Hello Mothers and Sisters,
I hope all of you had a wonderful Mother's Day. The weather here was picture perfrect. It was really sunny, breezy, not hot but warm from the sun. My sister and I took my mother to a restaurant for a really nice relaxing lunch. The kids were not around - they went to their grandmother's beach house with George to clean up the shore house and get it ready for the summer. My sister was not complaining about the hiatus from the kids and actually welcomed the "adult outing." Not that Alex and Nina are not completely entertaining.
We had much more ambitous goals for Mother's day but because the traffic was so horrendous, traveling took 3X the normal time so we made major changes to our plans. We were going to take my mother to the Art Museum to see an exhibit of an artist named Carpaccio who does some sort of transformative art to fashion - I can't quite explain it but if I do end up seeing it perhaps I can say more about it, not likely but I can always try to babble something. With my mother being in the clothes making business, we thougth she would enjoy it. My mother said she had heard that the pieces in his show were not really "wearable" to which my sister responded, '..and how would that be different than other pieces that fashion designers create?" How true right? I will occassionally glance over "Vogue" magazines if they are in the gym and I am always amazed at how crazy and unwearable the clothes are, I guess they are designing with Lady Gaga in mind. By the way, I happen to catch her on TV one day and could tolerate about five minutes of her. She offends me. I know she has her talents???? so they tell me, but I actually find myself bored by her outrageousness.
Anyway, because of the chaos and traffic in Philadelphia we ended up resorting to a quiet lunch and then going to the "Aerosole" shoe store nearby to get some much needed shoes. You know when you reach that state that if you don't soon buy shoes you will be relegated to walking barefoot.
Sundays in Phila during the Spring or Summer are quite challenging as there is always a major outdoor event which creates lots of travelers spreading all over the roads. Speaking of events, last weekend I completed the Broad Street Run, which is apparently one of the most popular 10-miler runs in the country. There were 30,000 runners registered (no I did not add extra zeros). Amazing isn't it? The most inspiring part is that even with all those crowds, it all really works and is very organized with runners and on-lookers all supporting each other. It was the first year I did it, and I really loved it.
At the starting line you are just overwhelmed with a sea of people and that pretty much continues throughout the entire race. They start different groups at different times, but when you get to the starting line, there was the Mayor Nutter off to the side giving people "high fives" and the "Rocky" music starts. I guess that is the perfect tune to demonstrate Philly pride. Anyway, my friend and I finished the run doing about 10 minute miles. I don't think that is considered super athletic but it is okay. I am just happy we finished. It felt so good and it wasn't as painful as I thought it might be which I think is because it is all relatively flat road.
I am happy to hear about everyone's adventures and life on the farm. I hear that Murray is embarking on the art of bread making. I think bread is my favorite food in the universe. I would definitely be stopping by to sample if I lived nearby. Diana, you will have to give us a full report. And I guess you will know exactly when they open since you have been watching so closely.
Diana, by the way I guess one should follow you around in determining where to live. I mean here you are living between two highly rated places: Mercer Island and Corvallis. Does it get any better?
I don't think anyplace I ever lived rated high in any category. They say that Univ. of Penn is one of the best places to work in Philadelphia. Hmmmm.....let's see I haven't seen an increase in two years and have never worked so hard in my life...........Huh??? Seriously, UPenn is not such a bad place to work, it definitely has its perks.
I will write again soon- that is my goal. Good wishes to all of you. We will be seeing Kay and Judy very soon.
Love,
Sandra
