Going to the Ball at Willow Manor

I've got my date for the Willow Manor Cyber Ball and not a moment too soon since the much anticipated Ball is today! I'm so excited that Donald Trump will be in town after all - whew! - that guy is B U S Y and it was touch and go for a time. Yes, of course I had other escorts lined up, but he was my first choice. I find Donald anything but boring, plus any man who looks good in a pink tie alredy has and edge with me. I can't wait to run my fingers through that hair - it is his hair they say!

He's picking me up in his new car - the Mercedes-Benz SLR McClaren. Luxury!!

I'm baring skin tonight...my shoulders - in the iconic black "cold shoulder dress" by Donna Karan. Darn, but I should have taken a photo of it for you. Both Liza and Hillary have worn a version of this dress in the past. I'm head over heels for it. Donna knows a woman's shoulders never get fat - it's the one place she says - show it off. Ha! My tootsies will be stuffed into the most amazing pick patten leather stilleto's I could find. Of course I expect these will go wonderfully with Donald's tie.

Mr. Trump is pretty excited about the networking opportunity the Ball at Willow Manor offers. He's a work-a-holic and so even when he is being social I'm sure he'll have an eye for a deal. I may be witness to some real property transactions - oh my!

The night is young and if you didn't get an invitation this year please do stop by Willow's Cyber Ball http://willowmanor.blogspot.com/ and check it out so you are sure to be on the guest list for next year. The champagne cocktails are simply divine!

First Day of Fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Fall! What is it about Fall that draws us home? Certainly there is a change in weather - is it all because of the weather that we settle in to our homes and apartments?

Football is back and on the TV (which means Hockey is soon to follow. Yay! - Go Sharks!) so we call friends to share food and cheer on the teams. Darkness arrives sooner - already even before the time change I noted darkness at 7:30 p.m. now. Time to come in - the streetlights are on.

The vibrant but fleeting flavors of summer fruits, so fragile and short lived, as in peaches and raspberries, give way to comforting farm favorites sturdy to endure storage needs like sweet potatoes, broccoli, potatoes and apples. We dig out our favorite comfort food recipes for pies, cobblers, soups and stews, dips and snack foods and venture to try something new for company. Mother Nature - ahead of her long winter rest - puts on a final show of vibrant colors bursting in yellow, red, orange and finally brown.

When I was a young girl we lived in San Lorenzo. It was a village and not a town or a city. I always liked that - though not all that certain of the distinction. Anyway, it seemed special. The streets of our village were lined with tall sycamore trees (pictured above) and such fun we kids had when the leaves began to fall. We would pile them up and jump into them! We’d kick them up in the air, press them in heavy books to try and save a special one, crunch them up in our hand and feel them shatter under our strength, hide in a pile of them only to pounce and startle a passerby (we were snotty, what can I say?), and we would rake them. Many of us had to rake our own lawns as a regular family chore. Yes - we had chores! Since we were already out there we became inspired to rake others – for a fee. My brother, my friends and me would go door to door offering to rake the neighboring lawns for 50 cents – 1.50 depending on the size and the accepted offer. This was great entrepreneurship and how I loved feeling that money weighing my pocket down. The best part was that you only had to get them to a nice even row in the street and then the street sweeper would come by and suck them up leaving the street like new. I’m not so sure we would have loved this job if we had to bag those jumbo sized leaves!

FYI - A hybrid developed from the American sycamore, called the London planetree, is the urban tree of choice in North America and Europe. When David Bohannon built San Lorenzo Village between 1943 and 1950, he chose the venerable sycamore as a street tree. http://www.sanlorenzoexpress.com/trees.htm

Cuddle up with something or someone soft and enjoy this new season. <3 Be blessed.

That day we will never forget

It's been 9 years and it still hurts. I was getting ready for work at PeopleSoft and usually have the TV on in the bedroom as I get ready. We were all home - it was still very early in CA. As soon as I turned it on they news guys was reporting the shocking news of the accident in New York - a passenger plane had hit a WTC tower - unbelievable! Then quickly and as I was watching a second plane struck the other tower - what? The talk had turned to hijackings and an attack on our nation. A third plane was still out there under the power of more hijackers. I called my boss Neil on the phone - Neil is from NY, born and raised. His daughter is a nurse in Manhattan, son-in-law a firefighter (at least I think that's right). He was curious why I had called him at home before work - so early. My voice was already breaking up as I tried to ask if he had seen the news. He hadn't. We've been attacked, I screeched! Planes...crashed in the WTC, I croaked. What, he asked? I'm sure he thought I was mad or he hadn't heard me correctly. I then told him all I knew and he turned on his TV. My own family gathered together and my husband - from New Jersey - and I tried to explain what we knew to the kids. We agonized about what to do next - do we send them to school? Do we go to work? It's hard to recall the details but I think they stayed home with him and I know I had to go to the office. We had to gather an executive team and they included me to represent Telecommunications. We had to locate all our employees - we had many "road warriors" and some were surely in NY at this time, some in Boston, many on air travel. It was an intense day, a day where we all worked together regardless of position or title. We learned of the heroes of Flight 93 who forced the plane down in a field and gave their own lives to save thousands of others and to not let the terrorists succeed in their mission - not on their watch. How courageous is that (tears still stream when I think of this). We did not loose any employees but a young lady who worked for me lost her dear uncle at the Pentagon - it touched home.
I will never forget this attack on our freedom and I will never understand the hatred that lives within the likes of those that want us gone. They truly do want us gone - imagine that.

This week there was a terrible fire and destruction in the Bay Area as San Bruno exploded with a tragic gas line break. A friend of my son - a lovely girl who visited him in the hospital recently, a girl whose god mother was his nurse several of the days, is missing her family. She is in her early 20's and has an apartment in Sunnyvale - her mother was at work in Sunnyvale when the explosion occurred but her father brother and grandmother were likely at home on Claremont in San Bruno. They have not been found - there has been no word. I pray for this family today and I am reminded that life is precious. We are very blessed and we should not wait for tomorrow to tell our loved ones how much they mean to us. God Bless.

It's a God Thing

No, the post title is not a typo. I didn't intend to say - it's a good thing. That's what Martha often says and Lord knows I love Martha. Ha! Today it was a God thing for sure. I have been dealing with some annoying back and neck pain. It's not new; it comes and goes. I've been in some agony for about a week now and the discomfort has been such that I have not been sleeping the past 2 nights. All day today at work I was just hyper aware of my neck and my lower back. I knew I needed to get to the chiropractor after work. So after 2 blah days at work and a general down feeling (poor me) I arrived at Dr. Mora's office expecting nothing more than a distracted Dr. giving me his full 3 - 5 mins. of attention / adjustments and out the door I'd go hoping for the best. The visit went like this:
Dr. Mora: Hi, how are you?
Me: Fine, well, er, my back and neck are killing me.
Dr. Mora: Have you been busy?
Me: Well yeah - Patrick had that surgery - it was big - remember? His whole chest got opened up - huge deal? I went through that with him. Thinking...As if I had the surgery myself - poor me. Don't you feel bad for me? I've been stressed.
Dr. Mora: Let's see! Lay flat on your face...twist, turning of the neck, ah, yes this is a difficult place to adjust...oh you are doing so well that was a great adjustment...you are going to feel so much better! Now lay on your side facing me. Folds my arms this way, my hips forward my knee bent - you know, like a pretzel basically...
Me: Realizing I'd done all the talking and he was so upbeat and cheerful I say - How have you been?
Dr. Mora: Great! Thank you so much for asking! I am just so blessed!
Me: Just before the big squeeze, smash, pressure adjustment I exhale - well that's a great attitude!
Dr. Mora: We all are. You know? So blessed.
Me: Breathing normal again - post adjustment - you are so right Dr. I was just thinking that very thing! 'Doh!
That my friends is a God thing! God knew exactly what I needed today and put me straight on a path to visit Dr. Mora - who, by the way, I have never talked to in such a way before. As we walked back to the lobby he told me he had been to Haiti in July and it had a profound affect on him.

Back to School Finale!

It's that time of year again - back to school. This is the last year that back to school will really apply to me - as a Mom. Oh, I'll never forget those "first day of school" photos of the kids in a new outfit, holding a new lunchbox, a new backpack, sporting a new haircut and bright smiling faces taken in front of the house, the classroom, the car, etc. These photos are among my very favorites! What I mean is this year my youngest child of the three will return to college for his Senior year. That's it for me - the grand finale. I remember feeling a loss when he completed high school - the last one through the K - 12 era. Before I could get too sad we were helping him buy all the supplies kids think they need to move away and live in a dorm, packing him up, driving him to college, shipping care packages, responding to emails about laundry questions, cooking questions, banking questions and supplying the credit card to buy all those books each term. I was right back in Mom mode - albeit part time. I liked part time!

This summer has been one of great emotion for our family. The daughter got married and we put on a beautiful wedding celebration for her and her husband and then this youngest son had a very major surgery. He was in the hospital for 6 days. It had a positive outcome and we did know he'd need it this year but still it's a tough thing to take your child - of any age - to the hospital for surgery. He's been with us while recuperating and so unlike last year, when he trouped around Europe and we barely saw him; this year we got attached to him again.

Tomorrow we go to his college town and we will move him into the apartment he will live in for his Senior year. I bought him some new jeans for back to school - ha! I'll see if he can get someone to take his picture on the first day of class and email it to me so I can file it with all the rest I love so much.

Now what's this mid-life momma going to do next? I bought a book and might see if some of my friends in a similar situation might like to do a discussion group around it. http://midlifemamas.com/

L's wedding - fun, fun!

Don't forget to notice the cute Spiegel gold jacket I blogged about on July 3rd! It worked for me. :-)


How do you pick just a few snap shots to share from such a special day?






On July 24th our only girl was married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony at a local winery. We enjoyed every minute of it. In fact the wedding was a culmination of several days festivities. The groom had many out of town relatives and we had some ourselves. Thursday evening we hosted the groom's mother and her family at our home for a nice outdoor dinner. They were lovely people. After dinner it was the local wine bar for a family & friends "Wedding Jam"! so much talent in this group. We loved it!
Friday brought flower arranging, bouquet making, mani-pedi's with the maids and wedding rehearsal followed by a huge rehearsal dinner that included out of town guests hosted by the grooms parents. If that wasn't enough there were about 40 of us who spontaneously hit the local pub for Karaoke - oh...do they love to sing & dance this group.
Finally Saturday was here and the 11 bridesmaids (yes, 11!) started arriving at the house at 10 a.m. to get ready and help the bride get ready. I was so thrilled to get to be a part of all that. The photographer even came to the house as did the hair stylist. Can't wait to see the photographer pictures someday soon.
It all came off without a hitch and everyone said it was a great wedding! We think this couple is really blessed with wonderful family and friends. Life is good!

Vagabond Dreaming

I can't help it; my mind keeps bouncing back to this idea of jumping in a vehicle, specifically a VW Westfalia Vanagon and hitting the open road. I want to break free from the normal day to day grind, the land of grey..cubicles, and see the coundtry, see the world. Hats off to these adventurous folks who took that notion to the extreme http://www.vwvagabonds.com/ .

I'm sure I'll have to start a little closer to home but now I know what is possible. Once you know what is possible you've then got a spark; and it only takes a spark to get a little smolder going, and then, with enough of a breeze, a real blaze can break out.

I haven't posted in a while and that's because life was all about the wedding of my daughter. The wedding was a huge success and took place last Saturday. I'll post more details (yes, with pictures) very soon. Maybe it's this post-wedding lull that has me back in that Westy, truckin' down the highway, looking for adventure. Now to convince big D. Ha!