Germany 1989 Part 2

Ricky and I went with her Aunt and Uncle to Wurzburg as part of my trip to Germany in 1989. We went to the Residenz there. I put the set of pictures that I took of this out of order - the one of the outside of it should be first. I only took about 7 photos inside and have included 5 of them here. We had lunch at a nice restraunt near the Rhine River one day. The bottom set of 4 photos are of our view from that place.

Arts and Crafts 2

In the 70's and early 80's my mom was into doing this craft. I don't remember for sure what the company was but there was a catalog with pictures that you would use these tubes of paint pens to color these. I think it was Tri-Chem. The material of the pictures was felt - like. Maybe this info would be on the internet somewhere and I probably should've looked it up before doing this post. There were also iron on patterns. Mom put some on 2 pillow cases and a couple of shirts. I drew pictures on one of the pillow cases with the paint. The other pillow case said Some Don't - not sure what happened to that one. I loved the big Santa wall hanging that mom made. I think that we still have it in the basement somewhere. Mom did this raccoon picture to add to my raccoon collection. It was in a nice frame but dad took this from me. I had it hanging on the wall with a tack for a long time before getting this frame. For my Catholic grade school she did a religious photo. They had special paint that in the dark would glow which was cool. I remember the smell of the paint - I was weird for kind of liking that.

JFK Inaugural

My uncle was lucky enough to be at President Kennedy's Inaugural in 1961. He took a couple of photos and saved the ticket which he gave to mom. She has many books about JFK including PT 109 and also the TV Guide and newspaper articles from when he was assassinated. We had a nice photo of him hanging in our basement living room area in the late 70's and the 80's. When I saw that it was the 50th anniversary of this event I remembered having this in my scrapbook.

Regis Philbin

I watched the news yesterday and saw the report about Regis Philbin retiring sometime later this year and was thinking about the 5 times during the 1980s that I went to see his show in New York City. The first time it was still called The Morning Show and was 90 minutes long. Dad came with Mark, Mom and I. We had called at least 5 months earlier to get these tickets. Regis was not there that day however and Ira Joe Fisher was filling in as cohost to Ann Abernathy. We got both of their autographs. I only remember that there was a cooking segment. My brother's memory about this is better - he said that Gary Coleman was one of the guests. I don't know if that was 1983 or 1984. Afterwards we went across the street and waited outside the All My Children studios. We saw some of the soap stars - Michael E. Knight, who I had a little crush on, Julia Barr, Peter Bergman, the 2 actors who played Myra and Sloan. Mark got the autograph of the actor who played Travis.

The second time that the 4 of us went it was now the Live with Regis and Kathie Lee show. Dad made us get both of their autographs and even took my picture with Regis. I was really not wanting to do so and felt really anxious. I wish that I had kept a journal back then. I would have written who the guest stars were at these shows. Mark said that the guy who played Freddie Kruger in Nightmare on Elm Street was there but that they were just filming a segment.

I remember the 3rd time a little more clearly. Our friends Stacey and her mom Barbara were with Mom, Mark and I. The producer Gelman made me move over a seat. When they called out the seat number for a prize it was the one that I had previously been in. I was mad about that. I think that the prize had been dinner at a nice restraunt. Mark said that Dom DeLouise was the guest and that Stacey had wished that it had been his son Peter because she like 21 Jump Street.

Mom and I went the fourth time. Mark didn't want to take the day off from school. When we were waiting in line a couple of girls asked if anyone had extra tickets. They had driven really far just to hopefully get the chance to see Phil Collins. Mom didn't even know who he was. We gave them our extra 2 tickets which they were happy about. Mom took pictures during the show and got a few of him. He only did a bit of the drumming part from In The Air Tonight. I was hoping that he'd sing one of his hits. There was also Elvis and Marilyn impersonators there that day.

Mom couldn't come with us the next time because she was in the hospital. Petula Clark was one of the guests. The audience sang part of Downtown. There would have been a 6th time of going to this show only mom was in the hospital again and Mark wouldn't take the day off from school. I was too afraid to go alone. Rosemary Clooney, one of mom's favourite singers, was the guest star. It's a shame that we had to miss out on this.

By the early 1990s we weren't really watching Regis much anymore. I am glad that we had the opportuites to go to this show. It will seem strange with no Regis on morning TV. They said that the show will go on though. I wonder who they will get to replace him?

2009 US Open

I have only been following the tennis since the second week of the 2006 US Open. I didn't really know that much about it and used to think that it was boring but I was depressed about my mom being in the hospital and put the TV on to take my mind off of this. I wanted to watch The Price Is Right and was mad that the tennis was on but part of me was thinking give it a chance - well, mostly I left it on because I was thinking that the two players were kind of cute. One was an American, Robbie Ginepri and the other a German, Tommy Haas. After this event, I was thinking that there wouldn't be any more tennis until late spring so I really wasn't paying attention to sports. I felt so stupid when I found out that I had missed the Australian Open and other events. I did see the last few days of the French Open 2007.

I really wanted to go to the US Open in 2007 only my anxiety problem kept me from doing so as it did in 2008. I finally got over my fears and my brother and I went to the first 4 days of that event in 2009. If I hadn't gone into the city to see Federer at a charity event maybe I still would have been too scared to go. We didn't get the tickets until a few days before the event. I had never ordered tickets on line or printed them out before. I was so glad that tickets were still available.

I have good memories of being at the US Open then but also the memories of some of the stupid things that I did haunt me. I have been better at letting all that go these days and am focusing on the fact that I was brave and didn't let fear prevent me from going and also am thinking how lucky we were to be there. We were at 4 matches in Armstrong stadium on that Wednesday which was the best day there. We saw Pennetta v. Mirza, Safin v. Melzer, Bartoli v. Clijsters and Del Potro v. Monaco. I could have gotten Safin's autograph when he was practicing but was too afraid to. My brother did get me another Russian guy's autograph the next day - Davydenko.

I went to 2 Tommy Haas matches. The first one I was sitting real close on the outside bleachers exactly where I wanted to be only I listened to the guy next to me who said it was better to be on the inside. I regretted moving even like 20 minutes later. I probably could've gone back outside and gotten closer than the 6 rows up that I was on the inside but my idiot voice said it was too late and I had to stay where I was. My camera battery ran out just as the match ended so I was unable to get a photo of him leaving the court. I am embarrased to admit that I ran out of there just to get close to him. Originally I only planned on going 3 days to this event but I added a fourth just because I wanted to see Haas again.

The photo is of Tommy Haas at his second round match against Kendrick which he won in 3 sets. I was sitting pretty close there only my brother was in another section because we were dense and didn't listen to the 2 nice people who we were talking to as we waited an hour before the tennis center opened. They said that the closer seats on the one side were for grounds pass people and not reserved but I asked an employee inside and she said they were. Why did I believe her? She must've misunderstood me.15 - 20 minutes later I asked another employee and he said that we could sit over there. I forgot to ask my brother for the binoculars -I would have had a great view of Haas if I had those. His seat was on the opposite side of where I was. I'm still ashamed that I was going a little ga-ga over him.

I saw 4 or 5 other matches. On the last night we were watching Kohlschreiber but we left after the 3rd set which we regretted. I don't know why we just didn't stay for the whole thing. Oh well, we aren't too bright, I suppose. Mark was happy that he got to see his girls and despite some of the stupid things that I did I enjoyed being at this event that for a couple of years that I was afraid to go to. Yes, I was still feeling anxious about being around so many people but I managed to do okay with that and even socializing with them. I sat next to a nice guy who looked a bit like James Blake at the Tsonga match on day 2. He was from Canada. I only took 3 pictures at that match. I didn't do the match hopping like alot of people do at this event so they can see more players that way. I would have liked to have seen more of my guys like Ferrer.

Mark and I were exhausted after these 4 days. We were up by 5 a.m. and out until like between 9 and 10 pm. It was well worth it though and we said that we would definitely be getting tickets for the next year's US Open like shortly after they went on sale which we did - actually I got them the first day. I had been having this bad feeling even like right afterwards that Haas would not be there then and unfortunately I was right. Safin had retired the year before not long after that event. I'm trying not to think about the fact that I wish that I had gone in 2007 and 2008 and I would have gotten to see more of my 2 favs in person. I can't belive that I used to think that tennis is boring.

Colin Firth

I don't go to the movies much but last weekend I saw The King's Speech which I really enjoyed. I was going to wait until it came out on DVD but decided to see it in Cranford Theater. I have liked Colin Firth ever since I first saw him in Pride and Prejudice on A&E in 1995. Even my brother was watching some of that. They showed it on PBS last year and I watched it again. I haven't seen him in that many movies. Love, Actually and Bridget Jones Diary and it's sequel are the only other ones but when I was looking him up on Wikipedia I noticed many other movies of his that I would like to see. I also saw that he had been in Circle of Friends which I had seen but didn't notice him then. I think at the time I rented it I had a little crush on Chris O'Donnell. I kind of want to see this again just to check out Colin. He definitely is very talented and cute too. I hope that he wins the Golden Globe award - I think that's on tonight.

Cranford Pool - 1980s

I have summertime on my mind on this very cold day. My family were members at the Cranford pool for a few years in the 1980s Mom made us take swimming lessons and I'm glad that she did. I was scared of the diving part though. One time I nearly hit my head on the board. I was always better at the backstroke. Our friends the Trescots were also members there. Sometimes we would get sub sandwiches from the Butcher Block which was nearby. I had forgotten that I had kept this certificate, card and pass until recently when I was looking in my scrapbook. I haven't really liked going into a pool for a long time. The chlorine irritates my eyes and my vision has gotten so bad that I don't like not having my glasses on. I do have some good memories of going to this pool though.

Raccoon Collection

I used to collect raccoon stuff up until about the mid 90's. I still have most of the stuffed animals, knick- knacks, posters, pictures, Hallmark ornaments, a sweatshirt and other things. I have no space in this apartment to put most of this so they are in totes in the basement. Our old apartment had more room - my bedroom and a second living room were in the basement so I had plenty of room to display these things there. The ornament in this picture is from 1982. We started collecting Hallmark ornaments in 1980. We regret not keeping the boxes for them. We didn't start doing that until around 1994. The other picture is a page from my animals scrapbook.

My mom collected koalas and tigers then cardinals after her mom died - she kept some of the ones that grandma had. My brother collects Star Wars, Star Trek and the Frosty Friends ornament series. What types of things do you like to collect?

Germany 1989

Ricky was an exchange student from Germany in our high school during junior year (1985-1986) who I became friends with. Afterwards we kept in touch through the mail for a few years. She invited me to visit her which I did in the spring of 1989. Her family was very nice. They lived in Cuxhaven which is all the way up by the North Sea which we went out onto in her Dad's boat one day Places that I went included her hometown , Kaufburen, Wurzburg, Rothenburg and the Castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria which we took a train to and stopped in Hamburg for about 10 minutes - we got off there so I could take a quick look at the city. I only wish that I had stayed over there longer than 7 days. It would have been unpaid vacation time but it would have been worth it. I think that her dad mentioned us going to Berlin. I flew on the cheaper subsidiary airline of Lufthansa - Condor - to the airport in Frankfurt. I can't remember which city I got a connecting flight to. I didn't take that many pictures which I regret. The ones here are of her and her family by their house and of Cuxhaven. I had a very good time there.

My First Bon Jovi concert

I really did not get into Bon Jovi music until 2000 when their song It's My Life came out. I never understood why everybody was going so ga-ga over them when I was in high school. My classmates even voted on Never Say Goodbye as the prom song. It seems odd that I did have a Jon Bon Jovi poster on my wall. I won it at either one of those carnival or boardwalk ring toss games, part of me must've thought that he was kind of cute. I wanted to go to one of the shows on the Crush tour in 2000 but the ones in NJ were sold out so my boyfriend and I went to the one in Philadelphia. I think that it was called the First Union Center then. It was on November 10th.

Our seats were high up so I rented binoculars to get a better view. Of course there were screens too but I didn't look at them much - maybe I should have done so more. The two people in front of us stood up during a few songs but I didn't really feel like getting up so I was looking around them. One of the songs was Livin' On A Prayer. It was a good show besides that. I was a little disappointed that they didn't do Thank You For Loving Me though. During one of the songs he danced with a pretty girl for a bit, she must've been a contest winner. I think it was Bed of Roses.

Mike bought me the souvenier program. Near the center we had to stop for gas. I saw a stray doggie and was feeling so sad about that - this happens to be my most vivid memory of the night. I do get so emotional about animals. I have a vague memory of having some sort of steak sandwhich with a very salty sauce or gravy on it at the center. I was hoping that I'd get to go to another Bon Jovi concert someday. I'm glad that I went to their website and wrote down the set list.

My Souvenier Patch Collection

I've been getting a bit overwhelmed with my post ideas - I have many but don't know which to pick some days. I will go with the souvenier theme because I so enjoyed seeing Darrin's Disneyland ones. His are cool compared to my kind of lame patches. I started collecting these in 1981 during my vacations and by the early 90's stopped getting these and would mostly buy postcards which I probably should've done in addition to patches all along. My plan had been to make a wall hanging of these. I was going to ask my mom to help me with this but over the years just kept putting it off until I decided to just buy special pages to put them in my scrapbook instead. These are just 2 of the 8 pages that I have and in the future will be posting more. Our 1983 Florida trip is my favourite vacation. I just noticed that my dolphin patch got a little cut off when I scanned it. My cousin Mary was into getting souvenier spoons and had a special holder for them hanging on the wall.

Men's Hairstyles

My mom used to have a subscription to Biography magazine for a few years. It was a nice magazine and I really enjoyed reading it. I did keep a few of the issues and took out some of the articles in others for our scrapbooks. Our cable company didn't include Biography channel in the package and we couldn't afford the extra expense. This was disappointing because they moved most of the good shows like Biography and my British mysteries from A&E over to there. Well, they finally included it on the package but now there aren't that many good things on there. And naturally they are raising our bill next month. It figures.