Happy holidays!

We were away in Florida for about two weeks and had fun. Tom was the sole driver both ways and all went well ....except for a mailbox/taillight incident having nothing to do with traffic...but that's a tale for another day.

We got to visit with Diana and Linda and Joanne, which was great. We were sad to miss Wilma, but got to talk anyway.

It continues to amaze me at the number of acquaintances we have that visited Disney World in and around the time period we were in the area.

Since we've been home we have danced and seen the new Star Wars and gone out to a lot of lunches and dinners (well, I have anyway!). Tom got himself an I-pod at last and he is very happy. More health things are ongoing, but we are dealing with them.

Hooray for newly thinner Margie (hi!) and all her cruise and vacation tripping.

Thanksgiving it is!

12;35 a.m Tom and I are heading to bed early tonight. In the  morning we'll be heading out to the surgery center for his cyst removal (outpatient surgery).

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner tonight. We'll enjoy it again for the next few days. Why so early? There's a good reason. Really.

I see I mostly missed most of November in terms of keeping up with the blog. Let's see.....dancing, of course. Two concerts....Keith Anderson and Love and Theft. Read five books.Saw four movies. Enjoyed Bruce's Concert band at the library auditorium.Loved and sang along with the Moorestown Theater Company's production of The Pajama Game, had big fun at Game Day at the library. I played Collaborative Scrabble with some new friends I met there. I did some craft-y card and notebook cover making with the Eastampton Seniors, enjoyed meeting the author at our last book club gathering, and am happily increasing my contacts with old schoolmates on a daily basis. So fun!

I had lunch with Gemma and two lunches with Gee Gee Otto this month. Whoo hoo! I also had lunch with my Delran retired friends. (I eat lunch out a lot these days. Hmmm.....)

I can't believe next week is December already. O M G.   :-)

November!

So I'm thinking I haven't written for awhile....the usual. But that means we're too busy having fun, right?

I put all the photos from Sue and Patrick's visit on my gratis via comcast website:  http://rosallee.weebly.com/relatives-and-friends

It was great to see them.

Other things have probably happened but I can't think of them right now....but most recently we were in Atlantic City for the NJREA and then NJEA Convention and had fun.

We are looking forward to the concert at Prospector's tonight- Keith Anderson- and we have extended our upcoming Florida trip plans and will more than likely be driving because of the logistics.

Good news! I passed the test for my next certification level with H& R Block. Now my title will be Senior Tax Consultant (formerly Senior Tax Advisor 5).

This Friday is the big event for helping Medicare beneficiaries review/sign up for plans during the Annual Open Enrollment period (which will be ending Dec. 7th)

Sugarfootin'

I'm heading for Prospectors soon. I hope I remember how to dance....it's been so long.

Poor Tom hobbled home from golf Wednesday with a pulled or strained calf muscle that has him laid up for awhile. No bowling for at least a month. Golf...? Don't think so. Dancing...not now. Driving...meet the new chauffeur! Seriously, it's nice to be able to do things for him for a change.

Also in thoughts and prayers for healing are Ted (of Ann) and Michelle (of Melissa and Prospectors).

I've been doing some classes and meetings and lunches and Township events.

At the BCREA Fall Meeting/Lunch

Book Group

At Fall Focus

Sue and Patrick were on the East Coast and popped in for an unexpected but very welcome visit!
We went to Grounds for Sculpture and took pictures.


Hard to believe a week from today it will be November!

Sick

So yesterday my nose stated running and it hasn't stopped yet. Not fun.

Tom has a series of doctor's visits and an ultrasound and physical therapy planned for the next week or so. He has been coughing thickly for like a month.

On the plus side, Mike Kaminski, DEA President gave me access to the Delran website and I posted my photos and a little article about the Fall Focus at the Merion the other night. It was good to see them.

Mike Me Dan Michelle at the Fall Focus 2015

It was comforting to have a place to report about it.

I talked to Joanne and Marcia right before they left for the start of their Hawaii adventure. I look forward to hearing all about it upon their return.

Looking for a good cry?

Talk about a motivational speaker!
This talk about  his mother is enough to turn anyone away from drugs...you think?

Marc Mero's Mother's Day message on YouTube

If it's so autumn now, why was it 87 degrees today?

I am going to head out soon and hit Wawa and Dunkin Donuts both for some free (It's Coffee Day) liquid refreshment. How nice of them!

Today I had two classes for HR Block and I ran down to AAA in between to renew my membership which is up on Thursday. I even stopped at the gym for a workout, but when I realized I didn't have my book with me (to read while I treadmilled and biked), I went home.

No dancing tonight, but soon (yay). Tomorrow...the gym. For real. Book in hand.

Eva Cassidy

Here is an Eva Cassidy playlist I don't want to lose:
http://viewpure.com/QHfxMGEb9iE

It was her version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow they played during the In Memorium segment of the Emmy Awards.

We went to the movies tonight (Maze Runner 2) after I got home from my Contact shift.

Yesterday was Eastampton Fun Day. It went well, but boy were we tired by the end!

Too much driving!

Bad news: boo hoo...I left my leather jacket behind at the Sayen School for DKG State meetings.
I didn't realize until we were heading out the movies tonight (Tom is still too sick with a cold to go dancing). I hate when I leave things and lose them (I still miss my great green sweater I lost at the NEA convention ten years ago.....) I left a message for the State President, but my hopes are not high for recovery.

I was there for the technology part and I learned a few things that made it very worthwhile. Also, I was happy to share my "hotspot" with Carol from Lambda since it was my last day of verizon data for the month and I hadn't even used the free 1 gig up yet! (What I learned included a way to clean up you tube videos when embedding so all the other ads and additionals aren't part of it! :-)  Also, more about the new Periscope app (interesting, but I see a lot of abuse potential). I knew about bit.ly but was glad for the reminder. I can find all the members' info on the website (and I know the password).

Lunch was good.

Friday I had a pretty big schedule. Morning SHIP appointments, then the wonderful painting session with Eastampton Seniors, then the reunion meeting and so happy to see Eric Haines. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures! Oy.

It took an hour and five minutes in really fast turnpike travel and a big tie up at Exit 9 and Rt. 18 to get there....and then two hours to get home because of missed turns and wandering paths.

Oh, and just for full disclosure, we didn't get to see the movie either, because we were running late and there was a giant line and no other movies were any closer than a 45 minute away start time.

Tomorrow is Sugarfootin' Sunday at Prospectors. Yay!

Another year perhaps....

Sadly, this year's First Day of School Trip to Seaside fizzled...but the thought still counts.

They started school before Labor Day and Tom caught a cold somehow and wasn't feeling well enough to make the trip. I almost went alone, but decided against it at the last minute. What fun without Tom could there be, after all?

Happy birthday to Margie Ferrare!

The new NJEA sites version of the BCEA website appeared today. I hope it works out okay for them.
Meanwhile, I have my new DEAR Friends blog among other ongoing activities to keep me busy.

I am totally psyched to see Eric Haines on Friday!

A Blog for my Delran Retired friends group (DEAR)

I started a blog for the DEAR friends lunch group. 
It's deardelran.blogspot.com 

I wish there was someway I could notify them when there's a new post.  I guess I could email them, but I think that defeats the purpose. They'll just have to look at it on their own if they are interested (or remember). :-(

Heading to Piscataway

Wow, I sure was talkative last time I posted!

Now it is September. The new BCEA website isn't up yet. Corry is still in the hospital, but doing ok according to Alex who is in MA for a wedding this week-end. Sharon is staying at her apt.

It is now Labor Day weekend and I am looking forward to the "would have been the first day of school if they didn't start before Labor Day trip to Seaside". I am also looking forward to seeing Eric at the reunion meeting in Piscataway next Friday.

We have been to many movies and I am in a library book reading frenzy. :-)

So far with HR Block I have taken the Ethics class and am halfway through Intermediate  Rental. Fun to be back in learning mode!

Oh and I signed up for a free painting class at the library on Dina's birthday in October.

Tom is debating joining a bowlingleague for the upcoming season.

Sue sent a  photo Jennifer took of them when they took Jodie out for her 90th (!!) birthday. She looks great!

Happy 90th birthday, Jodie!

So nu?

It is so close to the end of August, it is unbelievable.

Not only that....school is starting the week before Labor Day. There goes my timely First Day of School Trip to Seaside! Not only is Sept. 2nd out because I have my first seasonal H&R Block class that morning, because it is before Labor Day they'll still be charging to get on the beach. Hmph!

I set the next DEAR lunch for the 24th and now I realize that's the NJREA Fall meeting/lunch date. Sadly, most of my people won't care, but I'm pretty sure Marge will go to that one. I can change it, but Jean Zensen changed her doctor's appt. so she could be there on the 24th and I already told people that was the date.....

No update from BCEA about the demise of my website (for the "new and improved" version). I guess it's off as of Sept. 5th as per original announcement.

We made travel plans- Florida in December, Arizona in March, Myrtle Beach in May. We were going to head down to FL and then back up from Myrtle Beach....until I realized that meant I wouldn't be home for the May 2016 h.s. reunion I've been working on and looking forward to.
So now we have different plans under consideration, but not yet booked.

The Brewins are going to be in town in mid-September. We definitely want to catch up with them this time.

I just found out that Corry, our cousin, was just operated on for colon cancer in a New York City hospital. He went in for other issues and they found it and hope that it was early enough to get it all, but he still needs chemo. Apparently he lives very spartanlike (without the fighting) in N. Jersey and is all alone there. Luckily Alex lives in Manhattan now and was instrumental in working with the hospital for him. His sister Vivien may be there now, staying at Alex's. I just happened to write an email to Sue and Jenn and Alex this morning and Sue wrote back with that news. He would much prefer to spend his recovery period in NC with his wife, Sharon. I don't know what is going to happen. I'm just glad they found it early and his prognosis is good.

We went out dancing last night and got Pat straightened out with her tax situation. Maybe we'll dance tonight too. :-)

Good-bye BCEA Webmaster

BCEA has decided to forego the current website format and use NJEAsites in its place. Just as was the case in yesteryear, the BCEA Second Vice President is going to be taking care of both the newsletter and the website. I wish him well.

In other news, we were all ready to head to AC for the Rascal Flatts concert when we checked the weather and saw the thunderstorm/heavy rain forecast for the showtime. Sadly, we decided to stay home. I hope our decision turns out to be the correct one for our situation.

Reunion Info Update

The May 13-15, 2016 reunion for Piscataway classes of 1965, 1966, and 1967 is being worked on.

 I am trying to gether classmates to let them know about it. This is not an easy task. (especially with a second reunion for the same group happening in October, 2016 with a big database of classmates from when we were all working together on just one event).

 Be that as it may, here are our avenues of contact:
 On Facebook, Kathy Klastava and I have been posting about it on our personal pages.

She has it as a Facebook event, but needs to get invitations to it out to people.

There is a facebook page called Fiftyish Reunion  that promotes the reunion as well as being a meeting place for relevant class members. There are limited participants so far, not only for the difficulty in contacting people about it (Facebook charges money to "boost" posts on it) (you can only invite friends or "share the site" with a proscribed list of email address on like yahoo or something....too wide a group) but also for the fact that many friends who were invited to "like" the page apparently didn't know how to click the button to do so. Oy.

So far there have been page posts asking questions, but the only responder, basically, is me!

Info about it is on classmates website  and the Piscataway alumni site

I sent a personal letter to almost every class of '67 member on classmates.com, but had a very limited response. The people who responded were interested and happy to hear from me, but I fear that site is outdated and people probably don't even have their same contact info as they did when they first signed on years ago and who looks at it if they don't notify you about a message?

There is an official reunion webpage- http://piscatawayreunion.homestead.com
and I am using the contact page on it to create a Directory so people can find out where everyone is now and what they've been up to....and to make life a lot easier for the contacting classmates for the next reunion.

Kathy handed out some flyers around town.

Erna has been calling people.

I was in contact with a Class of '64 graduate who forwarded a note from me to his group, asking if they had brothers, sisters, friends from our classes they are still in touch with. I have no responses from that avenue yet, except he sent it to teachers, too, and I heard from Pat Manfredi, my English teacher!

I am looking forward to seeing Eric Haines again after all these years. He is on the committee now and another meeting is going to be happening soon, hopefully.

I am also looking forward to seeing Norm Winter, the PTHS teacher who is going to be the guest speaker at the reunion and get back in touch with Sue Hayes Winter, my former Overbrook Rd. neighborhood friend.

I am looking forward to seeing all my classmates! I look through the yearbook and smile at all the photos and can't wait to see them in person!

The summer is flying by :-(

I posted a pool exercise video that looked very do-able so I could save it in case I ever run into a pool... Yesterday we drove to Brooklyn for Juni's first birthday party.

We had a lot of fun. Jackson was there and we met Karey's mom, Beverly, and sister, Lauren, who live in Florida. They have a lot of friends who came with their children...toddlers and babies. One baby was just a few weeks old! I loved that some of them became friends at their pre-natal yoga class. :-)

Here's the link for the party pics: https://tomro.shutterfly.com/nykayes/172

We found out that Doug Brewin was playing in Sea Isle City and really wanted to go, but we were exhausted after the high traffic four hours of driving to Brooklyn, and we never made it.
I see I haven't written for over a month or so. Lots of things have been going on. Maybe I should write here more.
Also, Margie Ferrare, what is going on with you (my only reader!) <3 you! Feel free to comment on this blog or write to me!

Wish I had a pool for these exercises!

Stay cool and get 6-pack abs with this easy pool workout:

Posted by PopSugar Fitness on Saturday, July 4, 2015

Jamboree in the Hills 2015

Hard to believe tomorrow is the last day of this year's JITH. It went so fast!

Posing in front of the Lee Brice screen

We have had a lot of fun hanging with Carol, Loretta, Peggy [aka The Jerzie Girls] and Bill and John.

It's always fun running into old friends from over the Jambo years....

Dave and Michelle

Cindy and Nick

Jeff and friends

Pat

Kenny and Carrie

Ed and Dawn

as well as watching and listening to all the country music artists.......

Love that photo line, too!

Dierks Bentley

Justin Moore

Native Run

Frankie Ballard

Thomas Rhett

Tom in Clare Dunn photo line

Clare Dunn

Chris Janseon

Sara Evans

Eric Haines!

I just got off the phone with my old Piscataway High School friend, Eric Haines! I am still smiling. What a wonderful thing to reconnect with someone who meant so much to me and helped chart the course my life would take from my senior year to now.

We are going to be meeting with the reunion committee in the near future and I can't wait! :-) Oh happy day!

July already...

I was just going to head over to my underused, underappreciated leftover attempt to get the May family into blogging their fabulous summer trips ..Here Come the Mays!...when I realized I hadn't been keeping up very well with mine. Oops.

So now it's July. Let's see. What's been going on since we got back from our travels... Not much, actually. Maybe I should just go back to posting their photos from Thailand...

Oh, I know. I read Stephen King's Under the Dome in two days. (It is over 1000 pages long!) Tom has been golfing in all this heat.

Hmm...I think it's time for more travels. I know! How about if we go to Ohio for the Jamboree in the Hills next week? Good idea!

Underfunding the pension

NJ Governor Chris Christie continues to disappoint.
Enough negative things cannot be said about this man.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

We are so close to home after our two week trip to Tennessee and Arkansas (Rt. 38 Moorestown). Tom's been driving since 8:30 a.m. TN time (It's 11:12 Mt. Holly time now).

Just to round out the photo aspect of the journey, here are the Arkansas family photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/118365729514060459107/VisitingArkansasRelatives2015

We had a good time all around and will probably do both again next year.

So tomorrow at 8 I have the Delran Retirement breakfast. It's hard to believe I have been retired for almost nine years now! (Have I mentioned lately how much I love being retired? :-)

Heading to Arkansas

The good news is we had a great time at CMA Music Fest 2015. 
If you care to see a gazillion photos click here
  If you want to wait until I sort through them for a more reasonably sized collection and post on Facebook, that's fine, too. :-)

The really bad news is we just realized (outside of Memphis en route to Little Rock) that Tom is no longer in possession of his car keys. *(We have a spare set that he gave me to hold on to). They could be anywhere between our hotel and here...and we stopped several times. :-(   I blame it on push button starting and keeping the car running for me to have air while Tom was out of the car doing things. They were attached to his belt and he never noticed when they weren't anymore because he didn't need them. :-(

I don't know if all the tags attached to them will be helpful if someone tries to be noble and find the owner for returning purposes, or identity theft fodder on the negative side.

Meanwhile we'll have to spend the hundred (s?) of dollars to replace it. 

It's okay. We have the other set and that's actually good news bottom line.

*Better news: they weren't really lost; we have the keys. Whoo hoo!

CMA Music Fest 2015

We made it!
The drive time was 15 hours and Tom did the whole thing. We had some intermittent torrential downpours, which was pretty scary. We got in after one our time, after midnight theirs.

I woke up at 9 and diddled around with reunion "stuff" until we finally left for downtown Nashville around 1.

We were entertained by a number of talented bands at the Global Live stage area. It was 90 degrees but there were occasional breezes.

After a brief stop for food, we headed to Broadway with our chairs and enjoyed the free concerts by Maddie and Tae, Tyler Farr, Rodney Atkins, and Kip Moore. There was a huge crowd by the time we left at around 10: 30. (Apparently we missed some filming at the other end of the street...one song by Kenny Chesney and also appearing, Florida Georgia Line. Oh, well.

We stopped at the Waffle House near our place on the way home.

I wonder how many people we know from NJ are here and we don't know it.

Tomorrow....the Riverfront stage.

Happy graduation, Nathan!

We drove down to Maryland yesterday. Nathan's graduation was today. We are so proud of him and so happy to see Alex and Jackson and Nathan and Sue and Patrick and all their friends.

This was at lunch afterward. Here are more photos of the ceremony and our fun times:

https://tomro.shutterfly.com/pictures/1414

Enjoying retirement again

Just to have this handy: http://www.visitmusiccity.com/cmafest
  It's a listing of the groups at the various venues.

So we got our seats for the 2016 CMA Music Fest already. It was a scary process. We had an assigned time and did the best we could with ticketmaster as a ton of fans tried to access it at the same time.

I am looking forward to this year's event!

Where does the time go?

I actually started writing a post last week, but I guess I got distracted (maybe looking for a photo of Tom's new car?) and it never got up.

So, yes, Tom got a new car....the day before his birthday, April 18, so what a great present, right? :-)

Talking about birthdays, Patrick's was yesterday and Sue hosted a "When I'm 64" Beatles-related party for him. [Just an aside; he is not "old and losing my hair"....] I wish we could have been there, but we'll be seeing them in May at Nathan's graduation (!! Nathan is graduating from High School??!!)

We've been doing a lot of dancing and movie going and other fun things now that tax season is over. Yay!

I was lucky enough to win reserve seat tickets for the XTU show May 30th, so I don't have to do any more tramping around to ticket runs....fun as they may be.....

In the bad news department, the governor is still doing all he can to destroy the teachers pension system as we know it (worst case scenario: end of pension in 2027). This is very scary stuff. I still don't understand why breaking the law is being allowed (and he's the one who made the law!!!)

Today is Emmy's party at Jill's and Sugarfootin' at Prospectors. Monday is the BCEA Legislative Dinner (and missing book club....too bad...I really wanted to talk about how much I enjoyed reading The Orphan Train).

Interesting day.....

I headed to the office to hook up with my fellow market-ers to drive in the HR Block illustrated car to participate in the belated Burlington County St. Patrick's Day parade in Mt. Holly.

It was pretty cold for the end of March, but it was sunny and they had a big crowd.

Oddly, my cell phone, which was really low battery, was appearing to lose instead of gain power as I tried to charge it...even when I plugged it into the car.

We got back to the office and....well after our driver of the day had left with the car......I realized my phone was still plugged into said vehicle. :-(

I got her number from Donika and then drove to Eagle Plaza in Voorhees to meet her and get my phone back.

I decided for a treat I would go to PF Chang's and have a lettuce wrap. It was soo crowded! I sat at the bar and read my book while waiting.

The lettuce wrap was delicious (albeit messy to eat!) and after I finished the bartender told me they weren't charging me anything because it took so extra long to get me the food.

When I walked outside the restaurant I bumped into my friend Ida and her family who had just finished eating there for Mike's birthday! How coincidental, eh?

First Day of Spring Snow Day Surprise

Friday was the first day of spring and it snowed and snowed and snowed all day. When I left my H&R Block office that night I had to shove off 8 inches of snow from the roof of my car!

It was in the fifties on Saturday, but still....! What a weather joke that was!

I just peeked onto this site to see how it might be used for MailChimp responses and had another shock. I haven't written anything on it in months! ?!!?

Now I am getting ready to head to the high school to see "Hairspray", which looks wonderful from the photos DMS posted on facebook, but I will try and do some life catching up on here soon.

Hello to my friend, Margie Ferrare and hope to see you soon!

One recent tidbit: Tom had cataract eye surgery........

Happy New Year!

And now it's 2015.... Does anyone besides me feel like we're living in the future?