These are all great ideas! Thank you all. Yayagal, I love the symbolism of releasing balloons and I did look into environmentally friendly/biodegradable balloons (they do make them) but to lessen the visual impact until they do (about 3 months) we could use earthy colors, but a brown balloon just seems wrong! And in order to fly up and away, they have to be helium, which is not available or green...Hhireno, I like the idea of bubbles, just because they are so fun! And I never would have thought of the leaves, Annie, but I kind of like that image. Plus, it would leave no footprint. And the clothing one is intriguing, I'll give it some thought, too. Thank you, Pattycakes, for the music idea, too. I think we would want women's voices, or instrumental, but I'll explore that as an option. I do love the music you linked. Ellendi, those are all great ideas and could easily be integrated, either at the close, or some other time during the retreat. Roobear, I'd never heard of EFT. Even if we don't try it as a group, I'm going to pass on info about the technique to our members. I think they will really appreciate and maybe benefit from that info.

It seemed like a wake - paying tribute to music/musicians of days gone by. A very festive wake though, that DH and I enjoyed.

Claire 8WA I spoke with my daughter about this, she is a MA in civic admin. and middle management in a SF Bay area city, so understands how these things work. She tells me that there should be an appeal process in place if the Historic Commission finds against retaining the roses, and the clerk of that commission can give an explanation of the process including who the commission reports to, what fees are associated with an appeal, and how to file such appeal. Now, about the fees, it seems that in some cities, if an elected council person ‘sponsors’ an appeal, the fees can be waived, worth asking about. So things to find out: Who does the historic committee report too? If findings are contrary to our wishes how do we call for review? Can we interest a city counsel member in doing this? Are there costs associated with such a review? A call to the clerk of the commission asking for an explanation of the process is in order. I understand that there is a point person appointed to co-ordinate the "retain roses" effort, wonder if that person is on this forum? Hoping to help Claire - Love Old Garden Roses? join us...Cascadia Heritage Roses Group

My DH was naturalized 17 years ago! It was interesting. The applicants were gathered in one area of the room, visitors in another. The judge was serious but friendly, because it is a momentous yet happy occasion. I don't remember the details (I'd had a baby and was still running on no sleep) but I do remember that they asked if anyone would like to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. DH, as one of the few native English speakers, volunteered. But when they had him at the front he didn't realize they expected him to start everyone off, so the bailiff got things started. I do recall that, while it was momentous, it was actually rather low-key. Your ceremony may be different. We came home and that evening had a small gathering of my family and a neighbor family. I also recall explaining to our kindergartner's teacher why he was missing school that day, and she said "yeah, I should probably get around to getting my citizenship one of these days". I never knew you don't have to be a citizen to teach public school! She'd been here 20 years at that time; she was kind of flighty so she's probably still a permanent resident lol.