One Visit lots of VC's!

After a very long 10 years, a finally visited my friend Jeffe and got to meet his husband!  What a great weekend and just what I needed at the right time!  It is amazing to have people in my life I could go years without seeing and when we get together again, it feels like no time has passed!

Not only was I able to spend time with Jeffe, but I was able to cross some things off of my life to do lists!

I added another ballpark to my list making the count 19........lots more to go.  I am hoping to make it to Miami this summer to catch a Marlins game.  I loved the ballpark....we had great seats and the D'Backs won!  Maybe the best part of the ballgame was seeing a prostitute meet up with her pimp after failing to find a John at the light rail stop......that was definitely a first!

We spent the day in Sedona and Jerome which meant LOTS of wine!  I think I drank more this weekend than I do in a 6 month period and who would have thought I would find some of my new favorite wines in AZ?  If you are ever in the Sedona area, check out the wineries they have, you will not be disappointed.  Of course it is embarrassing to have to have the bartender help you add the tip to the bill......DAMN YOU WINE!

Here are just a few:
http://www.caduceus.org/
http://bittercreekwinery.com/

I was honored that Eric shared his family with me.  Great people, great food and a great time playing Catch Phrase.....I decided to not play corn hole...but enjoyed watching others play.  The weather was perfect, not too hot with a cool breeze.

The weekend went by fast, but I know it will not be another 10 years before I visit again.  Who knows...maybe next time we will head to the Grand Canyon or maybe I will head out there for the Tuscon Gem Show..........all I know is it won't matter what we have planned because it will be a great trip!

My Life Desires- Organize Recipe Book

So, it may not sound like that big of a deal, but I have had loose recipes scattered around my house for years.  I used to just keep the magazine or email that had the recipe in it but that caused me to have way too many useless items taking up valuable space.

This weekend, I went through all of my magazines and organzied the recipes into a 3 ring binder.  They are all in protective sleeves so they don't get dirty as I am using them while cooking.  They are organized by category. 

Now the trick will be keeping up with it as I get new recipes!

Easter

Easter has always been an important holiday for me.  Not because of the religious aspect of the holiday, but it has always represented time with family.  I remember going to church in our pretty new Easter dresses, hunting for eggs that the Easter Bunny hid in our yard, Easter brunch at my Godfather's house and spending time with my Grandfather and Crazy Nana!

I moved away from home when I was 18 years old and because of the distance between me and home, I rarely made it back to MA for Easter.  Easter was always difficult when I was not spending it with family.  When in college, my first year I spent Easter at my friend Patty's grandparents trailor park, my second year I spent alone in my room crying over a stupid boy, I have no recollection of my third year and my 4th year I spent with Heidi.  I don't have any recollection of how Easter was spent when I lived in TX, but can remember each of my Easter's in SF very clearly.

We always did Easter at my house on the island.  We usually had a good group of people.  Some came for dinner and stayed, some came for the after dinner drinking games, but everyone (even those I didn't really care for) was ALWAYS welcome.

I was really worried about my first Easter away from SF when I moved to SC, but my bestfriend (AK) came to visit and we had an amazing time....of course, shortly after that visit things were not so great between us, but hey, this blog is about Easter.  We went to FL and I was able to show him around Eckerd College, introduce him to my friend Al and take in a baseball game at Tropicana Field.

We lost my Godfather in February 2010 so I new last Easter was going to be tough for me.  Thankfully my friend Julie and I decided to take our first vacation together and it was life changing!  I was so thankful to be hanging out with a good friend in tropical paradise.

During Easter, I seem to cling to my Polish heritage more than any other time of year.  I try to cook traditional foods (even though I still have not mastered pierogies).  It seems to help me feel closer to my family and friends.

Don't get me wrong, the religious significance of Easter is not lost on me.  I still following my Catholic upbringing and give something up for Lent every year.  This year it was meat and I can't tell you how happy I am I will be eating meat in just a few days!  I love the idea of making a sacrifice or committment and following through with your agreement with Christ.

So whether you are religious or not, I hope each of you have a wonderful Easter and remember to reach out to your loved ones because you never know if they will be with you this time next year!

Lent

Lent in the Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Lent is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

According to the Canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan.

I don't claim to be the best Catholic around, but over the past few years, I have renewed my relationship with God and have begun to embrace more of my faith.  Each year, I struggle with the decision of what to give up for Lent.  This year, the decision was even more difficult because normally I give up Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and then donate the money I would have used on the coffee to Big Brothers Big Sisters.  Seeing I have only had 5 DD iced coffees since January 1st, I didn't think that would be much of a sacrifice.

I thought about giving up soda...but for those of you who know me, that would have been UGLY!  I am addicted to caffeine!  I didn't want to give something up just for the sake of doing so, I wanted it to benefit me in some way.  I decided I would give up eating meat for Lent.  I am not a huge meat eater, but I do eat chicken at least 5 times a week and I have been going to brunch almost every weekend which of course has to include bacon or sausages.  Giving up meet will allow my body to "clense", it will force me to be more creative with the ways I utilize vegetables and more creative with finding good protein sources.

I have a few friends who have been sending me vegetarian recipes, but if you have any I would love to see them! Forty days is a VERY long time to go without meat, but they say it takes about 21 days to change a bad habit or create a new one, so...........I will give it my best effort and who knows what may come of it at the end of Lent.

 Last year, giving up DD did nothing!  I was so excited to find that Nassau, Bahamas had a DD.  When my friend Julie and debarked the cruise ship and arrived in Nassau, I literally bumped into a woman who was holding a DD bag.....I said (out loud) THANK GOD!  It may have been one of the best Easter's I have ever had! (right next to the trip to St. Petersburg in 2006 to a new ballpark and a visit with an old college friend).

Jewelry Class

I have been taking a Jewelry I class through the Gem Cutter's Guild of Baltimore since the end of January.  We only have 2 more classes left and I feel pretty sad about that!  I have always considered myself pretty crafty, but this class has definitely given me a new appreciation for the jewelry I have purchased over the years.

We started out learning how to heat sterling silver, use pickle and bend the silver into a ring.  Our next project was to earrings.  We learned to texture cooper through a mill using paper designs and then cutting out discs to create earrings.  We used dappers to create a sauer shape and then drilled small holes and created our own earring hooks.

The third project was learning to use the jewelry saw (not easy at first) and creating a key chain.  We used our sawing skills to create the bracelet below.  After we used the piercing technique to cut out our design, we sanded and buffed the project, shaped it around a mandral and then textured it.

The past two weeks we have been working on soldering sterling jump rings to make a bracelet.  We learned how to solder, make jump rings and S hooks.  During the next two weeks we will learn how to set a stone into a bezzel.

They are not offering Jewelry II until the Fall, so I am thinking about taking the Jewelry I class again just to keep honing those skills.

 

Confliction

Well.....I knew this day would come and I really thought I had prepared myself, but I guess not.  I have very conflicting feelings about a friend of mine getting married.  I am very happy for him, but my heart is breaking a little bit!  I have come to terms with his engagement and relationship and I really like the woman he is marrying, but I would be lying if I said I still didn't have some feelings for me.  I have done my best to respect the fact he is in a relationship with someone for the past several years.  I know, I know......get over it already Gretchen, the past is the past, it is time to move on.  Trust me, I have heard them all and have told myself them all......and I have come a LONG way!  How do you reconcile your feelings for a past lover who is also your best friend?  How do you sift through all of the feelings that are attached to everything the two of you have been through together?  Everyday, I am intentional about remembering it was always the friendship I wanted before the feelings came along!  It isn't easy.......

I would also be lying if I said I wasn't a little relieved that they chose a date that doesn't allow me to attend.  But, again, I am conflicted.  I want to be able to celebrate with him and rejoice in his happiness, but I am not convinced I would have been able to see him marry another woman.  I think I probably would have fallen apart. 

So...today I will spend the day trying to keep my mind on other things to give my heart a little more time to heal!