Susan Critelli, An Uncommon Mentor - What I Love

Celebrating 32 years

Mon, 17 Apr 2017 00:58:22 GMT

I discovered a while back that scrapbooking has gone digital. Probably did a long time ago while I was doing other things. Anyway, I helped my friend Carol make a great Shutterfly book of her River Cruise vacation, and it reminded me of how much I love scrapbooking.

And so I used Shutterfly to make a great anniversary present for my honey (shhh!) that I hope he will enjoy. What do you think?

Clearly, it is easier to create a special memory for someone you know. But if you don't have time or talent for such things, I would be glad to help you create an unforgettable, one of a kind gift for a special occasion.. I have packages available depending on the number of pictures you have, the number of pages you want in your book, and the amount of direction you are willing to give me.

UPDATE: I paid extra for expedited shipping. The best I could get for less than the book was worth was that it would arrive Friday, April 21. But they got it to me by the 20th, our actual anniversary. Big kudos to Shutterfly and UPS for making our special day even more special!

Missing Cococay Already

Tue, 10 Jan 2017 05:00:00 GMT

I have mentioned in several places our love for cruising. One of our favorite places is CocoCay - the private island owned by Royal Caribbean. Several of their Caribbean cruises stop there. We went to the Bahamas in December, 2016 and had an opportunity to stop there and get in some sun and fun.

In My Life, I’ve Loved Them All: Fifty Years of The Beatles

Sun, 09 Feb 2014 05:00:00 GMT

February 9, 1964

One of those days where I know exactly where I was, and what I was doing, and how it felt, and how it smelled, and how it sounded, and what I was wearing, and who was in the room.

I was 9 years old. And this new music group called The Beatles was going to be on the Ed Sullivan show.

I had been hearing about them all week, and hearing some of their songs on the radio, but the frenzy was picking up, and everywhere you went, someone was talking about them. Who were The Beatles, and what was the big deal?

What was the big deal indeed? Here is a video of the Beatles from that first Ed Sullivan Show. Hard to come by lately, because after Apple got hold of their catalog, they made YouTube take down any performance videos. So I don’t know how long this will be available, but this is from the first set – All My Loving, Till There Was You, I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You.

I can remember how the hot the light was over my shoulder from the lamp on the bookcase headboard in my parents’ room, and how badly I had to go to the bathroom. But I didn’t dare leave because Ed Sullivan was live, and there was no VCR or DVR, and if I missed it, I missed it forever. And so I never did go to the bathroom. You figure out the rest of that part.

I remember my Dad making fun when “Sorry, girls, he’s married” flashed on the screen over John, but I really didn’t care because it was 21 year old Paul who captured my heart, and who fifty years later, still makes my heart beat just a little faster.

The Beatles were only actually together for six more years, but in those extraordinary six years they fueled a whole host of teenage fantasies, gave me words to express my joy and my pain, and penned a major portion of the soundtrack of my life.

I can’t imagine the last fifty years without them.

There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I’ve loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more

-Lennon/McCartney

Nana's crystal figurine collection

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

At this time of year, I always look back with fondness at the many ways my late mother-in-law made Christmas special.

We won’t dwell on the delicious food - antipasto benedetto, salad, manicotti, italian bread, turkey and all the “Americano” trimmings – or the amazing desserts, like the special cookie called cartellate di natale alla baresi. There were other things she did for the holidays that were just as memorable, and that still say “Christmas” to me.

Nana had a wonderful lighted ceramic Christmas tree collection. Some of the trees were made by her friends at the senior citizens’ club, some were purchased – but when they appeared on the top of the old

console television set, I knew Christmas was just around the corner.

Even more special than the ceramic trees, was her collection of crystal figurines.

They were displayed on top of the television during the year, but in December, their spot was taken by the ceramic Christmas trees. The rest of the room was rearranged to make room for the elaborate ceramic town that spread out from under the Christmas tree and covered the living room floor. So the crystal figurines were moved to a place of honor in the sun parlor, where they sparkled and threw amazing rainbow colors all over the room when the winter sun hit them between four and five o’clock in the afternoon.
When my daughter was about 5 years old, she was just tall enough for her eyes to peer over the top of the television set during the year when the crystal figurine collection was stationed there. But in December, when they were displayed on special beveled mirrors in the parlor, they were on a low table that she could reach. I can still see her standing still with her little hands clasped so she wouldn’t touch anything, watching the rainbows and sparkling lights with an expression of wonderment.

After my mother-in-law passed away, we inherited the Christmas town, and my sister-in-law got the crystal figurines, Lladros and Snowbabies. The crystal figurines are now housed in a display case in her china cabinet, but right about now, at Christmas time, in my mind’s eye they are still on that low table in my mother-in-law’s parlor, rainbows dancing, and tiny sparkling lights.

Where Were You on April 4, 1968?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Unbelievable that it was 44 years ago. We were on our way out to dinner at the S&S Cafeteria at Lenox Square in Atlanta. I heard it for the first time on the car radio. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been shot and killed today in Memphis.”

Now this was shocking news for all who cared about the civil rights movement, but Dr. King’s death was personal for me. His daughter, Yolanda, was in the 8th grade, a year behind me in school. I didn’t know her at the time, but she was a good friend of many of my black friends. Kids were in mourning that next day. Word spread like wildfire around the school, and people were speaking in a hush and tiptoeing past her class – as if she were there! only years later did I realize she would not have been in school that day, or for the next several days.

Yoki King later became a dear friend. She looked so much like her father, and had a booming, infectious laugh. The next year our lockers were next to each other. The year I was a junior, she supported me in my run for student body president, and some of the racist buffoons, I mean, our neighbors were nearly apoplectic over the rather large group of “nigras” who came over to my house to make campaign posters after school. You have to understand that we were sticking our necks way out – even in 1970, that just wasn’t done. Still later, we were in a drama class together. Yoki went on to be a tireless activist for her father’s causes, and did some acting as well. As you may know, she died suddenly in 2007 at the age of 51.

The 60s were strange and terrible times for race relations, and yet at Grady High School, it was like we were under some kind of bubble. We weren’t completely insulated from racial issues, and there were unwritten rules that it didn’t occur to us to fight against, but for the most part, we all – as Rodney King said – “just got along.”

We got glimpses of racial realities outside of school. Just a few years earlier, I had made friends with another girl, and when school was out we had to write to each other to stay in touch over the summer. We couldn’t call each other or – horrors – go to each other’s homes. “It just isn’t done,” was the usual lame explanation. After the gathering to make campaign posters, my mother got dirty looks and whispers at the grocery store for weeks. But at school, it was like nobody noticed. We were unprepared for the true nature of race relations when we left Grady for the real world. When I talk about those times, my kids just shake their heads. They have no frame of reference for separate water fountains, or a black man stepping off the sidewalk to make way for a 5 year old white girl.

Last summer, I had the privilege of attending my 40th high school reunion. Almost everyone I talked to remarked on that very thing – the rare and special environment we had at Grady that transcended the times and the busing, the segregation, the unwritten rules – and how we didn’t realize what we had until we got Out There and saw how things really were. And, best of all, I got to see that “other girl” who had been my secret best friend so long ago. We had stayed in touch all this time, but had not actually seen each other in about 30 years.

And so, I remember Dr. King and his daughter today, and ponder how far we’ve come, and how far we still have to go.

Does College Matter?

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Does college really matter any more?

On one side you have people who believe that a college degree is the new high school diploma, and that you can just barely get a job if you don't have one. On the other side are people who cannot afford the price tag to send their kid (who doesn't really want to go) to college, and who wonder if their kid will ever be suited for the kind of job that will command a high enough salary to be worth graduating with thousands of dollars in student loan debt.

I confess that I fall into the second camp. I put myself through school back in the Dark Ages and spent just over $3,000 for just over three years being indoctrinated into the same anti-American, overthrow-the-greedy-corporations, make-my-rich-neighbor-pay-my-bills, God-is-dead claptrap that is still being preached in American universities 40 years later. I became a member of the local Young Socialists chapter and raged against the machine for just over three years on an accelerated foreign language program under the tutelage of a militant homosexual activist, all the while being disabused of any archaic notions of morality, religion or capitalism. My "college education" was mostly politicized, the academic portion was mediocre and forgettable, and the main thing it accomplished was to make me hard and angry, and derail my quest for God for another 13 years.

This experience soured me on college for my own kids, and my husband and I have been at loggerheads about it for years. Since I went to the trouble to homeschool them for 12 years, I really hated the idea of them meeting some charismatic Pied Piper during their freshman year that would lead them down a path that they might not be able to resist.

My daughter did go to college. So far, my son has not. My husband is a nervous wreck about this, and yet I am strangely indifferent. Here's why:

A number of bloggers have weighed in on the death of Steve Jobs this week, but this is probably an angle most people did not write about, except for the folks at Babble.com. Steve Jobs was a college dropout!

In the article "30 Wildly Successful College Drop Outs", Sunny Chanel of the Strollerderby blog, provides great encouragement to parents like me who have sons or daughters who just don't have a clue what they want to do with their lives.

She profiles 30 wildly successful college dropouts, from the well known - like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Steve Jobs - to the less known, like Barry Diller whose websites include CitySearch, Ticketmaster, and Lending Tree.

You will be amazed who didn't go to college! So here's a question for you. Everyone who reads this is going to have an opinion one way or the other. I would love to hear why -- or why not -- you think a college degree is important.