It Was the Best of Times!

It's hard to believe that it was only one week ago tonight that I was on the West Coast and meeting two of my favorite bloggers at my favorite Mexican restaurant but that's exactly what it was. As cold and rainy as it is here in Connecticut tonight, I find myself wishing I was right back there not just for the warmer weather but for the fantastic company that I found myself amongst when I got to meet Sandee from Comedy Plus and Katherine of Wading Through My Stream of Consciousness.

I had posted a few pictures last week of our meeting but hoped to have more once our personal photographer/videographer (Sandee's husband Zane) had a chance to forward them to us. He has now done so and now I get to share a bit more of the night with you. Bear in mind while looking at these pictures that we got to the restaurant while the sun was shining but it was fully dark by the time we called it an evening. All told we spent almost four hours together but it hardly seemed like one!



In addition to the slideshow, I've got a video clip that I thought I would share with you that you might find amusing as - what do bloggers talk about when they get together? - blogging of course! Unfortunately I was sitting right next to Zane so my voice (which I hate!) is the loudest but I think you can hear everyone else, too.


I had an absolutely fantastic evening with Sandee and Zane, Katherine and The Teamster, and - of course my good friend and sidekick, Cyndi. The food was good, the margarita was great (and not tiny!), and the chance to meet two people in person that I've come to know through our adventures in blogging was the best part.

I have met so many wonderful people since I started this blog and my life has been enriched by all of you no matter whether I've met you in person or only virtually and I want to take this time to thank you all for being a part of my life - you're the best!

Yes, Cyndi. There Really Are Bloggers!

I doubt the Cancun Restaurant in downtown Stockton will ever be the same after last night when myself, Sandee, and Katherine descended upon the establishment to finally meet after having known each other virtually for quite some time now. Rumor has it that they've posted a sign on the front door stating that they reserve the right to refuse service to bloggers or people with cameras but I haven't been able to verify that yet!

Sandee brought along her handsome husband Zane who took pictures and videos all night long in order to document our historic meeting, Katherine arrived on the back of a beautiful black Harley Davidson with her hunky Teamster, and I brought along my bestest friend Cyndi who, like Virginia with her Santa Claus, was skeptical that bloggers really existed. Ah but yes Cyndi, they really do exist and they are even more wonderful in real life than they are on the web page!

Big hugs were exchanged all the way around in the foyer of the restaurant (and it didn't even occur to me that I'm not necessarily the hugging type) before we took over a table smack in the middle of the restaurant and ordered drinks and dinner. When my margarita arrived I immediately thought of Mags and our first meeting when the margaritas we ordered turned out to be tiny little things hardly worthy of the name! Much to Cyndi's bemusement I immediately whipped out my camera to photograph my drink but I think she was finally getting somewhat used to the idea that bloggers take pictures of absolutely everything and anything!

Naturally I had to take a picture of my dinner when it arrived, too as I had been talking up the great Mexican food at Cancun for way too long NOT to post a picture of it so that people could see what I was talking about. Cyndi again shook her head thinking I had totally lost it while Katherine and Sandee knew exactly what I was doing and why! Sometimes I think being a blogger is somewhat similar to being a member of a society or group as there seems to be some sort of unwritten Blogger Code starting with "Thou shalt have thy digital camera with thee at all times and photograph non-stop"!

Sometimes we even make people repeat things as I did when Sandee and Zane toasted each other and then kissed when their glasses of wine arrived. Apparently it's a tradition for them and, being the overly romantic type that I am, I thought it was just the sweetest thing ever and I definitely needed a picture! They were more than happy to oblige and do a repeat for a photo op and I got the distinct feeling that it was a ritual that they participate in quite frequently - and I don't blame them in the least! Ah, love!

It's funny how when you meet a blogger in person, you don't feel like you're meeting someone for the first time as you know so much about them and their lives beforehand. I felt like I was spending an evening with old friends as we laughed and joked and shared stories and I think that Cyndi felt just as comfortable as she added her own brand of "snarkasm" to the conversations. I'm sure it was easy for Sandee and Katherine to see why I would break my oath of "I'll never go to California" again to visit the friend who knows me better than I know myself.

The time just flew by and before we knew it it was 10:00 and, with The Teamster having to get up at 4:30 to go to work, it was time to go. As we walked outside, the sky over Stockton lit up with fireworks - just for me! Well ... okay ... maybe not just for me but for The Ports, Stockton's minor league baseball team who had apparently just wrapped up their game but the timing couldn't have been better. I think that fireworks should be set off whenever blogging friends are able to get together and meet!


We posed for a few more pictures and then exchanged hugs again before Katherine and her beau saddled up and got ready to make the trek south. As Sandee and Zane and Cyndi and I walked to the parking lot we talked about how wonderful it was to have finally met and how much fun it would be to someday have a Blogger's Convention where we would have the chance to meet so many more of the dear friends that we've made through this pastime of ours. It really is so special when you finally get to meet people that you have come to think of as friends and I was so happy to have met two of those very special people last night at one of my favorite restaurants with my favorite friend along for the journey.

This trip has really been wonderful so far and I'm so glad that I overcame my hesitations at coming West as meeting Sandee and Katherine along with Zane and The Teamster was truly an honor and one of the highlights of my life. It appears that I've got two very good reasons to come out to California again!

Westward Bound

I haven't been on an airplane since one of my dispatch partners, Jen, and I flew down to Orlando two years ago to attend the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch Navigator Conference in Orlando, Florida. Prior to that I hadn't been on a plane since September of 2002 and, frankly, that's been okay by me. It's not that flying scares me or anything like that - even though the take-offs do tend to make my palms sweat a tiny bit but once we're past that I'm generally okay - it's more that it's gotten more and more uncomfortable over the years and, frankly, I miss airline food. There - I've said it - I actually liked the food that they used to serve in-flight and now you're darned lucky if you get a miniature packet of peanuts and a can of soda! Still, there are some occasions that call for actually sucking it up and getting on a plane as it would take too long to get there via automobile and with the rising cost of gas, it's probably just as cheap to fly these days anyway!

That said, it appears that I shall be boarding a plane in just a little less than three short weeks and winging my way to a place I honestly never thought I would go to again ... California. More specifically that would be Stockton, California - the second most miserable city in the country (according to the statistics I quoted in this post) that also just happens to be the hometown of my BFF Miz Cyn. As a matter of fact, it is my BFF MC who provided me the plane ticket to return to a place I thought I would never return to in this lifetime and when your BFF requests the honor of your presence and provides you with the means to get there, how can you say no?

For those not familiar with Stockton or the Barkleys of the Big Valley (you did know that the TV series The Big Valley was set in Stockton, right?) - it's the 13th largest city in California located approximately 80 miles east of San Francisco and 40 miles south of Sacramento in the Central Valley, which is a major agricultural region. I called Stockton home from 1981 until 1987 and took my first job as a 911 dispatcher with the Police Department there in 1984. I still have ties to the region in the form of not only my BFF MC but also with my former grandmother-in-law from my first marriage, who isn't getting any younger and if I hope to see her again on this side of life then it's probably a good idea I get out there to visit her now. Quite the compelling reason for getting on a plane and traveling roughly 3,000 miles.

There are, of course, other compelling reasons which were discussed at great length prior to my agreeing to this trip. Other than really wanting to see Cyndi, whom I have not seen since mid-2003 even though we have kept in constant contact via telephone over the years, I figure it's high time we had another picture taken together as the only one I have is this one from 1986 when we both worked at SPD.

No, no - this isn't an outtake from Charlie's Angels even though we have the hair for it - this was taken on the day our "dispatch team" worked it's last shift together before they scattered us to various schedules in the dispatch center thereby ruining a really good thing. For those who haven't seen this picture yet, Cyndi is the one in the sweater (she was pregnant with her third child, Daniel, at the time and didn't have to wear a uniform) and I'm the one in the middle with the really wavy almost-blonde hair. The others are Chris with her arm around me, Kathy to the right, and our shift supervisor, Dianne, who was kneeling in front of a cake. As much as I like this picture, it's over 20 years old and my hair will never look like that again so it's time for a new picture. Unless we want to do some fancy PhotoShop cutting and pasting, that is going to require Cyndi and I both being in the same place at the same time.

Which brings us to another compelling reason for me to go ... as much as Cyndi would love to hop on a plane and come back East for a visit so that we could take a picture here, her husband insists that it's my turn to go West as Cyndi made the last two trips. Jeff has a valid point but we're not looking at it exactly the same way that he is. By our sneaky calculations, we figure that if I fly out there now then the next visit is Cyndi's and she'll be able to justify a trip East to explore New York City and Gettysburg. Devious, aren't we?

The third compelling reason has to do with the fact that I've not been able to get decent Mexican food since my last visit to California. This may not seem like much of a compelling reason to a lot of you but - trust me - when you've experienced authentic Mexican food then the likes of Taco Bell just is not going to do it! I blame part of this reason squarely on my dispatch partner Jen, whom I mentioned above, as she loves to watch the Food Network and I have had to suffer through innumerable hours of watching Guy Fieri chow down on some fantastic looking Mexican food on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. A girl can only take so much and then something's gotta give! I'll admit it - I'm weak! - but ever since Cyndi and I started discussing a potential trip I've been able to practically taste the quesadilla and beef enchilada in the #12 combinación plato at the Cancun Mexican Restaurant that I've been jonesing for since I was last out that way! Some memories just die harder than others!

Then there is one more compelling reason for me to board a plane, sit in a cramped seat with a tiny bag of peanuts, and lose three hours due to the time zone changes in the process - if I am ever going to get Cyndi to start writing a blog, I need to try to convince her in person. I'm not sure I have the ability to do that on my own (Cyndi can be danged stubborn) so I'm planning on recruiting the likes of several other top-notch bloggers like Sandee of Comedy Plus who lives mere miles from Stockton, Katherine of Wading Through My Stream of Consciousness who could hop over the mountains from Santa Cruz to join in, and the ever Amazing Gracie of Echoes of Grace who lives the furthest but I think I can encourage to be there for this "round table discussion" . I figure that between the four of us, maybe we can make a dent in Cyndi's hard Irish skull and get her to use some of those writing talents she has languishing away. Resistance will be futile! At least that's my hope! Plus I get to meet some more totally cool bloggers in the process and that alone makes it worth the really, really long trip! Anyone else going to be close by that wants to join us?

Of course, even though there were many compelling reasons to say "yes" to this trip, there were several compelling hesitations also. What would I do with Amanda while I was gone for almost a week? Would I be able to get the time off from work? How would my back handle an 8-hour plane ride? Where would I stay when I got out there? As it turns out, during the time that I am going to be in California (May 1st to the 6th), Amanda will be staying with her friend Darcy outside of Philadelphia as that's the weekend of the big Bamboozle concert that she's been looking forward to for months. As a matter of fact, I will be driving down there and flying out of Philadelphia while leaving my car with Darcy's family so Amanda won't miss me in the least. As for getting the time off of work, my co-workers were more than willing to cover my shifts for me so that I could take some much needed time off (some of them are placing bets as to whether I'll actually be back or not but I can assure them this is a short trip only and I'm not going out for any job interviews!). My back has been doing better lately and with a change of planes in Denver, I think I can handle the flight as long as I get up and stretch occasionally while cruising high above the clouds (after being sure to tell the flight attendants why I'm getting up so much!) plus I've read some great tips from other back-pain sufferers that I'm going to try. I might be a bit stiff when I get off the plane in Sacramento but I think I'll be okay.

My biggest hesitation in finally saying "yes" to this trip was one of logistics as to where I would stay while I was out there. As much as I love Cyndi, her house is out of the question as she has way too many cats for my allergies to even allow me to walk into it for any length of time, never mind actually stay there. My former grandmother-in-law lives in a very small house so that was out of the question, too. That left me with finding decent accommodations that I could afford that also wouldn't put me in one of the more undesirable parts of the city. For that I turned to my old friend William Shatner and Price-Line where I negotiated a fantastic deal at the Courtyard Marriott for a fraction of the normal cost. I named my own price and they accepted it at a savings of almost 70%! To say that you couldn't beat that deal with a stick might be a bit of an understatement so how could I possibly say no? Well, I couldn't ... especially considering they required I enter a credit card number before they negotiated the price!

I was a little hesitant on the whole "name your own price" thing as I had no idea which hotel in the area I might end up with and I knew for sure that there were several in Stockton that I had no desire to stay at whatsoever but I thought it might be worth the chance if it could save me some money. I was especially afraid of finding out that my "winning bid" put me at the La Quinta Inn which, even though it's a decent enough hotel, is the one I stayed at the last time I was in Stockton and it had the worst mattress ever! Add on the fact that there are "ghosts" there and it was not high on my list of places I wanted to stay. I was quite delighted when I found out that my offer was accepted at the Courtyard Marriott as I have stayed there in the past also and found it to have absolutely wonderful accommodations plus there is the added benefit of free WiFi! Surely you didn't think I'd go to California for a week and not take my laptop so that I could blog did you?? Heck no! Have blog - will travel!

All in all, even though I'm a bit nervous about it, I'm quite looking forward to this trip. I haven' t had a vacation in years (taking the girls out to Kentucky in 2004 to live in their new home doesn't count in my book) and I really do need a break from work before I burn out completely. Granted, I've got the Beach House in September to look forward to but considering my stress levels lately, I think I need a little something-something a little sooner.

Good food plus good friends has got to equal good times even if it's in the second most miserable city in the country - right?? I mean, it's not like I'm going to Detroit which is the most miserable city in the country!

A Post From the Past

I'm feeling somewhat worn out tonight so rather than write something new I decided to resurrect a post from the past and put it out here for those of you who haven't been religiously reading my blog ever since I began writing it. I suspect this will be new to everyone!

On September 21st, 2006 I had a bit of a problem in getting a post of my own done for reasons that you can read about below so I recruited my good friend from California, Miz Cyn, to guest post for me. I thought she did a more than admirable job and would love to get her to either guest post more often or write her own #$&*'ing blog as she really does have a flare for words.

Perhaps I need to head out to California and have a little chat with her - eyeball to eyeball - over a #12 combination plate at my favorite Mexican food restaurant while I try to convince her of the benefits of blogging and such.

In the meantime, please read a post Cyndi titled -

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." ~ Albert Einstein

I'm annoyed by people who mangle the quotations of others in an effort to communicate their own ideas.

With the mea culpa tidily handled, I say: It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our sanity--or at least MY sanity.

O.K., you got me. Linda would never resort to such a cheesy lead-in. I confess, I am a guest; guest blogger, that is. I'm Cyndi, Linda's friend, alter-ego, former dispatch partner and part-time conscience, in no particular order. Linda is taking a well-deserved day off. She has kindly allowed me to achieve my 15 seconds of fame via today's post, and for good reason. It is, after all, my sanity that is challenged, but for a change it was not one of my own three kids who sent me plunging down the abyss.

Nope; this time it was Linda's dear Amanda who gave me the hearty shove.

Mind you, most of the time I adore Amanda. She's a great kid. We share certain traits; sensitivity, a love of various arts, a flair for multitasking, and California birth certificates (I had to throw that last bit in just for Amanda. Yo Cali-girl!).

Yep, Amanda's a great kid who somehow felt it perfectly reasonable to tap into my conversation with her mother this afternoon to let us both know that she absolutely had to have the telephone line cleared right away because she had to make a call of her own.

So far, no big deal, right? Sure, Linda and I live some 3,000 miles apart and converse only a couple of times a month, but we were barely in the midst of invoking world peace or ending the threat of global warming when said interruption occurred. Granted, my 14th birthday passed sometime around the time Cleopatra was batting her lashes at Marc Anthony; still, I can vaguely summon that feeling of urgency that drives adolescent talk fests. Finally, it hasn't been all that long ago that my own daughter passed through the age in which a five minute delay in making a phone call feels more like five years of agony.

Given all of this, I thought Linda's response was quite generous, mom-wise: She offered Amanda use of her cell phone to place her call. And Amanda said ... no. Nope. No thanks; only the landline phone would do, because she needed to place a three-way call, and apparently this was not possible on Linda's cell phone.

What I said at this point is ... well ... probably best not repeated here.

Mind you, Ms. Amanda already had possession of the family computer at this point, yet she wanted the PHONE too? For a conference call?

I hereby nominate Linda for Mother of the Year for ever so calmly suggesting that we hang up so she could call me back on her cell phone. Problem solved; so why does the whole thing still stick in my craw hours later?

Answering machines, Call Waiting, conference calls, email, IM's, blogs, Cell phone, texting, Blackberry/PDA, Pager (yup, some of us still carry those along with the rest of the stuff). My purse runneth over, but I don't feel any more in touch than I did before most of this stuff was available.

So I ask you, gentle readers: Am I the only one who thinks that the whole communication thing is getting out of hand? What would Einstein do?

Personally, I'm in favor of leaving the electronic gear in the hands of the teens(or the cats) and heading for a secluded beach; margarita in one hand and a good book in the other.

See y'all there!

Note from Linda: Thank you, Cyndi! I appreciate you filling in for me as I never would have gotten to the computer before 10:00 p.m. last night as Amanda had it tied up so she could work on her Naruto AMV while IM'ing her friends and still making that three-way call of hers. At least she has inherited my outstanding multi-tasking abilities! Oh, and thanks for the nomination for Mother of the Year though we both know I'd have a snowball's chance in a very warm place of actually winning it - were there such a thing!

An Award For a Friend

At an Awards Dinner this past Saturday, March 29th, eight members of various emergency services organizations here in Norwich were honored for outstanding service to our community by the Richard E. Hourigan Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 594 and Ladies Auxiliary. The purpose behind the annual Emergency Services Banquet is summed up by VFW Events Coordinator Richard DeLorge who said, "Some of these men and women put their lives on the line every day and every night. They are going a step beyond to help the community and we want to make sure the community appreciates the people that are out there."

One of the eight people who was honored at Saturday night's dinner is a young man whom I have had the extreme pleasure of working with at American Ambulance for almost two years now - Paramedic Dennis Cole. A graduate of the 16-month Hartford Hospital Paramedic Program in 2006, Dennis began work at American in October of that same year and quickly developed a reputation as being an excellent medic with a great sense of humor. In addition to his job at American, Dennis works part-time as an Emergency Medical Technician at Griswold Ambulance where he has been for five years as well as serving on his local volunteer fire department in his hometown of Baltic.

Dennis was chosen to receive his "Certificate of Commendation in Special Recognition of Quality Patient Care and Community Preparedness as a Paramedic" not only because he responded to more calls than any of the other paramedics at American Ambulance during 2007 but because he also excels in patient care. Since receiving medical control and becoming a paramedic, Dennis has worked a total of 66 cardiac arrests, or what are called "codes" in medical jargon. Out of those 66 patients, he is credited with saving 4 of them or 6.06%. If that doesn't seem like very many I should point out that the American Heart Association lists the national average of 'saves' for patients who have suffered a cardiac arrest as only 1 in 36 or 2.7%. I would say that definitely puts Dennis above average!

Even paramedics who have been trained in advanced life support like Dennis and the other medics who work at American can't save all of the patients he or she responds to simply because of the nature of a cardiac arrest itself. When a patient goes into cardiac arrest, which is the sudden and abrupt loss of heart function, brain death and permanent death will start to occur in just 4 to 6 minutes. If CPR is started and the arrest is treated with an electric shock (defibrillation) to the heart within a few minutes then a lot of time the arrest can be reversed and a normal heartbeat can be restored but without CPR and defibrillation, a patient's chance of survival is reduced by 7 to 10 percent for every minute that passes. After ten minutes, few attempts will succeed even once advanced life support has been started as at that point the damage is irreversible. Though there are no statistics for the exact number of cardiac arrests that occur in the United States each year, it's estimated that more than 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims die before ever reaching the hospital.

The job that Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians do has changed a lot since the inception of emergency medical services in the early 1970's. Prior to 1990, when an independent Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS) was established to begin the process of accrediting ambulance services using quality standards that were developed through the consensus of EMS providers across the country, patients were simply loaded into ambulances and transported to the closest hospital as quickly as possible with a minimum of care provided. Now paramedics like Dennis can administer needed fluids and drugs, provide a secure airway through intubation, or even defibrillate a patient if necessary. The standard of care has increased phenomenally. No longer are the men and women of EMS simply ambulance drivers - they are lifesavers and they should all be thanked for their hard work and dedication towards providing quality medical care that may someday save the life of someone you love.

In my own humble and slightly - okay, very! - prejudiced opinion, I believe that Dennis was an excellent choice to receive this honor from the VFW and the community that he serves. He's a fantastic paramedic, a terrific person, and he makes some truly kick-ass hot wings - though I doubt that had anything to do with his being an award recipient!

Congratulations, Dennis! Remind me to buy you a drink next time you manage to talk me into meeting you at the Harp & Dragon. Oh, and Amanda says we need more honey BBQ wings!

A Royal Time of It

The Place!

The Plan!

The Participants???

The Possibilities!

As a rule, and as a Virgo, I am generally a very punctual person. No, I take that back, I am beyond punctual, I am one of those people who arrives at least ten to fifteen minutes early as I abhor being late in any way, shape, or fashion. It appalls me to be late. I can't stand to be late. It embarrasses me to no end to be late. I will not tolerate being late.

So - for my very first meeting with royalty? I was late! Go figure!

As I left my hometown of Norwich Upon the Thames heading west towards the lovely little town of Glastonbury and my much- anticipated meeting with Mimi, Queen of Memes who was vacationing in Connecticut, I knew that I was going to be running late. Trying to get out of Norwich is sometimes next to impossible as a) traffic is generally horrible and people don't know how to drive, b) the roads are laid out very badly, and c) invariably when I need to get somewhere in a hurry I get behind the one person in the world who not only does the speed limit but drives five mph below it! All three of those things were working against me Thursday afternoon but I figured I would just do my best to get there relatively close to on-time. I knew that Patti of Late Bloomer Boomer fame had also been summoned to the Royal Summit and that she was shooting for a 4:30 arrival so I was just hoping to get there by then rather than at 4:00 p.m. as Queen Mimi and I had planned What can I say? It was a busy day at work and I got out a little later than I had wanted and I couldn't meet royalty without taking a shower before I left and ... and ...

...and as the miles ticked by I could imagine Her Majesty sitting and waiting for her subjects to arrive, probably tapping her immaculately manicured nails on the side of her iced tea glass while she debated what punishment to mete out for such impropriety. I thought about calling her on my cell phone but I'm one of those people who believes that if the State of Connecticut has made a law against talking on one's cell phone while driving that it is a law to be obeyed and not to be trifled with even if one is calling a Queen! I also wear my seatbelt but that's neither here nor there, I just thought I'd throw it out there!

At approximately 4:15 I finally pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant we were to rendezvous at and glanced over to see a red Cadillac with a vanity plate sitting just a few spaces over. Ut-oh! The Queen was most definitely there and I was most definitely late. Oh dear, oh dear ... ah well, nothing for it but to suck it up and walk in and take my lumps like an adult. I just hoped I wasn't going to be sentenced to a permanent cell next to Frank in the dungeon - my back really doesn't do well in dank and musty conditions!

Pulling up my courage by my bootstraps I walked into the empty restaurant and turned the corner to find Queen Mimi regally sitting on a high stool at a table in the bar tapping her toes in queenly displeasure. At least, I thought that was the Queen. Having only ever seen half of her face I thought she looked like the Queen but I couldn't be positive. As she turned to cast her royal gaze upon me, I squinted my left eye, turned my head slightly to the side, and looked at her again. Yes! It was most definitely the Queen! I'd recognize the left side of her face anywhere even without the crown (which she had apparently left at Bloggingham Castle and didn't bring with her on her fact-finding mission to New England).

"Your Majesty," I gushed. "It's such an incredible pleasure to at long last make your most royal acquaintance and I sincerely and most humbly apologize for keeping you waiting like this!" Well, no, maybe that isn't what I said. I think it was more like, "Mimi, right? Yeah, hi, sorry I'm late!" Ah, ever the poet with words ... not! We chit-chatted for a bit and not but a few moments later I saw a car pull in next to mine and out stepped a woman who could only be Patti (whose face I've seen several times on her husband Ralph's blog). Patti whooshed into the restaurant with the world's biggest smile and hugs all around until I reminded her that she was supposed to curtsy for the Queen at which time she performed a perfect curtsy most definitely fit for a Queen!

With all of us finally in attendance, we adjourned to a booth with Queen Mimi leading the way while Patti and I walked a respectful distance behind her. At that time the restaurant was still mercifully empty and the giggling and carrying on was not witnessed by anyone except the wait-staff who had most likely decided that we were all on an outing from one of the local group homes and that it would be best to simply serve us and keep a safe distance from the table!

Our waiter, Mark (who was kinda cute in a "hi, I'm Mark and I'll be your server this evening" kinda way!) had to come back several times before we were ready to even order beverages due to the constant giggling and talking that we were doing. Finally we explained to him that we were bloggers (oh, well, that explains it then!), that this was the first time we had met, and that Mimi was - in fact - a Queen from North Carolina. "You don't have much of an accent," said the ever-observant and really-kinda-cute Mark. I commented on the same thing, as did Patti, and we were told by Mimi that, because she teaches music, one has to have proper diction and annunciation. Ah ... yes ... that makes perfect sense!

After more giggling and talking, food was at last ordered and while we were waiting for it to arrive Patti whipped out her cellphone and called Ralph to say she had arrived safely and then passed the phone around the table so that we could all talk to him for a bit. He had made the restaurant recommendation, that area of Connecticut being his old stomping grounds, and as a final recommendation he suggested the tiramisu for dessert. Well, no one has to tell me twice that not only is there tiramisu available for dessert but that it's good tiramisu so when the time came for dessert Patti and I ordered a piece to share. Mimi, who could probably blow away in a good wind, declined dessert but did give our tiramisu a royal blessing before we consumed it.

During dinner, Patti showed us a recent article that she had written about a silver pheasant that was printed in the New Haven Register and I have to say that I was very impressed. I knew that she wrote for a newspaper as she has mentioned it several times in her blog but I didn't know that it was such a well-known newspaper that she wrote for and that she has been a journalist for thirty years. Having once hoped to be a journalist myself, I was quite in awe of both the article and her by-line. Check out Patti's article "Exotic Bird on the Loose" and I think you'll be in as much awe as I was! Talk about feeling insignificant, I was sitting not only in the company of a Queen but an honest-to-goodness newspaper journalist - wow!

Shortly after showing us her newspaper article, Patti then surprised us with another example of her fine writing when she whipped two envelopes out of her purse and presented one each to both myself and Mimi. Taped to the front of the envelope was a lovely heart-shaped purple stone and, inside, a lovely poem penned by Princess Patricia herself! It was quite the honor to receive and her sentiments were lovely! It's definitely going in my jewelry box for safe-keeping! When Patti wins her Pulitzer I can then sell the poem on eBay for big bucks and retire comfortably to a house in The Hamptons!

Obviously Patti must have known that Queen Mimi was going to bestow titles upon us as she had already signed her poem using her royal title (officially: "Princess Patti Keeper of the Royal Meme Apologies") but I had yet to be given a title myself. After giving it some thought and trying out and then discarding a title or two, the Queen dubbed me "Linda, Duchess of Norwich Upon the Thames". Now doesn't that sound quite regal? You all, of course, may still refer to me simply as Linda but it's quite nice to have a title other than "Mom-There's-Nothing -in-the-House-to-Eat" or "Hey, You!"

At that point the restaurant was becoming quite crowded so we graciously decided that we needed to move on so that others could sit down and dine. We adjourned outside to try to figure out how to go about taking some pictures of the three of us and were immediately presented with a dilemma. Obviously we weren't smart enough to have taken up the cute Mark when he offered to take a picture of the three of us while we were inside (can I get a royal DUH?) so that left us having to figure out how to do this on our own.

While Patti and I practiced being "Ladies in Waiting", the Queen descended to the parking lot where she then partially hid behind a row of potted plastic plants so as to maintain her mystery while also garnering a lot of strange looks from the people inside the restaurant! I'm sure that the looks grew even stranger as, at Princess Patricia's persuasion, the Queen decided to pull part of the plastic posies from the pot and pose prettily for pictures.

Oh dear ... was plastic posy pilfering for pretty picture posing a possible punishable crime in Connecticut? Were we all going to be pinched and placed in the pokey as punishment for pulling plastic posies from pots in public? Perhaps we were going to be put away in the penitentiary pending pre-trial preparations? And if that were the case, who was going to bail me out? Princess Patricia could call Ralph, Queen Mimi could call Prince Budwick, but who was I going to call? Certainly not my surly 15-year old who was sitting at home grumbling about the fact that I got to go out to dinner while she stayed home and ate leftovers! This was not looking good and I urged the Queen to replace the posies posthaste prior to police populating the parking lot! Phew!

Let me just say at this point that it's not easy getting pictures of a Queen who wishes to only have one side of her face photographed (and no, there is no hideous disfigurement or deformity that she's trying to hide, she just prefers her left side - must be a royal idiosyncrasy or something!) but we certainly had a good time trying even when Patti's batteries died (she reminded me that she was a journalist NOT a photojournalist hence these sorts of things happened) and then Mimi's batteries decided to follow suit. Luckily Patti had spares so the bizarre picture-taking was able to resume after only a short break while Patti and Mimi shared batteries. I seriously believe that people were beginning to think that there was something seriously wrong with us but not having any plans to ever return to Glastonbury I wasn't worried about it! Even if I did have future plans to return to Glastonbury, I get the feeling I might have been asked not to return ... ever ... please and thank you! Oh, and could you take those other two with you?

Still, a fine time was had by all and it was fantastic to have met two more blogging friends - both of whom are funny, charming, and gracious ladies. Mimi granted both myself and Patti lifetime "Get Out of the Dungeon Free" passes (sorry, Frank, I really did plead your case but Mimi mentioned something about needing someone to keep the rats company) while she also firmly stated that didn't give us free reign to not do any memes that come our way simply because there is no threat of the dungeon over our heads. As representatives of Bloggingham, we are to act as such and not tarnish the royal name.

Before parting company for the night, Patti and I promised to get together again soon, this time with Prince Ralph in attendance, and the next time Queen Mimi is visiting in Connecticut there are plans for all of us to get together again with both Prince Ralph and Prince Budwick and, if she behaves herself, Lady Amanda in tow. I'm afraid that by the end of that meeting there will be yet another town I've been banned from but I'm sure it will be worth it!

All in all, meeting a Queen is not as intimidating as I initially thought (I think she even forgave me for calling her an idiot!) Now, if I could just get used to this whole half-a-face thing ...

If you'd like to read Queen Mimi's version of this historic meeting (complete with video that doesn't want to work!) please visit her post "Who Would Keep a Queen Waiting" while Princess Patricia's can be found at "The Queen and her Ladies-in-Waiting".

Something to Get Excited About

Even though I only live about an hour away from the beaches in Rhode Island (the next state over to the right if you're facing Maine!), I've only actually been to one of them once. If you've got some time to kill and want to read the post, I blogged about it way back on July 26th, 2006. The girls and I had a great time with our friend Paula even though I ended up getting a nasty sunburn on my feet which turned into a nasty case of cellulitis (a common, potentially serious bacterial skin infection) that put me out of work and on crutches for a few days. Despite the end results we had a wonderful time and I've often wondered why it is I don't get to the beaches in Rhode Island more often.

After some initial planning and then more planning and much discussion via emails and IMs, it now appears that I'm going to get the chance to not only visit another beach in Rhode Island this year but also spend a week at a house right on the beach in Matunuck. That's the place in the picture above - doesn't it look nice? It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a beautiful deck overlooking the ocean, and all the comforts of home minus sheets and pillowcases and a few other things that are easily brought along. It has room for eight people and comes complete with eight lawn chairs for sitting out on that lovely deck and sipping a cocktail or two while someone else grills up some steaks on the barbecue grill that's provided.

Sounds just perfect, doesn't it? Yes! Yes it does and what makes it even more perfect is that I'm going to be spending the week after my 50th birthday right there on the beach with some of the best friends a gal can make via the Internet - Morgen @ It's a Blog Eat Blog World, Callie Ann @ Scrappin' With Life, Kai @ The Buzz Queen, Mags @ Ms. Maggie Moo Talks 2 U, and my very favorite cheeky blogger from across the pond - Claire @ A Little Piece of Me. I have to tell you that I am totally psyched for this vacation and can't wait until September even though that seems like I'm rushing headlong even faster to hitting that half century mark that so many of us dread.

Okay, so I bet you're wondering right now how on earth it is that someone from Connecticut has managed to hook up with a Canadian, a Brit, an Oregonian, and a Michiganite along with a former fellow Nutmegger to plan a week on the beach in Rhode Island of all places, aren't you? Well, we've decided to blame this one squarely on Mo and The Mo Show as that's how we all seemed to hook up. During after-show IM sessions, we were all bemoaning the fact that we needed a vacation, that we'd all like to meet, and that it would be cool to do something BIG for my 50th birthday and somehow we ended up planning a week at one of the most relaxing places we could think of. You've got to admit, that deck does look relaxing, doesn't it?

As most of you know, Mags and Mo and I all got together last September when Mo took the train down from Michigan to spend a weekend exploring bits of Connecticut and Rhode Island and we had a GREAT time! The three of us know what to expect from each other but as for the other three - Callie Ann, Claire, and Kai - we only know each other via the pages of our blogs and IMs and emails but getting to know each other is going to be half the fun of this trip. Mags has promised to create some fantastic meals for us, Claire wants to go exploring the countryside, Callie Ann has a marvelous sense of humor, Kai can bring some moose steaks and tales of the Canadian wilds, Morgen is just one of the nicest guys ever, and me - well, I'm not sure what I offer to the mix but I'll try to think of something by September!

With sunsets like this one, how can this not be a fantastic trip and week well spent away from the stress and pressure of 911 calls and medical emergencies? What better way to spend the week after my 50th birthday? I can't think of one and I'm sure that we'll all have tales to tell - though now that I think about it, I don't believe the house has an internet connection. Oops!

So, how many of you are jealous and wish you were going, too??

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for keeping Cyndi in your thoughts and prayers yesterday. I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet but she called last night while I was at work and spoke briefly to Amanda to let her know that the surgery had gone well and that she was still alive, though a little subdued on the kicking, at that point!

Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to speak to her later today but I'm not sure how long she'll be in the hospital. If her surgery was at all like mine, there's a good chance she'll get sent home today but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Thank you again and I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I'm off to the Olive Garden with my good friend Rhonda to celebrate her birthday with unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks! The only thing that would make it even better was if they had a massage chair to sit in as I think I slept wrong last night and I'm all sorts of achy!

Lifting One's Spirits

My friend Mo sent me a flower in my email today - isn't it beautiful? And it's my favorite color, too!

There is nothing like a beautiful flower to lift one's spirits on a cold and cloudy January day except knowing that you have a friend who cares about you enough to send you a beautiful flower on a cold and cloudy January day. Or any day for that matter! Thank you, Mo, you are truly the best!

What about you folks? What lifts your spirits when they're a little down? What makes you smile? What warms your heart? What brightens your cold and cloudy days?

Catching Up On Awards ... I Hope!

It seems that lately I have been given more awards than I can shake a stick at, a phrase that I have yet to be able to find a definitive meaning for but one that is quite old. The best I could find is courtesy of The Word Detective who states that "its first recorded appearance is found in The Lancaster Journal in 1818: "We have in Lancaster (Pennsylvania) as many Taverns as you can shake a stick at." The sense then, as now, was "a lot" or "too many to count" which sounds about right to me! At any rate, I have been quite remiss in posting those awards that people have been so very nice to give to me so I am going to make an attempt to get caught up on them now. Please forgive me if I missed something or someone!

I usually try to trace these awards back to their originator as I feel that if someone was nice enough to make an award for others in the Blogosphere that credit should go back to them but I'm afraid that I just don't have the time to hunt down the origins of all these fine awards. If you know who started them, please leave me a comment and I'll edit the award to reflect the creator so that credit can be given where credit is due (another phrase I can't seem to find the origin for!).
An award that I know the origin of for sure is The Winning Attitude Award that was created by Mel over at Monday Morning Power. What Mel says is:

"This award seems like a natural given what my site is all about. This award is based on positive thinking and is meant for those blogs who base their existence, in part or in whole, on Positive Winning Attitudes."

I received this award from several bloggers and all I can say is 'wow!' as sometimes I feel like my attitude is less than winning (the whole slap in the face by Google being a prime example of that!). A big thank you to Jean-Luc of Captain Picard's Journal, Dixie from Dixie's Heart & Soul, Misty Dawn of My Dogs Keep Me Sane, and Sandee of Comedy Plus. Thank you all so much and I shall try to live up to this award.

Colin over at Life created a new award called the Best Blogging Buddies award and had this to say about it:

"Having received many awards I have decided that it was time I created one for ALL my Blogging Buddies. You are ALL awesome and contribute to the wonderful global communities that we have all created. Thank you!"

I, in turn, received it from Sandee, Misty Dawn, and Lois of Lowdown From Lois. Thank you, ladies! Misty Dawn wrote a fantastic poem to go along with the award and you can read it here at Misty's Words. It's a lovely, lovely poem!

In keeping with the theme of friendship, I also received a Thanksgiving Thank You that was started by Mel over Monday Morning Power who had this to say about this one:

"There is something very special and unique about blogging friendships. In “real” life we all have to first get by the physical and superficial aspects of each other before we can get into who we are, really. In “real” life there is so much bull shit that we have to put up with, that sometimes developing true friends becomes very difficult. I feel that with blogging friendships there are no superficial aspects to it; the barriers do not exist. We open up in our writings as to who we really are. We bare ourselves and say “this is me.” For many of us this is the only way that we can truly express ourselves, our opinions, our strengths and our fears. I have also discovered a level of INTEGRITY amongst bloggers that I have not found in “real” life."

Misty Dawn and Sandee were once again kind enough to pass this on to me and for that I say thank you and right back at ya! But Sandee wasn't done there as she has become the Queen of Awards and is very gracious in awarding them on to others and she passed the following on to me.

That Sandee is quite a gal and she also has one fantastic sense of humor so if you haven't been to Comedy Plus what are you waiting for??

Last, but not certainly not least, is the lovely Good Buzz Blog Award that I got from Gale at Gem-osophy where I am a member of the now officially Official -

We were the Unofficial Cheering Squad until Gale wrote 50,000 words towards the novel that she is writing (and that I can't wait to have in my hot little hands) and she reached that milestone on Sunday, November 18th which made us the Official Cheering Squad - WOOHOO!!

I've never been a cheerleader before as I'm allergic to pompoms and perkiness but when there's a cause worth cheering about like Gale's book, I can give a shout-out with the best of 'em! Speaking of the best of 'em, the other members of the Cheering Squad are:

• Frank Sirianni of Foxfyrre's Honk 'n' Holler
• Mimi--Mimi Writes
• Lizza--I Am Woman See Me Blog
• Bud Weiser--WTIT Radio: The Blog
• Barbara--Home in France
• Ian--Edog's Everything Page
• BEadHappy--Life, To make a Long Story Short
• Barb of Trying to Catch Up
• Daisy of Lazy Daisy Log
• Kiyotoe, The Dragon: 050376
• Turnbaby (Liz), And As the World Turns
• Peg of Peggy, As She Is
• Terra Shield of Terra's Secret Backup Blog
  
• Anonymous friend who is not a blogger
• Polli of Polliwog's Pond
• Sanni of Coffee 2 Go

Quite the group, aren't we?? Trust me, Gale's book is well worth cheering about!

If I missed thanking anyone for an award, I beg your forgiveness and will try to remember to post 'em as I get 'em from now on (provided anyone wishes to give me anymore because I'm so scatter-brained and can't keep track of things!).

Amanda's Company For Thanksgiving

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Even though it would have been a beautiful morning to sleep in (it's always a beautiful morning to sleep in as far as I'm concerned!), it was also a beautiful morning to take a drive up to Boston which is some 110 miles northeast of here as the Mazda drives. No, I wasn't heading that way to visit Ms. Maggie Moo in her new digs in Allston (this is her moving-in weekend so I doubt visitors are expected just yet!) but to pick up Amanda's online friend from Atlanta who was flying into Logan Airport.

Amanda and Ayla have known each other since May when they met through Amanda's Deviant Art post about the My Chemical Romance concert that we went to last May. Since then they have spent countless hours chatting online, texting, and talking on the phone - including almost the entire Projekt Revolution concert stop that Ayla went to in Atlanta. Ayla is a drummer and big fan of Bob Bryar, drummer for My Chem whose wrist injury caused the cancellation of our concert in Maine (poor guy is apparently out for quite some time so they have a replacement filling in for him at this point but couldn't get one soon enough to do the UMaine concert). She and Amanda have wanted to meet for a long time so when the opportunity came up for her to fly to Connecticut for Thanksgiving week, I found it pretty hard to say 'no'. After all, how many of my online friends have I met lately? Would be pretty darned hypocritical for me to tell my daughter that she couldn't meet people she'd only met online in person, wouldn't it? Mo? Mags? Carrie? Back me up on this one!

Due to the fact that there are so many deceitful people on the internet, several people had commented that Ayla was probably some 60-year old male pervert but I knew that not to be the case as I had spoken to her on the phone myself, have her as an added friend on MySpace, and have also spoken to her mother (a science teacher who home-schools her daughter). Seemed pretty safe to me that we weren't going to be picking up some old guy at the airport this morning and if that was what had walked out of the gate area, you can bet there would have been some screaming and police involvement!

The drive to the airport wasn't anywhere near as bad as it was the last time I drove to Logan, which was in November of 2002 when my good friend MizCyn had flown out from California for a visit. At that time, The Big Dig was still digging and I had to detour directly through downtown Boston on a Saturday night to get to the airport. Not. Fun. Today traffic was light, the weather was crystal clear, and getting to Logan was a breeze. I only took a wrong turn once finding the parking garage at the airport and getting to the terminal was easy once we got parked. The strangest thing about that, though ... the elevators in the parking garage have forest sounds that make you feel like you've stepped from the parking garage into the woods with birds chirping, frogs peeping, and the like. I'm not sure what the whole point is behind it but I guess it's better than canned elevator music! In addition to that, they have a new system where you pay for your parking before you get back in your car at one of the automated payment machines located outside of the main elevators so that when you leave the garage you just feed the ticket into the machine and out you go. Pretty cool!

Ayla's plane actually landed early (wow!) and when the girls finally met for the first time I was beginning to think the welcome hug was going to put me into the next payment bracket on my garage time! Obviously, Amanda does not take after me in the hugging department! After gathering Ayla's bag - another surprisingly easy process - we went back out through the 'forested' elevators, hopped into the car, and had a very easy drive back to Connecticut. As I drove past Fenway Park, I was thinking about Mags' new apartment somewhere in the area and wishing her luck with her move. I'm sure I'll be going up to visit at some point once she gets settled in.

Hopefully the girls will have a good visit while Ayla is here (she flys back out on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) and if the giggling and laughing that has been going on since they met is any indication, I think it will be. As for me, well, ear plugs may be in order but at least I can escape to work for a little bit of adult time!

Amanda & Ayla

Speaking of which, I gotta go - hope everyone has a fantastic Sunday and I will catch up with you after my lovely 16-hour shift tomorrow!

Shipoopi, Stew, & Stuff

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After a rather busy day yesterday, it's been nice to have a Sunday to just relax a bit and sit on the couch. I think I could rather get used to having Sundays off though I guess I'd best not, I only have this afternoon off as I've got plans for later on.

I spent most of yesterday cleaning the house and cooking as we had invited Jason, Amy, & Cate over dinner. That would be the Jason, Amy, & Cate who are related to the phenomenal Lyn-Z of Mindless Self Indulgence fame who is married to the one and only Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance fame. Normally I wouldn't even mention that but I figure with Google dropping my Page Rank faster than the stocks crashed on Wall Street in 1929, I could go for some shameless self-promotion and drop names!

Truth be told Jason, Amy, & Cate don't need to be related to any one at all for me to want to invite them over for dinner as they are three fantastic people and I truly enjoy their company. It's good for Amanda to have Jason come over and pick on her unmercifully and then break out into a pretty decent rendition of "Shipoopi", originally made famous in Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man" but maybe more widely known in this video -


It was actually quite entertaining to have dinner and a show of sorts! Since the first time I met Jason at American Ambulance he's been making me laugh and last night was no exception! Poor Amy and Cate were getting quite the work-out with the eye-rolling but I could see they were holding back the snickers themselves! Cate is one lucky girl to have a father who has such a good sense of humor.

For dinner I made homemade beef stew in a bread-bowl that turned out to be quite tasty, in my own humble opinion, followed by apple crisp using a slightly different recipe than the last batch I made. In this one I added some chopped pecans to the topping and drizzled it with butter prior to baking it. Yum! Considering that it was a cold November day yesterday, it was the perfect meal - again in my own humble opinion! And one of the best parts is that there's plenty of leftover stew because I always make way too much and there isn't much better than reheated beef stew - yet again in my own humble opinion!

Unfortunately Amy wasn't feeling too well as she's battling the nasty cold that seems to be going around and around and around out here so they didn't stay for too long after dinner - just long enough to watch the latest episode of "House" that we had on DVR and then VH1's "Best Week Ever", though if you ask me if that was the best they could come up with for this week then NO ONE had a best week! Normally the show is pretty funny but this week - not so funny.

Later this evening Amanda and I will head over to the Mohegan Sun Casino for a concert by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra - which thankfully wasn't canceled for any reason! We went to see them last year for the first time after Christmas at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts and they were excellent (you can read about it in my post here if you'd like) so I'm expecting no less of a spectacular show this evening. Add on the fact that it's less than 5 minutes down the road and what more could you possibly want? Well, I would like Jamie to be there with us as I'm sure she would absolutely love the show, too, but alas she won't be here until next month. Maybe next year if we're lucky?

Anyhow, I'm sure it will be a nice evening out with good head-banging classical music and pyrotechnics and maybe even a stop at Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream! Sure beats the heck out of being at work! Oh, and speaking of work, if you'd like a small glimpse into what I do (or is that say?) for a living, click on this link to WTIC-Fox 61 News and then scroll down to "EMS Shortage" on 11/8. That voice you hear as the ambulance rolls out of the bay is mine (cringe!). Ah, fleeting fame!

Boston-Bound!

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This is an apartment building located in Allston, Massachusetts which is only 2.68 miles away from Fenway Park, home of the World Champion Boston Red Sox and favorite team of one of my very favorite bloggers, Ms. Maggie Moo, who will soon be making this very apartment building her new home. How exciting is that??

Mags was able to sell her cute little house here in Connecticut in no time flat, interviewed for and got a great new job before you could say "Bob's your uncle" (even if he isn't!), and located a nice little apartment in this building on the 5th floor with a partial view of the Boston skyline where she will be moving in less than ten days time. I tell you, when the girl makes up her mind to do something - she does it!

I get the feeling she's a bit overwhelmed and nervous at this point and I can't say that I blame her as moving is supposed to be one of the biggest stressors out there and, considering she's leaving behind family and friends to move to a new place where she knows only one person at her new job, there's lots to be nervous about! But, Mags is one of those people that you just can't help but love when you meet her and no doubt she'll have lots of friends in no time flat.

Honestly, part of me is a bit envious as it sounds like such a great adventure but I'm sure I'd be as nervous as a cat myself with everything that's going on! In the meantime, please join me in sending good thoughts to Mags while she sorts through the stuff in her house, waits for the roofers to finish before the closing on the 27th, and gears up for a whole new life in Boston.

Oh ... and Mags ... the sooner you get settled the better as I will definitely be visiting! Amanda would love to visit Newberry Comics on Newberry Street and I bet Boston at Christmas time is beautiful! What better way to see it then with a good friend with the best smile in the whole Blogosphere??