Carolina's on My Mind

I'm going to be out of pocket today because last night I went to the James Taylor concert and spent the night with a friend so I didn't have to drive home so late. I'll blog later and let you know how it was, but I wanted to share with you my absolute favorite JT song accompanied by pictures of my home state, North Carolina.

North Carolina is a vacation paradise with beaches on the eastern end and mountains on the western end. It has skiing, whitewater rafting and some of the best golf in the world. The central, or Piedmont, section is home to the Research Park Triangle, the largest research park in the world (and Huntsville's research park is second). This is the section of the state where I grew up. When I was young, the Piedmont also had a thriving textile industry as well as a large furniture industry. The textiles are mostly gone, but there's still a fair amount of furniture made in NC.

The state is home to a number of top-notch universities and boasts any number of famous sons and daughters, including the late, great Dale Earnhardt.

North Carolina is filled with history from the Lost Colony to Old Salem, the first manned flight of Wilbur and Orville Wright and the Trail of Tears when the Cherokee were forced from their homeland.

Want a great place to visit on vacation? How about the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which has the most visitors of any national park in the US. Or you can drive the Blue Ridge Parkway for some of the most beautiful scenery you'll ever see. Visit Biltmore Estate and see how the Vanderbilts lived or climb Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi.

North Carolina is also home to Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Pepsi Cola.

The state bird is the beautiful cardinal, and the state flower is the dogwood.

The state motto is "Esse quam videri" -- "To be rather than to seem."

And we ARE the great Tarheel state!



Just in case you're interested, here's a list of the slides in the video:

North Carolina map
The Outer Banks
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
The Wright Brothers Memorial
Concord (my hometown)
A cardinal, the state bird of NC
Dogwood blossoms, the state flower of NC
Fort Raleigh, site of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony
USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial sign
USS North Carolina
Western Carolina University logo (my alma mater)
NC State Wolfpack logo (my sister's alma mater)
UNC Tarheels logo
Giant chair in Thomasville, which is representative of the state's furniture industry
Dale Earnhardt
Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC, a Moravian settlement
The Smoky Mountains
Biltmore Estate
Maggie Valley skiing
Rafting on the Nantahala River
#2 son and me at Newfound Gap
Blue Ridge Parkway sign
Cherokee Indian Reservation sign
Carving of Sequoyah, native American who invented the Cherokee alphabet
Great Smoky Mountains National Park sign
Grandfather Mountain sign
Mile High Swinging Bridge atop Grandfather Mountain
Linn Cove viaduct, part of the Blue Ridge Parkway around Grandfather Mountain
Mt. Mitchell, highest peak east of the Mississippi River
James Taylor
North Carolina sign

The Bucket List

Last Thursday morning, I sat poised at the computer, waiting for concert tickets to go on sale. I wanted to put in my order as quickly as possible, hoping for a decent seat. And why did I do this?

Because it's a James Taylor concert. I've loved JT's music since a friend introduced me to his music waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1971. Back in my college days, I had all his albums and knew every word to every song. The albums are long gone but I have his greatest hits on my iPod and I need to brush up on my Fire and Rain lyrics before May 24. Attending this concert has been forty years in the making.

JT grew up in North Carolina, my home state, where his father was Dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Every trip back to North Carolina begins with JT's song "Carolina in My Mind" playing in the CD player.

So why the sudden urge to go to a James Taylor concert? Maybe it's a Bucket List thing, though I've been hesitant to make an official bucket list because I don't want to think about kicking the bucket. But I suppose if I had to make a list, it would include the following in addition to seeing James Taylor in concert.

~ An "adventure trip" all by myself just to prove I can do it. I'm thinking maybe Sedona, Arizona where I can immerse myself in red rocks and vortices and become one with nature.

~ Going back to Europe to re-visit where I lived during the late 70's and seeing some things I didn't get to see then.

~ Seeing Barbra Streisand in concert (though I doubt this even stands a chance since she rarely performs now and given what the JT ticket cost, I doubt I could bankroll a Streisand ticket).

~ See Barry Manilow in concert. Laugh if you will, but can you hear Copacabana without singing along or at least tapping your foot?

~ Ziplining. This was going to happen last fall but circumstances got in the way. I'm certain it'll happen. I do not, however, have any desire to sky dive or go bungee jumping.

~ Learn to dance the salsa. Maybe the samba, mambo and meringue too.

~ Swim with the dolphins. Ever since watching Flipper as a kid, I've thought this was just the coolest thing.

~ Visit the 18 states I haven't been to: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, Wisconsin, Indiana, North Dakota, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio (I thought I'd been to Ohio until I learned the Cincinatti airport is actually in Kentucky), Rhode Island, Washington, Idaho and Utah.

I could think of more if I wanted. But in researching bucket list ideas, I realized I'd done a lot of things on those lists like riding a camel at the Pyramids in Egypt, seen the Mona Lisa, seen the Acropolis, prayed at the western wall in Jerusalem and saw where Jesus was born in Bethlehem, skiied the Alps, seen a Broadway play, visited the Grand Canyon, watched the Space Shuttle launch live, stared in awe at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and more.

Do you have a bucket list? Tell us about it.

And here's another JT song. I always imagine he's singing it to only me.

Friends With Benefits

Friend: –noun
1. a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
2. a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter: friends of the Boston Symphony.
3. a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe?

Of course, Facebook has turned the word into a verb, but I want to talk about the nouns. The people who can turn a crappy day into a good one with an email or a phone call or a spur or the moment invitation to lunch.

A good friend will listen to you whine (and then kick you in the butt when you've whined enough and help you fix the problem), loan you clothes, shoes, jewelry, whatever you need, help you pack and move, water your plants and pick up your mail when you're gone, read your latest masterpiece and be honest and drive you to the auto shop when you car's in for repair. A friend will also get up at 5 AM to take you to day surgery and then bring you back home and watch you drool in your drug-induced sleep. And they won't post photos on Facebook!

TV is full of famous pairs of friends -- Andy Taylor and Barney Fife, Lucy and Ethel, Laverne and Shirley, Starsky and Hutch, Mulder and Scully, Bert and Ernie. The movies have them too -- Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Bambi and Thumper, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Famous pairs appear elsewhere too -- Barbie and Ken, Barnes & Noble, Abercrombie and Fitch, Dolce and Gabbana, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, gin and tonic.

But there's more to friendship than borrowed jewelry and mail call. There's a big benefit from friends. "Feeling cared for and supported within a social network is particularly important for women in fostering self-care," says Todd Jackson, PhD, author of a 2006 study linking high levels of social support and community involvement with healthier diet, exercise and sleep habits, among other positive effects. A good friend will motivate you, support you and hold you accountable. They'll celebrate the most joyous of days with you and get you through the darkest times of your life.

I count the Playfriends among my dearest of friends. We've traveled together, roomed together, dealt with cut fingers and blown knees, helped each other move, advised about automobiles, insurance companies, plumbers and various other home repair situations. We survived the meth lab raid in the motel room next to ours, introduced Instigator to Krispy Kreme doughnuts (on the same trip as the meth lab raid), plotted books and accepted each other's quirks.

Oddly enough, my divorce has led me to a new group of great friends. We're all members of the Sisterhood of Divorcees and we've kept each other sane. These new sisters have been there to listen to me cry, they came to court with me so I'd have a friendly face in the courtroom and they've told me it's okay to be angry. Never once have they patted me on the knee and said "Just get over it," because they all understand you have to work through the pain, not skirt around it.

A world without friends would be a bleak world indeed, and I consider myself beyond blessed to have so many great friends.

Got friends? Tell me about them and one commenter will win a package of conference goodies and books from my stash.

And now my favorite "friend" song.