May 27, 2011

Wedding - May 27, 1971

It's been 40 years today since our wedding day.  Wow - hard to believe.

I am always quick to tell anyone who will listen that marrying Barry was the best decision I ever made in my life.  He's a wonderful husband.  The best I can imagine.

Linden High School Senior Prom, 1967

I'm a lucky lady to have such happiness all these years.

L.A. Rapture Weekend

Barry and I just got back from a great weekend in California.  The primary reason for going was to see my daughter and son-in-law, but we did so much more than that.

We stayed at the beautiful Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica that was landscaped to the hilt.  We so enjoyed the sunny, breezy weather and being next door to the Pacific Ocean.  There were many other treats associated with this trip.  Besides spending time with Emily and Isac, we got to see our beloved former next door neighbors from Atlanta who were also in Santa Monica, as well as a number of Emily's friends who we adore.  Of course, what would a trip to L.A. be without spending quality time with our grand-dog, The Baroness?  As you can see from the picture below, she was absolutely thrilled to see us.

The Baroness in excitement mode

We had great food at every restaurant that we went to, but the stand out memorable meal was the tasting menu at Providence.  This was a special occasion meal as we celebrated Emily and Isac's fifth anniversary on Friday night.  Wow.  The food kept coming and coming and it was a real treat to enjoy so many different tastes.  And the presentation - wow.  

Tuna Tartar at Providence

Besides socializing and eating, we started our search for a retirement condo.  It will probably take us a while to find just the right thing, but no rush.  I do love the beach and the weather there can't be beat.

We were astounded by a wonderful exhibit at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA called "Art in the Streets."  It's a huge exhibit on street art that I can't say enough good things about.  We had to leave to go to the airport after over two hours there, and we didn't feel like we had enough time.  It's there until 8/8/11 and if your travels take you to LA, see it.  It gives you a whole new appreciation of street art - beautifully curated, beautifully done.  I can't do it justice - you gotta see it.  Here are a few pictures I took at the exhibit.

A very fun trip, and, as an extra bonus, the world didn't end.

On Mother's Day.

With Sunday being Mother's Day, I naturally started thinking about what being a mother means and how it changes as your "child/ren" become adults.

When a baby is born, it's dependent on its parents for absolutely everything.  But, as time goes on, if a parent is fortunate, that very same baby becomes a totally independent human being who no longer "needs" its parents for day to day living.

I've been thinking about what exactly is the role of a parent of an adult.  I've wondered if there are any  actual duties to fulfill as the parent of a totally independent adult.  If there are grandchildren, the parent can take on the role of babysitter/grandparent (no hint intended, Em), but, otherwise, can it be possible that the parent is superfluous - just another relative who requires an occasional phone call or email to avoid feeling guilty?

There are potential roles that the parent of an adult can fill:  advice giver, sympathetic listener, or career cheerleader, but, honestly, couldn't a friend fill these roles as well? Then there are the annoying roles that a parent can fulfill like being able to push buttons that no friend could ever push or being the archivist of embarrassing childhood memories for the adult child, as in "have I ever mentioned that my daughter was so frightened by the movie ET that she probably still hasn't been able to watch it to this day?"

The one role that a mother will always be best at is loving her child, no matter what, with no strings attached, regardless of the age of the child.  Unconditional love is not easy to find in this world, and that is a mother's love, regardless of the rockiness of the relationship.  When I lost my parents, I realized that there are so few people in your life that just love you with all their hearts and that parents, at any age, are two of those people who are irreplaceable.

A big shout out to my wonderful daughter who makes mothering an adult so easy.  She is very independent, and I'm proud of that.  When I look back on my mothering skills, I definitely would not have won any awards.  My daughter was a latch-key child who would call me at work to tell me she was OK after coming home to an empty house after elementary school.  She somehow weathered this poor parenting to become a talented, hardworking, and loving adult. 

So as I ponder my role as a mother of an adult, I thank her for the joy that she has brought to my life and wish all of you a Happy Mother's Day.

Election Day - Denver Style

Tuesday, May 3, is Election Day in Denver.  The former mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper, became the Governor of Colorado in January, and a temporary mayor has been in charge of the city since then.

I've voted for 40 years in at least a half dozen states, using old-fashioned voting booths with levers, poking holes in the ballots with a small sharp tool, and, most recently, using touch screen computerized ballots.  But, yet again, I've been surprised here.  

For this election (and I'm not sure if it's this way for every election since this is the first since we've moved here), we received ballots in the mail that look like this:

The voter is given the option of mailing back the ballot or dropping it off at a number of designated locations.  There are even some drive-through spots listed.  There was no information on actual polling places.

According to the instructions, you can use pencil or pen, black or blue, and you are supposed to connect the arrow next to the person who you want to vote for, as shown below:

Of course, I started obsessing over how thick the line should be, how many times to go over the line, just to be sure that the vote would be obvious.

Then, after you've drawn your lines, the ballot gets put in a "secrecy sleeve" and then an envelope that you sign, swearing that you're an eligible voter.

The envelope can be dropped off by anyone at one of the many designated drop-off spots.

Maybe it's because I'm from New Jersey, where election fraud is an art form, but does this seem a bit too nonchalant to anyone else?  Or can you imagine how this would have played in Palm Beach County, Florida in 2000?

Miserable

This is my life this week - a bunch of used tissues and meds to get through this miserable cold.

So sorry that this annoyingly bad cold is making me miss seeing my Atlanta friends. But oh well - another time.

Still Waiting for Spring

I haven't posted for a while because I had nothing blogworthy to say.  And today's post barely falls into the blogworthy category, but I didn't want to give up entirely on this enterprise.

We've been waiting for spring to arrive, and we're still waiting.  The weather has been nice, but it still doesn't look like spring has officially come.  The flowering trees are flowering, but the rest of the trees are just starting to bud.  It is far from green.  Locals tell me not to put flowers in my outside pots until after Mother's Day - then, it's safe to assume that there won't be any surprise winter storms.

This past weekend, we decided to venture into the mountains.  Although we've already lived in Denver for 5 months, we're not winter people and we don't have winter-equipped cars, so we've waited until the non-snow season to get out of town. Everyone here tells us that the prettiest time of year in the mountains is the spring and summer, so we were ready.  Well, as I mentioned above, spring is really not quite present in the city and is even further removed in the mountains.  We could see all of the aspen trees and how beautiful they will be, but they're certainly not there yet.  I'm not sure if spring really exists in the mountains, or if there is just winter and summer.

Since we'd never been anywhere in the mountains, we passed through a few well-known spots, Vail and Aspen, and spent the night in Glenwood Springs.  There's still a little bit of skiing going on, but mostly it's off-season now - in between winter and summer, so it's quiet.  Aspen was almost like a ghost town.

The prettiest area, to me, that we saw was Glenwood Canyon - you pass it on I-70 (quite an engineering feat in itself, it took 20 years to build), and it looks like someone did a beautiful job of stacking stone, except that it's not stacked stone, just natural rock. 

We look forward to going back when all is blooming and to see the beautiful wildflowers and aspens but that may still be a while.  I promise to post new, prettier photos when we take this trip.  On our way home on Sunday, we went through some snow flurries in the mountains and, then, less than an hour away, we were back in the nice 70° of Denver.  On Monday, there was a foot of snow in Aspen and Vail, but again springlike weather in the city.  The weather fluctuations are continually interesting to me.

Spring??

Terrace - April 3, 2011

Yesterday, it was 84° here in Denver, and today it's snowing.  Long timers here aren't surprised at the fluctuation but, man, it's a little crazy.  Tomorrow morning I go to south Florida to languish in the humidity and see relatives.