PICTURES ARE WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!

Yesterday, I had a lovely lunch with my dear friend and former Dissertation Chair Dr. Barbara Holmes. Even after 5 years since my Doctorate was completed, we still meet a few times each year to catch up with each other. Emails often go back and forth in between our meetings – supporting our exercise programs, requesting help on where to find a certain pomegranate tea or asking advice on a scholarly question. It is always a pleasure to hear from her and to see her.

As we ended our lunch yesterday, I said to Dr. Holmes, “Ok, get out your camera, and take pictures!” To my surprise, she did NOT have her camera in her purse, AND she had PURPOSEFULLY REMOVED IT!

Here’s the deal about the camera. As my cohort of dissertation buddies worked through our “awesome” steps of dissertation, Dr. Holmes continuously asked if anyone had a camera and could take pictures to document our progress. So, at the end of that journey, I gave Dr. Holmes her very own camera. I anticipated that she would like it, but I had no idea that the world would know that she has her own camera and that she would take pictures of me every time she saw me. She would then make them into greeting cards and send them to MY closest Wal-Mart for me to pick up. It was definitely a "Dr. Holmes signature act!"

However, somewhere along the way, I inadvertently mentioned that she shouldn’t bother to send every picture to me in sets of 12 greeting cards, just to email them to me. WRONG! VERY BAD IDEA! Yesterday, we cleared up this little disconnect, and many of you will be surprised when you start getting greeting cards (with my picture on them) on a regular basis. I LOVE THIS IDEA, and I told her that my 1-½ year old grandson has my last greeting card picture on his refrigerator door. As he eats his meals or passes by, he tells me about his day and says, “Hi, Nonna!” What a treasured gift!

So, now that THAT relationship is mended, and we are on our way to picture-taking bliss again, I want to thank Dr. Holmes for accepting my apology and reminding me that PICTURES ARE WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS! I will smile every time I look at those picture greeting cards!

With love, Colleen

P.S. You have to know that when I learned that Dr. Holmes didn’t have her camera, I suggested she might need a new one by now. “Oh, no! That one lost it’s screws recently, and I have found a great place that can fix it...only 35 miles away! It took me too long to learn how to use this one to get a new one now! I'm still using this camera to document the dissertation process of my current students! It's working just fine!” replied my cherished friend.