How can that happen??!!

I wasn't into photography before I had my children but as soon as they came along I was never without the camera. Now I'm a picture taker and that can be a curse at times. This was true especially before digital cameras. Sometimes you have to take many pictures of your subject to get one good shot. That meant lots of developing at the drug store and I always ordered doubles. That also meant lots of pictures to go through and put in albums. Which I didn't keep up with.

One day when I put the baby down for a nap I decided today was the day I would go through all those pictures, sort them into 2 categories; keep for album/ give to relatives and toss in the trash. I had pictures and envelopes of pictures all over the place but finally finished the sorting. Three month old Cam was awake so I gathered up the pics for the garbage, put them in a bag and out they went into the can. I left the others to sort for another day.

Flash forward to a few days later, I'm ready to tackle the remaining pile of pics. As I'm doing this and starting Cameron's album I'm wondering why I'm not seeing his first pictures, the ones in the delivery room and homecoming. (None of the business end of the delivery though) I'm starting to get frantic because those are very special pictures to me. They're no where to be found. I searched high and low, nothing. It finally dawned on me I must have put them in the wrong pile during the original sort. They'd gone out to the garbage can. Okay, deep breath, go out to the garage and dig them out. Oh shit! The garbage was picked up yesterday! I was devastated. My newborn baby pictures were in a landfill somewhere. I called hubby at work hysterical and the poor guy, there was nothing he could say or do to make me feel better. How could I be so freaking STUPID???? I went from being so angry at myself to crying over those lost images for weeks. Between the pictures that my parents and sisters took while visiting us in hospital I was able to get copies of a few newborn photos but no delivery room or homecoming pictures. If there was a contest for idiot or half-wit or moron of the year in 1990 I would've nominated myself and surely been the winner, hands down.

Thank goodness I'm no longer the holder of that title. NASA has surpassed me in the stupidity department.

Some genius at NASA has taped over the video of the moon landing. Wouldn't you think that the video tapes of that historic event would be stored someplace safe like a vault or at least be labeled "Lunar Landing! Do not tape over!" I used to tape my soap opera, All My Children everyday and many times it got taped over it by accident so I guess I can see how it can happen but seriously, the first moon landing. Luckily they were able to get copies from a TV network and Australia and they're being restored by Hollywood wizards. Taping over the first moon landing, that's just plain stupid. I'm no longer Twit of the Year, that honor goes to some dope at NASA.

(I found this picture of the moon on the net, I think it looks like an exotic melon just picked from the vine. Photo by steiner62.)

Is age relative?

I read this story on Yahoo today, the world's oldest mother has died. After living with and taking care of her own mother who died at age 101, Maria Del Carmen Bousada decided she wanted to have a baby. She traveled to the United States to a fertility clinic in Los Angles and lied to them about her age telling them she was 55 years old. No proof of age was required and they got her pregnant. How old was she really? She birthed those twin boys at age 66. Ms. Bousada died at age 68 and the boys are just two and a half years old. She stated that she wanted children but the time was never right. After her mother died she decided that was the time.

I am all for technology helping couples that can't conceive to become pregnant. There is nothing worse in the world than wanting a baby and not being able to have one. I speak from experience here. To have that need to love, care and nurture a child and not be able to so is devastating. I was lucky enough to have a happy ending to my story and have 2 wonderful boys that I give thanks for everyday. I know there are people out there that say if God wanted you to have a baby you would but I don't believe that. Whether it be through adoption or science I am all for doing what it takes to become a mother. Except in this case.

Women were designed to stop being fertile after a certain age for a reason. The chances of medical problems and danger to mom and and baby is huge but just the age difference between mother and child is reason enough not to do it. Parenthood is an exhausting, endless, vacationless job. You need to be up for the challenge. If Bousard had lived, when her boys were 18 she'd be 84! Now I realize these boys will never regret being born. I'm sure they are loved and have people in their lives that will care for them. My thought is that there needs to be a cut off point with medical intervention. The clinic she used did have a cut off of age 55 but even that's high. My opinion, the age should be 50 tops and then there should be other guidelines such as does she already have children.

When I had my second child, he and I almost died. Seriously. It was an awful ordeal for for us and the rest of our families. I'll spare you the medical details. When I talked to my doctor about a third child he asked me if I was happy with my boys and did I love them? Of course! I replied. He then told me yes, your medical issues would most likely occur again only worse, I'd be that much older than the last time and was the risk worth it? What convinced me was when he told me that it's a terrible thing to lose a baby but its even worse when you lose the mother especially when she has little children at home that need her. That was the end of me wanting another child, it was a real wake up call.

Once upon a time women got married young and had their children young. My mom had three kids under age five by the time she was 25 years old. Along came the women's movement and more women began concentrating on their careers, marrying later or delaying the start of a family. I had my kids at age 28 and 32. Today it's not unusual to see women in their 40's having their first baby. If you hear your biological click ticking, don't wait until you're 55 or 66 to start working on it.

I'm sure that Maria Del Carmen Bousada never dreamed that she'd die so soon after her children were born and I do feel bad for her and the boys. At least they will know how much their mother loved them and wanted them even if they're without her now.

NYC Part Two

As you know, NYC is a melting pot of all different races, languages, cultures, young, old, sane, crazy, fashionistas and fashion challenged. All seem to coexist and do their own thing without anyone bothering or judging them. At least it seemed that way to me. There were many pictures I wanted to take of different people but couldn't manage do it surreptitiously.

Take these boots for instance. I thought they were cool. Had I been 30 years younger I may have worn them myself. I fall somewhere between the skull and crossbone boots and the old lady shoes next to him. I took this pic while pretending to take a picture of my son.



My youngest son has his own unique sense of fashion. He bought these Nike shoes in the East Village, maybe the West Village, perhaps Greenwich Village, I don't know, we were in all of those villages as well as Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, Times Square, Midtown, Upper East Side, Harlem and Washington Heights. The island of Manhattan is only about 23 square miles big but I swear we walked more than that over the few days we were there.

Nurse Jackie is a series on Showtime and here it is on a larger than life billboard in Times Square. I like the catch phrase for the show.

This little bar on the corner is used for filming bar scenes for the show and it just happens to be a block down from my son's apartment in Astoria, Queens. I can tell he's turning into a real New Yorker because he hates film crews in the city. Traffic is always tied up when they're around.

One thing that amazes me about NYC is the amount of restaurants there. There are some chains like TGIF's and Ruby Tuesdays to name just a few but for the most part they are independently owned little ones. How do people find them? I don't know how they stay in business but they do. We went toa little one (and I mean little, maybe eight small round tables and maybe the size of my living room and kitchen combined) called Las Ramblas, serving Spanish fare tapas style. Above is our plate of muscles. I'm not a shell fish lover except for scallops and crab but these were delish and the sangria was oh, so good too!

After gorging ourselves at Las Ramblas we went to Magnolia's Bakery. It was made famous by a little show called Sex in the City and also featured in a Saturday Night Live short called Lazy Sunday. Yummy cupcakes but sticker shock. A three bite cupcake=three bucks.

Whenever I'm down in the city I ask my son to take us to his hospital but he never wants to. It's a long subway ride on three different trains; 50 minutes and that's if they're running on time. This time he took us. Here he is up on his floor. He's a cardiac RN in the cath lab and works nights 7 PM - 7 AM.

His hosptial, New York Presbyterian Columbia, ranked sixth in the nation for heart health. His goal is to become a nurse practioner which requires another two years of schooling to get his masters. The hospital will pay for that at Columbia University but for every 10 grand they pay, you must work at the hospital for one year. Hmmm, a masters degree from an Ivy League university doesn't come cheap, he'd have to work there for eight more years. I don't think NYC is in his plans for that long.

New York City Day One 4th of July

This first pic is out of order, it was taken on Monday, our last full day there. We were sitting on the steps of the New York Public Library when we saw this filming going by. We didn't know what it was for at the time but I do now...

I saw a promo on TV last night for a 20/20 show airing Friday called "Who Killed GM?" While in NYC we went on a boat cruise in the Hudson River to view the fireworks. It got off to a rocky start for me. First, some back story. I'm in charge of the safety patrol in my elementary school and at the end of the year I get a small stipend for doing it. I used that money to treat us all to this fireworks show. When we got on our boat there were NO seats left outside and we had to sit under the top roof. I was so disappointed, how could we see the fireworks now?? I may have dropped the F bomb once or twice but eventually got over it. Turns out we got out on the bow for the show and it was wonderful.

People, people everywhere, as far as the eye could see. This is along side the USS Intrepid which is now a museum.



Security was tight out on the Hudson River.



I always think of the Coast Guard as a rescue type role, never with guns.


There was a strong police presence everywhere. These helicopters are two of a low flying formation of four that patrolled up and down the river.

Our boat's sister. There were lots of tour boats on the water along with rich people on their million dollar yachts but surprisingly no average folk boats to be seen. There was a DJ on board and he played tunes from all different decades. I liked the disco the best. We even had some pole dancers on board.

Not that kind of pole dancer, get your mind out of the gutter. These kids had so much fun dancing around for hours. I wondered if they'd be awake by the time the fireworks started.

A fire boat putting on a show.

Is it getting dark yet? We've been on this boat for hours.

Looking up the Hudson River at the George Washington Bridge. It was there where US Airways flight 1549 landed several months ago and our boat was about where the passengers were plucked off the wings.

FINALLY, three and one half hours later the fireworks started!

It was hard to get a good shot of them since I had to keep the camera very still for a few seconds while bobbing on the water. Sorry it's the best I could do.

They were truly AWESOME and went off for a solid 25 minutes and not just one or two at a time but 8,9,10 at a time continuously. The only thing they didn't have were the big boomers. Maybe too much echoing off the building?

After the show waiting for the traffic jam of boats at the pier to clear out.

The kids. That's the Empire State Building between them.

I'm so happy we did this.

Happy 233rd Birthday!

Mark Sanford Part Duex

I know I've already voiced my opinion about S.C. Governor Mark Sanford but he just keeps digging himself a deeper and deeper hole. I understand that everyone has to make the best decision they can for themselves and family but if his wife Jenny keeps him around it will be a miracle. The humiliation she continues suffer at his hands keeps getting worse and worse.

"In emotional interviews with the AP over two days, he said he would die "knowing that I had met my soul mate."

"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."

During more than three hours of interviews over two days at his Statehouse office, Sanford said he is trying to fall back in love with his wife, Jenny, even as he grapples with his deep feelings for Chapur.

Also said;

I have been doing a lot of soul searching on that front. What I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily, he fell in very very significant ways. But then picked up the pieces and built from there.

Now I don't know a lot about the bible but I'm pretty sure David must have been involved in some sort of sex scandal.

He can quote the bible and scripture all he wants but he's a hypocrite. He voted to impeach Bill Clinton then turns around and so publicly disgraces himself and family. How heartbreaking for his wife.

What an asshole.

Rule Breaker

School's out for the summer and I have one self imposed rule that I must follow.

I can not come downstairs until I'm dressed.

First day, Friday-no problem, got up, got ready and left for a weekend at the 1000 Islands.

Second day, Monday- lounged around in bed computing and reading, decided I should get up and get dressed. Did so at noon.

Third day, Tuesday-I broke the rule, came down at 9:00 in my jammies, finally got dressed at about 1:00.

I thought I'd do better but I broke the rule in just 3 days.