Tag Archives: Jessica

Sierra Leone Trip – Families Without Borders

Families Without Borders Gala 10 June 2017

Terri Khonsari, my daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman, and I are traveling to Sierra Leone in a few weeks to visit the Families Without Borders school Terri manages in Makeni.  Jessica and I will be making technical and business presentations in Makeni and in Freetown. Terri and I are both long-time Mentors for the TechWomen program.  We have been discussing this trip for years.

More about Families Without Borders:

    We believe in building communities from within through education and empowerment of local youth. We begin by recruiting top students from disadvantaged families. We enroll them in a four year Bachelors Degree program of their choice complemented by a full servant leadership and personal development program. The program includes: advance computer skills, communication skills and financial management.

On Saturday, John, Matthew, Jessica and I joined TechWomen IdaRose Sylvester (with her husband Neil Hendin) and Samera Edwards at the Families Without Borders annual fundraising Gala. We enjoyed good company, good food, and good music. Jessica even learned some drumming.

Terri Khonsari Families Without Borders Gala 10 June 2017

Jessica Dickinson Goodman and John Plocher with drummers at Families Without Borders Gala 10 June 2017

Here are Hamid and Terri Khonsari with four TechWomen Fellows from Sierra Leone at the Families Without Borders Gala in 2015:

Hamid and Terri Khonsari with Sierra Leone TechWomen 2015

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Images Copyright 2015-2017 by Katy Dickinson

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Easter Egg Hunt 2017

Thoko Miya and WP668 - Easter, April 2017 IMG_9858

Catching up on my postings… Easter was on Sunday 16 April in 2017 and as usual we had friends, family, and neighbors over for a potluck brunch and Easter Egg Hunt in our back garden and on WP668. The Associate Easter Bunny wrote a very difficult set of riddles for the adults to find the Gold and Silver Eggs – one of the clues was on Twitter! Jessica, Matthew, Paul, and John all helped – as did our house guest Thoko Miya from South Africa. John cooked Maqluba (chicken and rice “upside down” from Jordan) which was much appreciated!

Jessica and Matthew and Paul - Easter, April 2017 IMG_9855

John and Larissa Shapiro and Maqluba - Easter, April 2017 IMG_9926

Paul and kids - Easter, April 2017 IMG_9933

Gold egg found - Easter, April 2017 IMG_9911

Silver Egg

    • I am a beautiful-bold building block,
    • a 1-to-2 ton ballerina queen.
    • My reach spreads from Iskanderia to
    • where Toko lives (though there are fewer of
    • my ances-sisters bellowing than lived
    • there free when Ibn Batuta roved from
    • the Cape to Cairo and Mongol Guangzhou,
    • from shadowed Fez to wet-and-wild Mosul.)
    • I’m sunning myself in the shade of yolks
    • that hold their albumen inside their skins,
    • that parents feed their dogs for YouTube lulz,
    • and babies cry-smile when first they taste them.
    • So far I’ve led you on a lumbering chase
    • Msr, AsSeen, Arak — where is my place?

(the Silver Egg was hidden in the dirt, under a concrete hippo, under a lemon tree)

Gold Egg

    • Six unkind clues will guide
    • you briskly to my haunt,
    • in shadow where I hide.
    • Get hopping – it’s a jaunt!
    • You’ll climb among downed-trees
    • and wander through spike-leaves…
    • Hop quickly so Ethan won’t flaunt!

(the Gold Egg was on top of the light bulb, inside the glass cover of the overhead light fixture, on the porch)

Gold Egg – Clue 1

    • I’m surrounded by pot apparatus
    • But it’s not a medicinal grow.
    • You’ll not have to climb up to the attics
    • or wander wader-deep in the snow.
    • You’ll just have to walk
    • to a gate that unlocks
    • and find out where Paul’s clay does go.

Gold Egg – Clue 2

    • The next clue is online
    • you’ll practically titter
    • when you see the next poem
    • is posted on Twitter.

Gold Egg – Clue 3 – from Twitter

    • Upon a bright flower
    • You’ll find my small bower.
    • Not on a rosethorn,
    • or leaf-ling of corn
    • – under cactus and dragon I glower.

Gold Egg – Clue 4

    • Under Princess’s butt I was warming
    • My contents I hope you’ll find charming
    • But because she’s a cat
    • And upon me she sat
    • My message by now will be warming.

Gold Egg – Clue 5

    • You’ve lined up and squarely stood still
    • You’ve caught-on and gotten your fill
    • and now hear’s the treat:
    • an Easter-hunt feat
    • You’ll find me outside grey-bird’s sill.

Egg hunt - Easter, April 2017 IMG_9903

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Images Copyright 2017 by Katy Dickinson

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Eleanor Dickinson Art – New Website Launched

Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson painting called 13 Myeongsuk, in Colored pastel 2005

My family and I just launched the new Eleanor Dickinson Art website on which you can see information about my mother, Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson, and purchase some of her fine art, posters, and books.

Eleanor Dickinson Art contains selections of original creations from the archives of Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson, a remarkable American artist who was actively creating, teaching, and exhibiting fine art for over 75 years. Her work has been exhibited at many dozens of galleries and museums around the world, and is collected by a wide variety of individuals, universities, museums and other major institutions, including:

Fine art is a reflection of the soul – this website includes nudes.

In addition to getting more of Eleanor Dickinson’s creations into the world to be seen and enjoyed, the new website provides photographs and information about the artist: her Statement, Resume, Obituary, and Reviews. The About page includes information about the Art, Shipping and Additional Charges, the Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson Charitable Art Trust, Paper, and other topics.

Thanks to Jessica Dickinson Goodman and John Plocher for their help in setting up the Eleanor Dickinson Art website. Thanks also to those of you who reviewed the site while it was in development.

Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson poster called Revival - The Tennessee State Museum, 1982

Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson line drawing called Revival - 2. Almost Persuaded, 1976

Images Copyright Eleanor Dickinson Art 1976-2005

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Benefits of Dementia

Jessica Dickinson Goodman and Eleanor Dickinson, Dickens Fair, San Francisco 18 Dec 2016

On this, my daughter Jessica‘s birthday, I want to honor and thank her for her creativity, love, and generous heart. It is such a pleasure that she and Matthew live here in San Jose, not only because I love and want to spend time with them but also because Jessica has made time each week for my mother Eleanor (her grandmother), to help her get all that she can out of life, despite her dementia and other health challenges.

In a recent conversation, Jessica told me she keeps a mental list of what is good about dementia. After a pause during which I reoriented my thinking about this degrading and frustrating disease, I remembered that in 2008 I made a similar list of some of the benefits of having a disabled child.   Here is Jessica’s list, plus some additions:

Benefits of Dementia

  1. Good Surprises: Jessica told me about man with dementia who would order socks or books or other needed items for postal delivery. By the time the packages arrived, he had forgotten he himself had ordered them. He was sure he had a loving friend sending him surprises that were just what he wanted.
  2. Making a Statement, Again: When my mother saw Jessica in a politically provocative tshirt, she was delighted. Later that afternoon, Eleanor noticed the shirt for the first time, and was delighted again.
  3. Keeping Contact: When my father Wade died in 2011 at the age of 85, Eleanor lost her greatest fan. They had been married for 59 years, fighting and arguing all the way. Eleanor’s dementia has softened that loss. Sometimes she speaks of Wade as if he is in the next room.

What would you add to this list of the benefits of dementia?

Dickinsons at the Dickens Fair, San Francisco 18 Dec 2016

Eleanor Dickinson, Christmas 2016

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Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen Community Cycle

Mai Temraz and Katy Dickinson at Cal State San Bernardino August 2016

The TechWomen mentoring program has been since 2010 a big part of my annual planning. 90 Emerging Leaders from 19 countries in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East will arrive in the San Francisco Bay Area in about ten days to start working at local STEM companies.  I am already working with the 6 ELs from Tunisia as one of their 3 Impact Advisors. Our Impact Advisory group has been meeting remotely every Friday – I look forward to meeting the Tunisia ladies in person soon.  The 2016 Emerging Leaders will be in the USA until mid-October, returning home after a visit to Washington DC.

I am also enjoying supporting one of my 2014 mentees, TechWomen Fellow and Fulbright Fellow Mai Temraz from Gaza, who will be starting her MBA at Cal State San Bernardino next month.  Several of us visited Mai and her family in Gaza City earlier this year.  The Temraz family is staying with us in San Jose while Mai goes through orientation at UC Davis.  Last weekend, my daughter Jessica, Mai, and I did a road trip to help find an apartment in San Bernardino and to see the Cal State campus.  In a few weeks, the Temraz family will move to Southern California.

TechWomen is more than an Initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, it has become a beloved community and extended family for many of its participants.

Walaa, Mai, and Yazan Temraz in San Jose, California, August 2016
Walaa, Mai, and Yazan Temraz in San Jose, California, August 2016

TechWomen Eileen Brewer, Erin Keeley, Aliya Janjua, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Mai Temraz, Katy Dickinson in Gaza City February 2016
TechWomen Erin Keeley, Eileen Brewer, Mai Temraz, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Katy Dickinson, and Aliya Janjua in Gaza City, February 2016

TechWomen Seham Al-Jaafreh, Mai Temraz, Katy Dickinson, San Bruno Park, California, October 2014
TechWomen Seham Al-JaafrehMai Temraz, and Katy Dickinson, San Bruno Park, California, October 2014

TechWomen in Tunisia with Impact Advisors in California August 2016
TechWomen in Tunisia, with Impact Advisors in California, August 2016

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Images Copyright 2014-2016 by Katy Dickinson

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Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews

Driving, Rafting, Hiking, Spelunking, and Trains

Jessica, Matthew, John, Paul in Caboose 12, Railroad Park Resort, Dunsmuir CA, August 2016

Our family took a short vacation together this week – a road trip from San Jose to northern California. Jessica and Matthew and Paul and John and I stayed for two nights at the Railroad Park Resort in Dunsmuir. John and I got to sleep in wooden caboose 12.

On Monday, we went on a white water rafting trip with Living Waters down the middle Klamath River, followed by a drive then a hike to 8,050 feet on Mount Shasta (elevation 14,179 feet above sea level).  On Tuesday, we took a boat across the lake to tour Lake Shasta Caverns and then drove to Portola, seeing a train at the famous Keddie Wye junction just before full dark.

Portola is home to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum (WPRM), of which we are long-time members.  WP668, our own backyard caboose, has four sister cabooses of the same age and design in Portola: WP679 (owned by the City of Portola), WP645 and WP646 at WPRM, and Sacramento Northern 1642 – also at WPRM.  When we bought WP668 in 2006, it was housed at the Golden Gate Railroad Museum in San Francisco along with WP646 and SN1642.  We enjoyed seeing these again on Wednesday.

In a variety of places during our trip, we saw signs, flags, and bumper strips for the State of Jefferson. Those supporting this proposed new US state seem to do so as a way of expressing dissatisfaction with our current government, or its representation of them.

Railroad Park Resort, Dunsmuir CA, August 2016

Log Truck at Black Butte CA August 2016

Klamath River Rafting, CA, Matthew and Paul, August 2016

Klamath River Rafting, CA, Jessica, John and Paul

Klamath River Rafting, CA, Katy and John, August 2016

Mount Shasta Buckwheat August 2016

John and Paul on Mount Shasta August 2016

Mount Shasta Volcanic Rocks August 2016

State of Jefferson hay August 2016

State of Jefferson sign August 2016

State of Jefferson stuff August 2016

Rainbow water tanker trucks on Interstate 5, August 2016

Family dinner John Katy Jessica Matthew Paul August 2016

Jessica, Matthew, Paul, Caboose 12, Railroad Park Resort, Dunsmuir CA, August 2016

Lake Shasta CA August 2016

Lake Shasta Caverns CA August 2016

old ladder Lake Shasta Caverns CA August 2016

John Katy Jessica Matthew Paul at Lake Shasta Caverns CA August 2016

modern steps Lake Shasta Caverns CA August 2016

Jessica at Battle Creek Vista August 2016

Katy and John at Keddie Wye, Plumas County CA, August 2016

Keddie Wye, Plumas County CA, August 2016

Portola CA, Western Pacific Railroad Museum - WP917-D diesel engine, August 2016

Portola CA, Western Pacific Railroad Museum - WP645 caboose, August 2016

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Images Copyright 2015-2016 by Katy Dickinson

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Paul’s Tableware

Paul bowl and plates July 2016

My son Paul D. Goodman is very much enjoying being a Senior studying Studio Art at San Jose State University. This summer, Paul designed an independent study project to create three ceramic plate and bowl sets of tableware on the wheel. As of now, he is still working his way through throwing, trimming, glazing, and firing this huge collection. A week of work was lost when someone carelessly left the SJSU ceramics studio door open on a very hot day, causing all of the wet plates to dry very quickly and crack.

Paul is building up to selling his work on Etsy but needs enough stock to open his online shop. I just updated Paul’s portfolio on Paul’s Element, where you can see this and his other artwork.

Here are the photos I have so far of Paul’s tableware in progress:

Paul bowl and plates July 2016

Paul bowls July 2016

Paul ceramic plates July 2016

Paul ceramic plates July 2016

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Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson

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