Hello Senator Greenleaf!

State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, Bubby, Ada Fleisher, Fontaine Caldwell

We had an appt at Greenleaf's office b/c we wanted to make him aware of his many constituents who have depression, bipolar disorder and family members.

Before we left my house, I said, Okay, Ruthie, pretend you're smart and prepare a nice white envelope of information about New Directions.

White envelopes are my favorite! When I need to have a handy reference I print things on the back of a nice thick 8.5 x 11 white envelope. Used, of course.

Senator Greenleaf sat at the head of a long rectangular table with a yellow legal pad and 2 felt tip pens.

As I said to Ada and Fontaine before leaving my house, it would be nice if we did some research and knew what causes Greenleaf stood for. Fortunately, in his Waiting Room he had a whole Info Sheet of his accomplishments and awards which I studied before we went in. He's been in office since 1978.

The waiting room was filled with a huge library of brochures about everything you ever wanted to know about the Keystone State. I always carry brochures in my backpack but figured no one would notice them.

His personal office was huge and filled with windows. I opened my white envelope and spread out all the goodies on the table: a Compass with a Carl Yeager photo on the cover, an article about me in the Inky Neighbors section, a trifold brochure about my favorite illness, a brochure for my Writers Group at Weinrich's (I wanted to tell him that bipolar people are creative) and a New Directions brochure.

When our 35-minute meeting was about to end, I stuffed everything back in the white envelope and pushed our brochure toward him.

We asked his help in changing the way A Local Mental Health Center runs itself. There's a forward-looking movement called OpenAccess where a person in crisis can get an appt on the same day, much as a dentist will see you for a toothache. My friend Fran Hazam told me about this.

As long as I have your attention (hopefully you haven't fallen asleep) lemme read from some notes in front of me. A depressed woman called me today. She's so despondent she can't enjoy her 3-year-old son.

She just had ECT which did not work. I told her, in my experience, it doesn't work in half of the cases. What meds are you on, I asked.

She named a few, including Topomax. I reflexively said, "that's useless." (Readers, I am not a doctor.)

I told her to get a consultation w/someone else. I did not say that the psychiatrist she's seeing is not on our Top Doc List and never will be. I told her, "I'm cooking now, so I can't look at my list, but as soon as I put the fettucine in the water to boil, I'll look at the the List."

By now, I was chopping the onions, garlic and carrots to saute in another pan. With olive oil, of course.

"Okay, we'll go to the computer," I said. "Hold on, my computer is real slow."

I gave her four names.

While driving to the Bryn Athyn post office, I pass so many b'ful buildings I can hardly stand it.

But, you can't look at em while driving. Hence the photos which I can look at on mine own sweet blog.







All the beauty you'd ever want...5 minutes from home.

What is your favorite beautiful place, Dear Reader? Close your eyes a moment and picture it. Then go there! Often! Bring someone you love. I'm busy all next week.

Today is my son's first wedding anniversary. Went over to Stutz Candy - yes, they're still in biz - and picked out 2 lovely boxes of candy.



Then I drove to the kids' house and Dan and Nicole each claimed their favorite pieces. I took a tiny bite of mint bark to bring back memories of when we lived in the apartments and bought 'kitchen seconds' at Stutz.

Is life just a bunch of memories? A bunch of yesterdays? Seems like it, doesn't it?