Deployed overseas

Here's "The frontal view of the Grand Mosque by evening, Bahrain"

My friend Al sent this one when he was stationed on the USS Supply. After 8 years in the Navy, he's been honorably discharged and is happy to be a civillian again.

Keeping with a theme here

Here's Rocky!

 

Rocky's first birthday was June 15. He was adopted last year from the North Shore Animal League and has become a very big part of our family.

My grandmother rocks

It was on our trip to New England when we started taking photos of Grandma with rocks. And you can tell why from some of these postcards. It was the summer of '91 when I was 15. Grandma, Aunt Lorainne and I drove up to Maine and then traveled to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Our crazy adventure included a sort of all-you-can eat pancake house, flying in a hot air balloon, and lots of rocky places such as Lost River, Acadia National Park and Mt. Washington.

(Happy birthday Grandma!)

 

Rock stars

I've been up updating my music files because they make my ipod very confusing. I had everything very organized, or so I thought. But when I put songs on the ipod, the song name under Bruce Springsteen all looked like this "Bruce Springstee.."

So this has been a long and boring project, but it will pay off when I can easily find Thunder Road!

Here are some of my other favorite rock stars.

Ellis Island

Since I couldn't go to my high school reunion this weekend, I thought I'd mark the occasion with some postcards from a class trip.

Ms. Stangl took our U.S. history class to Ellis Island in my sophomore year. She had never taken a group on a trip before but I think we nagged her into it.

I remember Betty was a little freaked out on the ferry (which is funny because she later went to work for the ferry company.) And then some friends and I went around posing in front of the old pictures of new arrivals doing things like scrubbing floors.

 

 

 

Ice Cream

I wish I had some Ben and Jerry's right now.

Grandma sent this one from a trip to Vermont with mom and Aunt Lorraine in August 2000. They got to see how ice cream was made, but I think that day the factory was making a flavor that one of them didn't like.

 

Paul McCartney

Here's Paul McCartney in '65.

Tomorrow is Sir Paul's 62nd birthday.

 

 

Rimini

Randi went to Rimini when she was doing a study abroad program in the summer of 2001.

She visited the beach at Rimini on weekends and hung out at a club that played, of all things, early Beatles and Beach Boys music.

 

Norwich

Here's where I lived and worked for about a year and a half after college. Some people still think I live there, even though I've been back for more than 4 years.

I was the assistant news editor at the Norwich Bulletin. It was a pretty intense job. I had to run the news desk a few nights a week. Lots of page 1 and wire duty. Some of my co-workers were pretty cool. But I got pretty bored up there working nights and being so far from the fam. I put a lot of miles on my Mazda driving back to NJ.

When friends or family would visit, I'd take them to the waterfall, called Indian Leap. Here's the story:

In 1643 Uncas, Sachem of the Mohegans, led his warriors in the famous battle against their rival tribe the Narragansetts. Legend has it that a band of Narragansetts, unfamiliar with the territory, unknowingly reached the high treacherous escarpment of the Falls. The Narragansetts, rather than surrender, attempted to leap the chasm. Unsuccessful, they plunged to their deaths into the abyss below.

Then we'd go to the buffett at Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, and probably to Mystic, which does have good pizza.

 

www.norwichbulletin.com

http://www.norwichct.org/visitors/index.html

Broadway under the clouds

It was too cloudy to see the stars, but nice enough weather at this year's Broadway Under The Star. Last's years had more celebs, but was longer. This show had a few great performances and we were on our way home around 10.

I loved Brian Stokes Mitchell and Sutton Foster (who sang I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy). There was a cool medley of baseball songs. But then there was a closing montage with George M. Cohan songs set to images from military movies. Propaganda!

Low points: The obnoxious host Bronson Pichot. Shut up Balki. Also an annoying girl in front of us with a staring problem. Then she started picking at her feet and pulled out a pair of scissors to cut skin. Too gross.

 

Dress

Not a postcard, but this is what I'm wearing in Betty's wedding. Finally got it figured out today!

 

(This image makes me wish I was taller.)

Nebraska

So I have left New Jersey. ... I spent two weeks in Nebraska at a copy editing training progam in May 1997. I stayed at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

I can remember this conversation on the phone with David:

David: You're in Nebraska.

Me: I'm in Nebraska.

The program was a lot of work, but we had a lot of fun. After long days devoted to AP style and headline drills, we'd head back to the dorms and watch The Simpsons. Spent hours quoting Ralph Wiggum. We went to the movies almost everynight and then found a few cool bars.

I also lost my luggage key somewhere on the trip there and had to break into my suitcase because I couldn't wait for mom to fedex the spare key.

It felt very strange to be out there. People loved their college sports, hockey and corn. The strong sense of school spirit was a strange thing too for this Rutgers student.

On a tour of the campus, we got to visit the stadium and walk out on the field. (I haven't even been to Rutgers' stadium.) A guy from Oklahoma spit on the field!

 

Invasion of Turtles

Caption: Young turtles at feeding time. A special mix of food allows such small turtles to reach weight in excess of 300 lbs.

Mom and grandma went to a turtle farm in in Grand Cayman during their cruise trip in July 2001. (That's the trip where mom got up and danced on a chair!)

I'm very jealous about this one. They got to see all kinds of turtles. Mom got to hold one. (Grandma notes that she just took the picture.)

Just like postcards, I have been collecting turtles forever. They have taken over my house. Glass turtles. Plastic turtles. Stuffed animal turtles. Ceramic. Metallic. Robotic. Miniature. Rubber. Wind up. Potholders. Tablemats. Socks. Frames. Pins. Earrings. Pictures. Boxes. Pencil sharpener. Flashlight. Snow globes. Postcards. They are everywhere.

 

 

Goodbye Gippper

Well ... What can I say about Ronald Reagan. I remember the jelly beans. Genesis' Land of Confusion video. My third-grade teacher saying she wouldn't vote for him because if he won again she'd be eating dog food. There was Nancy Reagan on Diff'rent Strokes.

I think a president deserves the respect and treatment Reagan has gotten this week. But I don't think we should gloss over the problems of the 80s and glorify his term in office either.

I can't remember where I got this postcard. I have a few presidential ones.

(Random fact: Marilyn Monroe and I have the same birthday.)

Just a post note.... I thought the final ceremony tonight was very sad. When Nancy started crying on the casket, I think all of us in the newsroom got a bit teary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/11/politics/11REAG.html?hp

 

Ray Charles

In their early days in Hamburg and The Cavern, The Beatles would play "What I'd  Say" making up their own verses to keep it going all night.

Ray Charles had a great influence on my favorite band.

And I love his version of "America the Beautiful."



http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/11/arts/music/11CHAR.html

Greetings from London

So I've had a postcard collection for as long as I can remember, and I've been telling a few people about it lately. I thought I'd share some of it.

This one is from my aunt and grandmother's trip to London in November 2001. They were among the brave Americans who felt it was OK to travel after 9/11, and their flight was delayed because the FBI was checking everyone out. But they had a good time seeing the sights and some shows, and of course, shopping. The postcard also tells about an incident with a telephone box like this.

There's also a cool stamp of a fish.