No matter where I go I am a Lawrence.

  I swear sometimes my life is like a Independent movie. The kind that seems so meaningless on the surface, and even more so after much contemplation. Then after a restless sleep, you realize it was just a character study in relationships. What a waste of time. Or was it?
   I watched the saddest damn movie the other day, it was called Wendy and Lucy. Michelle Williams was a drifter with a dog. I am still sad about that movie and nothing else. I want my two hours back, maybe by now it's more like five hours.

   Back to the story. We left Vermont and drove three hours to my birthplace of Lake Placid, NY. It seemed like a rundown shell of it's former Olympic self. My brother and his wife live there. Their son and his two kids were visiting.  I have never met two shyer kids.
    My brother has recently become ill with some undiagnosed condition. Worrisome. My sister-in law is very sweet  and they were generous enough to feed and entertain us. My childhood best friend was going to meet up with us, but atlas, her son had a out-of-town baseball championship game. I was really looking forward to that rendezvous. I guess I was disappointed about that. Maybe that's why I drank a bottle of wine.

   Anyway the next day we headed to my sister Pam's in Syracuse.
   After a terrific steak dinner, we ended up playing Trivial Pursuit, drank some wine but not too much, and had a fun time. If nothing else we sure can laugh. I think a diaper was in order that night too. My kids were intrigued by Pam, mostly because she is highly intellectual and secondly because she's a little nutty.

Pam and her granddaughter Maddy. She was shared a bed with Maggie and me.

   Sometime in the middle of the night, my sister Mary's knee had swollen. She may have twisted it and then let it idle for hours driving. The pain was excruciating, and as a registered nurse, she was concerned she had a blood clot in her leg. After an five hour emergency room visit, they figured it was arthritis in her hip. Meanwhile Mags, Pam and I took her granddaughter Maddy to her mom's house. When we all returned to Pam's her husband had gotten us kosher delicatessen goods for lunch. My sister Pam made a sandwich with raw deli bacon, it looked like sliced ham. Yuck, imagine biting into bread and fat. Anyway I sound so depressing I am going to stop now. Damn sad Independent movie about a down-on her luck girl and dog. I will be more up-beat tomorrow. And I won't be part of a character study, promise.

A visit to New York

    I hadn't been back east for almost three years and since Dad is nearing ninety I figured I better get back to see him before it's at a funeral. He seems to have the longevity genes, so notice I didn't say his funeral.
    The kids and G2 went to CT and then to RI to the one of my favorite places, Newport, but since I knew I was going to western NY, there was no way I could do it all. G2 dropped the kids off above Providence and I met them outside of Boston. The funny thing about that is my sister, the only one I didn't see, lives in Boston. She was cruising the south of France, so good for her.
My sister Mary picked me up in her Ford Escape, along with the kids and my sister Ellen. That's right, five of us in a mid-sized SUV. I was in the backseat with the kids, who incidentally had their laptops opened. After we ate at the Olive Garden, we spent about ten minutes getting out of the parking lot, going in a circle back past the restaurant at least twice. The laughter subsided after we were misguided by an evil GPS to take only dirt roads with no street lights, and after an ass-flattening-seven hours where at times I was very concerned for our safety, we arrived at Mary's son's Vermont home located in BumFucEgypt. I think I may have been more comfortable if I had ridden a camel, but it was way more fun in the car witnessing my sister laughing so hard, too hard, and in fact a diaper would have been in order.

My nephew and his wife were very generous and friendly. My only complaint was there was way to much water in the air, so thick in fact, I had a hard time fitting it up my nose. Not their fault.









Day two, perhaps three and four tomorrow. I am not used to all this writing and I am tired. c.

Breaking the ice

I am regretful for not posting here for awhile. I will try and catch you up on my summer adventures. I wish I could tell you about taking a break and reflecting on life, being tortured with turmoil with lack of focus, drinking scotch into the night while I work on a novel or a song, and a bunch of other bullshit but I have done none of that. I have been spectacularly tired. Maybe the lack of focus is true.  So tonight I will just say hi and that I am back.

 I wished I would have taken notes because my memory fails me so, even without the scotch. I bet I can think of the real interesting stuff...

It's okay to say you've missed me. So come on back I'll have some meat tomorrow. Carol