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.

Car-isma

I grew up in a family that always had a car. To us it was a method of transportation. No fuss, no muss. If you got in, turned the key and it started , it was great. We never waxed, washed or buffed. It was not a priority.  It was a piece of metal. My life now revolves around a car. I didn't give birth to it but it has become a third child. It is pampered and cared for. It has cost more than a years college tuition at an Ivy League school. I will never understand "car people". I give my heart to something that returns the love. Maybe a car does that in a way that I just do not see.

Fig Tree

Nothing is sweeter than eating fruit from a tree that you have grown. Two years ago on the day of my son's engagement party, his future father-in-law planted a fig tree in my backyard. It wasn't really a tree. It was a leafless branch. He told me to water it daily and within five years it would bear fruit. For two years I looked at this twig and waited to see a change. Last month I saw leaves sprouting from it. I was so happy. Finally after two years of being nothing more than a piece of wood, there was a change. I never looked too closely at it after that. Last week I took a closer look and there they were. Tiny figs. A few of them. I was so happy that the tree was bearing fruit in only two years instead of five. I do not have a green thumb so my expectations of growing my own figs was rather low. In a few more weeks, I will be able to eat my favorite fruit fresh off of the tree. I cannot wait.

The Great Divide

For over twenty years I have been dining out with my Mah Jongg girls every few months. It is the most pleasant, easy dinner. I am using the word easy, specifically. It is meant to describe a group of people that feels comfortable with each other. There is an equal give and take of conversation. Each person is genuinely happy for the other person's accomplishments. Maybe that comes with having a long history with each other. Maybe it comes from each person having a pleasant temperament. Either way it is always a fun evening. We order good food and always leave room for dessert, even when there really is no room. Throughout the years I have an unspoken assigned job. I have been given the responsibility of equally dividing dessert. We order 2 desserts and need them to be divided into four equal parts. It used to be five when we had another group member. I size up the dessert and use my spatial relation skills to figure our how to make it equal. Not every dessert is an even shape. That is where my "great dividing skills" come in. I hope to hold this job for another twenty years.

Heat Wave or Eat Wave

My sister and I decided to add exercise to our weekly routine. Last week we went to the local high school and walked the track four times. Each lap is 1/4 mile so we felt that a full mile was a good start. The track is new and cushions your feet. I am glad to see my tax dollars at work. Last night we planned to walk again. It was 91 degrees but we still went to the track. Since we made the commitment to be healthy we did not want to back out. We walked 2 laps and decided it was just too hot to continue. We then put a contingency plan into motion. We drove to McDonald's and got sweet tea and caramel mocha latte and then continued on to Dunkin Donuts for chocolate chip muffins. Boy, this is a health plan I could really live with!