Reply to the Scouting Letter

The words I hadn't dared hope I might hear [or read]

someday.

I called my sister K, trying to choke out the words...

'He wants to contact me.'

Surely there must be miracles because this is what one

must feel like.

July 15, 1999

[I responded by snail mail AND email to be double sure]

Dear Mom-of-Bryan,

A friend of mine lives in my old duplex and phoned me

yesterday to say that I had received a letter from you.

At first I was frightened that it may be bad news but it

was the most amazing news of all. I would be very

honored to hear from Bryan - it is something I have only

allowed myself to half hope for.

Your note was very sweet and I feel so incredibly grateful

to you for taking him and giving him all the things every

child deserves. I would love to communicate with you as

well. My new address is:

Merrily Down the Stream

Cute-1925-House-Under-Constant-Renovation

Deep South

I look forward to hearing from both of you and I am so

happy you are all well.

Sincerely,

Merrily

and now I wait...

Ladies Who Lunch

Back in October [when I was a newbie] I read a blog by 

LeendaLuu entitled 'You'll Always Remember Your First One...'

In it she talked about hooking up with her first blog friend -

And I was totally jealous. 

Now mind you I think I had maybe commented to her 4 times -

And I was totally jealous. 

I wanted to have a blog hook-up (she's right - it does sound dirty!)

In fact my comment to that blog was:

'What fun! I hope I have a first one to remember one day. 

Twins are adorable! xoxox'

I really am such a witty and verbose commenter.

SOOooo

We began commenting to each other, then emailing each 

other and well, one thing led to another (as things are wont to do)

AND

We met on Monday in the Fabulous Metropolis of Charlotte. 

Home of the Panthers and the Preppy People.

She was going there for work and off-handedly asked if I would 

drive up 4 hours and see her. I picked up the phone, called her at 

work and said 'Heyull yeah!' [We say that all the time down 

here in the deep south.] 

She said 'Yahoo!' LeendaLuu thinks we say 'Yahoo!' all the 

time down here but don't you believe that for one minute - 

we DRINK Yahoo!

Oh wait - make that YooHoo!

I met her at her hotel - 

[Okay I grabbed her when she came out of the elevator] 

I mean look at her - you just know your going to get 

along great with her! She is beautiful and smart and sassy!

We went to lunch directly [around 1:00-ish] - we left lunch 

around 4:30-ish. It was Faboo! [I am not sure anyone says 

that down here but me.] And the waitress was good-humored 

[a must when serving restaurant squatters] and didn't mind 

us sitting there forever.

We established several very important things:

We both love to skydive

We both have 6 year old twins (well we already knew that)

We had crummy first marriages

We have excellent [well at least similar] senses of humor

We had twins late and other kid[s] early 

We have identical guilt complexes

We have the same middle name

We were both born in the first week of November 

We are mouthy, brash and not always well-behaved

We can talk and talk and talk to each other

We love old houses

We are at a crossroads work wise

We can laugh and laugh and laugh with and at each 

other and ourselves.

She looks great with grey hair - I look like shit with grey hair.

[I know this is all very riveting to you]

She graciously brought gifts for my twins and these 

delicious evil things...

for Gapetto and company. Her infamous Oreo Balls.

I ate about 450 of them on the drive back. I think 

Gapetto has had one. The Bunny Rabbit would

like 450 of his very own [listening LeendaLuu?]

I only made it as far as my in-laws lake home that night 

as I didn't leave until 7:30 or 8:00 [you know with 

Happy Hour starting right after lunch and all - did you 

ever get to practice that speech?] So I got into bed 

all by myself [no dog, no hubby, no twins in the middle 

of the night] and read as long as I wanted. A fabulous book 

that OTJ lent me. And then I slept in which is exactly 

what I did on the way up come to think of it.

Really it was all so heavenly.

What would I do without my Girlfriends?

Especially my Bloggy Girlfriends?

Thanks Leendaluu - I love you!

To Whom Much is Given...

What a day! 

A day like no other. 

I plan to be GLUED to the TV. If I were 20 years younger 

I'd be in the middle of that mass of humanity but alas, 

now I prefer in-door plumbing, a cozy couch and TV 

close ups.

Yesterday the offspring and I participated in a community 

service event. We decorated bags that would be filled with 

hygiene items for women and children in shelters. As we 

were driving away I decided it was time to talk with the 

children about service and giving and helping those who 

are 'less fortunate'. (An awfully sanitized phrase.)

As we drove through the city The Bunny was noticing 

places where someone might sleep for the night. I impressed 

upon them that some of them were mothers and children.

'Mommy where do they sleep?'

I spoke of shelters and old cars and under bridges... things I 

wasn't sure they could comprehend. Gapetto and I have spoken 

many times to the children about cutting back in these times. 

Business has been down but we have always assured them that 

they/we will be alright. We have a cozy home - we have each 

other - we just can't buy things as usual. (You know - they are 

in THAT stage.)

I told them that even when times are tough we must give 

back because what is tough for us looks like heaven to someone 

who is without. We talked about the lottery (the Bunny's solution 

to our financial woes) and I told them that the first thing we 

would do is to open a shelter (or some such) for women 

and children. 

We spoke of all of this for a bit.

For Christmas our friends gave The Dolly and The Bunny each 

$40 - The Bunny had his eyes on some action figure things and 

he and Gapetto ordered them online. The Dolly has been thinking

and thinking about what she REALLY wants to do with hers.

'Mommy?'

'Yes Dolly?'

'I want to give all of my money to the poor.'

Mmmmmmmm.... I have EVERYTHING I need.

It is always about meme me

I have received my first meme from Laura over 

at Are we nearly there yet mummy

This is Laura

I don't know whether to thank her or kill her 

but I love that girl and her blog. She makes me 

laugh and laugh and laugh.

7 Things You Don't Know About Me


1. I am fascinated by disgusting things like 

footage of facelifts with that little exploration 

light way down under the peeled back face, 

popping zits, peeling my dad’s sunburned head 

when I was a little girl, watching true ER stories 

like the guy with the 12 inch blade in his head, 

infections, fiction about serial killers... 

Hello! Are you still there???

2. In second grade I wanted to be a nun – 

a singing nun – like my teacher, Sister Hope.

and I LOVED THESE MOVIES - THE NUN ONES

3. I have run a marathon distance (26.2 miles) 

a total of 3 times. Two times in the New York City 

Marathon (I know - Glory Days – ’93 and ’94)

4. When I was in 11th grade I decided to tell 

my rather devout Catholic parental units that 

I didn’t believe in God. Which I was considering 

but I mostly wanted to go to an athletic event 

that my boyfriend was in rather than a church thing.

5. I played softball from the time I was 7 until 

I became pregnant with twins and I STILL suck.

6. Dude – like I started partying in like 8th grade 

(smoking cigarettes and weed and drinking) 

and like, if there is any justice in this world like 

I am sooooo gonna pay for that…

7. I have been skydiving three times. All of 

them tandem free falling which means there 

was a man strapped tightly to my back – a Dive 

Master. When asked about how that was I 

replied ‘He could have been effing me up the 

arse and I wouldn’t have noticed’ - 

onnacounta it was so exciting – 

the free falling that is…

I don't know who these 2 are but if THAT guy had 

been my dive master I, um, would've noticed if he'd, 

um, done that other thing, 'cuz like, he rocks...

And that girl? If she didn't pee in that suit then 

surely she went Number 2. Could she possibly look 

more terrified?

There you are, 7 things you didn't know about me.

Next, the rules of the meme:

1 - You link back to the person who tagged you 

(me). For me, it was Laura. 

2 - You get to “tag” 7 people (or less if you’d like) 

and link them on your blog, as I do (below).

3 - Be sure to comment on the blogs of others who 

were tagged. [Oops Laura I haven't done that yet!]

Here are my tags (apologies if you have already 

done this or don't want to do this!) ....

Mommy2Joe at I've said it before and I'll say it again

RLB at Real Live Lesbian

Delurking Day

Being a newbie and all I had never heard of this one. 

Today is Delurking Day.

It is a day when all of you closet readers give me a shout 

on the comment form - right there at the bottom of the 

blog - see it? And it gives me a chance to see if any of the 

one billion people I have given this blog address to actually 

look at it [you know who you are] - ever.

Your comment doesn't have to be funny or brilliant or even 

nice for that matter. In fact Smart Asses are welcome 

(that'll get the family responding - if they ever read it).

So have yourself a merry little Delurking Day and drop me 

a line. I WILL respond provided there is an email address!

A Chip off the ole Atomic Disintegrator

You may recall that Gapetto is a HUGE COLLECTOR OF JUNK. 

I just try to deal with it.

For his birthday I organized the project room - it took me about 

24 hours I would say. I even had Gapetto teach me what some 

of the stuff was so that I could organize it properly ie:

'What the heck is this?'

'You really want to keep this?'

'Go get me a fishing tackle box and more storage boxes STAT!'

Oh, and I guess I ordered him around a little bit too. But 

he was totally grateful and said it was the best Birthday gifty 

he'd ever gotten.

So his friend tells him about this Ray Gun Contest. Whoever 

makes the best Ray Gun gets a nifty 1:1 scaled Atomic Disintegrator 

Pistol! (Huh?) 

I mean who wouldn’t enter that contest?

Did I mention that Gapetto has a Vast Ray Gun Collection? 

Some were even purchased with out his darling wife's knowledge. 

So the chance to acquire a replica 1:1 scaled Atomic Disintegrator 

Pistol AND make not just one (no, that wouldn’t due atall) but 

two ray guns had him salivating all over the place.

He spent A LOT of time working on them – probably more 

time working on them than I spent cleaning the project room. 

The project room formerly know as CLEAN...

He finished the night of the 4th. They were due early on the 5th.

Then he had his very own Mini-Me model for him - The Bunny Rabbit.

This is the Momentum Particle Ray Gun that did not win. 

Not even with that cute little boy modeling. 

Ah, but the one that DID win - the other one Gapetto made

[The Tesla Directed Energy Weapon] - now that one is extra fancy...

Now I want you to take a look at this child...

A serious chip off the old block - remember Halloween?

As for what I think of all of this - check out the contest page. 

You may just see a comment from one Merrily Down The Stream...

I'm just saying...