Don't take me to the mall.

Don’t take me to the mall. You won’t enjoy yourself. Don’t take me shopping. I’m liable to snap at you for taking too long in the dressing room. I don’t know what happens to me, but if you ever run into me at the mall, I apologize in advance. I may smirk at you, march past you in a hurry to the nearest exit, or possibly force you into buying me one of those banana frosty drinks, because I spent my last dollar on some worthless trinket. Please don’t take it personally. Something really bad (and bizarre) happens to me at the mall. Maybe it’s the loss of sunlight, or just a frustration with clothes not fitting this too tall size 14, but I’ve never had a pleasurable experience at the mall, except maybe at the food court.

It seems like a sin to be inside the mall on a beautiful sunny day, but this girl needed a new pair of shoes, something I put off way too long. So with three grandparents at my home watching Alan, I decided it was time to venture out to the other side of town. I procrastinated. First, I stopped by the office for a while, and then to lunch. Delaying methods continued with a stop to Barnes and Noble where I could relish in a few moments of peaceful pop-culture. But when Bootie and Pop-Pop showed up moments after I settled into my latte heaven, I realized I was running out of time. Time to go to the m-a-l-l.

By the time I walked into the third shoe store, I was feeling a little loopy. Having already spent over an hour at the mall, I was already irrational from the lack of sun, and seemingly poised for some impending drama. To make a long story short, I witnessed one of the managers bullying a cashier. Plus, this obnoxious manager was boasting to the cashier about having punched someone out recently, which made my blood boil. Lucky for him he left to go on his break. Yet, the cashier seemed unfazed by this interaction which made me doubt my own reality. Were they just joking around with each other? I just bit my lip and took a deep breath and left (with three pairs of shoes).

Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy my free time this afternoon. I left with a bag of clothes and shoes, and later de-stressed by visiting Adams Fairacre Farms. I am much more comfortable around fruit. (there’s a joke in there somewhere). When I came home, my friend Jamie had left some new toys for Alan on our porch, and all the grandparents were there playing with him. It was a welcoming sight. I happily cooked everyone a delicious seafood meal followed by a visit from my five-year-old neighbor who we took with us on a walk to the park. Happy to be back to my mall-less world!!!

Postscript: Thanks Jamie for the toys...and Julie, I should have accepted your invitation!

Bluegrass Festival

Stopped over to the Bluegrass Festival in Freehold Sunday for about an hour with Alan and my mom. Leaned up against a hay stack and listened to the music. Sun was hot!

Lunch back at Bootie's - lots of leftovers from yesterday's gathering... Back home by 1:30pm - but feeling like it was already bedtime!

Roger was still at the county fair on a video shoot when I got home....I called him and begged him to bring me home a caramel chocolate nut apple. MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE! Yum! Moments before he came home, I inhaled a homemade blueberry muffin delivered by my neighbor Eileen, forgetting about my vehement request earlier in the day....needless to say, I will not be eating anything else for the next week!

Oh and how can I foret Cheryl - Alan’s former babysitter. She stopped over too - but was disappointed that Alan was still napping….My mother-in-law arrived for dinner. She and Alan played tea party until bedtime.

This morning, I worked off my sugar feast at the gym. This time, Melanie came with me....Alan was excited about that!!

Creatura Bella!

Photo: Great Aunt Rose Diano and Pop-Pop (my dad Martin Diano)

(more photos below)

I always knew that I came from a long line of dressmakers and patternmakers, jokingly noting that the fashion gene skipped me over. Yet, I never knew until yesterday that it all began with Angelina, my great grandmother – a pioneer business woman in the 1900’s - who started it all by owning her own dress factory in the Bronx. Yesterday, my Great Aunt Rose recounted the romantic story about how the three sons of Angelina including my grandfather Barthelomew, flirted and eventually married three of the women who worked as seamstresses.

Uncle Angelo, the eldest brother, who’s reputation (and from my personal experience) finds him to be the kind of gentleman that is rare today – debonair and tender (and strikingly handsome), came to the factory one day to greet the seamstresses, and discovers a stunning new woman at the machines. As he approaches her, he says “And who is this Beautiful Creature”. Rose, who didn’t speak English at the time, is confused by the attention of Angelo, and repeats to her sister, “What is a Beautiful Creature?” Her sister repeats, "Creatura bella!" and Rose blushes with embarrassment.

A few days later, when Rose has to go across town, Angelo offers her a ride, and a nervous Rose accepts. During that journey, the Diano legacy begins with Angelo asking Rose out for a date. However, Rose is at first reluctant to date her boss’s son, but accepts, and they secretly meet for 3 or 4 dates. She does not want her family (mainly her father) to know. She has already disappointed her father once for not marrying Charlie with the monkey jacket (another story).

Angelo who is smitten with Rose (and vice versa) finally convinces her to disclose to her father that he wants to date her. He can no longer hide his love. Rose seeks out her sister’s support, and at dinner, Rose asks her father’s permission to date Angelo. Being that both families are from Bari, Italy, her father agrees. According to Aunt Rose, that first meeting couldn’t have gone better. Angelo wins over her father immediately. Two weeks later, Angelo meets him again to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Post Script#1
My grandmother Adele also worked in the dress factory and married my grandfather Bartholemew. Uncle Dominic married Aunt Jeanne.

PostScript #2
My Uncle Angelo and Aunt Rose were married over 50 years and have four children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Yesterday, we visited with Aunt Rose along with two of her sons (my cousins) Martin and Robert and their family. Cousin Robert carries on the fashion gene and is a pattern-maker with a designer of evening wear in NYC. A great story-teller, we gathered around the livingroom to hear Aunt Rose tell us her thoughts on what makes a solid marriage (have respect for each other/you can disagree but don’t argue). Portia, Louis and Dawn (my dear friends) were also in attendance. Coincidently, Portia's family is also from Bari - this i have known and believe we are related in some way! :)

Alan and his Great-Great Aunt Rose

Cousin Robert and his amazing son Matthew

Creatura bella

So much fun today at Pop-Pop and Booties. Family, friends, food and lots of great stories to tell including “Creatura bella!" . But I'm beat, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Photos to share as well.

Tea for two

Tea for two
While it gives me great pleasure to hear Alan repeat affectionate sayings to others like “Ciao Bella!”, he is also picking up other words that may not be so nice. Yesterday he told Franklin our cat to “stay out of the bathroom, Franklin!” Today, when we were playing tea party, he gave Bo the rabbit a kiss and hug, but then said to him, “absolutely not”, emphasizing each syllable – ab-sol-ute-ly not! He’s turning 2 ½ next week, and I need to start being more careful about my language.

Two for tea
Christopher (2 1/2 ) and Nicholas (5) visited us today with Helen my college roommate for part two of our reunion. It felt very natural to be with her and her children. Helen’s creativity, intelligence, sweetness and spirited sensibilities are evident in these beautiful children. Hopefully photos will be posted soon. We captured the three children peering over the fence entertained by my neighbor’s ride-a-long mower. Another great shot of them playing trains together. Fritz also shot a picture of them playing instruments together on the porch – guitar, organ, harmonica, and drums…I couldn’t quite make out the name of the band Nicholas devised…it sounded like he and Alan were saying “Showfeet”. We certainly gave passersby something to listen to! I also got a kick out of Christopher’s love of container play and stacking. For example, in my back yard, Christopher piled up each and every riding toy in our fleet creating a soup of sorts into my half-full purple kiddy pool.

Other news: A very tired Bootie arrived safely this morning and she and Pop-Pop stopped over to the house. Alan performed "Orange Blossom Special" for them. Bootie said "who sings that", and Alan responded "Johnny Cash".

O-F-F K-i-l-t-e-r

Various factors (good and bad) threw me off kilter today – (all day!). Showed up at the wrong fitness class (bad), Roger’s presentation to the chamber went well (good), babysitter out with pink eye (bad), offered work-related prospects (good), Alan didn’t nap (bad), learned that Helen is visiting again tomorrow with the kids (good), and now some terrible Jennifer Lopez movie is playing on TNT instead of Law and Order!!! (very, very bad) I might as well call it a night! At least I checked out a decent book from the library which I am about to dive into. (good).

I could expand upon some of these factors - actually some I didn't even mention....but for the sake of brevity (love that word....a great scrabble word)..I will spare the details and just be thankful and grateful and all that other mushy stuff...so goodnight! Sleep soundly...

Other news: Eileen is back from Mexico and will be joining us soon for her August visit.... Bootie is taking the red-eye tonight from Arizona back to New York, and we'll be seeing my cousins Martin, Lyn and Robert on Saturday. I think my sister will also be making an appearance...I also hear that it's children's day at HITS on Sunday.

Rough night!

Hi everyone. Rough night. I had an intense nightmare that I was in a building with two girl friends when a horrible lightening storm started to cause fires across the city. Most notable about my dreams are the locations. I can’t tell you why I was in the city, or in a brownstone building, but it was scary – for those that don’t know, I am very much a country girl, and have anxiety when traveling to New York.…..so I already felt like a fish out of water in this dream. We watched the lightening from our window, and it struck the building across from us and it exploded. My friend shouted that we better evacuate the building, and we rushed out. As soon as we were out of the building, I woke up to Alan screaming.

Now this part is not a dream. He woke up as I woke up. It was 3AM and he started to scream that he wanted to go on the porch. I held him in my arms and told him that it was dark out and we couldn’t go outside right now. It took about 5 minutes to calm him down. I began singing him "porch songs" that I made up as best I could.....

I can’t tell you if I screamed in my dream which woke him up, or whether it was a coincidence that we woke up at the same time, or if maybe our mother/child perceptions were in synch and he had the same type of scary dream. Regardless, I wasn’t able to get back to sleep, and have medicated myself with a dose of Tylenol to cut the edge off of a horrible headache…