The Never Ending Birthday.

Donna celebrated her 50th year on earth November 12th, but because she didn't get back to Maryland until the 17th, the celebration continues. I know I have been guilty of celebrating my birthday for more than one day, so hey, party on!!!

On Tuesday evening "the girls", Donna, Donna's sister Ellen, Kris and I went to the Chart House, so Ellen and Kris could send out birthday wishes. I know I have mentioned before how comfy the atmosphere is in the lounge area of the Chart House, so comfy in fact that we decided to have dinner there as well as cocktails and apps. It is always great to have dinner with friends, but when those friends are also sisters, it just turns the fun meter up a few notches. What better way to end the perfect evening than with "Birthday" lava cake? 4 spoons please.

A Rolling Stone.....

Donna has not stopped since arriving back in Maryland. Saturday after her seminar, she came home, freshened up and then we both headed out to meet her step-sons at Chevy's for dinner.

Her boys are both wonderful young men. The conversation was lively, while steering clear of Jose, Donna's soon to be ex. Peter, the younger of the 2 boys, is living with Jose, so it may not have been as easy as it seemed. Dinner was delish. Most of us had the sizzling fajita plates, mine was portabello and asparagus. Yummy.

The following day when I went to put my jacket on to walk Harper, I could smell the onions from the night before permeated in the fabric of my jeans and jacket. So today I'll be doing laundry while Donna is in her lecture series. Could my life be any more stimulating?

....And How Was You're Day?

Donna signed up for a medical seminar while she is here. It is something she needs to do every 4 years to keep updated on her RN status. So while Donna is headed to Alexandria for her day of lectures, I head to Morgan Gerard's to learn about the 400 different facials you can get.

I get home at 3 and decide to rake the leaves. Donna gets home and tells me she learned how to insert an intravenous line into the bone. Intraosseus.......Can you imagine? Directly into the bone, it can make the difference between life and death. It was fascinating to hear about. In the mean time I'm learning how to make a hair appointment. I guess it beats asking if they would like fries with their meal.

She's Back!!!

My friend Donna, who recently headed south to live, is back in Maryland for an action packed week. She got in late Wednesday night, so after about an hour of catch up and giggles, we said good night and crashed.

On Thursday, while I head to my first day of training at the salon, Donna heads to settle on the sale of her home here in "The Hood". I meet both her and her realtor, who is also a neighbor, for a celebratory dinner at a new Latin restaurant "Paladar". We had a wonderful meal and

caught up on the day's activities.

From dinner, Donna and Jean headed to book club and I headed home. I meet them about 30 minutes later, because there was going to be a belated birthday celebration for Donna. Did someone say cake? Well I have been in a few book clubs and realize that with Donna being back, the first 30 minutes would have been question and answer period for Donna. I probably should not have gone over for about an hour and a half, but knew that was well passed my bedtime. As soon as I get there the talk moves from Donna to the book, which I had not read.

I have been in clubs where the talk of the book is so riveting that it really didn't matter weather you've read the book or not, unfortunately this was not one of them. I was there for maybe 20 minutes, and after the first 3 all I could think of was weather or not I had been there long enough not to seem rude to leave. I lasted maybe 20 minutes before I excused myself reminding Donna to bring home some birthday cake.

Cutting Edge

I went in to get my hair trimmed last Tuesday. It is the longest I've had it for some time. Liza cut layers into it and it looks great. The weight of it being all one length took all the natural curl out of it. Now I can shake it and the curls are all over. Not only did I leave with a great new do, "The Boys" offered me a job. I thought what the heck, I can only watch so much Kelly and Regis. So starting next week I will be working part time at Morgan-Gerard's. I'm looking forward to the new experience and I already told the guys if it becomes too mind numbing, I'm sure it's nothing a facial won't cure. Call for your appointments today.

What's Love Got To Do Wth It?

Do you remember what it's like to fall in love? Weather it's for the first time, or the thousandth time.....everything seems to take on a clearer, more vivid hue. Well since the stars seem to have taken a vow of celibacy in my universe, for the time being anyway, I have made a discovery that changes all that for me. Polarized Sunglasses. I first became aware of the color intensity of my shaded world in Hawaii. The blues of the ocean and sky took on new shades from God's crayon box. Shades that were never in my box of 64. The mountains beyond were a subtle shade of green instead of the mousy brown that was offered sans shades. With the fall foliage well passed it's peak, my sunglasses have offered an extension. I find myself removing the glasses to see what it is that mere mortals must see. So until the "Love Gods" deem me worthy, I am content with my polarized sunglasses, and I don't have to cook for them.

Weekend Scare

Harper gave me a scare last weekend. On Friday she didn't eat her dinner, but I didn't think too much about it because she's ignored her dinner in the past. The next day she passed on both breakfast and dinner. She also had diarrhea since Friday. Okay I figure if she doesn't eat on Sunday, I'll get her to the vet first thing Monday morning. Well she had other ideas.

When Sunday come around, her diarrhea was bloody, and she couldn't keep water down. Off we go to the emergency vet clinic.

I was afraid if I waited until Monday, Dr. Etter would have said,"...if only I had seen her 12 hours ago", I would never have forgiven myself. She had some sorta of virus that ran its course and she is now back in the pink. Oh yeah, Harper's vet bill was everybody's Christmas present. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Lecture Series

A friend of mine bought tickets for the "Baltimore Speaker Series". She has seen a number of interesting people speak, and asked if I would like to join her for Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of "Eat, Love, Pray".

I jumped at the offer. I picked Katie up at Mercy Hospital where she works,and we headed to Little Italy.

I have not been to Little Italy since Rachel's rehearsal dinner, and it has changed so much. Velleggio's is now closed. Can you believe it? After 40 years......anyway.

We had dinner at Amecci's, and dessert at Viccarro's.

Elizabeth Gilbert was delightful. I was a little worried because my attention span is not what it used to be. She had me spellbound from the moment she started. Sometime writers only have success on paper, their speaking skills are not quite as honed. This was not the case with Ms. Gilbert. She basically talked about her childhood, adding the perfect amount of anecdotes along the way. I liked her after reading "Eat, Love, Pray", now I really like her. She related that nothing could have prepared her for the success of the book and movie. She also felt bad that she could not help everyone who has ask for a part of her since the release.

During the question-answer period, she remained posed and answered the questions as best she could. She is my new best friend.

Non Stop Drinking

The bar is barely set up when the first of the guests start to arrive. It's Show-time.

The wedding planner instead of the caterer ordered glasses, and I could already tell there were not going to be enough. We had about 1 million martini up glasses and 60 high ball glasses. Even I can do the math on that. At about 7:00 we started asking guest to save their glass. We had no sink behind the bar or we could have washed them ourselves. Well by 8:00 we were serving gin & tonics in martini up glasses. The way these people were drinking the glass it came in didn't matter. The problem with up glasses is you can maybe get half a drink in it, so we were pouring drinks from 4:30-10:00 non stop. By last call I felt like I had been run over by a train. Now we need to break down the bar, stack all unopened cases for the father of the bride to take home. Uuugghh. Before that begins I decide it is time for an Alleve or 3. When I get out of the car after the 75 minute ride home, my legs don't work. I walk that off, put my 200.00 check and tip money in my pocket and think how much fun tending bar really is. Needless to say, I slept like the dead that night.

Apalachicola Interupted.

I've filled you in on Donna's house and I will get back to describe the "Mayberry-esque" town, but first a little life in Annapolis.

Last week I was given an emergency call by a friend of mine to replace a bartender for a wedding the following weekend. I gave up catering a while ago, when I realized my 50 something year old body was not usually happy with the outcome. Well you know me, a friend in need....

So here I am in a car heading to Fredrick. That's right, Fredrick. Heaven forbid the wedding be in Annapolis, or anywhere closer than a 75 minute drive. Find a happy place, find a happy place.

Now the set-up begins. Racks, and racks, and more racks of glasses have to be moved from point a to b. Cases of beer, wine and liquor also need to be moved. Now this would all be a fairly simple process if a dolly or cart were available. No such luck, just 2- 5o something year old girls. We didn't move quite this many cases, but it certainly felt like it. Oh! did I mention the 50 bags of 40lb. ice?