Birthday Bash

Wow - what a crowd! Itching for any excuse to go out and play, book clubbers, Tesseract moms and a few from the high school gang blended together to make a happy, happy, happy birthday party at Taberna, making getting older a lot more fun.

Getting a bit agey

What's one more balloon????

Sandy Shana

From one generation to three. Next shift - bring on the mom, daughter, grandma gang.

Pacific Beach

One, big, bad Maamajaama girls' trip. Sun, surf, sand, sunscreen, smiles, secrets, sunburns, happy hours, jingle bell ankle bracelets,

crystal stones, tripel, tripel, tripels on the patio, to-gos on the beach, liquor pig awards, reason, season or lifetime, Jersey Girl Arm Wrestling Contest, too old for bad alcohol, coffee (scoops and a click, click), check in on the kids, notes to the husbands, circles, new bar friends, ups and downs, Mad Dog's Brenda,

 making our own rules, breaking our own rules, Lenny Kravitz, Morgan Freeman and Yul Brenner and this guy,

bacon and eggs, the blondes are goin' down, so are the high-maintenance girls,

CVS, missing Yuma, Candy Ass turned Bad Ass, Pansies, only one broken bottle, car in garage, a couple of scrapes for proof and can't forget the Red Baron and Red Vines.

The Roller Coaster

We never met and I already miss him. A half an hour outside of Phoenix, we found out our friend's fiance was in the hospital. It was serious when we got the text in the back seat on the I-10 and it got worse as the days passed. We discovered he was the greatest guy. Funny. Loving. Life of the party. Hard working. Dependable. A smart ass. A great dad. There was a heart problem in the past. Some trips to the doctor last week. The unconscious state until now with test after test, a room full of rotating loved ones as we got short updates while hoping for the best, feeling guilty to be at the beach, wanting our friend to be there to help. As of now he will be taken off of life-support. He's only 36. Our girls' weekend kept circling back to him. And back to the love of his life. Another amazing person. Lives life to the fullest. Raises an incredible son. Runs a great school. All after losing the last man in her life. Years ago, her husband died suddenly. Unbelievably, at 36, making this all so much more surreal. We cried. We laughed. We surrounded each other and turned a once in nineteen years trip into something different. Something bigger than us. A big, fast, scary, upside-down roller coaster of emotions, pushing in a lot of old stuff, too, and praying that if we keep our arms held in, preferably wrapped around each other, somehow, someday, we will all land safely.

The Playlist

Taking requests...a couple of shots, move the table and dance

Grateful Dead - Sugaree
Elvis Costello - Alison
Shawn Colvin - Someone Like You
Bon Jovi - Living On A Prayer
Kid Rock - American Bad Ass
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Gril
Don Henley - Forgivness
U2 - One

Road Trip!

Three Lisas and a Sheila. Sounds like a rock band from the 80s, but it's just us, a gang that has been through a lot over the years, including a trip to San Diego nineteen years ago, that just needed to be repeated.

Three Day Weekend

It's official - a three day weekend with these crazy gals!

California - here we come!

Old Town Old Timers

Old Town Scottsdale should be called New Town. There's a whole new row of bars starting with the new Majerle's, El Hefe and a really cool looking Mint in the hood. Met the old timer Arcadia gang for a basketball play-off, chicken wing eating fiesta happy hour to kick off the summer. Some things never change.

Angry Bird

The TV died. Just plain wore out after hours and hours of XBox. The new one Shawn wants has too many zeros in it for this month's budget, so our only hope is to fix the old one. Sans a minivan or friend with a truck, we actually removed the back seat from my car and hauled the 50" beast out of my manicured, grassy bubble down to 19th Ave and put it down inside the front door of the store. The place looked like a room on the show Hoarders (I watched it once - scary) with one narrow, tall, black, electronic maze twisting from room to room. Old Mrs. Hoarder greeted us with a cheery smile. And veins. Lots of veins. Big veins popping out all over her leathery arms and legs, clearly visible when one is under a hundred pounds and wears shorts and a tank top (a fashion don't for anybody over 50). While extremely helpful, she had that I've been drinking and tanning all day, every day, for years look about her. She said that we'll know something later today. A diagnosis. But since I'm heading West and Shana's gone South for the weekend, leaving Shawn all alone with only Angry Birds to play with on his phone, I'm worried.  So, let's go Mr. and Mrs. Hoarder. Tinker. Put down the wine and tinker. Please. Or I may need the number of a 12-step program for XBoxers.