Insights from The Magic Tutu

Le Chat Returns

Once I read a story about a woman looking through her mother's I'm saving this for a special day items after her mother died.  I promised myself I would use my special dishes, wear my special sweaters & scarves and use my crystal.  After all, today is THE special day.

However, I have been resistant to drinking coffee from Le Chat for years for fear of breaking her.  No more.  Le Chat returned to me this weekend when Jeanine visited from Wisconsin. If you've read my blog for a while, you know Le Chat goes back & forth between us.

This past weekend was Jeanine's birthday and Le Chat came with her on the airplane from Wisconsin.  Jeanine told me I must use Le Chat for morning coffee and that if I broke her it was OK.  She said Le Chat would have to die someday.  As with most things in life, there is always an Inner connection and her comment reminded me how fleeting this Life is.  We watched an 8mm film from 1956 when Mom & I visited Jeanine's family in Chicago.  I was only 5 and Jeanine was almost 2 years old. Her little mother was holding her in her arms.  Jeanine had never seen footage of her mother when she was young.  She cried.

With all the turmoil going on in the world right now ~ with more certainly on the way ~ I cherish the exquisite moments each day holds... pouring coffee into Le Chat... Jeanine's tears... spending time with good friends... pondering Life with Haley & Desi... being thankful for God's Grace.  I wish each of you a blessed day.  Remember to smell the roses in your neighbor's yard.  xoxo Amy

Goodbye Le Chat

In September 2008 I wrote about a coffee cup named Le Chat that lives between my kitchen in Nevada and my cousin's kitchen in Wisconsin.   Since Le Chat has been with me the past year, she went back to Wisconsin with Jeanine a few days ago.  Jeanine flew out for my CAbi party, stayed with me and packed Le Chat into her suitcase when she left.

 

 I always wonder which one of us will have Le Chat in our possession last?  If it's me, I'm going to throw her into the Sea of Cortez so she doesn't end up at Goodwill when I die.

 Aimee from September Sky took oodles of photos at the CAbi fashion show and I'll put those up soon.  Till then just a couple photos from my camera of the sign that greeted our audience inside our Theatre gates...

 ...and me, Lisa (my CAbi girlfriend who is also the CAbi rep) and Lesley (who you know thru my blog).  We had a great turnout and Desi went all out by turning our Disco Ball on during the show.  It was quite the fun event for our little town.  Food, wine, girlfriends.  An indulgent escape from the news and the heat and the looming tragedy of the opening of the Dam Bridge. 

xoxoAmy

 

Le Chat

Le Chat has lived her life back & forth between my kitchen and my cousin's kitchen.  She is the most wonderful coffee cup in the world.  Jeanine (my cousin in Wisconsin) and I don't see each other often enough.  Sometimes a year or more goes by between our visits so Le Chat is our stand-in for each other. We both know that "le chat" means "the cat" in French, but to us it means chit-chat. Ha!

 

Here's our tradition:  When I go to visit Jeanine I bring Le Chat along and leave her in Jeanine's kitchen and when Jeanine comes here Le Chat comes with her.  But! just last weekend when Jeanine came for the Mary Frances Purse Party -- no Le Chat!  I fully expected to see Le Chat pop out of her suitcase.  Jeanine forgot...and then a few days later Le Chat arrived via UPS along with a beautiful note and bag of fresh coffee beans from Milwaukee.  Meow!  I asked Jeanine if she could remember way back to the origin of Le Chat.  Who had Le Chat first?  Me or you?  What else do you remember about Le Chat?  And here's what she wrote:

Hellooooo Cousin... 
I honestly can't remember the DETAILS about LeChat... I've had the mug since my early L.V. days - LeChat even went to Calif. with me - and now Wisconsin. ... If you look very closely, there is a date along side the cat - I think it's 1979??? I don't remember how or where I acquired it - that's odd for me, I usually remember! I know we've been sharing "her" with each other when I'd come to visit ~ maybe because our coffee chit-chat time is so special!!! I think one time you even hid it in my suitcase!!! I was sooooo thrilled when LeChat arrived for my Wedding Weekend!!! I enjoy having my "quiet morning coffee time" & I would find myself more apt to email you when LeChat just happened to be my coffee cup that day!!! I guess even "cat symbols" work in mysterious ways... Also, I remember many a day on Portland Road, that Kitty Mocha would sit next to me with only his paw on my thigh while I was drinking coffee from LeChat & journaling... 
Meow - Meow - Meow 

I don't trust myself as much as I used to so instead of putting Le Chat in my coffee cupboard, this time I put her in my music cabinet with some of my other treasures -- baby photos of Haley and the clock that sat on the mantle in some of the photos of Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz from the 1940's.  There Le Chat will sit, safe & sound, till my next visit with Jeanine.  Meow!

Thank you, Jeanine, for keeping our tradition alive.  I meow you!  See you in February...right? xoxo Amy