Cousins

Larry King retired, good! Elana Kagan is doing a great job at her confirmation hearings. When asked where she was at Christmas by Senator Lindsay Graham, she responded "Like most Jews I was probably at a Chinese restaurant." University of South Carolina are college baseball champions beating UCLA two games in a row to take the best of three series. Other than that I have nothing to talk about so I am just going to tell you what I have done today.

Just this morning I sent off my license renewal to those in charge so it looks like I will be a CPA at least until June 30, 2012. Then I've been working on a cousin reunion. These are cousins on my Mom's side of the family so many of them are in their eighties or nineties. There will be some second, third, and fourth cousins at the reunion which will be July 29 through August 1 at The Best Western Northwind in King City, Oregon. I really have great cousins and they realized it is really hard for Mom to travel to a reunion so they are bringing the reunion to Mom. I was sort of hoping we would have some prison escapees among our cousins to make our family tree more exciting. Instead we just have some really fun, intelligent, normal, and thoughtful cousins.

Because the cousins were so nice to bring the reunion to Mom I agreed to be the point person for the reunion. I had to think about it for a a while but I was able to say yes before the matches between all my fingers and toes reached the skin. It also helps that I have my cousin Belva to help me and bump ideas off of.

I've been checking out restaurants to hold our main dinner the Saturday night of cousin reunion weekend. There were a lot of nice restaurants. However, I decided that because of the age of the group it would be better to hold the dinner at the hotel and have it catered. Restaurants would work but then a lot of the elderly would have to get in an out of cars and we might make to much noise for a restuarant. I also think having the dinner at the hotel provides a more intimate atmosphere. Nancy, the sales manager at the hotel, has been absolutely marvelous and has made arrangements for us to have their conference room complete with buffet tables and enough tables and chairs to seat the expected fifty cousins. Just a note before we continue, I have been so impressed with Nancy that I would suggest that if any of you are going to attend or hold an event in the Portland area that you give her hotel a call.

This morning I decided on the menu and tomorrow at one I am meeting with the caterer to finalize everything. They are going to deliver, set-up, provide the place settings, and the chafing dishes to keep everything warm. I wanted to make sure there were choices because some people can't eat beef and some don't like chicken. This is the menu I chose:

A summer salad.
Dinner rolls
Meatballs
Lasagna
Grilled Chicken Breasts
Scalloped potatoes
Roasted seasonal veggies.
Two cakes for desert. Chocolate & White.
Soft Drinks
Water
Coffee

If there are a lot of kids that end up coming I will on the day of the event get some hot dogs that we can easily cook that night. I want it to be fun for the kids too.

I'm going to send out the final letter to the cousins on Friday to tell them how much to contribute to the buffet and to let them know what to expect. Then the next three weeks I am going to be scared stiff that I might have to get up and say something at the dinner.

The biggest event I've ever been in charge of until now was my Mom and Dad's fiftieth anniversary complete with a harp playing during dinner and a dance band playing music from the big band era after dinner. It was pretty successful and I am really hoping when all the cousins leave to go back home they will look back on cousin weekend as one hell of a good weekend.

Have you ever planned an event? Am I on the right track?

WHO AM I?

Yesterday's answer was Ida Saxton McKinley

I am a political activist, abolitionist, and suffragist that was born in 1805 and died in 1879. I was born to a dad that was an Episcopalian judge, planter, lawyer, politician, slaveholder, and Revolutionary War veteran. I was the youngest of thirteen children. My older sister begged our parents to allow her to be my Godmother. My parents consented when sis was thirteen and we maintained a very intimate relationship throughout our lives. As a young child I was described in family letters and diaries as the most self-righteous, curious and self-assured of all my siblings. It never occurred to me that I should abide by the superior judgment of my male relatives or that anyone might consider me inferior simply for being a girl. When time for my confirmation in the Episcopalian Church came I refused to recite the required pledge. I concluded that I could not agree with the pledge and would not participate in the confirmation ceremony. In my new church the Preacher advocated patience and prayer over direct action against the system. That was unsatisfactory to me. In 1829 I addressed the issue at a meeting in my church and stated that all slaveholding members of my congregation openly condemn the practice. My third church was of the Quaker faith. After my widowed sister moved in with me I was struck by the lack of options for widowed women – during this period they were mostly limited to remarriage or joining the working world – and realized the importance of education for women. I decided to become a teacher and briefly considered attending a Female Seminary. My sister and the traditional Quakers disapproved of my newfound interest in radical abolitionism but I became steadily more involved in the movement. I wrote a letter to my hero who published the letter in his publication without my permission. The letter put me in great standing among many abolitionists but its publication offended and stirred controversy within Quaker society, who openly condemned such radical activism. Sis even asked me to withdraw the letter, concerned that such publicity would alienate her from the community. Though I was initially embarrassed by the letter’s publication, I refused, and the letter was later reprinted in several puiblications. The letter gave me a considerable amount of national recognition as a figure in the abolitionist movement, which enabled me to participate in many anti-slavery events, even though I was female. At one of these events I met my husband. I was invited to speak at the Massachusetts State Legislature and testified there, becoming the first woman in the United States to address a legislative body. I was quoted in one letter "Man cannot rightfully hold his fellow man as property. Therefore, we affirm that every slaveholder is a man-stealer… To steal a man is to rob him of himself." In another letter I wrote “it is because I love the colored Americans that I want them to stay in this country; and in order to make it a happy home to them, I am trying to talk down, and write down, and live down this horrible prejudice.”
Who Am I?