Sunday, June 25, 2023

We are home (arrived a bit after 10 last night)! Not very sunny here but not raining so we will take Justice for a walk along the oceanfront in a bit. He was SO happy to see us last night. We are meeting friends for dinner.

In the meantime we are unpacked, the leaked coffee grounds in DH's suitcase have been cleaned up after I found them across the rug and into the bathroom (yikes). The laundry is almost done. Beach stickers for my town have been purchased at the town bathhouse and they and the ones from DH's town have been installed. So a somewhat productive day so far.

Where are all of you? Have a sunny Sunday if you can.

Do I even want to ask how Mike ended up with coffee grounds in his suitcase ?

LOL: He brought 2 pounds of Dunkin Donuts ground coffee to Aruba. The leftover bag apparently split in his suitcase. He didn't notice it when he took it out so there was a trail of the grounds leading to the kitchen.

Not much going on today! It's hot, I'm inside. Starting to make leaving lists...

I'm dull as oats as my parents would say!

I'm a big fan of oats! I order them in restaurants :)

Made it to NYC. I had to get up at 4:15am, but was not as tired as I thought I would be.

We are staying at the Warwick Hotel. They gave us a free upgrade, from a courtyard room to a city view, looking out over 5th Avenue. Nice, but I think I'll stick with the courtyard view in the future, lots more city noise on this side of the building, even on the 18th floor. I like this hotel a lot, its an easy walk to the theater district, but just a little bit more to the north, near Central Park, so, street noise aside, it's a quieter area. When we were coming in, the doorman greeted us and asked what our plans were for the evening, I said we've been traveling since 5am, so probably sleep. He said, well you're home now, so have a great evening. The nice, pleasant interactions we have with people in NYC always far outweigh the less than pleasant. Our waitress at lunch chatted with us for awhile when she brought the tab, and told us, it's so nice to talk with you, I love your energy. More nice interactions.

& Juliet was a fun romp, with many funny/sly references to the actual play Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare. They weave 1990s pop music into the story. I recognize most of the songs from hearing my kids play them, Brittany Spears, Katie Perry, Backstreet Boys... the voices were powerhouses, just incredible. But not my era of music. So for music choices I love Mama Mia and Moulin Rouge. I would see it again if it tours to Minneapolis.

When I got out of the theater, there was a barrage of messages from my Mom about how I left town when she needs help, and really mean things about my Aunt and Uncle, who we will be cruising with. Ugh. I sent my itinerary to my brother, and not my Mom, because, if there was an emergency my Dad would never be able to contact us, and my Mom had been so unhinged about this trip, I thought more details would upset her further. Not engaging with the crazy stuff, but answering questions about objective things. And I reiterate kindly but firmly, that I will be traveling whenever I can, while I can.

We have a very loose schedule for these 3 days, one for sure activity for each day, and then the rest will be just enjoying the city and serendipity. Our first 2 visits we ran a tight schedule, because there were so many must dos. We crossed some of the big ones off our list, and now can just relax more into the city.

DD is in Rome, and we're so happy this all worked out for her. She was excited because someone sitting next to her asked her a question in Italian, and she was able to understand and respond. Learning a 2nd language comes with a certain effort, it is nice to find out it isn't lost to you, even if you don't practice everyday anymore.

So sorry your Mom is trying to make you feel guilty but glad that that you have strategies to deal with it. And that you have applied that learning to how you act as a parent. Good for DD taking her trip!

Greetings all

late check in for me due to some furniture moving in search of the missing bracelet. Still not found but more to search.

Liz glad you are home and Justice is happy.

dd you gotta just do your trip and enjoy. Part of aging for some people is they don't know how needy and difficult they are, crazy pat was like that she had no idea how ludicrous her demand were. She thought I should leave my husband and business in ca to take care of my mom whi*****luded being *****edat by pat. Oy vey. All I can say is do the right thing by yourselves and parents even if they don't know it.

we watched a new Apple TV show happy little farm. It's a kids show. No thanks,

continue to watch the great aboutcatherine the. Great , silly, bawdy but fun

moved the dresser looking for the gold bracelet. No luck but found lots of oter stuff. Mostly socks

next week I will make final floor decision. Then fun begins

more tomorrow when I am off ipad

• dianes

Good luck finding the bracelet. I have lost lots of jewelry in my time. We tried Catherine the Great and it was a bit too much for us but SIL and DS love it.