The are you serious look

The Weekend is going by fast

I can’t believe it is Saturday night.  Today went by awfully quick.  It all started around 6 when I got out of bed and did some surfing on the net.  I spent the morning doing laundry and then around noon time I got ready for the fashion show.

We met a little after 1 at Carriage Green Assisted Living complex.  Dr. T was already in her first costume and she looked great.  Eventually the rest of the girls arrived and we set up.  The administrator helped set up the chairs while we got instructions and made some changes to the script.  My sole job was to make sure the girls were ready and to cue the MC.  We started at 2 pm and we were finished by 2:30.  Afterwards we had refreshments including ice cream...woohoo.  Overall we had a huge success and we probably will be doing more things for this place.  This might mean we will no longer be doing activities for WRHH.  

Sadly some of the girls chose not to participate because they were not prepared and had backed out because of sports activities that suddenly popped up.   WHen it was discovered said sports activity was cancelled the girls never came back and said oh we are going to do it.  They chose not to help out and quite frankly I have lost a little respect for them.  This isn’t the first time the girls have shirked their responsibilities.  I realize they have an active teenage life but they made commitments to the club and they need to honor it.  It is one of my pet peeves.

The weather was meh.  It was not a very sunny day and even though the temperatures were in the 70’s at one point it got really chilly.  I couldn’t get warm for most of the afternoon after the fashion show.  There is a possibility of some rain overnight  Tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy afternoon.

Connecticut made national news again.  This time there was a train crash in Bridgeport CT.  Six People were taken to the surround hospitals.  It happened Last night around 10.  Prayers go out to injured and to those first responders.  

Mom tells me Ethel stopped by and was trying to get to NY.  Unfortunately becuase of the train crash investigation she couldn’t go.  She was trying to get to Diane.  Apparently Diane sprained her ankle in the last day or two and was at the hospital.  Diane has had a couple of performances today and tomorrow and I don’t know if she will be able to attend.

Mom had a low key day.  She got sick very early in the morning and stayed in bed until 9 am.  She did go church and to the store but other than that nothing.  Tomorrow we are going to a poetry reading in Madison at the Mercy Center.  I haven’t been there in years.  It is quite lovely.

Family update

I am all ready for bed and I was looking over some emails and some Facebook postings.  Cousin Andy in MA says everyone came out of Hurricane Sandy with minimal problems.  I think he worded it differently but cold med may be kicking in.  He said they didn’t even have a power blip.  He did do what most of us have done at one time or another.  He left the car window open and it got soaked.  I called Jim (meant to text him) and woke him up and told him the news.  Something tells me I should expect a call while I am sleeping.

Other family members have been posting on Facebook.  Niece Diane who has been in NY during the hurricane spent time with friends at restaurants and clubs that had power (which would be limited).

Her brothers are fine.  Well for John as fine as one can be while being deployed to Afghanistan.  He is returning from deployment in January and will be returning to Washington State. 

Rob is fine.  He has been working and I don’t think he had power the last time he posted to Facebook. I guess I will have to check that one out later.

Liz and Nel did tell me that Adam & Olga have power but have to walk five miles to get to work.  They live in the city and transportation hasn’t been fully restored.

Cheryl and Mike have no power but a generator.  I am not sure how much longer they will have to be without.  Their Daughter Jess Chris and Luca are surviving as well.  Their boys and girlfriends are okay.

Lisa and Nel #2 were fine.  Grandma and Poppy spent time with Nel #3 in the last couple of days. 

Rich came home from Ireland this afternoon.  As I mentioned earlier Chris went to pick him up at JFK.  I am quite sure I will hear all about that adventure soon. 

As I mentioned earlier this week Chris lost everything during the storm.  He was renting a basement apartment from a guy in West Haven across the street from the beach.  I am already formulating gift ideas for Christmas.

Jim whom I woke up out of a sound sleep to let him know about our cousins is still without power.  He says he will be for another week.  The kids are fine in Macungie.  I think Emily says they didn’t lose power or anything.

Mom is going to help out with the final weekend of campaigning tomorrow if she is feeling up to it.  Right now she is watching TV.

Okay need to go to bed. 

The Creative Writing Contest Reception

The creative writing contest reception was held at the First Baptist Church in Milford tonight. I arrived a little after 6 and Telka and several of the girls from the girls club and Donna and Jolyn were there. I met Jolyn’s 82 year old Husband Judge and he was just so nice. I had the cream puffs and Donna put them in an aluminum tray. There were assortments of treats there. I avoided the chips and crackers but had plenty of sweets.

The winners and their families and friends started arriving after 6:30. Among them were Alberta Jagoe and her family. She even was greeted by Telka in her opening remarks. Alberta’s Granddaughter was one of the winners. There were at least 20 winners and they all brought up to seven people to watch them.

The whole ceremony lasted about an hour. There were pictures and chatting going on for brief time. We cleared out the place and then I left around 8 to go feed Junior. All in all we had a good time and turnout.

On the way home I stopped and fed Junior and played with her for about 15 or 20 minutes and caught some NCIS while I was there. I didn’t want Junior to feel neglected as I hadn’t been there last night (I did go this morning). I was home just before 9.

Mom was home from her meeting just before 8. She had gotten into her pajamas and was watching TV well actually the TV was watching her. She woke up when she heard me in the kitchen trying to find a vase for the carnation I got from Telka tonight. I told Mom how the reception went and that I saw the Jagoe Family.

I came upstairs and got changed and watched NCIS on USA and ION TV. The episodes on USA are from second season and the two on ION were from Season three.

Anyway, I could feel my legs and hands get stiff and sore so I took the plaquenil and hopefully they will stop the aches. If not I could always take the ibuprofen. I am going to give it some time before I do.

I had a good day at work. I got almost everything done but the lobby mail. I just ran out of time. I spent a lot of time on the readdress mail. That was only because the other mail was running late. Those piles are getting smaller. The things that are considered readdress are usually authorizations the Dr.’s need to see, seminars, conferences, and sometimes personal stuff. If they are medical reports I just send those off to Medical Records.

Mom and I had a visit from Claire D. She is an old friend who we have known for years. I first met her when she was a lunch room aide while I was in elementary school. Mom met her at the literary club. She would later teach Liz’s kids at Platt Tech. Her husband died in the last year or so. She has a reputation to be obnoxious and isn’t really liked. When I drove up to the house I didn’t recognize her. Mom had no idea she was hear (the stupid door bell was flaking again) Anyway she wanted to catch up with Mom and asked about Liz and the boys. I can’t believe how different she looked. I really didn’t recognize her until she spoke.
She didn’t stay long as Mom had to get ready for a meeting and had to be out of the house by 5:30. I had to get ready myself. It was very sad really.

Mom says the guy came and gave an estimate on the paint job and it will be rather expensive $36K. He will do all of downstairs and the hallways. He has convinced Mom to take the wall paper down. Mom didn’t show him my room because she wasn’t sure what they would fine. I am glad too. He isn’t going to start until June and it will take about a month to get it done. I am not sure if he is doing the bedrooms or if we are. Who ever does it I need to start getting rid of stuff that I am not looking at or looking through. I may have to record them in log (if it is pen pal stuff) and other stuff like that.

I will start that this weekend or so but for now I am going to bed.

Pies and Work

Well hello everyone. It is just about 8 Saturday nigh and I am so tired. I got up early and got ready for the day. As the title of the entry says today was the MYWC Pie in the Sky project with Hopkins School. I left a little after 8 and drove to the school with no problem.

The school is on hills on Forest Road. The campus is beautiful the buildings were massive. They have a beautiful view of New Haven from where they are. I couldn’t help but feel they are so close to town but have a world of their own. The surrounding homes were beautiful and I would have loved to see how far forest road would go. I probably still could.

I met the other students from all over the new haven area (and some from Fairfield county as well) some of the students (there were boys there too) were sophomores and juniors. Their teacher was Mrs. Lane. She was a former Research tech at Yale and now a science teacher at Hopkins. Roberta was there and her leg bothering her. She says she is going to have surgery on it. I was only able to stay until 10. I wanted to be at work by 10:30. I thought I would have a lot of time to get there before the big Game this afternoon. I was really wrong.

The parking and traffic started early especially on the Derby Avenue and Route 34 area. It wasn’t long but the crowds were going to the tailgating and early seats. As I got closer to the office the parking lots were filling up as well. The garages were filled too. People parking on the streets were getting tagged as well.

I got to work by quarter of 11 and found others to be there too. Many from my team were there as well. I could feel my body getting tired (I was not feeling that well either). It was that time for Scarlet’s visit. I worked until 2 and then a brief visit with Miss Annie and then I came home.

When I got home Mom was out shopping. I watched TV for a bit and then had something to eat. It was nearly 3 I think. When Mom finally did come home she reminded me she was going out to dinner with her friend Martha. She got home just before 8.

Sadly a cousin of Mom’s passed away yesterday. We knew her as Sis. She was a hairdresser in town for many years. She has been living in Stratford for a long time. At least I think she has. The wake is Monday and the Funeral Tuesday. Mom will be going to both.

Tomorrow Dave and I will be heading to Stamford for their annual Thanksgiving Parade. It starts at 12 noon but they will be shutting down the streets around 10. He called me just about 8 and told me that we will need to leave by quarter of 9 from his place so that we can stop and have breakfast at McDonalds.

Cruise Around the Hudson Harbor

We left the house about 8:30. It was a bit strained because Mom and I had a fight over stupid stuff last night. Anyway we got the 9 am train to NY. The ride itself was quiet and quick. Mom slept while I watched the scenery pass by.

It was 10:30 when we arrived in NY. We made stops at the Market place for extra bread and to the Information booth for directions to the pier. After we did a bathroom run and keeping an eye on some woman’s bags while she did a bathroom run we headed out to the bus with our handy coin in hand. Three buses we needed drove by us. That was because we were not at the exact spot to be picked up. WE finally got a cab. That cost $11 including a tip.

When we arrived we emptied out the cab and we headed to the ticket booth. I heard Jim calling out to us and so we gave him our stuff and we went to the booth. We went to the boat. It turned out to be the wrong boat. We wanted the 12:30 –three hour tour and we got the 12 pm –two hour tour.

So for the next two hours we talked and watched the scenery pass us by while the tour guide pointed out the Bridges, The USS Intrepid , the different Piers in which was the location shoots for a variety of TV and movie. He pointed out where Ground Zero was and just important trivia of the time. He pointed out Liberty and Ellis Islands.

Around 1 or 1:30 we had lunch. The girls after awhile went back to the bow and Jamie joined them while Mom and Jim talked about a variety of things. Some I was privy too and some I wasn’t. I did have a chance to talk to Jim about the email incident with Emily and he appreciated that I was letting it go.

When the cruise was over we said Goodbye to Jim and the kids. They headed to their car and we headed to the ticket booth to get some of the money back because of the mix up on our part. We then headed to the bus. The heat was oppressive. We got back to the Train Station by 2:30 and on the 2:34 train bound for home.

It was after 4 when we got off the train. Both Mom and I were glad we got home when we did. We got to the house by 4:30 and went about our own thing. I put the towels in the dryer and went and took a nap for an hour and half. Mom was watching TV and neither of us were hungry.

The rest of the time we had a late light dinner and watched TV. Jim called a while ago to see how we did but Mom says they kept getting cut off. Before I go to sleep I am sending them an email.

Now that it is after 9:30 I best get to bed. I am getting tired again.

Kids Going Home today

It is after 9:30 Saturday and it has been a long weekend and the weekend hasn’t even ended yet! The day started around 8 this morning. Mom and Jamie were up and then I got up and then the girls and then finally Jim. He has been miserable and unhappy this weekend but knew when to put on a front. He was really obnoxious to the girls and Mom led into him and I finally had to tell if she pushes he could very well say “never again”. She understood where my anxiety laid but she also had to be fair that what he is doing is just as damaging. The kids also don’t make it easy.

The kids played and did their required reading while Jim continued to hide in the blue room. That was just about the time that Mom told him off. I think that was also the partial reason he left the house before the appointed time. Mom was packing him a cooler of food and he took off to the Famous Jimmie’s restaurant in West Haven. Mom is so very worried about his behavior and later came to the realization he doesn’t know what he is doing or realizes it.

We got to Cheryl’s just after 3 and this time didn’t get lost. They started serving around 4 we had snacks first and since I hadn’t eaten since the waffles. I was getting hungry. We were there for about 2 hours. Jim and the kids left by 4:30. Liz and Nelson arrived at 5. Liz’s train was late. We stayed for dessert and then left. Liz was disappointed that Jim refused to stay until she arrived and I suspect any answers she didn’t get from Mom tonight she will get from me (or try).

Roberta called me today and she called from North Carolina. I had completely forgotten she was leaving today and I had to go take care of the cat. I did do it. I just was late because of traffic.

Thanksgiving at the Phelans

It all started Wednesday night when I arrived home to find Claudia and the children and Ethel and Bob in the kitchen with Mom. Mom had been cooking and baking for the next day. They visited for about an hour. Ethel and Bob had stayed only 15 minutes. A short time later Claudia left. Mom did some more cooking and wanted to finish a good portion before we had dinner.

We went out to dinner and then to the store for cereal. We came home and the kids had some ice cream at one point and the rest of the night let Mom cook and we did our own thing. Through out the night the kids were trying very hard to push buttons and basically see what they could get away with and it proved to be at times stressful. We ended the night with The Polar Express.

On Thanksgiving we slept fairly late and Mom continued to do more cooking. It was then I found out her Turkey brine leaked all over the kitchen. It caused a mess. I managed to get showered and dressed and we went walking while Mom did some cooking. Around 2 I set the table the kids played quietly. We had a visit from Liz and Nelson and then around 3 the guests started arriving. Jim called to say he would be late. There was a tie up on the Tappan Zee Bridge. He had asked us not to hold dinner for him. We had no choice.

It was just about 4:00 when we realized the turkey wasn’t done. It put a monkey wrench in the whole production. We had to move stuff around and cook the turkey for another hour. We were just about to sit down when Jim arrived. We sat down and had our meal. It turned out really nice.

Our guests started to leave by 8:30. I helped clean up as much as I could and by then Mom and I were exhausted. The kids played and Jim did his own stuff. I think Mom went to bed around 10 and Jim did too. The girls were downstairs and I was in my room watching the rest of the POTC3.

A few hours later I heard Jim yelling and crying out. He was having a nightmare. The noise frightened the girls. I think Jamie slept through it. I went to him and talked him through it. I told him where he was and that Bob is home safe in his house and Mom is safe and in her bed and then he woke up and asked where everyone was. I told him every thing is okay and that everyone is okay. I thought I heard Jamie stir and told him to stay in bed. I think he fell back to sleep after that. I went to check on the girls and told them everything is fine. They decided to sleep in my room. Although that wasn’t the first order of business finishing POTC 3 was and that’s what we did.

After the movie was finally done we went to bed. After a small argument about who had more room then who we settled down and went to sleep.

6 am came too quickly for me. I got up and started getting ready for work. I also took care of the rest of the garbage and by 7:20 or so I was on my way to work. I was envious that everyone else was still sleeping.

While I worked things here were a little chaotic. They had breakfast and Mom finished cleaning the kitchen. Work was a little slow at times but I managed to keep busy.

When I got home Mom told me about the days events. Jim and Jamie went to visit Bob and Ethel for a while and the girls played with the Lego’s and watched TV. When I got home found out we were going over Liz’s. Jim and Jamie met up with us there and we all visited. Pictures were taken and we got to see Jason and Audrey. Jason hugged me! The kids played downstairs while the adults talked. I ended up watching Land before Time with Audrey when she wasn’t following Liz around.

While Jim and Jamie went to get a hot dog Mom and I took the girls home and got ready for the movies. Jim and Jamie were going to meet up with us there. I took the girls to see Matagascar 2. We got out of the theater by 6:15. WE came home and Jim and Jamie went back out (this time back to Bob’s) after Jim relaxed for a bit.

The girls and I had dinner and they continued to play. Jim and Jamie came home and the girls got into their pajamas at 9 (or shortly after that). Mom gave them a deadline and once again they tried to manipulate their way around it.

Now Jim and Jamie are going to sleep I think the girls are continuing to play and Mom is watching TV. I have been surfing the net and probably will go to sleep now.

Tomorrow we have the party to go to and the Pennsylvania Phelans will be heading home. I will catch up on laundry and stuff like that. I have a few letters to answer and write.