From Flatbush to a Friendship

It's that time again. Another BFON8 (Best Friend of Nancy 8) is having a birthday. This time it's an oldie but goodie....and I don't mean oldie in that she's older than any of my other friends....I mean oldie in that she's one of my oldest friends since we met in high school.

Enter Ellen, the friend I met when I was a sophomore in high school and decided to take "commercial" courses as opposed to "academic" courses. It was different back then in the sixties. You had to decide if you wanted to be a secretary or a teacher when you were only 15 years old. If you took commercial courses, you learned typing and stenography. If you took academic, it was more of a liberal arts program. Of course I opted for commercial since my mother wanted me to go to work the minute I graduated from school. There wasn't even any discussion of college at that time which forced me to attend at night after I was working a few years. Well, that's neither here nor there. If it wasn't for that decision, Ellen and I wouldn't have become friends.

We met in B9-205 which was our homeroom. Ellen was one of the sweetest and definitely one of the prettiest girls in my class. We had so much in common.....we both liked "boys". We both also liked to write poetry. I'm laughing as I'm writing this because the other day I was going through some old memorabilia and came across my journal with all of my poems. As soon as I started reading them, I thought of Ellen.

Ellen lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which was very close to our high school, Bishop McDonnell which was on Eastern Parkway. She lived in an old brownstone and I loved going to her house. She had (and still has) such great parents. Her Dad was quiet and her mother was not. Consequently, her mother was so much fun to be around because she really told you like it was. Now those same brownstones are worth millions. Unfortunately, they sold theirs before Park Slope became "the place to live" in Brooklyn.

I have so many great memories of times with Ellen. There was our school trip to Rye Beach, our junior year trip to Washington DC, Ring Day, Proms and typing, typing, typing in our "commercial" program. Some of our funniest times were in Spanish class and the only thing we learned there was "Louisa tiene catarro....Ojala que se mejore pronto!!!" Some of these words are probably wrong but this is the way we remember them which is probably why we didn't do that well in Spanish.

This was one of the entries from Ellen in my yearbook. As I'm looking back through what people wrote, there seems to be two recurring themes. One is about boys and the other is about fighting. I guess I had more fights in high school than I can remember. ha ha I had to black out some of what Ellen wrote because my mother went through this yearbook with a magnifying glass every night (after I went to bed). She was quite the detective.

The other thing we had in common was that we were both smart but we really didn't want too many people to know that because it just wasn't "cool" or "boss" back then. So when we made the honor roll, we tried to keep it to ourselves.

As pretty as Ellen was, she was always looking for a nice guy to date. Some of the guys she met on her own left a lot to be desired. I refuse to name any names. lol As a result, she was always looking to me to fix her up. I would then go to my boyfriend and ask if he could accommodate us. Here's a picture of Ellen and me on Ring Day....the day we received our high school rings. The guy in the background was Nick, a blind date for that night and a friend of my boyfriend's. He was thrilled to be with Ellen. One of my better fix ups was a prom date. It wasn't our prom; it was St. Francis Prep's prom. Prep was an all boys school and Bishops was an all girls school. She agreed to accompany one of my boyfriend's friends to the prom. His name was Jimmy O'Brien and he was really cute. Jimmy O'Brien went on to some fame becoming a famous basketball player at Boston College and later becoming their head coach. We called him Obie back then and he'll always be Obie to us. Again, Jimmy was thrilled with his prom date. I wish I had some of those pictures to post but neither of us could come up with any.

Twenty years ago, I moved away from Long Island when we came to Pennsylvania. While it was an exciting time for us, it was also a sad time. I knew that Ellen and I wouldn't get to see each other as often as we did while we lived just miles from each other. We had continued our friendship after high school even going through a pregnancy together and now it was about to be altered. She is a friend who has always been there for me. If she's having a bad day, she insists that a call from me will change all that. There's another thing I love about Ellen and that's the fact that she's from Brooklyn. When I talk to her, it all comes back to me....the accent, the memories and the words we use that all relate to Brooklyn.....not to mention how fast we speak.

I'm going to see Ellen in less than a month when we go back to Brooklyn for a high school reunion. We both can't wait. Fifty or so girls from Brooklyn/Queens all in one room.

So my dear Ellen, you will receive your Happy Birthday phone call from me but I'm hoping this little testimony to you will bring a big smile to your face. Have a very happy birthday and just know I'm wishing I was there with you on this day.

I'm So Hooked.....

....on Mad Men. I never watched the first season when it aired last year and am just catching up with it now. The reason I didn't watch it was because of the stupid title "Mad Men." Why would I want to watch some mad men? I see enough of them in real life on a daily basis. But then, like all the other shows I eventually end up loving, I heard so much about it that I ordered the first season from Netflix.

As soon as I put in the first DVD, I knew I was going to love it because they explained what mad men meant. It's a nickname they gave to the advertising executives who worked on Madison Avenue in the late 50's early 60's. I wasn't yet in the working force at that time, as I didn't officially start my first job until late in the 60's, but I knew I was going to relate to this show as it was probably going to depict the era in which I grew up.

The casting of the show is phenominal and, even when I worked some six years later than this, the cast looks like everyone I worked with. The men in their beautiful suits and thin ties and the women in their form fitting sweaters and straight skirts. They all reminded me of how my mother used to dress. I also had an uncle who worked in the insurance industry. Everytime I saw him, he always had a suit and tie on and so many of these men remind me of him.....my Uncle Bob.

It was a time when all was good in the world. It was post WWII, people were just beginning to own their own homes and the wives were everything men wanted them to be........subservient. Forty plus years later, it's actually amazing to watch how these women waited on these men. I hope the young girls today are watching this show to see how much progress has been made since then. It was a world where men ogled you at work calling you sweetheart and honey; where you were the one to bring them their coffee in the morning; where you were the good wife who had a drink waiting for them when they returned home from work; where you were the good wife who had dinner waiting the minute they walked in the door; it's actually sickening to watch yet I'm mesmerized by it. I'm sure guys watching this show wish it would go back to the way it used to be because when they say "It's a man's world", it definitely pertains to this place in time.

There are so many other things in this show that amaze me. First of all, they all worked in a cloud of smoke where everyone, and I mean everone, smoked. And when they got home from work, they smoked at home with their wives. It's rare to see any of them without a cigarette in their hands. And I was also amazed to see women smoking and drinking while they were pregnant. I'm surprised we all turned out okay. And when the men had meetings in the conference rooms in their offices, there were pitchers of Bloody Mary's right in the middle of the table with glasses for everyone. Each office had its own bar set up and these men drank all day long.

It was nostalgic for me to see Masses said in Latin with people receiving communion while kneeling up at the altar with the women wearing their "chapel veils". And I so remember the office typing pool where there were rows and rows of typewriters with secretaries typing away at them. And all the women wore nylons with garter belts and the mothers came down to breakfast in their negligees. And when the husbands came home from work, they ate with their ties still on and watched TV after dinner in them as well.

In one scene, the children are playing and the little girl puts the plastic from the dry cleaning over her head and is running around like this. You expect the mother to yell at her telling her how dangerous this is but instead she just yells at her telling her that the dry cleaning better not be messed up since she took it out of the plastic bag. Throughout this entire series, you continually remind yourself how times have changed.

Since this show is about advertising, it's so interesting to see how many well known companies they're trying to do ad campaigns for. It brings back some of the products of the 60's that were new inventions at the time that we would laugh at now....the polaroid camera, the Kodak carousel for viewing slides, the first Xerox machine, clearasil....the list goes on and on and reminds me of that time in my life when I first heard of these products.

Regardless of all of the above, this is one of the most fascinating, well acted shows I have ever watched on TV. I'm continually amazed that some of the best shows now are those that are not on the mainstream stations like NBC, CBS and ABC. This one is on AMC while other favorites of mine are on FX (Damages and Nip Tuck), Showtime (The Tudors) HBO (Entourage) not to mention all of the great things on HGTV, Bravo, Animal Planet, The Food Network, etc., etc.

I have now finished season one and am caught up with season two and will have to wait until Sunday nights to watch the new episodes. I wish I could watch this show all day long....that's how much I enjoyed it. Everything about it is fascinating. So if you haven't caught this show yet, I encourage you to do so. You will not be disappointed no matter what your generation.

Nancy and Pat's Excellent Adventure

Once again, Pat and I decided to try our hands at yet another live ladies' poker tournament. So last Saturday we made our way to one of our favorite spots....The Borgata in Atlantic City.....to play in their WPT event. As has happened in the past, her husband Bill made breakfast for us before we got on the road. He should be a chef....that's how good it was. French toast, bacon, fresh orange juice -- the breakfast of champions minus the Wheaties. He had also gone to the bakery that morning and bought us jelly donuts and danishes but we were too full to eat them. Pat decided to bring them with us so we could have them in our hotel rooms.

We always have such high hopes when we start out on our journey. It takes about an hour and a half to get there and we talk nonstop the entire way. Our conversation runs the gamut from work to TV shows to children to shopping to office gossip but eventually gets around to poker as we get closer and closer to Atlantic City. By the time we see the casinos in the distance, we're so excited to get there that we can't contain ourselves. I know this probably sounds ridiculous but that's how much we enjoy it.

Since this tournament started at 11AM, our rooms weren't ready when we arrived so we had to check our luggage with the bell captain. No problem there except for the box of donuts and danishes Pat was carrying. Needless to say, we couldn't check them so Pat carried them upstairs where we would register for the tournament. I knew it was coming but wasn't quite sure how long it would take before Pat asked me...."Do you think this box would fit in your bag?"

I could tell you stories upon stories about how Pat travels light and I end up carrying everything. When we were in Rome on our company trip, she left the hotel each day carrying nothing. By the end of the day, everything she bought was in my bag. When we go to these tournaments, she carries a small Coach clutch that barely fits her money and room key. Such was the case when she asked me the long awaited question. So that you my dear reader can appreciate what I go through, I took pictures for your viewing pleasure.

EXHIBIT A .........Box of donuts, Pat's purse, my bag

EXHIBIT B.....Pat's purse and the box of donuts that has now made it into my bag

EXHIBIT C.....I'm sure dear reader that you knew what the outcome would be....I'd be carrying everything.

This entire episode was so funny that we were both laughing hysterically the whole time. The people at The Borgata probably thought we were crazy taking these pictures and laughing while we were doing it.

Shortly after this episode of "Nancy Gets To Hold Everything", the doors opened and the tournament began. It's so exciting when it first starts as you sit down at your table and are dealt your first hand. And after that first hand, you wait to be dealt something good....something like everyone else at your table seems to be getting. But alas, once again, it was not to be. We both lasted through six levels which is a little more than four hours. Did we have fun those four hours? The answer is "yes". Will we do it again? Most assuredly......because it's our favorite thing to do.

Afterwards, we added up how many live events we've played in so far.....all without cashing....and the answer was seven. That's not too many. Perhaps eight will be our lucky number. A few nights later, I was on the phone with Michael complaining about not getting dealt any good cards in the entire four hour period. The conversation went like this...."I got no AA, no KK, no QQ, no JJ, no 10 10, no 99, AK and AQ once and didn't hit anything on the flop with either. " I guess while I was rambling on, Michael put the phone to Bushman's ear who then told me I had nothing to complain about as I had just won $20,000 playing online. I immediately stopped knowing he was right. It made me laugh just picturing them laughing at me complaining.

We had dinner at one of our favorites, Wolfgang Puck's American Grille and then followed that up by playing some cash games in the poker room. We both ended up winning so it was another successful trip for us. Sometimes I think I should just stick to playing cash games as I always leave a winner but the tournaments are just so much fun that I know we won't stop.....especially since we both have a goal and that is to finally cash in one of these events.

The next one is at The Taj Mahal next week. They've just built a new building called The Chairman Towers and we'll be staying there. We're keeping our fingers crossed already.

Babysitting 101

Last Friday, or was it two Fridays ago, (very behind on my blog entries), we got to babysit for our first grandchild. Liz and Bryan had a wedding to go to in Pennsylvania on a Friday night so we were going to watch Brady while they were there. She arrived at about 1PM and it probably took her 1/2 hour just to unload the car. I cannot believe all the contraptions they now sell for babies. When Michael was born, it was just a crib or a playpen. Now it's portable cribs and Moses baskets and bumpy seats and boppy pillows and Bugaboo strollers and she brought it all here with her. All to make sure the baby didn't cry.

Well guess what, I didn't need any of that paraphenalia. He just didn't cry at all the entire time he was here. He's such a sweet little baby and does what he's supposed to do. He eats, he stays awake for awhile and then he goes to sleep. After his dinner feeding, I took him for a walk outside and he definitely likes to get some air as that knocked him out for about five hours.

Before Liz left for the wedding, she gave me a list of everything I was supposed to do. I did remind her that I've already done this before but you know how new mothers are. Speaking of Liz, she looks great. She's already lost all of the weight she gained while pregnant (this was in less than three weeks after birth) and some. Here's a picture of her and Bryan before they left for the wedding. I love it that she looks so great already. No one at the wedding could believe she had just given birth less than three weeks before.

The funniest part of the babysitting was Belle's reaction to the baby. She didn't know what was going on. She would sniff him and go right up close to him not sure if he was alive or not. Then if you were holding him and he made any kind of noise, she would come very close almost like she was making sure you weren't hurting him. I remember when Michael was born and we had our Irish Setter Corky at the time, Corky became very protective of him. I have a feeling that Belle felt the same way about Brady.

They came home about eight hours later and they couldn't wait to get their hands on him. After changing their clothes, they made a "Love" sandwich of him. Just in case any of you aren't aware of this, their last name is Love so it works for everything.

So I think we passed the babysitting test. I hope they have a lot more weddings or social things that they have to attend in PA so we get to do it again real soon.

The Nightly Hundred Grand

I'll tell you all right up front that this is going to be a poker related post. So if you have no interest in this kind of reading material (JoAnn), feel free to exit. With that said, I've mentioned here before that I sometimes play poker online at Pokerstars. You know.....like son, like mother!! I usually lose more times than I win, but when I do win, some of them have been some decent cashes. I think the most I ever won in a single tournament was about $8400 which was followed very quickly thereafter with another win for $2400. I used that money to rent our house this summer so it was definitely put to good use. So that was the most I had ever won until.............last Thursday night when I finally won the nightly hundred grand. Now before you all get excited, it doesn't mean I won $100,000 but it did pay a decent amount. Well, here's a copy of the email I received from Pokerstars right after the win....

Dear TheReader23,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

A $20,304.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

That's right, you read correctly, I won $20,304.00 playing in an online poker tournament. It's still so surreal to me. It took me seven hours to play and seven hours to win that kind of money.

It never fails, however, that whenever I'm doing well in a tournament, I can't find Michael anywhere. As I was playing in this one, he was in Hawaii. He and some of his friends had rented a house in Kauai for the month of September. I had spoken to him a few hours earlier so I knew he would be reachable as he wasn't going out anywhere that night. I think about 800 people started the tournament and as it approached 20 people left, myself being one of them, I thought I'd give Michael a call to let him know so he could watch me online. At this point, he didn't even know I was playing.

I dialed his cell and got his voicemail. I tried again ten minutes later, again his voicemail. Then I saw one of his friends on AIM (Ryan Daut) and instant messaged him. No response from Daut either. Now it's down to 14 people left and I still can't reach them. I'm beginning to text Michael and instant message Ryan at the same time. The messages would read something like this....well I'm still in the tournament with eleven people left...it would be nice if any of you were around to watch me. Or, just in case any of you are interested, I'm about to win a lot of money. Then I reached the final table and still can't find them. Now I'm getting mad and I'm typing the messages to them in rapid succession. When there were 6 people left, Ryan finally saw my instant message and I can just imagine the screaming that went on down in that house in Hawaii as he's there with Michael as well.

So for the remainder of the tournament, with six people left, I had the best of the best watching me from Hawaii. There is no one in the world who could have this kind of poker knowledge behind them when they're playing in a tournament. My rail included Smokey, Ozzy, Michael, Daut, Bushman and Roman. Seriously, it doesn't get any better than that. These are by far some of the best tournament players in the world and they're Michael's friends and, consequently, my friends as well. When they started watching with six left, Ryan Daut said to me in an instant message...."You are going to win this!!" And he was right. It was so exhilerating when it was over at 4:15AM in the morning. Michael immediately called from Hawaii to tell me how awesome it was and Smokey got on the phone to congratulate me. What a great feeling.

I didn't get to bed until about 5AM...who could sleep after this. I wanted to send emails to Bryan and Liz and Pat and Maryann so they would see them as soon as they turned on their computers in the morning. I knew Bob was getting up at 5:15AM so I just waited for him to arise. He said, "You're still awake?" I said, "I just came to bed...I was playing poker." He said, "On a Thursday night?" I said, "Yeah and I won." His next words were the obvious, "How much?" When I told him, he was speechless.

It's been such a bad year for real estate and every deal I put together is like pulling teeth. So to get this win was so rewarding. I know Liz is wondering just how rewarding it's going to be for her. I'm going to go to Long Island one day next week to go shopping with her and Brady so I guess she'll see at that time just how rewarding it's going to be for her.

So I want to say a special thanks to my boys in Hawaii not only for all their support but also for teaching me how to play this game. Mahalo nui loa!!!

I Could Just Cry.....

all over again. 9/11....a date we will always remember. It's one of those dates in history where you'll always remember where you were when it happened. In my lifetime, there have been a few of those....the day JFK was shot, the day man first walked on the moon, the day Princess Diana died and the date we found out JFK, Jr. was killed in a plane crash. I know others of my era will probably remember where they were when they found out Marilyn Monroe was found dead and the same with Elvis Presley, but I don't remember those two.

I look at this picture of the New York Harbor, with the Statue of Liberty looking over towards the burning towers, and it makes me want to scream. That statue represents a democracy where people are free from tyranny and should be free from terrorism at the same time. It's the symbol of liberty and freedom and if it was alive, she would have been crying on this day along with the rest of the world.

I remember driving into New York a few days before the attack to see one of the US Open matches at Flushing Meadows Park. Pat was with me at the time and I decided to drive in via the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. I said to her that I was going to show her a view of Manhattan that she had never seen before. Coming in that way, you see the tip of downtown Manhattan with the World Trade Center looming before you. To me, this is the best view of the city that you will ever see. She was amazed by its beauty. A few days later, she was so glad that she got to see the city this way. Little did we know, on that day, that it was the last time we would ever get to view it again.

What I do remember about 9/11 is feeling a great sadness on that day knowing that the life as I knew it would definitely change as would the lives of my children. I always felt safe in this country because my husband always told me that we were protected on both sides by water. I now knew he was wrong. No one is safe when there are crazy people in this world.

Having lived in New York for the first 36 years of my life, I, along with many other New Yorkers, felt a kinship with these towers. Those of us who worked in the city watched these buildings go up and now here we were watching them go down. I celebrated my 40th birthday in one of those buildings when we had dinner at Windows Of The World. It's something I'll never forget and something I'll never get to do again. Today on MSNBC, they had a show "9/11 As It Happened" and it's the live broadcast of The Today show from the minute the first plane hit. Watching it, I had that same sick feeling in my stomach as I did seven years ago. I remember seeing that second plane coming and thinking how crazy they were to let another plane fly that close to the WTC right after the first tower had been hit. Oh, how naive we all were then. At that time, all of the broadcasters were thinking that the first plane was just a mistake and was just a small commuter plane that accidentally crashed into the tower.

So much has changed in the world since that day. We can never really feel safe again. Thankfully, nothing else has happened here since that day but the worry still exists that it can happen again at any time.

I chose a picture of the twin beams of light marking the site of the World Trade Center as my blog photo, even though these beams are not at the exact site. The title Terra Firma (on solid ground) is my thought that perhaps we are now back on solid ground after this horrific catastrophe. Afterall, we are Americans and are known as survivors. I want to be hopeful that they won't come back and hurt anyone else. I want to be sure that our country is always ready for an attack like the one we experienced on that day. I just want to know that my kids and my grandchildren (Brady, that's you) will live in a safe country. When I think about what's the most important thing to me in the upcoming elections, that is it......just to be safe.

I would be remiss on this day if I didn't acknowledge those great New York City policemen and fireman who were the real heroes of the day....giving their lives to save others. President Roosevelt once said that the bombing of Pearl Harbor would always be a day that would live in infamy. I wasn't alive for that day so 9/11 will always be my day that will live in infamy. And the mastermind of this event still lives....go figure. We should send those NYC cops to find Bin Laden. Now that's something I'd pay to see.

Just Three Simple Words

YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!

"The difference between a hockey Mom and a pit bull is that a hockey Mom wears lipstick." As a former hockey Mom, I just loved this line.

Labor Day 2008

So today is Labor Day......a federal holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. The holiday originated in 1882 when the Central Labor Union of New York City sought to create "a day off for the working citizens." Two years later, Congress made Labor Day a federal holiday and all fifty states have made it a state holiday. That definitely makes it a day off for everyone.

Growing up, Labor Day was always a big deal in our house as my father was affiliated with the unions. As the Secretary Treasurer of the Bookbinders Union, which later became known as the Graphic Arts Union, he was always involved in a Labor Day parade. I remember him leaving the house with his suit on and the little flag in his lapel. I don't think there was anyone who loved a parade more than my father. I wish I had some pictures to post of him parading around with the labor unions. We used to call him a "big shot." One of the good things about a parade, in his eyes, was that they usually ended up at the Beekman Pub for a beer or two or three before heading on home.

When I think of Labor Day, not only do I think of those parades and Rosie the Riveter and Norma Rae, but it usually brings to mind that the summer is over, school is beginning and you can no longer wear white. I remember growing up and putting my white shoes and sandals away just knowing that I wouldn't see them again until next summer. I think the fashion "rules" have become a little more lax now but it's ingrained in me that it would be taboo to break this rule. I remember when Katie Couric started her new job as the CBS anchor on the evening news. The big news story wasn't that she did a great job. The story was that she wore a white jacket after Labor Day. By the way, and for anyone who's interested, the jacket happened to be "winter white", which is acceptable, and, more importantly, it was Armani.

Labor Day weekend also brings to mind that the baseball season will be ending and football will soon begin. The trees will start changing and the air will become more crisp. It's the sign of a new season to come.....the season of Fall which means one great thing to me.......cashmere turtle neck sweaters. I love living in a part of the country where there are four distinct seasons. I couldn't imagine wearing the same kind of clothes all year round.

So for all you laborers out there, enjoy your restful day. And for you Dad, have a beer on me and toast all those parades you walked in and all those people you cared for as you fought the battle to make sure they were all dealt with fairly. You will always be my favorite "Labor Day Guy."