Janet's Blog

I was a diligent student, but not an exceptional one, when I was in the fifth and sixth grades at Central School. I was a good speller, but not good enough to qualify for the county spelling bee. All of the fifth and sixth graders took a spelling test in our classrooms to determine who would represent each of the six classes, and I was not the best one in my class in either fifth or sixth grade. However, I was the alternate in my sixth grade class, and the best speller’s family decided to take a vacation that spring, right at the time of the county spelling bee, so I got to go after all. My teacher gave me a book that contained lists of spelling words for me to practice. There were so many lists! I didn’t study too hard until the morning of the event, which began a little later than school started, giving me some extra time to prepare, but I didn’t have time to study all of the lists in that intimidating book. I dressed carefully in last year’s light green and pink Easter Dress, since ...

It was 51 years ago, in March of 1973, when Mom and Dad opened the Stable. They had managed the Hotel Mary-Etta, located just a half block north of the Stable, for nine years. The Mary-Etta was a thriving business, but Mom and Dad did not own the building, and the landlord did not want to put any money into it for any remodeling or other upgrades. Additionally, Mom and Dad were just spread too thin, managing dozens of employees, and running the hotel business (with both overnight guests and permanent renters who lived in apartments or single rooms), the cafe and tavern, the on-site major events and weekly service club meetings, and catered off-site events. So, sometime around 1970, Dad bought the building that eventually became the Stable. It was a sound brick building, divided into two separate business sites by a solid brick wall, and littered with the remains of an old bar on one side, and various trash on the other side. My brother, Dan, who was a young teen at the time, was electe...

Lately, when people ask me what I do all day, I am somewhat embarrassed to give an answer because, some days, it seems like all I do is self care. I often long for those mornings, long ago, when I could hop out of bed, throw on some clothes, eat a leisurely breakfast, brush my teeth, and head out the door for school, all in half an hour. Those days are long gone. Now, I wake up at a reasonable time in the morning, but I often find myself adjusting the bed to a comfortable reading position and turning on the built-in massage feature while I catch up on some reading and play a game or two on my phone. Realistically, I'm just putting off that inevitable morning routine that seems to take forever these days but, in reality, takes me 30-40 minutes in the bathroom before I can even think about sitting down for breakfast. (And, if I take a shower, that adds even more time, because those long, hot showers soothe my aching joints.) Getting dressed is the easy part, although I fumble around ...