Count Your Blessings!

My friend Karen said this would be the year of Lee Ann. I don't know what that really means but it has been a great year for me with good projects, new friends, a teenager who makes good grades and hasn't gotten into - knock on wood - big trouble...healthy family, things are great. I am incredibly blessed. So blessed that there is even guilt in the feeling. I suppose many of us feel that way sometimes. With all the insane turmoil in the world and even around the corner I am so thankful that for this moment things are good in my world. Not perfect by any stretch and certainly not easy, sometimes quite lonely and sometimes overwhelming. But it is great being busy, having a wonderful roof over my head, a community of people that are genuine, loving, smart and adventurous. In those terms it has certainly been the year of Lee Ann. Course Time says we are all IT this year!
This year I'm challenging myself to find new ways to contribute to my community whether it is a video or a drumming class or something else that seeks me out.... Any ideas?
I look forward to continuing my work at ETV, SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, working on 701 Whaley, the Valentine's Show and maybe another comedy???
Hope to travel this year too...Where will we go?!

Tis the Season

Tom Chinn's drop in....






Geeezzz. Its nice to get invited to parties but after 3 or 4 in one week I'm about done!
It started with a "Drink the Tree" party.












Then Harriet's vodka shot party....


































Heidi & Stuart hosted the last Christmas party on Tomaka.










































Wrapped up the week at the Forest Acres Reunion Party.










































It has been great to meet new people and catch up with old friends!

Rock Fish/Dance

Dec. 2005 I was in Sokoto, Nigeria.
Leaving my then 13 yr old daughter with family and friends a couple of weeks before Christmas to go to a VERY far away land to do a job that would be challenging to say the least.....tough decision. We were hoping to get back about 3 days before Christmas and I was hoping to get some shopping done while there. right.

Sokoto is licked by the Sahara and is dotted with hundreds of mud hut villages.
We were guests of one village that is home to a sacred site where the famous jihadist Usman Dan Fodio did battle. Fodio spread Islam to North/West Africa in the early 1800s.
We were treated to a festival and reinactment by it's musicians, dancers, camel and horse riders.
At one point we were shown a large bowl with fish whose slippery scales looked incredibly prehistoric. Thought for sure it was gonna be our lunch. The night before we'd had a bowl of fish soup that contained a very similar finned creature.

Watch the video to see the fish that can live in a rock for up to 3 years!
After that crazy moment some dancers encouraged me to dance which I of course obliged thus the major shakey cam at the end of clip!