(One Week!)
When he first met me, my uncle told my parents, “This child has lived before.” I don’t know about that, but I have lived, and I have the stories to tell. So, to make a long story short, as my mom would say…
One of my favorite lunches at the Blue Bird was “tongue”. It was kind of like corned beef and I loved it! Until I saw the chef taking it out of the refrigerator one day and realized it was actually a real cow’s tongue. Never ate it again.
Many, many years after my parents closed the Blue Bird, then the gift shop, and sold the property, just before my father passed and my parents were living back in Bergen County, the new owners were trying to have the zoning changed. It was in the local papers. My dad couldn’t believe they were still calling it the “Blue Bird property” after all that time.
When I was in 2nd grade, my parents signed me up for piano lessons with Sister Stella at M.B.S. I hated it. She was so mean, slamming my little fingers down on the keys when I hit a wrong note. I wanted to quit, but my parents kept telling me to stick with it. Then my dad signed up to take lessons with Sister Stella, too. After two lessons, he came home and told me it was okay if I quit!
Father Carl, the pastor at M.B.S. was a big tennis player and would befriend all the parishioners with courts. We were no exception. I remember one time he came by unannounced, and my mom was busy painting the front porch, so she sent me and Conne out to play with him. He seemed a little annoyed that we weren’t up to his caliber of play. And we thought it was funny to see him annoyed at us. “Pick up the ball!”
When I was in elementary school Sr. Elizabeth caught me doing something bad which she was going to discuss with my parents at the upcoming parent-teacher night a few days away. I prayed the rosary every night leading up to it. We had a major snowstorm and the meeting was cancelled! By the time the next one rolled around, Sister had forgotten about it and my parents eventually died (decades later) having never heard about the awful thing I did. So yeah, I believe in the power of prayer.
I was a baseball geek when I was a kid. Knew all the players, their stats, and a fair amount of Yankees trivia. In the summer of 1983, I won $100 from Z-100 radio because I knew who the home plate umpire was at Don Larson’s perfect game (which, by the way, my parents attended).
When I was a teen, my parents said they always knew I had a party when the house was cleaner when they returned (responsible teen that I was!).
When I was 24, Lional Simmons, who was the freshman star of my college basketball team, now a senior, was on pace for his 3000th NCAA career point. I bought one ticket to the game, left work early and drove over 2 hours to be there. I was so happy to have been part of it even though I went alone. Sometimes we need to go alone to have meaningful experiences that we’d miss otherwise.
I went to a PBA Ball many years ago and won the basket of cheer which was a huge Craftsman toolbox with bottles of alcohol in it. My date tried to convince me to give him the toolbox. I said, “No way, you can have the booze, but the toolbox is mine.” Still have it!
Chris and I went to the safari at Great Adventure for my 29th birthday – it was spring! You know where this is going, right? Every single animal! Bears, lions, zebras, ostriches! It was like zoo porn!
I bought a pre-lit tree at Home Depot because Chris didn’t want real trees anymore since they were “too messy.” As a compromise, I made him agree to buying the biggest one they had! It didn’t fit. He had to saw 6 inches off the bottom – yes, of a fake tree!
I love hiking. Took my daughter on a long hike along The Palisades once and I misjudged the trail, and it started getting dark and we were far from the car at Stateline lookout. So thankfully I had a charge on my cell and called the park rangers to pick us up at the Alpine boat basin and drive us up to our car. It was a bit of a long walk in what turned into complete darkness. I kept saying, “We’re okay.” Mostly trying to convince myself and not letting my daughter know that I honestly thought being eaten by a bear was a possibility. The cop was surprised to see we were in such good shape and still had food and water (Girl Scouts taught me to always have a pack of provisions!). He told us we could have lasted out there all night. No, thank you!
My daughter once said to me, “remember when Dad died, and we had all that food in the house?” A sense of humor is your most powerful asset in finding strength. And food. Food helps.
How about when you send a text message to your kid that reads “remember when you left the water running in the upstairs bathroom and flooded the living room? Well, you’ve been vindicated.”
Worst parenting moment came when she was learning to drive. “Mom, can you show me how you do that thing where you drive with your knee?”
I have six tattoos. 3 & 4 over 1 & 2, and then 5 & 6 last year. My first one was very small. The Japanese symbol for sun. I eventually covered that with one that says “Chasing the…” with a bigger sun (my metaphor for running) on my 20thRuniversary in 2016. I got one on the day that should have been my 25th wedding anniversary. It’s a big ass dragon that covers my whole lower back. It covers a heart with his name. He was born in the year of the Dragon, as was our only child.
I have radiation tattoos, too. Five of them. Little dots. Last August on the 10th anniversary of my last radiation treatment, I got a snake under my left breast that connects two of the dots. The snake is a symbol of healing and rebirth. In November on what would have been my parents 75th wedding anniversary, I got a bluebird on my right pectoralis major. That was the first one in full color. It represents the wings that they gave me, as well as roots (since it’s landing), and is also a throwback to their Blue Bird Inn.
My childhood home was at the corner of Franklin and Circle Avenues. Down on Circle Ave was a beautiful little pond with a small wooden dock. When I was small my mom would take me there to feed the ducks. When I was old enough to ride my bike, I’d just sit on the dock enjoying the scenery, looking for fish and turtles. Circle Ave no longer circles, and that beautiful little pond is gone. Replaced by an interstate highway expansion.
I went through an entire day once with all my family and co-workers forgetting it was my birthday, then late in the day I went to make a transaction at my bank and the teller noticed it was my birthday, and the bank employees made a big deal out of it! Sometimes I just try to appreciate the little things and not take the rest personally.
I got pulled over once a few years ago in New Jersey for going 53 in a 25! I gave the cop the 1992 PBA card (a Jersey thing, apparently) that had been sitting in my wallet for 25 years just waiting for me to commit a traffic violation. His response? “That was the year I was born!” He let me go, but kept the PBA card, probably as a souvenir.
Not long after hitting the 50 milestone, I was in the car with my daughter and had to pull over to take my jacket off (hot flash!) and she laughed at me. I said, “you know someday when you’re in your 50s, you’ll understand. And you’ll think to yourself, ‘OMG poor mom’ and you’ll feel really, really bad. Because I’ll be dead, and you won’t have the opportunity to apologize for laughing at me.”
To be continued…
Please help me support Mercy Home for Boys & Girls with my 60th Birthday Fundraiser. I will be running the United Airlines NYC Half on March 16th. This will be Half Marathon #54. My goal is to reach Half Marathon #60 before the end of the year. Please help me stay motivated, and make sure the children of Mercy Home are provided the care they need. To learn more about Mercy Home and my why, please visit my fundraising page. Thank you.
