Happy 18th Birthday, Liberty

Today was Lib's birthday. We celebrated by having lasagna and salad, crusty bread and cake. Libby went to Six flags with her friend and Sean and I took the girls to Denny's. Then Uncle Sean took them on a shopping spree. Two bikinis, two pairs of shoes, 4 Barbies, 1 Barbie pool, 1 toy medical kit, 2 doodle pets, 1 Dora craft box and 1 crazy sprinkler later, I was beginning to wonder who the birthday girl really was!! Sean loves his nieces and boy were they happy to have some new toys at Nini's house.

We will be having the major birthday/graduation bash next week so most gifts for Lib are still in the prep mode. Please cross your fingers and send up a plea for good weather on the 23rd and patience for me and mob of people I sense coming... but hey, it's a party!! Might as well get all the use from the moon bounce that we can!!

This picture is of Libby when she was a wee bairn. She was always a happy baby.
I love you, Libby.

Everything to Everyone

So, I'm an idiot. But an idiot that cares.

I realize that I'm probably the stupidest smart person I know. I've been trying to do the impossible and be everything to everyone. Most of the times, I think I do a pretty good job. I am a loving and supportive mother, an involved wife, a dedicated employee and with what's left, I try to be a really good friend. I try to keep in touch and up to date with my friends and do my best to try and invite them to be a part of my life as much as I can while involving myself in their lives when they invite me to do so. So why do I feel so crappy? Could it be because even with all this effort and juggling, I don't seem to make everyone as happy as they'd like to be, and is that *my* fault, or theirs?

This evening I was working at auditions. We didn't have an accompanist, which means the boss has to play the piano, listen and evaluate, do the paperwork and judge the vocal abilities all within a 5 minute time frame, while being polite and professional to parents and students. No pressure there. We eventually fell behind, which was inevitable and wasn't helped by some walk in appointments. (Not so easy to fit two children in one slot!!) That said, all the parents were very patient, but that put all the more pressure on the boss to keep up the grueling pace through 5 hours of auditions with one audition every 5 minutes.

Did I mention she was recently awarded a MUCH DESERVED Excellence in Teaching award??

When we had patted ourselves on the backs for a job well done and gone home to rest, there in our emailboxes, was a letter from a parent who had nothing kind to say about the audition process. A scathing letter to say the least. What a shame, because we had thought we were doing such a great job! Mostly the parent was disturbed by the fairly rapid pace that the boss - who is amazing and can recognize what she's looking for with only a few notes- had set. Again, what a shame... I'm sure that neither one of us felt very good at that point, me, the boss and the parent.

After seeing that juicy tidbit, I found that my daughter was upset with me because I told her she was allowed to do whatever she wanted for her birthday, but that I would like to spend a bit of time with her since it's her 18th. Somehow, this was upsetting to her and I was in trouble then.

Next, my dearest friend in all the world, began to tell me how inadequate I am. Oh, those weren't the words used, but that was the end result. And I wonder, how they can forget all the times they contributed or requested that I not visit for their reasons and then proceed to complain about how often I haven't been able to, knowing my world and the schedule I've been keeping?

That brings me around to the very beginning. I don't think I'll ever stop trying to be everything to everyone, mostly because I love the people I let into my world, but maybe I should instead learn to be as much as I can to as many as I can and let go of the difference. Maybe it's not ME that is the issue entirely and maybe I have to just learn to let people feel the way they do without taking the blame or attempting to help/fix everything. Doesn't really make me feel any better... sigh... tomorrow shall be another day....

Remember the USS Liberty?

Today is the 40th anniversary of the attack on the USS Liberty. 34 men lost their lives on that day, including my husbands father, pictured above. Today, we will gather at Arlington Cemetery for a memorial service at the mass grave. (where the remains of multiple men are interred after they were recovered from the area where the torpedo hit the ship.)

I could never do the Uss Liberty's story justice, but if you are interested in how an Israeli attack on an American ship could happen.. please go visit the website http://www.ussliberty.org/

And Baby makes.... 4?

This morning at 3:52 am, my eldest daughter gave birth to my 4th grandchild, Sebastian Sage.
She had been in labor since last Friday, but had finally called me yesterday complaining of lower pressure. I asked her if she could suddenly breathe again and she said yes, so I told her that today was the day. We had been placing bets on times and weights. I had chosen 11:23, then 1:23 , saying to my daughter that I was sticking with the numbers 2 and 3. Then my birthweight guess was 8lb 6oz... oh well, got that backward.

My first grandchild was born on the 1st and my second on the 2nd. Number 3 lost her mind and was born on the 19th and I was hoping that number 4 would revert to form and be born on the 4th, but alas, he took his time and got here on the 5th.

When I called my youngest daughter to let her know she was an Auntie again, she asked about the baby's size, which I told her was 6 lb, 8 oz. She laughed and said, "That's a fake baby... that's nothing more than a sack of flour!!" (Granted, she's never had a baby, but she comes from a family of supersized infants. 8lb 11 oz, 10lb 11oz, 12 lb 8oz, 10 lb 4 oz, are the numbers shes used to hearing) Anywho, I sent her a picture of the little munchkin and she said she was going to call him Dopey, after one of the dwarfs from Disney's Snow White. His first picture did look kind of like Dopey, but now that he's awake and looking at the camera, he doesn't look Dopey to me at all. In fact he looks like his name. He looks like a Sebastian Sage.

I'll get to see him in a few weeks and I can't wait to sniff his head!!

My trip to NYC

I had to ride the train to NYC recently to conduct some business. I had never ridden the train before and had never been to NYC by myself either, but some things must be done and so I did it. I always say, "I can DO anything, I am just not comfortable doing it sometimes."

I noticed a number of things on my trip and thought I'd just let them come to me as they will...

On my up to NY, I looked at all the housing that clings to the sides of the railroad tracks. It was an interesting observation. There were row houses in Baltimore that were largely boarded up and vacant. I wondered how we could have the housing issues we have with so many empty houses. My mind raced, thinking if anyone could fix these places up, then rent them, that would be better than leaving them to rot. It was strange to see 4 and 5 rows of empty houses and then one house in the entire row with signs of habitation. Around Wilmington, there seemed to be a renovation of sorts. All the buildings by the tracks were undergoing improvements, with revitalization in both living areas and and retail. The houses around Philadelphia were dirty and run down with trash in their yards and the houses near Trenton announced their blue collar owners with pride.

When I got into Penn Station, I was amazed at how much it reminded me of a rabbit warren.. tubes and tunnels all over the place.

Walking up 6th avenue around noon, it was crowded. Ahead of me there was a tall woman. She had to be at least 6 foot, dark hair and willowy. Two Hispanic men were following her and watching her move, talking about her the entire time. They laughed and then one made a hand gesture to emphasize what he was saying, leveling his hand at his height (about 5 foot 3 or so) and comparing it to her. The men jabbed each other and turned the corner.

Still while walking up 6th avenue (I had to walk a mile) I got behind a woman who was wearing a pink top, heels, severely pulled back hair and tight black pinstripe capri's. She was painfully thin and the stripes did nothing for her that was nice. All they did was accentuate how thin and linear she was. The only curve on her was the one where her thighs didn't meet and she looked like she had just gotten off a horse that she'd been riding for a long time. Even her legs bowed outward before continuing down. I couldn't think of a polite way to tell her that she should never wear tight pinstriped capri's again.

While walking NYC I noticed an interesting phenomenon about pedestrians. Pedestrians cross the street like waves crash on the beaches. At some point, someone decides to stop and wait for a safe time to cross. This is almost like a signal, because others also stop (even if there is no traffic) and begin to gather, like the swell of a wave. More and more people accumulate and you can see them all beginning to lean forward and then, suddenly, the mass of people break and flood into the street, flowing in two directions as once like a confluence, and just as suddenly, the flow of people begins to recede until one of them stops and it starts all over again.

At 7th Ave and W 52nd, just above some of the busiest and most crowded areas in NYC (Times Square) I approached an unusually empty corner and glanced aside at the woman who had just stepped up perpendicular to me. There before me was a lady who's child belongs to the Children's Chorus and I had worked closely with for the first time this spring. What was the likelihood that in NYC, I would be meandering up 7th avenue towards Central Park at 4 in the afternoon and bump into this woman. It was really strange!! Both of our jaws dropped and we looked at each other in astonishment.

And now, I'll infect you all... It's a small world after all.. It's a small world after all...

It's Official

Today was Libby's graduation. We are so proud of you, Libby!

Snake Fishing in America

Yesterday, my dog Piper was incessantly barking in the back yard. She's a pretty vocal dog, but this was a different kind of bark, so Libby went out to investigate. There, coiled on the ground, was a snake. The snake was trying to stare Piper down, but when your head is the size of a large thumb, you aren't as effective as a lab/rottie mix. Libby decided that the dog needed to be inside the house and that she needed to alert somebody else to the presence of the snake.


Up walks Frank from the mailbox, oblivious to the fact that he has walked within a foot of this snake. When Libby asked if he had seen it, he seemed dumbfounded that he'd missed it! Being of the male persuasion his first instinct was to get a stick and poke at it. (Um... for those of you who don't realize that I live in Maryland, we have poisonous snakes called Copperheads here!) The snake, who was trying to stare down the dog previously, decided that a 6'5" man with a stick was too much for it, so it slithered up into a line of trees between my house and the neighbors. So, what is the next logical step for snake eradication?? CALL IN THE MARINES!!!


Our neighbors are both in the military. (Granted they both play in military bands, so their weapon of choice is a woodwind or a brass instrument, but they are still military!) They also have two small children and this was the second time we had heard tell of a snake in the area. We didn't want them to look over and see their little daughter nose to nose with a snake!! So the two men decided it was time to go Snake Fishing...


What exactly do you need to go snake fishing? I guess a pair of gloves, a pillowcase and a very long pole. (Thankfully, we had recently gotten one of those to wash the house with!)




The guys poked the pole through the bushes and tried to loop the snake to pull it out. Over and over again, the snake slid off the pole and quickly moved back into the cover of the trees.



Finally, the Marine was able to catch the tail end of the snake and pull him out of the trees; note that this is no small snake! While Frank pinned the head with the scrubbing end of his pole, the Marine went in to capture the enemy...


And here is the trophy shot!


The victors put their foe into a pillow case and zip tied it shut. I'm not really sure what the Marine did with his catch, but I hope he took the prisoner to the park and let him go in the woods up there. That would seem to be the right thing to do.