7 Random Things
I got tagged awhile ago from my friend Jean and I just found the document where I had filled it out. Since I've been flakey and didn't answer promptly, I won't subject others with this tag, unless you feel so inclined. Here are the rules if you choose to partake. In the meantime, here are 7 random things going on with me right now.
7 Random Things...
1. I seriously need to lose some weight but have little motivation to do it.
2. We’re going on a ski trip to Park City in a few weeks Yay! A family holiday.
3. I’ve become a fan of “Guiding Light” in the last few months.
4. I finally cleaned out underneath the cabinet in my bathrooms and the hall cabinet. I threw away 1 giant garbage bag of crap and another big pile of containers for recycling. Now, the rest of the house is need of a huge clean and purge.
5. I treated myself to a massage the other day and it was really nice.
6. I’m woefully behind on answering my emails (although I did weed through and delete about 100 emails about 10 days ago)
7. I want to get a pair of LA Kings crocs.
Here are the rules which must be posted on your blog if you are tagged:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.
Happy Merry!
My sister sent me this picture. Had to share since it pretty much covers all holidays. Hope everyone had a wonderful day!
Viva Las Vegas
G and I celebrated our 6th anniversary last week. On our actually day, we went for a nice dinner at Roys. Oh man, that place is amazing. Expensive but worth every penny. Yum. To really celebrate though, G had the idea to go to Vegas for a night and go have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants there. He wanted to surprise me and just say "we're going to the airport" but with C, that really wasn't feasible. So on a few days notice and thanks to the "wanna get away" fares at Southwest, we flew up Wednesday night to Las Vegas.
Through a work friend, G was able to arrange a room for us at the MGM Grand. We had reserved a junior suite but the girl who did the arrangements requested an upgrade to the terrace suite, if available. Well, I've never seen Vegas so empty as it was on Wednesday. You could've rolled a bowling ball in the casino and not hit anyone. So yeah, we got the upgrade. So we go up go the 17th floor, walk down an endless hallway and walk into the room. Immediately to our left was a powder room. How many hotel rooms have you been in that have a powder room? There was a wet bar, dining table, living room and oh wait, stairs! We go upstairs to a big bedroom with a walk-in closet (could use some of that at home) and a humongous bathroom including a big spa tub. This is fantastic! We get ourselves together to head out to dinner, and I realize there's a balcony. I find the sliding door and it's not exactly a balcony. They don't call it the "terrace suite" for nothing. It was a *huge* terrace, square footage wise, probably as big as our backyard patio AND it had an outdoor spa tub with a great view of the Las Vegas strip. Yeah baby!! Needless to say, we knew where we were going to be later in the evening.
We took the monorail to Mandalay Bay and went to "Burger Bar" there. Yes, it's casual but oh so yummy. I had a Kobe beef burger with sprouts, avocado and cheese. G had a buffalo burger with pesto, sprouts and something else I can't remember. Great fries and good beer. It was perfect. Then another friend of ours has a vodka locker at Red Square at Mandalay. He offered and arranged for us to go into the locker and have some of his personal stash. Apparently, it's one of those places where you go into the freezer room where there's plexiglass table and you're all bundled up with fur coats (or something crazy warm) and hats. But we went in and gave our name and J's and they gave us some story that the freezer wasn't working that day. It sounded a little cock and bull to us but we weren't going to argue. Too bad. It would've been a fun adventure and very nice of J to even offer.
We made it back to the MGM, gambled and lost $80 bucks pretty quickly. Did you know that they have a huge lion display there? It's this huge plexi enclosure and they have like 30 lions at some other location and they bring them back and forth to the hotel for people to see. It's so darn cool. They're totally relaxed and just like your animal laying on the floor of your living room. The plexi is thick so that they can't smell us humans so that they just veg out. It was really neat and can't wait to show C next time we go. She'll love it.
We went up to the room, filled up that spa on the terrace and even though the jets didn't work. we were out there for about 45 minutes, skinny dipping in front of all of Las Vegas. Temps were in the low 40's but the spa was hot. So with our hotel bathrobes, we had a great time.
Now, you all know that I'm a scrapper and what scrapper doesn't go anywhere without her camera? (waving hands wildly) I, the big dork that I am, didn't have my camera with me. When we got into this fantastic room, I opened my purse and no camera. I (coulda had a V-8) thought I left it on the kitchen table and was just kicking myself. We bought a disposable camera and took a bunch of pictures with old fashioned film. I dropped it off today and will get them back in a few days (need that CD copy of the pix). Man, I'm so spoiled by the world of digital and I know it's been at least 4 years since I used actual 35mm film. I hope some of the pix come out because it was so cool and want to share. As it turned out, I didn't leave my camera at home either. As I literally was walking in the house yesterday, I got a call from one of C's teachers asking if I left my camera at school, which I must've done on Wednesday.
We slept in on Thursday 'til about 9 when we each got cell phone calls. Got organized and headed to the airport. But it was SO nice to get away even if it was only about 18 hours. In C's 4.5 years, we had never left her overnight for something personal. The two other times we left her with grandparents she was under 2 years old and last year when G and I were both working on separate shows. So it was nice to have quiet time together. We were able to do what we wanted, sleep in, not worry about kids in the casino, and just have a good time. It was great and hopefully, we'll get a chance to do it again. Or at least make the overnight an annual anniversary gift to ourselves. We deserve at least that much.
Labels: Las Vegas
Mitzvot
Mitzvah - it's a Jewish word to express any kind of human kindness. Every week in school, C gets a shape and we have to write down a mitzvah she did that week. Then on Friday at the Shabbat time, one of her teachers reads each child's mitzvah shape and puts it up on the tree on the wall. Each shape is a "leaf". At the end of the year, the tree will be filled with leaves of all the mitzvot that all the kids have done all year. It's really a beautiful thing. The mitzvah's have been anything from helping to walk the dogs to making a thank you picture for her uncle to doing something without being asked. She hasn't quite learned to use and manipulate her mitzvah to point out something she didn't do and twist it into something good. For example, many of her classmates have siblings. It's been reported from one of the moms that her child said "Look Mom, I didn't hit my big brother. That's a mitzvah." Hey, they're learning. But I digress.
I did a little mitzvah yesterday. As you may know, I play in a flute choir. For the past 10+ years, along with our holiday concert do what's now been dubbed as the "Southland Tour". We go to a place in downtown's skid row called "Lamp Village." From their website, they say "Lamp Community was founded with the conviction that, when given the proper services, supports, and opportunities, homeless people living with a severe mental illness are fully capable of achieving housing stability, participating productively in the community, and dramatically improving their overall health." So, as a group, we go down there and do our holiday concert for them. We bring them holiday music and then end with traditional carols for everyone to sing along. Yesterday, we had a nice turn out and they all seemed to really enjoy and appreciate the music. That's what's it's all about. We try to bring them some warm wishes and good cheer and they really enjoyed our little concert, asked lots of questions about all our different flutes and were very thankful to all of us.
After Lamp Village, we went to the nursing home of the mother of one of our members. This is the 3rd facility we've performed at for S's mom. Mrs. C will be 98 years old next month and while she's now in a wheelchair, she definitely is all there and looks terrific. God bless her! It was nice to perform for this group of people at the nursing home as well. From the sound of it, this was the first time a group came in to perform and bring some joy and music like this. We were all too happy to perform and it sounded like they enjoyed it as well.
I don't feel like I do enough sometimes physically. I'm happy to financially donate to causes that I believe in, and do often, but sometimes you need to actually do something. That's what I don't do enough of, I will admit. But yesterday was a really nice day. I felt honored to help bring a little joy and happiness to everyone. And their appreciation and kind words to all of us really gave more back to me than I feel like I gave to them. So that was my "mitzvah shape" for the week. I hope I can do more.
More fame
Geez, the east coast newspapers must be stalking my cousins. This photo was published December 11 in the NY Times about the New York Youth Symphony. That's my youngest cousin standing in the back left. He's one of the percussion section in the symphony. Woo-Hoo!
Bragging
I have very talented cousins. On one side, both my cousins are doctors (emergency room and pediatric anesthesiologist). On the other, well, talent oozes. From my uncle's first marriage, I grew up with my two cousins since we're all around the same age. One cousin is a choreographer. One is a pre-school teacher and breast cancer survivor (yay!). His second marriage, my uncle (the Broadway producer) married a dancer who danced on Broadway. They have three kids. The two girls are professional dancers one in Philadelphia and the other in Boston. My one boy cousin, who's a senior in high school, is a drummer (and was a tap dancer in his younger days). I mean, serious percussion player. We're talking he'll be going to Julliard or The Curtis Institute of Music next year to study classical percussion. In fact, years ago when my uncle was working with my personal God Billy Joel, J got to play with him. Even 5 years ago, Billy Joel commented that J had talent and I don't think it was to suck up to the producer. But I digress.
My cousin R dances for the Philadephia Ballet. A few weeks ago, this picture was in the NY Times when the company performed "Swan Lake" in NYC. R is the 2nd from the right, standing in the back.
Today, my Aunt sends off an email bragging about the photo on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper. Yes, THE front page. How freaking awesome is this??
R, you totally amaze me! I hope one day I can see you perform in person.
Post Hanukkah wrap up
First of all, I've been completely down and out for the better part of the last 4 days. Last Friday night we were invited to a screening party for G's show "Movie Rocks". We went to the director's house and it was just lovely. His house is right out of
Architectural Digest and yet very comfortable and homey. The food was fantastic, nice company (I didn’t know too many people) and the show as fantastic. It was one of those shows where every performance had a “wow” moment. You don’t get to see too many of those, much less work on one, too often. It’s rare that we’re really proud to have our name on the credits and I was quite proud to see G’s name on that one.
Anyway, came home from that nice evening with a migraine (again) and feeling a little rundown, which after the lack of sleep I’d had all week was not surprising. By the time Saturday dawned, I had been hit by a full whammy head cold. I literally slept until 3PM that day! Thank goodness G was around to watch C otherwise I don’t know what I would’ve done. And I was so out of it, I barely heard them in the house. We went to my parents for Hanukkah that night which took all the energy I could muster. I came home, went to sleep and slept until noon on Sunday. Got up, went downstairs and took a nap on the couch for another 2 hours. Monday, I got C to school. Took a golf lesson (which might’ve not been my brightest idea of the day), picked up donuts for C’s class Hanukkah party and came home and took another nap. Woke up in time to pick up C and a friend from school but was still loopy so G was kind enough to get the girls and take them to the party. I slept another 2.5 hours. Today, I’m finally feeling semi-functional but still after a full day, took a nap. Clearly, my body was screaming for help but man, I’ve only been hit like that once before. It’s been a sucky few days.
Moving on…
We’re now in the Hanukkah after glow. I was completely remiss in posting the goodies that C got throughout the week and will post some highlight photos tomorrow. C did well this year as usual. We tried to keep it lower key which turned out to be fine. She wasn’t crazed about opening 30 presents a night. She was fine with the one or two from us and the one from her other set of grandparents. (They sent 8 little pressies which was just fine). From us, she got a
Princess scooter, a Kings jersey with her name on it, a hopscotch rug, a Tinkerbell lunchbox and puzzle,
Magnetix, and some other little Princess-y things. From Grandpa A and M, she got some Polly Pockets, some drawing pads, Jungle Book DVD, Dora Dominos, a fun t-shirt with our last name on it (I got one too) and a beautiful quilt that M made. We’re spoiled with M and Grandma C who are both prolific quilters. I just love them. From Grandma G, C got snow boots and a cool scarf for our ski trip next month and the game of Jenga which we now love.
When we went to my parents’ house, we all were spoiled rotten. My sister and BIL got C, the game of
Perfection, a croquet game (which C already knew all the rules and explained what the wickets were - go figure), pop beads and I’m sure there’s something else I’m forgetting. All good stuff. My parents got C more art supplies, a GC from
Naartjie which will be put to good (pink) use, a nok hockey set, more ski clothes for the ski trip and more which again, escapes my cold induced brain. For us, we got spoiled too. G got a great GC for Golfsmith from my parents. I got an
iphone!! OMG! Yes, they got me and my sister and iphone. Now, we have to go through the process of canceling our service with Sprint to get on AT&T to get the thing working and G wants one too so that’s the project next week. But it’s so cool, I’m so excited. My sister and BIL spoiled us with a bunch of gift cards. Not quite the number we collected for Mom for her birthday but 8 GC’s for the 8 nights of Hanukkah. All from good places like
Target,
Amazon,
Starbucks, Borders,
Jamba Juice,
Corner Bakery and one of the good LSS’s by her house. We were quite spoiled this year, as usual.
I hope everyone else out there had a lovely holiday filled with latkes, gelt and s’fganiot.
Me-ology update
Okay, the Top 8 thing. My Space. I don't get myspace. I've tried. I've logged into people's blog there and I get a bunch of gobbuldy gook, music and graphics overlapping so that I can't read it. Whatever. I have plenty of Top 8's I'm sure, just not in the myspace context.
My BF M reminds me (if you read the comments) that I did, in fact, once swallow something that I wasn't supposed to. Back in high school when I drank way too many cans of Tab soda (ah, the fond memories of pure saccharin), I wiggled off the poptop off the can. Yeah, the tab part came off but so did the little metal linky thing that it attached too. I swallowed that. I remember coughing it up (lovely visual I know) but that would qualify as swallowing something that I shouldn't have.
Off to start the AKC Eukanuba National Championship Dog Show, night 1. I'm still in search of replacing my phone chain thingy. That's tomorrow's search when I go back to the breed ring competitions (and shopping) tomorrow. I bought a really cute blingy chain with a dog bone that attaches to my cell phone. I lost the bone back in March. I've been waiting all year to come back to buy another one. I hope I can find it. Let's see who'll win Best in Show. I'll let you know. It's all so very exciting.
