I think about blogging all the time and have good intentions. Now there is so much I want to blog about that it has gotten somewhat overwhelming. I think that might be a deterrent for me as to why I procrastinate with it. It gets to the point where I don't know where to begin. So maybe if I get started in January I will get inspired to continue to blog about all the other things. I told myself "Just do it--don't think so much about it." So I did. Here goes.........
Every winter our Golf Condo 1 does 2 different dinners--one in January and the other in February. I always enjoy this function. This January our specific row of condos was in charge. A meeting of all the great minds was conducted. A theme had already been picked. It was "Living in Sunland Village East and Mesa." I was ready to help with set up, clean up or any of the grunt work. Well Marlene ( the chair person) was not at all comfortable getting up in front of crowds and it was causing her a lot of anxiety thinking about it. She approached me and asked if I would help her emcee the event. My reply "Ummm--well---OK" Not being sure about any of it I was hesitant but I know coming out of one's comfort zone can be a good thing some times. Besides I had others to help steer me in the right direction.
Entertainment was a DJ and dancing. Of course, it was all the old songs that we old people like. Couples dancing are Leo & Lillian (they live right across the street from us) and Jim and (cannot remember his wife's name.) This was fun.
Each centerpiece was a pretty blue or yellow bag with a different scene like this coming out of it. The bag had a big candy bar to weigh it down and these also were some of the door prizes.
Another centerpiece view.
These 3 very dear women sold tickets at the door--- Audrey, Millie and Doris. Yellow and blue were the theme colors for this dinner. It made it very cheerful.
Pudge & Twila selling 50/50 tickets. In the background you can see the centerpieces and tables set with the blue tablecloths and yellow place mats.
So the plan that we came up with for the introduction is as follows: I wrote a script and Marlene and I had a dialogue. It worked out well. She got through it just fine and so did I. I copied and pasted it below. Of course, it didn't come out the way it should have but I am not going to try to correct it. I wanted to record all of this on my blog for posterity reasons. I have found that it is nice to have documentation of things that one can look back on.
Condo Dinner –
January 26, 2012
Coming from
the north and especially Minnesota this is what we like about Mesa and living
in SVE
· No snow
· No snow shovels or snow blowers
· No icy roads
· No blizzards
· No bitter cold or below freezing
temperatures
· No wearing of heavy bulky coats,
mittens, boots
Arizonians
have a blissful ignorance to actually think that anything above freezing is
labeled “cold.” Like the checkout girl
at Fry’s telling me “it was so cold I had to dig out my heavy sweater.” And I think to myself “oh Sweetie, you have no idea about cold.”
· Cold is being stranded in your house
peering out the window while a raging blizzard keeps us trapped.
· Cold is when the air stings your nose
and hurts your lungs.
· Cold is when your fingers and toes hurt
and sting.
· Cold is when you have to bundle up
and make sure there is no exposed skin to become frost bitten.
Ahhh yes—we snowbirds have found in Arizona the
heavenly warmth which will never be fully appreciated by those who have no clue
as to what cold and winter can really be like.
What else is it that we like about Mesa and
living in SVE?
· Living on the golf course and
watching the golfers
· Our beloved neighbors
· The glorious sunsets
· The friendly people
· Choice of activities
· The golf tournament that 2310 put on
last year—now that was a fun time!! Have
not forgotten the patience Bert and Jim had with me and my very limited golf
skills.
· The humming birds
· The mountain (Superstition)
· The ponds where the beautiful swans
live
· The thrill of seeing the different planes/jets
fly over
Our list
could go on and on. I have to say that very
often when I am sitting on the patio taking in all of the above I say to myself
“I must have done something right to be fortunate enough to be able to have
this.” I then close my eyes and say a
quick prayer of thanks to God.
1. Assign tables for eating.
2. Introduce entertainment
3. Door Prizes
4. 50/50 Draw
Air Force One at the Mesa-Gateway airport about 5 miles from us. We didn't see it fly over the condo but our neighbors did. I got a thrill seeing this famous plane.
While in Tucson we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum which was well worth our while. It was beautiful and informative. I thought I had taken more pictures of the experiences at this museum but when I checked there are very few.
This was one of my favoite things about the Desert Museum. They had a humming bird house. All of the little humming birds were flying around or sitting on branches. This is hard to see but it is one sitting on the little tiny nest. We both loved this.
One Sunday in January Pudge & I took off to explore Tucson, Arizona. It is only about 1 1/2 hours from Mesa and there were things that we wanted to see. We happened upon this event which was fascinating. We stopped at this scenic mountain overview and decided to hike up the mountain. Near the top of this trail there were a group of guys that were doing something. It seemed very organized. Upon a closer look we saw that they were working with little remote cars. However, it wasn't just playing with them. They had set up a track with markers and it was a competition with their little cars. They scored points if they managed to get their cars up the rocks and along this track without knocking over any of the markers. They had score keepers that would oversee all of this and write down their score. This all had to be done in a certain time period. We were fascinated. We found out that this is really an organized thing around the state. These cars are very expensive. They have to qualify for bigger and better races. This was all taken very seriously.
This is one of the cars making its way along the track. If they touch the little green thing with their car they lose points. It was amazing how these cars could make their way along the rocks. They did tip over at times but through skill and whatever else the guys did they could get them to upright themselves.
Also in January we celebrated Jim's 70th birthday which was really Dec. 27th. John & Shannon had a party on their patio.
Jimmy Tollefsbol with his birthday cake.
Shannon, Gloria & I getting our toes done. I love pedicures. 
