It’s my birthday today!! Just a low-key day – playdate with friends, going out to eat, etc. – I already got my huge birthday present earlier in the month – a new computer!!!  I’ve been loving it – and I also received Lightroom – I currently have 17,849 images loaded on it – all organized – I’m still adding some keywords to make find things even easier. Here’s an image I found while uploading everything this week – it’s my grandparents in Egypt. My grandfather was a sea captain for the United Fruit Company and traveled literally all over the world.  My grandmother would sometimes accompany him on his journeys .

They actually met on a ship.  She was a career girl who loved to travel.  She and a friend of hers found that you could get cheap berths to exotic places by contacting commercial vessels and seeing if they had any space available for travelers. So they decided to go to South America this way – and they got to sit at the captain’s table for meals – and the rest is history. My grandmother left her job and family in Milwaukee to move to New Orleans and marry my grandfather – an immigrant from Spain – who had supported his family (he had five brothers and sisters) since the age of 12 when his father died. All his brothers followed in his footsteps and became either  sea captains or riverboat pilots and the two girls became school teachers. My grandfather, who didn’t have much in the way of schooling, was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known – and definitely the most well-read. I remember the library in their house – it was such a sacred and comforting place- I love being surrounded by books. I don’t remember my grandmother – she died when I was 3 – but I have her many photos, yearbooks, and scrapbooks.  She was in the drama club (she was in a LOT of clubs actually) in college – and there are so many photos of her dressed for the stage and so obviously enjoying life and all it had to offer.

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