I woke up late this morning. I had a 1030 appointment in Winston, and I woke up at 845. (Not ONE WORD about laziness – I worked and then had homework after I got home, thankyouverymuch!) As I blazed my way through the pages of the paper (like Esbee, I read the dead tree version as I breakfast) one thing attracted my attention in The Week Ahead section of the Local News section. I looked at the clock, squealed and grabbed my camera and things, getting to my appointment only five minutes late. At the end of my appointment, I celebrated joyously – I’d gotten done just in time to haul myself to Salem College, park at the edge of the campus, and walk the half-mile to Corpening Plaza. In the cold and rain.

The closer I got to the square, the more I realized that things just.weren’t.right. Where is the teeming sea of humanity? Balloons? Dancers? Wait…what day is today?

I called My Sainted Mama and asked her to read the blurb to me again. As she read it, she started laughing and well…it took a while for her to regain control of herself. And then I sloooowly made my way back to school, picked up my registration card for next semester, and went home.

Birthday Celebration

Winston-Salem will have an artsy celebration of the 80th birthday of one of its most-famous residents

SATURDAY

A birthday party for Maya Angelou will begin at 1 p.m. at Corpening Plaza.

The party will feature performances by the N.C. Black Repertory Company and students from the N.C. School of the Arts, Winston-Salem State University and Wake Forest University.

And, of course, there will be cake and punch and a reading of one of Angelou’s most celebrated poems, “Phenomenal Woman.”