songbird's crazy world

3 weeks.  3 short weeks. Jen will graduate from college in 3 short weeks. She did the paperwork months ago, she's got her cap and gown.  She is two term papers and two final exams away from completing her college career. Seems like it was only yesterday she was a baby in my arms.  And now she's all grown up.  When you hold your baby in your arms, you wonder what she'll be like as an adult.  Will she share your hopes and dreams for her or will she follow her own path? With Jen, it was a bit of both.  And when I look at her, when I listen to her speak, I am so proud.

Anna Brones: 10 Ways to Pretend You're a Foodie

In what has become the pattern to our Saturday nights, we went out to eat this evening, then wound up at Drew's house to watch a movie on TV. Dinner tonight was at La Casa Latina. Place got good write ups in Newsday and the Times, so when we snagged a Groupon we had to try it. I love Latin American food, liked it even before our cruise 2 years ago -- we made port in Belize, Roatan and Cozumel, and were fed a ton of rice and beans in each port. Our meal tonight began with delicate fish tacos, followed by pupusas with salsa and a vinegary slaw. Salad was fresh and crisp. I ordered the Honduran platter -- shell steak, rice, beans and a plantain accompanied by something called crema - sort of like sour cream but with a vinegar undertone. It also came with a fried egg, which I gave to Drew. It was supposed to come with avocado, but they forgot to give it to me and I never missed it. Drew ordered the Parrillada Mixta...

When I was in high school (way way back in the 70's) I took a class called Film and Filmmaking.  The class was developed by one of my favorite teachers, Mr. A, as an alternative for seniors who didn't want to take a more traditional literature class (and it also kept the AV Squad nerds busy). I was an English nerd, and took the class IN ADDITION TO my regular English class - I was in Ms. G's section of Film and in AP English with Mr. A.   I remember when Mr. A's children bought him an uber-expensive Betamax (remember those?) so that he wouldn't have to set up his projector every time he wanted to watch a movie at home. We saw many movies over the course of the year -- Shane; Citizen Kane; Singin' In The Rain. But one of my absolute favorites was Casablanca.   Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Heinreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, and Sidney Greenstreet in a fez.  WWII storyline, filmed in black and white.  Exotic locale -- Morocco.  What a gloriou...

Last week in the hospital I heard a patient in another room coughing so hard I would have sworn he or she was coughing up a lung.  I thought "I hope I don't catch something!" Sure enough . . .I have a cold.  A lousy, miserable cold.  Now, when I am seriously ill, I am so busy fighting whatever it is that I forget to be miserable.  A life-threatening illness?  A condition requiring surgery?  I put on a positive attitude, bond with my caregivers and do battle with whatever it is that's ailing me. But a cold is different.  Everyone gets colds, and we all suffer through them, so no one is inclined to offer much more than a Kleenex and token sympathy. When I get a cold, my ears become my vulnerability. About 8 years ago I had a spring cold that blossomed into sinusitis.  I was so congested that I felt like my head was wrapped in cotton.  Still, I muddled through, living on tea and Sudafed, until I realized I was no longer able to hear anythin...

So the last two weeks have not exactly gone as planned. Five days in the hospital, missing the Moody Blues concert and that expensive car repair followed by the rained-out ballgame . . . So it's Monday morning.  Still cold and rainy.When I checked on the status before I left the house, the railroad was running on or close to schedule.  In the 10 minutes it took to drive to the station, the entire branch had meltdown.  20+ minute delays.  At least it's running, right?

So we got up this morning and immediately began to check weatherbug and mets.com for a status. Frankly I was a bit surprised that Drew didn't just say "forget the game" because of the miserable time we had at Jones Beach last summer (I'm surprised he didn't freak when I bought Jimmy Buffett tickets for this August, after all the complaining he did that night!). It was drizzling when Drew, Marc and I headed out to Citi Field. The rain got heavier when we got into Queens. We decided we'd park the car, collect our Tom Seaver bobbleheads, have some lunch and see how things went. Last summer, when Drew and I were at a ball game, we found a hot dog stand that cooks them in beer. I had never eaten a hot dog prepared that way, but Drew has fond memories of a restaurant called Zum Zum's, which prepared them that way. So we got to Flushing Meadow, and I could practically taste the hot dog . . .and the parking lot gates ...