Long Island Medium Reads Baltimore
I don’t have a photo for you all today so instead I’ll give you a mental image. Have you ever seen the show Long Island Medium? If you haven’t, let my conjure up a mental image for you: imagine your stereotypical long island woman stuck in the 80s with a big personality, big platinum blonde hair, big fake nails and even bigger sparkly high heels. The woman you are imagining is Theresa Caputo and she channels those that have passed, gaining fame from her craft on the show Long Island Medium.
Now you don’t have to believe in mediums, it doesn’t matter to me either way, but I find it enlightening to be open-minded about things that you cannot see (with a reasonable amount of skepticism). I’m not trying to convince you either way, but when I found out that she was doing live shows in the area I wanted to check one out. If given the opportunity, who wouldn’t want to communicate with their dead loved ones?
So my cousin and I headed to her show at the Modell Performing Arts Center in Baltimore (in the Mt. Vernon area). It was a really intense and emotional few hours where she read non-stop for loved ones that nearly all passed in tragedies. A few stuck out to me:
The first one that stood out was this mother and young daughter, who were there to connect with a female loved one, but I don’t remember her relation. The loved one came through and said she was at peace, but then immediately stepped aside so that this male energy could come through for them. He was very persistent and the mother and daughter had no idea who it was. But then they figured out that it was her nephew’s best friend that was hit by a train right in front of her nephew’s eyes. They had no relation to him, but he was so persistent because he needed to tell his best friend that it was not his time to be with him (he was having survivor’s guilt and suicidal thoughts). So Teresa was insistent upon getting the nephew on the phone. By the end of the show she got him on speaker and gave the message from his friend. It was really powerful.
Another reading that was very similar was for one of the lone guys in the audience (as one might imagine it was like a Michael Buble concert in there). Teresa said this spirit also came through because of the reading I just described, the message was for both the other woman’s nephew and this guy. The guy lost his best friend during his bachelor party. The best friend took responsibility for his passing as he had gone off on his own, had some sort of accident and died of head trauma. The guy in the audience thought about canceling his wedding (which was the same week as the friend’s death), and was torn, but eventually (guiltily) went through with it. He said he thinks about his friend everyday and doesn’t feel like he can be happy, but the best friend wanted to come through to tell him he should let himself be happy again. The friend wanted him to enjoy his future child and that he was so grateful that the guy was thinking about naming the child after the friend. He said that when it’s born he will be there holding it in his arms. And then his wife stood up and lo and behold, she was pregnant! FYI for all the skeptics the woman was sitting about 15 rows above where Theresa was standing, no one in the audience watching on screen could tell she was pregnant either.
One of the last readings that stuck out was for this one older woman (late 60s/early 70s maybe), who got a reading from her children. She lost FOUR children, but went on to live this amazing life for her “miracle baby” that did survive (her daughter who was standing next to her). She lost twin girls at birth and two other sons when they were older, who died within 3 years of each other. But she didn’t fall apart and it only made her faith in God stronger. All of her children came through to tell her how amazing she was and THEN GOD came through. Teresa said that this doesn’t happen often, but she felt God’s presence and He thanked her for her children, they were with Him and that was their purpose. And she said she already knew that.
Again, call it all crazy (though it could be argued if you believe in any kind of religion that belief could be called just as crazy) or believe it word for word, just wanted to share my experience. What reminded me to post this was that she is doing another live show in Reading and tickets went on sale today.
Now time to enjoy the weekend, I thought it would NEVER get here 
Photo Friday Catch-up
As promised, I have a lot to catch you up on. In many ways, this blog is a blessing. Come tax time, I have a record of the majority of my donations, one that I can access easily on my phone from our tax lady’s office. “How much would you value this donation or that?” “Hang on, let me pull up 25 Days of Giving on my phone.” It also comes in handy when I’m making a photo book. I take a TON of photos. So many that it’s often overwhelming to go through all of them so I just put it off. But if I’ve already blogged about it, I’ve already picked out my favorites. In the words of my husband’s company’s ridiculous marketing slogan for a drug that works faster than it’s competition, “Boom, done.” I’m in marketing, I’m allowed to judge.
But it’s also a Catch 22. If I’ve taken way too many photos, been traveling too much, or have done way too much stuff and not enough blogging, I feel overwhelmed and don’t know where or how to start back up again. I know this is a struggle for a lot of bloggers and I don’t have a solution. But I do have a mish mash of some of the stuff we’ve been doing to catch you up on:
First, a wedding. We’ve been fortunate to have only 2-4 weddings per year since we got married five years ago. This is one of those years that we’ll have four. I say that we’re fortunate because I know people that have had twelve weddings in a year, TWELVE! We feel pretty lucky that ours have been spread out enough that we’ve been able to go to most, barring date conflicts and illness.
The first wedding this year was for one of my friends from home. I love my friends from home. There’s a core group of us that have been friends for what feels like ever, the whole group consists of gals I’ve met from kindergarten to high school. You all know the BFFE of 25 Days of Giving fame, she is a part of this group. This wedding was for a gal that I met in middle school and instantly bonded with over our enormous glasses. We’ve both since ditched the glasses and not surprising to anyone that knows her, she made a stunningly beautiful and classy bride. Her and her husband chose the Peabody Library on the Johns Hopkins campus for their ceremony and reception. The Peabody Library consists of six floors of books upon books surrounding a center atrium used for events. Look up from anywhere in the center and you see this magnificent glass ceiling:
I was talking to her mom at the reception and she told me when her and her husband had first toured the campus (either for his advanced degree or his job – the details are little fuzzy to me) and while she was pregnant with my friend, she thought to herself what a beautiful wedding venue this would make. A few decades later and her daughter ended up choosing this spot for her wedding, funny how that stuff works right?
No smooth transitions in this mish mash of catch up. Next up: the birth of my newest niece. I am so lucky to be an Aunt to another little girl born last month.
We headed down to Georgia to meet the new addition and so that I could photograph her for my sister. Sorry folks, I don’t feel comfortable sharing pictures of other people (especially their kids) on the interwebs (which is why it looks like I spend all of my time with my dog and husband on the blog) but I will share these pics of her tiny little perfect hands:
Doesn’t she have the cutest little hands ever? [Insert ten minutes of me gushing about my perfect little amazing nieces here] I will spare you the gushing and details, but we did make the best of a very rainy weekend in the ATL.
Which seems to be a theme in our recent travels. The last little bit of catch up I have for today was a rainy wedding reception in Norfolk, VA. This one was for the hub’s best friend, an old college buddy. We all went to school together and spent a summer at the beach living together, so it was great seeing our old college buddies and catching up. We ended up having a fantastic time despite this:
The rain held off all day and literally started four minutes before the ceremony (both wedding and reception were supposed to be outdoors). This was the view of the city outside our hotel window as it rolled in.
It stinks having all of our friends live so far away and all over the country, but it’s neat being able to visit all the cool places that they live. Norfolk is a nice place to visit if you love the water (it’s surrounded by it) and especially if it has some sort of event going on, like the beer festival that coincidentally brought other York friends down the same weekend that we were there for the wedding. It’s also nice because it’s large enough to have a lot of things to do, but small enough that you can pretty much cab it everywhere.
So that’s pretty much what’s been keeping us busy the last month. I’m super excited for summer to finally get here and our weekends to finally slow down a bit. Enjoy the long weekend friends!
Rail Trail Pic
Between weddings, wedding related gatherings, traveling, home improvements and the arrival of our newest niece – I have a lot to catch you up on. But today was another one of those busy days where I’m just now getting time to sit down, gather my thoughts, and make my next list. So catching up will have to come later, for now I’ll leave with a pic I snapped of the Rail Trail today:
It’s not a particularly good picture, but it was a particularly nice day for a walk along the trail so I snapped a quick shot on my way to the post office.
Run for Boston
You all know I’m a runner. And the running community, which includes spectators, runners and volunteers alike, is a fantastic and supportive community to be a part of. During races, your adrenaline is pumping and spirits are high because you have worked so hard to accomplish this goal. Everyone is equally happy because they are also achieving their own goal AND nearly every race raises money for a good cause. It’s not hard to power through those difficult spots because spectators and volunteers are constantly cheering you on, holding up hilarious signs, and handing you water. But unless you’re a part of this community, it’s often overlooked. Until last week.
The morning of the Boston Marathon, other than a snippet of news that I heard, I almost had forgotten completely that it was Patriot’s day. I found myself thinking how sad it was that the national news coverage of the marathon isn’t even a fraction of the local news coverage (Patriot’s Day is huge Boston holiday). Fast forward a week later and I want to take that wish back.
A few years ago I mentioned that the hubs ran the Boston Marathon. But I didn’t blog much about the race and my experience there. So I thought I’d share just a little bit about what it’s like to spectate the greatest running event in the world of running (besides the Olympics). I liken it to the superbowl or world series of running – but better because you don’t have to be a professional to compete. You just have to be really really ridiculously good. It’s one of the few marathons for which you have to qualify. “I qualified for Boston,” is a statement of pride and understanding in the running community. So when the hubs made that statement a reality and I got to watch him cross that finish line, the excitement was palpable.
But it was crowded, uncomfortably crowded. At one point, I was physically incapable of moving forward or back even though the entire crowd was pushing to get through (we were barricaded on both sides). And that scared feeling, of being packed like sardines and incapable of moving, was all I could think of when I heard about the bombs.
I think we all feel some sort of connection to the terrible tragedy that has happened. I’m in awe in the varying ways everyone has shown their support for Boston, the running community, and this great country we call home. In a matter of a weekend, a national running event raising money for the One Fund Boston was thrown together to take place all across the country. York’s own running store, Flying Feet, organized a two mile run/walk that took place this evening.
When I say it was thrown together in a weekend, I’m not exaggerating. The organizers got the call on Friday, promoted via Facebook and word of mouth over the weekend, mapped out the course yesterday and got “Run for Boston” t-shirts printed today. And the turnout was amazing. A $20 donation from each runner went straight to the One Fund Boston because everything from food and snacks to the t-shirts were donated by local businesses.
Nothing can change the horrible tragedy that happened last week, but man does it feel good to be a part of country and community of people that do something good in the wake of tragedy.
Sunrise Fail
Ever since the beautiful sunrise I saw on my birthday last month, I had been wanting to attempt to see sun’s entire ascent from the Heritage Highpoint Park in Wrightsville. You may recall that by the time we made it to the top of the hill last time, the sun was already a third over the horizon. So I made the attempt again and gave myself plenty of time got there just in the nick of time, but sadly, clouds completely blocked the sun from view. It’s behind those clouds somewhere:
I still wanted to take pictures but you can tell how blue everything looked with no sun yet. I was trying to figure out what else to photograph so I turned my attention to my dog, who I had let off his leash. He’s usually pretty cute. But then this happened:
I had literally let him off leash for one minute and he found something that can best be described as sludge to roll around in. The smell was awful. It was akin to the muddy banks of the Chesapeake, you know, that rotten sulfur smell?
Let’s get one more look at that. Yup, on the collar too.
After two baths, he still has a faint odor. My friend suggested tomato juice to get the smell out – any other suggestions?
Road Trip to Pittsburgh
March has been quite the month. In order to stick to my celebrate-the-whole-month goal, we’ve been busy (having fun ). Last weekend was no different as we visited some old friends out in Pittsburgh. They moved from York two years ago and we hadn’t seen them since. It was great catching up but even better that it felt like no time had past at all. Sadly, I neglected to take any pictures other than one of the sweet view outside their apartment in the downtown area:
It was a really quick trip for us but we still managed to squeeze in a stop at Primanti Brother’s for lunch and the opening game for the Pittsburgh Power, the indoor football team. Primanti Brother’s is a sandwich shop famous for inventing the Pittsburgh-style fry and coleslaw stuffed size-of-your-head sandwich. Poor hubby had a tooth infection and couldn’t eat one. He’s still talking about wanting to go back so he can try one the sandwiches.
Sadly he also missed out on this:
It was not only my birthday but also the hubs and one of our friends that we were visiting. Naturally I wanted to celebrate with a fancy and scrumptious chocolate and vanilla cake from Copper Crust Company. Copper Crust is a bakery inside Central Market that makes the best chocolate croissants in the history of chocolate croissants. So when a I figured out a way that I could get my hands on one of their cakes with out risking eating the whole thing myself, I jumped on it. The general consensus (minus the hubs – poor guy) was that it was worth every calorie, even if you do have to risk eating the whole thing to get one.
Though it was a quick trip it super fun and so worth it. Have a Happy Easter friends! So sad my birthday month is over in a few days…
Birthday Sunrise in Wrightsville
For my birthday I asked for one thing (you know besides celebrating all month long – mentioned here). I wanted to watch the sunrise over the Susquehanna. And it worked out perfectly that my birthday happened to be over a weekend. So I got the hubs to agree. There was just one catch: it was the morning of Daylight Savings.
Somehow we made it just in time. Sort of in time. We went to Heritage Highpoint park (previously blogged about here), where there is a winding mile-long trail up to the top of a hill overlooking the Susquehanna. Or you can run straight up in grown-over-half-a-foot-high grass like we did. Because this was happening:
We missed the first part of the sunrise. It was already more than a third over the horizon.
I ran my little heart out to get to the top, the hubs cheering me on all Rocky-esque. My prize:
My favorite was after the sun was over the horizon, with it’s rays beaming on the building where we were married (which I recapped here), the Rotunda at Lauxmont Farms.
My guys were also enjoying the sunrise.
I believe they were thinking, “Hmm…we would look pretty cool as silhouettes running around in the sunrise.”
But my favorite pics of all weren’t of the sunrise.
Did somebody say bacon?
To get these I may have been tackled a few times. With kisses. He cracks me up. So worth it.
And the hubs even agreed it was worth it to get up and enjoy the sunrise. He even said he wanted to do it again. Of course he did take a three hour nap when we got home. But I’ll take it. Happy birthday to me
