Sunday, March 29, 2015

Pushing Spring

The calendar says that it is spring, but the air and surroundings say, "maybe not". Either way, we took a drive today to Provincetown (Ptown to locals). The sun was shining. It was probably in the 40's, but the snow and ice were melting. It felt really good to be outside without a hat and mittens. We walked out on a jetty that probably went for a mile. I would guess that we went more than half way. I had never been on this jetty before. It was really low tide so there were people digging for quahogs on the mudflats on either side of the jetty. 




The seagulls had their tables on the flat rocks. The seagulls take a quahog or clam and drop it on the flat rocks so the shells break. Pretty ingenious and we wondered if it was a trial and error thing or if it was inbred to drop them on the flat rocks.

Doesn't that bottom right picture look like a butterfly?


The pier is another fun place to walk. At the end you can see the building with the Portuguese Fisherwomen pictures on it. All the little huts that take reservations for fishing or whaling trips or sell trinkets were still closed.


We were not really sure why this house was anchored out in the harbor. I don't think it is suppose to be there, but I am not sure where it drifted from if that were the case. 


All in all, a stellar day with hopes that summer Sundays in Ptown are not too far off!

Sunday, March 15, 2015

It's A Wrap!

A part of my high school senior's life was a wrap last night. She was in her last high school musical. If she didn't feel badly about it, I sure did. It's been quite a run and to watch her grow in her acting and singing has been a gift.

She has had the honor to be in How To Succeed In Business, Rent and South Pacific.


This year, she was Rizzo in Grease. To say she fit the part would be an understatement. I don't say that because I think she is like Rizzo, I say that because she did an amazing job portraying Rizzo.


The whole crew did a fantastic job! The best thing was that it was the first production in a brand new auditorium. The stage was huge, the props were great and the audience could HEAR!! At the end of the show last night, the seniors got hugs and roses from the Director and Musical Director. Truly a bittersweet moment.


I hope K looks back on this time as a special one. I know that I will.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Bergs, Not Just for Alaska Anymore

Perhaps you have seen some pictures of Cape Cod on the news in the past week. We have been on the news because of large ice chunks on the beaches of Eastham and Wellfleet. It's something that has not happened in about 80 years and it is very (VERY!!) cool!

Bobby and I went and checked out First Encounter Beach in Eastham today in the rain. We wanted to see it for ourselves!

It was awesome!!

The first group of pictures gives you an overview. We had to walk across a lot of snowy ice to get to the actual sandy beach.


Of course there were iceberg selfies.


Because I wore rain boots, I could walk farther out through the puddles. I climbed one of the 'bergs and took this panoramic. There were icebergs as far as I could see. Many of them were shoulder height and some were about 6 feet tall.


This is me on top of my iceberg.


Professional wakeboarder, Brian Grubb, visited Wellfleet this week and shot some pretty neat video.




Maybe winter wakeboarding will be the next tourist attraction on Cape Cod?

Friday, March 6, 2015

ABC Jeep Tour


I had been to Aruba before and remembered the beauty and complete difference of the North/East side from the West side of the island. Melissa was going to be content floating, but I could not let the trip go by without a little jeep ride. Our hosts, Alicia and Joal from ABC Tours Aruba led us on a 2+hour adventure. When we first meet up with them, we were handed red bandannas. I thought they were like headbands as in, "this is our posse, don't mess with us". Obviously I had been hanging out with teenagers for too long. I guess they were for keeping the sand/dust out of our mouths, but we wore them on our heads anyway.

First stop, California Lighthouse. Don't we look bad ass?


We stopped by my favorite and cutest church. It is a Catholic church and there are services held here every weekend. Because the church is so small, there are benches outside for the parishioners. Joal thought it would be HYSTERICAL to put his friend's pet snake in our jeep while we were inside the church. Oh, it was hysterical because that's what Melissa and I were!!!


The North/East side of the island reminds me a lot of the Maine coast. It is  very rocky and rough. It is also breathtakingly beautiful. The little rock sculptures people had made actually have a very cool back story. They are called fisherman stones and before a fisherman goes out on a trip some of his family members come make a little stone column and say a prayer. Some were very elaborate!


Joal, our driver, was like a little kid with a dirt bike although he was an adult with a jeep. We took so many off road paths! We shrieked and screamed and laughed through the whole trip.



We wound down from our excursion on the patio of the Ritz with some cocktails. They were so pretty, I had to take a picture. And yes, we were wearing our cool headbands. You never know where I might show up wearing mine!!



Thursday, March 5, 2015

My Friend Melissa

Melissa and I met in 1st grade in Acton, MA. We had Mrs. Popolizio as our First Grade teacher. She was great. I remember having a kiddie pool in the classroom with pond life in it.

Anyway, I don't remember much else about First Grade, but Melissa and I were tight until she moved away in 4th grade. I remember crying hysterically in the shower when I learned she was moving to Maine. Thanks to our parents, we were able to switch vacation weeks (February at Melissa's, April at mine and vice versa). Our families skied together when we could. I would go visit her at Sebago Lake where she had a summer house. In high school, she came and lived with my family in Ogunquit, Maine during the summer. We became "sisters". We talked, we argued, we loved. She went to Wheaton in MA, I went to Bates in Maine (irony). She moved out to Chicago after college while I moved to the Cape. Through it all, we stayed friends.


We were in each other's weddings and our kids are all friends. We still try to go to Sebago Lake to visit in the summer. Once we got out to Indianapolis and sometimes she comes to Cape Cod. When she asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to go to Aruba with her, I couldn't get "YES" out of my mouth fast enough. So we went, 4 nights and 5 blissful days in the sunshine. A well needed break from the worst winter I can remember in a long time. I didn't tell many people about it because I actually felt guilty getting a little sun in the winter of snow and more snow (and yes, a little more snow). We were able to talk without being interrupted, we were able to plan our day without planning meals and taking kids too and fro and we were able to float in the ocean for a 1/2 hour at a time without anyone saying, "I'm bored". It was a true gift.

We told some people while we were there that we were celebrating 42 years of friendship. We stunned people speechless. I think we made a few people jealous and maybe we pushed a few people to call an old friend. There was nothing weird about being together. We were not tired of each other and at every meal, we found something to talk about. I am honored to have Melissa as my oldest/dearest friend.

I am also very, very lucky.

Me and Melissa at 10 years old....

Me and Melissa in Aruba....

No difference, right?

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

A short story...

When my oldest/dearest friend, Melissa, and I were younger, we loved making up stories of things and people. She just treated me to the trip of a lifetime in Aruba last week. This picture is a picture of the cabana next to ours that I secretly took. The following is the story that I feel goes with the picture....



Jimmy Valero had lived on the south side of Philly for all of his 46 years. he knew the neighborhoods, the people, the way things worked. Actually; he was in charge of how things worked in the underground. Jimmy liked the finer things in life: Cuban cigars, fast cars and hot Brazilians. As he got older, he put more of the day to day workings of his business on his nephews' shoulders. He told people that he dabbled in real estate, but that was the front for the drug running business he had. Sure he had sold a few houses in his day, but that didn't make nearly the money of drug running. He loved to run the drugs, but he had never taken any himself. He had watched too many addicts die while waiting for their next high to want to get involved.

His favorite place to blow off some steam was Aruba. He went twice a month and bought a time share at 2 different hotels. The cigars were cheap and so were the women. Jimmy oozed sex appeal with his greased back hair, gold charms and chest hair. He walked and talked like he had money and was happy to flaunt it. At the roulette table one recent night, he met 2 Brazilian strippers who were sisters. They barely spoke English, but with the size of the breasts and asses, Jimmy could have cared less. They spent the night all together at Jimmy's time share at PlayaLinda. Sleeping was not much for the activity in which they were involved. The next day Jimmy invited them to his beach cabana.

The girls had bikinis that were more akin to thong underwear showcased at Victoria Secret. As a matter of fact one of the girls had angel wings tattooed on her back and a devil on her right cheek. While the girls traded off laying next to Jimmy on the chaise, they would chat with their cabana neighbors. Jimmy loved telling people about his backyard in Philly. He had transformed it into his own mini Aruba. He had spent years searching online for items that would fit perfectly in his special space. he even had fake palm trees that looked so real people wondered how he grew them in city soil.

The girls decided to go swimming to cool off from the high temps in the cabana. Their asses shook as they playfully blew Jimmy kisses as they walked toward the water. An hour later they returned completely dry, giggling and rocked out of their minds.

Jimmy and his girls went back to the hotel for an afternoon "siesta". They never came back. Jimmy was found the next day tied to his bed in his time share with no money in his wallet and no pulse. Jimmy had had a heart attack while being pleasured by his Brazilian call girls. they took all his winnings from the night before and fled as quick as they could. Instead of a burial in South Philly, Jimmy had wished to be thrown off the North side of the island.

Jimmy Valero got his wish.