Bring on June

The month of May has had it's ups and downs. I thank all of my dear family and friends for their support during the stressful time leading up to yesterday's court date. I don't know if I can say it went well. How can anything so ridiculous go well? I will say that my original complaint was upheld and the fine that was initially $25.00 ended up having added court fees bringing it to close to $80.00. Such a foolish thing to do just to try to fight the system? target anger at a specific person? As far as I could tell, he is paying the fine and not appealing to county court. Maybe the first smart thing he has done. It was my words that sealed his fate. The magistrate zeroed in on my carefully mentioning the tenet initially introduced his girlfriend to me as his sister as he wanted to sneak her in to a one person apartment saying they had family trouble. The magistrate tore him apart for starting out with a lie and that no one will ever know when to believe him or not when he starts off lying. That was the crux of the whole situation and I was glad to have the magistrate be so intuitive.

Back to the good stuff. My visit to NYC to see both of Ravenboy's performances as the Bronze Idol were real highlights that helped me through. Between that and his very kind and soothing words, my son has been so very dear to me this month. He gave me a call yesterday during his rehearsal just to lend me support. His whispered tones of, "everything is going to be fine," assured me as did the reminder, "but a little sage, salt and carbon never hurt anyone." I love my son. He knows just what to say.

During that busy weekend we visited him, he made time to eat a meal with us at Ollie's Noodle House. Tracdc and Maga11 were able to come along on this trip. We all missed having Dabralady there, she only came to the Thursday performance but she was there is spirit. We had a lot of laughs over tofu and mei fun (no, that's MY fun) and got to meet Arika and Amy, great friends of Ravenboy.

This past weekend a nice crew of letterboxers was able to get together and bend elbows at Otto's. I was very proud that I caught up on all of the personal travelers that I needed. It was so much fun not being able to get up from the table and move around as we were forced to pass log books and secretly write answers to PT clues on slips of paper. It felt like passing notes! The 4Rhines brought Cookie Monster along who rightly demanded that we be re-seated out of the loud bar section. Archaeobirder and Litchick took time out of their busy wedding plans to come out and share their generous smiles. Long distance travelers included the effervescence Lotus and Leafcutters. I will say that it is Leafcutters' humor that got me through the weekend. Just as I would start to dwell on my upcoming court appearance, he would say something that would just crack me up. My cheeks hurt so badly from smiling and laughing with these folks. We finally got to meet Thick or Thin who is an exemplary boxer and geocacher from Chalfont, PA. It was great to see MsBeachys (what a smile!) Wanting Snow and XS Baggage (I can't believe that was you!!) again. They pointed out what I think is an error in my clues to We All Live Upstream #474 clues and I will check on that today.

Sweetest of all was seeing Cyclonic and Sheba. These dear folks traveled from so far and did some of the most strenuous hiking in the area. I was so distracted and things started to fall apart as the Memorial Day weekend wore on. We had hoped to hike with them a bit on Nittany but RGBisMe needed to leave town for most of the morning and afternoon, his mom has not been well. I have to say I was turning into an irrational nervous wreck worrying about my 10am court appearance. I didn't want to burden them with this information so this is my apology to everyone to whom I seemed distracted and inhospitable. Your kindness was so much appreciated and got me through a rough spot.

Something that we got slipped in through the cracks that make me smile in retrospect, I checked on my Tubin' @ Poe letterbox. No one has found it since August when it was planted.I am proud it has weathered so well. The trip down Penn's Creek is better earlier in the summer and it is so ready for a first finder.