Not Another Story...

...so I was driving in to work yesterday and on my sports talk radio station...where i expected to hear Flyers, Eagles or Phillies talk... they are discussing "Which movie star over 60 would you kiss?"these are all men, of course, having this conversation...suggestions are: Anne Margaret, Bo Derek (not 60), Angie Dickinson, Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Tina Turner, Susan Sarandon, Candice Bergen, Catherine Deneuve...oh, my Father loved Catherine Deneuve...or Angela Lansbury...THAT was meant to be funny...Evidently there is a movie out with a beautiful 40 year old actress, Maria Bello, kissing a 62 year old Tommy Lee Jones and the radio host went on and on about how gross that was...for Maria Bello... so I am wondering...would women have this conversation...of course they would!!..and if you women out there were engaged in this discussion...which 60 year old movie star...or famous person...would you kiss or definitely NOT kiss?

I actually like and would kiss Tommy Lee Jones but i understand that he is a man that might be an acquired taste...get it......Mel Gibson is so a NOT we don't need to discuss it... but there was a time...too bad for Mel...I think Anthony Hopkins is definitely a not...he just couldn't be someone to warm up to while he is always pretending to eat people all day, could he?...I used to love Harrison Ford but since he had his ear pierced and married that young skinny girl i have had to realize that i just may not be the one for him...nor he for me...Robert De Niro is very cool i think...but as a kisser, not so much...now, Al Pacino is a definite maybe except have you seen him lately...what is he doing with that hair thing?...now Sam Elliot...OMG...tall...that  look... that voice...and that cowboy thing...

then it dawns on me...I am a sixty something year old woman...they were talking about NOT wanting to kiss ME...damn...and the truth is if i had to pick a famous person to kiss it would probably be Keanu Reeves, 46...but only as he appears falling in love with  Diane Keaton in "Something's Got To Give" or as the quarterback in "The Replacements"...definitely not in "Bill and Ted's Big Adventure"...

so now i pose the question to all of you...what famous person over 60 would you want to kiss...or...not kiss?

Robin, Richie, Nicky and Me

so...it is freezing out...and the Eagles have lost...and since I never really got into hockey my attention immediately turns to baseball and my beloved Phillies...I have a friend that actually has an app on her phone that tells her how many days for pitchers and catchers, for opening day, etc...I wish I had that...but I do have some fantastic memories of going to watch the Phillies...and it all began with my Father...

My Father came to Philadelphia from St. Catherine, Calabria, Italy at around 9 years old. He came with his Mother to join his Father who was already here and working ...He told me that when he arrived one of the ways he learned to speak English was to listen to the Phillies games on the radio in the kitchen in the wonderfully tiny house on Watkins St. in South Philadelphia. He was fascinated, he said, with imagining what was going on while understanding a few words here and there...he had no comparison in Italy to connect it with...and  all through his growing up during adolescence and young adult years... as he learned to be an American he also learned to be a Phillies fan...

When I was a kid one of the first things he introduced my brother and I to was the Phillies...Byron  Saam on the car radio...and rooting for the home team. Growing up in Drexel Hill, on every game night, there was usually a bus that left from either behind the Dairy Queen at State and Lansdowne or from the 69th St. Terminal and took all aboard to Connie Mack Stadium....I wish I could remember the cost of the bus and the ticket...
My brother and I would get on the bus (imagine sending an 8 and 10 year old today by themselves), find our seats in Connie Mack and watch the game. The very best part was around the 7th inning when my Father would come running up the steps from his job in the city with popcorn in megaphones and cokes for each of us...and we would sit and watch the rest of the game with him...although if you knew my father you know he rarely stayed until the end...bottom of the 8th inning was always enough...then he would take us home in our car...and listen to the end on the radio...What a great night...
On Saturdays he would take us out to the bleachers in Connie Mack and meet up with his friends and all of their children...we cheered for Robin Roberts and my first baseball crush, Richie Ashburn...we even cheered for some visiting players...my Father loved Stan "The Man" Musial, his friend Tony Beautiful rooted for Jackie Robinson and my Uncle Dominic would always give it up for "Hammering" Hank Aaron...

One last story...on Father's Day June, 1964 my Father and I were going to South Philadelphia to pick up my Grandmom to bring her to our house for dinner and we were, of course, listening to Byron Saam on the radio...it was the day Jim Bunning pitched the perfect game...We got to Watkins St. around the 8th inning and ran into her house yelling "Quick, turn on the TV"...but we found sitting and standing around her small black and white TV with the rabbit ears at least 10 Italian Grandmothers... comares...yelling..."Strika one...Strika duey...Youra out!"...a famous family scene that lives on and on in our history...

I have lots more stories...we won World Series tickets in a lottery in 1964, the year they blew the lead and didn't make it and he always had lots of tickets for the new Veteran Stadium...that he ALWAYS gave to my brothers...and he was excited for 1980 and enjoyed the thrill of that victory...neither one of us could really ever get behind that Lenny Dykstra team in 1993 but we rooted for them anyway and i still refuse to travel to Toronto...

God, I love loving the Phillies...Robin, Richie, Nicky my Father...and Me...

A Random Act Of Kindness

I have always emphasized with my children never to wish a day away waiting for something better to happen...common days bring small "ordinary miracles", i think...even if it is just someone letting you in line to turn right in a traffic jam...that's a random act of kindness to be processed and appreciated, don't you think?

a long time ago (way before cell phones and instant communication) in 1987 actually,  i was rushing to go and see my oldest child play basketball...and already late i flew across Rte. 252 right into a curb...and got a flat tire...ouch... Is anyone out there surprised to know that I had (and still have) no clue how to change a tire? of course i don't...
I was right outside what was at that time the John Dupont compound where DuPont lived along with a state of the art wrestling facility and some world class, Olympic wrestlers in separate housing with their families. It was...and is...a kind of eerie place from Malin Road with just huge gates and trees for all of us non DuPonts and non wrestlers to see...but I digress...I pulled over into the entrance and as i did a really cool sports car with a young man...if asked, i would perhaps say a hottie... stopped to turn right and very specifically avoided all contact with me, my car, and most definitely my eyes. Unfortunately for this driver there was no random act of kindness for him and he had to wait to turn right...giving me enough time to walk over and tap on his window. 

"I seem to have a flat tire that I can't ride on...Is there a phone somewhere in there I can use" I asked...and he briefly looked at me and said, "not really and I am really late for an appointment..." and went back to looking for a right turn opening..."Is there a gas station near by?" I asked...knowing the answer..."You have to go up to the Pike" he said...STILL can't turn right, STILL not meeting me in the eye...and then I said...

"So, if I was your mother or your sister what would you want YOU to do?"... 

DEAD SILENCE for about 30 seconds...looks at me again...this time actually looks at me...puts the car in park and says"you got me"...as he changes my tire we laugh about my guilt trip comment and talk about our children...and he tells me he is actually on his way to pick one of his up and I probably made him late...guilt trip for me!...  and in 10 minutes flat he changes my tire..and we are both on our way! The definition of a Random Act of Kindness on a common, ordinary day...

This is an experience that has stayed with me ever since it happened...When I am in a position to perhaps "Pay It Forward" I think about that time...and then...

You may remember this...In 1996 John DuPont, heir to the DuPont fortune got in his army tank, drove across his compound to Olympic Gold Medalist Dave Schultz's house and murdered him in front of his wife. In 1997, DuPont was convicted of murdering Olympic Gold Medalist wrestler Dave Schultz the year before and sentenced to 13 to 40 years in prison. And guess who my hero was that day...Woah...Olympic gold medal AND changed my tire and got me to the game at halftime...A life to be mourned and a life to be proud of...Thank you, Dave Schultz...you are rememberd for so much more than a great headlock...

Aimless Wasteful Vegetation With No Purpose...A Perfect Week!

so lots and lots of people always remark on how lucky i am to be an educator and actually have a free Christmas vacation...and i 1000% agree every time... Then they always want to know what fun, excitement or great adventure I have during this week off in the middle of the school year...and almost every year of my teaching life...all 28 of them...i have the same answer...i am doing what i do best during christmas vacation...watching movies (sometimes I actually GO to the movies, but that happens less and less these days), watching network television, cable television like BRAVO and Lifetime, reading books...an artful, passionate, aimless, wasteful vegetation with no purpose from my couch...either couch, actually...sometimes my bed...which requires channel surfing and now, of course, since it is the new milennium, while i watch TV and movies... i surf the web!
i watched a movie a night...The Town...pretty good actually...Ben Affleck returns to his former cute sympathetic leading man stage...Toy Story 3 ...OMG sobbed at the end...The A Team ...still stupid but that Bradley Cooper is a mortal sin...Wall Street 2 ...not as bad as I thought it would be...hard to watch Michael Douglas without thinking sad but not hard to watch that cute little Shia Something...still haven't seen The Kids are All Right...actually waiting for KT to see that one...and i rewatched Hope Floats and The Blind Side... and admired Sandra Bullock again...
so...then i decided since there is nothing left for me to watch...i would do what i have put off doing for about 6 months...i would "redo" my Verizon account...(considered DOING something, by the way) since i have telephone, television and Fios internet and i am embarrassed to tell you how much i spent...too much...way too much...and after about 87 minutes on the phone i have reduced my bill by about $80.00 and ADDED Showtime, The Movie Channel, Epix and the best of all...NFL Red Zone!

Today i discovered Showtime and Laura Linney and The Big C...season 1... and it is by far one of the best things on TV that i have seen in forever...she is most delightful...funny, interesting, clever, endearing, intelligent...all those things that i so admire in women...what a character...i am 7 episodes in and only stopped so my family could watch basketball and i actually realized i needed a little company and conversation!!
Interspersed through all this is a book by one of my favorite authors Pat Conroy...this one called Beach Music...typical Conroy...800 pages of passion and prose to keep me up until way too late at night!
i also went to the mall and Target and DSW...and had lunch with my KT and friends...and got to go to a most exciting wedding on New Year's Eve...however I taped Dick Clark or Weekend at Bernie's...whatever you want to call him..because I love, love, love to see the ball drop in Times Square...and still have 2 days left...for football!
well OMG, no wonder i love Christmas vacation so much...well rested and ready to attack the new year...2011...how about you? anyone have any fun? get off the couch? have an adventure to share?please comment and make me look bad...has anyone done sloth better than me? the gauntlet is thrown...