Sister Kathleen Doherty -- RIP

It's been a long time since I posted to my blog. Many reasons. So not important. But a light went on in my spirit today when a great friend told me that Sister Kathleen had passed away on September 14, 2015. Why did a light in spirit come on? Sounds not right when you lose someone you love dearly. But that is the best way for me to describe how I felt.

I don't know how old she was. I know too young, too good. But I believe God said her job was done and that He called her back.

I was raised Catholic. My biological father James was Catholic, my mother, Alice, Protestant. I went to Catholic school from kindergarten to senior year of high school. I was raised in grammar school with the "fear of God". I lived across the street from my school, from the convent, the rectory and the church. I did not like nuns in grammar school. I should say mostly I did not like nuns in grammar school because there were a couple of nice ones, but there were more mean, miserable sisters who taught me nothing about faith, taught me to fear God, taught me that I was a sinner and constantly had to go to church to beg God for forgiveness. I chose to go to Catholic high school for one reason. I did not want to attend the public high school in my neighborhood. I had my reasons. But I didn't go to Catholic high school because I had tremendous faith and wanted to continue a religious education. I remember at my orientation with Sr. Lois. She was telling me and my mom about what a great religious education I would get at St. John Villa Academy and my mother saw that look on my face, the look of laughter being held down so tight in my gut, but I was going to lose the hold. She kicked me under the table and I guess that knocked the laughter out of me. I went to St. John Villa for four years. Yes I did learn more about religion. My faith grew not from learning more about the Bible and religion. My faith grew from the actions of people I came to know.

As I said my father James was Catholic, but he died when I was 7 years old. My mother had five children and found out shortly after his death that she was pregnant with her sixth child. I don't remember my mother being sad, I remember her doing everything to make me happy and I was. My older brothers have told me they saw her cry, maybe I heard her too or saw it, but I don't remember. To protect myself I could have blocked that memory. But two years after my mother gave birth to my youngest sister Debbie, she met a saint, a Jewish saint!?!! Yes. My mother met a single Jewish man who was a New York City firefighter, his name was Bo. He worked in a very busy and dangerous firehouse. My mom didn't sleep when he worked. She worried. She finally talked him into switching out of that firehouse to a less busy house that was closer to where we lived as well, though he did die of cancer in 1991 and it was probably from all the fires he fought with so little protection. Firefighters have more protection today but I don't think it's ever enough. Bo's parents both outlived him and me and my brothers and sisters were all sure that he would be with us into and possibly beyond his 90s, but he was 59, just a week or so shy of his sixtieth birthday.

As I said he was Jewish and I remember asking him at some point in my young life if he believed in Jesus. He told me yes, he believed in Jesus but not like I did. He said Jesus was a good man and a prophet and that was what his religion taught him. I accepted his answer, didn't argue because I loved and respected this man and over time he became my father, the only father I ever knew, I loved him, he loved me. He and my mom had a child together, my youngest brother Joey and Bo never treated any of us differently than his biological son. In fact he wanted to adopt me and my sisters because he was the only father we knew, but I told him a piece of paper didn't make him my father, his actions made him my father, his love. Unconditional love. I had faith in him. He would never leave us.

Back to Sister Kathleen. As I said in grammar school I feared and did not like nuns, in fact, for many years I did not think they were human. I didn't think they ate, slept, took off their habits, again I didn't see them as humans, nor did I see them as Godly or holy. But at St. John Villa practically all of the nuns were kind and funny. By that time the habits the sisters wore did not cover every part of their body. They wore small veils, proper lengthened a-line skirts and blouses. Many times I saw them without their veils, dressed in "street clothes" if you will. They became humans to me.

Sister Kathleen taught science. She was very smart, strict but young and cool. She played the guitar and sang at masses, or "coffee house" get togethers we had during my years at Villa. We even had a PJ party at school and so many of the sisters were there in their PJs having fun with all of us in the auditorium which had been made into a camping ground for us. We sang, we laughed, we made fun of the sisters and they made fun of us. And I think it was probably at that PJ Party that my friend Linda dressed up as Sr. Lois, who was the principal by then, and sang the song "Love" but used the name "Lois". I will never forget that. I don't think anyone could. Sr. Lois had to laugh, Linda was just the funniest person, voted class clown in our senior year.

Linda and I were mischievous school girls. We didn't do bad things, we did funny things. Sometimes some of our funny things were not so funny to all but Linda and I still to this day can laugh hysterically remembering the things we did. Right outside the principal's office was the electric box and we shut down the power in the school so many times. We never got caught but I know all the sisters and other teachers knew who did it.

Also at the school there were phones in the classrooms and a few in the hallways but you couldn't dial a call. You picked up the phone and it rang in the convent's telephone room and one of the sisters would connect you to the person you wanted. Linda and I would constantly take these phones off the hook and run and the only way to stop them from ringing in the convent was to go to the actual phone and place it back on the hook. Villa had at one time been a boarding school so we had different buildings and hallways and connections to get to and from the different buildings, whoever had to hang those phones up was not laughing, of course we are both sorry now that we probably had one of the elderly nuns going up and down stairs or from one building to the other hanging up these phones. One day we took one of the phones off the hook and ran and while running we ran right into Sister Kathleen. Sr. Kathleen said whoa slow down girls, we said we were late for class and kept running but as soon as Sr. Kathleen was out of earshot we both said that's it, we were caught dead on. She was going to walk right by a phone dangling on the wall.

Sister Kathleen got to Linda first, I can't remember what she said or did to Linda, Linda will have to comment on this post and tell you. But Linda warned me I was in trouble and as nice as Sister Kathleen was, she was strict and we really shouldn't have been taking those phones off the hook. You grow up and learn, we were young and silly and didn't think about the consequences of our actions. I avoided Sister Kathleen as much as I could but I knew she would get me at some point. I also knew she wouldn't call me into the office and discipline me in front of the principal. She would take care of it herself and she did. I finally walked by her classroom at some point and she backed me up against a wall, put her hands around my neck and lifted me off the floor. So serious and stern she said "you will never take those phones off the hook again." Barely able to talk I said, "yes Sister Kathleen I will never do that again." I didn't and neither did Linda. Sister Kathleen didn't tell on us. Didn't give us demerits and never treated us differently than she had prior to catching us.

Throughout high school we had to attend a religious retreat. In freshmen, sophomore and junior years it was a one full school day retreat but senior year we went away for a weekend and each of us had our own room with a bed, a desk and a bible. Trust me I never opened that bible and Linda and I were not on our best behavior. We were not there for a religious retreat, we were there to have fun, to make trouble and laugh. We did but again some of our antics were dangerous. We weren't thinking. We were just doing and what we were doing was going out the window of our rooms and sliding across a ledge to get into other people's rooms. Yes we got caught and Linda was the first. When one of the sisters asked Linda if she was out on the ledge, Linda said right away, "yes sister I was." We didn't lie when we were caught. We didn't disrespect any of the sisters or teachers on purpose, again we were just silly girls. One of the nuns sat up all night in the hallway outside our rooms. We all had our doors open and she watched us through the night. The next day Sister Kathleen was my guardian. Okay she was my guard. I was going to not be a silly girl and I was going to get something out of this religious retreat and I did. Because of Sister Kathleen. We were at mass, I was sitting right by her side and not at all feeling religious, just sitting there with ants in my pants waiting for the mass to be over with and then I noticed Sister Kathleen praying. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever witnessed in my life. I watched her pray and I felt and envied her faith. That was the first time I really thought about praying. Thought about faith. The first time I realized that my faith was not there. Yes I believed in Jesus and God, I was taught that my entire life, drummed into my head, but that day I saw faith, true faith, not something drummed into someone's mind and just going through the motions, I saw the real thing. I felt envy right away, though I never told Sister Kathleen that. But I wondered how she had such faith, where did that come from? She was an inspiration to me and though I have gone to church at certain times in my life I am not a regular attendee. But I have faith now. Do I have the faith that Sister Kathleen had. Sadly no. I try to and I always think back to that day watching her pray and it helps but I know I just don't have the faith that Sister Kathleen did. She was truly called into a religious life.

God bless you Sister Kathleen, you made me a better person, you gave me tremendous faith.

Rest in peace Sister Kathleen, you did good, you made a difference in this world.

Gang?

I thought this was the perfect picture to explain how I felt last night and actually for quite a few nights now. We've been having the best weather here in New York City. Spring is in the air and we've had a few 70 degree days, sun shining and everyone was working on their lawns. Yesterday there were landscapers around the neighborhood, putting down seeds and that white powder, whatever that is? I was sneezing all day into the night!

But the nice weather has brought a group of about 8 to 10 older teenage boys, parking their cars, two or three cars, and hanging across the street from about 7pm to 9:30pm or so. I've looked at their faces, they look very young, like just old enough to have their driver's license. Baby faces, yet there's 8 or so. A gang? Trouble? Disturbing? Yes and no.

They really don't look like they're up to anything. I think it's just a meeting place, my block is quite. Across the street is one house and then the rest of the block is just a big area that's the side yard of a neighbor from around the block. All trees and the house is set back. The boys are not smoking or drinking or playing loud music. They don't even talk too loud. I don't think there's any drug dealing going on either. All the same, when I see them and especially when I'm by myself, I get a little nervous.

Individually they look as cute as the Muppets usually look. But together they look like the Muppets above. All together they become "they". Do they still think individually or do they become of one mind, doing things they normally wouldn't do by themselves, the gang giving them more nerve?

Mr. B, my neighbor across the street was walking his dog Trixie (cutie pie) and I noticed him giving them a little stare, like what's up guys, are we going to have trouble here?

I remember when I used to ride the bus from Brooklyn to Staten Island for high school. There was a big dip in the road on the first exit getting off the Verrazano Bridge. It really felt like the bus could tip over because it slanted so much to the right side. A bunch of us would free stand, not holding on to the bars and fall all over whoever was sitting their, friends or poor innocent strangers. I would never do that traveling alone. Now that wasn't such a horrible thing, but again, it was something we all did, and something we all wouldn't do by ourselves.

I hope these young men who have started hanging on our block keep behaving the way they are now and make me believe there are still times when it's not such a bad thing to see a gang of kids hanging out.

Where Are The Cobblers?

When I was a kid we always took our shoes to the shoe shop to get them repaired. Everyone did and there were shoe shops all over the neighborhood. It smelled of glue, leather and shoe shine. When you went to pick up your repaired shoes, they were on shelves with a ticket that had your name on them. Simple business deal. Drop them off, chat with the cobbler to see if indeed they were fixable and come back in a few days to pick them up. When you picked up your shoes they would pack them in a paper bag.

I can still hear my mom's voice saying, oh we gotta bring these to the shoe shop.

There are no more shoe shops or if there are I haven't seen one in years. I especially remember bringing my school shoes to the shoe shop. Got new heels or soles, sometimes both at the same time. You could tell how I walked by the bottom of my shoes. And with the price of shoes these days, maybe that's a trade that will come back to being. We just throw our shoes away, even if they're not worn out, they're out of style, there's so many shoes to buy, so many choices. Me, I used to be one of those women with tons and tons of shoes. Same shoe in three different colors. Shoes that matched only one dress or outfit. I remember I fell in love with a pair of shoes once and I bought two of them for when I wore the first pair out. And I wore both those pair of shoes to death.

I have to say I still have way too many shoes but not nearly as many as I did in my 20s and 30s. I go for comfort these days and wear my sneakers as much as possible and my other favorite footwear after sneakers are my black boots, no heal to speak of, very basic and I have to buy them on line because they are so hard to find in stores. I guess they are out of style but they're still my style. Now if there were shoe shops in town I'd be able to take them to get fixed, instead when mine get worn out I spend hours on line looking for my black boots.

There also was a shoe shine guy on the corners, again all over the neighborhood, even in the subway stations. I don't see them any more either. The last shoe shine guys I've seen have been at the big financial firms and law firms I've worked for in Manhattan, older gentlemen who walked the floors saying "shine?" And while working on the trading floor or on a legal documents, they would get their shoes shined men and women. Also the Staten Island Ferry, there again you would hear an older gentlemen walking buy saying "shine". And lots of people would get their shoes shined while riding the Ferry to or back home from work.

I still shine my shoes at home. It's something I have had for 25 years now at least, works really great on all kinds of shoe material. It kinda looks like an eraser, the wooden side being some sort of plastic with ridges and it works great on suede shoes and again other types of shoes as well. The eraser side looks like a soft piece of packing material, it's grey, sponge like. That side shines my shoes and they look like new. Unfortunately I still wear the bottom of shoes out pretty quick from my fast paced, off balance walk!

I remember my father had a shoe shine kit and I remember he had lots of shoes. I bet more than my mom had. All shiny and perfect and remember him using his shoe shine kit. When you closed the box it had the little lift for your foot to rest upon while you polished and shined your shoes. The kit was in the family for years. When my dad used it you would get shoe polish in a can that was kind of like a hockey puck and he had old rags in there to buff them and a brush to shine them, a process. Then they came out with the shoe polish in a bottle which had a sponge dispenser on top, I rarely see that anymore. Do you? Just throw the shoes away and buy a new pair. I know in my family shoes and sneakers, boots too are passed down and starting now to be passed up. My 15 year old nephew, Christian, who, as most kids do, grows out of his sneakers before they are worn out and my sister packs them in a bag for my brother Joey's boys. Last time Joey's son Robert tried them on, he said hey dad, these are your size! So now Joey's getting hand-me-ups. I myself have been getting hand-me-ups for years now. Again I am the family measuring stick. Let's see how much taller than Aunt Tricia are you. There's only six of them now smaller than me, gaining on me every day!

Maybe years ago things were meant to last. Yes maybe things would need to be fixed along the way, but basically houses were built well, strong thick walls, brick. Shoes were made to last and were worn pretty much everyday, you didn't have two pair except sneakers and the cheap flip flops you bought in the supermarket. Those I could wear out in a day with my walk! The house we lived in was old and there weren't a lot of closets and the ones we had were not very big. The biggest closet in our house was the kitchen pantry, that was like a little room. The other closets were small, made for the one coat per person, a few dresses or suits and some small storage area on a shelf above the bar to hang clothes on (a wooden bar with wire hangars!) and again just a small closet, the room for so many shoes was just not there.

But when did the cobblers disappear? And the shoe shine men? When did it become okay to just throw away good shoes without trying to fix them or pass them down. I guess people do donate them? A throw away world, with so much more than just shoes.

I think there are many things in our modern world that are better than yesterday, but you have to admit, nothing is made the way it used to be, to last, even fixable. A throw away world.

Bring back the cobblers!

Honeysuckle

This morning my neighbor, I call him
Mr. B from the TV series 24 as we would always have deep conversations about what would happen next on the show. I call him Tony too, his real name, but mostly Mr. B. Kinda reminds me of the old TV show Hazel, she was a maid who always called her boss Mr. B.

Anywho...

Mr. B always has a project. When it snows he's out there even making a parking spot for me, he's a great neighbor. He's got all kinds of gadgets and I'll see him just studying his trees out front, they kinda look like big lollipops. Last spring he bought a new toy, a power saw with an extension and he can trim the trees from ground level. First he studies the trees, does his trimming and then studies them again. Perfection is Mr. B's middle name. So there's always something going on with Mr. B and his garden and landscape in front of the house. It's beautiful too. When I walk out my front door my first view is Mr. B's garden and the brick wall from his neighbor's side yard which also has shrubs and big trees. It's a nice view to walk out to every day.

Well this morning Mr. B is planting some fir trees and removed the honeysuckle vine that was there before. At first he couldn't remember the name of the plant he removed, said it was a stinky plant which made me think of something not nice as I couldn't remember what was there before myself. I was just going back home and he screamed across the street that it was honeysuckle. I turned back and said, "that's what you call a stinky plant? That's not a stinky plant!"

I love the smell of honeysuckle, grew on the back fence of our yard in Brooklyn and we would actually break the plant from the bottom and eat just a little juice/nectar that would come from the honeysuckle. We loved it. Sounds weird maybe but we did it all the time and would invite our friends to taste. Reluctant at first, there was always an "ah" followed by a smile on their faces when they tasted the sweet juice. And again I loved the smell, wouldn't call it stinky.

Made me remember my backyard too. For Brooklyn, even then when lots of people in the neighborhood had great big yards, it was a great yard. We had a brick walkway slopping down to a large yard. It was great in the winter for sleigh riding. Not only was there the slope going down the walkway, it got extra icy from the dryer vent blowing hot air on to the snow, making it slicker. And then there was another hill just as you got to the front of the yard and you would go flying up on that and into the rest of the yard. We would have contests who could get the furtherest into the yard. Of course that meant more weight to move faster, piling kids on top of kids and flying down that walkway. Then you would see multiple kids flying in the air after that first hill in the yard. So much fun, right in my own back yard.

We also had a huge tree, can't remember what kind of tree it was, I can't remember seeing anything fall to ground from it, but my godfather put up a tire swing for us the day we moved in and I know it lasted for years. I also know someone was on it when the rope finally snapped from rubbing against the tree limb so much. Wasn't me, but I kinda think I was there. At least whoever did was sitting on the tire, it offered a little protection from the fall to the ground!

We had a grapevine that served as our clubhouse in the winter, the dried vines giving it the privacy for our club. In the spring and summer you really couldn't go in there, it was filled with leafy vines and grapes. So yes, we did get grapes, but they weren't really tasty, the honeysuckle was much better.

On one side of our yard the neighbors had a big apple tree, which was right next to our fence so there were always apples falling into our yard and those we loved. They also had a huge weeping willow which I think are just beautiful trees.

Doesn't sound much like Brooklyn does it? But for a long time that's what it was like. My backyard was an adventurous place. They've torn down my house, and the houses that were on each side of mine. Built condos. They also ran out of money building those condos and where my house and my neighbor's house with the apple and willow trees stood is now just vacant and ugly. They didn't have to tear them down. Such a shame, both were really nice houses, built well and would have left a nice piece of the old Bay Ridge Brooklyn there today.

And I would never call honeysuckle stinky. It's an aroma, and if you get the chance, taste the the little drop of nectar you get from the bottom of the plant! You can actually look up on line for directions showing exactly how we did it, back in old Brooklyn days.

Thanks Mr. B. You sparked some nice memories this morning. I can almost smell the honeysuckle of my yesterdays.

Happy St Paddy's Day 2012

IT'S A GREAT DAY FOR THE IRISH

It's a Great Day for the Irish, it's a great day for the fair!
The sidewalks of New York are thick with blarney,
For sure you'd think New York was ol' Killarney!
It's a great day for the shamrock, for the flags in full array.
We're feeling so inspirish, sure because for all the Irish,
It's a Great, Great, DAY!

This is my crazy, obviously Irish, friend Linda. My cohort in crime back in high school and still my friend today. I've written about Linda, she's one of the kindest people you could be lucky enough to meet. And she's funny! She was voted Class Clown of our graduating class and there was no question who would win that title. I kinda think everyone voted for her.

As you can tell she went all out at work in a pre-celebration of today. Still just a funny girl inside! I can only imagine how much crazier she's dressed today! She makes everything fun, makes all feel comfortable in her presence, just "good people" as "they" say!

But today everyone is Irish. Everyone has added an O' in front of their names, no matter what their nationality. And here in New York City it's a perfect day for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, perfect weather.

Everyone is cooking up their corned beef and cabbage which my mom did every St. Paddy's day as well. Me, not a fan of corned beef and cabbage, love the potatoes and carrots, especially the potatoes, my favorite food. But my family loved it and it was traditional for my mom to cook that on St. Paddy's Day. The leftovers she used and made corned beef hash, of course I didn't like that either, I'm way too picky an eater, better now but still way too picky. To be honest, I don't even taste certain foods, just act like a baby and say I'm not eating it because it doesn't look a certain way. Some day I'll grow up (eating wise anyway).

This morning walking in my quite town, which was a really cool morning, cool meaning awesome, cool looking. There was a fog laying over the town and the sun was breaking through, halfway through my walk I wish I had taken my camera with me. As I neared the main street I could hear what sounded like 20 kids screaming and having fun walking up from the block around the corner from where I was. When we finally met up at the crossroad before the main street I saw that there really weren't that many of them, maybe 10 at most. They were loud, getting ready to get on the train in Staten Island to take them to the Staten Island Ferry and then subway it uptown for the parade, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were drinking alcohol already.

To be honest, in my commuting days to Manhattan, having St. Patrick's Day on a work day was the worst. The kids were loud and crazy and lots of them drunk on their way to the parade and fugetaboutit, as we say in Brooklyn, coming back from the parade is an ugly scene. It's sad, but for a lot of people today just means a day of drinking.

On the other side, there's homes filled with the smell of corned beef and cabbage cooking all day, your family and friends surrounding you and watching sports and talking and yes, some drinking too but it's not like out in the streets, it's calmer, fun, safe. That's my kind of St. Patrick's Day.

So before any St. Paddy's Day parties for me, this afternoon I took a free class on b&w digital photography at Blue Heron Park here in Staten Island. When I was setting up to leave this afternoon I noticed that I didn't have a black and white option for my camera but decided to go and learn anyway. So glad I did. The gentleman who was teaching said take your pictures in color and think of your computer photo programs as your dark room, where you can turn them into B&W and create a totally different look to a picture.

Even choosing the right picture to change to B&W is very important.

For an example here I just used my fun friend Linda's zany St. Patrick's Day picture. One that you really wouldn't want to turn into B&W. But it's St. Paddy's Day, it's appropriate! Below are just some examples of how you can change a picture.


This is the original color picture.



Next I just copied the photo and used special effects to change it into B&W. When I did change it to B&W is when I noticed there was someone in the background typing, I noticed the hand, which I didn't when I first looked at the photo, I noticed Linda and GREEN! But that's just an example of what he was teaching us, not only can you change a picture into B&W, but you change the look of the picture, you can draw a person's eye to another part of the photo.



This photo I used the sepia effect, making it look old fashioned, again it changes the picture and again, this is not a photo you should choose to change to B&W, as you can tell that's the best one of the four.



This was the antique effect. Had I added a little more of this effect, it would almost be a question about whether it was color or B&W. If I added too much of this effect, the picture turned pink which you might want to use with a beach shot or sundown shot, again it depends on the picture you choose.



It was a great class, I really learned a lot, too much actually, came out with lots of notes and know I have so much to learn. I did these effects on my MAC iphoto program but there are more sophisticated programs that will allow me to fine tune the B&W exposure and depth and again a whole bunch of other things I am looking forward to learning about.

Happy St. Paddy's Day! Be Safe. Have Fun. God Bless!

No Offense...

My brother Joey used to rent an apartment when he first got married and this morning while talking to him and his ex-wife JoAnn, they were laughing and telling me about the landlord. She always, and they said always, used the phrase "no offense" when she had anything to say. Example, "no offense, have a good day", "no offense, good night", "no offense, thanks for the rent check". They would tell their friends and make jokes constantly during their time together. "No offense, but that was a good dinner hon", "no offense I'm leaving for work", etc.

One day a couple of JoAnn's friends were in a supermarket and ran into the "no offense lady" at the checkout line. They could hardly contain themselves. She was with her children and even when speaking to them she would actually say, "no offense little Johnny or Judy, but you're misbehaving", "no offense cashier person, thank you". JoAnn's friends called JoAnn as soon as they could to say they met the "no offense lady".

Now that's a little strange. I've heard people say certain things all the time, people in my family, my friends and myself. I know you have people like that in your life. Just people who seem to say the same thing all the time, it's part of every conversation. I myself hate that I say "you know" and "like" way too much, but those seem to be words a lot of people use. And, like, that's not good, you know!

But "no offense"? Really, have you ever heard anyone using that phrase in day-to-day conversations?! Well unless of course you've run into the "no offense lady" shopping somewhere. I can't imagine where this woman would have picked up that phrase. Seems a little dark, like something bad must have happened in her life.

I have used the phrase "no offense" but I use it when it's correct. As in "no offense but you need a mint"!

During the "Valley Girl" era, "like" and "you know" was the "wassup" and "sup" of today.

Not that I was a Valley Girl but I totally was into their phrases, found them funny. "Gag me with a spoon"! I remember my father joking with me about that one and he loved when I said "grody to the max", got a big kick out of that one, just as he got a kick from my younger brother using "word" or "word up" which was a popular phrase during his young teens.

When in California during the Valley Girl craze I had this picture taken at Universal Studios, it was like totally awesome, like, you know, totally cool! It fit me at the time.

Unfortunately "like" and "you know" stayed with me. Again I can't stand that I can't stop it!!!! Just is what I say, but thank goodness I don't use "no offense", again seems kinda dark, like, it's, you know.

This morning I had to call one of my friends. I knew she uses a certain phrase all the time but I couldn't remember what it was. Called her up, and she's a yapper, love her, but a yapper! So as I'm listening to her go on about something, I really couldn't tell you, I just kept saying "yeah, yeah", cause I'm really not listening, I'm waiting for that phrase. Took about a minute but she said "none the less" and I had to write it down right away, cause she's still yapping and I'm going to forget!

So, no offense, but none the less, you know, like, I gotta go start my day and all!

Checkerbells

Checkerbells is a wonderful shop. When you walk into Checkerbells you want to look and touch everything, especially little kids, more little girls and young teenage girls.

My friend Laura created the shop and has owned and operated it for ten years now. Unfortunately she has decided to move on to another adventure in her life, and one that doesn't keep her as busy as owning her own business, which was a 24/7 job. She wants to pursue other creative enterprise that will also give her time with her twin boys, young men now.

If you live in the West Brighton area or have shopped along Forest Avenue in Staten Island, you had to have been drawn into Checkerbells just from the window display and though I was only there once to visit my friend Laura, I found myself examining every item in the store, a wonderful place to just window shop, I guess for big girls as well!

Though she's selling the store, she is hoping that whoever buys it leaves Checkerbells the way it is. I hope so too. It really has charm, it's original, it has Laura's magic touch. But just in case, get there before she closes her doors.

END-OF-WINTER SALE

Now in progress is Checkerbells' end-of-winter sale, with all items 25 percent off, except those on consignment from local artists.

Check out Laura's own unique hand-painted furniture - – breakfronts, hutches, and armoire furniture – perfect for children's rooms, and also on sale.

Prospective buyers of the business should contact Nancy Galatro of Robert Defalco Realty, 917- 975-5212.

Checkerbells, 643 Forest Ave.
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday,
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Closed Sunday and Monday.
Phone: 718-390-9822
Email: checkerbells@aol.com

I met Laura in 1985 when I switched jobs, leaving my fun secretarial position at WOR-AM Radio to downtown Manhattan, in the oh too serious financial district. The lure of more money brought me there and I had my first exposure to computers. Had I stayed in the radio business, it would have been a few years before they would have what the financial district did electronically.

Laura was not so serious, we had a lot in common, both of us from Bay Ridge and we had some similar friends from the neighborhood. Laura was one of the people I considered "normal" at this job. Everyone else was so serious, so different from my radio days and Laura made me feel comfortable right away.

Laura taught me to use a computer and from the way she approached teaching me, her logic, I believe my ease in learning new programs to this day is because of Laura. She made it very simple, logical, she didn't over explain anything and I thank her to this day for passing along her knowledge. Because of her I've done very well as a word processor and love my work.

Before owning Checkerbells, Laura quit being a secretary, and became a word processor herself with one of the big financial firms downtown, still one of the big ones. I think she was running the department by the time she left that job and created Checkerbells.

Laura and I worked on a mini trading floor for the traders and mini didn't mean there weren't quite a few people we were answering the phones and performing secretarial duties. There was another girl that worked for the head guy of the department. Laura, me and the other girl sat at big fancy desks right in a row and I sat in the middle desk. I was kind of the lead secretary's secretary but still had to help out the other traders. Laura didn't have to work as much with the lead secretary and if she was out, I was the fill-in, again very serious atmosphere, I needed to let the real Tricia out of the box a few times a day and Laura helped me do that.

Laura and I had a view of the entire trading floor so we could catch their attention when they were on the phone, which basically was always and tell them they had a call. I remember there were so many buttons on the phone! I didn't think it was something I would get use to at all, but before long it just became second nature, answering a line and screaming out to one of the traders who was calling for them. I wrote in one of my other blogs that this job was where Oliver Stone and Charlie Sheen spent a few days getting the feel for a trading floor when Oliver Stone directed the film Wall Street. I'm sure he heard my big mouth screaming out to the traders during those days. I'll have to watch the film again and see if any of the workers on the trading floor have any of my traits!

We used the WANG computer system at that time and it was a very basic word processing system, but popular at the time. It was about two years before I saw a MAC Apple, and it was so evident and exciting to me what computers would become, I was caught up in computer world and was so interested in how things kept changing, constantly and again because of Laura my expertise with computers made it fun rather than being overwhelmed by the changes occurring overnight.

When we had down time, rare, or just when we needed a stress release Laura and I would play a game called Animal on the WANG. We also had Space Invaders but you could tell when we were playing that, you would get caught up and before you know it, there's a trader in your face asking what you're working so intently on. Not cool.

When I first asked Laura about the game Animal, she said it was boring. It was. It would ask questions and tell you what animal you were thinking of. Like "do you swing through trees" and if you answered yes, it would say "are you a monkey". But you could teach it new animals when you answered no and it would ask you for hints. Well of course I didn't create new animals, I created hints for people on the mini trading floor.

I would say no and when it asked for a hint I would put something like "who is the moodiest and hairiest guy who walks by your desks too many times and needs a mint". Stuff like that. About everyone on the trading floor. And Laura learned the new version of Animal quickly, she had my kind of sense of humor.

Out of the blue, Laura or I would say "play animal" and then we'd both bust out laughing, having the lead (oh so serious) secretary giving us looks like an old-fashioned librarian telling you to shush. It got us through the day. Again it was a busy intense office atmosphere and our little game of Animal kept our sanity!

The mini trading floor needed more space after a couple of years and we were moving upstairs to a bigger space but Laura and I knew all this silly and funny (well only to us) information from our game of Animal might be seen. We had to explain to the IT tech that he had to delete Animal from our computers and stopped playing after that, learning early in the game what you put out there is out there forever!

Well Laura put Checkerbells out there, a great shop which I'm sad is closing but glad that I got to see Laura succeed the way she did. She deserves to succeed, she works very hard and I'm sure whatever direction she heads in, she will make her mark.

I hope whoever buys it keeps Checkerbells the way it is and if not, we've been so lucky these last ten years to visit and buy anything from Laura's beautiful creation, Checkerbells.

And of course I'm super glad that Laura and I crossed paths in our journey through life, she surely made a difference in mine.