Must rush; will be leaving in less than an hour. Will go up north for my ride, then be in Florida this afternoon.
Saw Hereafter. First fifteen minutes were enthralling, the rest a total bore. Matt Damon, looking beefy and puffy, walked through his part and so did everybody else. About a third in French with subtitles, which I don't mind throughout, but is annoyingly--well, annoying--when it switches back and forth so often.
Barely made it to Angeline's the hairdresser's after. Leanne did my hair--I'm always amazed at how so-so it looks and how much it costs.
Had a Skype call from the precious little ones in Singapore; Violet getting so grown up (at two) I can hardly believe it. Still mulling over the possibility of m meeting them in Lake Tahoe at Christmas, but I just don't know.
Okay, I have time to think about that. For now--sunshine state, here I come!

Got to the viewing for Jerry S. at Absecon by about 10:30. It was held--oddly, I thought--in a small room adjacent to the main church. As there were a lot of people there, it was crowded; would have been better in the church proper, where the mass was held after. I didn't stay for that.
Casket was closed, but there were three picture on it: One of Jerry as a boy of about 13, the other probably taken a few years ago before he got sick. I was charmed when I saw the third one: It was of a group of Ventnor boys, and included my husband, Pat, and my brother, Frank, at ages, I estimated, to be about 12 and 9. I also recognized Jack B. and Matt G. Wish I had had a chance to see it more closely, to know if my brother, Larry, was there, too. Will call Nan when I get back from Florida to ask if I can make a copy. I gave Jerry's daughter copies of three pictures taken at my long-ago wedding reception. They show a group of guys who were there, including Jerry and brother Larry, all impossibly young and now, many gone where Jerry is --sigh.
Drove home only to head out again in the same direction a half hour later, after picking up Leslie. We went to the jewelery and sock shop and had a ball examining the stuff. Les didn't buy anything and I got only an inexpensive pair of earrings; not sure, but owner Debbie may have been a bit sniffy about that.
We then went to Shore Diner, several cuts above run-of-the-mill diners and had lunch. I splurged with meatball parm on a roll and a cold Bud. After that, and a lot of good talk, we went to the cemetery for a quick stop. Les suggested and I enthusiastically agreed, that we go on similar excursions every month. Will call her to set a time for November when I get back from Florida.
Dropped Les off and drove up to Manahawkin to pick up my so-scared-to-fly-I-want-to-die medication, commonly known as Ativan.
Put in the other DVD I borrowed, The Soloist, and watched half. Nice story, but for some reason, I didn't feel like watching, so stopped after a half hour or so.
Yoicks, I leave tomorrow! Must turn my attention to that and finish packing.

Dreary, dark, dull, draggy day. Went to the doctor for BP (it's okay) and a flu shot, ran some errands in Manahawkin, then didn't do a whole heck of a lot. Got The Bourne Identity--yes, the original--from the library and watched it, as I have several times before. Still couldn't quite follow some of the story line, but with Matt Damon to look at, who cares?
Today will be livelier; going to a funeral at 10:00, then taking Leslie to the jewelry/sock store and to lunch.
Guess I'd better start turning my attention to my trip--I leave the day after tomorrow and haven't even thought about it at this point.
WIDER: Here's the start of Jeff Huber's "Don't Ask, Don't Care" essay on Anti-War.com:
"The righteous are wailing like zombies from sea to shining sea over the recent federal court decisions striking down the cockamamie "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" law that allows homosexuals to join the military but forbids them from being homosexuals. An exemplar of this sanctimonious outrage is Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian advocacy group. According to his official biography, 'Tony has a tremendous burden to reclaim the culture for Christ.'"
Yes, I'm truly puzzled at the horrified alarm directed at gays--or, for that matter, any other people who deviate an iota from approved "Christian values," which incidentally, include plenty of niceties such as bombing the bejesus--sorry--out of foreigners. Fer cryin' out loud, how does this threaten the sanctity of marriage? First of all, it's questionable how sacred it is to begin with, considering the divorce rate and second, seems to me marriage is a combination of sheer animal need (sex and all that, you know) and the unholy alliance between the state and religion. Yes, yes, I was married for many years and yes, yes, I benefited in many ways, most prominently with the sheer delight of my children, but no, no, I see no reason why my gay neighbors shouldn't do the same.
But I guess the preachers and the nay-sayers think differently. They have a right to follow their beliefs, but not to impose them on others. And that, it seems to me, is the simple bottom line that seems never to be recognized by these soldiers of the lord.
Here's the link:
http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2010/10/20/dont-ask-dont-care/

There's just nothing on this dark, shattered, godforsaken hunk of dirt as beautiful and interesting as children, especially when they're flesh of your flesh.
Got to J. and N.'s about noon to find N.'s parents there, helping out after N.'s surgery. Her father helped me get the baby seats in my car and we loaded up the two three-year-olds. They were dressed alike, and looked adorable in little red Sesame Place hooded sweatshirts. We went to the Plum Tree in Nee Egypt for lunch and what fun!
We sat in a booth, R. on one side, T. and I on another. R. objected, though, and wanted me to sit with him. This would have caused a big problem with T., I was sure, so I told R. to come over and we all sat on one side. It was too crowded to eat when our lunches came, though, so I solved the problem by moving over to the other side and having them sit together.
The boys both ordered chicken nuggets--horrible grayish little things that probably were more pasty batter than chicken--and French fries. I had a mediocre hamburger. We had much fun, though, talking and laughing together. Eating-out sophisticates that they are, both asked for boxes to take home what they didn't eat.
We then went to the park nearby, muddy though it was, and enjoyed the slides and swings. After, we walked over the little bridge and went to a bigger playground. It was such fun watching them as they ran and climbed and slid and hung from railings and jumped from daring heights and got thoroughly dirty.
Brought them back about 3:00 and stayed until the two bigger boys got home from school. Both immediately started doing their homework, spreading stuff out on the tiny living room floor while the little ones rushed around, barely avoiding stepping on the books and papers. Several of the neighbors came in to check on N., which I was glad to see; I remembered them from the Mary Kay party she had had.
Stayed just until big J. got home, about 4:30, then said goodbye. Had a wonderful day, as I always do when I'm with family. Lucky me.

Pretty slow day. Went to Manahawkin--twice. First time, picked up a few things at Shop-Rite, but this was about noon and I was hungry, so went home for lunch. After, I was going to go to Hamilton Mall or somewhere to get something for Noelle (I'll see her today), but changed my mind and went back to Manahawkin. Got her a bracelet, body mist, a scarf, and some fancy chocolates. Will wrap or bag them fancy and put them in a pretty basket along with a card. She's recovering from minor surgery and I'm going up there today to help her out. I asked her to have Joel leave the car seats for the two little guys--both three years old--so I can take them somewhere and she can rest. Unfortunately, it's raining--hope it stops before too long.
Good friend and neighbor, Leslie R., gave me two packages of sea bass, all nicely filleted, which husband Dennis had just caught. Sauteed half for dinner last night and oh, boy, was it good. Sea bass may have become my new favorite fish and certainly, when push comes to shove, the bought stuff just can't compare to freshly caught.

 

Greatly enjoyed "Sunday Musical Arts" (formerly "Sunday At The Opera") at the clubhouse. Yesterday,we saw an enthralling operatic version of A Streetcar Named Desire, with Renee Fleming as Blanche and a number of other attractive people in supporting roles. The opera was composed and directed by Andre Previn, and presented in 1998 at the San Francisco Opera House. It was faithful to the original in all important respects, although I'm not sure if it was put to music word-for-word. Anyway, it was wonderful.
Went to the cemetery after and removed the two mums from Pat's grave. They're getting a little past their prime and I'll just put them out front until I get around to planting them, if I ever do.
Had a nice web cam session with darling daughter, Ellen, always a treat on Sunday night.
Son Mike directed me to a site I added to my favorites: Joe Sharkey's and in this case, he wrote on what he sees as an entirely untrue portrait of Atlantic City in the Nucky Johnson* thing, Boardwalk Empire. I'm sure he's right and I have no interest in seeing the this particular "docudrama" or any other. It seems to me they tend to be false, ugly, and simple-minded mishmashes of a little splash of truthiness dropped in a big bucket of falsity, and topped off with gallons of show bizzy cuteness and utterly boring cliches.
How do you really feel about docudramas, Mimi?
* As a kid, I saw Nucky Johnson at church--St. James in Ventnor--and believe me, he was an unattractive little gnome of a man, nothing like the suave, fairly good-looking actor in Boardwalk Empire.