Category: Family N Friends


Before I sleep

Just thought I would pop back in. Tomorrow is a big day. It is going to be Gwen’s first ballgame of this season.

Two reasons it is big, one is that Gwen is coming to the stadium on her own. Make the train ride by herself. I am fully expecting a phone call at 11 a.m. with her in full blown melt-down panic-attack mode. The second reason is that every game she went to last season someone got hurt. I have told her that if someone get hurts tomorrow, that is the last time she is coming to the stadium for a game.

If the game is rained out tomorrow, I will be very upset. If the trains mess up so I am not there to meet her at Yankee stadium, I will kill someone at MetroNorth. My boss is going to be at the game, if he says anything to upset her or me, I will cut him. Truth.

That is all, so says she.

My day off

As mentioned before, I have every other Wednesday off, as I was eating my cereal this morning, and Gwen was talking to me, I kept thinking how much nicer it would be if I could get a day off and be alone. Not that I don’t like her, I just sometimes prefer to be alone. Of course after I move, I will be spending almost all my mornings alone.

Gwen and I were supposed to do something this morning but she didn’t feel well so we both went back to bed. There it was quiet. Until Gwen came downstairs and started doing her laundry, she is excited for tomorrow, that is why she is washing clothes.

Then we went shopping, she said she needed tops, we found some great sales, when it was rung up, the amount she spent and the amount she saved was 40¢ different. I didn’t save as much on mine. Then Fred called because he wanted to be picked up, he was upset I wasn’t home, but agreed to meet at Ron’s (please follow), since I had to go back there to get my sunglasses.

Then home, and I don’t know why, but lately everything I eat is making me sick.

Well, I have to go now. I might be back for more randomness.

Awareness is not enough.

We (The Autism Community) need for you to know what Autism is.
We can only achieve that through Autism Understanding and Acceptance.

Awareness of autism has risen dramatically in the past few years, and awareness is certainly a good place to start. Increased awareness has helped parents get earlier diagnoses for their children, and it has helped secure funding for research. However, it hasn’t done much to change public perception of what autism really is.

This is a call out to the world to understand the people and the disorder.
This is a call out to the world to accept the people and the disorder.

You can not understand or accept the people until you understand and accept the Autism they have.

Autism is a part of who they are.

The media has focused almost entirely on children with autism – but children grow up. In a society where one in 110 children is diagnosed with autism (the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control), no one can afford to ignore the significance of this disability. People with autism are children, teenagers, adults, men, women, scientists, programmers, engineers, unemployed, in care homes … too many of them continue to be bullied, to be judged, or to just be ignored.

Each person is unique. Each person has their own unique set of strengths and weaknesses just like you or I.

The charities, the organizations, the groups, the parents, the people with Autism themselves… we ask you… no, we need you to know what Autism really is.

Today, we ask for your Autism Understanding and Acceptance.

This is what Autism is to me… <fill in the rest with your experience>

Who am I thanking? Why all of you of course. I subscribe to a service called Sitemeter, they record how many hits or visits your ‘site’ or ‘blog’ gets and then every week I get a report with the numbers. It looks like this:

— Site Summary —
Visits

Total …………………… 4,067
Average per Day ……………… 6
Average Visit Length ………. 7:04
This Week ………………….. 45

The next section is Pageviews, which I am not really sure what that is, although I am sure some (most, o.k. everyone but me) knows what that means. But this is what has me feeling pretty good, I get an average of 6 visits a day, which is not a lot I know, but the average length of a visit is 7 minutes. That means people aren’t just popping in and popping out, people are actually (gulp) reading what I am writing.

So I want to thank all of you for stopping by, for reading, and for making me feel important, if only for 7 minutes and 4 seconds.

Last week I said that I was going to post every trip Em and I made to the city. The only problem I have is coming up with new and original titles. Also right now, I don’t know if the problem is with WordPress or my router, but I am losing posts. It is very annoying but because that is happening, this post may not be what I want it to be, as in, not as long and no pictures, since the pictures seem to be the problem. For instance, I have been trying to get my review post done for almost an hour and a half. It’s not the writing that is taking so long, it is getting the pictures in the post! There again, I don’t know if it’s my browser or WordPress.

It is making me so frustrated, I can’t even remember what I was going to say here.

All right, my reviews are posted. So Saturday, we got a late start, I had to go to Weight Watchers (up 0.6 pounds) and Em was not feeling great. Fred came with us, I never got a reason as to why, not that I care. First off we stopped at the soupman. Fred kept saying he wanted soup from the ‘Original’ soupman, so we went, Em had a groupon. I got black bean and he got Lobster bisque. On the wall was a T.V. with clips from Seinfeld, every so often a quote from an episode featuring the Soupman was shown and I would laugh, then we would have to explain why it was funny to Fred. After we finished the soup we walked to Bon Chon Chicken for lunch. Another groupon, before we get finished with Em’s groupons, we will probably have eaten in every part of Manhattan. Make sure to check out my review of Bon Chon here.

Next was Em’s appointment to get her nails done, Fred was getting a manicure also. We were early, so we stopped at the Yankee store since I had promised Em a sweatshirt for opening day. She didn’t find any she liked, but I found a navy blue jersey that was half price. While she was getting her gel manicure and Fred was getting a plain manicure, I went to wait for him at Starbucks across from the nail salon, thinking I would go online and check my e-mail, track my food for the day, guess what? It wasn’t working. I was frustrated. After Fred was done he came over to Starbucks and we went to the library, where I let him use the computer and I went online there with my iPod. Such fun, I don’t know what he did, but I checked in with four-square, and what else I don’t remember.

We took the subway to SoHo. It was cold Saturday and I don’t think Em was feeling very well. The original plan was for Em to go look at earrings, by that time she had changed her mind, one because Ashley wasn’t going to be there and two because of the cost. But we still wanted tea so we went to Harney and Sons. Check out my review here. I also bought tea, so as soon as I finish my chocolate rose tea, I can start drinking my Irish Breakfast. The other Irish Breakfast I currently have is going to feed the plants.

We had one last groupon we used, for dinner, at a pizza place called zPizza. According to Em it is in Greenwich Village but the website says it is in the West Village. I didn’t write a review, it is small and you can buy a slice of pizza already made, or you can pick your crust, your sauce, your cheese and your toppings for a custom made pizza. When we were done, once again we headed for the subway instead of just walking up to Grand Central. When we got there we had to go outside because Fred wanted to try on these shoes he saw at Models. They are ‘toe’ shoes, remember toe socks? Well these look creepier. Then to the train, then home and I was so tired, I took my shower and went to bed. Didn’t even turn on the computer.

This title is sort of misleading since Em and I have not stopped our bi-weekly trips to Manhattan, what stopped was I stopped writing about them. Last year was not a good year for blogging for me, this year I have recommitted and decided that every trip will be followed up with a blog post.

Also I will be bringing my camera, which I haven’t done in a while and taking pictures. Not a lot probably, but enough to give you an idea of what we are doing. Em has a lot of food groupons, that is why we will be eating at a variety of places. Saturday lunch was at Oaxaca, 16 Extra Place, Manhattan. It is just a little fast food Mexican place, we each had two chicken molé enchiladas. They were so good, spicy hot with flavor. It’s going on our list, just have to remember where it is. Then we headed to NoHo to see Ashley. Em had to take out her piercings, and one of them was all red now. I wanted to go to the tea place that Ashley tweets about all the time. Em said sure since we didn’t have an agenda. After getting the address from Ashley we headed to Broome St.

We had already had lunch, but decided a little snack was in order, after all it was COLD Saturday and I was still having sinus and asthma problems. Friday was so nice, Saturday was not. So we got tea with scones. The scones were served with cream and jam, thick cream like butter. All very yummy. Em got mint chocolate tea, I got Chinese Black Tea, Golden Snail I think it was called. Em bought some tea and I bought a tall tea cup with an infuser and a lid.

Next stop was a fabric store, that was closed. That turned out to be o.k. because it wasn’t fabric for clothes it was fabric to home furnishing, so now Em can replace the curtains. Dinner was at a place called MotherBurger. It was quite different from Harney and Sons, which was relaxing and quiet, MotherBurger was loud and crowded. But the burgers were good, exactly to order and not to huge.

Our last stop was at Annie Moore’s. Is there any better way to end a day then with bourbon and chocolate cake? Well Em would say scotch and chocolate cake. Of course it wasn’t really the end because we ended up with a sighting of our strange friend with the long spike of hair, red and blue plaid, and some train drama. We had to wait in Harlem for an ambulance for someone on the train.

Speaking of Harlem, does anyone know of any safe neighborhoods for a little white girl to live?

Three days

Three days and no posts from me. I am blaming it on the flu or a stomach bug, or whatever it is that is floating around the house making us sick. I tried hiding in the basement, the darn germs found me. When I got home from the city Monday, I was so sick I slept right through the stop. That has never happened before. NEVER. Then I started throwing up. So when Stitch asked, “So am I driving to New Hamburg?” The answer was no. I needed to go to Poughkeepsie cause I needed a bathroom so I could get cleaned up somewhat.

When I told Stitch what time, he said that is about how long it would take him to get there, so I just waited for the train and came home on it. The people working at the Poughkeepsie train station are icky. Not very nice at all.

Blogging was the last thing on my mind when I got home. I thought about it yesterday, but couldn’t come up with anything to say and so just didn’t write anything. So now I am behind. I am going to try posting two today, and two tomorrow.

I hope the post-a-day people don’t ban me from the clubhouse.

Happiness and joy

“The boy is overcome with happiness and joy. He has his iPad2. He says it is all my fault so he keeps hugging me.”

Those were his exact words. Happiness and joy. His face has been a grin all day. All my fault. I told him, I just loaned you the money. “No,” he says. “You insisted we had to go to the Verizon store before we went to Connecticut.” That’s where the iPad2 was. Probably the only store in the Hudson Valley to have some. Now they have none. The boy has his, Gwen has his old one, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that for today, I have filled his life with happiness and joy.

Now that I have done that, I am unsure what I should be doing the rest of the day. I think I will relax with a book.

Today was my Wednesday off so I made plans to go out with Christine. I woke up with a wicked sore throat. Couldn’t swallow without pain. It was pretty annoying considering I woke up in time. Thinking that maybe if I got up and started moving about I would feel better, cause sometimes that does happen, I got up and made eggs for breakfast. I sprinkled some of my very hot red pepper flakes on them. Red pepper is good for sore throat. It didn’t help, the longer I stayed up the worse I felt so I ended up going back to bed.

Of course in this house you can only stay in bed if you have the plague or are dying, or is that, ‘dying of the plague’? Eventually I had to get up. Em wanted lunch and Gwen wanted to go up to apply for a job at the mall. I also wanted to try for Yankee tickets. After getting home the mail came and my findings arrived, so now my Yankee earrings have lever-back ear wires instead of posts. One more thing ready for opening day, just have to get tickets.

My hair appointment had been changed from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. since my stylist had to go to a funeral. After my appointment I was supposed to pick up Nick. Of course first the stylist was late, then it took forever to do my hair. When I tweeted ‘Why does it take so long to do my hair?’ Em tweeted back, ‘Do you know how much hair you have?’ This much, this is how much hair I have, but it does look good doesn’t it?

Finally she was done and I left without getting it dried. Picked up Nick and some other kids, took them all home and then we got home. I was so happy to be home, but the day wasn’t over yet. As I was coming up on the deck I heard a commotion inside, Butterscotch was running back and forth on the windowsill, and I was wondering what was wrong with our cat? Then I realized it wasn’t our cat. It was one of the feral cats from the neighborhood (yes one of those cats I hate, unreasonable I know), that had somehow gotten inside. Abigail was locked upstairs, Butterscotch put in the basement, and while I stood in the cold with my sore throat and wet hair holding the door open so they could chase this demented feline out, it ran the opposite way into the living room, up on the windowsill behind the computer desk and almost took out our router.

Stitch manged to catch it and put it outside, where it rocketed away from the deck. It is not the cat’s fault it is stray and wild, but if that cat ever gets in our house again, it is getting the business end of my boot.

The rest of the evening our two cats were eying each other, perhaps to make sure we hadn’t replaced one of them? Abigail kept sniffing the windowsill, after all that is her perch to watch the world go by. And an impostor had been on it.

March 5 is my parents wedding anniversary. They were married in 1954 when my mom was 19 and my dad was 20. So you can see they are in their 70’s now. Every year I call them on their anniversary. I am the world’s worst daughter.

Before you protest or go awww, I should clarify something. I call them first thing in the morning. Today is was around 7:20 a.m. my time. I live in New York. They live on the west coast. That made it around 4:20 a.m. their time. I hear my mom tell my dad, it’s Bella, she wanted to be the first to wish up happy anniversary. My father groans and mumbles something I am sure is unrepeatable.

Yep, world’s worst daughter.