Day-cation

Today my family is going on a day-cation. It is a one day getaway where you go to a fun place but do not sleep over. We are headed to Seaside Heights, New Jersey, the location of the Jersey Shore television show. We started to visit Seaside Heights about 20 years ago, long before MTV made it popular. We came across it quite by chance. We were headed to Colonial Williamsburg and I felt sick, so we pulled off the road at the Seaside Heights exit, not knowing anything about it. It turned out to be the best family vacation we ever had. We returned there 2 more times over the years. This year we are taking my daughter-in-law for the first time. We will have a picnic lunch and then go to the small water park. After that we will walk on the boardwalk, play games and eat all kinds of high cholesterol foods. We can't wait.

Three Things

There are three things that I cannot do well, no matter how hard I try. The first one is to type without looking at the keyboard. I type with two fingers and must look at the letters as I go. I have taken 2 typing courses and have done miserably. I guess typing is not my forte. The second thing I cannot do well is make meatballs. I have tried various "foul proof" recipes and after I get done, they are now "foul". The last thing I cannot do well is correctly use apostrophes. My sister is a teacher and usually proofreads this blog every day. Last night we had dinner together and were talking about grammar. She kept repeating that, "there are three rules for apostrophes". She went over them five times and even though I listened intently I cannot remember what they are. I know the first kind is used as possession, "Susan's hat". The second one is used as a contraction, "Susan's going to cook". The third one is anyone's guess. I think my mind blanked out after I heard the first two. (Notice that I correctly used an apostrophe in the previous sentence for the word anyone's). Maybe I do not learn the third rule because I like the feeling that someone is checking my work.

One Moment

The great Nat King Cole sang a beautiful song titled "That Sunday, That Summer". I have it saved onto my computer and sometimes listen to it over and over. One line of the song says, "If I had to choose one moment to live within my heart". I play that song when I want to sit and daydream. We all have special moments that live within our hearts. Wonderful memories that never fade. Memories that still bring a smile to our faces no matter how long ago they happened. I have countless special memories and I cherish each and every one of them. I am listening to that song as I write this blog. I am sitting here thinking, ....If I had to choose one moment, what would it be?

TV Guide

Since the 1960's my family always had the TV Guide delivered to our house. It was the most awaited piece of literature we read. Those were the days before magazines like People and Us. We received our Hollywood news in a weekly installment. The Guide had the listings of the week's shows and one or two articles about the actors. I remember the feeling of being the first one to read it because the pages were still adhered to each other. A few years ago my local newspaper started to print a weekly television guide, so we stopped the TV Guide subscription. It was hard to "break up" with the TV Guide, but why pay for something that was now free. When we switched our television service to cable we found a TV guide channel that allows you to scroll through a log and find out what is playing. We no longer removed the newspaper guide, as scrolling was so much easier. Each week as the new guide arrived we would replace it with the old guide. When we decided to no longer use the paper version, no one replaced it. The old one just remained there. We were all too lazy to remove it from the end table and throw it out. So there it is, since October 22, 2011. It had now become an accessory in the den. After 10 months we are so used to it that I do not think it will ever be tossed out.

Sleepless In NY

I haven't slept in two days. I have a cold and for some reason the over the counter medications are not really helping me. I am more stuffed than a turkey on Thanksgiving. For the last two nights I have been lying awake in bed thinking. In the morning, I have no idea what I was thinking about. Last night as a last resort I got up and took some Nyquil. Big mistake. Now I am stuffed up and feel drugged. Not a good combination. I am getting ready to go to work now for lack of anything better to do. I have spent 10 hours in bed and want to be as far away as I can from my covers. Summer colds stink!

Cruisin

Every Friday night in the summer, men gather at the local train station parking lot and show off their cars. These are not ordinary cars. They are classic restored cars. There are muscle cars, vintage cars and even some cars that are modified beyond belief. Although most of the men are well over fifty, on Friday nights at the Bellmore Station, they are 20 again. Some of these senior citizens were wearing ponytails, leather vests and biker boots. They looked like "Fonzie" from Happy Days. I bet most of them took Lipitor that morning and a few of them had a heart stent. But tonight at the Bellmore station, they were all young. I have gone to these shows since my children were 10 years old but this time I had my car there. After many weeks of being in restoration, it had its debut. People stood around it looking at every inch of it. Each person said how beautiful it was. Some people stayed to talk for a while. It was a camaraderie of the car people. One thing I must say is that I saw no unhappy faces there.

Congratulations

A very happy event happened last night. My nephew became engaged to a wonderful girl. She will officially become part of our family in the near future. She was unofficially part of the family for three years. Both of them possess so many wonderful qualities. They are loving, kind and caring. When you are with them you feel a wonderful sense of calmness. I guess that is the feeling of love. This morning there are two lucky families. Ours for adding "C" and hers for adding "A". It still amazes me that in a world filled with billions of people, two people so right for each other met. I wish them a lifetime of happiness. They deserve the best in life because they are the best.