Lorlee Bartos finishes the annual missive

Here it is! 2005 -- .
And as always – if you hate these letters, stop NOW, just know I wish you peace, joy and love -- and continue with your eggnog.

On the couch. . .
What a year this was…. Challenges, loss, survival -- some highlights – and some real dips. One of those dips was the chemotherapy treatments in January for a small breast tumor. No nausea or pain, but intense fatigue which kept me on the couch for 3 weeks – I survived, my hair didn’t.
I wore the wig for about a week and then decided scarves were a better option – heck, people just thought it was part of my new artistic look.
Hair is now back – it first came back nappy but has now straightened out -- very short and spiked for now. I ask for mousse tips from anyone who has standup hair—last week a male clerk at Home Depot. When people ask, I tell them – it is hair – I am happy to have some.

Easter egg lavendar
Through this all, I was able to manage a Dallas city council campaign and had yet another winner. I am putting the fee to good use on house items -- refurbishing my bathroom which is currently in process and painting the outside a lovely shade of Easter Egg lavender. I live next to the Flamingo Pink house, so it was a matter of self-defense. It has taken only 25 years to get my house into the 20th century—and now, darn, we are in the 21st.

15 minutes of fame
October brought my very first appearance on national evening news – I was Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers’ campaign manager back in 1989. I made a comment to the Dallas News when she was nominated and came home the next day to 19 phone messages from news outlets across the nation. It was an interesting and enlightening experience. I knew how little I knew, told them how little I knew and yet was pursued. Gives one a whole new perspective on the news. I was interviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee prior to Harriet’s withdrawal.

Photography
A new camera, computer and printer fueled my continuing passion for photography. I had a winner at the Texas State Fair, another winner in a small national gardening magazine (published in the December issue) and have a photo accepted for a show in a real museum starting in April of next year.

The Cat Lady of Culver Street
Most of my contemporaries are writing about their grandkids and retiring…. well, I have a menagerie instead and will have to work till I am 80 to support them and me in retirement. Margo Jones, the crotchety 15-year-old one-legged cockatiel, passed on to be replaced by a Green Monk parrot – named Kito (means Jewel in Swahili) -- a gender neutral name since one has to do DNA tests to determine sex. It’s first word was “OW” mimicking my outcries when it bites my ear. It is great fun and loves sitting on my shoulder or head – so it can bend down and pluck my eyebrows, but until it learns to thin them evenly, I have revoked its beautician’s license.
Grey Ghost and Hypathia – the kitties with indoor overnight privileges – spend their days outside with brother Wild Bill and Yo de Mama, the matriarch. Yo de Papa is a permanent fixture as well – with 2 or 3 other strays who visit for food and safe haven to heal after the inevitable fights. I keep telling my guys to be territorial and shoo the strays away, but they are lovers not fighters so I am turning into the cat lady of Culver Street.

The Frog Report
And now to the Frog Report (you know, kiss a thousand before you find the handsome prince) -- Not a single new frog came my way and quite frankly, it didn’t seem like a high priority. A five year special “friend” who insisted to me during all that time that he never wanted to have a serious relationship suddenly decided he was going to pursue a serious relationship – with someone else. Ah well, so I took a survey of several men I dated over the last 5 years and every one of them is getting married. It seems that men over 50 suddenly get scared about being alone and figure they better pair up so they have someone to push their wheelchair.
Now, I on the other hand, am going to count on my nephew, Charlie– who moved here in May -- to do that for me. Just out of college and landed a great job. It is nice to have real family in close proximity.

Reunion
My travel agenda was a bit sparse this year… darn those treatments. I did manage a couple of visits to see my friends Patsy and Joe on their ranch at Gustine, TX… one of them during peach season –nothing better than home grown peaches. Made it to Minnesota in August to attend my 40th class reunion… golly, where did those 40 years go. It was great to make connections with classmates. A visit with my dad’s only remaining sister and a quick trip to my alma mater at Morris rounded out the visit.
My college friend Jan Ratsch – a travel companion and someone I spent a day with every time I was in Minnesota, died suddenly in June, six weeks before our planned August visit. Just never showed up for work. Age 57—way too young, ultimately it seems from strep throat which invaded and overwhelmed her system. So Sandy and I drank a beer to her at the cemetery instead of at some hip restaurant. One is never prepared for such things and there were so many more places for us to visit.

The garden is never done -- have a mammogram
A garden is never done, so mine continues to change and grow--- though I am probably going to have to defend my freeway garden from the State of Texas expansion plans for Interstate 30. My winter project is to spread the two 30 foot loads of mulch I had delivered.
I saved the best news for last --- I just had my one year check up with a clean bill. I am feeling alive, energetic and grateful. So to sum it up – have those mammograms, take no chances with strep throat, make each moment count -- and go ahead and paint your house purple if the mood strikes you.