Stacey-Ann's Blog

The 9th Annual Gingerbread House Contest and Show!

This show, at Darnall's Chance House Museum, 14800 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 301-952-8010, will delight children of all ages as they marvel at the creativity and talent of local bakers.

Stop by any of the following days: Friday, November 28-Sunday, November 30, Thursday, December 4-Sunday, December 7, and Thursday, December 11-Sunday December 14, from 12 noon-5 pm. Visitors will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite adult and child entries in the Viewer's Choice Award competition.

The fee is just $1/person!

Visit www.pgparks.com for more information.

In celebration of the Holiday Season, Springbrook Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (Silver Spring, MD) will once again participate in the Adopt A Resident Gift Program. 

During this gift program, you will have the opportunity to provide an elderly resident with a gift for the holidays.  These special gifts will be delivered to our residents by the night of our Resident and Family Holiday Dinner on December 11, 2008.

Suggested gift items may include socks, hats, gloves, scarves, robes, bedroom shoes, lotions, throws or blankets.

We appreciate your help in assuring that our residents have a very happy holiday season.  We are requesting that donations be delivered by December 7, 2008.

 For more information please contact:

Katrena Askew, katrenaa@hotmail.com

Director of Therapeutic Recreation  

or give me a call and I would be happy to provide you with more information. 

Don't miss the Festival of Lights a spectacular holiday drive-through display, featuring more than one million twinkling lights!

This holiday event is fun for the whole family and begins Friday, November 28 and continues through Thursday, January 1, nightly from 5-9:30 pm at Watkins Regional Park, 301 Watkins Park Drive, Upper Marlboro MD 20774.

Admission to the Festival of Lights is $5 per car or van, or $10 for a multi-visit pass (3 visits) and it's FREE on December 25, 2008.

Please bring canned goods as they will be accepted nightly for donation to local food banks. For more information, call 301-699-2456 or TTY 301-218-6768 or visit www.pgparks.com.

The Annual Symphony of Lights in Howard County runs from November 24 through January 4.  The display is open 7 days per week (including holidays) from 6-10pm.  The cost is $20 per car.  Van and bus rates are also available. 

The Symphony of Lights is a spectacular display of more than 70 larger-than-life, animated and stationary light creations, it is a "must-see" during the holiday season. 

The Symphony of Lights is located at Symphony Woods, Merriweather Post in Columbia Maryland. 

All proceeds benefit the Howard County General Maternal Child Service.

For more information about this event and to get directions visit the Howard County General Hospital website www.hcgh.org.

There was a water main break in Prince Georges County Saturday near Central Avenue & the Beltway. 

Due to this break, there is a boil water advisory for certain parts of Prince George's County east of the Beltway, south of Route 50, west of Church Road and North of Ritchie Marlboro Road.  Visit www.fox5dc.com to view a map of the affected area. 

The boil water advisory is in effect for five days.

This break is also expected to cause problems for people planning to attend Sunday's Redskins game.  Fans are encouraged to use an alternate route and allow extra time

I am a complete news junkie.  I listen to CNN in my car all day and pride myself on feeling informed.  I was ready for the election to come because I was beginning to get tired of the coverage.  Imagine my horror when now that the election is over it still is the only thing they talk about. 

I swear if I hear another word about what Obama will do in his first day of office, will their be a bipartisan effort, will the stimulus that he proposes be enough, did Sarah Palin buy designer clothes, does she know where Africa is, etc I am going to SCREAM!!!!!

Ever the good psychologist, I have diagnosed myself with "Election coverage and economy doom and gloom fatigue syndrome."

Symptoms include:

• A strong desire to slap your tv and/or radio
• A lack of fingernails from overwhelming anxiety
• A strong desire to close your eyes, cover your ears and scream loudly
• A yearning for something alcoholic (even though in my case I don't even drink)

If you have noticed these and other symptoms then you too may suffer from this new but very common syndrome.

Treatment includes changing the channel to mindless tv or if in the car change the station to the sappy love song channel and sing along loudly.

Today I was out showing some property with a couple from out of town.  We were on our 8th listing and they liked it.  It was one of two that had made the short list.

We had parked in the lot next to each other in two unmarked spaces.  When we went out, there was a minivan parked behind us blocking us both in.  We waited patiently for a few minutes and then began to feel annoyed that we were blocked in.

Suddenly this women comes out of her townhouse yelling at us for taking her parking space.  We tried to explain that we parked there because those spaces were unmarked and we thought that meant they were visitor spaces.  She went on with her tirade about us taking her space because the number has been rubbed off and we should have known because it didn't say visitor.  She proceeded to say that next time she would call the police.

In an attempt to difuse the situation I apologized to her for our mistake and asked her nicely if she would please move her vehicle so that we could leave.  She told me she would move it when she felt like and then climbed into her vehicle closed the door and sat there.

Can you believe we had to call the police before this woman would move and let us out?

Needless to say, the buyer immediately struck that property off the short-list saying "I wouldn't live next to her if this was the last property on earth".

This sure was a great way to welcome them to the DC area!

I voted yesterday for the first time.  I left Jamaica before my 18th birthday and only became a citizen here in the United States earlier this year.

What an election to get my feet wet (literally)!  I stood in line yesterday for over an hour in the pouring rain to cast my vote.  Regardless of the length of the line or the conditions I would have stayed.  I shared the line with hundreds of proud African Americans who never thought they would see this day. 

I'll admit I was one of the nea-sayers.  I honestly believed it would not happen.  I am happy to admit that this is one of the few times that I was wrong!

I sat in my living room last night watching all the revelry with tears running down my face.  How far we've come!  One of the best parts for me is that I can truly raise my children (Black kids born to immigrant parents) to be anything they want to be.  The limits are no longer there.

I am so honored to have been a part of history!!

My friend sent me a quote today that seems to sum it all up:

"Rosa Parkes sat so that Martin Luther King could walk.

Marting Luther King walked so that Barack Obama could run.

Obama ran so that all children could fly"