2007 - A Year in Review

This has been an interesting year. There were lots of great things, lots of crazy things, lots of everything. Here are a few highlights for you to see. All in all, a very memorable year!

J A N U A R Y . . .

... found me with a 3-day stay at the hospital for pneumonia, my first hospital stay since I was born. I was actually very relieved to be there, since it meant I wasn't going crazy and really was sick!

F E B R U A R Y . . .

... led to a sad time. My grandfather passed away on Valentine's Day. He was a great man and a rock in our family. We all miss him.

M A R C H . . .

... put me into a new sense of wealth (?) when I finished making payments on my car. What a relief that was! (Pic is from later in the year, but since I don't take pictures of my car, here it is with sweet Catherine!)

A P R I L . . .

... was a busy month. I went to Massachusetts and saw several friends, helped celebrate Jenny's birthday at Great Adventure, and also went on an adventure in New York City during which I got to see Great Big Sea!

M A Y . . .

... found us back into the city for Beethoven's 9th (and Arron Copland's In the Beginning) with Matt's parents. Other highlights included Memorial Day down at the shore!

J U N E . . .

... is my birthday month! I had fun celebrating, but a highlight of the month was my nephew's graduation from high school! He is now enjoying college life and all it entails.

J U L Y . . .

... had lots of adventures. One of them was getting to see Blue Man Group! I also went on a movie-kick and saw six movies in a short amount of time!

A U G U S T . . .

... involved more travel. I saw Becky and Catherine in Mystic, CT and then got to see Great Big Sea again in Freeport, Maine - home of LLBean! (and Kate, but she was away!)

S E P T E M B E R . . .

... was crazy-busy in terms of starting the new school year. I spent much of it stressing out and trying to get on track! Matt showed his automobile prowess in changing the brakes on my car. You're so handy!

O C T O B E R . . .

... included some fall-harvesty-Halloween type adventures. I got to wear one of the most comfortable Halloween costumes to work - Scrubs and sneakers!

N O V E M B E R . . .

... brought me back to school - High School, that is! It was our 10 year reunion, and what a trip it was. Strange but good to see people after 10 years.

D E C E M B E R . . .

... helped the year to a close in a busy way! Daytrips to Sandy Hook and New York City, Holiday concert craziness, Christmas celebrations, fun with friends and abundant good times. A wonderful way to end the year, If I say so myself!

I wish you all of you much joy, happiness, wonderful memories, laughter
and peace in the New Year. Thank you, my friends, for putting up with my
ranting and raving and reports of the goings-on in my little part of the world.

H e r e ' s T o A G r e a t 2 0 0 8 !

Christmas Vacation... part 3: Morocco!

On Saturday night, Matt and I met up with Marisa and Eric for dinner. I've known Marisa since we worked together at my previous teaching job, and we've managed to keep the friendship going! She is a sweetheart and we all had a wonderful time - the boys exchanging jokes in their best Scottish accents, Marisa and I bellydancing (yes!!) in the restaurant, enjoying amazing Moroccan food and good company.

We went to Marakesh in Parsippany - smaller than I thought it would be, but cool - you sit on couches and are encouraged to eat with your hands! There was a bellydancer and live music, too... loud, but a lot of fun. If you remember back in February of 2006, M & I went to a fantastic Moroccan eatery in... Morocco. In Epcot. It was amazing and we ate so much food that we were still full the next morning! I tried to take him to this place (or one in the city) for his birthday, but we never got to go... at least we went now!

It was great to get to see Marisa and Eric and hang out... we want to do it again soon!

(Marisa - I want some of your pictures!) More pictures are here.

Christmas Vacation... part 2: Christmas!

Christmas was nice this year. On Christmas Eve, Matt and I went to the service at church and then back to my house for dinner with my parents - yum! On Christmas Day, I was home with Mom and Dad, eating French toast, opening presents, relaxing, then it was off to have dinner with Matt and his parents at their house. It was a really nice day.

Santa was good to me - I got some lovely gifts, including a massage (well, a gift certificate for one, anyway!), a date with my mom to go and see Audra McDonald in April (Yay!), and a Zune, already loaded with some of my music! Woo hoo! (Sneaky Matt, stealing my CDs!)

All in all, two very good days. Hope your Christmas was just as Merry! :)

Click here for more photos.

Christmas Vacation... part 1: Kate!

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to meet up with my dear friend Kate in New York City. She was down from Maine, meeting up with lots of friends and staying with her brother, Alex. I was so happy to get to spend some "alone" time with her - it has been YEARS since we've done that, and the last time I saw her was at our college reunion in October 2006!

I took the train in by myself - a first! I've done the train a ton of times before, but not alone. Very liberating! I was a little early to meet her, so I wandered into Macy's on 34th.... what a nightmare jumble of people and craziness! I fought my way up to the 8th floor to see Santa - as a kid I insisted that I had to go and see the real Santa, who was holding court at Macy's - the movie told me, and therefore it had to be true!

I met Kate at American Girl Place - a store that I would have gone crazy for as a girl... heck, I still want to buy everything in it! It was insane, of course - but I had to buy a Christmas gift for my niece, and was able to do it fairly easily. We then bumped into her brother and grandfather outside for a few minutes, leaving them to go and get some dinner. We wanted to go to John's Pizzeria, but it was obnoxiously crowded. So we walked to Times Square and went to the Olive Garden... still crazy busy, but at least we had a place to sit and talk while we waited, which is what we wanted anyway! (And our table came with an excellent view - worth the wait!)

After dinner, we both needed to use the restroom, and Kate remembered hearing about the Charmin Holiday Restroom in Times Square... so that's where we went next! It was hilarious - the people were so perky and friendly, there was a little dance you could learn while you waited on line, the mini-bathrooms were immaculate and outfitted with all of the necessities, and there were photo opportunities galore! We laughed and laughed - it was a perfect surprise adventure for us!

She walked me back toward the train and we went on our merry ways. Kate, it was so wonderful to see you and get to spend time with you, eating, chatting and having adventures! Yay!

More pictures are here.

Christmas Roadtrip!

When we last went to Sandy Hook, we talked about coming back to see the History House all decorated for Christmas... but with the whole pneumonia thing last year, we weren't able to go. So I surprised Matt with a road trip on Saturday. We had so much fun! The house was beautifully decorated, there was a live jazz trio, and they even had cookies and hot chocolate!

We had the opportunity to climb the Sandy Hook lighthouse as well - a delight for Matt, since he was never able to go there as a kid. (It was run by the Coast Guard until a few years ago). We then took a quick sidetrip to the Twin Lights as well and picked up a sticker for our NJ passports!

We then drove in to Matt's hometown, Atlantic Highlands. We stopped into the public library and browsed in a vintage shop, but the highlight of the trip home was the Memphis Pig Out. This place serves up great food in HUGE quantities. We ate ourselves silly and then hit the road, as we were expecting a Nor'Easter late that night.

View a bigger slideshow at the Photo Gallery!

Do you think I'm Super-girl?

First, a disclamer. This is written during Holiday Concert Craziness. Thank you.

How am I expected to turn the world on its head by Friday? I have a budget (which I got today) that I need to return on Friday. And plans for this week and next week, also due Friday. And another budget will be handed to me tomorrow, to be returned probably on Friday as well. And a jam-packed chaotic day of work tomorrow, followed by a dinner which I must attend. And preparation for two concerts back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday. And a program to finish.

Do I look like I can leap tall buildings in a single bound?

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!


And to top it off, yesterday I had thousands of dollars worth of drug injected into my arm which could still put me into anaphylaxis within the next 24 hours, so I'm carrying an EpiPen. (Although the fact that I didn't react during the 2 hours I spent in the Dr's office is a good indicator that I'll be fine.) The drug will hopefully be a blessing, though - but they do their best to scare the poop out of you before they inject you, just so you're aware. Then they teach you how to stab yourself with the EpiPen just in case you do react. Woo.

And I'm stress eating. Oh, the carb and chocolate cravings.

Maybe I can be you for a change?

But now I am going to bed.

Ten years

I went to my high school reunion last night. To quote a song of the time, "How bizarre. How bizzare, how bizarre."

My sweet Matt came with me, despite the fact that he knew no one there but me!
(Doesn't this picture look like we're going to the prom or something?)

It was strange - some people looked very much the same, some better, and some were not so recognizable! Funny to see people working the room, yet still mostly associating with their same cliques... I sat with more musical people, a lot of the popular ones were together, jocks, etc. I guess some things never change, eh?? It was good to have gone, though - fun to see what people are up to. Here are a few... the only pictures taken with my camera!


Nadia, who I've known since we were five!!


Christina, musical and athletic, who now teaches Phys.Ed in Ohio


More of the music nerds (er...gang) - Dave, me, Danae and Ken


Danae, Meghan and Me

It's funny to have gone, and such a rush of memories. Some great, some I had forgotten, some I wish I didn't remember! It was good to touch base with some of the people of my past, and also wonder about some others I hoped/thought I might see. I went through the yearbook after I got home. So surreal. That was me. In so many ways I am exactly the same, yet in others I am so different - but then again, do we ever turn out the way we thought we would?

Yummy soup

When it gets cold like this, I tend to want something warm and comforting to eat. Soup like this fits the bill nicely, is easy to make, and freezes well. I found the recipe in one of my mom's magazines, and I share it with you!

Carol's Carrot and Dill Soup

1 pound carrots (about 2.5 cups)
1 medium onion
2 cups water
2 cups low-fat chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 bunch fresh dill (about 2 tablespoons)

Peel carrots and cut into 1/2 inch coins. Peel and chop onion. In a 2.5-quart saucepan, bring carrots, onion, water, broth, salt and fennel seeds to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, 30 to 40 minutes till carrots are very tender.
While carrots are cooking, rinse and chop dill, reserving several sprigs for garnish. Add dill to cooked carrots and, using great care, puree in two batches in a blender. If you plan to serve the soup cold, let it cool in the pan first. Garnish with fresh dill.

(Recipe from Guideposts magazine, Sept. 2007)

This time, I put in less onion (we don't like a ton) and instead put in a big spoonful of chopped garlic. Next time, I think I might try fresh ginger instead of dill (and perhaps the onion.)

Movie Time

We went to the movies tonight... and saw this!



It was tremendous fun... neither Matt or I have seen it before. We loved it, and the 3-D was really cool! (And we got to keep the 3-D glasses, which were much less dorky than the huge IMAX 3D ones for HP5.) The songs are quirky (and get stuck in your head!) and it's visually interesting - but what do you expect from a Tim Burton film?
Unfortunately, it appears to be slated a very limited release, and we're caught it on the closing weekend... but who knows, maybe they will extend it so you can go if you'd like!

PS: I think Matt should be Jack Skellington for Halloween next year. What do you think?

Don't bother me when I'm shopping!

I need to know if others feel the same way I do about this.

Whenever I happen to be in the mall, I find myself accosted by multiple kiosk salesmen (usually), trying to get me to stop and try/buy different products off of their carts - hand lotion, heat packs, jewelery cleaners, head massagers, straightening irons, and the like. And usually the scenario goes something like this:


Me: walking along, window shopping, people watching, talking to whomever I'm with, etc.
Guy: Jumping in front of me or hurrying to my side, speaking in an insistent loud voice, "Excuse me, miss? Can I ask you a question?"
Me: "No, thank you," I reply, politely, without stopping.
Guy: Continues with his spiel without missing a beat, still with a very loud voice, more actively trying to get me to stop (example)- "Do you keep your nails natural? Let me see your hands..." as he gestures for me to hold out my hands, getting as close as he can without touching me.
Me: "No, thank you," I respond, a little more insistently, as I speed up and walk away.

At this point, most will back off and just tell you to have a nice day. I'm fine with that. Although I may not like them jumping on me at the mall (which is how most of them behave, men and women kiosk salespeople alike), I had one the other day who really took the cake. The conversation started out as I mentioned above, but instead of quitting with the second attempt, he said to me, sarcastically, "Oh, don't be so hard."

I didn't realize what he'd said until I got too far away to turn back around.

Don't be so hard????

Excuse me??? I politely said, "No Thank You," and that's your response? If I had realized it sooner, I would have stopped and said something to him. I know that he's trying to do his job and earn a living for himself. But it's not acceptable to say something like that to a stranger and potential customer, and expect them to respond in any way other than with negativity, even if you didn't mean it literally.

Is this just a local thing? Or is it just a kiosk salesperson tactic?

I don't like pushy salespeople, but after working in retail, I know how to politely deal with the situation. But this just took the cake. As I said before, I appreciate the fact that they are trying to earn a living... they just need to learn to read people! It's pretty obvious when someone is uninterested. There are body cues that let you know when people are open to being approached and when they want to just be left alone. A good salesperson is trained and knows how to recognize this. I make it pretty obvious. I avoid eye contact with them. If I am with someone else, I engage them in conversation before we walk by the kiosks. I concentrate on a window display.

Maybe I should just run screaming in the other direction the next time a kiosk salesperson approaches me. Do you think it would give them the hint?

A few thoughts and comments

Random things floating around in my brain. Do with them what you will.

I should be working on stuff for my Holiday concerts, but it seems so strange to be planning for them already. But November is such a short month in terms of school... I really should have started already. There's a lot about it that is so hard. You have to try to include everyone, and consider the group of students that you are working with. We're very multicultural, which is a cause of stress for me. I also don't have loads of money with which I could purchase things myself. Bah.

After church today, Matt had to stay for a meeting, so I went into the house to do some work. (He's not officially living in it yet, but we've moved some stuff in already.) I will say this... the people who lived there before left the house FILTHY and with a million and two holes in the (plaster) walls from a million and two nails and hooks. Did they try to turn the house into a museum? I did a little spackeling (it's been a while since I've done it so I wanted to make sure it looked all right before I did the whole house), put together a mobile clothing rack, cleaned the two tables we brought over, and washed all of the downstairs windows (inside only). It was 48 degrees inside the house (obviously the heat isn't on yet!) but the work kept me warm. I would have used the steam cleaner machine, but M has to change the outlets first and then they will be 3-pronged accessible.

I have a short work week, happy, happy, joy! Tomorrow and Wednesday are full days. Tuesday is a half day due to Election Day (go and vote, people... and if you live in NJ, be sure to vote for the open space bill! No more McMansions!) and then Thursday and Friday are teacher's convention days... so no school! Whee!

Went out with the gang (who we haven't seen since Labor Day weekend) for Indian food on Saturday night. Yum. My new favorite food. I ate WAY too much and then crammed in some ice cream afterwards. Ugh! I've been trying to be so good since the summer (almost 20lbs!) but I seem to be sabotaging myself lately. Time to get back on the wagon... which is hard with the holidays approaching! I. Must. Be. Strong!

All right. Enough kvetching. I need to go to sleep now and am very tired, which is perhaps why I just bumbled on and on like this. So, as I said at the beginning, do with it as you will. I will go to sleep.

Little Known Facts About Me

Marisa tagged me. And I am procrastinating (as I watch D1), so here it goes:

Four things about me that you may or may not have known in no particular order. The directions are at the end.

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Teacher
2. Bank Teller
3. Audiology Assistant
4. Retail Sales Associate

B) Four movies I would watch over and over:

1. Pride And Prejudice
2. You've Got Mail
3. Roman Holiday
4. Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea


C) Four places I have lived:

1. My Hometown. One of the top 50 safest towns in the USA.
2. Brooklyn, NY
3. Wenham, MA
4. My own little world :)

D) Four shows that I watch:

1. Dancing With The Stars
2. Any show with Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel
3. How It's Made
4. Myth Busters

E) Four places I have been: (besides the places I have lived)

1. Alaska
2. Germany
3. Norway
4. Canada

F) Four people who e-mail me (regularly):

1. Rebecca
2. Jenny
3. Matt (hah! He used to!)
4. Travelzoo, union, MENC, The Knot, and a million stupid email things.


G) Four of my favorite foods:

1. Chocolate
2. Sushi
3. Mangoes
4. Freshly Baked Cookies

H) Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Sleeping!
2. Someplace warm, like a tropical beach or the ocean.
3. The shore (even when it's chilly, it's wonderful)
4. On an adventure with Matt.

I) Four folks I think will respond (maybe):

1. probably not anyone... but here are some choices.
2. Jenny
3. Becky (although she's already been tagged)
4. Kate

J) Things I am looking forward to this year:

1. February Vacation... Disney World!! :)
2. Getting this wedding in order... FINALLY
3. Trying to get my life in order
4. Going to see Audra McDonald in concert!

DIRECTIONS: Copy the text, delete my answers and pop in your own. Tag, you're it!

Waxing Nostalgic

There are lots of great things about being a grown-up, but sometimes you wish you could go back in time for a while. There's a big part of me that would love to put on some silly costume and go trick-or-treating with friends on Wednesday afternoon, then put myself into a sugar coma with a pillowcase full of candy collected from the neighborhood. Fun stuff like that. I guess it's really just the fantasy, the fun, the utter silliness of it that I miss. The stuff that as adults we too often put aside because we don't have time, or feel to responsible, or are afraid of how we might look to the world around us. It seems strange that as we gain our independence and means to do the extraordinary, we lose our nerve to do the things we always dreamed of doing, as silly as they might have been. Perhaps we lack the courage to step outside of ourselves and get lost in "being" someone else for a little while.

At least I can still watch "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" tomorrow night. :) And I have to dress up at work... although it's not so interesting since we all are going to be the same thing. But I will be comfortable and I get to wear sneakers, so that's a plus. And heck, I'll eat some chocolate too. So there. :p

Long time, no post.

Hey there. I know I haven't posted in a long while, but I have a good excuse... at least I think it is.

I've spent most of this fall sick. It's been really frustrating and my athsma has gone completely out of whack. They tried a bunch of different drugs which didn't work, so the doc finally put me on prednizone. It's a pretty serious steroid, and they gave me a considerable amount of it. It worked, and I was starting to feel better - oh, joy! But here's the catch... it's a drug that you can't just stop taking. You have to taper it down over time in order to get off of it again. So, we started to taper down... and then all of the things started to happen. First, I virtually stopped sleeping. I'd be up at least 7-8 times a night. Every night. My back went into evil mode, aching from top to bottom and wrapping around to the front, affecting my stomach. Basically, as I started to taper off of the drug, my body didn't like it and went into withdrawal. The sad thing is that the doctors didn't have too much they could do about it... so I suffered my way through the week. I don't remember most of it, honestly... I didn't work on Monday, and the rest of the work-week is pretty fuzzy. I did what I needed to do and then came home, really. The one highlight of the week was that I got a massage at Mezzaluna on Friday.... ah, how wonderful! The masseuse was able to break up a lot of the tension, although it did make me sore! :) I am now completely off of the pred, thank goodness, and won't ever, EVER, E V E R take it again. I was worried about taking it at all due to the fact that I hallucinated when I took some at age 16. So between these two experiences, I will not put it in my body again. Nope. Shiver.

So yeah, that's what's been up with me. So nice and exciting, eh? Woo hoo... oh, the excitement!

tick....... tock......... tick......... tock...............

Frustrating. Very very frustrating. Take a look at the time of this post. It's not due to the fact that I've been up late to a crazy party or spent the evening on a movie marathon or anything good. It's the stupid fact that I iust CAN'T SLEEP! The past few nights have found me waking up three times each, and this is already number three for tonight... but this time I can't seem to get back to sleep. Blast and wretch! Why? I'm tired! I went to bed exhausted. I want to be sleeping. I love sleeping. But no. Instead I am awake, so I figured enough twitching in my bed - time to actually get up and at least make an attempt to beat insomnia.

The one good thing about it is that there is no work tomorrow, so that is a blessing in itself, but I don't want to be grumpy all day, either. Bah.

Dancing With The Stars Quote 2:

"... it was sharp and tangy like a pickle."

Len Goodman, in reference to Jenny Garth & Derek Hough's performance of the tango tonight.

Modern Mozart?

A Video-of-the-day... thanks to Matt! Enjoy!

Medication, Mango Sauce and Multiple Birthdays!

Sick again. Grr. More medication, more rest. Blah. I should be at Marisa's house tonight to celebrate her birthday. But I'm at home. But I did get some beautiful flowers, mango sauce and a happy movie from my sweetheart. Yay!

By the way....

This week finds two of my friends celebrating the anniversary of the day they were born! Marisa was on the 4th and Peter is today! Happy Birthday to you both! Enjoy the year!

A quote for the evening...

"... I could go skinny dipping in his eyes."



A quote in reference to Cameron Mathison on Dancing With The Stars. He is a cutie, I must admit! :)

knit-tastic!

I just (finally!) got around to looking at the fall issue of Knitty. (of course, all of this time should have been spent writing lesson plans, of course...)

I am in love with this:How amazingly cute is that? I want it. I want to make it.

...and I find it is designed by a woman in NYC who sells patterns for lots of cute little knitted friends... and there are even some that are free! (whee!) Go and see them on her website! Tres cute. I want to make them all. :)