Everything about dancing isn't beautiful

For example....

Allison Elizabeth

There in the Garlic Capital of the World, where the bulbous, odoriferous, stinking rose is queen, my beautiful princess Allison was born on July 13, 1988, in Gilroy, CA. I suppose that might make her Allison, Princess of Garlic, but it doesn't seem appropriate for such a lovely, sweet, and spiritual girl. Maybe Allison, Princess of (stinking) Roses. Yes, that is it Allison Princess of Roses. As she celebrates her birthday this year, she is a proud college graduate, married to her love Alex and about to become a mother herself.

What's a Getty?

"This is Paul’s ear. If we don’t get some money within 10 days, then the other ear will arrive. In other words, he will arrive in little bits." It was 1971 when I was fifteen that I first heard of a Getty. Some kid of a rich guy's ear had been delivered to his family by kidnappers. Yuk! I watched with horror as the story played out. J. Paul Getty the third, born November 4, 1956, one day before me, was the rebellious grandson of J. Paul Getty the oil tycoon and philanthropist that built the Getty museums to house and increase his art holdings. Recently expelled from school, when the demand for a $17 million ransom demand for Paul III came, they were reluctant to pay, thought it was a hoax (or Paul III) until the ear arrived. Eventually, grandpa Getty negotiated to pay $2.9 million which he loaned to his son for 4% interest. The kidnappers were never found. Today the J. Paul Getty Trust continues to provide ongoing funding for Getty's pet projects the Getty
center in Brentwood and the Getty Villa in Malibu. Photo, flowers at the Getty Malibu July 2010.

What a long strange trip its been...

June of 1974 to July of 2010, my educational pursuits are complete. Received the results today of my comprehensive exam from my second masters and preliminary administrative credential, which represent the year and a half of hell I put my family through. While working on my credential my husband had a second cancer diagnosis, kidney on top of his already devastating melanoma, my baby girl got married, we had four new grandchildren, I got RIF'd (reduction in force-teacher talk for fired), rehired, threatened to be displaced (sent to another school due to declining enrollment), attended church less often and planned a financially draining trip to New York for my twelve year old daughter to attend ABT and Joffrey Ballet summer intensives. Today I begin a three day training at the Getty Villa in Malibu...learning more about an ancient Italian villa and the antiquities within, papyrus making and more. Oh, this isn't education, it is just fun! On the road again...

CarlyAnn Audition Pics

We auditioned in January and February using this pic.
She was accepted to Joffrey Ballet Chicago, Joffrey Ballet New York, Joffrey Jazz Contemporary New York, and American Ballet Theatre (ABT) New York. She is attending ABT and Joffrey Jazz Contemporary in New York. We leave July 28th and return August 21st.

five, six, seven, eight....

There he was. tap shoes, top hat, and a dancing sensation. My little brother Jamie. I never understood him and the older he got the more I realized I didn't know him. Then on June 6, 1985, less than a month after his 23rd birthday, while my sister and I sat on the stairs in her home listening...he told our mother, "Mom, I'm gay and I have AIDS." It is a moment I will never forget, a desperation so profound, that I feel it in my chest as I write. This boy, this man, that I didn't know, was dying. It would be five months of dead ends before he took his last breath. During those few months I discovered who Jim was, who he had become, during the eleven years since I had left home for college. He was an amazing designer, artist, dancer, friend, and gay man. I remember the sadness I felt for him, never being able to live his life as who he really was. But, I realize that he was living his life as who he really was, I just wasn't a part of it. Today as I get ready to take my beautiful eleven year old daughter to New York to summer intensives at American Ballet Theatre and Joffrey Ballet, I think of him, of his unrealized hopes and dreams, for me she dances to honor him and his legacy.