Wax Paper?

Funny question asked while I was wrapping the leftover half of my niece's bagel.

The other day Bella was at my house and had a bagel with cream cheese. Way, way too much cream cheese I must say. We just ordered a bagel with cream cheese. Not a schmear. (Schmear: another Yiddish word, actually meaning the amount of cream cheese on a bagel. Oh the things you can learn living in New York!) But we didn't ask for extra, just said bagel and cream cheese. This bagel had enough cream cheese to put on at least 4 more bagels. What a waste!

But Bella only ate half the bagel. No surprise since she also had a chocolate frosted donut with chocolate chips on top waiting for her, of which she only ate the chips and the icing, but she asked me to wrap up the other half of her bagel for later.

I still use wax paper. Wrap bread in it and throw it in the fridge or freezer. Wrap the extra half of my breakfast muffin when I don't finish it and save it for later and a bunch of other things. My mom used wax paper, there was always a roll in the house and I guess it's just something I'm used to using.

Bella had no idea what it was. I couldn't believe it. She's smart, notices everything, so I know she's never seen it used. I told her what it was and what you can use it for, including candy making, art, sewing patterns. I also use it to bread my chicken cutlets, instead of having one more dish to clean I just put the bread crumbs on the wax paper. My mom probably did that too.

I also learned that there is wax paper you can use in the microwave. Never used it while microwaving anything, kinda thought the wax would melt into the food, but I read it's actually safer than the plastic wrap. I've also seen certain wax paper that says "made for microwaves" so I would check the label before trying that.

I lunched at home in grammar school as you could in the days when I went to grammar school but high school we had to stay on campus and I brought my lunch pretty much everyday, wrapped in wax paper and in a paper bag. I wasn't the only one, swapped lunches on quite a few occasions and my friends had their sandwiches wrapped in wax paper too.

Again, how things change, everything! Now they have little plastic boxes made for a sandwich so it doesn't get squished, stays fresher. I guess that's better, but I'll stick to my wax paper and keep wrapping my muffins and sandwiches with that until wax paper, like so many other things, becomes a thing of the past.

My Gift's Cooler Than Your Gift

It is!

Just an idea here. You know how people put together an assortment of different things in a basket and it makes a great gift, well here's just a twist on that, and it's cooler.

This was a gift I put together for my friend Alex's 50th birthday, he loved it, his wife too. I filled the cooler with beach towels, beer, soda, water, wine, corkscrew and bottle opener, potato chips, Tostidos and salsa, a few cocktails in a bag, just freeze em and take them to the beach, or for Alex and Patti, for their trips down to the Blue Ridge Mountains, a couple of those TGIF ready-made cocktails and plastic plates, cups, dispensable wash cloths, napkins, a real party in a cooler!

Cool huh!

I'm Going to Disney World!

I think it's an appropriate day to share that phrase that Quarterback Phil Simms said after the New York Giants won Super Bowl XXI. Yeah he was paid for it, but it's become something you say when you win big. Every one knew what he meant when he said that, it wasn't just about going to an amusement park. It was the magic of Walt Disney.

Walt Disney was a man of true inspiration and imagination. I grew up sitting in front of the TV on Sunday nights watching Walt Disney welcome me into his world of magic and it still lives inside me as I think it does for all.

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

- Walt Disney

Super Bowl 2012

Well here I am again talking about something that I know very little about even though my life has always been surrounded by super football fans.

I learned some things from family and friends but my first true understanding of the game was using my younger brother's handheld football video game. I think the picture I've posted is the one he had, there have been so many video games and upgrades over the years, it gets confusing. When trying to find this picture on line I was also surprised, and you might be too, but it was Mattel that made the game. Do you remember this game?

I liked playing that video game. Not because it was football! It was just the start of my video game obsession, probably for a lot of people. So many of us do that, get caught up in these games and just can't stop. You say one more game and then again, one more game, before you know it hours have passed and you've played one more game 50 times. But that football video game taught me the basics of football. Just the basics. Super Bowl parties taught me more. Our super bowl parties were held mostly at my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Richie's house and I usually was in another room watching all the great movies they put on for non-sports fans on Super Bowl Sunday. It is a super day for great movies! But I couldn't ignore all the cheering, it was loud and crazy. I remember one year my mom making up a song, "you gotta sack that quarterback whatever name" over and over. She got every one singing and I had to ask what does it mean. I learned something else and only because the song sounded fun, I wanted to join in on that, still not interested in the football game.

I also remember that the first two parties I won the pool and everyone was screaming from the party room up to whatever corner of the house I was watching a movie, moaning how unfair it was that I was winning and not even watching the game! Two years in a row!

I can't remember my first Super Bowl party, it was so many years ago. I think in my teens in the mid 70s, and for most of my family it was and is the biggest event of the year, as I know it is for so many people. I don't remember hearing about super bowl parties so much during that time. I asked my brother Joey and he told me it wasn't as big back then, that it's just become bigger and bigger every year and basically it's an American holiday now, a new tradition.

My mom loved Super Bowl Sunday. She loved family, football and parties and I really thing the super bowl was her favorite day of the year. Of course my crazy family started having Super Bowl Monday, carrying the party on one more day with their new tradition of going to lunch at Schaffer's Tavern on Victory Boulevard in Staten Island. Schaffer's Tavern is still a really popular place on Staten Island. If you like a big sandwich and good beer, this is the place for you. They have corned beef and pastrami, roast beef, bratwurst, German potato salad and though I am not a fan of a big sandwich or beer I have heard so many great reviews about Schaffer's. I have eaten there, but picky me, take apart my sandwich because it's too much for me. It's a waste of great food! If you live in the area though and enjoy a good beer, a homemade-like, big sandwich, this is the place for you.

Super Bowl is just in the air, even the local deli in my neighborhood has been decorated with Giant signs and streamers in Giant colors since the day they found out that the Giants were in the Super Bowl. And on Facebook I've seen so many comments and digs going back and forth between Giant fans and Patriot fans and excitement. Everyone is gearing up for Sunday!

I actually watched the super bowl game four years ago, the last time the Patriots and Giants played together. I was in the Keys in Florida. And at the hotel we were staying at, there happened to be quite a lot of people from New England. A few New Yorkers, but more from New England. During the game the New England fans were all cocky and cheering and I don't blame them, but when the game turned, really at the very last minute, the New England fans turned too. I just watched a video clip of the end of that game. I do remember it being so last second, but after watching it again this morning, it brought back those last 2 minutes of the game. Even the Giants' coach looked shocked because the Patriots almost made another touchdown, it really was a great game, even for me, a non sports fan. But the New England fans almost faded into the background at the end of that game, in shock and angry, disappointed, so so close.

So what will it be tomorrow? I'm rooting for the New York Giants, I'm a New Yorker, but I do have a young nephew up in New England who may get his heart broke if the Giants win again. So for me, as I said, I'm rooting for the Giants, but if the Patriots do by any chance win, there's a piece of my heart that will be happy for my nephew. Sorry Giant fans, I love my nephew more than football!

Princess

I was a little princess when I was a baby. First girl born after 3 brothers and I was spoiled rotten. By my parents, my brothers and my aunt who lived with us until I was about 5.

When I was younger all I wanted to wear were dresses, I guess from before I can remember until maybe 4th or 5th grade. I went to Catholic grammar school and wore my ugly uniform every day and to me it didn't count as a dress at all. When I came home from school I was not allowed to put a dress on, jeans, t-shirt and sneakers was it. Not that I didn't like wearing jeans and sneakers, but I loved being dressed up and even very young already had a thing for shoes. I played in the streets, wearing a dress and nice shoes was not the proper attire and for maybe a half an hour or so I would feel like a princess and keep clean, but it wasn't long before some adventure involving dirt, grass and mud was part of my day.

I remember for my first holy communion my mom put my shoes on a high shelf in the linen closet and I was warned to keep my hands off them until my communion day. And I can remember that day, my mom taking the shoes out of the closet, putting that box of shoes in my hands, it was like she was handing me gold. I am sure my shoes were ruined in less than a month as I may not have been allowed to wear them outside except for church or a special occasion, but I would still wear them around the house, tap dancing and shuffling and ruining my shoes.

There was a short time in between my father's death and my mom remarrying that she worked overnight and slept during the day. On those days that she was sleeping when I came home from school I would have a note, Trish, no dresses, wear what is left out for you. Total disappointment! But also during those times there were many occasions where we needed to be dressed up. If you went to a birthday party, you wore a dress. Went to parties with my mom, we wore dresses and of course our fancy shoes! My younger sister Linda and I pretty much had matching dresses for most of these events but on Easter Sunday, another big day in my memory because of the clothes, not the candy, we wore similar colors maybe but usually had different dresses, and shoes, and hats, and gloves. I loved Easter Sunday even when the elastic band from my hat hurt my chin, which it always did!

In my teeny bopper and young teens, bell bottoms and groovy jeans were in style and I was into those clothes. I loved the mini skirts too, though my mom wasn't into me wearing them! I couldn't even wear black leotards to dancing school, pink or white, black was not for little girls, even by 7th and 8th grade, black was not for me. And fishnets were in style then too, and of course I got yellow ones, not black! How times how changed! I've seen little baby girls in the cutest dresses with black leotards, my mom would be shocked! But my mom was buying back then so I didn't have a choice. By the time I was buying she probably didn't like half of what I chose to wear and she was probably right looking back.

By the time I was a secretary and working in Manhattan dressing up was office attire. Really dressed up. Pants were forbidden in the secretarial school I attended after graduating from high school. Except on Fridays, when we could wear a 3-piece pants suit. Yeah a 3-piece pants suit, it was disco time, the Saturday Night Fever days. Remember John Travolta in his white 3-piece suit, well women had their own version and it was just as ridiculous as Travolta's when you look back on it now, but then it was the style, it was cool. But I wore dresses, didn't own a 3-piece pants suit, my dress craze was back, that's after spending another four years of high school wearing an ugly plaid uniform accompanied by my construction boots, or Earth Shoes. Earth Shoes! Do you remember Earth Shoes? They look so ugly now but they were in style when I went to high school and if you weren't a disco girl wearing high heels you were wearing Earth Shoes or construction boots or something similar. In grammar school we had a uniform shoe. Not too pretty either. But in high school we could wear whatever kind of shoes we wanted. Go figure! With all their rules and regulations they let us wear whatever shoes?

My first job I worked close to Times Square and at the edge of the fashion district. Walking distance to Macy's in Herald Square and as big as that store is, I knew it like the back of my hand. Well the dress department, shoes department, and the Mrs. Field's cookie shop they had. Mrs. Field's cookies had just come out then and were the tastiest cookie in town. I was always there after shopping for a dress! I had dresses and skirts and shoes and shoes and shoes! Every color. Sneakers too, tons of different colors. Clothes and shoes meant so much, and all the accessories.

There finally came a time when I no longer liked to dress up, though I still bought the cutest sandals and shoes and pants, and accessories but dresses were out again, except at weddings or really special occasions. There were so many cool dress pants out and to be honest, most of my life pants didn't fit me, I was just too short and even though I would take them up, it changed the look. I think at this point in my life they finally came out with the petite sized clothes and I could finally buy a pair of pants and not hem them. And hem them for me mostly meant tape or safety pins and sometimes staples! I could sew but the other things were faster! And the work dress code was changing. Women wearing pants was very acceptable and the 3-piece pants suit was gone! Pants suits were nicer and just a nice pair of slacks with a sweater was also acceptable work attire.

Now it's very casual, and more for me because I work a swing shift and don't really come out of my little office space and interact with clients. Even the attorneys dress down, some still are a little dressier than others but for the most part it's very casual.

I like casual now, it's easy, it's comfortable.

Still like to dress up for special occasions and wear a dress and let the princess in me shine!

My little princess pictured up above is my niece Bella and she's so not a princess! Well she is a princess in some ways of course. She's a girl. It's in all of us to some degree I think.

Bella loves her pretty dresses but for the most part, she's very comfortable in jeans, t-shirts and sneakers and will choose that. She also has a major wardrobe! Cute little boots and jackets, but you know at certain ages, they just grow out of their clothes and shoes too fast. A lot of her fancy wardrobe are hand-me-downs and they are like new, again the person who had them before just grew out of whatever before it had a chance to be worn often. But if Bella does have a dress on, it's not long before there's some big stain on her dress and in her hair as she's constantly pushing it out of her face.

I created the magazine cover for Bella's picture above and also did magazine covers with pictures of her brothers. I guess this picture is about 4 years ago or so. I'll share Robert's and Jojo's at another time because you know there's a story behind every picture!

The Birds

Remember the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds? So scary, creepy.

I'm not a fan of scary movies, I like action films, but don't watch the nightmarish movies, cause I will have nightmares!

But I am a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock's films, well the ones I've seen. He also used to have a TV series, which by the time I watched it was in reruns, but it was great. Mystery stories, some thrillers but still not as scary as the film The Birds. And he always said "Good Evening" in his own special way.

The Birds movie started out so innocent, typical boy meets girl and there's a spark. But very quickly the film turns and the birds attack and then there's more birds and you're just on the edge of your seat watching and you have chills running down your spine. I've watched it quite a few times and still sit on the edge on the couch. Pretty much why I don't watch scary movies.

One of my nephews saw that movie Snakes On A Plane and he had nightmares so many nights and besides nightmares, he started imagining things during the daytime. Not like he was seeing things, just was creeped out, no more scary movies for him.

I live in Staten Island and there's lots of trees, not as much as there is upstate but there's a lot of trees for a city. My apartment is on the side of the house and my windows look out to my neighbor's yard and this morning it was filled with black birds. I heard them even before I saw them so I opened the curtains. Hundreds of birds! The trees too were filled and I got my camera and went outside to get some shots.

This isn't the first time it's happened. I've seen it for years now and I guess since yesterday was 60 degrees, I think the birds and all of nature is confused. 60 degrees in February? Strange weather for February but great day for all, even the birds! But about 4 years ago I walked out my door and I guess the birds heard the door slamming, hundreds of them came swooping down over my head, again it was like being in a movie, so unreal and a little creepy. But no attacks! They just swooped up in the air and settled down in the trees and lawn across the street.

This morning the birds took off when I opened the door and more took off as I walked down my steps. But they came close by, hundreds of them in formation flying right over my head. When I got a little farther from my steps I noticed that my neighbor's big front lawn was filled with them and they were also on the fence to the side of their property. I wish I could have got a picture of that, it was the setting for a movie thriller! I was just getting my camera ready when the hustle and bustle of my neighborhood started. School bus pick up time and commuters looking for parking spaces by the train station which is just a couple of blocks away and the birds moved on. The flew across the street to another neighbor's home with a big lawn but most of them headed for the trees. A few were brazen enough to stay on the ground, but it's funny they all seem to follow each other. Did you ever notice that? I was able to get one picture of the birds but it's only a small fraction of the amount of birds that were out there. They all went into the trees and swarmed off a few blocks away seconds later.

But this morning my neighbors' lawns, trees and fences looked as creepy as the movie The Birds.

After seeing all the birds outside this morning I searched on line to see if that ever happens, birds attacking people, and was surprised by what I found. It does happen! Big birds, little birds, swarms of birds attacking. Of course if there are baby birds, a mother is going to protect them, I think we all know that. But most of these bird attacks I looked up had nothing to do with momma bird protecting her baby. Pictures of seagulls just grabbing food right out of people's hands. I've read it's because there are so many cities popping up, chopping down trees and the birds just basically settle down and make nests in the strangest places, even in Manhattan. Also that there's different species settling in the same areas, a melting pot for birds! During the spring when all the baby birds are born you might just want to pay attention, look up, don't want to freak out any momma birds! They're watching you and the other species of birds, you might just get in the middle of something you don't want!

There's a few places in Brooklyn and I think even the Bronx where there are tons of parrots. There's even a tour coming up this weekend starting at Brooklyn College to go on a parrot safari. The parrots don't attack. Very peaceful but it's wild how a tropical bird came to settle in New York. There's some theories about crates being opened at Kennedy airport back in the late 60s and that's where the birds came from. Great stories on line about that and how the authorities tried to run them out of town! Got them out of Central Park but when they were heading out to Rikers Island to clear the last of the big parrot settlement by the time they got there the birds were gone. Someone tipped them off?!

I also looked up information about Alfred Hitchcock's thriller and found this information from when Hitchcock was developing the film.

Wikipedia
Development
On 18 August 1961, residents in the town of Capitola, California, awoke to find sooty shearwaters slamming into their rooftops, and their streets covered with dead birds. News reports suggested domoic acid poisoning (amnesic shellfish poisoning) as the cause. According to a local newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Alfred Hitchcock requested news copy in 1961 to use as "research material for his latest thriller".

So that's where Hitchcock got his creepy idea!

It's funny when I first moved to this apartment I would sometimes try to take an afternoon nap, well I still do that, but when I first moved here I could hardly sleep because the birds chirping in the trees were so loud! Eventually I got used to the chirps. Can fall asleep with hundreds of them yapping away all day. You know how you have creaks in your house, know when someone is walking across the kitchen floor or up the stairs. At first you get scared and then it just becomes your regular background noise, part of home. Well mine these days is birds chirping away and at certain times of the year hundreds of birds! You get used to it, it's home, for me and the birds!

Get Smart

As in Elizabeth Smart.

I'm a Good Morning America fan. Elizabeth Smart is a contributor on the show and every once in a while she'll be on to talk about sexual predators, protecting children and making your children "smart" about these issues.

I remember when she was abducted, only 14 years old and there she was this morning, a classy young women of 24 sharing her smarts. She seems a little shy and nervous but at the same time you can see her strength to accept that this was part of her life and uses it to help others. She said when she was in college someone cornered her and told Elizabeth that she wanted to stay with her abductor, she could have got away, that she wanted to run away from her home, her parents. I couldn't believe that anyone could say that to this woman. She was only 14 years old, so young, being threatened. I don't know how I would handle that at 14 years old. I would never judge this woman.

People do that, we decide, we judge others, I'm guilty as well. This person or that person did something, should have done something else, didn't do the right thing, wasn't smart. Again I am guilty of judging myself, but more and more I do try to put myself in the shoes of someone else. Not just words. It's taking everything you have, you love, who you are and throwing that out the window, into the street and picking up everything else about that other person. Be it your husband or wife, sister or brother, friend or enemy. Truly put yourself in their shoes. It's not so easy to do. Why? Because we don't know everything about other people. And yet we judge.

Elizabeth's father got wind of what happened with his daughter at school and sat both his girls together and told them he has heard them argue, scream at each other while fighting, as sisters can do. He told them that he wanted to hear them scream out loud right that very minute. Scream as if your life depends on it and if anyone ever comes up to you and corners you, puts you in a place where you can't move, fellow student or worse, SCREAM like that.

This morning Elizabeth talked about how we should not only tell our children that they should call 911 in an emergency, actually show them how, go through the motion, on a home phone and a cell phone. Make sure they know their parents first and last names, not just mommy and daddy, make sure they know their last name, their phone number, their zip code, home. Do skits with your children with every kind of scenario you can imagine, as hard as that is. Elizabeth said that 85% of those children who scream, fight back and have the "smarts", get away. That's not 100% how we want it but 85% is pretty high.

Elizabeth continues to live her life surrounding by her past. She started The Elizabeth Smart Foundation which tries to help young children avoid violent events as well as helping them to recover from any violence in their lives, yet she continues to live a happy life. I just learned she is engaged to be married. How wonderful for her. But I'll bet a million dollars, that I don't have, I am so sure, that there are many people out there who judge Elizabeth, who think that she's not happy, that she'll be messed up for the rest of her life. I don't think that of Elizabeth.

I want to Get Smart like Elizabeth Smart. More and more I try to be smart enough to know and accept my failings, my good points, that my past is my past, but it still is part of me, who I am. Smart enough to know I can turn even the worse thing into something positive and productive. It may not be what you would do, how you would handle it, how you would judge my actions. It's just what I would do, in my shoes, because they fit.

Get Smart.