Just the Facts

The weather today is bright and sunny and it's killing me to have to be inside and actually be working. Thank goodness this is my "short" day. As with most work weeks, it has been pretty much business as usual. Get up very early, go to work, come home, eat, watch some TV go to bed early. Not exactly exciting stuff to share. I'll just throw at some random facts from my past and wait for the weekend to really begin.

I've lived in six different states and no we were not a military family. In chronological order they were: New Jersey (I was born here), North Carolina, Maryland, Alabama (college years), South Carolina and Virginia.

I played in a high school marching band while too young to actually be in high school. I did not play in the marching band while in high school. By the time I was in high school , I was in a different state and in a different school.

I grew up in a very, very small town in NJ. Not the NJ most people think of. Not the NJ consisting of the Turnpike and refineries and chemical plants, but rather in northwest NJ which consists mostly of Newark watershed property and is full of forests, lakes, mountains and largely unpopulated. I loved it.

We used to cut down our own Christmas trees.

The highlight of my summer was the volunteer fireman carnival held the week leading into labor day. My Dad and Mom were volunteers is said firehouse. Actually the volunteer firehouse was the social center of the neighborhood.

My Dad coached my brother and I in pee wee baseball or whatever they call it before you are old enough to play Little League. We lost almost every game.

In Little League, my father wasn't the coach, but helped out on occasion, we won almost all of our games.

Growing up I played outside all of the time. We had pickup games of baseball, basketball and football. We played our pick-up baseball games in a field we called the Buckwheat field. If we weren't playing sports games, we were riding our bikes, playing "war games" (every kid had a toy gun), building tree forts, playing Kick the Can or Flashlight tag.

I was swimming by age 3 much to my Grandmother's horror as I jumped into the deep end of a public pool. I was just following my uncle.

When I was a baby, my year older sister pushed my baby stroller, with me in it, down a flight of stairs.

I hope every one has a chance to celebrate this Memorial Day. Sometime over the weekend give yourself a moment to say a prayer for those who fought for us and made the ultimate sacrifice.

Let the weekend begin!