1. Tony and I have been planning, for a while now, to vacation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire this summer. You may remember that my family vacationed there all the time when I was younger and that that's where Tony proposed to me. Last time I was there, it was just me and Tony, in 2005. We figured this would be a good summer to take Ari up there and show her all the places I went when I was a kid (even if she won't fully appreciate that concept).
My parents recently became time-share owners, and they started looking into getting their first one up in NH. Mom mentioned how fun it would be if they were there the same week as us, and we started coordinating our dates so that we could stay with them. We've been talking about this for months now, but just last week, Mom confirmed a reservation at a resort up there.
Then she calls me Saturday--on Tony's phone, actually--and says, "So did you hear that we got the condo up in New Hampshire?"
"Yeh..." I said slowly. "You e-mailed me all about it just yesterday."
"Did Tony talk to you about it?" she continued. I glanced at him, and he was grinning at me.
"Noooo..." I waited for her to explain. And the happy news is... my sister Mary and her family are joining us. Apparently, my mom has been plotting this with Tony and Josh (Mary's husband) for months now, and both boys were keeping it a secret from their lovely wives. Josh just got his vacation time approved, so Mary and I were both let in on the secret on Saturday. I'm psyched, not only about getting quality time with my favorite sister, but about being able to watch Ari and Matthew (Mary's son, who just turned 1 at the end of March) interact. They're going to be a riot, I just know it.
2. We went to the mall on Saturday afternoon--the same mall that we often frequent, since Ari loves the play area so much, and the same mall I worked at when I worked for the Disney Store. The Disney Store in that mall closed over a year ago, and I had no idea what had happened to my boss. I've asked around a little, to see if anyone knew what had happened to her, but have always come up dry.
We were standing at the fountain in the middle of the mall, letting Ari throw coins in, when Tony nudged me and said, "Look." In the doorway of the Coach store, 2 people were waving furiously at me, and it took me a second to recognize them--Alta, my old boss, and Erica, another girl I worked with briefly at the Disney Store.
As soon as Ari was done, we rushed in and chatted for several minutes. I was surprised to find out Alta had been working at that store for almost a year, and that I'd never seen her. Not that I ever shop at Coach, but you would think I would have caught a glimpse of her in passing, since the store isn't that huge. Anyway, it was great to get caught up and to show off Ari (who, of course, played shy).
3. Our church had a ladies' tea on Sunday afternoon--kind of in honor of Mother's Day, but not too specifically (lest any non-moms feel left out). At one point in the program, they presented huge bouquets of flowers to me and Dawn, to recognize and thank us for all we do as the pastors' wives. I was totally surprised and touched, and when I got home, it turned out that Tony knew all about it.
Look how pretty...
4. There's this song that Tony sings to Ari that we all just call "La dee do" because the only lines he knows are "La dee do la dee do dah day, la dee do la dee day dee, he whistled and he sang til the green woods rang, he won the heart of his lady." I once asked him if it was a song he made up, but he said no--he just couldn't remember the title or any of the other words.
I went to the library on Saturday, and among the books I picked up, one was Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, a memoir of his career as a comedian. I'm not sure why this book struck me... I read his fiction novella Shopgirl and liked it, so I figured I'd probably enjoy an autobiopgraphy written by him as well. Anyway, as I was reading, I came to a section where he was talking about one of his jobs and a specific girl he worked with. He wrote, "We developed a love duet for the Bird Cage in which she would sing 'Gypsy Rover' while I accompanied her on the five-string. When she sang the song, the lyric that affected me most was--believe it or not--'La dee do la dee do dum day.'" I stopped short--that had to be THE song. So I Googled it, and sure enough... that's the song Tony sings to Ari. I found a YouTube video of a group singing it, plus found all the lyrics (there are a lot!).
Also, if anyone's curious what other books I got... I picked up The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (which was the first one I read, and I finished it by Saturday night--LOVED it), Fluke by Christopher Moore (which I'm just about to start, since I finished Steve Martin's book a few minutes ago), Hunted Past Reason by Richard Matheson, and Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd.
And that's all for now... As Ari would say, "See you later, crocodile."
3 comments:
that's cool that you guys get to vaca together!! although, it would be nice if all the siblings vaca together sometime.
that's so cool that you got to see your old boss! it's nice when you get to reconnect with people you haven't seen in a while.
the flowers are beautiful.
i haven't been to our library in a while. now that school is out, i probably should go.
Yeah, it will be fun! Though nothing's ever set in stone, mind you. Just the other day, I was driving Josh's car and it started to make this funky smell. Hopefully it doesn't die on us, cause that would mean a new car (possibly a mini-van) and a new car payment--ugh!
Boy, I wonder how Matthew is going to like a 15-hr drive? I mean, I'm sure we'll split it up, but he's older now and will want to stretch his legs and not be confined to a car seat. And also since he's older, he won't just fall asleep once that car starts moving. No way, there's way too many things to look at :)
That's cool that you saw your old boss again, and the flowers are lovely!
I saw Shopgirl on TV once. Steve Martin was in it, but I didn't realize he wrote the story. Anyway, I didn't really like the movie, but maybe the book was better.
I knew they were going to honor you, too but Tony said to keep it a secret!
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