Sunday, March 30, 2008

The Little Things


My friend Amy and I (and of course Shella and Christie as well) joined the whole "scrapbooking revolution" about two years ago. It's a whole new world of die hard crazy women who can debate for hours the merits of dry adhesive versus wet adhesive. It's a kabazillion dollar industry...Amy says it is bigger than the Taliban.

I'm preparing to go to one of our several times a year retreats, this one hosted by the lovely Donna Downey and her husband, Bill, in North Carolina. (As a bonus I get to catch up with my friend Chris who I have not seen since she moved there last summer.) Anyway...

In the process of preparing for these events (and there is preparation..more on that in future blogs) I have had the chance to sort through all sorts of pictures and things and really think about what matters to me. It's a good excercise.

One of the things I discovered which has really made a HUGE difference in my life...I mean unbelievably freeing is.....(okay, really you are not going to believe this) but my I-Pass. This litle white plastic box attached to my windshield under my rear view mirror. Simple enough device. It has meant I no longer have to make sure I have easily accessible $1 bills before I get on to !-90 and right before I get off. It has also allowed me to drive another 1 mile and a half on I-90 and avoid all of the backroad, road construction traffic on I-355 and Woodfield....now I can leisurely get off at Arlington and drive a quiet and simple 1 mile on Algonquin. AND...it means I am no longer putting my life in my hands on the nerve thrashing merge into the right lane on I-355 and down the curve and then another nerve mangling merge onto I-90. Nope. Just a simple and usually quick merge onto I-90 from Arlington Road. Un fricking believeable. And thanks to my little I-Pass I am not desperately searching for coins for this journey..oh no, I drive right under the tall electronic towers and wave at them. True, they are deducting coins from my account. But I am happily letting them as I move merrily on my way. Trust me, it's the little things.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Snow more!!!






Meant to post this the other day .....Tuesday was almost 50 degrees. Wednesday was 50 degrees and even some sun. Then Thursday and......more snow. I mentioned the word "white out"to a friend who seemed clueless about what this meant. White out means driving (or even sitting) and all you can see in front of you is driving white snow...all white! It was brief and beautiful but good grief...this is spring, mother nature!!! Enough with the tricks....

Rita, as always, made the best of a bad situation..

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Here comes Peter Cotton Tail, zipping in on a snowmobile






Okay maybe it's not that bad but the cute sleeveless halter neck dress I bought will have to wait. It's still winter here. Good thing Rita and I are holed up with a winter cold :-(

Anyway the bunny still made it here...we magically have dark chocolate raisnets, reese's peanut butter eggs and starburst jelly beans here!!

Happy Easter to all!!!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Good (Snow) Friday




Yep! It's snowing! On Good Friday, technically the first full day of Spring. Nothing to do but laugh about it, put on our snow boots and take a walk. Rita, as always is happy.....she loves the snow. She romped and ran and did all of the usual.


About 20 years ago I was living in Knoxville, Tennessee. I took a business trip to South Florida and returned the first week of April. My second day home we had a snowstorm with 10 inches of snow....so obviously it happens.


At least Rita and I are at home in our jammies drinking hot chocolate and laughing at the snow plows. Cover those Easter Lilies and leave a map out there for the Easter bunny....he needs more directions in the snow!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Still Hot After All This Time (AKA known as Happy 45th Birthday LDL!!)


March has gone by in a whirlwind. Work is busy, busy...happy good busy with lots of interesting things to do and people to see....still busy busy.

In the midst of the business insanity I decided to use my new Non Rev status and fly to New York for my friend Lisa DeGreif Lauterbach's birthday. I mean she turned 45 and my godson Jake is 12 and I haven't seen any of them in forever. So on Saturday the 7th I got up at 4 a.m .and began.....a journey to hell......

I won't bother anyone with the long details except to say the first flight was cancelled and then I got on an a 9a.m. flight to LaGuardia and we were barely in the air before we were put in a holding pattern and then landed in Albany,NY for supposedly 30 minutes which turned into 3.5 hours. Eventually we landed and I found a nice cabdriver who gave me a $120 cab drive to Lisa's lovely little house in Glen Ridge, NJ.

The evening was great...awesome food (champagne, fondue, crackers, cheese, bread, champagne. oh and did I mention champagne.) I wore my kick-butt Sam and Libby sequined heels and we had a great time! We stayed up till 12:30 (including the time change) laughed and talked and hugged. The boys came home and entertained us and well it was a great time.

The return trip Sunday did not involve a diversion to Albany but did involve about 8 hours in Newark airport. I made it home at midnight on Sunday night....my baby Rita was happy to see me. All told...it was a wild weekend...but made great seeing two of my wildest, long term friends....The best quote of the weekend was when LCB called daughter Sarah Elizabeth in Florida to say hi. SEB asked her mom..."You sound like you are having too much fun...do I have to come and bail you all out of jail?" ....no baby, those were the days past. We 3 hot chicks discovered how much fun you can have in your own living room...no driving needed.

Three cheers for LDL, Veuv Cliquot and 45 years on this earth. Here's to you ladies!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Two weeks of Firsts

So moving is one of those things which I have done alot of. And moving means starting a life in a new place. Which means starting all over on those essential life things. Essential life things to me are things like Hobby Lobby, a grocery store, Target, a good gas station, a gym, possibly a Wal-Mart.
Unbelieveably all of those things are literally within a mile of our new place. Making adjustment to life in Elgin going pretty well.
Last weekend we made another first: the first time to navigate our way to Bloomington from Elgin. Thanks to the navigational skills and internet access of my frineds Mark and Mike (thank you Revere Group!) we made it okay.
It was fun to see everyone and it was a whirlwind! We saw Shella and Christie and Dewey, and Dad and Ann, and Kate, and Linda and her family. We did not see Mary C or Biscuits and Gravy...but we will see them next time. Rita spent the weekend with her pals at Deenies. And we finished the weekend hanging with Dan and Andrea and their kids and our respective families and celebrating Emily's new life as an adult in the Catholic faith. (Always a good excuse to sample Andrea's cooking including that amazing coffee cake, raspberry cream cheese jello dessert, jello cake and egg casserole! Yippee - leftovers!)
Now...back to the packing!