Eat. Share. Connect.

My brother, Matt, and I were talking a little about this and it got me to thinking.

Here is what I hope people are able to do with the sudden loss of Anthony Bourdain.

Eat with people. Eat with people you don't know. Eat with people you love. Prepare food with people. Share your stories. Be respectful. When in a new place, try new things. When someone offers you something, try it and thank the person for sharing it with you.

We have so many commonalities. Sharing a table, sitting and taking the time to listen, it helps us see these commonalities.

In an interview on Fresh Air he talked about his sort of kind of iron stomach and that if you see locals going to a street vendor, no matter if it seems dirty, go there. You are likely to get a good meal without any gastrointestinal distress. It is the caesar salad in the hotel restaurant that is more likely to cause a problem.

Be brave. Try new things. Learn about people. Share yourself with others. Connect.

A long time later, and yet just the blink of an eye

I wrote this e-mail on August 15, 2005. Irene's first day of kindergarten. 

She graduates in 14 days. FOURTEEN. On August 14th, we'd been in our house for a *very* short time.

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SOOOOOOO.....today was Irene's first day of kindergarten -- what a huge

milestone! how did this day get here so darned quickly?? wasn't it just last

week when we were bringing home that 8 pound 9 oz baby girl? sheesh...ah

well. she was HUGELY ready for today. after irene's meet 'n'

greet/assessment with her teacher (ms. romaggi), ms. romaggi said "she is

REALLY READY for kindergarten!" Ms. R is happy to have an older kid or two

in the class b/c she apparently has a very young class this year.

Irene had her outfit picked out for several days prior to the start of

school - we had some gymbucks (thanks, gramma moni!) to spend and this

outfit was on an amazing sale - HOORAY! and the shoes are pink and they

light up and she's only worn them a few times since papa and gramma got them

for her, so they are still, surprisingly, white!

the fairies left her some goodies last night along w/a little card -- she

got a fairy tea set that is a weeeeee leeetle thing - bitty teapot and two

teensyweensy cups just big enough for fairies, and they left some glow in the

dark butterflies on her walls. she thought that was mighty fine and made a

card for them to find as a thank you.

One of the cool things about rob's current job is that he usually has

mondays and fridays off, so he was able to come to school on this very

important day. We got there about 10 minutes early or so and Irene (along

with Rhys) played on the play structure. Soon after we arrived, Irene's

friend from swimming arrived. Irene was so happy to see Brianna and gave her

a big hug. It was very sweet. When the bell rang, the two of them held hands

into the classroom and sat next to 'theirchother' to listen to Ms. Romaggi.

Soon after the kids sat down, Ms R told us that we could leave when we felt

our child was ready. Well, having been on the other side of this w/my

toddler and preschool classes, i knew that irene was fine and happy and so

we all gave her kisses and loves and said our goodbyes. poor rhys. i think

it might have been the roughest on him "renebean is??? my renebean is?????"

he asked a few times during the school hours for her. poor guy.

i only got a bit choked up as i was driving and asked rob how irene got to

be old enough to be in kindergarten.

so, at 11:40, i arrived to pick her up and she was all smiles and very happy

and looked a bit tired. i got a picture of her w/ms romaggi and then home we

went. she said she had a lot of fun and told me a bit about different places

in the room (there's a special reading area, they sang 2 songs, they had

outside time, etc). THEN --- as if going to kindergarten weren't enough to

make this a big day, as i was helping her floss her teeth tonight, i

realized that one of them is LOOSE!!!! it's the very first tooth she got

when she was 10+ months old - bottom left.

she went to bed SO jazzed about that. as i left the room i heard her say "OH

FAIRIES!!! I HAD THE BEST DAY EVER! FIRST I WENT TO KINDERGARTEN, AND THEN I

GOT MY FIRST LOOSE TOOTH!!!"

so that was our day. yup, i'm a proud mama who is still in sheer and utter

disbelief that this could have happened already. *smile*

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13 years later and I'm still a proud mama who is in sheer and utter disbelief that we could already be at this point. 

I look forward to her adventures in college and beyond!