Finding the Good Moments in 2013

Yesterday I tried to sum up 2013 in my blog.  A rough year, but there were still a lot of happy moments so today, I am going to share some photos of “The Best of 2013” because despite all the sadness we experienced, there were still a lot of really good moments.

We celebrated Father’s Day and all the great dads in our lives!

Although I was not a big fan of them, the cicada out break this spring was pretty interesting.

The new porch construction was a great addition to the house!

Celebrating dad’s 68th birthday with the family was a great day.

DJ getting his driver’s permit

A quick overnight to Atlantic City with a few of my coworkers.

Visiting my college roommates

Drew graduating from elementary school.

Grammy turning 98

Mud Runs like The Dirty Girl and The Muck Fest!

Drew and baseball, baseball, baseball!  Playing, watching and being a batboy for The Newark Bears.

and truly there were so many, many more.  Including joining the coaching group I am in where I have made some amazing friends this year, spending tons of time with extended family…I could truly go on and on.  Sadly, those terrible moments of 2013 have overshadowed the good ones, but when we looked back upon this year, it was really nice to find so many happy memories amongst the sad ones.  I am looking forward to making more happy ones in 2014!

Happy New Year!

Headache Free – will it last?

Today was one of the first days that I was headache free all day, (well mostly all day), a few twinges here and there, but honestly, after the whoppers of headaches I have been having, I felt like a different person today.  I was able to focus completely all day without the distraction of these headaches.  I haven’t been able to give my full effort in kickboxing, though I have continued to go, but tonight, I did all of it.  I forgot how good I could actually feel – that is how long it has been.  This whole weekend I just spent with my roommates, was an enormous amount of fun, but throughout it all, I had a headache.  They were of various degrees of pain, but the entire time it was there.  It made me feel like I wasn’t able to enjoy the time spent with them as much as possible, and it completely frustrated me.  They knew – and were completely sympathetic about it, (as is everyone I know).  Lots of tips and advice and come from everywhere and I appreciate all of it.

Perhaps today is a fluke…or…perhaps it is a new beginning to my old way of life.  Maybe tomorrow, I will go back to having a headache, but knowing how good I feel today, is going to make me put more of an effort in figuring out what is wrong.  The stress and exhaustion that has come from them has really put a damper on my life.  It has even made me a bit depressed and today made me snap out of my slump and feel energized!  I am hoping for a lot more days like today and getting back to my old self!

There’s Nothing Like a Visit With Old Friends

I am sitting on the train for what should be a five hour ride. Plenty of time to think and reminisce about the weekend. What started out as a crazy, long, rainy ride down led to a fun, relaxing…(and exhausting at the same time), weekend!
Jen, her husband JP and their daughter Mary had flown in from a whirlwind vacation around Europe and since they landed in Newark, the kindly offered to let me ride down with them instead of taking the train down alone. The ride took longer than expected which gave Jen and me plenty of time to catch up on life! The insane rain storm made traffic slow down and Jen and JP, (who have witnessed typhoons), said it was some of the worst rain they had seen!
Jen has an exciting job that takes her all over the world for work. She has lived in so many exciting and interesting places. She has always offered an open invitation to visit, yet we’ve never taken advantage of it! Perhaps our next big get together will find us in some exotic, exciting place where she winds up living. That could be so much fun!
We arrived in Alexandria at Brooks’ home several hours later than anticipated, but she and her husband Mike, where both still up and waiting for us, ready to welcome us into their beautiful home. Jen and JP were staying in a hotel but Brooks’ kindly invited me to stay with them so we could spend more time together. We did not stay up too late that first evening. It had been a long day so she set me up in her beautiful guest room.
Brooks has always been quite the entertainer. “my room”, had fresh flowers and photos of us from my wedding in frames on the desktop. She even had our 1988 freshmen directory in there for me to look at! I do not even remember that from college, but of course Brooks had held into it and remembered to bring it out. I just love that about her! If it weren’t for her, I am sure a lot of these little reunions we’ve had wouldn’t have happened.
The next day we met up and headed off for lunch at an adorable restaurant called “Cheesetique”.  Yum! With cheese being my favorite food…what could be better?!? Jen met up with us there and we enjoyed such a delightful lunch! No children pulling on us or needing us to drive them somewhere. No time constraints…just a long leisurely lunch where we could catch up, and learn about what’s been going on. We shared family stories. We all knew each others’ parents and siblings from being together in school so it was really nice to hear what everyone has been up to.
The entire weekend seemed to be focused around eating, (another favorite thing if mine), so while at lunch, we got in touch with Deb and tried to decide where to go later on that evening. At first we decided to go to some of our old “hangout places” and after some discussion, we decided that none of us wanted to go somewhere where we’d have to yell above music or a crowd. Brooks’ husband, graciously offered to cook for all of us back at their home. What a feast he created! It was better than a restaurant. Amazing steaks, potatoes, salad, asparagus, wine and cheese appetizers… We couldn’t have asked for anything more or for better service, as he served us and did all of the dishes as well! Another leisurely spent meal, this time with Deb too, which made it even better. There was so much laughter and happiness, (and lack of responsibility), at the table, I almost felt like I was back in college for awhile!
We missed Mary Lynn a lot but knew that she was happily spending her birthday on a beautiful island so hopefully at our next get together she’ll be there.

After another great night sleep in that comfy, quiet bedroom, I woke up and had breakfast prepared for me by Mike!  It was really like I was on a mini-vacation for a few days.  A morning of shopping in quaint Old Town Alexandria with the girls, ended with lunch at The Chart House before heading to the train.

I needed this weekend away.  It was quick, but it was great and I appreciate them all so much for making my weekend away so much fun.  Love you girls!!!

Friendship from afar

This afternoon, I am off to Alexandria, Virginia to visit with my college roommates!  I am so excited to see them!  Jen and her husband who live out of the country right now, are on their way to pick me up right now!!  Then we will head down to Brooks’ home where I will stay till Sunday!  There were five of us living together during the last few years of college at American University, and this weekend, four of us will find some time to catch up and rekindle old friendships.  It has sadly been too long since we have been able to all get together.  We started planning this weekend a few months ago, and I am so happy that it finally has worked out!!  We have all gone our separate ways throughout the 21 years we have been out of college.  We find time now and then to meet up.  Unfortunately those times are few and far between.  The best part, is that when we do finally find the time to do it….it is as if no time as passed at all!!

Roomies!

Today’s assignment for Random Acts of Kindness Week was “get in touch with an old friend”.  I thought about it during the day and decided there were a lot of people that I could get in touch with, but four of the most significant people I wanted to reach out to were my college roommates, Brooks, Mary Lynn, Debbie and Jen.  Until I began writing to them this evening. I did not realize just how much I missed them.  I was going to write each of them a personal note, but last minute, decided to send out one email with all of their names so that we could all respond to each other together.  It has been several years since all five of us have gotten together.  Mar, Deb and Brooks live in the Washington, DC area, which is where we went to school.  It has been so long that Jen and I have spoken that I am sad to say, although I think right now she is living in The Philippines, I am actually unsure where exactly she and her husband are living.  She has a glamorous, fascinating job in the foreign service and has lived all over the world.

In my email, I told them about what has been going on in  my life.  It made me realize just how long it has been since we have caught up with one another.  We share photos on facebook and we send holiday cards, but really, I was not sure how long it had been or how much I needed to share!  It actually made me a bit melancholy wondering where the time went.  Some of us have children, mine being the oldest yet I don’t even know if they realized he was in high school and that in my household, we are beginning to talk about college!!

Even so many years later, there are so many things that make me think about them.  I cannot eat a slice of white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory without thinking of Mar and how we’d go there before our late night Astronomy class to share a piece for dinner!  Anytime I watch Forrest Gump, I get reminded of Jen, whenever Forrest pronounces his girlfriend Jenny’s name as, “Jenn I”.  The day I met Jen, she told me her name is “Jeni with an I”, so I would jokingly call her, “Jen-I” and now I always think of her when I hear him say it.  Deb was in many of my classes, as we were both education majors.  She had the most perfect handwriting of anyone I knew.  Just today, when I was writing my morning message for my class, I thought of her when I formed the letters of “Good Morning” and it looked like something she would have written!!  I have actually seen Brooks fairly recently.  She is in the NYC area often and this summer, I had the chance to meet up with her and catch up a bit.

As with any good friends, there are so many stories that I remember and just start to smile or laugh out loud.  Probably things, that would never be funny to anyone else, but can make me not only crack a smile, but often burst out laughing.

I cannot wait to hear back from all of them and see what is going on in their lives.  Often life just gets too busy and I find it hard to get it under control!  I am hoping to try to find the time to “slow it down” and take more opportunities to get in touch with my old friends.  Perhaps this year, we can have one of our mini reunions and just spend a long weekend together – just the five of us, reliving those days and just catching up with life.