Happy Memorial Day weekend!

We celebrated by planting all our flowers this weekend. Here's some shots of SOME of the ones I did...

Atlanta!!!

Back from my Atlanta trip - had a WONDERFUL time. Lots of great memories and LOTS of laughs.

The opening night gala celebration was held at the Atlanta Aquarium - WOW. They closed the place for us - and we took over the entire thing. WELL over 1,000 people there. Lots of good food and LOTS of free drinks. Blue ones.

Turned our lips and tongues blue. We were VERY attractive. Thank GOODNESS we met up with Dr. Bill Dorfman from Extreme Makeover BEFORE we turned our mouths blue. That's him in the middle of the picture. In black.

The next evening we went to Aunt Pittypats Porch for dinner - real southern cookin'. GOOD eats. Then, as we walked back to our hotel some music pulled 1/2 of us INTO a Cigar and Martini bar. An hour or so later we conga'd OUT of that bar... and rolled into our hotel.

The next day we were VERY quiet. LOL A little hungover to say the least. I have discovered that martinis are GOOD. I love olives.

That is all.

Happy Mother's Day Ma...

I decided to spend THIS Mother's Day a little differently than last year. Last year I wallowed in my own self pity. I told Bob that I HATED Mother's Day because I didn't HAVE a mother and I WASN'T a mother.

This year Sonia's mother set me straight on that one too. She told me I will ALWAYS have a mother. She lives in my heart.

She's right.

So this year I spent the day scrapping my ma. I am so lucky that I have lots of notes and letters from her - so I scanned in one of my favorites. She wrote this after my cancer diagnosis. When she heard that news she mailed a card to me EVERY day. This letter was in the first...

It's hard to read on the LO, but this is what it says:

Dearest Sandi-Witch,

I don't know how long it's been since I've written you a letter. I do know that I needed to write you this one. I want you to know how proud I am of you and how much I love you. You were dealt a hard blow. I don't know why. You and BT deserve the best life has to offer. I remember how much your Dad loved you and how he held you on his lap and the dreams he had for you. You were my gift to him. I love you Sandi.

Ma

My response in my title is... Love you too Ma

They say it's your birthday....

Life at 50. A new era. A new decade. Another obstacle under my belt. DONE. No more thinking about "OMG I'm gonna be FIFTY". It's here.

I don't FEEL different. Not that I expected I would. 30 didn't feel different. Or 40. Why should 50?

Yesterday when I was talking to Sonia's (divamom) mother, who is a stunning 62 year old, I told her the only problem I had with 50 was justifying my age with my maturity level. In my head I am not 50.

She said "why do you have to?"

SO true.

Happy birthday to me.

A brief snippet of memory - every birthday that I can remember from my childhood includes me coming out for breakfast and finding my placemat covered in a ring of wildflowers from our yard. My mom and grandmother NEVER failed to do that. I ate my cereal among flowers.

Nice memory.

My NYC weekend!!

It was SO incredibly awesome. It was one of those really ascary things that turned out not to be ascary at all.

It was smooth sailing from start to finish. The hotel was great, our rooms were ready early, the show was FANTASTIC - Avenue Q - drinks at a hole-in-the-wall Irish Pub, dinner at Rosie O'Gradys (with cake and candles and singing!!), MaryKay LOVED her canvas and I got a gorgeous handmade dragonfly from her... she bought it in Sedona last month. Then a late evening comedy club and back to the hotel for BED!

For Sunday, we couldn't figure out what we wanted to do. Kay and Stan go into the city more frequently than *I* do... but when I was a kid I saw all the touristy stuff like the Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty and the museums... so I said "I've NEVER been in Central Park."

So that's what we did. We walked Central Park. It was so beautiful!! I had NO idea!

The one DOWNSIDE to the weekend? The $21.00 bill for 4 small glasses of orange juice. HOLY moly.