Live and Let Di

Everybody's Famous in a Small Town

You can simply not imagine what a huge thing the annual Boilermaker 15K is in the small city of Utica, from which I hail (well, kind of, actually New Hartford, just outside Utica). It started 31 years ago and has blossomed into the most famous 15K in the U.S. It's pretty much the focus of the town for the first couple of weeks in July.

So, here we were. I was supposed to train for it, but I ended up hurting my hip a couple of months ago and was unable to run. But my husband was ready. We went to the Fitness Expo yesterday to pick up my husband's packet and we decided to do the 3 mile walk so I could at least participate in some way.

After the race, there was a huge par-tay...and I mean party!!! How about 11,000 runners plus their families and friends gathered in one place with beer, food and a great band...in area surrounding the F.X. Matt Brewery!!! When we got home, I read today's paper only to find this on the front page from yesterday's 3 mile walk:

See the two circles? The shorter one is me (wearing my Mom's very cute blue and white flowered hat that I just might have to steal when I leave) and the taller one is Hurley! We're famous!

Di

Baseball Boo-Boo (Part II)

I need your help here. My son disputes my contention that there is a grammar gaffe in the following:

Your input would be greatly appreciated as I hate to be contradicted by a 12 year old...especially if he is right!

Di

Baseball Boo-Boo (Part I)

Why is it that when I am absorbing blog fodder fast and furious, I simply don't have time to blog about all the stuff I see? Blogging has added a whole new dimension to my life, especially when traveling. The camera slung around my neck is less about capturing images of my children in front of iconic sights and more about photographing things with which to entertain (all two of) you! (Yes, I'm being a little martyrish about my readership...leave a comment every now and then so I know you are there!)

Yesterday my Dad, my husband, my son and I traveled about an hour from my childhood home to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame. My son was so excited about going that he willingly bounded out of bed at 7:10 a.m. I think it may have been one of the high points of my Dad's life...if you've read my stuff about my Dad before, you know that I failed miserably by being born a girl to a Dad who totally should have had a son...but I redeemed myself by giving birth to a boy who is devoted to his grandfather and just as much of a sports nut!

You know that I couldn't possibly spend 5 hours viewing a collection of stories, statistics and statues without finding a grammar rant or two. Included in the collection was the original source of the lyrics for Take Me Out to the Ballgame...so, yes, I have gone back a century for this one...

You may have to zoom in on this. If you click on the image, it will come up as a separate page and you can zoom in from there. Two errors...do you see them?

Di

Mecca is where you find it

So far, my son and I have each found our Mecca on this vacation. Mine was on Fifth Avenue in New York City:

It is underground. It operates 24/7. It's HUGE! I would have LOVED to have been there at 8 a.m. today when the iPhone 3G was being launched.

My son's Mecca was in Cooperstown, NY:

I think my Dad was feeling pretty reverent too!

Di

Yankee Doodle

New Yorkers have a certain attitude. And New York Yankees fans have attitude and then some. The Yankees were promoting Jason Giambi for the All-Star Game, encouraging fans to cast their votes to get him to the big game. So, the first 25,000 fans at the game received a little piece of Giambi...see, Giambi has this 'stache...

So 25,000 fans sported one too:

And in case you weren't sure who the Yankees' biggest rivals were:

(Kim, my die-hard Red Sox fan friend, this picture is for you!)

I also love the "Got Melk?" t-shirt in the background for Melky Cabrera, the Yankees' center fielder.

If you are plotting our trip on a map, we are now in Utica, NY where my husband is running in the Boilermaker...a race whose theme is, "It's where you come to a party and a race breaks out!" You gotta love a race that ends with a post-party at the F.X. Matt Brewery!

Di

Feel Good Movie of the Year

This post from my archives is worth repeating...and even if you saw it the first time, click on the image and spend a minute to gain a smile!

I know...you thought this was going to be about Juno or something. But alas I have not seen it (nor any other Oscar nominated films). My daughter has seen it twice and was terribly excited when she saw the Oscar noms.

My children will often call out from another room, "Mom...come on! You've got to see this on YouTube." My reaction is usually one of the following:

1. Ignoring them

2. Telling them I'm boycotting YouTube because the Church of Scientology tells me to

3. Responding, "No, because I will never have a chance to regain the three minutes I will waste watching some stupid video of a guy crashing a bike into a tree." (Oh, sorry, that was a video my son and his friend posted on YouTube.)

And I have certainly never posted a movie on my blog because I appreciate that you indulge me by just reading my words. I can't possibly impose additional minutes and a new media on you. But this video, sent by my friend and Trivia Partner, Elinor, was utterly irresistable!!! Trust me on this...take a chance on wasting two minutes:

http://dibookblogetc.typepad.com/FreeHugs.mov

Pass it along!

Di

I know...you thought this was going to be about Juno or something. But alas I have not seen it (nor any other Oscar nominated films). My daughter has seen it twice and was terribly excited when she saw the Oscar noms.

My children will often call out from another room, "Mom...come on! You've got to see this on YouTube." My reaction is usually one of the following:

1. Ignoring them

2. Telling them I'm boycotting YouTube because the Church of Scientology tells me to

3. Responding, "No, because I will never have a chance to regain the three minutes I will waste watching some stupid video of a guy crashing a bike into a tree." (Oh, sorry, that was a video my son and his friend posted on YouTube.)

And I have certainly never posted a movie on my blog because I appreciate that you indulge me by just reading my words. I can't possibly impose additional minutes and a new media on you. But this video, sent by my friend and Trivia Partner, Elinor, was utterly irresistable!!! Trust me on this...take a chance on wasting two minutes:

http://dibookblogetc.typepad.com/FreeHugs.mov

Pass it along!

Di

And all that jazz...

Later on we met up with my niece, Ashley, who lives in the city. We went to see Chicago which I enjoyed immensely. If you are a fan of musical theater and have seen most of your shows at regional venues with national touring companies, you might be missing the essence of Broadway. The theaters here are tiny...not much bigger than the average high school theater. So even in the mezzanine, you are close to the actors and can see their facial expressions. It's a unique experience. Most of the theaters have been here for 75 or more years, so they are throw-backs to an earlier time when the beauty of the theater meant something...I mean the architectural beauty in this case.

We were in the mezzanine and the seats were tiered at what felt like a 45 degree angle. This meant that if you turned around, your face was pretty much in your back-door neighbor's crotch. Don't turn around...tourists from the midwest wear skirts and don't necessarily keep their knees together...just a rumor, I'm sure. The 97-year old usherette who seated us and those around us was a piece of New York theater herself. In the fully-lit theater, she wielded her little flashlight with the swagger of an old-time New York City beat cop swinging his nightstick. There was a sigh of disappointment when the lights went down and our real-life theater was about to come to a close!

My beautiful niece Ashley and my kids...notice the cell phone in my daughter's hand...it's surgically attached:

P.S. My heart is soaring!!! My son was just walking around the hotel room singing, "Give 'em the old razzle dazzle...razzle dazzle 'em!"

Di

In the city

We arrived in New York City yesterday afternoon and did some wandering around. We found this just near Rockefeller Center:

They have this Statues on Parade thing going on where Statue of Liberty knock-offs celebrating each major league baseball team are situated throughout the city to celebrate the last year of Yankee Stadium***. We are going to see the Yankees play Tampa Bay today.

***I have just been notified by my husband, who was proof-reading my blog, that the Statues on Parade is to celebrate the All-Star Game which is being held at Yankee Stadium. My apologies for my poorly verified reportage!***

In keeping with our family tradition, we took the only pictures of our children together while on vacation:

My babies are so grown-up! And could they look any different from each other?

Di

The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children and Struggling with Depression

No...I am not going to go one-by-one through my original posts to find my reruns, but this review bears (not "bares", Leigh, my homophone-phobic friend) repeating because Tracy Thompson is awesome, depression plagues mothers well beyond the post-partum phase and because I suffer from depression and want to be as open as possible if it can help just one person not go through what I have gone through. Also, Tracy was gracious enough to correspond with me, signed my copy of the book and sent me a signed book to give Kitty Dukakis when I met her.

The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children and Struggling with Depression is, to my knowledge, the only book to look at the serious illness of depression and how it affects mothers and their children.

The Ghost in the House will ring true for every mother who has struggled with depression, whether postpartum or other. It would also serve as a great resource for those who know or live with someone with depression.

Tracy Thompson pulls together and seamlessly blends her own experience as a mother who struggles with depression, the stories she gleaned from thousands of mothers who responded to her plea for women to share their experiences and hard scientific evidence about this illness and its impact on mothers who struggle with it and their families.

Far from being "depressing", this book gives hope by helping the reader understand the interplay of nature and nurture as well as a variety of insights on some of the solutions and strategies that have worked for others. Depression is a complex physiological illness that defies simplistic or pat answers and is further complicated by a mother's concerns about the impact of her illness on her children and on their psychological futures. Tracy Thompson encompasses all of this in The Ghost in the House.

Whether you personally struggle with depression, or even if you have an inkling of a suspicion that you do...or if you know anyone who is a Mom who you think might be struggling, you must read this book. I picked it up on Friday, finished it on Sunday. Since I do struggle with depression and have two children, I found it incredibly helpful. As a matter of fact, on Saturday night (while tailgating at the Dolphins game of all places) my ten year-old son asked if my depression would be passed down to him and because of what I had read in this book and I was able to give him an intelligent and well-founded answer!

I e-mailed Tracy Thompson to commend her on her book as well as her blog  Maternally Challenged She and I exchanged a couple of great e-mails. I have incredible respect for this author for her incredible candor and willingness to thumb her nose at any cultural stigma that may remain around the topic of depression and get it out there as a subject for discussion.

Di

The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children and Struggling with Depression is, to my knowledge, the only book to look at the serious illness of depression and how it affects mothers and their children.

The Ghost in the House will ring true for every mother who has struggled with depression, whether postpartum or other. It would also serve as a great resource for those who know or live with someone with depression.

Tracy Thompson pulls together and seamlessly blends her own experience as a mother who struggles with depression, the stories she gleaned from thousands of mothers who responded to her plea for women to share their experiences and hard scientific evidence about this illness and its impact on mothers who struggle with it and their families.

Far from being "depressing", this book gives hope by helping the reader understand the interplay of nature and nurture as well as a variety of insights on some of the solutions and strategies that have worked for others. Depression is a complex physiological illness that defies simplistic or pat answers and is further complicated by a mother's concerns about the impact of her illness on her children and on their psychological futures. Tracy Thompson encompasses all of this in The Ghost in the House.

Whether you personally struggle with depression, or even if you have an inkling of a suspicion that you do...or if you know anyone who is a Mom who you think might be struggling, you must read this book. I picked it up on Friday, finished it on Sunday. Since I do struggle with depression and have two children, I found it incredibly helpful. As a matter of fact, on Saturday night (while tailgating at the Dolphins game of all places) my ten year-old son asked if my depression would be passed down to him and because of what I had read in this book and I was able to give him an intelligent and well-founded answer!

I e-mailed Tracy Thompson to commend her on her book as well as her blog  Maternally Challenged She and I exchanged a couple of great e-mails. I have incredible respect for this author for her incredible candor and willingness to thumb her nose at any cultural stigma that may remain around the topic of depression and get it out there as a subject for discussion.

A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity

This is a fun book review to rerun because it was also my VERY FIRST POST on August 14, 2006. At the time, I had no idea where this blog thing was going, how much fun it would be and how many people I would "meet."

A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity by Kathleen Gilles Seidel was recommended to me by my best friend for 20 something years Amy, who has a daughter who is a Junior at a private school in Boston. But private or public, the book will make you laugh and cry, see yourself, see your daughter, see your school, see the craziness of our society, etc. It is a quick read...good fiction. Describes so poignantly the phenomenon of girls and how mean they can be and how popularity can seem like the ultimate goal...and yes, how the moms want their kids to be happy (which in some cases means the MOMS are pushing them to be popular).

Some of you may not have heard my take on popularity which is this:

If popularity is defined as having more people like you than anyone else and there are more unpopular people than popular people and none of the unpopular people like the popular people then aren't "the populars", by definition, unpopular???

Hmmm....think about that for a few minutes...and if it seems like a conundrum go have a glass of wine and then think about it. It will still be a conundrum, but you will have enjoyed a lovely glass of wine while thinking about it!

I e-mailed the author with my kudos for the book and she was kind enough to send me a very nice reply. And as a somewhat bizarre coincidence, Amy who recommended the book to me was talking about it to her sister-in-law who was visiting them and it turns out that Carol, the sister-in-law knows the author! Amy is married to Doug  who is Carol's husband's brother. I remember being in Amy & Doug's wedding along with the brother and when it came time to figure out who got in whose car to go from the church to the reception, I went with Gordon because he had a bottle of Dom!!!! Carol wasn't at the wedding for some reason...pregnant maybe? And I'm not sure she knows I sped off with her husband because he had champagne...but that's as far as it went!

So, that is my first blog entry. Please give me feedback, share with your friends or whatever! I think that the next book I will review is The Ghost in the House by Tracy Thompson and from there, who knows!

Di