Forgotten Treasures

It's amazing what you find when you "clean out" your basement. (I say "clean out" in quotation marks, as what we did over the past few weekends can't be considered a "clean out" in the strictest sense of the phrase. Yes, we did get rid of stuff and therefore, "clean out," but we also just shuffled a lot of stuff from one room to another in the basement.)

Now that I've cleared that up...

Here are the forgotten treasures we discovered in our basement.

One of John's co-workers gave us this for our wedding:

TEN years ago.

Better late than never???


I'd always loved this violet vase that my friend Nancy had given me as a gift for being in her wedding.

That was more than 15 years ago!!!

Glad I went out in the beautiful weather to pick some (haggard looking) violets to display in it. It makes me smile!


Just in time for Memorial Day!

A gift from Grace to John from a few Father's Days ago. (Yes, only a "few" ago!)


I'm not usually big on lawn-type animals, but I was fond of this one that my mother-in-law gave us a few years ago.

Glad I saved it...and found it!


This gem either came from my in-laws or my grandparents' house.

No home is complete without the Moo Cow Creamer!

What exciting finds are in your basement? (Besides creepy crawly things!)

"A Lady Had a Baby In a Tree...What Have You Got?"

You know how you just happen to hear a phrase and it stays with you?

"A Lady Had a Baby In a Tree...What Have You Got?"

 

Prime example right there.

 

Probably six months or so ago, I was home sick from work and was flipping through the channels. It was news to me that Katie Couric had her own talk show (aptly named, "Katie"), so I decided to check it out.

 

She was interviewing Michael J. Fox, who I've always really liked as an actor. I also have always been interested in his work with Parkinson's Disease, as my maternal grandmother lived it with for many years.

 

Katie asked him about his family and how he interacts with them, which led to the above quote.

 

You can view the video directly on Katie Couric's site. (The quote doesn't come until the end, but the beginning is pretty good, too, and worth watching.)

 

In a nutshell, he says he drives his kids crazy with optimism. When they come to him to complain or are down, he'll say to them, "A Lady Had a Baby In a Tree...What Have You Got?"

 

I know if someone said that to me, I'd stop dead in my tracks and think, "Huh?"

 

Which is exactly what I did. And then I did the next natural thing. I Googled it.

 

Haven't heard the story? Here you go.

 

Yes, a woman really had a baby in a tree and was rescued minutes later by helicopter.

 

Can you imagine? (I can't even imagine giving birth in a "comfortable" hospital bed.)

 

 

photo credit



Everyone has a right to complain about things they don't like.

I do it frequently, but since seeing the Michael J. Fox interview, I *try* to do it a little less frequently, because really -- is 99% of what I complain about tougher than having a baby in a tree?

No.

Thankfully.

 



Happy Mother's Day Mamacita Senorita!

Thanks for everything you do and for all of the unconditional love you've given me throughout my life.

 

I wouldn't be where I am today without you.

DGs Converge On the Big Apple

"I love the visual image of us all descending on NYC from different directions riding trains full steam ahead racing to get us to our weekend of pedis, paella, and pandemonium."


Thanks largely in part to Facebook, I have been reunited with several of my classmates from American University. (I spent a very expensive, very blurry two years there. Sorry Mom & Dad. :/) As I've mentioned before, while there, I joined a sorority -- Delta Gamma. (Technically it's a fraternity for women, but no need to split hairs for the purpose of this conversation.) I developed some truly amazing friendships with my sisters. I'd have to say that joining DG and forming those friendships was probably the best thing that came out of those two years.

Fast forward 20+ years (::cringe::).

A few months ago on Facebook, a handful of my DG sisters and I decided that we should have a reunion.

Great idea!

Now, you know how these things go. You say you want to have a reunion, you throw out some dates and places and then people start dropping off. It just happens. Life happens. Kids. Jobs. Commitments.

Guess what? We DID it and NO ONE dropped off!!!

We chose a date and agreed upon a fairly central place for all of us (of course, I threw off the curve) -- New York City!

The anticipation leading up to it was great. The texts started coming in the night before.

What are you packing? How much are you bringing? What are you wearing on the train?

Here was my answer to "what are you packing?"

Mind you...this was a 24-hour reunion.

The laughs were already starting.

We all boarded our trains from our respective cities (as Kristin mentions above in her Facebook comment, "...descending on NYC from different directions riding trains full steam ahead..." We came from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

All of us (minus Karen, who arrived later) managed to find each other in the pandemonium that is Penn Station. (That was my first time there and oy vey!) After hugs all around we decided to cab it to our hotel.

While stuck in some CRAZY traffic, we all happened to notice this in front of us:

A sign from above!
Kismet!
Fate!
(For those of you not clued in, those are the Greek letters for Delta Gamma!)

I told the cab driver we were in a race, the Amazing Race and he needed to speed up and get next to that car. (He didn't hear me, but I've always wanted to say that, so I did.) We did eventually pull up next to the car and we "made" Jeanine ask the woman passenger if she was a Delta Gamma. She said her daughter was and we told her we were DGs and having a reunion. More laughs and smiles.

We finally got to our hotel (thanks to Lisa and her Priceline Negotiator skills we stayed at the Marriott East Side.) It was a nice hotel!

We were all STARVING and decided to head to P.J. Clarke's for some lunch. It was only a short walk from the hotel and had been recommended. It was also featured in "Mad Men." It was a great place with great atmosphere, great food, and best of all, great drinks!

This was our truly amazing (and I am NOT throwing that phrase around lightly) appetizer. Homemade potato chips with buttermilk blue cheese dip. (After the chips were gone, I ended up putting my fork in the dip for a scoop.) Those drinks you see are Passionate Cosmopolitans. (I think. The website is down and my memory stinks, so I could be wrong.) I know one thing. They were GOOD. We then each ordered our various lunches (I had mini cheeseburgers with fries.)

Little Sis/Big Sis (Kristin & Jeanine)

 

 

Jeanine & I

 



Where's Lisa??? I don't want her to feel left out, so I'll include a random/blast from the past picture and she and I.

Back to the future!

Karen then met up with us and we walked a few blocks to a nail bar. I believe it was called Elysee (no web site.) It seemed very nice and it was...minus the scalding hot water in the pedicure tub. We had pedicures and some had manicures and we spent more time catching up and laughing.

We then headed back to the hotel and talked and talked and talked some more. Jeanine's an OB-GYN, so let's just say that there were some funny stories to hear. (This is a PG-rated blog, so I'll spare you the details.)

Next we all got changed (I chose one of the five tops that I brought) and head to Whiskey Blue. Here  we all are with our fabulous libations!

L to R: Lisa, Karen, Jeanine, Kristin, Me

[Disclaimer: The lighting is horrible on me. The white jacket exacerbates a bad angle for me. Everyone else looks fab. Enough said.]

That's a peartini in front of me! Could've taken the paint off the walls! The raspberry martini (in front of Lisa and Jeanine) were my second choice. Much yummier! We stayed there and pretty much rehashed our days at AU and caught up on people we'd long forgotten about. More laughs!

Unfortunately, Karen had to leave us to get back home, so we forged ahead for some dinner.

As the slogan goes, "Beef. It's what's for dinner."

We ended up at Smith & Wollensky with this slab o' meat. It was gooooood. We had some buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes to start with and then asparagus with our steak. And dessert. And wine. I practically needed to be rolled out!

Lisa and I then proceeded to go into a beef coma while Jeanine and Kristin went out in search of fried ice cream.

We all then met up on Sunday a.m. for a light breakfast. It was beautiful out, so we walked to Penn Station. Along the way we snapped this one.

Caption on Facebook? "We survived!"

We then made our way to Penn Station (with a side trip to Ann Taylor LOFT for a bit of shopping) and said our goodbyes, promising it wouldn't be ANOTHER 20 years before we got together again.

Thanks ladies -- it was a blast! :)

We Interrupt This Blogging Silence For a Post to Catch Up On Things

Hello.

Is it me you're looking for?

Oh, sorry, this isn't a Lionel Richie song.

In my most recent post, I referred to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Oy.

Unfortunately, this event will go down in history (or at least my history) as one of the ones that I'll always remember what I was doing, where I was, etc... when I found out the news. (Same with Challenger explosion and 9/11.)

I was in John's and my bedroom relaxing on the bed and just happened to check Twitter on my phone. I saw this:

photo credit

 

 



I immediately went to Boston.com but saw nothing. I then turned the TV on and it was already on a local affiliate of a major network.

An explosion.

Finish line of Boston Marathon.

People hurt.

Maybe people killed (which we'd later find out to be true.)

I went out onto the porch to tell John. He'd been taking a nap and when I told him there'd been an explosion at the Boston Marathon, he looked at me in disbelief.

I immediately wrote a message on our niece's Facebook wall to make sure she was OK, as she'd posted that she was going into Boston to watch the Marathon. Luckily she responded right back and said she was OK.

From Monday afternoon through Monday night we were glued to the TV. It got to be too much at one point and I had to walk away.

Tuesday I was in a daze, as were others.

Over the next few days, we came to some semblance of normalcy, as on Thursday, my Dad arrived in town. Friday morning he was to take a bus to western Massachusetts to see my family.

The entire world knows what happened on Friday morning (and late Thursday night.)

John got a call from his boss early Friday morning telling him to turn the TV on.

More killing.

More explosions.

Chaos.

Chaos in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Watertown.

My aunt lived in Watertown.
My close friend from high school grew up in Watertown.
I used to work on the border of Watertown.

Forty miles away from me geographically, but close in my mind.

John didn't go to work as he works in Charlestown and Boston was on "lock down." My Dad didn't take the bus to western Massachusetts, as the bus terminal is in Boston.

I went to work. A former co-worker who now lives in Japan sent me a message and asked if people were at work and were they working. Most people were streaming news. Again, a lot of disbelief.

I got home and John and my Dad were watching TV (what else was there to do?) We saw the press conference wherein the "lock down" was ended and people were allowed to leave their homes.

At that point, we headed out for Chinese food. I mean, the show was over, right???

About halfway through our meal, the waitress turned on the second TV in the restaurant.

Something must be happening.

Something was happening in Watertown.

The suspect that escaped had been found.

We finished our meal and rushed home to sit in front of the TV again.

Unbelievable.

The guy was in a boat. In someone's driveway. Just outside of the perimeter of the search that had taken place in Watertown. He was alive.

The whole ordeal was just a nightmare. Innocent lives taken. Innocent people injured. A great event marred by tragedy.

I guess I should've named this post, "We Interrupt This Blogging Silence For a Post to Catch Up On Thing" singular. I'll have to wait to catch you up on the rest of things...this was a looooong one.