A 2 Day Weekend ...

     It was really great to have a 2 day weekend this weekend, that almost never happens for me, 6 day's a week gets really old. I crammed so much into the last 48 hours ... barely took time to sleep.

      Up really early on Saturday morning to work on my S.A.D. flower garden for several hours. (Seasonal Affective Disorder.) Yep, very over grown and winter ravaged :-(

 

     I wouldn't really call it happy yet but no doubt it us much less S.A.D. than it was on Friday.

 

    Checking out some seasonal color at Home Depot, will need something bright and beautiful to liven things up once I get it under control.

 

     Went shopping at B.J.'s with Mom and Mandy for the seafood for Easter Dinner. Brittney (my niece) is coming home from college. I love Brittney!

     Lunch with Mandy at our neighborhood Pizza Hut, we know how that girl loves pizza. 4 of her friends that she grew up with work there, they got to do a little catching up :-)

     2 of her other friends came in while we were there, one pushing a stroller with the most adorable boy baby with the biggest blue eyes, the other girl was very pregnant ... about to pop actually. I said a quiet "Thank You God" (if you know what I mean) as I sat there an oogled over the beautiful baby.

     Mandy was doing the driving ... we saw a 4 ft iguana in the middle of the road with eggs all around her, it did not look as if she had been hit by a car yet. We pulled off of the road, Mandy grabbed a huge plastic bag and ran a great distance at lightning speed to rescue the iguana from the speeding traffic.

     By the time I circled around to pick her up a man on a bicycle had stopped to see if he could help the sobbing child and the huge terrified hissing lizard.

     We drove to a nearby reptile store, where a very nice young man was kind enough to come out to the car with Mandy to check on things. Apparently the lizard had been hit, thus expelling the eggs into the road, internal injuries were just to much.  Mandy cried and cried, and I was thankful that the nice man offered to take care of the reptile that had by now expired in my car. Would the rest of my afternoon could have been spent giving a proper burial to this huge iguana?

 

     Instead we stopped into a few of our favorite 2nd hand stores. Every girl needs a place to rummage through used stuff from time to time.

    Born into Brothels <-- click was playing locally so we did go to see it. This move was an amazing documentation of true hope found amidst chaos and squalor (exactly as expected). If you get a chance to see it, you should.

     Zana Briski's gift of humanity reminded me of my friend Ellen. When my children were growing up, I helped her to found a youth activity center for at risk children in our community. This was one of the most fulfilling experiences I can remember.

     I moved on out of necessity during my nightmare divorce, Ellen is still there and has made it a full-time commitment to this project ... she's my hero! My kids went back as they got older to help Ellen and her kids at the center, or maybe I should say for Ellen and her kids at the center to help them:-)

     There was a local carnival going on near the Cinema that night, we took a photo of the Ferris Wheel but did not go in. I hate that fair, I wont go into details here, better left for "Between You and I."

 

     We did stop at Borders book store, also near the theater. We choose a stack of books to browse through at the cafe and we each picked out a new one to bring home.

     10 hours later we finally made it to Publix to finish up with the shopping for Easter Dinner. It was late by the time we got home and we still had a lot to do. We died Easter eggs, they came out pretty nice for us being as exhausted as we were when we started.

  

     Mandy for the first time ever, helped me put together the Easter baskets, one for her, one for Brittney. A little reluctant at first to take part in something that has always been such a hush hush ordeal, part of her still wanting to experience the childlike thrill of surprise. 

    

     This was one of those coming of age moments ... it was the first time we ever spoke of the responsibilities and duties involved in being the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause! I think she liked it!

     We read our books while the eggs saturated in there dyes and when it was all over we finally cleaned up the mess and went to bed, exhausted after 19 fast paced hours on Saturday!

 

    

     Easter Daywe stayed home all day, never even left the house ... that almost never happens. My sister and her staff had to work, they are in the party decorating business and 18 months ago someone booked a Bar-Mitzvah for March 27th. No one even noticed that it was going to fall on Easter!

   Mandy and I spent the whole day getting the house company ready and preparing for an awesome seafood boil. Mandy and Brittney opened their Easter Baskets and played with all the stuff inside just like when they were little girls.  That bright beautiful glowing face in the middle photo is Brittney (my niece) one of the people that I love most in this world. She's smart, she's energetic, she's decisive and a born leader, she's also the creator of many beautiful things and defiantly one of us!

                   

 

     The first photo above is the beginnings of the authentic Caesar salad that we make, yes egg yolks and anchovies and all.  We love Caesar Salad! Got so busy that I forgot to take a photo of the seafood the one below is one from last year, almost an exact copy of what we had yesterday, table setting and all! This year every plate had a tiny gold wrapped chocolate bunny! 

 

 

     My friend Frank Smith called in the middle of Easter Dinner. I have not seen Frank since I lived in Atlantic City, (over 25 years ago) and it's been quite a while since we have even spoken on the phone. Frank is so artsy, he's an amazing songwriter, but then again 25 years ago, almost all of my friends were amazing, artsy songwriters. 

     The conversation was very brief out of necessity, maybe we will talk again soon, who knows? All in all, this was a pretty great weekend, hope yours was too!

                                      *** Coy ***