Happy Grads, Big Hearts, and a Record that Still Stands

Hello again!

I hope you’re having a great week so far!

I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to participate in last week’s one-question poll! The response so far has been overwhelmingly in favor of my starting a YouTube channel (2/3 of you thought that would be a good idea), followed by offering rewards-based programs (1/3). So I will get to work on both of those! ;)

If you didn’t get a chance to answer last week’s poll, here it is again—I’m still interested in your feedback!

Finally, there won’t be an issue of this newsletter next week, but we will resume the first week of June. Best wishes for a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!

Warm regards,

Yasmine

For New Subscribers

Here are some links to prior issues you may have missed—some of the best ones 😉 :

Why Positive Vibes? (How this newsletter got its start)

A Very Good Year (Contains many of the highlights of the journey for Walk through Fire: The Train Disaster that Changed America in the year of its release, 2023)

May the Road Rise Up to Meet You (St. Patrick’s Day 2024, with an excerpt from my upcoming novel, The View from the Cliffs)

You can find all the archived issues of Positive Vibes here. (Scroll down on that page after clicking on the link.)

What I’m Feeling Good About

My Gatsby Star oakleaf hydrangea is really showing out this year!

And I couldn’t help snapping this pic of a couple of my roses after a recent rain:

Finally, my Early Girl tomato plant is living up to its name:

Got any gardening pics you’d like to share? You know I’d love to see them! :)

What You’re Feeling Good About

Many Positive Vibes members have told me about children and grandchildren who were graduating this month, from all levels: kindergarten, middle school, high school, college, and even medical school! Congratulations to all of this year’s graduates!!

I’ve also heard from so many of you celebrating May birthdays—how wonderful!!

There was a tribute to May birthdays on last weekend’s edition of “Saturday Cinema” (which comes on many public-radio classical stations)—here’s the link for you to enjoy:

(This section is where I’ll be featuring good news, tips, and bits of wisdom from readers—so please reply to this email and share some with me! It can be anything, big or small. Whatever you’re feeling good about.)

More Good News

Following along with this year’s Triple Crown races … the Preakness was run this past Saturday, and I was curious to see what Secretariat’s time was when he ran that race 51 years ago, which brought me across this article:

The last paragraph is particularly impactful from the above article: ““It’s quite amazing,” Zimmerman said. “If you calculated all the number of horses that have run in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont combined in 50 years, and not one of them has run faster [than Secretariat] in any of those races.”

And in other good news, speaking of 2024 graduates …

There’s a tiny backstory connection in this next one: Doug DeAngelis of the Nashville Film Institute, who appears in this story, fostered the rescue who became my current dog, Feeny, when I adopted him from Doug over 2 years ago. Suffice it to say, Doug has a great, big heart!

Pawsitive Vibes

Some of you may have seen this picture on Facebook a few months back. While I was trying to learn a new Chopin nocturne, my buddy and Maine Coon Cat, Ori (short for Orion), decided he wanted to try his paw at it, too:

And some more fun cat news:

Got a pet pic you’d like to share? Please feel free to reply to this email!

Riddle Me This

Did you guess the answer to last week’s riddle?

The pictures were taken at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, TN! It really is an excellent aquarium; my most recent visit was on my birthday in February this year:

Have you ever been to this aquarium, or to any other? I have been to several in many different cities—I love museums and aquariums—and I can honestly say that the Tennessee Aquarium is one of the best.

For Your Playlist

When I was taking saxophone lessons from the legendary Frank Kirchner at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, he actually let me take on the challenge of trying to learn how to play the saxophone part in Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” The time signature is a very difficult one, and I can’t say I ever mastered it—but that may have been because I didn’t give it the time it deserves. 😉 

Here’s the link if you’re on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1YQWosTIljIvxAgHWTp7KP?si=b01aee6f447f40d4

Last Word

Tell a Friend!

Know anyone who could use more positivity in their lives and would enjoy this newsletter? Send them the link to subscribe for free: https://yasmine-ali-author.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Fan Mail Address

How to get a signed bookplate sticker: see the intro to this post.