Fourth of July

I'm a military minded girl. Many members of my family served in the military: both grandfathers and my step-grandfather; my cousin; my ex-husband and ex-father in law; several of my ex-boyfriends; many of my friends are now or have been military types.

For some reason, I think of them -- all of the soldiers I have known, and those I have not, the ones who are still with us and the ones who have gone on -- more on the Fourth of July than on Memorial Day. I don't know why, except that maybe -- maybe it's because Memorial Day is so funereal and somber, and the Fourth of July is celebratory. I like the idea of celebrating what we have here, what people have fought for, and the ongoing fight to keep it.

So to our military, and their families: thank you for what you do every day. God Bless.

Happy Fourth of July!

Friday I'm In Love (July 2, 2010)

Things I'm loving today:

5. My Wally Monster that I made at Build-A-Bear in Boston. He makes me laugh, especially when I remember this conversation:

Lady at store: "And who is this for?"

Me: "My... nephew. Yeah. My nephew. He's ... eight."

Lady at store: Oh! Does he love the Red Sox?

Me: He sure does!

Lady: If he takes this to a game, Wally might sign it for him! I bet he'd love that!

Elderly British People behind me in line, all excited: We don't understand your American baseball. But we hope your nephew's team wins and that he likes his new toy!

As it turns out, I'm not too proud to invent a nephew so I can justify being in a toy store, buying something. That's awesome.

4. The ability to make my mom laugh. My mom has the GREATEST laugh. I could listen to it all day long.

3. Talking with the Flink on the phone.

2. Lazy Daisy Sangria. I have made full on, traditional sangria. It's delicious. So is this: One bottle of red wine + one sliced up orange + one can of pineapple chunks (with juice) + splash of cranberry juice + can of lemonylimey soda.

You're welcome.

1. The memory of a single, perfect evening in Syracuse, New York circa summer of 2005 and the realization that sometimes, one beautiful moment can make it so the rest of the not so lovely moments were completely worth it -- and that you can take that perfect evening and use it as a platform for forgiveness.