Kenny Rankin died....

I was so sad to read that Kenny Rankin died.
I have his music on my Playlist and I love the way he plays the guitar and sings.

My friend's son, Eric Forsyth, reminds me of Kenny Rankin a bit; the same carefree and agitated guitar playing and tenor, sometime falsetto, energized voice. You defintely know that when he is playing his guitar and singing he is having the best time. Holy time. Sacred time.

I first saw Kenny Rankin at the Main Point in the late 1970s; a famous place for former hippies like me. My friend, Janet, introduced me to his music. She and I went to the Main Point, an intimate coffehouse atmosphere, to see him perform. He just sat there on a stool, told stories and sang his heart out; easy, carefree, jazzy, folksy -- definitely professional yet fun loving.
Last summer, I got to introduce the music of Kenny Rankin to my new son-in-law, James. Rankin was scheduled to appear at the Washington House in Sellersville. I got 3 tickets. I asked James if he wanted to go. Jewely was in Maine with her friend, Katie, having a last hurrah with her friend before her wedding day. So James pretty much was pining away and had nothing else to do, I'm sure he thought at the time.
I was so glad when he really 'dug' Kenny Rankin. James plays guitar, so he admired his guitar playing. Rankin does a mean "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" -- my favorite rendition of the song. He plays piano, too.

He just sat there on a stool, told stories and sang his heart out; easy, carefree, jazzy, folksy -- -unplugged.

He died of lung cancer. He was only 69. He was only diagnosed 3 weeks ago.
When we saw him last summer he sounded like he was getting over a cold -- or getting one. His voice was raspy but he still nailed his songs. And, of course, the guitar....

Please check out his music. You will love it as much as I do:
http://www.kennyrankin.com/

Check this out, too: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-kenny-rankin9-2009jun09,0,5347669.story

And check out the music of Eric Forsyth at: http://ericforsythmusic.com/

You will see what I mean.

I Have More Initials After My Name

I can't believe how quickly it happened!
One day my boss says she is going to ask if I can work on marketing and the next day it happened!

I was working part-time for over two years -- just under the radar of full-time 32 hours. I had Wednesdays off, which was nice, but we really needed me to have a full-time job. If something happens to Ken's job, I will need benefits.
Since I work in such a small place, and since we are usually always full, corporate never bothered us much. Now we are two rooms down and they are wondering -- why aren't we full?
Duh!
I've been saying it for two years -- we don't do any marketing!!! You told us not to advertise!
I have been trying in my own way to help the public relations of our facility. I wear my name badge wherever I go so people will ask me "What's ____ _____?" and I can tell them all about our memory care community. I pushed for ads in community booklets and school musical Playbills, I urged them to advertise on diner placemats, etc.
Anyway.... my director did a marketing day at Dublin Community Days and when someone who lives on the same street as our facility didn't even know where it was...she was embarrassed.
So she got mad and went to corporate and said, "Susan can do it!"
They were like, "Susan can do marketing?"
(As she was telling me this, she rolled her eyes then went cross-eyed)
"Of COURSE Susan can do this!" (I've been secretly marketing for two years! I've been saying ____ ____ is the best kept secret in Bucks County!)

SO!

That was Thursday. She said she asked for an additional eight hours for me, which would push me into full-time (yay! paid time off!).
Friday morning she got an e-mail -- corporate made me the Community Sales Representative for ____ ____ -- and gave me an additional 12.5 hours!!!
hahahahaha!

I can't believe it. Marketing is SO ME! I love Public Relations and schmoozing with people and I believe in ____ ____, so it will be easy for me to sell.

Tomorrow..... I'm actually going to wear a SUIT!!! I'm going to visit some doctor's offices and even the Pennridge Chamber of Commerce.
I have giveaways * brochures * notepads * pens!!!!

I have so many ideas. I want to have an end of summer Pig Roast. I want to have a Memorial Service with DOVES! Dementia Support Group meetings for family members -- my imagination is running wild.

This is what I like to do. If I can't be painting, I can be using my talents to tell the community about a lovely and worthwhile place in their midst. It's like when I was a reporter. I feel like I'm doing something useful -- not just bean counting and answering phones -- which I will still do because I have also retained my title of Business Office Coordinator.
Hmm....I wonder if they'll pay for me to take college courses in communications or marketing ...hmmm... I'm going to check into that eventually.

By 3:00 on Friday I was going on to the next thing at work when I suddenly was stopped by a thought... a prompting... "I think I like my job now!"

("Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah" playing in my head right now...)