My Dad left Saturday just in time for Claudio’s sister, who’s visiting from Brazil, to check into The H.C. We had lunch in Santa Monica yesterday, and on the way there, while driving down Sunset Blvd., there were 3 Ferraris and 3 Lamborghinis that were drag racing. Finally a cop showed up, but none of them even got pulled over! Anyway, watch the video to see what could have been the disastrous results:
Recently, my cousin told me about some people who read my blog regularly but don’t really know me that well. They remarked to her that, “Everything with Carey is an event!“. I chuckled when I heard that but laughed even harder this week when I watched the TV show “How I Met Your Mother“. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a great show that stars Neil Patrick Harris and an ensemble cast. It’s basically a 21st Century “Friends“. In this week’s episode, Marshall is derided by his wife Lily for creating another photo montage that drove his friends away. It seems that Marshall was addicted to creating photo slideshows with music, documenting the most mundane events in his life; like pet-sitting or ordering Chinese food. LOL, remind you of anyone?? Take a look at this clip, it’s hilarious:
Heck, I admit I’m a narcissist, but isn’t every blogger to an extent? (By the way, it’s not narcissism if you truly are better than everyone else!) It’s baffling to think why total strangers should be interested in looking at my pictures and videos, but yet I post them and expect feedback like any good narcissist. So I guess Marshall and I have a lot in common. (I could be in worse company.) Though, if I start adding my own signing to too many of my videos, feel free to tell me to stop. I’ll try to spare my readers that indignity! So without further ado, here are the photos from Lisa & Shelby’s birthday celebration tonight (hardly a mundane event!), set to the tune of Lisa’s favorite singer (and a narcissistic song!). (YouTube wouldn’t let me post the slideshow with the music, so you’ll have to look at the pictures and listen to the music the old school way!) Happy Birthday Lisa!! xoxo
The day started with my aunt and I heading to LAX to meet Claudio and his brother, sister and sister in law, and their two kids, and Chazz of course. Then we picked up my Dad at the airport and headed downtown to Philippes for lunch. Dinner for 17 was at Buca di Beppo and was followed by Joel’s college (American) football game. My brother and his girlfriend and her two kids checked into The Hotel Careyfornia after that, and today they headed down to Disneyland. I had other plans, and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for the first time in nearly a month. It has been a very long past 3 weeks, and I’m exhausted! My Dad is going to stay with my aunt for a few days, and he’ll come back up to The HC on Thursday after we celebrate Lisa’s birthday. I’m looking forward to a little rest and relaxation until then. Have a good week!
Uncle Ryan with the munchkins
Aunty LuLu and I met the whole gang close to the airport before my Dad flew in
Aunty LuLu is staying at The Hotel Careyfornia! She’s enjoying the 5 star accommodations and partaking in our VIP program! My Dad arrives Saturday for a week, which I know she will enjoy. Tomorrow 20 of our family members are getting together for a big dinner. Should be fun!
Today I took her to out for lunch in Beverly Hills. As we were leaving, Nick Carter and A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys walked by. I said, “Aunty, those are the Backstreet Boys.”. Her reply: “Oh I love them…but aren’t there 4??” LOL
Incidentally, here’s the funniest thing I’ve heard so far regarding the moose murderer’s Machiavellian maniacal memoir, “Going Rogue“:
And so the imbecility continues. You’re no rogue Sarah, you’re just a …mindless woman with a pretty face and a vapid gaping gash. Go away! (Don’t read if you’re easily offended by juvenile sexist comments!)
Five years ago this very second I was in the hospital in Mission Viejo filming the first video below of a crying baby boy who would come to call me “Ca-wee”. Five years later, little Andy is the light of all of our lives. In ten years I’m going to show him the second video and wonder if he still has his soap and ketchup bottle collection? Let’s hope so! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!! xoxo
Andy, minutes after birth and 5 years later “eating wind”!
For his birthday, Lisa hired “The Lizard Wizard” and Andy’s dream of holding an alligator came true. He even liked the tarantula and the cockroach (unlike some of the kids…and adults)! What a brave little boy!
Happy Birthday Andy Bear!
Even Mommy got in on the action!
A princess and three handsome princes??
Direct from Madagascar came this cockroach!
The expressions on this little boy’s face were priceless!
In August, less than 2 months before he died, my Uncle George visited his hometown of Iron Mountain, Michigan and went fishing with his brother. To say my uncle loved to fish was an understatement. I think the only thing he loved more, was his wife, his grandkids and his brother! Despite a cold rain that day, my 81 year old uncle and his brother hiked more than 100 yards through the woods, carrying a heavy canoe to a secret fishing hole. They had quite an adventure that day, and his brother wrote a story about it that was published in the local paper:
IRON MOUNTAIN – It was tough, but the end reward was worth it all.
Let’s just say our fishing trip seemed doomed from the start. It was a bright shining day when I picked up my brother George. Then things started to go a little bad.
While in the truck, we noted we both forgot sunglasses – number one mistake. We picked up the canoe at the camp and drove a few miles to a lake in the Republic area.
Then, two senior citizens still had to carry the canoe 100 yards through the woods to the lake. Got to the lake, ready to launch the canoe. We soon discovered that the paddles, life jackets, and fishing poles were back at camp.
Back to camp we go and we were back to square one.
Once again, back at the lake, ready to go. Then the minnow bucket tipped – minnows all over the ground. Hand-picked them up (a few even lived); now we are on our way.
While pushing the canoe out, we sank in mud up to our knees. Two seniors stuck in mud. But we got out and soon were floating across the lake. We paddled quite a ways and got set to put a dead minnow on the hook.
One hour into fishing and not a bite. We figured it was the minnows’ fault. We would not give up just yet.
Brother George decided to have a sandwich, took a couple bites and it fell out of his hand into the bottom of a slightly wet canoe. It seems things were getting worse.
But then the perch started biting.
In five minutes we had three 12-inch perch on the stringer.
Somehow, stinger and all fell out of hand overboard. All perch were gone.
Now for sure he was ready to call it quits. I talked him into staying because the fish were starting to bite.
Bottom line, 30 jumbo perch (10 to 13 inches) in a couple hours of fishing. We were happy and finally did call it quits for the day.
Getting the canoe back out of the woods to the truck was harder than getting in. Somehow that canoe got at least 100 pounds heavier.
I should mention on the way out I lost my pocket knife and Brother got poked in the eye with a tree branch and we crushed the minnow bucket.
We were glad to get back to camp in one piece.
But the doomed trip turned out to be a great success. We will both remember it for a long time and George now has a fishing story to tell when he gets back to California.
I’m sure it was the highlight of his vacation.
I’m staying with my aunt this week, and obviously there are reminders of Uncle George everywhere. I smell his cologne in the bathroom when I shower. I’m sleeping on his pillow, which I find comforting. Tomorrow, friends and family will gather to celebrate his memory. We’ve been trying to keep this week as normal as possible for the kids. Last night we made caramel apples which they loved:
Tressa, Andy, Dar & Tommy
Great Grandma (Aunty LuLu) with kids
Andy likes taffy apples!
Oh Brother let’s go down…down to the lake and fish
And finally, I couldn’t let today pass without acknowledging a birthday. Chazz turned 1 year old today!! In that year, I’ve taken over 700 photos of him:
Update: Despite yesterday’s incredible news, which I still encourage everyone to read below, my beloved Uncle George passed away peacefully this morning, with none of the extraordinary, damaging measures that he had to endure for the past week. I fully believe that is the way he wanted it. He made the most of his last night with us, and it rivaled the best of our family parties…and we throw good parties! Had he survived, his quality of life would have changed drastically and he wouldn’t have liked that. He fought until the end and surrendered on his own terms, enjoying time with his family. I’m so glad that I began making videos of his stories lately. He was the best story teller I ever knew, and I will always look back at these videos fondly and remember a life well lived. As I left the hospital last night to take my aunt home, I told him I loved him and he grabbed my hand and said “I love you too Care.”
Click Play, Above Right. “Now don’t forget, this is going on Internet.” “That’s all right!”
Uncle George remembered so much about his life and loved to share his memories. When I told him that I wanted to start recording him on video, he laughed, but I think he really liked the idea. The first story told in the above video is actually pretty funny. It involves a drunken train conductor and some young girls hitting on my uncle (who was even a stud back then) when he worked in a hotel after coming home from the war. The second story involves my aunt scouting for Nazi & Japanese war planes in Iron Mountain, Michigan (of all places) during WWII when she was in high school. The third story is a retelling of a joke they used to play on their (less favorite) nephew.
What a roller coaster of a day…from the time I took my aunt home on Sunday night and Lisa stayed the night with him wiping tears from his face, to when he extubated himself and started talking, saying it was the happiest day of his life, to twelve hours later when he died.
I posted the following blog at 2 AM this morning, a few hours before my uncle passed away:
Regular readers of this space know of my fondness for my Uncle George. You’ve watched him celebrate his 79th, 80th and 81st birthdays with me; laughed at the stories he told on his 60th wedding anniversary to his 82 year old “cougar” of a wife, my “Aunty LuLu“; and listened as he regaled me with stories of the “old days” that always ended with a hearty laugh. At 81, he’s far more fit than I am. In fact, he still works as an usher at the Angel’s baseball stadium, a job he loves. My aunt and uncle spent several weeks in Michigan over the summer while I was in Italy, and while there my uncle contracted a mild case of pneumonia. When they came back, he had lost a little weight, but since he’s strong as an ox, he didn’t let it affect him much and he continued to work around the house and go to his job at the ball park.
When I went to their house for my regular spaghetti dinner a week ago Thursday, he said he was feeling much better and even gave me an inhaler for my asthma that had been prescribed to him for his pneumonia, which he said he no longer needed. We all laughed and remarked that it was pretty sad that I was sharing medicine with my 81 year old uncle, because HE didn’t need it and I did! I didn’t take a photo that evening (like I usually do), as I remember thinking he still looked a little thin.
Fast forward to last Tuesday. My uncle was working the Angel’s game, but asked his boss if he could leave early in the 7th inning. As he went to leave, he collapsed and fell backwards hitting his head. As it turns out, there was a nurse waking by in the stadium. She immediately began giving my uncle CPR until the paramedics arrived. They determined he had gone into cardiac arrest due to a fatal arrhythmia, and shocked him back to life with a defibrillator. He was taken by ambulance to University of California, Irvine Medical Center where he went into cardiac arrest a second time and was paddled again.
Sunset from the hospital window
When I arrived at the hospital Wednesday, on my way to San Diego for a business trip, things didn’t look good. He was hooked up to a ventilator that was breathing for him, and his blood pressure was dangerously low. An angiogram revealed that a bypass he had more than 20 years ago was nearly completely blocked, and his heart was only pumping at about 15% capacity. Though there’s not much they can do about the heart problems at his age, they were hoping to wean him off the medicine so he could breathe on his own. And the waiting began. We all tried to keep a positive attitude and make the best out of a bad situation by laughing and letting him hear us laugh.
I was even able to get quite a bit of work done Friday afternoon
Back on the chain gang
The kids never went in, but they were a welcome distraction!
By Friday we all had to wear scrubs while visiting due to the possibility of infection. Also, he was beginning to develop pneumonia again. I stayed with my aunt, and as each day wore on, my uncle looked sadder and sadder. Because he was intubated (had a tube down his throat breathing for him), he couldn’t speak. Things culminated this morning as his medicine wore off and it became increasingly clear that he did not want to be there. It finally got so bad, that the doctor asked the family leave for two hours, and that’s when something remarkable happened…
Auntie holding Uncle’s hand…
When everyone was out of the room and the doctors thought he was sufficiently restrained and sedated, my uncle proceeded to pull the tube all the way out of his throat! Alarms sounded and the family was called back to the hospital. I had actually taken Tommy & Andy to see the movie “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs“, and by the time I arrived back at the hospital, my uncle was sitting up in bed, talking and breathing on his own with no IV or additional medicine! This is one really strong man! His first words to me were, “Now that you’re back, we can start the party!” I pulled out the inhaler he had given me the week before and he laughed! Obviously his heart is still very sick and my aunt understands that; but it was so nice, after a week of interminable waiting and hoping, that we were able to talk to him and laugh with him tonight. He’s still sharp as a tack, and as we left he was trying to get out of bed to close the blinds (a definite no no!). We’re taking it one day at a time from here, but I think my aunt will be able to sleep well tonight!
Earlier today while he was still intubated
Enjoying a little 3D normalcy with the boys
We called him “Doctor Doom & Gloom” but the comments on Facebook are trending in his favor (in the looks department at least)! He had nothing on my uncle though:
Move over Doc…you could have never competed with this!
Laughing, smiling and breathing again! After a stressful week filled with a literal Nurse Ratched, lots of Diet Coke, gallons of hand sanitizer and more than a few tears, a family gathers around its patriarch.
One of my favorite photos of me and my uncle, taken on his 80th birthday last year
I finally opened my mail the other night. The stack was over a foot high because I hadn’t looked at it since February. Anyone who knows me, knows of my aversion toward snail mail and my quest to live in a paperless society (with the exception of a few Christmas Cards that have been grandfathered in). Yet some of my die hard friends persist, which I do appreciate:
This was just sent in August, so I wasn’t too late!
This was my stack of unopened mail since February (I do pay my bills, I just do everything online!)
I found three checks, one of which was void after September 15th. Oh well. What am I supposed to do with a check anyway??The 60′s called they want their payment type back!
This is what the pile looked like after I sorted through it. The pile on the left is actually important mail, dentist bills, tax stuff, etc. The middle pile is all JUNK and being returned to sender. The pile on the right is work related statements and finances.
So, I ordered a self inking stamp for the pile in the middle. Think it will work??
This has been a long week, due to a family emergency. I’m currently traveling, and here are some photos from my hotel room today. Can anyone guess where I am? Hint: Despite the fog, I’m not in San Francisco or the Bay area.
At the emotional climax of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”, a well-liked African-American laborer named Tom Robinson sits in a courtroom in Maycomb, Alabama, falsely and cynically accused of raping a white woman. Tom’s attorney, Atticus Finch, implores the jury to find Tom innocent of the crime. As he speaks of the racial prejudices that taint the minds of his fellow men “in this year of grace, 1935,” Finch reminds his jury of Thomas Jefferson’s words: “All men are created equal.”
In 1935, as Finch is soon reminded, those words remained hollow, even within the sacred forum of a court of law. Yet Jefferson’s words linger in our ears today, their compact expression of an ideal reverberating ever louder.
In 2004, in a speech at the Democratic National Convention that would put his name suddenly in the national spotlight, the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, intoned Jefferson’s words. He cited them again in a pivotal speech last June in Independence, Missouri, addressing questions of patriotism that had threatened to swamp his campaign for president.
Now, we find ourselves living in a country where those words have taken on new prescience. Barack Obama sits in the White House as America’s first African-American president. For that reason alone, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is worth revisiting, if only to remind us how recently such blatant inequality was an ingrained part of our culture, how fresh some wounds remain — and yet how far we’ve come. Read more…
I encourage everyone in LA to check out the fine performances of The Actors Repertory!
And so, this weekend, I did revisit that infamous story, known so well to every American high school student. I’d forgotten the power of Lee’s potent words as intoned by Atticus Finch; and I was reminded, in light of a recent spate of bad behavior, that we still have a long way to go. The play was great though, and Donna, who was in town for the weekend from Portland, celebrated her 52nd birthday in grand style:
That’s Mica’s acting teacher in the lead role, supported by some amazing child actors!
Recently, my cousin told me about some people who read 
my blog regularly but don’t really know me that well. They remarked to her that, “
Take a look at this clip, it’s hilarious:
(Don’t read if you’re easily offended by juvenile sexist comments!)
the camp and drove a few miles to a lake in the Republic area.
Now for sure he was ready to call it quits. I talked him into staying because the fish were starting to bite.
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