Sunday, April 13, 2008

Flat Stephanie has gone on several bike rides with Uncle Jerral.She enjoyed climbing a tree in Chula Vista with Julian.FLAT STEPHANIE

A creative elementary school teacher in North-Central California came up with a strategy to help her children extend their vision of their state. She had each child make a page-size image of herself/himself, a paper doll that could be folded and slipped into an envelope for mailing. My niece Connie’s granddaughter Stephanie reinvented herself as Flat Stephanie. Flat Stephanie went first to the Damacion home in Rocklin. She had a good time there with Jim and Erica and their two daughters.

Flat Stephanie writes each day in her diary, so when she arrived at my house in San Diego on Friday, I was allowed to read what she had written about her visit to Rocklin. She’s definitely learning a lot about California, especially about what adults do with their time and with their lives.

In San Diego on Saturday morning, Flat Stephanie went with me to a piano recital at Wagner’s School of Music (no relation to Richard Wagner, the composer). My God Daughter, Nina, played “Lefty Medley,” which was written by her teacher, Larry Wagner. She played beautifully without a single mistake. Flat Stephanie met some of Nina’s friends. She had her picture taken with them.On Sunday Flat Stephanie went to church. Twice. She attended morning worship and then went back again in the evening for the Spring Concert. San Diego Symphony players and a hundred-sixty-voice choir presented a Mozart and Schubert program. So her classmates can see what she’s doing in San Diego, I’ll be adding photographs to this posting every few days as long as Flat Stephanie is visiting with us.Flat Stephanie went with me today to my volunteer job at Mama's Kitchen. She is shown here with my fellow volunteers. Mama's Kitchen is an organization that helps provide meals for people who are too ill to go to the market to buy food for themselves or to prepare it. In almost every city there are programs that give help to people who are unable to help themselves. It is my hope that Flat Stephanie and her classmates will grow up to be people who are interested in helping others. Mama's Kitchen was founded several years ago to help AIDS patients who had become too sick to care for themselves.

The following photographs of Flat Stephanie were taken in Balboa Park.
Japanese Tea GardenOrgan PavillionSpanish VillageBotanic HouseStatue of El CidAt the San Diego Zoo we met a young man from Taiwan who asked to have his picture taken with Flat Stephanie and his two special key-chain dolls. One doll represents him and the other represents his girlfriend. He was taking picures of the dolls at places like the world famous San Diego Zoo.
Sculpture by Niki de St. Phalle at the Mingei Museum

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