Bali Family :)

We all arrived in one piece, feet swollen like small balloons, weird!  Must have been the four gallons of water consumed on the planes.  No problems until the airport in Bali when we discovered, well, the blonde traveler in our party, MOI, was approached and asked, twice, if for a fee, the lines of 1,000 or so people could be made to easily disappear. Being the upstanding citizen that I am, and also afraid I might end up in a foreign pokey, I said I was traveling with a small tribe and thought it best I play by the rules. BIG MISTAKE! Two

hours  1,200 people (the line grew) and a rising temper later, I went up to the same guard and decided to give him just a wee piece of my Irish mind....the only thing it accomplished was that no more of those graft payers got into our line, and those guards disappeared.  It was the only annoying part of the trip...

On to customs, snicker, snicker, all 5 seconds of it, and then we met Joel, Simona and Oskar! :)  HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!! We piled our 400 pieces of luggage into two vans and were off through the streets of Bali to the Green School campus.  Traffic, HAHAHAHA!!!  We shall not be driving here!!  Motor bikes, some with entire families of 5 on them, cars, vans, little buses, weaving in and out never signaling, three and four deep in two lanes....skilled drivers,  I was super impressed, never once did I flinch! I was in the back of course.

  The things we passed on the way were just so cool.  Nyepi, Balinese New Year had just passed,  celebrated with a full day of silence and meditation, one reason why we came later.  A few days before, the Bhuta Yajna ritual is performed in order to vanquish the negative elements and create balance with God, Mankind, and Nature. The people create these magnificent figures, Ogoh-ogoh, made of bamboo and paper painted in fabulous colorful detail. All have fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair and are illuminated by torches. Ogoh-ogoh monsters symbolize these evil or malevolent spirits surrounding the environment which have to be eliminated. They are paraded around the village and the evening before Nyepi, the devout Hindus celebrating Ngerupuk, start making noises, light burning torches and set fire to the Ogoh-ogoh  in order to vanquish the negative elements and evil spirits. Luckily for us, some of them were still  around, appearing between some of the smaller buildings like fabulous colorful giants.

The sun was setting and the trip had been so long, everyone just wanted to get to Rumah Bambu.  We arrived just as the sun was setting, and were amazed at what we saw....the house is breath taking. The pictures cannot do it justice.  Made entirely of bamboo and circular in construction, it is two stories high, but the center pole rises at least another story to a point.  Thatched roof, bamboo floors open walls look out on to the jungle growth, with geckos living along the towering support poles. Simply enchanting!

Simona and Joel made us a wonderful dinner of chicken, pumpkin, papaya, rice, lemongrass, galangal, garlic, tumeric, lime leaf, I might have missed something else here, but it was so delicious!

Oskar, their little 4 year old, cute as a button, explained how to use the 2 toilets; one is the composting one, and the other is the whizzer. Exciting, different, similar to Girl Scout Camp, but fancier. Then, it was a wonderful shower, open to the evening air, and off to bed for a great night's sleep under the mosquito net!

Paradise.....

Anticipation.....

The time approaching this adventure has been surprisingly calm, especially for me.  I usually get wound up to the point that I need a vacation to come down from the preparation, but this time has been different.  I have spent more than a few moments being thankful for the many  blessings I am leaving behind. My wonderful family, my cats, friends who mean the world to me, and the security and familiarization of everyday life.

From the first time I heard about Green School, I was touched by something I cannot explain, a pull I felt deep within me.  I am not a hot weather person; I enjoy the summer, but the Fall and Winter seasons, especially the change of the seasons, have a special meaning for me.  So what this pull is I cannot explain.  I am intrigued in a way I have never been before. A calmness has settled over me, unusual for me.  I am trying my best not to be overly obsessed with the knowledge that this beautiful paradise is infested with giant spiders, the one thing in this world that I am totally frightened of, to the point of being phobic. I have accepted this, and moved on, but an adventure is just that, good and bad, take it for everything it is, face your fear, live for the moment, spiders or no spiders, I am going for it, facing life with an open heart.....

We are at the airport, bonding for the long ride ahead, hugging and refamiliarizing ourselves with family who love each other even though we may not be in each others lives every day. Sometimes that isn't really necessary. Knowing someone loves you means more than money in the bank, and in that case, we are wealthy beyond measure.....

I hope for this journey for relaxation, reconnection with my family on a different level, spiritual peace that is new to me, seeing the world without ambient lighting, NOT seeing giant spiders, becoming more ecologically conscience, meeting new people, experiencing new culture, trying new food, doing NOTHING, breathing new air, seeing new bugs and monkeys, laughing until it hurts,  Snooky says being drunk out of our socks, open to whatever the universe has to offer me. Once again, I am the luckiest damn woman I know......

Flowers For My Daughter

All the excitement of my trip goes on the back burner today as I celebrate the birth of my second child, my daughter Jennifer Lynne. In the garden that is my life, two extraordinary flowers bloomed. I am blessed to have a handsome son and a beautiful daughter.

38 years go, I asked my sister Susan to baby sit my little red headed Bob. I knew I was going to go to the hospital that night. It was Susan's birthday and she was excited that the baby was going to be born on "her" special day. At midnight she finally got disgusted and went to bed. I left for the hospital not long after.

Jennifer has become a beautiful, successful woman, someone I have grown to admire and regard with tremendous pride. All parents hope that their children are successful in this world, but how do we measure success? To me success is not so much what we acquire as it is what we are, what we bring to the world, and how we help others succeed and grow. My child is a gifted teacher who has found her niche helping children discover the desire to learn. It is more than memorizing and writing; it is instilling a deep hunger for learning that ignites a fire within a young mind.

As a parent, I have made many mistakes, but I never regret anything for I truly believe that we learn some of our most valuable lessons from the mistakes we make along our journey. I am not a perfect person by any stretch of the imagination. I also am a firm believer in "it takes a village" to raise a well rounded, happy, well adjusted and successful child in today's world. Coming from a large family, as I do, and again, being the "luckiest woman I know," I had a lot of valuable help in this department. Bob and Jenny were surrounded by lots of love and a great family from the minute they were born. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my extended family for all the love and support they have given me throughout my life.

It isn't easy to tend our garden and produce the most beautiful flowers.....not without lots of hard work and lots of helping hands.

Happy Birthday Jennifer Lynne♥

Island Girls...our beginning

Snooky and I have a long history together, even some of our family members don't know our entire story. Hell, we probably don't remember a lot of it anymore! My Mom and her Dad were sister and brother. One of the best gifts the two of them passed on to their kids was their terrific sense of humor. We tend to look at life through cracked lenses. It makes for an interesting journey.

When I remember some of the craziest and most momentous times in my life, my cousin was by my side. I remember walking on the wall around the Temple in Freeport pretending it was a tightrope and buying ice cream at the candy store on the corner by our Grandma's house. My first cigarette was shared with her the night we thought about painting the Bingo sign to Ringo....we didn't. Not too many years later we eloped together, only I got married to Bob and Pete made her wait another year!  That was one of the funniest trips I ever took! Who laughs so hard during their wedding they are afraid they will get yelled at by the preacher?

Over the years we watched our babies grow, well, she watched a lot more than I did, but we were always there to bolster each other if things got too heavy or either of us needed a shoulder to cry on. We just had this knack for knowing when the other one needed to hear a funny story, or a word of advice. I think my all time favorite was the story of the hermit crabs. I was having a less than stellar day when the phone rang.  It was Snooky, just sharing.  She was folding the laundry and found the hermit crab's legs in the clean things that had just come out of the dyer...how to tell the kids.  They must have been in someone's pocket.  Forgive us kids for the tears we cried from laughing about that one!

She was my Matron of Honor and about 9 months pregnant when I remarried.  We have both buried our Dad's, shared the heartbreak of death in many forms.  We are both strong and independent women, and it seems so fitting that this adventure is something we get to share.  Now we add  Anne to the mix, and become a trio. Anne is also family, Snooky's little sister and not quite as crazy as we are, yet.....

SNOW!!!

Living on Long Island gives me the opportunity to experience all four of Mother Nature's seasons, which is a wonderful thing! I lost count of how many signifcant snowfalls we have had this winter. And just let me say, it is a good thing I LOVE snow.

Snow makes everything beautiful and muffles all the noise of the outside world. Shoveling snow is great exercise, like something to be attacked and conquered. It's also the time to stock up on all the important essentials:  food, wine, pre-made margarita's and really good cookies. Even if you only get snowed inside for one day, the Girl Scout motto has saved my butt many times in the past, "always be prepared."

 Today is another wonderful snow day of watching the snow fall as it settles on the branches of the evergreens outside my windows, knowing that this Girl Scout just got finished attacking the driveway and is prepared to be socked in for at least 3-4 days if necessary!!!  How many days Snooky until we leave for the island????  20 and a wake up! I can take a lot more snow knowing I have that to look forward to!

Island Girl

I am an Island girl, born and bred. Long Island may not be tropical, but it is an island in the sense that we are pretty much surrounded by water. Some of the most beautiful beaches in the world look out over the Atlantic Ocean to the South, and Long Island Sound washes over the rocky beaches of the North Shore.

 I surely have salt water running through my veins; if I am away from the water for too long I get a little bit buggy. The only thing that comes close to the peace and serenity of the water, to me, are the mountains with their deep woods smell and quiet stillness. The Adirondack Mountains are a few hours drive from my home, and between these two worlds I have spent much of my life, therefore a few of the reasons why I feel I am "the luckiest woman I know."

When I was a kid, my Uncle Dan was the head of sound and lighting at the Jones Beach Theater. He worked there for 50 years, an icon in his own way, still remembered by some of the guys "in the booth". My Aunt Eileen worked as an usher, and I used to stay with them during the summer for a bit. I got to sit in the audience with my cousins and watch all the musicals that were staged; it was really a magical time. The place was much different back then. The stage "floated" on Zach's Bay, much as it does now, just smaller. Before the show, Guy Lombardo would whip out in his beautiful boat right in front of the audience and introduce the show. The lights would dim, the orchestra would begin, and the magic would happen! You were transported to distant lands, faraway places, memories to young and old alike.

Which brings me back to the reason why I started this post in the first place, and the meaning, in part, behind the title of this blog. There was a show that a little girl became a part of many years ago, floated away on the mist of a memory....Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific", and the haunting "Bali Hai".....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81NROmUb7o0

I did it!

Step one in sharing this amazing journey is complete, or at least I think it is...I created a BLOG! And I didn't call Cablevision, my brother Steven, offspring Bob or Jenny, or any of the other hundreds of people who support me in my continued lack of computer skills. You simply cannot be good at everything!

I used to have a simple phrase to describe myself that I have begun to use again recently..."I am the luckiest woman I know!" I used it so often people would gag when they heard it. Then life got a little heavy and I let it fall to the wayside for a bit, but things are starting to pick up in my neck of the woods again, so I think it is time to drag it out for another go round! Get used to hearing it family, 'cause it is time for a replay!!!

How many regular people get to travel to so many super cool places in the world in one lifetime? Let's see, I have been to Paris France, Ireland, my all time favorite EGYPT(woohoo here), Jamaica, the Bahamas, Cozumel, St. John's New Brunswick, Montreal Canada, not enough of America, but I am working on that....and now I get to go to Bali!!! And I didn't even win Mega Millions YET!

 How did this come about??? Well, I have a cousin, Mercedes, Snooky to the family, who has a shitload (can you curse in a blog?) of the most amazing kids, I lost count actually, 10+ and yes I am serious. Anyway, one of these super cool kids grew up to be super adventurous and smart. I don't want to put too much in here right now, will save the zillions of details for another day, but he married Simona and they decided, didn't find out why, to go and teach at the most amazing school I think I have ever read about in my life. When Snooky said she was going to Bali for a visit, I think I invited myself....seriously, I am almost more excited to see Green School than I am about this island paradise! I am going to post the link, and take a break for now. As most of my family and friends know, I NEVER run out of words, and I tend to be long winded......seriously....http://www.greenschool.org/