Five Questions

I was over at RocksInMyDryer early this morning and picked up this meme from her. If anyone else would like to give it a try consider yourselves tagged.

1. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

That's an easy one - Haagen Daz Coffee Ice Cream.

When I was at the end of my pregnancy with my twins (age 20 and 85 lbs, at the beginning) I couldn't fit much more than a teaspoon of food in my stomach an hour. (The twins were huge, 7lbs and 5lbs 14oz. I was a little bitty thing with the largest watermelon you ever laid eyes on protruding horizontally).

So, I ate a pint of Haagen Daz Coffee Ice Cream every day just for the much needed calories. And the dairy. Oh, yes the dairy too. It was such a sacrifice, but I managed to force it down.

After giving birth, I weighed 75 lbs. The twins were very healthy.

My theory is that Coffee Ice Cream saved our lives.

So I pick coffee ice cream. After all, I owe it a favor.

2. What's the most nerve-racking "close call" you've ever had?

When my twins were 17 months old and I was 7 months pregnant with my son, we went on a family vacation during the winter. I was pushing the twins on a sled down a very small incline in front of our cabin in an attempt to get them tired before their nap. I told them," one more time, then it's nap time". As they gently glided down the tiny slope a terrible thing happened. The sled took a sharp turn at the bottom of the incline and started picking up speed on a patch of ice and headed for a ditch. The ditch was about 100 yards away and I ran as fast as I could yelling for them to fall off the sled. They just turned to me and started laughing thinking that it as so funny to see their mom running after them as they were going faster and faster.

What happened next was God's intervention because they hit a tree that was growing up from the ditch before they careened over the ditch into the rushing water.

They both had bumps on their heads, Jen hitting the tree and Dave hitting the back of Jen's head, but if they didn't hit the tree, I can't even imagine what would have happened.

Just thinking about that incident, which happened over 25 years ago, makes me all panicky.


3. Name five features your ultimate dream house would have.

Ice cube dispenser on the outside of the refrigerator. I'm an ice cube freak. I even drink milk on the rocks. To just hold a glass under the thing and have the ice cubes fall is a heavenly thing. Oh, and being able to ask my company 'would you like your ice crushed or cubed?' in a Julia Childs-like accent always cracks me the heck up.

Fireplace. I love the way a fire in the fireplace lights up a dark room.

Master bathroom. I like to have my own bathroom because sometimes I just have to go and waiting for someone else to get out is not an option. Enough said. Your welcome.

Skylights. So I can see the sky from the comfort of my home.

Hot tub. For too many reasons to list.

4. Who has been the most influential non-relative in your life?

I would have to say a woman I used to babysit for when I was a teenager. She ate healthy foods, traveled all over the world, lived within her means and treated her children like they were the most important people in the world, because they were to her. She was caring, loving, tender and kind. If her children were afraid of something, she would comfort them.

I ran into her last year and now she is a grandmother. The little girl I used to babysit for is in her 30's.....ouch. She is a wonderful grandmother to her grandchildren and I could see from their interaction that they respect and love her dearly.


5. What one non-physical feature would you most like to change about yourself?

My insecurities. I think I hide them well, but they are still there, every day, in the background, holding me back from being all I could be.

The Thing That Feels Like Home

The furniture I ordered got delivered to my house in CT on Tuesday. A dining room table, chairs, china cabinet, leather couch, leather coffee table/ottoman, leather chair and ottoman.

My sister was there to let them in.

I drove up after work to see it. 3 hours and 15 minutes later I arrived. Rush hour traffic.

Then I left at 5:15am to get to work by 9am.

Crazy, I know.

It's the first time in a very long time that I bought new furniture. I gave away most of the old stuff before I moved. So I am very excited about it.

I can't wait to put all of my china in the china cabinet. It's all been sitting in boxes for months.

Tomorrow I travel back home for an extended weekend since the Fourth of July is on Wednesday.

I'm planning on unpacking all of my dining room boxes and setting up all of my girly tea sets.

And finally, it will feel like home.

Patience is the only thing that runs thin on me

God knows what he is doing.

I say that because at my age I can no longer bear children. Truth be told, I haven't been physically able to bear children since I was 23 years old. Yet, if that weren't true, and I was blessed with a child in my late 40's I think I wouldn't survive, mentally that is.

This week my sister, 10 months my junior, is staying at my house in Connecticut with her 2 year old foster child and 8 year old adopted child. I'm back on Long Island at her house.

Em, 8, is attending performance art camp for the week there. She is very talented.

Last month she played the lead role in a school performance of 'The Princess and the Pea". She stole the show.

She reminds me of Carol Burnett, only more beautiful.

Jay, the 2 year old, started talking this year.

And he hasn't stopped.

He talks constantly.

And he doesn't stop.

Ever.

As I was packing to leave on Sunday, he followed me around the house as I collected my necessities.

"Leaving"? "Leaving"?

"Yes, Jay, I'm leaving"

"Leaving"? "Leaving"?

"Yes Jay, I'm leaving, but not right now, soon, I have to pack my stuff first".

"Leaving"?

"Soon, honey. I will say goodbye and give you a hug and kiss before I leave, okay"?

"Leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving, heaving"?

Right then I realized that God knows what he is doing. Because after 10 minutes of the broken record-like 'leaving' echoing throughout my furniture-free house as he stalked me from room to room, I was ready to rupture my ear drums with an ice pick.

Years earlier I would have had the patience.

I do love children.

But, unfortunately, at my age, patience is the only thing that runs thin on me.

*I have to just add this funny e-mail I just received from a friend:

Him: "I say that because at my age I can no longer bear children. Truth be told, I haven't been physically able to bear children since I was 23 years old. Yet, if that weren't true, and I was blessed with a child in my late 40's I think I wouldn't survive, mentally that is."

Gee... sounds like you just told the world that you and Cap are boinking uncontrollably...


My reply: Ooops, that's not what I meant......gotta change that. thanks


Him: yeah, cause you'd kinda want to keep that private. Unless there are pictures...

NECTAR SHAKE - YUMMMM

Last night as I'm making hummingbird nectar:

Capt: "Babe, you know you could just buy that stuff in the store".

YewNorkBabe: "Yeah, I know, but all the birds in the neighborhood come here because my nectar is better....just like that 'Milkshake' song: MY NECTAR BRINGS ALL THE BIRDS TO THE YARD, AND THEY'RE LIKE 'IT'S BETTER THAN YOURS', DAMN RIGHT IT'S BETTER THAN YOURS...."

Capt: (rolls his eyes)

Instincts

I have found that the stairs on ferries are very steep and slippery when wet, so I am always cautious when using them, especially while wearing high heels, which is most of the time. I never claim to be smart, just fashionable.

The last time I traveled by ferry I was walking down to the bottom deck from the sunny top deck I felt the stairs shake and heard the person behind/above me falling.

Just like when mothers instinctively reach their right arm across the passenger’s side seat when suddenly stopping to protect their passengers, I, without thinking first, crouched down to assume a sturdy stance and reached out to grab whomever was falling. When I turned around to see what was falling my way I saw a very large, heavy, muscle bound, body-builder of a man getting to his feet. He just looked at me in shock that I would even consider catching him, then smiled and said, "that was a sweet gesture, but I doubt if little YOU could have caught ME".

We both stood their laughing and eventually went our separate ways.

Instincts are fascinating to me, especially those type of motherly instincts.

I remember when my friend Mary was 10 weeks pregnant. She had been married for several years and before that she had a career as a Broadway singer/dancer. She lived a ‘selfish’ lifestyle, by her own admission. When she was 10 weeks pregnant, she got a hold of me at church, took me aside and started bawling her eyes out. She didn’t think she could be a mother. She didn’t feel ‘motherly’. She thought that she would resent never working on Broadway again.
After she vented I smiled and told her that towards the end of her pregnancy she would feel much different, that an instinct will come over her and she will become protective and ‘motherly’. And we prayed together. I’m not sure if she totally believed me, but she seemed more relieved.

Mary is a stay at home mom of two children now and whenever we get together she brings up that meeting we had and laughs. She is one of the best moms ever. I’ve asked her if she misses her career at all and she always says, "no way, this is sooooo much better".

In what ways do you find your instincts come out?

Trash Talk

This morning's conversation in the local convenience store:

Him, to the store clerk as he's grabbing the New York Post: "What type of person reads this crap?"

Me, grabbing the Post that he just put down, "excuse me".

Him: "Oh...I guess that answers my question".

(I'm wondering if I should be insulted or not.)

Afternoon telephone call:

Jeff: Theresa, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, I was at my sister's wedding down south. I have lots of funny stuff to tell you, you're gonna pee in your pants. I'll tell you just one thing though, the man she married has a sister who is also his mother.

Me: Jeff, I don't even want to know how that is possible.

I'm so lost without you

I realize that many of you may think that I must be a navigational expert since I travel back and forth from Long Island, NY to rural Connecticut every week. I know this because of some of your comments.

Truth be told, I don't even know what direction I'm facing in most of the time.

Living on Long Island was easy. All the streets go east and west and north and south. The island is 20 miles by 80 miles. If you hit the water you've gone too far. No problem, just turn around.

And shopping, well, you could just about walk around the corner and get anything you need at a strip mall. And that doesn't mean strip as in 'bow-chicka-bow-bow'. It means strips of stores. I had to explain myself to you all because Capt's children were wide eyed the first time I told them I was taking them to a strip mall. Come to think of it, the boy was a bit disappointed when he learned he wasn't going to see what he thought he was.

Boys. Hmmmmm.

I am finding differences in some other things in CT as opposed to NY too. Take pizza for instance. In NY we ask for a pie. Here in CT no one knows what you are saying. Pies only have fruit in them. You can't ask for a slice either. They sell pizza by the size. And then they cut the round pizza into little squares....weird. And hero sandwiches are grinders. And, as my QFIL pointed out to me, in CT you don't get on a line, you get in a line.

Oh, the education I am getting. Knowledge is power.

Where was I going with all this? (See. I even get lost when I write.)

Oh yeah, my navigationally-challenged self.

Now that I live in a rural town, in order to get anywhere I must drive many miles. Many miles. And make lots of turns on windy roads. Roads that merge. And never end. And when I finally see a sign that makes sense, I'm already in Rhode Island or Boston.

I am afraid to go anywhere that I'm not absolutely sure how to get to and how to get back from.

You have to understand, there really aren't a lot of main highways around here, so it does get confusing for me.

Here's where I have been leading up to:

When I got here this weekend I got a very, very early birthday present from Capt. My birthday is in December. Maybe by the time my real birthday comes around he'll forget that he already got me something. Maybe I'll forget too.

Oh the possibilities!

This is what he got me.....a Tom-Tom.

It is amazing, yet freakish, at the same time.

It knows exactly where you are at all times and shows you very simply how to get anywhere. It is so easy to use and that's saying a lot because not only am I navigationally-challenged, I'm also electronically challenged. I just have to press the screen with my finger and point to the places I want to go.

And it shows you were the nearest restaurants are. And gas stations. And ice cream shops. And department stores. It also can let you know if there is traffic up ahead, though I haven't figured this feature out yet.

So a little while ago I went for a drive by myself without a care in the world. And when I got lost I just turned on TomTom and the oh so pleasant voice told me where to turn to get back home.

Capt always knows how to make my life easier.

Now they need to invent a devise that drives the car for me while I take a nap or do my nails. That would be really nice.

Let it rain

Hi everyone! Thanks for all your kind and supportive comments about Ann's death, it really is so wonderful to have blogging friends!

I took a 3 day weekend so I could rest and recuperate from this past week. I didn't plan to take off today, Monday, it just seemed like a good idea at 4:00 am when I got out of bed and saw we were having a tropical storm here in Connecticut.

I'm having so much fun living here. I just wish it was full time instead of only the weekends.

This past Saturday morning I was cleaning the hummingbird feeders and making more food for them (sugar water). I was standing at the kitchen sink and I watched out the window as a green hummingbird was looking for the feeders. He flew all around the area of the deck where they usually are and then he flew directly in front of the window and looked right at me as if to say, "Hey Lady, where's my food already?" I raised my index finger to let him know 'one minute' and that seemed to satisfy him.

I named that one 'Harry', after my Jewish grandfather.

So I hung out all day doing nothing, except I cleaned out the fireplace and I organized my bedroom closet.

And listen to the rain pitter-patter on the roof.

Yeah, I could get used to this new life.