I have been keeping a gratitude journal and I decided to do something different in the blog. I decided on Friday to share five things I was thankful for over the past week. Why did I pick the title “Good Vibrations”? That will make sense by the end of the blog post. Trust me.
I am thankful for my daughter. She is amazing and I don’t know how I would have gotten out of bed, especially in the early months if it wasn’t for her. Now I have no choice because she usually comes into my bed and yells “WAKE UP MOMMY!” It is amazing to see her grow and learn every day. She is so independent (“I do myself Mommy”) and she is a little fashionista. I just hope I don’t let her down and that she grows up happy and fulfilled.
I am thankful for Starbucks Nonfat Pumpkin Spice Lattes. I have been counting my macros and even though it uses up a lot of carbs, it is worth it. Because Pumpkin Spice in the Fall is everything. #america #fall
I am thankful for my cat because he is cute and he makes me happy. And I kind of like that he mostly just likes me. It makes me feel special because I am in his world. Or maybe I am only special in his world because I feed him. He really loves me at night because that is when I give him a can of fancy feast. That started out as a treat, but it is turned into every night. Oh well.
Boehner McKim #bestlifepossible
4. I am thankful that I live in this country during this time period. I am thankful that information is so easily available and accessible. I am thankful for running water and plumbing. I take for granted that poop will get flushed away. There might be a lot of bad in the world but I am determined to focus on the positive.
5. And last but certainly not least, I am thankful for my tribe. Because they are awesome as demonstrated on my Facebook timeline. Kimmy Gibbler tagged me in a post with a video of Marky Mark from 1991 and all of our friends liked it and/or commented. I love that my friends are not afraid to get silly.
So I am sharing this here. Just in case anyone needs a Friday morning boost. Because if you do not like this song then…I don’t know. I just can’t fathom why anyone would not like this song.
I was supposed to go to Maine the last weekend in August but I needed to take my cat to the vet. I thought something was wrong with him. He wasn’t acting like himself and I was sure something was wrong with him. After paying my not insignificant vet bill, nothing was physically wrong him.
So now my cat is on prozac.
It’s for the best.
And I missed my trip to Maine and my 20th high school reunion. I thought about trying to swinng it but I was too tired to do 16 hours of driving in a 60 hour period
So I wound up with an unexpected free weekend. My close friend loves Sunflowers and asked if I would be up for a drive downstate to a sunflower field. I am always ready for an adventure and I love road trips so I happily agreed.
I wish I had a selfie to share but not a single one looked good. For real. My daughter wouldn’t look at the camera and I had my hair in my face.
After we looked at the flowers, we went to a farm stand. It was crowded. My friend told me that she wasn’t expected it to be crowded because she has seen too many Hallmark movies. In Hallmark movies there is a ton of space. Hallmark movies have ruined her.
Though we both agreed that that won’t stop us from watching them this Christmas.
After the farm stand, we decided to drive into New Paltz and get some ice cream. We went to Hugeunot Creamery. The ice cream was delicious and the staff was very kind and friendly. The kids had ice cream cones with sprinkles. They wound up all over the floor. Part of me felt bad but part of me figured that it’s bound to happen in an ice cream shoppe. My friend had a creamsicle float and I had an old fashioned hot fudge sundae.
On the way back, we stopped at a Samuel’s Sweet Shop in Rhinebeck which is owned by Paul Rudd and Jeffrey Morgan. The kids had lollipops (though my daughter could only handle a few licks after eating ice cream) and I had a pretzel covered in Reese’s Pieces. My friend got chocolate covered oreos.
It was a great day. I am so glad my friend asked us to spend the day with her and it was fun to discover places in New York where I had never been. I can’t wait for some Fall adventures with my friends.
Do you like to go on day trips? Where do you like to go?
Warning- Stop reading Mom! I know you read everything I write, but do not read this story. (She has major bug phobia).
So tonight two of my good friends came over to help me around the house to to help me prepare for my new couch which arrives in the morning. The three of us love Mexican food and we planned on ordering Mexican food for dinner.
I opened the food ordering app because I prefer to order my food online. Because I hate talking to people on the phone that much.
I do not see our normal go-to restaurant listed. So we decided to try a new Mexican restaurant. I quickly google the name and I learn that it is a restaurant that specializes in authentic cuisine from the Oaxaca region in Southern Mexico. I said we should be adventurous. The worst thing that could happen was that the food wouldn’t be good and we would have to get food from somewhere else. We decided to give it a try.
I look at the menu and made a comment about the fact that they had cow tongue.
One of my friends decided on a grasshopper burrito. The description seemed palatable and it said there was a choice of meat. My friend wanted chicken.
My other friend decided she wanted to order the same thing. I looked the menu over and became overwhelmed so I ordered chicken tacos and an order of chips, guacamole and salsa.
When the food arrived, we were starving and ready to eat. I pull out the two burritos. My daughter said she wanted one and I said that they belonged to our friends. I gave my daughter some guacamole and chips and one of my chicken tacos. We all dig in and we talk about how good the food was.
Everything was great.
Then one of my friends jumps and says that her burrito actually has grasshoppers in it because one just fell out. My other friend was about five bites into her grasshopper burrito and she stops eating. I was eating chicken tacos but I lose my appetite in solidarity. The only one who continues to eat without being phased is my daughter. “Grasshopper Burrito” wasn’t just a cute name.
We contemplated what to do. Do we call the restaurant and try to get something else? My friends felt bad because I put the whole order on my card. I assured them that this was such a good story that it was worth every penny.
Seriously, I have been bummed lately. I haven’t laughed this hard in a very long time. This might have been the hardest I laughed since before Bryon got sick.
My friends decided to just order a pizza instead. With no meat. And orange soda. Sunkist. Though the person on the phone called it Outcast soda. Hey ya!
The burritos went into the trash. My friend brought the trash outside which was good because I was having images of the grasshoppers coming back to life in my house.
My poor friend got the creepy crawlies.
You can’t really tell by the picture but in person, you could totally see the grasshopper legs.
A quick google search does reveal that grasshoppers are actually part of the diet in Mexico’s Oaxaca region. They are called Chapulines. So this cuisine is authentic.
During my weekend in Chicago I really wanted to go take my daughter on the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.
I first rode on the Ferris Wheel in 2004. It was the Monday after Thanksgiving. I had attended a wedding in Wisconsin and it was ten days after my Grandma Sullivandied. I had found out while I was working. It was a Friday and my father and I had been planning to leave that day to try to get to Massachusetts before she passed but we were too late.
I can still remember what I did in those ten days:
Friday- Grandma died.
Saturday- Went to Massachusetts (5 hours away from my home in Maine).
Sunday- Grandma’s wake.
Monday- Grandma’s funeral.
Tuesday- Went back to Maine.
Wednesday- Helped my mother prepare for Thanksgiving
Thursday- Thanksgiving
Friday- Flew from Bangor, ME to Madison, WI (via Cincinnati) to attend the wedding of a friend that I had attended university with while I was in England. My cousin (from the other side of the family) was crazy enough to fly up from Florida to attend as my guest.
Saturday- Wedding just outside of Madison, WI
Sunday- Went to Milwaukee with my cousin. We went to the Milwaukee Public Museum, had lunch at Usingers, and toured the Colonel Pabst Mansion.
I couldn’t resist posting this Wayne’s World clip.
On Monday my cousin was crazy enough to take a bus to Chicago with me. She was crazy enough walk around Chicago with me for 12 hours in the cold, November rain. We had pizza at Gino’s, walked by Wrigley field, went to the top of Sears tower and rode the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.
I have no pictures of myself on the Ferris Wheel but here is one of me on the El.
Chicago 2004
And because I talking about the cold November rain got this song stuck in my head…here you go-
I returned to Maine that Tuesday.
There were lots of things that I did not know at that time. I had just gotten involved in politics but I had not even heard of the Young Republicans. 18 months after that trip to Chicago, I would attend the Young Republican Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. On that trip, I would attend a party at the Romanian Embassy and on the shuttle bus ride there, I would sit behind a girl from Chicago who would become on of my best friends. (You met her here)
In the fall of 2007, I was living in Southern Indiana with another friend from the Young Republicans. I was on a three months contract for work. My roommate and I drove up to Chicago to see my best friend and another good friend in Chicago. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and then went to Navy Pier. And we rode the Ferris Wheel.
Chicago 2007Chicago 2007Chicago 2007
In 2007 we were single girls travelling around the country, attending political meetings and partying with future leaders and elected officials (some of them surprised us).
In 2012, we both got married. I got married in September in Albany and she got married in December in Mexico. Her location was a bit more exotic than mine but it didn’t matter. We were both there for each other on our big days.
Albany, 2012Mexico, 2012
We both had our daughters in 2014. Her daughter came in April and mine came in September. They are exactly 5 months apart.
And she was there for me when Bryon died. She made the trip to Albany (along with the other lovely lady in her wedding photo). They actually already had the plans to be in NYC the weekend that ended up being the weekend of Bryon’s funeral. His birthday was the day after his funeral and she made arrangements to meet my father halfway between NYC and Albany to bring our daughter to see him for his birthday. I told Bryon that he would see our daughter, as long as the doctors said it was okay. He was excited.
But he died a week before his birthday.
And now I am here. A widow. Travelling as much as a I can this year to make up for the fact that I spent most of 2016 in an ICU room watching Bryon slowly die. And because I promised him as he was dying that I would still take our daughter on adventures.
So that brings me to Chicago in 2017. With my best friend and our young daughters. And I wanted to go to Navy Pier to ride the Ferris Wheel…again.
Both of the little ones enjoyed the ride. I can’t remember if it was my friends daughters first time or not. I think it’s safe to say that when my daughter and I return, that we will go on the Ferris Wheel again. Maybe next time, she will be tall enough for some of the other rides.
That is Happy Birthday my friend in Latin. At least that is what Google Translate tells me. My friend is a Latin teacher and I am sure she can tell if it is the correct Latin grammar or not.
Today is her birthday. But we celebrated her birthday the other night.
My friend is very special to me. She was in my wedding. This is her favorite picture from our wedding day. (She is the one pinching Bryon’s cheek.)
My friend was the one that got me to run a half marathon. And even though she was dealing with some pretty rough stuff in her own life during those months while Bryon was in the hospital, she still came by almost every day. She brought me fluffy literature to pass the time and she brought pizza to sustain me. She was with me during Bryon’s two worst days and she made it down to NYC before he died. I don’t know what I would have done without her friendship.
We met at an Italian Restaurant called Il Faro. I am conflicted writing about it because it was so good and we didn’t want the whole world to know our secret. But the food was so good that it was only fair to mention it. It is only a matter of time before it gets discovered and will be crowded. I am not Italian, but several of the people at our table have Italian heritage and they were impressed.
We had drinks at the bar and chatted. A lot of baseball talk. The group consisted of four couples and me. I was the ninth wheel. It’s times like these that I miss Bryon. Granted, he wouldn’t have been by my side all night as he would have taken this as an opportunity to catch up with his friends. He would have been making fun of his best friends beer selection. But these are my closest friends- my Albany family- and we still talk about Bryon as if he is still alive, which makes me feel better about being the third, or fifth or seventh or ninth wheel.
I believe everyone was impressed with their meals. I had the eggplant parmesan with a side of meatballs and linguine and it was amazing. I had enough eggplant leftover that it was dinner the next night for me and my daughter and the meatballs and linguine were lunch the next day. And even in leftover form, it did not disappoint.
We got a group picture
And then we got a picture of the girls.
Then the guys got jealous and had to have their picture taken.
In the bathroom. Something to think about.
My friend and I got into my car and right when I turned the key in the ignition, Hall & Oates started to play. It was my friend’s favorite Hall & Oates song.
We took it as a sign that Bryon wouldn’t let us celebrate her birthday without him. We cried.
Half of us went back to my friend’s house where her boyfriend had a cake. It was an orange creamsicle cake. I don’t particularly care for orange creamsicle ,but I thought it was good.
Then we did presents! Which I didn’t get any pictures of my friend opening up.
I never thought birthdays were a big deal. They are mostly for kids. As adults, once you celebrate your 21st, you only celebrate those birthdays that end in zero. But after losing Bryon at such a young age, I know realize that birthdays are meant to be celebrated. We are lucky to have them. And I am lucky to have friends to celebrate these special days with and I look forward to celebrating more.
Amicus meus est natalis beati. te amo. (Don’t fail me Google translate!)
Running Forward...My Way 