These are pictures of me and My mom and dad on Easter. I was about 5 I think
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Time Goes on.... and on.... and on.. hopefully
Sometimes when I see both My grandsons, I can't help but smile, thinking about when I was young and an only child, I decided I wanted to make a family. Well, I did it. I have two beautiful children that I'm so very proud of and now two grandsons that will carry on and make their own families long after I'm gone.
It's such a strange feeling to watch my kids be parents. This is going to be a fun ride. Between Dylan and Brady, there are lots of adventures coming.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Brazil and Patio Tables.... I promise to tie it together for you
Brazil and a patio table. What you say, do they have in common. Well, happiness!
Charles and I have decided to go to Brazil in August when My new company is closed for the week before Labor day. Yes, I love My new job, but more about that later and I took pictures so you could see the new office, it’s so cool. But, back to happiness, Brazil and patio tables. Charles is so excited he's placed a Brazilian landscape as his screensaver and spends his evenings relaxing and planning the multitude of activities while we are in Brazil.
Once we actually made the decision to go, Charles went into save money mode. I have seen him in this mode before and if it weren’t for Me, he would subsist on top ramen noodles and beer and save every other penny he gets his hands on. He’s the same way about addition. Drinking, smoking, no difference. When he decides he isn’t going to do it anymore, he just doesn’t. Normally, he is in Aquarian mode with Me and will happily spend our last 10 bucks on a bottle of wine as long as it brings happy moments but when in this mode he is brutally thrifty.
So, what does this all have to do with a patio table you ask? Well I know you didn’t really ask but I’m going to tell you anyway so just get comfortable. Our new apt/house is so great. It has a great area upstairs and a small downstairs area with a washer and dryer and also doubles as our office and houses the family PC. But, the greatest of all is that I finally have a small yard that is Mine to do with what I want. It’s been so long and maybe even never because our house in Beaumont had such a big lot I could never really do anything with it anyway. This is much more manageable and last weekend much to Charles’ chagrin, I put in a garden.
OH MY! WHO is that sitting under it, reading his precious New York Times in the sunshine getting a tan before we fly off to Brazil? 
Later that night he said that it was hours of his life that he’d never get back but this past week I have caught him watering it lovingly with lady sitting adoringly at his feet. (he regularly calls her a stupid little cunt in a sweet voice and laughs like crazy when she eats it up, oblivious of the slur to her gender and intelligence level). So, after I put in the garden I decided I wanted to have a patio table so we can have friends over and so I can sit outside and write and do research for My book.
This was against the new save every penny regimen. In Charles’ eyes, he could put the tailgate down on the truck and we could sit there and all the money spent at the store even if things were on sale would stay in his bank account and go towards the trip to Brazil.
But I had other ideas. I have visions of a pretty little patio area with flowers (gasp, they cost money too) and a place to arrange all the rocks I collect every time we go on a road trip. So I found stuff on sale and got up this morning with every intention of getting My new table and ….
HERE IT IS…
So as you correctly guessed, I got My patio table and I’m sitting here in the wonderful sunshine drinking a tequila sunrise and tapping on My laptop….. Oh such bliss!
I’ll start a new blog about my new job awarded to Me by the Universe in the next Blog entry.
Charles and I have decided to go to Brazil in August when My new company is closed for the week before Labor day. Yes, I love My new job, but more about that later and I took pictures so you could see the new office, it’s so cool. But, back to happiness, Brazil and patio tables. Charles is so excited he's placed a Brazilian landscape as his screensaver and spends his evenings relaxing and planning the multitude of activities while we are in Brazil.
Once we actually made the decision to go, Charles went into save money mode. I have seen him in this mode before and if it weren’t for Me, he would subsist on top ramen noodles and beer and save every other penny he gets his hands on. He’s the same way about addition. Drinking, smoking, no difference. When he decides he isn’t going to do it anymore, he just doesn’t. Normally, he is in Aquarian mode with Me and will happily spend our last 10 bucks on a bottle of wine as long as it brings happy moments but when in this mode he is brutally thrifty.
So, what does this all have to do with a patio table you ask? Well I know you didn’t really ask but I’m going to tell you anyway so just get comfortable. Our new apt/house is so great. It has a great area upstairs and a small downstairs area with a washer and dryer and also doubles as our office and houses the family PC. But, the greatest of all is that I finally have a small yard that is Mine to do with what I want. It’s been so long and maybe even never because our house in Beaumont had such a big lot I could never really do anything with it anyway. This is much more manageable and last weekend much to Charles’ chagrin, I put in a garden.
OH MY! WHO is that sitting under it, reading his precious New York Times in the sunshine getting a tan before we fly off to Brazil? 
Later that night he said that it was hours of his life that he’d never get back but this past week I have caught him watering it lovingly with lady sitting adoringly at his feet. (he regularly calls her a stupid little cunt in a sweet voice and laughs like crazy when she eats it up, oblivious of the slur to her gender and intelligence level). So, after I put in the garden I decided I wanted to have a patio table so we can have friends over and so I can sit outside and write and do research for My book.
This was against the new save every penny regimen. In Charles’ eyes, he could put the tailgate down on the truck and we could sit there and all the money spent at the store even if things were on sale would stay in his bank account and go towards the trip to Brazil.
But I had other ideas. I have visions of a pretty little patio area with flowers (gasp, they cost money too) and a place to arrange all the rocks I collect every time we go on a road trip. So I found stuff on sale and got up this morning with every intention of getting My new table and ….
HERE IT IS…
So as you correctly guessed, I got My patio table and I’m sitting here in the wonderful sunshine drinking a tequila sunrise and tapping on My laptop….. Oh such bliss!
I’ll start a new blog about my new job awarded to Me by the Universe in the next Blog entry.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Yankee Stadium. Aint it Grand? They are tearing this down and putting up the new stadium by 2009.HEY CHAD! Did you hear that? They are tearing down Yankee Stadium....
How could you let the home of the Sultan of Swing come down without a last visit?
I think that calls for a ROAD TRIP!
Just no more sleeping in your car in the Village! I still can't believe you didn't wake up on the sidewalk minus your rental car.
This is a rendering of the New Stadium.
YES YES.... You may come again for the opening of that one!The more the merrier... Jeremy, Scott, Matt, JT.. Charles says we can turn our new apartment into Camp Silva for the event! Don't forget to bring the girls ... and your credit cards..... he he (psst can you say FIFTH AVENUE)
Love you guys.....
J
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Could you sell YOUR Parrot?
Recently a complaint was lodged against my blog/journal about the use of expletives. It was offered politely, even complimenting my writing style. My evaluator felt with my excellent vocabulary, that surely I could avoid succumbing to the “lazy way out” using curse words.
I gave this some thought, well actually quite a bit of thought after I got over hurt feelings about it. I really am oversensitive when it comes to my work or criticism of my general personality. Anyway, the truth is that before I moved over blog posts, each one was edited for content and usage. Being aware that some people in this realm might be a little conservative, I felt like it appropriate to edit. I can only imagine what my well meaning critic would have thought of the original piece.
Now to the meat of this commentary and the conclusion of where all that thinking last night led my pen this morning and as usual it goes deeper for me than just “don’t cuss.” When I left Texas for New York City, part of the reason I made the hard decision to go so far from friends and family was the need to escape the feeling of pressure to conform to what other people thought was the right way to be, live, think and act. I found defending myself all the time tiresome.
When I arrived in New York and got over being terrified, I discovered that my field of vision and new surroundings were so eclectic that I was the NORMAL one in the crowd of people rather than the rebel. This was such a hugely foreign state of affairs for me that after I got over the shock of it, I let myself be unabashedly delighted. No one was judging me anymore for outlandish ideas or for not “acting my age”. Instead they were actually interested in what I thought and much less interested in how much younger my husband was than I am or what I was wearing. I was able to stop worrying about what anyone was saying behind my back because these new friends and acquaintances were just too busy to worry about such things.
In my world here, the pressure is still there but it’s different and I think much more productive. Conversations, taking place in cool little bars in the West Village or Chelsea, center around new ideas about writing or films or a new business concept. Questions may sound like this, “So Joni, what’s going on with the new short stories you are working on. WHAT? You haven’t finished them? WHY NOT?” It’s not about what you HAVE done as much as what do you want to do. If you haven’t done what you want to do, what you dreamed of doing, then the attitude is, get off your ass (see! Bottom or buttocks just DON’T work here) THIS is New York City. Anything is possible.
I like the change of pace and attitude here. Sure, there are snotty Park Avenue Trust fund babies,
but even they understand the entrepreneurial atmosphere, The CEO of a Fortune 500 company standing next to you at the bar will have a beer with you and a little conversation even if you are a plumber. After all, HE can’t change the pipes under his sink. I like it that people hold your feet to the fire to do what you dream of doing and it’s way more productive to be critical in that way that worrying what people will THINK about you or whether they are speaking to you or not.So, in the interest of meeting half way, I promise to find neutral ground between being who I am, telling a story, sharing this new world around me and using unnecessary expletives.
Will Rogers once said to “live in a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.” Now that I am so much more comfortable in my own skin, I think I could sell the parrot because I don’t really CARE about the town gossip anymore.
But… in the end…
Sometimes…
A BASTARD is just a BASTARD…
No matter the nomenclature.
Kiss kiss
J
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
water, warmth, and nites out
This post is an old one too.... the day we went to the play. The water main broke and for a couple of days the water company had us hooked up to the next door neighbor's water. This is the entry for that day.
I'll keep back posting this week and a from time to time but I'll always let you know when I'm going backwards....
I got up this morning SO EXCITED.... I have plans tonight and We are going to have FUN! What more in the world could I ask for than a lazy day puttering around my apartment, writing, doing girl stuff and watching sappy chic movies (yes yes.. Charles was gone to do some renovation work for a friend) and THEN... getting ready for a dressy night out at the Theatre (said with my nose up and a nasal whine)
Let me take a minute here to comment on something that even after five years in NYC I haven’t gotten used to. Spending time getting dressed to the nines and then doing the public transportation thing is just so strange to me. Of course public transportation period is strange to me. And the way these people “gasp” WALK everywhere is just sad. I have learned not to trust these cagey New Yorkers who will tell you it’s just “down the street” and snigger at you as you huff and puff your way for two million miles to the next famous Avenue. As I look around on the subway and train platform, sure enough there are the other women all sparkling and some in furs (ewwwwww WHO is such a pig to wear furs anymore), husbands in black tie all headed for the Symphony or Lincoln Center Jazz or a PLAY just like I am. You would expect there to be more crime, like stealing diamond earrings and necklaces but as Charles reminds me every day, NYC is one of the safest big cities in the US. It’s true, go ahead, look it up. Nevermind, I’ll do it for you!
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/11/06/new-york-is-americas-safest-city/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nysun.com%2Farticle%2F42552&frame=true
“On a list of America's safest cities released yesterday, New York City is ranked first among cities with a population of more than 1 million. Of cities with populations of more than 500,000, New York took fourth place, behind El Paso, Texas; Honolulu, Hawaii; and San Jose, Calif., according to the annual rankings compiled by Morgan Quitno Press. Of all 371 cities, New York ranked no. 145.”
But lets get back to my day. I was JUST about to put the stuff on my hair to PAINT IT (Charles' words he’s never been able to get this hair coloring thing translated from Portuguese) when thankfully I realized the freaking water was off again. I mean WTF! So I look out the window to see our next door neighbor dropping the hose the water company hooked up to give us temporary water, over our fence and walk back into the house. I mean.. WHAT A FUCKING BASTARD!
I called the water department and threatened to murder them if they didn’t get out here right away and if I missed my play or went looking like an old hag I would do it slowly and painfully and I know how to do that because I'm a sadistic Bitch in real life. (no, I didn’t really say that, but I did bitch loudly)
When the unsuspecting water man got here, and saw that that neighbor had done, he said, Oh well, I can go to the shop and bring you back some 50 gallon drums till we get your water back on. Well of course you can imagine how this met with my current state of mind so after giving him a look of frozen displeasure and telling him how sure I was of his insanity level, I set off to find my OWN solution. I went outside in my pink plaid pajamas that I stuck on under my sexy filmy baby blue night shift with a grey sweatshirt hoodie and big fluffy scuffy houseshoes and BEGGED the other neighbor to PLEASE share Her water with us. The Water Department guy was just standing there staring at me in disbelief. I mean... if he can’t do his job, I can.. I have a NIGHT ahead of Me.. but just in case your worried about the poor water guy... as soon as he got my water going I made sure he went away smiling.
It's time I got going... nails to polish, hair to dry .. I'm going to do the Tuxedo thing tonight. It's cold outside (13 degrees) and the only way I know to stay warm and still be sexy...
kiss kiss
J
I'll keep back posting this week and a from time to time but I'll always let you know when I'm going backwards....
I got up this morning SO EXCITED.... I have plans tonight and We are going to have FUN! What more in the world could I ask for than a lazy day puttering around my apartment, writing, doing girl stuff and watching sappy chic movies (yes yes.. Charles was gone to do some renovation work for a friend) and THEN... getting ready for a dressy night out at the Theatre (said with my nose up and a nasal whine)
Let me take a minute here to comment on something that even after five years in NYC I haven’t gotten used to. Spending time getting dressed to the nines and then doing the public transportation thing is just so strange to me. Of course public transportation period is strange to me. And the way these people “gasp” WALK everywhere is just sad. I have learned not to trust these cagey New Yorkers who will tell you it’s just “down the street” and snigger at you as you huff and puff your way for two million miles to the next famous Avenue. As I look around on the subway and train platform, sure enough there are the other women all sparkling and some in furs (ewwwwww WHO is such a pig to wear furs anymore), husbands in black tie all headed for the Symphony or Lincoln Center Jazz or a PLAY just like I am. You would expect there to be more crime, like stealing diamond earrings and necklaces but as Charles reminds me every day, NYC is one of the safest big cities in the US. It’s true, go ahead, look it up. Nevermind, I’ll do it for you!
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/11/06/new-york-is-americas-safest-city/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nysun.com%2Farticle%2F42552&frame=true
“On a list of America's safest cities released yesterday, New York City is ranked first among cities with a population of more than 1 million. Of cities with populations of more than 500,000, New York took fourth place, behind El Paso, Texas; Honolulu, Hawaii; and San Jose, Calif., according to the annual rankings compiled by Morgan Quitno Press. Of all 371 cities, New York ranked no. 145.”
But lets get back to my day. I was JUST about to put the stuff on my hair to PAINT IT (Charles' words he’s never been able to get this hair coloring thing translated from Portuguese) when thankfully I realized the freaking water was off again. I mean WTF! So I look out the window to see our next door neighbor dropping the hose the water company hooked up to give us temporary water, over our fence and walk back into the house. I mean.. WHAT A FUCKING BASTARD!
I called the water department and threatened to murder them if they didn’t get out here right away and if I missed my play or went looking like an old hag I would do it slowly and painfully and I know how to do that because I'm a sadistic Bitch in real life. (no, I didn’t really say that, but I did bitch loudly)
When the unsuspecting water man got here, and saw that that neighbor had done, he said, Oh well, I can go to the shop and bring you back some 50 gallon drums till we get your water back on. Well of course you can imagine how this met with my current state of mind so after giving him a look of frozen displeasure and telling him how sure I was of his insanity level, I set off to find my OWN solution. I went outside in my pink plaid pajamas that I stuck on under my sexy filmy baby blue night shift with a grey sweatshirt hoodie and big fluffy scuffy houseshoes and BEGGED the other neighbor to PLEASE share Her water with us. The Water Department guy was just standing there staring at me in disbelief. I mean... if he can’t do his job, I can.. I have a NIGHT ahead of Me.. but just in case your worried about the poor water guy... as soon as he got my water going I made sure he went away smiling.
It's time I got going... nails to polish, hair to dry .. I'm going to do the Tuxedo thing tonight. It's cold outside (13 degrees) and the only way I know to stay warm and still be sexy...
kiss kiss
J
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