In the Blink of an Eye

This once cute little girl called home tonight and says "I'm calling to hear the story of my birth." A ritual routinely practiced each year the night before the girl's birthday at bedtime.

This year, on her birthday came the telephone request...with a sorority sister listening in.

Now the once cute little thing I helped create is a twenty-year old beauty.

In the blink of an eye.

Happy Birthday Princess A. You are loved!

Hanging With Mr. Faleepo

Saturday night we were hanging out with Faleepo Head.

Faleepo is cool. He is friends with Tim Reynolds of the Dave Matthews Band and TR3 and St. Louis radio personality Dan Strauss of the Big550's Frank O. Pinion Show, among others. Faleepo once guest hosted on the show. He is totally down with the "AM in the PM".

Faleepo has been friends with Dan and Tim since the 70's. By the looks of his video debut (at the end of the video) he was hanging with dudes who were dabbling in some illegal activities. Then again don't most musician types have a sored past? That they video tape? Poor Faleepo seems to have been mistreated and kicked around a lot back then. Why he is still friends with these guys after all these years is a mystery to me. Faleepo believes himself to be so cool he even has his own Facebook page.

Faleepo graced us with his presence last night at Bill Clevlen's annual trivia night. He was pretty much a hallow head of a team player. He just kicked back, smoked a cigarette, drank a bottle of wine till he passed out and hammed it up with Ian the Peon (...or is it that Ian hammed it up with Faleepo?).

Our thought in inviting Faleepo was he would help us to retain our third place title again this year. He did not. Like I said, he was a hollow head of a table nine team mate but a score of 85 and fourth place ain't nothing to sneeze at.

Spring Break Costa Altantica Style

Getting back into the swing of routine life is a bit difficult when you have had the Caribbean sun kissing your skin for seven glorious days. Somehow I drug through Monday and then crashed at 7pm, sleeping till 530am. I woke to a Tuesday weather report of warm air and sunshine--just what the doctor ordered.

Last Thursday as I laid on a pool lounger on deck 10 switching back and forth between my novel and watching dolphins chase each other and the ship…I was a far cry from the torrential road blinding rain storm we drove through almost a week before that brought me to that place; that place of tropical relaxation and tranquility. Sunshine has a way of doing that. So does boiling hot sand on Morning Star Beach in St. Thomas that sends all running, no matter age, to the crystal blue and turquoise water. As does a Spanish fort in San Juan and crashing waves on Cabbage Beach in Nassau.

The dining room was another story. All I will say is the hamburgers at the pool bar saved my life each day. Things like this: seafood pasta with a dwarfed octopus placed on top was most definitely an appetizer killer. Don’t even get me started on the turkey with giblet gravy! I give kudos to the asparagus flan and the snow crab quiche, but I don’t have a lot of praises for the chef of the Costa Atlantica when he puts red and green candied cherries in the baked Alaska. I love me some candied cherries, IN MY FRUIT CAKE AND HOLIDAY STOLLENS, not in my baked Alaska!

The girls had a good time being silly
All us girls

We had a great time on the ship dancing

Relaxing with a good book

Most of all...being together as a family

Because after all that is what a family vacation is all about. Enjoying being together.

Most of all thankful the girls all have cameras they remembered to capture our memories when I forgot mine (because D moved it from the packing spot).

Till the Fat Lady Sings

I am in that moment of crunch. I am feeling the pressure. I will get it done. And then sleep in the car. All day!

I'll keeping going until....

Monday

I am in serious count down mode. I have company that stretches way past the confines of these walls. Spring break cannot come fast enough for us all! Time to get off the hamster wheel of life for a while, relax, choose our own busy-ness, have a cocktail on a Tuesday, sleep in late...you get my point.

I am preparing to let my favorite black boots rest in the closest. Instead giving my sunglasses a work out.

Which reminds me...Princess A I left them in your dorm room please don't forget to pack them with your stuff. A week of squinting just wouldn't be an fun!

Today's weather is like a spring break preview. I smile.

Cash is King and Sleep is Over Rated

Friday Midnight

Before I know it I will standing in a cafeteria with music blasting in my ears while my head trys to scream back, unsuccessfully, "turn it down" and a mass of people crank out 4000 subs. While I hone my counting skills double checking if the orders were filled correctly; I will think about Friday night's fun.

Trivia.

Trivia itself was rated W for weak but the team players rated G for great. Weakest trivia I have ever been to. Lowest turn out ever for Project Graduation trivia night. It was crazy how slow things went. The flower category sucked a big one! It was apparent we are not drinkers of to many mixed cocktails according to the drink category...like who the heck drinks a greyhound? I thought the greyhound was 1. a form of mass transportation or 2. a dog who runs races. Not a cocktail! Odds are if I bellied up to a bar and told the bartender I wanted a greyhound he/she would look at me like I had two heads. I did however leave the evening $198 richer. King Ralph and I won the 50/50. I would have donated it back except with the budget cuts in the district I decided to be greedy and keep it. I bought a jacket at the silent auction so I donated part of the winnings back.

We marked our tie breaker sheet for 68 and ended the evening with 65 total points. Not our best, but we had a hell of a table buffet. One drunk dude from the losing table came by and started loading a plate with our buffet selections. We were all so dumb founded we just stared in shock at his audacity. Then once I realized who's table he came from, not to mention the fact it was an all male table who came armed only with a five-gallon barrel of hard pretzels and a cooler of beer...well, you begin to feel sorry and proceed to load them up with your leftovers. King Ralph found another guy in the men's room hugging the toilet while his buddy instructed him to "lock his knees" while he held his head over the toilet. Really!? How old are these people? Sure we had some wine, beer, margaritas and a little spiced rum at our table but we all left collected and upright.

Okay if I stop typing and get to sleep I will clock 4.5 hours of rest before the sandwich song starts playing at ten thousand decibels.

Saturday 437pm

I actually got 3 hours of sleep before the alarm summonsed and the sandwich song started playing. By the time we finished making 3100 bandwiches and delivering the bandwiches I was so tired I could hardly hold one eye open and find my bed. M too. But I did and so did M. I napped like a queen...no a princess because a queen would still be sleeping. M must be the queen, she is still sleeping. I'm jealous! To be 17 again.

I am so tired and you'll never guess what I am cooking for dinner? Bandwiches. (I say that with an evil but serious giggle.)

Not Even A Bad Cold Can Stop the Show

We jacked D up on some DayQuil around 530pm so she could belt out musical tunes for her March concert in order to not be subjected to sniffling-sneezing-coughing-aching-stuffy-head adding hand to: so-you-can-sing. The miracle medicine! Then she shimmered her face with eye shadow, blush, lipstick and false lashes...then dressed.

Performance Costume Recipe

1 Sully from Monsters Inc.
1 Little Mermaid
1 Flamingo dancer
100 yards of velvet
50 yards of rhinestone
Generous sprinkle of glitter

Put all ingredients in blender on high.

This is what you get....the most hideous costumes ever known to the world of show choirs!However, despite the on going complaints from the girls of Limelight, the all female show choir, about the costumes, they put on a fabulous show last night! The song collection--a tribute to woman power.

I got in the auditorium early enough last night to get a good seat. A seat right behind the Band of Sisterhood known as old ladies with the worst cheap old lady perfume ever produced and salon styled hair that met teasing heights that should be illegal. Even the Limelight mom sitting next to me commented on how bad the old lady perfume was. It was bad! I decided not to crop my pictures so I can remember and reflect on how creative I was in my attempts to maneuver around the ten mile high hair and gallons of Aqua Net hairspray while holding my breath for an hour.

Regardless the jazz hands live on.

Curt Cobain, Or Sting

That time is creeping up--spring break. It is hard not to count the days down with the kids, and not just because we plan to hit the open road, but because everyone in the world of school does. No matter what your age.

Everyone who knows us well knows when we take to the road we have always entertain the girls with a "best of" album. Learning all the words to all the songs--a requirement. Because, for no other reason than music fills the soul...or in this case, the car. Who can complain when a teen can sing and appreciate everything from Patsy Cline and the Carpenter's to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Jefferson Airplane?

So imagine the reaction from the crowd when I suggested Michael Jackson as a possible pick. "For the love of Jesus no Michael, please no mom" moans M. "Jesus loved Michael" I spit back at her. "Really mom, no!" chimes in D from the back seat of the car. "How 'bout Nirvana?" she asks. How 'bout it? Then at work the "young one" in the office begs me not to torture the girls in the Michael way. She comes back to work yesterday with her and her husband's suggestion of Sting. Hmmmm, that certainly would be a great front runner. Never done Sting before.

Still, why not Michael? Sure he was a twisted soul but he was a musical genius and a legend. Can't you just picture the beauty of the girls in the back seat swaying back and forth in a chorus of We are the World as we zip down Highway 55? No instead they want to remind King Ralph that the car Smells Like Teen Spirit as they strum their air guitars and beat their air drums.

Okay Cobain is a strong possibility. He too was a musical genius in his own twisted soul kind of way.

Then there is Sting. Sting & The Police, better yet. Then we can hear the girls sing the stalkers anthem of Every Breath You Take from the rear of the car. King Ralph could serenade me from behind the wheel with Be My Girl. While I won't reveal our destination I will say this, that Ain't No Sunshine will NOT be our weather song of the day (week) and the only way I will be able to get word to you all will be from a Message in a Bottle.

Okay seems Sting & The Police win! For good measure will let Cobain sing a few rounds as well. Maybe even let Michael pop in for a visit (just to torture the girls).

I like to play fair.

I shall commence with the CD burn.

Until we meet again...happy sunshining Thursday!

I had a great weekend of sunshine and warm air. While it was 43* here in St. Louis on Saturday, I ventured down south to visit Princess A at college, for AXO's Mom's Day, where the temperature was 52*.

The thing you got to love about Cape Girardeau is that on one block you can see a camouflage truck with a gun rack and the next block over you can see a hoopty driven by a thug. To spice up things even more you can find Dracula in the grocery store, in February, serving samplings of blood orange juice. Then one isle over you can find an old man with snow white mutton chops accented by a black hair piece (odds are he thinks we all believe that is his real hair, lol). You also can spot a guy on a bike with a baby bike trailer attached, except no baby in the trailer instead an Irish Setter. That takes walking the dog to a whole new level. I doubt warm air brought these oddities out but I guarantee it contributed to the college fashion fare of running shorts with Ugg boots--cool legs, warm feet.

It's Monday and my weather man reported today's weather with this song

Regardless of the heavy clouds and no rain there is one big reason to love Monday, this Monday...the season finale of The Bachelor!