• Travels

    Remembrance At The National September 11 Memorial

    One thing I wanted to do when I was in New York City last month was visit the National September 11 Memorial, which opened in 2011. I made reservations for myself and a group of friends and it was literally our first destination once we all arrived at the hotel. The weather was appropriately dark and drizzly. As the four of us somberly made our way to Ground Zero and then through the security stations, we really had no idea how stunning (in so many ways) the memorial would be. It’s huge. I mean, it’s supposed to be huge, because it’s set in the footprints of the Twin Towers, and…

  • Amazing People,  Blessings,  Childhood Memories

    Bonus, Indeed.

    When my maternal grandparents passed away within two years of each other, I was still in elementary school. Obviously life happens: nobody can plan when it’s supposed to end. (I’m not even sure if anyone would want to plan the timing of that milestone.) Those of us who are left behind usually say things like, “I wish she were still living” or “He died way too soon” or, as if to justify feeling robbed of more time, “Only the good die young.” All I knew as a young girl was that I was going to miss my grandparents terribly, and I have. Lucky for my sister and me, Marilyn and…

  • Childhood Memories,  UGH.

    Memory

    The last couple of days has been really, really difficult for my family, my sister and me in particular. First, click here to read what’s been going on. My sister already wrote about it and I figure there’s no need for me to rehash it here. Seriously. Go read that before continuing. On our way home Monday, we were discussing how odd it is that M, our elderly loved one, has a hard time with her short-term memory (she asks the same questions over and over), but she can remember the strangest little things, like how her daughter-in-law always loved fruit compote, or this: When I graduated from high school…

  • UGH.

    Plagiarized.

    No, *I* didn’t do it. Someone else did. I found out today that someone grabbed my old Blogspot url, activated the feed, and copied and pasted six of my old posts (words AND pictures) there under the name Diana Reneina. The sidebar is full of text link ads. I am beyond annoyed about this. At first I was kicking myself for deleting the Blogspot url, figuring I should have kept it. Truth be told, though, anyone could post any of my stuff on any site. I found out that my old feed from my old url was showing up in Google Reader for those people who never physically unsubscribed to…

  • Amazing People

    A Gift Called Wanda

    Having worked in a salon for seven years, I’ve had the opportunity to become friendly with many people whom I never would have otherwise met. It’s always a pleasure to see a regular client arrive for her weekly (or bi-weekly) appointment, and over the years I learn so much about their private lives: their family, friends, what makes them happy, what ticks them off…all kinds of things. These clients become a part of the salon’s fabric. Each of us has our own favorite clients. There are a few clients, however, who are on everyone’s list. Margy was one of them. I wrote about Margy when she passed away three years…

  • Uncategorized

    There’s Nothing Like Your First.

    Bittersweet times around here: D just sold his car. With him being away at school and not truly needing his own wheels, it was just sitting around, getting older. He had already rebuilt the entire engine and more recently, replaced the radiator. It didn’t make sense to keep it and risk having to do more maintenance on it with money that really needs to go towards college tuition right now. The good news is, D sold the car to a friend who had been in his Cub Scout den, way back in the day. This young man has a true appreciation for cars–in fact, he is going to school to…

  • Uncategorized

    In Other News…

    …my camera is dying. It’s dying a slow, sad death. It still works, but last week I couldn’t get it to turn off at all, and it sucked all of the battery power right out. Miraculously, the next day when I put the recharged battery back in, it worked, and it turned off when it was supposed to. It whines when I open up the front to expose the lens. I don’t know how long it’s got to live, but I know it’s fighting. Unfortunately, I don’t think that duct tape will fix it. ©2010 Suburban Scrawl

  • Working On My Fitness

    Hitting A Wall Really Hurts.

    As you are more than aware by now, I am nearly finished with the Couch To 5K program, and will do the BlogHer 5K in Central Park next Friday (one week from today!). I did my Week 9, Day 1 run today (well, if you can call it that), which is supposed to be thirty minutes long, and crumbled. I ran for the first eighteen or so minutes, then completed the rest of the time alternating walking and running. My legs felt like lead. I was discouraged. I couldn’t get rid of the “I can’t do this” thoughts. I came home and cried. I’m frustrated because last week, I felt…

  • Jim Has Mad Skillz

    Desperately in Need of a Christmas Miracle

    It’s a sad state of affairs around here in regards to the older boy’s car. He and Jim (mostly Jim, due to the older boy’s being smothered during the final couple weeks of senior year with work, testing, lacrosse, papers, prom prep, and other such busy-ness) have been working on the car for nearly two weeks, trying to figure out exactly why it won’t start. Jim has taken apart everything in the starting assembly. He’s tested the starter, ignition switch, and relays, and he was, over the past couple of days, checking each and every wire for a short somewhere. I have frequently remarked that it would be SO tremendous…

  • Amazing People,  Friends,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    For Anissa

    On Tuesday, the blogosphere received yet another rallying cry to pull together: Anissa Mayhew, wife, mom of three, blogger extraordinaire, and all-around funny person, had a major stroke and landed herself in the ICU in her new-ish hometown, Atlanta. Anissa’s family has been through so much already. She had her first stroke years ago, and then her youngest child was diagnosed with cancer (and is now in remission). She and the kids were separated from her husband, their father, for months because of his job (it was far from where Peyton was being treated), and they finally settled down, all under the same roof. And now this. I finally met…