Mamise

Yesterday we attended a memorial service for Eric's grandmother, Mamise (pronounced May-meese, it's a nickname her sister gave her because she couldn't say Mary Louise). She lived to be 91, and had a long, full life. I didn't know her well, but I will certainly remember her fondly. She had a way about her, and I thought she was very funny. Yesterday was a beautiful day, and we spent it remembering her life. I enjoyed listening to the stories of family and friends, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to know her.

I took this picture of Mamise at the beginning of August.

Eric spoke at the service, and I'm including his words below. She was his Nana, and I know he misses her.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Eric Schwarz. I am the oldest son of Jeffrey, as his mom usually called him (especially when he was in trouble), which means that Mamise, who I called Nana, was my grandmother. For the record, my grandmother drove a Camaro Z28 convertible and owned a Super Nintendo.

As one of Nana’s grandchildren, I realize that you won’t find a better grandparent than one who is as passionate about eating candy, playing with toys, and having fun as you are. We would arrive on the Vineyard every summer and scramble into Heaven Between, where Nana had 3 things waiting for us: a fun pack of sugary cereals, several brand new presents, and a collection of perfect skipping stones.

The cereal was devoured and the new Lego sets and puzzles were put together, much to Nana’s delight, but the most meaningful items were the skipping stones. Each one hand-picked from her own beach and saved throughout the year so that they were waiting for us when summer came around. The great challenge was that in order to enjoy the skippers, we had to return them to the sea. And as I watched a particularly good rock bounce across the waves, I would hope for the ocean to bring it back to the beach so Nana could find it again the next year.

Of course the toys waiting for us when we arrived were never enough. Many trips were made down to Brickman’s for even more board games and card games, endless sports equipment, and plenty of water floats.

As much as we loved to play, she seemed to love watching us even more. There were several adventures to Oak Bluffs to ride the Flying Horses or play mini golf. In those cases, I can remember her excitement and pride when we would get the brass ring or make a great putt.

But Nana especially enjoyed watching us play ping pong. She would stand on the back porch of Heaven Above and just be thrilled to watch us hit the ball back and forth. She would always comment about how fast we hit the ball. And it became a game within a game, to do really well and get an enthusiastic response from her. I didn’t realize at the time how much joy that brought her.

For our annual charter fishing trip, we would bring enough GORP and Cheez-Its to last the afternoon, but, Nana would insist on buying us enough snow caps, candy dots, jaw breakers, sour patch kids, gummi worms, gummi bears, and anything else we could scoop out of the bins to last several weeks.

Heading out of Edgartown on a 40 foot boat, like the scene in Jaws, we’d be off to catch blues and stripers and nobody on board was more excited than Nana. When the pole bent sharply, indicating that a fish was on the line, she would let out a cheerful “hey!” as one of us kids worked to haul the fish aboard.

The best moment was when Nana would take her turn to reel one in. We were catching 40-50 inch bass, which was a challenge for me at 17, and there was Nana – 5 feet tall, 90 pounds, 80-something years old – not only fighting this massive fish, but fighting off my dad as he offered to help.

And that’s how I’ll remember her. Out on the water, sun blazing down, fishing pole in hand, a huge smile on her face while fighting to bring in the big one. And never giving up.

Guess Who's Visiting This Weekend

My sister's coming this afternoon! She should get here around 3:00, and then the fun will begin.

Tomorrow night we're going to see Ingrid Michaelson at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, and I'm practically bouncing up and down with excitement. We've seen her live once before, so I know it'll be a great show.

Happy weekend, folks.

*Yesterday's Lost In Thoughts was a good one: a beautiful illustration, colorful soap, snuggly stuffed animals, and a music video!

I Hear You're Jealous

It worked out that our visit to San Francisco and Drew's visit back home were only few weeks apart. Drew arrived in Boston at 6:30 AM on August 1, and he left this morning on the 6 AM flight back. He loves the Vineyard, so we spent Monday - Thursday there with the whole family.

A number of people told me last week that they were jealous of the time I was spending on the Vineyard and at the beach. I admit it, I've been living the high life recently. But I'm ready to get back to regular life, because right now regular life seems like it'll be a break. I had a grand time traipsing from state to state and town to town, but now I'm sleepy and happy to be using my own bed, pillows, shower, and couch!

P.S. I upgraded to a Flirckr Pro account, so I'll probably be adding more photos there than I have in the past. Click here to see my Flickr.

P.P.S. Today on the Everything Little Miss blog I've posted photos of some new customized stationery.

[The top photo is Eric's - that's me you see there, playing in the surf at sunset. The bottom photo is of Eric with his parents and brothers. Back: Drew, Jeff; Front: Eric, Kim, Will.]

Extended Stay In CA

As I mentioned earlier, we extended our stay in CA in order to spend some time with Kristen, one of my closest friends.

She and her parents (Bill & Judy - we spent the afternoon with them on Thursday) were staying at her Gramma's, across the bridge in Belvedere. I'm not the only one who wanted to see her, and a bunch of her family members were going to congregate at her Gramma's. Monday morning, her cousins Kate (an actress living in LA) and Hannah (we spent the day with her on Friday) picked us up so that we could also join in the fun!

I don't know how to describe the day to you. It was great and feels sort of like a dream. I still can't believe everything worked out so well.

Kristen and her cousins are very similar in some regards. It's probably most noticable in the way that they talk. They all have a very unique way of stressing certain words. It's pretty hilarious when they're all together. Everybody kept saying that Eric was such a trooper for haging out with 4 girls all day, but it was a great time. Seriously. We laughed all day!

It was fun listening Kristen and her cousins talk and just catching up on life. I also enjoyed talking to her parents, aunts and uncles, and gramma. Eric spent time talking to the grown ups too.

In the morning we had bagels and sat outside soaking up the sun. There wasn't as much of a breeze as there is in San Francisco, so it felt much warmer. We also went for a walk into Tiburon.

I'm sad it was such a short visit, but I can't complain. I really can't believe we got to see her at all!

Kate made this little video of all of us hanging out (so unfortunately she's not in it).

Are you wondering how and why Kristen unexpectedly showed up in CA? Her husband is in the Air Force. When you're a member (or family member) you get the opportunity to hop along on flights that have extra room. It's like flying stand-by so you aren't guaranteed a spot, and she tried to get on one for father's day but there were people ahead of her in line and not enough seats. But this time, she was at the top of the list and was able to catch a ride.

It wasn't a normal, comfortable flight at all. It was a cargo plane and apparently it was very loud and cold. It flew from Japan to Seattle, and it took 10 hours. I can't remember the exact hours, but they left Japan at like 11 am Sunday and arrived in the states at 6 am Sunday because of the time difference. It's like she went back in time, isn't that crazy? That night she took a commercial flight from Seattle to San Francisco.

At this point, I think she's already headed back to Japan. I'm pretty sure she left Wednesday. Isn't that wacky?

I still have one more day to tell you about, but I'll save it for another post.

Strybing Arboretum, Chinatown & A Surprise

Sunday morning Eric, Drew, and I headed to breakfast at La Boulange on Columbus Avenue in North Beach.

The three of us shared two pastries and a gigantic bowl of fruit, gourmet granola, yogurt, and honey. I don't know what type of yogurt (maybe greek?) was in that bowl, but believe me when I tell you it was magical! And the honey on top - swoon! It was a marvelous way to start our day.

After that we took a bus across town to Golden Gate Park. I really wanted to visit the Strybing Arboretum & Botanical Gardens (located in the park), so it was great that Drew and Eric were up for it.

I took around 200 photos while we were there, but I'll just share a few here.*

We had lunch nearby at San Tung Chinese Restaurant, because they have the best wings in the city (according to Drew). The food really was delicious, and most of the people in the restaurant seemed to be Chineese (seems like a good sign, right?). After lunch we went back to the gardens for a little bit before catching the bus back toward Drew's apartment.

On the way home we walked through Chinatown, just to check it out. We didn't buy anything, but it's a colorful place to pass through.

That evening we had leftovers and made some fresh coleslaw. Then the boys smoked cigars on Drew's roof (I only stayed for a few minutes because it was freezing).

We were supposed to catch the red-eye home on Sunday night, but our plans changed when Judy called to tell me that Kristen was unexpextedly coming to town Sunday night. I found out on Saturday afternoon, and we rescheduled our flights so that I'd have some time with one of my best friends. We haven't seen Kristen since her wedding, a year and a half ago. Her husband is in the air force, and he's stationed in Okinawa, Japan. They moved there just after the wedding. Originally we'd looked into spending a few days in CA and then going to Japan from there, but we just didn't have the money. Switching our departure date was much more affordable!

At about 9:15 I went to the airport with Bill and Judy to surprise Kristen. She was surprised, but very sleepy. I gave her the biggest hug. :)

*I'm working on an album that will include many more photos of flowers and of our trip in general. I'll let you know when it's ready and you can browse at your leisure.

Note: It's Thursday, so check out today's Lost In Thoughts over at Everything Little Miss!

Chilly Weekend

On Saturday, Eric and I went to the SoWa Open Market in Boston. I wanted to go for two reasons. 1) My friend, Jennifer Hill, had a tent and I knew she'd be showing her beautiful new animal alphabet prints, and 2) I wanted to check it out because one day I want to have a tent at markets like this! We didn't end up staying too long because it was see-your-breath-cold and seriously foggy! 

I stupidly forgot to take a picture of Jennifer in her cute little tent, but it was really fun to see her there. We wandered around and looked at the things people had to offer. Vintage clothes, magnets, photos, maps, pastries, pens, clocks, antiques - there was quite a selection. Just down the street there was also a nice looking farmer's market. We ended up eating a late lunch downtown. 

Sunday we spent way too much money. We bought a Dyson (not at full price, but still). Yikes! It was totally worth it though. The vacuum we had was an abomination. I'm telling you, it didn't do anything. We decided on this particular vacuum because it looked small enough to fit in our tiny broom closet (it does! it's amazing!) and powerful enough to actually clean our carpets. There were some other small vacuums that cost less (not much less), but they seemed too expensive for their features. Hahahaha, I can't believe how much I just wrote about a vacuum, but I'm pretty excited. I think this will really help with our dust problem. The rug looks amazing!
 

Family Weekend

Yesterday Eric and I drove out to UMass to see my sister, Emily, dance. We met my parents and brother there. This is her first semester as a member of the Stage Crew Dance Team, and my family's first time seeing her dance with this team. It's not easy to become a member of the Stage Crew team, and I'm so proud of her. She was wonderful and beautiful. The whole team was great, and you can tell the girls work hard. 

They performed in the Mullins Center as part of the 22nd annual Color in the Cage event. Stage Crew was really only one of 3 dance acts. The other performers were members of color guard or baton twirling teams. I've never been to anything like that, but some of the stunts (is that the right word?) were very impressive. A lot of it made me giggle, I'll be honest, but I appreciate these people putting themselves out there and participating. It certainly doesn't look easy. 

While we were at UMass we also got to see Eric's youngest brother, Will. We took him to lunch at Antonio's (yum) and before we left he got us soft serve ice cream from the dining hall. That was a mistake. While he was getting the ice cream, it started to rain. And by rain I definitely mean downpour, torrentially. We had to wait a bit before we could actually get to the car, and even then we had to make a mad dash. It was fun, but sort of ruined our good-bye.  

Since we got to see my parents, I brought the Mother's Day gift I made for my mom. Yep, more cranes. I made her a mobile of 100 cranes. There are 5 strands, and each has 20 different colored cranes (the same 20 colors on each strand, but no duplicates per strand). I folded all of the cranes on Tuesday, and I strung them all together on Thursday. 

Right now Eric is out with his mom, just spending the day with her in Boston. He's taking her out to lunch and anywhere she wants to go. I'm going to go enjoy the sunshine.

Happy Mother's Day & happy weekend! 

April Showers

I've been so busy today that I didn't even realize it was raining until I looked out the kitchen window this afternoon (pictured). I don't mind the rain, especially in the early spring. You know what they say: April showers bring May flowers. 

I started an e-course today, and I'm very excited. It's being taught by Holly Becker of decor8. Holly is a professional blogger, and she'll be sharing some of her tips over the next 4 weeks. Perhaps you'll notice a difference in upcoming posts! I'm hoping to increase our readership here and on my professional blog (Everything Little Miss). 

Stay dry!

Little Devils

Look! Little devils! They remind me of the Barrel of Monkeys game. 

Recently, I've been thinking about right and wrong (devils!). As in, am I making the right decisions or the wrong ones? In an effort to find some answers, I went to a career counselor at The Work Place this morning. I'm so glad I did. She was helpful and reassuring. We talked about life during a career transition and steps I can take to make the best of my situation. I left feeling optimistic. I have some short-term goals (cheaper health insurance, part-time job) that will help me meet my long-term goals, which I'm still defining. 

So it was good. Too bad I don't have little angels to photograph! 

*Want to help me with my goals? Tell everybody you know about Everything Little Miss! Don't forget that I do custom work. I also expect to have new cards sets in by the end of the week.

Jeans That Fit

I discovered Ann Taylor Petites in 2006, and I've been hooked ever since. Many of the clothes are for more mature women, but I've often had success. Today I went shopping for a pair of replacement jeans, and I found these on clearance.   

It's a wonderful day when a girl can find clothes that fit. Seriously. 

Midnight Affair

I was flipping through Harper's Bazaar the other day, and I came across a guide to "Holiday Makeup At Every Age." It featured a navy nail polish in the section dedicated to 20-somethings; I liked the color so much that I went out in search of something similar.

As you can see here, I'm super trendy this season (this may be a first!). I'm wearing Revlon's midnight affair and I'm totally loving it. Honestly, I can't stop looking at my nails. 

Polka Dot Dress

This is the dress I wore to the wedding last weekend. The picture I took was pretty lackluster, so I fooled around with the levels and contrast in Photoshop and I liked the result (the dress is actually closer to teal than this blue). 

I chose this dress because it has sleeves and *gasp* pockets! I didn't want to wear a summery dress to a fall wedding and risk freezing. Turns out I froze anyway because it was pretty chilly outside. 

I felt terrific in this dress because it fits me very well. I'm starting to discover how nice silk feels, too. 

First Dance

I don't know if they practiced their dance or if they stepped on each other's feet because I couldn't take my eyes off of their faces. They smiled all night long. 

It was a wonderful start to a happy life together. 

Memory

Last night we watched Away From Her. It's about an older couple and the toll Alzheimer's takes on their relationship. It's a beautiful movie that explores love and emotions. 

The main character, Fiona (played by Julie Christie, pictured above), has Alzheimer's, which is quickly progressing. She's a smart and interesting woman and it's difficult to see her losing her memory, especially through the eyes of her husband. I took a picture of the television screen just as the movie was at a turning point; she's leaving her house to enter a nursing home. It is interesting that her personal appearance degenerates at the same pace as her mind. Here you can see that she is perfectly made up and clearly aware of how she looks. As time goes by her hair becomes disheveled, her clothes get sloppy, and she loses all sense of color and taste. 

I can't imagine losing my sense of self and not even remembering which colors I like (oranges, reds, and pinks).

Backless Shirt

Here's how not to wear a backless shirt.

Who does she think she's fooling with that flesh-toned bra? I can see it, can't you? And the answer is no, that is definitely not attractive. I'd rather see a hot pink bra - at least have some flair! 

If I have to look at somebody's naked back, I'd rather it be a perfect one. Enough said.

What is she trying to tell people with that shirt? That she's sexy? I'm not buying it.

Graphic Bag

I think anybody sporting an Andy Warhol design is expressing their love of pop culture, or at least of pop art. This girl's outfit is pretty funky and Warhol's design has been combined with a modern color combination. I wonder if she's trying to make a statement about art or if she just thought it was a cool bag. Either way, it fits her style - it seems like she wants to be seen and be different, but still be stylish and accepted. I thought she looked pretty cool; she reminded me of my sister a little bit.

Birthday Cards

This is my grandmother on her 90th birthday. The picture on the card is my grandmother roughly 50 years ago. Birthday cards can be humorous, serious, thoughtful, and sentimental, but this card, to me, conveys a sense of simple reflection.

"The years teach much which the days never knew."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson