songbird's crazy world

NaBloPoMo two months in a row? well, why not? I'm always game to try something new or different (within reason, of course!) today I celebrate making it through the month of April with at least one post every day. tomorrow I start on the month of May. wish me luck.

Crosby, Stills and Nash:

I don't know why I didn't "discover" Jimmy Buffett earlier in my life. But now....after having seen him live last November....well, I've officially become a Parrothead. I would never have imagined it. This one is on my iPod, along with the crosby Sills version, and a few "covers" by Jimmy wannabes.

I really really really want to see the new King Tut exhibit. I missed the exhibit when it came to New York 30 years ago. Drew says it was magnificent. He says we "have" to go sometime this summer. I agree. In 6th grade, when we studied ancient Egypt, I did a book report and presentation to the class on Tut's tomb. I have always been fascinated by Tut's story, and the story of Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb in 1922. I am so excited.

this is the house Jen will live in next year.

Today's post on MidCentury Modern Moms sums up a lot of stuff I've told you guys before, so I won't repeat it here.

the show starts with a food temptation.  Several are tempted,  but Koli pigs out to save Sam.  The workout after that is rough on him.  but wow, O'Neal and the push-ups -- an Oscar-like performance! then it's time to meet with the doctor....good news. and then the second challenge...building blocks..you have to build and climb a tower....for a one pound advantage at weigh-in.  Michael helps Ashley....but Daris is the one who succeeds.  and there's a one pound disadvantage for the person who comes in last...so everyone needs to climb....and O'Neal takes a bad fall...scary!  he's OK, but he's got the disadvantage because he didn't finish the challenge. then it's time for a beach workout. OMG, poor O'Neal....his brother Arthur died...  I am in tears... Last chance workout, very emotional for O'Neal... Koli must weigh in first because of the "vote" issue, and he loses 10 pounds....despite the overindulgence.  Daris does well....

when Drew picked me up at the train station Friday night he told me the bad news: his sister Shelley called him from Newrk, NJ to tell him she'd been in a car accident. Shelley had been accompanying a family friend on a weekend visit to relatives in Pennsyvania. the accident happened as they were driving through Newark. both women sustained injuries -- Shelley was treated in the ER and released, her friend was held overnight. the car, unfortunately, was totaled. I won't go into the details of the accident, other than to say the car was hit by an 18-wheeler and careened into another car parked on the shoulder of the highway, so on Saturday morning Drew and I found ourselves taking that hour-long drive to Newark,collecting the two women at the hospital and collecting their possessions from the car at the impound yard. (a shout-out here to Officer Aviles of the 3rd Precinct for being so helpful!) Not the way you want to spend a weekend, of course. but considering ...

Have you seen these? Plastic shot glasses on a beaded necklace....I spotted them in CVS, in the "seasonal" aisle, when I did a midnight run for calculator batteries the night before a statistics exam (Becca's, not mine.) Do you really need to carry a shot glass around on a necklace? I mean, how much drinking are you planning to do? On the other hand, you won't forget which one is yours, will you?

Lately I have been hearing, quite literally, my father's "war stories". My father turned 18 in February 1945, and was drafted into the army shortly thereafter. He was discharged on Friday December 13, 1946, and always considered Friday the 13th to be a lucky day. While he's technically a WWII vet, he served mostly in post-war Europe. My father's family never expected that he would be drafted. He'd been ill as a child and had a heart murmur, which kept him out of gym class all through school. In theory he was drafted for "limited duty", but when he arrived at basic training in Georgia he was expected to do the same activities as every other new recruit. Georgia, where they heard his Brooklyn accent and his very Jewish surname, and they wanted to see if he had horns on his head.  ah, the "good old days." Georgia, where he met Manny from the Bronx, who coincidentally had the same surname. They would become friends....and after the war ...

Janet's post last week reminded me of two toys Becca had as a child....only these were NOT toys that delighted me. The first toy was a cat.  a cute, furry white cat.  a cute, furry white cat that meowed every time it moved.  the first day she had the cat, she was holding it in the car.  she fell asleeep and the cat wound up on the back seat.  and it meowed every time I hit a bump.  and I was driving on the Long Island Expressway for 45 minutes...listening to that cat meow for 45 minutes. the cat had a battery-ectomy that night. the second toy.... Amazing Allie the doll was programmed to "interact" with your child, not just to repeat phrases but to use the right phrase depending on what your child was doing with the doll.  Beca fell in love with the doll when she saw it on TV.   So I spent $60 for the doll. Alas, reality was not nearly as fun as the commercial. after playing with the doll for the first...and last...time,...

Happy Earth Day 2010. for your viewing pleasure, some of the natural wonders we saw in the Caribbean:

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) Prom season -- that truly wonderful and exciting   dramatic and terrifying time of the year. If you've been reading my blog  you've seen me post about prom season before.  I never went to my high school prom.  I didn't have a lot of friends in my class, and my boyfriend at the time had very little money.  It didn't make sense for us to spend all that money, so we wound up going to the movies instead.  Not so with my daughters.  I have been living the "prom drama" life for 4 years now.  I've got the gray hairs to prove it! The dress...the shoes...the hair and makeup...do you know that there's actually a magazine called Your Prom that gives fashion tips?  Limo or party bus?  What after-prom activites -- a party at someone's house, a trip into NYC for a show at a comedy club?    Just the planning alone can cause gray hair for the parents. Our school's prom is for members of the...

the show starts with a competition....who can hold coins the longest? sunshine almost made it, but Michael won the challenge. glad they both got money, though. I can't stand Suze Orman...but it's nice to see Danny again. Second challenge -- 2 people will win a brand new car.... 140 keys on the hill, only 2 start the cars...it's pouring rain and the ground is muddy...it's windy...they have to run up the hill, grab a key, come back and try it in both cars, then go back up the hill again....Andrea wins one of the cars....the look on her face was priceless. everyone else is focusing on the other car now....and O'Neal wins the second car and gives it to Sunshine. some tearful personal history from Victoria during the workouts....and then they're all throwing each other into the mud. last chance workout and Jillian gets revenge for being dragged through the mud... and weigh-in time happens.... sunshine did not have a good week, and O'Neal hoped ...

OMG Airport 1975 was on TV last week. "The stewardess is flying the plane!" how absurd.  yet they made it work.  and made a real nail biter. and the cast list was amazing.  Charleton Heston, Efram Zimbalist Jr., George Kennedy, Gloria Swanson,  Helen Reddy, Linda Blair, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, :Larry Storch, Norman Fell, Karen Black, Jerry Stiller, Erik Estrada, Sharon Gless  -- some famous, some rising stars, a few on their way down ... and they created somethng that was so easily parodied -- with great success -- in Airplane .

who would ever need this?

I cried the night Harry Chapin died. Harry lived in Huntington, NY. I grew up in a community that's part of the Town of Huntington. In 1975 Harry played a concert at my high school -- it was just Harry and his guitar in the high school auditorium. Before that concert I'd heard his one or two hits on the radio, but after...well. I became a lifelong fan. I saw him again when I was in college, at a Town of Huntington Arts Council event. Or maybe it was the Performing Arts Foundation. He autographed a frisbee for me. And then we saw his concert in Schenectady. this was a big-deal concert, with his entire band. Amazing. I always admired his work with the World Hunger organization. July 16, 1981. Harry was supposed to give a free concert in Eisenhower Park. A group of us got to the park early, set up a blanket and our boom box, and were just hanging out....when the DJ played not one, but two Chapin songs. You almost never heard two of Harry's songs back-to-back, even o...

this gadget would be perfect for me!!!!!  I ALWAYS have something to read with me...

Let me tell you how it will be; There's one for you, nineteen for me. 'Cause I'm the taxman, Yeah, I'm the taxman. Seeing as how I live in one state and work in another, I have the joy of filing two state returns along with my federal forms.  Oh, joy, rapture...

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) My ex-husband Drew has a reputation (well-earned) as the person most likely to lock himself out of his car. that's because he's done it many, many times. I remember one occasion, long before we were married, there was a party at my house, and my then-boyfriend Kenny had to unlock Drew's car with a bent metal coat hanger. And then there was the time, a few years later, when we planned to drive upstate with some friends for the Rennaisance Festival. Back then cars came with two keys, one for the trunk and one for the ignition. Somehow he managed to lock the trunk key in the trunk -- along with our picnic cooler full of food; it wouldn't have been so bad, except the car broke down just before we got to the Tappan zee Bridge -- on Labor Day weekend, so that he didn't get his car back for several days.... Yes, I married him anyhow, knowing his penchant for locking himself out of his car. Jen won't let her father tou...

the Katyn Massacre   was a massacre of Polish nationals by Soviet troops in 1940.  there's a memorial to the victims of Katyn in Jersey City, at Exchange Place, right on the waterfront, at the entrance to Grundy Pier.Occasionally you may see flowers or candles left at the memorial, in remembrance of the victims. Polish President Lech Kaczynski was on his way to Katyn for a memorial service when his plane crashed.  How fitting, then, that the Polish community of Jersey City remembered their fallen hero at the Katyn memorial:

My head is NOT into weight management right now... ...but at least I'm back to watching the show (it's up against Dancing With the Stars and American Idol, tough choice, but...) I haven't seen last week's show and haven't read the recap, but it looks like Melissa is back...ugh. we start with an immunity challenge...the first player to reach a 2% loss will win immunity. who will hit the button?  if you hit it and you're wrong, you're out of the competition. so they start by working out.  and Melissa (ugh) is playing the game again. and Vicky pushes the button...she needs 6 pounds...she just got back to the ranch and everyone thinks she's jumping the gun...sigh, she didn't make her goal. the reward challenge...carry weights from the bottom of the pool to the scale...first one to get 100 pounds gets a spa vacation, and the last one to finish the challenge gets a one pound disadvantage at weigh in....after you're done you can help a frien...

so Friday night was my second visit to Citi Field, my first to see a ball game. It was a "balmy" 54 degrees at game time, and windy in the left field nosebleed seats...but we had a great time anyhow! Here's a view of the stadium as you walk from the railroad station: In front of the main entrance you will find the home run apple from Shea Stadium -- every time someone hit a home run, the apple  would pop up: Number 42 -- that was Jackie Robinson's number: inside the stadium:   you can see the planes landing at La Guardia: 54 ddegrees, we're freezning to death, and this nutjob dedicated fan takes off his shirt. Home Run! (we saw the apple 4 times that night!) conference on the mound: let's have a Pepsi to celebrate an 8-2 victory! even the elevator doors have the Mets logo:

BIG. that's the theme for NaBloPoMo for April. the first thing that popped into my head when I heard the thme was Big, the Tom Hanks movie from the 80's.  loved the scene in FAO Schwartz where they dance on the keyboard. of course, that movie took place in New York city  -- the Big Apple. how about the "BFD" t-shirt the Democrats are selling after biden's slip of the tongue? then it was song lyrics -- first, from Disney's Carousel of Progress ride: "there's a great big beautifu  tomorrow, shining at the end of every day...." (Suzanne knows why I thought of those lyrics!) and then Billy Joel: "Because you had to be a big shot, didn't you, had to prove it to the crowd...." and "big girls don't cry...." (two different songs with the same lyric!  liked Fergie's song, but prefer the Frankie Valli song) and "and a big yellow taxi took away my old man...don't it always seem to go that you don...

and unless we hear something totally horrifc, it looks like Becca will become a Fordham student in the fall.  In fact, she's already sent her deposit to the school. she will be at the Lincoln Cneter campus, not the Bronx campus -- there are almost 3000 undergrads there, and many more grad students.  her "dorm" will be an apartment she shares with 3-5 other girls.  she'll be a subway ride and a LIRR ride away from home.  it's not what I imaged six months ago, when she began this process.she was looking at big city schools, but she was looking at schools in other states.  initially she had her heart set on Boston University or George Washington...she wanted to be away at school.  she kept talking about going away and seeing new places. but then again, Jen's decision surprised me a bit, too.  Jen wanted to stay close to home, she imagined herself at a school on Long Island, living in a dorm but coming home on weekends.  that is, until she got a...

I am headed out to Citi Field tonight...Mets vs. the Washington Nationals.  I've never been to a game at Citi Field. I've been to a concert (sir Paul), but not a game. I saw many games at Shea, of course.  But this will be a different feeling....a blend of old traditions and new.

The Dash by Linda Ellis I read of a man who stood to speak At the funeral of a friend He referred to the dates on his tombstone From the beginning to the end He noted that first came the date of his birth And spoke the following date with tears, But he said what mattered the most of all Was the dash between those years For the dash represents all the time That he spent alive on earth. And now only those who loved him Know what that little line is worth. For it matters not how much we own; The cars, the house, the cash, What matters is how we live and love And how we spend our dash. If we could just slow down enough To consider what’s true and real And always try to understand The way other people feel. And be less quick to anger, And show appreciation more And love the people in our lives Like we’ve never loved before. If we treat each other with respect, And more often wear a smile Remembering that this special dash Might only last a w...

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) Today's post was supposed to be a fluffy little piece about my daughters' prom woes.  (don't worry, it'll post eventually.) Today Becca was supposed to miss school so that she and her dad could take a look at one of the colleges that accepted her. Today Jen was supposed to be in classes, eat in the dining hall and sleep in her dorm. Today I was supposed to enjoy a business lunch in a fine restaurant in lower Manhattan. Instead, my daughters and I -- and my sisters and parents --  will attend a funeral. My mother's younger sister passed away in the wee hours of Saturday morning. My aunt's death was not unexpected.  she fell ill early in february, and got progressively worse until the inevitable happened. My daughters are no strangers to the rituals of death, of mourning and loss.  They've been to the funeral of a schoolmate, a young man who died so tragically in an auto accident.  (Jen amazed her non-...

Indulged in Passover wine....didn't see the show....catch up time next week?

when did you inexorably cross from childhood into adulthood? was it a gradual process, or was there some triggering event that made you say "I'm a grown up now"? for me, it was the night my aunt died. I was 31 at the time, with all the indicia of being an adult -- I was married and the mother of a 6 month old daughter, and was working full-time as an associate in a law firm. the night my aunt died ... I was the one who was in charge, I was the one other adult members of my family relied upon. and that's what made the difference. 19 years later, I remember so many of the details. It was the weekend that Drew and Jen and I moved out of our one-bedroom apartment and into a two-bedroom a few blocks away. It was a chaotic move, we didn't hire a moving company but had a few friends help us pack and move everything ourselves. We'd managed to get everything into the new apartment, but hadn't really begun to unpack. We were exhausted, our nerves were fr...

youtube finds...reliving my youth I practically wore out the vinyl on "An Evening with John Denver". Look at that early-70's backdrop!

I'm sure I've mentioned that my cat...my sweet, delicate Daisy...has taken over my pillow. One morning last week I woke up to find Daisy happily asleep on the pillow.... ...and I had a lovely scratch across the back of my hand. She must have mistaken my hand for a cat toy. After all, it was night...it was dark... But cats can see in the dark.... And this is the same cat who captured a baby bunny last year...

did I mention that Drew won a pair of tickets for the March 17 performance of Riverdance ? we had a wonderful evening. our evening began at Ellen's Stardust Diner . this place is knowh for its 1950's atmosphere -- the staff wear bowling shirts and poodle skirts -- and as the home of the singing waitstaff. I didn't have my RCA Small Wonder with me, and the phone's video recording is limited to 30 second clips, but here's a sample of what we saw: Drew had a burger, but this is what I ate: then it was on to Radio City Music hall and Riverdance. I found some of the performances on Youtube:

Haven't done it since january, it's time to stretch my wings again. the theme for April is "big". At some point I will have to discuss the theme, won't I?