eagle Scout when he was 15.  He attended Purdue University and majored in something-or-other—I should have paid more attention, because I still don’t know exactly what happened to him up there. I know that the only thing he seemed happy with (besides Jess) was his job at Waldenbooks and he worked there for 5 years or so (until they closed), made a lot of friends and read a lot of books.   He married Jessica in 2005 and they bought a house.    When he and Jess announced their pregnancy in 2007, suddenly Michael began to smile again.   Olivia’s birth on May 9, 2008 cemented the smile and the gentle, loving way that he cares for his daughter brings tears to my eyes.  Michael is a very funny guy, laid back, but still obsessed with his WOW guild with an intensity that I don’t quite fathom.   He is very modest about his Most-Favoured-Boy status and accepts the responsibility with dignity and confidence.   His future looks bright, but then again, that might be a bare bulb….. 

Age:  28

Bed size:  full

Chore you hate:  cleaning the litterbox

Dog’s name:  none currently; Odie growing up.

Essential “start you day” item:  None

Favorite color:  black

Gold or silver?  gold

Height:  5′9″

Instrument you play:  saxophone in high school.  Piano once upon a time

Job title:  former bookseller; current stay-at-home dad

Kids:  Olivia Mayne Casey, age 20 months

Living arrangements:  wife, Jessica; daughter, Olivia, and 2 cats in an 1100 sq ft house

Mom’s name:  Christina Jo

Nicknames:  MGY

Overnight hospital stay (other than childbirth):  none?  maybe when I was very young…ask the interviewer.  ***note from interviewer:  i tried to drop you off at several, but they wouldn’t keep you.

Pet Peeves:  At any given moment, any given action.

Quote from a movie:  “Try not.  Do or do not…there is no try..”  Yoda, Star Wars Episode V

Right(handed) or Left(handed):  right

Siblings:  Melissa Casey Jose’

Time you wake up:  9am on weekends and when Olivia gets up on the weekdays (anywhere from 4am to 7am)

Underwear:  boxers

Veggies you most like and dislike:  Like:  green peppers, cucumbers, and most others;  Dislike:  radishes and beets.

Ways you cope with stress:  watching TV and playing WOW

X-ray vision (have you ever predicted the future correctly?): yup

Zoo you like best:  Indy, though I’d like to go to St. Louis again since I can’t really remember it.

sorry about the colts, fans.  congrats to the saints.  that’s the thing i hate about competition–somebody has to lose.  i don’t invest too much emotion in the games, but must admit seeing that last half was a little painful. 

i’ve got my party planned:  this saturday, 11am, lunch, snacks, valentines and games!!  sister brought over an early b-day present:  a soft, cozy blue/black sweater and soft, cozy off-white scarf, both handloomed in myanmar.  they are beautiful.  the scarf was put to good use already and i love it.  word is i have a very cool present from my nieces…give me a hint.  is it bigger than a breadbox?  i can hardly wait!

i got my taxes filed.  i heart my tax refund.  it is beginning to be an annual event:  we’re going back to Disney World at spring break!!  this time the whole family –casey jrs., joses, and grandma and pawpaw will be going!  we’re staying in a 2-bedroom villa, so we’ll have plenty of room and lots of fun.  i’m going to be making the dining reservations this week and am planning lots of characters and such.  since there will probably not be school tomorrow, i’ll have time….

yeah, 3-5 inches of snow predicted overnight;  husband will be working, i’ll be sitting in front of the computer.   bird class will probably be cut short, but i’ll be there.  it’s really more fun than it sounds and i’m learning lots of factoids.  still can’t identify the birds, but give me time! 

have a great week!  wednesday’s interview will be with m.m.casey, a dark, shadowy figure…..