Word of the Week: Crazy!

Sorry it's been so long since I've been by to say hello! Holy MOLY, I always forget how INSANE this time of year is around here. At the top of our list of commitments last week was Emily's play. She was Frenchy in Grease and made for an adorable Pink Lady in her final performance in middle school. I still think about the moment two years ago when she stepped on stage as Ms. Darbus in High School Musical and I realized, very clearly, that this is her THING. She is truly talented and stands out from the crowd. We are proud. Can you tell? While I am in Mommy Gush Mode, Jake had a FABO baseball game on Saturday. He had a hit that made it into the outfield (a big deal for a 10-year-old) and he made a diving catch that saved two runs from scoring. The best part was the way he kept looking into his glove to make sure the ball hadn't fallen out. He was given the game ball by the coaches and floated on air for the rest of the weekend. We are proud of him, too!

Somehow I've also gotten roped into once again helping to plan my high school reunion. I was, by no means, in with the in crowd in high school (which was JUST FINE with me), so why am I doing this? Well, I helped plan the last one and was pleasantly surprised to make some new friends among the group of old acquaintances. In fact, it was more fun to PLAN the reunion than it was to ATTEND the reunion. (DOH--did I say that out loud or just think it? :-) Once again, I'm enjoying the "reunion meetings," which have become a joke with our husbands because most of the time we don't talk about the reunion. We had three meetings before we actually did anything--LOL!

May and June are the busiest months of the year at work, and we're really into the scrum of things now. My company, AGA, puts on an annual meeting for 2000 government finance professionals, and my job is to oversee all the printed stuff, including the 100+ page program, among several other publications, hundreds of signs, etc. So the requests are coming fast and furious! I also got the blogging schedule for Love at First Flight last week, which freaked me out since it kicks into gear the second I get back from AGA's meeting in New Orleans. Ack! Somehow it will all get done. Somehow. Anyone else in favor of cloning?? Show of hands?

All of this craziness is seriously cutting into my TV watching time. It's season finale time! I was really disappointed by the Brothers & Sisters finale, where nothing at all happened, but I love that show and I'll be back for more in September. Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy ended with real cliffhangers that will have me tuning in this fall. If Grey's is killing off Izzy and George, I'll miss her but not him. He's blah, does nothing for me, and I can't seem to brain scrub the oh-so-wrong image of him and Meredith attempting to fool around a few seasons ago. Ugh... Nasty! I'm going to be pissed if Derek and Meredith's wedding is ONLY the post-it note. That will NOT DO IT for me after all these years of waiting for them to get it right. Do you HEAR ME SHONDRA???? I wish I was a writer on that show! Call me if you think I can help.

I can't wait to see what happens on American Idol this week. How about you? If Adam Lambert doesn't win, it'll be a total robbery. Did you see him all but anointed on the cover of Entertainment Weekly two weeks ago? They said he's the most original Idol contestant in the show's history. I like Kris Allen a lot too, but Adam should win. Even Simon thinks so! And tonight.... drumroll please.... let the games begin again with a new season of The Bachelorette. I'm strangely, oddly, and gleefully obsessed with this show. I'm not sure what I like best--the potential for romance or the idiotic behavior of the contenders. The idiocy is definitely better when it's a houseful of catty women fighting over one guy. The guys aren't quite as unhinged but we can still expect some OH-MY-GOD-HE-DID-NOT moments! I'll be sure to mention them here!

Anyone else feel that Jon and Kate and their plus 8 used up their 15 minutes of fame about a month ago? Enough already. Who cares?

What are you watching? What did you think of the finales?

Finally, a lot of you have asked how we're doing since Consuela died. I can't believe she's already been gone two weeks. I miss her so much, and it's a lonelier around here without her, but I'm glad she's not suffering anymore. Watching her decline was almost as painful as losing her. Thanks for all the kind words and messages. It helps.

Make New Friends But Keep the Old

Last night, I went out with four high school classmates under the guise of starting to plan our--GULP--25th reunion. That's such a HORRIFYING number! LOL! We agreed it just doesn't seem possible that nearly a quarter century has passed since we departed high school. We also decided, in the six or so minutes we spent talking about the reunion, that we want something casual and simple next summer, perhaps at a bar by the beach. Sounds good to me! In planning our 20th reunion, I became good friends with a classmate I hadn't known all that well in high school. We traveled in different circles back then, but today, with daughters the same age (who even spent a year in the same 2nd grade class), we found that we have so much in common that we laugh like two fools who've been friends forever whenever we see each other.

I was struck last night by the "anything goes" tone to our conversation. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was off limits. On the way home, I wondered why five women who haven't spent all that much time together over the last quarter century found it so easy to share things we wouldn't tell most of the people we are closer to today. I decided there's comfort in having known people so long you can't remember not knowing them. Maybe you weren't friends "back then," but you shared a common experience in a time and place that, like it or not, binds you for a lifetime. Five women with nine children between them, a menagerie of pets and husbands, one divorced, one who's had significant health problems, united by a common factor--we were members of the Middletown High School Class of 1984. And judging by the screams of laughter that attracted more than a few stares from others in the bar, the reunion promises to be a good time. My classmates were thrilled to hear that I'd become a published author since we last saw each other. Two had already read Line of Scrimmage and the other two were planning to buy it today. Their support and enthusiasm were overwhelming, and it was fun to share it with them.

I got home last night and realized I totally forgot to blog yesterday! DOH! And here I thought I was getting into the habit! In other weekend news, my cousin Jen called yesterday afternoon to invite my kids to sleep over. She had her teenaged niece for the night and her own son (my son's great pal). There's good news and bad news, she told the kids. The good news is I want you to come sleep over. Yay! The bad news is we're going to church at 5. "What kind of sleep over is that?" my son Jake asked, crestfallen. My husband and I snickered behind our hands and sent them on their way to church! I let Jen know that her sleep over approval rating hovered in negative numbers before it even started. Jen, being Jen, was just fine with that!

Jake got even by getting up at 5:18 a.m.