Laura meets Prince (kind of)

This is way after the fact, but better late than never. I have had so many different things that I have been working on , that 2 weeks went by without sharing my crazy adventure with my husband to go see Prince play live.

For those who don't know me well, if I had more money and time, I would be a professional stalker of Prince. I have been a huge fan for over 25 years. Luckily, my husband does like him too. I owe every CD and have his symbol tattooed on the back of my neck.But, I had never seen him play live. In years past, when his concert would come through whatever city I was in, I was too poor or already had plans to be out of town.If I wasn't a Maid of Honor in my friend's 2004 wedding, I would have canceled the trip!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I see on line that he is going to do some concerts at The Forum in L.A. I am in Denver, CO. I also see that some of the cheap seats are $25. I go on the ticket purchasing website and search for tickets for a week away. It pulls up a set of $25 tickets. I called my husband and asked if he go if I bought the tickets and he said yes. I found super cheap round trip airline tickets and went back on to purchase the concert tickets. But now, I cannot pull up any seats available for the day.

So I decide to check for the concert on the day before, on Thursday. Instantly very good seats pop up to purchase. The time clock starts ticking at the bottom of the page because you have a limited amount of time to purchase those seats. It was more money than I needed to spend, but impulsively, I purchase 2 tickets. I was so excited.

I print out the receipt and read it. I did not purchase tickets for next Thursday, I purchased tickets for THIS THURSDAY. It was Tuesday afternoon at 4:00pm.



My mind went numb. How could I do this? I checked airline tickets and with such short notice they were hella expensive. So, I took a big, deep breath, called my husband, and told him that we were going on a road trip- TOMORROW. And he...was thrilled. That's why I married him.




We got the kids and the house ready, rented a car, packed up and took off. 16 hours later we were checking in at The LAX Hilton, 4 hours before the concert was to start. My hair and make up went perfect and we headed to The Forum.







Ready to go!






It was opening night in L.A., where Prince planned on playing 21 concerts. Great diverse crowd. Fantastic seats. His love symbol stage so he would walk around and every body could see him. Concert was scheduled to start at 7pm. But it began about 8-8:30pm. And boy, was it worth the wait! 3 1/2 hours, 4 encores, 40 songs.I danced and sang through every minute. He was perfect in every way, Reviews from long time fans that had been to many, many concerts of his said it was the best concert they had seen. I was so lucky to get to see him on that night.






The next day we toured around L.A. and ended up having dinner on the beach in Malibu.





We left the following morning and when we got to Vegas, we stopped for drinks, gambling, dinner, and sight seeing.







What a great, spontaneous trip. It was so much fun and I have tons of pictures. I am so glad we just decided to go with the flow and there are no regrets.


I had been wishing to see him live for so long that now when I have to make a wish, I cannot think of what else I want. And I felt so deeply blessed to have such a wonderful man to share it all with.

Build, Love, Restore

This is an excellent time to share my new adventure. Like I don't have enough to keep me busy, right?

Several months ago I was introduce to an amazing woman, Mamay Worku, who is the founder and President of a non-profit organization BLR, Inc. (Build, Love, Restore). I recommend you check out the website. She started a project for helping to serve the needs of the indigent, elderly population in Ethiopia. She is an Ethiopian American citizen who has been here in the states since she was 18 years old. She is currently a social worker/Supervisor through the Denver County Department of Human Services, working in the area that assists people receiving benefits in getting back to work. She is also the board secretary for a National organization, People to People Global Network.

I was introduced to her by the national medical director for the home care agency I work for who met her at a conference in Washington. He is also Ethiopian and a member of People to People, The president and CEO of our agency is also Ethiopian, and he and other family members own medical equipment and home care agencies through out the United States.

I had no idea what to think when she came to talk to me about her project. It was a wonderful project, and her enthusiasm was infectious, but I had difficult trying to figure out how I could connect into it. Currently she is sponsoring home care to 10 elderly people over in Ethiopia. The care there is so desperately needed because they have no system in place for caring for these people. There are no nursing homes, welfare or health care programs, and usually the families take care of their elderly family members. But with the rate of death for young people with HIV/AIDS, there are many who end up destitute, homeless and begging. She is providing pay for workers to care for them where they live and some supplies for their care.The second part of her project in Ethiopia is to build a place to actually house homeless elderly.

She decided that with the huge African population here in Denver, CO, she would start a resource center to help the new immigrants integrate into the community. Navigating the social service programs, accessing health care, and dealing with employment and housing issues are a few things she wants to help with for all African immigrants coming to Denver. This office was also to serve as a Denver chapter for People to People.

It finally made sense as to where I could help. I offered her office space in the building my home care agency owns. She and I realized that if I hire African home care workers- RNs, C.N.A., and personal Care Providers, she can make referrals to my agency for this population. Now they would have the opportunity to receive care form someone that was more familiar with their culture.

So, for the past couple of weeks, my husband and I have been helping to get the center ready to open. We painted. My husband put up racks in a large closet so they can have a small thrift store to make money for the project. We still have to find more furniture, frame some of the beautiful pictures she has of the elderly patients they are serving over in Ethiopia, and planning an Open House.

We came very close to getting the Denver Mayor to attend our open house, but that fell through. We have invited some great people that really help to start the Denver part of this project on the right foot. The Director for the Office of Community Support for the Agency for Human Rights and Community Support, 2 Denver Commissioners, Pastors from local Ethiopian churches and hopefully the CEO and National Medical Director for my agency, who are located in Washington DC.

I was thrilled and honored when I was asked if I would serve on the Board for the organization. I have never done anything like this, but the opportunity to get involved with the projects is so exciting. Mamay is currently working on her 501 c 3 status so we can write for grants. She has many connection in DC and Denver and I certainly believe she will not have difficulty finding support.

This September I am hoping to travel to Ethiopia with her. She wants me to help write the curriculum for training the home care workers there. I am loving this. It is so different than anything I have ever done, and yet it is what I know. I will definitely be giving updates of the progress.

I am back.

I did love my blog. But I did with it as I do with lots of other things occasionally in my life. I threw it out and decided to start something new. I am not one that freaks out with change. I embrace it. I like the shake up. It keeps me awake and stimulated. I have a kind of ADD. I just need to have a little challenge or opportunity to be working on something new. My only regret is that I didn't save the old posts. But, I do think many of them were very good, and I am looking forward to writing better ones. I will have to think a little more about Twitter though.

I think my first blog was a practice one. When I started I was learning how to make it look the way I wanted it to come across. I had to Google a lot because I really have no formal computer training. That was fun. I also read a lot of other blogs trying to decide where I fit in. Did I want to attempt to make any money off of it? Did I want to try and get 1 zillion readers? I am so competitive by nature, that's what I thought I wanted. But, over the course of little over a year, I really just wanted to share my life, brag about my kids, and substitute writing for therapy.

I am so sincere when I say that I love the people I have on line. I do think that I will not put a ton of effort into trying to make the most friends as possible. I love to nurture the friendships I have and find other interesting people to add into that group.

I have a lot of tweaking to do with this new blog. It is like scrap booking. I'll do it a little at a time. I definitely knew I was not going to change the name. It speaks volumes about how I see myself and my life. I think I do speak directly to women who have some of the sames situations like me. I love to read how other woman view life and use humor to cope. I hope they get the same from me.

I will also continue to write and promote my other group, The Interracial Family Organization. I feel passionately about having positive images of diverse families. It was what I found lacking when I went looking for it. I encourage any one reading this that wants to participate in the group to contact me. I would love to see more voices heard and more families featured.

 Let me know what you think. I welcome the conversation.

Love, Laura