California - Here I Come - or Came.

 I don't know what I expected when I got to California.  The Pacific Ocean is beautiful, but I guess I expected all of it to be beautiful (like the movies, I guess).  Sunday, I put Margaret Ann back on the plane to Reno and drove north to LA.  I stayed with the son of a friend of mine.  They are delightful, and have two really, really cute children  I can say that because I don't have to be around when they become teenagers!!  However, the really fun part of the trip was seeing someone I haven't seen in around 25 years.  Steve was a friend, a great skater (because we all grew up at the ice rink) and in 7th grade I was madly "in love" with him.  However, our friend, Sharon, was also in love with him and she assured me he would definitely like her.  And, as it turned out, she was correct.  But, we were still friends (because he did not know how I felt, so he could not have felt awkward about it!)  And, even though I occasionally liked a boy, I was never secure enough to actually be involved!  Okay!! Enough history.  We talked, talked, talked about school (we relived, jr. high, high school and winterhurst) about ex-spouses, Mike, children, grandchildren and just about everything else under the sun; drove through Redondo Beach, El Segundo, Santa Monica, Venice, other suburbs of LA and, finally, to Rodeo Drive.  Now, that is a beautiful street!  The fronts of the stores are even beautiful.  It was definitely fun to see a little of how "the other half llives"!!  All in all, it was a really great visit and definitely worth the drive!!  Tomorrow, it is on to Santa Barbara - then back to Reno.  I am not certain I can do that in one day, but I will give it a go. Thanks for listening.  Ricci

Happy Birthday To You!

The presents were piling up in the corner!  It was a little like Christmas, because I was madly in love and wanted to give him the most fun birthday ever!  “I don’t need presents, Erica – I don’t even care about them!”  Mike was a "macho man" (ha!ha) and wanted to be above the silliness!!  Of course, I paid no attention because every time I was in a department store, I saw something else I thought he would need or like.  By the time the evening before his birthday arrived, there must have been 12 – 15 presents in the corner of the bedroom – all wrapped and pretty.  When he told me once again that they were absolutely unnecessary, I responded that it was okay – if he really did not want them, I would simply unwrap them the next day and return everything!  Well, around 4:30 a. m. on the 26^th of May that year, I awoke to a grown man, ripping open packages like a 6 year old.  Upon asking what he was doing, he replied “Birthdays a so great – you get presents and everything!”  So much for being blasé about presents!  So, love of my life, Happy Birthday wherever you are.  I miss you and love you forever.  Erica

Almost A year

Okay, so here it is – life has returned pretty much to normal!!  To begin with, I thought I would wait to write again until we saw if we lived through today (it being one of the days the world was supposed to end!!), then, it is getting very close to Mike’s 73^rd birthday, in addition to a year ago that he died.  I certainly hope he is happy!  Today, because Meg’s back is bad, I drove to San Diego, CA from Reno NV.  A long drive, but beautiful.  The mountains were beautiful and the lakes were also.  The mountains in California were especially beautiful.  Anyway, I listened to a reasonably good mystery while appreciating my surroundings, buying gas and ½ a tank so I wouldn’t realize how expensive it is, and just coasting along – thanks to cruise control!!  So, thinking I was doing great by arriving in San Diego at 6 p.m., thereby giving me time to get a hotel room, change my clothes and go have a dinner and glass (or two) of wine.  HA! HA! HA!  Seems everyone in San Diego is graduating and the whole world came to see them.  It took until 8:30 p.m. to find a room.  Obviously, business in San Diego is good, because no one was very interested in helping me find a room.  I was by the airport; at an area called “hotel circle”, where, incidentally, “Comfort Inn” had a sign out front – “Rooms Available”.  When the receptionist told me they were full, I said, “there are signs out along the street saying rooms available”.  “Oh yeah”, says she, “I forgot to remove them.”  So after about 12 hotels rejecting me there, one young woman suggested I drive to the beaches – oops!  No luck there, either.  However, afraid I was going to burst into tears, one receptionist at a Holiday Inn (after completing a conversation with her friend for about ten minutes, while I waited) bothered to call another Holiday Inn in an area called Old Town, where, lo and behold, they had a room.  Not only was it $120, but, in order not to have your car vandalized on the street, you have to pay $15 to park in their garage!  (A little like Jesse James without his gun!)  So, okay, I bring up a bottle of wine, open it, have a sip, relax and think I am going to write on my blog!  Well, it is now 9:47 p.m. and I am typing this in Word, hoping I can transfer it tomorrow when we get to Carlsbad, because for some reason unknown to either the guy at the desk or the “repair man”, they can’t seem to get the Internet to work in my room!  So, there you have a little synopsis of a normal day in the life of me!!!  At least there is always that test of my sense of humor.  Hopefully, I will get this in tomorrow.  Thanks again for reading.  Ricci

P.S.  I picked up Meg from the airport this morning (in a much better mood) and we drove to Carlsbad, CA.  We could not get into the condo until 4 p.m., so we went to Norte for Margaritas and a Mexican lunch.  Then we walked down the steps to the water, so I can truly say I have now been “from sea to shining sea”, so now I just have to cover those darned “amber waves of grain”!!  See you soon!!  Ricci

Eleven Months

The love of your life dies - so, what do you do?  You don't own where you live - and, now, you certainly can't afford it!  Worse than that, however, is that you find you are finished with Florida.  Therefore, you gather up enough "stuff" for a two bedroom apartment, put it into storage; try to figure out what clothes to take with you; then search for the gypsy in your soul and hit the road!  You find out you have wonderful family and friends (something you always knew, but had not actually put yourself so literally in their lives!) and roaming around the country is a lot easier than stopping and facing the loss day to day.  Well, now I am in Reno, NV and will be here for a month!  Wow, I have had so much down time since I have been here that I actually have been hit quite hard by the sadness and loss of Mike.  However, I realize that this is pretty normal and I will recover.  So, let's get onto a little bit lighter subject..  First of all, happy mother's day to me and to all of you!  In Reno, I am surrounded by mountains (and casinos).  It is beautiful, but I truly am not a mountain girl.  But, Hogan, who is Meg's dog, loves it because we walk the hills everyday and he can run without his leash!  Thus far, I have seen one sea (Atlantic), purple mountains majesty, and will see the other sea (Pacific) at the end of this month.  The amber waves of grain will have to wait until the return trip!  This truly is a beautiful country and while the circumstances were not perfect, I am definitely enjoying seeing all of it.  I am missing Gina, though, and I hope she will recognize me and still like me upon my return.  Unlike Las Vegas, Meg and I went to a casino, were there for three hours and left with the same amount I brought - which seems to me to be winning!!  Thanks for checking in.  Ricci