A Teresa Day…

I took a day off from work; Teresa did, too. She arrived at 9:00 a.m. First things first…Starbucks. Then we went to my place just for a little bit. I wanted her to hear the children’s book I’ve written about J.J., me, and cancer. It’s meant to be a picture book, but I have no artistic talent to provide the illustrations. Teresa said she knows an illustrator whom we could look up online. I also wanted to give her a copy of Gingerbread Gems of Willimantic, Connecticut. My friend, Steve, sent me a copy. Willimantic is the one-horse town that I was born in. Since 1968 when I moved to Las Vegas, I’ve only been back there three times, with the last time being in 1984. I really have never had any desire to remember much of anything about Willimantic or to revisit my life there. Steve has revived old memories of that town, while contacting me about an upcoming class reunion. It seems that Willimantic is becoming quite the little destination, if you have any interest in things Victorian. The book has a lot to do with architecture and, therefore, the reason for giving Teresa a copy because of the connection to civil engineering. I also had a copy of an article about the huge overpass that is being built over Hoover Dam. I don’t really know if Teresa appreciates these things or not, but I usually try to save for her anything about bridges, special buildings, etc. Teresa had a great idea to go to the Venetian and take a ride on a gondola. We did, and it was fun. We took the inside ride through the shopping concourses. I’d like to go back again and take the outside ride. I commented to Teresa that now I understood why people had to audition for this job…they sing as they row the gondola. Teresa pointed out to me that she saw motors underneath that were actually propelling the gondolas. We did give credit to the gondolier for steering, however. The gondolier told us there was a strolling entertainment show coming up shortly in the courtyard. We decided to go eat at Wolfgang’s with a table right at the edge to see the entertainers. We each commented that at first we had actually thought the one guy was a real statue. As it turns out, he just pretends to be one. We wondered if he gets all the money that people leave on the steps for him. There was a guy on stilts, and that reminded me of a teacher at Harmon who does things like juggle while riding a unicycle, and from what I’ve heard, also does stilts, hopefully, at our upcoming carnival. While at the Venetian, Teresa checked her BlackBerry for movies. I recommended “21” and it was playing shortly at Green Valley Ranch so that’s where we headed. “21” is based on the true story of some MIT students who years ago came and took the strip by storm and a pile of money with a card cheating ring. At least for Las Vegans, I think the movie is great. After the movie, we came home and mostly just chatted. We did look up the illustrator she knows, and I’m still thinking about it. Krista came by to pick Teresa up for dinner, and I insisted she come in and give us her Introduction to Krista speech that she gave at Toastmasters a couple of weeks ago. Since Teresa used to be in Toastmasters, she knew exactly how to introduce her. We heard about the three roles Krista plays in life: sister, team player (at work), and friend (to Zoe, her Yorkshire Terrier). The ladies left to go to dinner, and I left to go to my 7:00 class. O.K., there was some Krista in there; but, mostly, it was A Teresa Day.