Wednesday, February 29, 2012

My first love has died. RIP, Davy Jones.

From the time I was 11 until I was about 13, I walked a mile to the closest variety store each month to spend the few quarters I had saved that month on the latest Tiger Beat magazine, because photos of this adorable man graced page after page.

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I couldn’t wait to get the magazine home so I could have Davy all to myself.  Once I’d memorized each photo, I’d invite my similarly-swoony next door neighbors over so we could swoon together for a few more hours. 

I could have sworn that the feelings I had for Davy Jones were the real thing back then and anyone who challenged me, especially bratty older teen brothers and teasy parents, would get an earful if they ever challenged me – which they eventually learned not to do.

Davy even got me into big trouble.  Yes-siree, he did!  I had decided that enjoying photos of Davy in the teen magazines wasn’t enough; I wanted him with me in my (beautifully wallpapered) room at all times!  So I mixed water and flour together to make a thick paste, as a friend from school had taught me to do, and I used that tacky paste to “glue” photo after photo and page after page of Davy onto my bedroom walls until the wallpaper barely peeked through.

When my parents discovered what I had done to the walls of our turn-of-the-century home with the perfectly beautiful (but not to me) turn-of-the-century wallpaper, I was in BIG trouble! 

To this day, I believe that my supposed teeny-bopper schoolgirl crush on Davy Jones was more.  After all, I went on to marry this gorgeous look-alike!

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Rest in peace, Davy… my first crush, my first love, my first boyfriend.

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Monday, February 27, 2012

A quarter century ago today

….this guy made his grand appearance.

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(:::::The years, they pass so quickly!:::::)

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www.memorymp.com

Happy birthday, Peter.  I’m so proud of you and I love you to pieces!

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Saturday, February 25, 2012

This ain’t no mother/daughter cupcake party!

Oh, no.  When the daughters, best friends since junior high are the ripe old age of 27, they are so much more mature…

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And the mothers?  Well, we’re all no longer spending the majority of our days being…this:

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And we’ve all come to really enjoy our mother/daughter friendships.  (Oh wait, does that imply that we ever didn’t?  Nah, couldn’t be!) So what do we do?  We get together for occasional mother/daughter cooking parties! 

Last night we cooked a Thai meal in our new kitchen… where the bar is a perfect gathering place for chatting and munching on hors deurves…

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…and there’s plenty of room for lots of cooks.

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Of course, chopping and cooking with one hand reserved for the wine glass takes a little longer.  But with company like this, THAT’S the whole point!

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Before we knew it, dinner was served.

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Here’s all of us, sitting down for a meal of deliciousness!

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Cheers!

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I’m not sure how the conversation steered to my mother’s fur coats and willed and bequeathed jewelry, but the evening eventually came to this:

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Mom would have really loved to be at this little gathering – and I guess that, in a way, she was.

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Testing the Blogger iPhone app

Testing, testing... Is this thing on?

Of course I must post a photo!

That is a photo of the wine I bought for the mother/daughter dinner party we're having tomorrow night. Yes, wine is included when the daughters are 28 and the moms are 50-something!

And hey, I'll blog about it.

Because I'm back and all...

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Missing in Action

…or rather, INaction

I used to blog incessantly, about every little thing, no matter how trivial.  I was constantly amazed that anyone at all visited my blog but somehow over the years I attracted a following of people who, for whatever reason, found my relatively mundane life interesting.

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Then I joined Facebook and I slowly stared posting trivialities about my mundane life there instead of on my blog.

Oddly enough, I constantly ask myself now whether a topic is blog worthy – which I never used to do.  And 99% of the time I answer myself with a resounding NO.  So I Facebook said topic instead which, truth be told, simply bores a different audience!

Regardless of whether my loyal readers miss me, I miss blogging!  So I’m making an effort to come back.  Brace yourself more of the truly mundane!

So where have I been, you ask? 

Mostly hanging out here in the Land of Limbo. 

Although my company Sandcastle Educational Consulting is still alive and well (though a bit dormant at the moment), I am looking for full-time work as an Educational Media Specialist (“I create experiences that engage and inspire youth and families”) with my eye and heart focused on one position in particular with Microsoft’s Kinect for Kids.  Just how perfect would THAT be?!

I’ve interviewed twice and now it’s pretty much a waiting game while that team re-structures and figures out what their needs are and where (if anywhere) I’d best fit.  My fingers have been crossed for so long that I have a feeling they’re stuck this way forever – which is fine, because hope and optimism never hurt anyone.

And if that position doesn’t pan out, I’ll do my own re-assessing.  Unfortunately, Sandcastle doesn’t offer great benefits that allow us to save for retirement, which is really where we need to focus now that we’re ONE TUITION PAYMENT AWAY (!!!) from being done with paying for kids’ college – something we’ve done for the past ten years solid!

So instead of waiting until everything is resolved and all nice and pretty, as I’ve been doing thus far, I guess I’ll blog all the ups and downs and ins and outs of my life – just as I did for five years until I… didn’t.

And hey, guess what?  I’m solidly on the road to getting back in shape and finding a new healthy me – or, as I indicate on the masthead of my blog at My Fitness Pal, “steadfastly clawing my way back from the depths of LETTING MYSELF GO.”  This journey is a tough one and has been where I’ve focused the majority of my energy lately.  After almost 30 years of focusing on everyone else’s health and needs, I am finally, finally focusing on my own.  It actually is beginning to feel good and I am actually beginning to look forward to the endorphin rush that I get each day when I work out at the gym. 

I know – that looks funny to me too!  Me?  Working out daily at a gym?  Yup!  I lift weights (a full circuit!), sweat on the elliptical, and swim.  Something every single day.  Me!  Can you believe it?  And for two months now I’ve tracked every single morsel that’s gone into my mouth – which is so easy using the My Fitness Pal app’s bar code scanner!

So ten pounds down, forty to go.  Ugh – that just looks so daunting!  But I’m taking it one pound, one centimeter , one lap, and one carrot at a time, allowing myself a full year to accomplish my goal.  If nothing else, I should feel better this year (my third!) at the Danskin Triathlon… where I plan to actually jog, rather than walk for the first time since breaking my ankle three years ago.

So yeah, that’s where I’ve been.  I promise not to stay away for so long again… as long as you promise that you won’t mind if I go back to posting the mundane. 

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Thursday, February 09, 2012

Could I ever love again if…?

I always wondered whether I could fall in love again if something happened to my sweetheart.

Today I discovered the answer.

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His name – I kid you not -- is LORDAI.  Lordai, lordai, lordai!

I love my Boo dearly.  How could you not love THIS?

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But I stopped cold in my tracks at PetSmart today as I passed the room with the kitties up for adoption because this guy just took my breath away.

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Yes, I’m shallow.  And fickle.  And he’s a looker.  What can I say?

Unfortunately (or, actually, fortunately), there wasn’t anyone available to open his cage so I couldn’t hold him and love him… and steal him.  (Or even wake him up!)  But oh, how I wanted to.

I also kinda fell for a few other kitties in nearby cages:

This is Peter:

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And this is Babs:

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And this is Vaughn:

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But Lordai’s mai gai!

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