Tattoo

When I was growing up, the only tattoo I ever saw was the one on my cousin Tony’s arm. My cousin is 17 years older and served in WWII on a naval carrier. His tattoo is on the inside of his left arm, a Navy man in a hula skirt, shirtless, wearing a sailor’s hat. When he moved his arm around, the sailor did a hula dance. I thought that was pretty cool! Anytime I would see a tattoo, it would always remind me of Tony’s.

I forgot about tattoos when I had my 9 children. They kept me too busy to even remember a tattoo. Of my 9 kids/ my one son took a trip to California and came back with a Tasmanian She Devil tattoo. Then he got a wolf tattoo. Slowly, others in the family followed, and now 6 of my kids sport tattoos. Some have one and others have multiples.

The first couple of tattoos sent their Dad over the edge. I just kept quiet. Why bother, it was too late to say anything. I remember I did ask what I thought was an important question, “Was the needle in a sterile package before they used it on you?”

I listened to my ex go on about bodies being the Temple of the Holy Spirit and who were they to defile it! Yeah, whatever! I’m sure that went over their heads.

Then one summer after, I had graduated from Grad School, I celebrated that fact at the beach with my oldest daughter and a daughter in law. The three of us drove to Vilas, New Jersey and got tattoos.

Afterwards at the beach house, where my son was babysitting three little kids, in frustration he asked me, just like a crazy parent, “Are you crazy! What were you thinking? Are you in a midlife crisis? Remember, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit! Was the needle sterile?”

My answers would have been, “Yes. Nothing. Yes. Yes. And Yes.”

But before I could respond my son, with a twinkle in his eye, and a big smile, gave me a high five and said, “Nice Tat, Mom!"

The Strip

For anyone who lives in the Pittsburgh area, a trip to The Strip District is a must. There is nothing better then an early Saturday morning trip to The Strip where you can start off with breakfast at the landmark DeLuca’s or Pamela’s Café or any one of the other area restaurants. Any place will do, any breakfast from simple pancakes to fancy ones from basic eggs to crepes or omelet’s. If not a full breakfast then just coffees or pastries at one of the coffee houses, like La Prima Espresso Coffee Company or Fortune’s Coffee Roastery.

Armed with a full stomach, a visitor can walk up and down Penn Avenue and shop at Wholey’s for a great price on fresh seafood of any variety. Or the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company for an array of chesses, pastas of all different kinds, imported olive oil and more at reasonable prices. Keep walking if you are looking for different products from the many ethnic groceries like Stamooli’s, Greek; Reyna’s, Mexican; Sunseri, Italian; Labad’s, Mideastern; Lotus Food, Asian, and MyNgoc, Vietnamese.

Stop in at The Enrico Biscotti House for freshly baked breads and an assortment of biscotti, and other pastries. If you’re searching for different types of spices, Penzey’s can’t be topped. If you are looking for specialty foods there is Parma Sausage, and Benkovitz seafood, where you can also stand in line for a famous fish sandwich.

Along The Strip are other specialty shops featuring artisans and crafts such as Art of Steel, The Textile Studio, Penn Avenue Pottery, Gene Sane’s Mahlia or Company Antiques. In The Kitchen has anything you would want or need for your Kitchen. Mon Aimee Chocolat has scrumptious, around the workldtreats. My favorite place is Roxanne’s Dried Flowers. It is a bit pricey but well worth a look.

No one leaves The Strip hungry, not with the sidewalk grills working overtime. There are tons of outdoor vendors, selling sunglasses, T-shirts, jewelry, pastries and fresh cut flowers. But, if you want indoor dining for lunch or dinner, there are numerous places to try…Primanti Brothers for their famous sandwiches stacked high with meat and fries and coleslaw; Roland’s Fresh Sea Food Grill; Sushi Kim, Mullaney’s Harp and Fiddle, or Klavon’s old fashioned ice cream parlor. For upscale dining try Eleven, Lidia’s Italian Restaurant, or Kaya’s for Caribbean fare. In the evening, The Strip has its bars and dance clubs.

There are just a sampling of places to visit at The Strip

The Strip is a great place to go – alone, with friends, family or for tourists. With warmer weather arriving – arrive early to get your parking spot and beat the crowds for breakfast. There is no doubt that The Strip is the place to be on a Saturday morning.

Candy, Suckers, Chocolate, Cookies, Oh, Yeah!

Where do kids put all of these treats? How many cookies and suckers and chocolate and cookies can they consume? I fear, a lot!

When my kids were little, I thought that I had found the best hiding places for my treats. But they found every one of them…under the kitchen counters, in the really high cabinets, in closets, and in a trunk. It didn’t matter, they found every hiding place but one.

One house that we lived in had a fireplace in the Master Bedroom. There was a safe behind the picture that hung there. It was a rental and I was the only one that knew about this wall safe. That was where I stored my special treats and no one, knew that safe existed!

I do remember that Halloween presented a problem with all those treats that my kids collected. We usually figured out how to remedy that problem. One was to let them eat their treats until they puked. The other was to let them eat a few treats and then we would save the rest and dole them out on a daily basis.

Do you think that number two worked? Not with my kids, who could sniff out those treats, no matter how well they were hidden. My suggestion for any one is to build a wall safe and hang a picture over it. And tell no one.

Now, I find with my grandchildren that they can consume just about anything. They are like a herd of locust and anything on the counters, in the refrigerator, or the food pantry is fair game. Right now I am watching my 4-year-old granddaughter, Anna. I just had to arm wrestle three chocolate truffles that she found. Before she could scarf down the third one, I arm wrestled it away from her to share with her little sister, Chloe.

So, I guess the best solution to all of this is to limit what you have and buy only healthy items, (that kids won’t bother with). As for me, I sometimes long for a nice fat Twix and an orange soda. Yeah that would really hit \the spot right now!

Dining With Friends

Something I like to do is to go out and eat. Usually when I go out, it is with my family. But this time it was on a Saturday night with a group of women. One was my friend from Cleveland; the other was her friend and her friend’s sister.

Growing up – I had friends. I went to sleepovers or had my own. I went with friends to dances, football and basketball games, to the movies or out to eat pizzas. This was from the time I was in 8th grade until college.

Marriage brought a few friends into my life. But with a family, I didn’t have or make the time to cultivate friends and go out. I had one or two close friends to visit over coffee, while the little ones played with each other, and the babies napped. Each child brought more work into my life until ‘going’ out with friends was a distant memory.

Now my kids are gown up with their own families and things to do. I babysit some of the time, and have my kids over for dinner other times. Or we might go out to eat. To share a dinner out with friends is an oddity or rarity for me. But it does happen once in awhile.

This past Saturday evening, I went out to dinner with friends. I felt like a real life, adult when I drove to The Strip District and met the four other women at one of the restaurants. For a few hours I wasn’t a mom or a grandmother picking up a stray crayon off of the floor, or wiping up a spilt drink on the table.

For a few hours someone else did the cooking, serving and the dishes. Someone else brought me a meal. I carried on a mature conversation with a few women in a very cool restaurant setting, with other adults eating around us. I really enjoyed myself.

My advice to all women is to make friends with other women, go out with them for coffee, lunch or dinner once in a while, or as often as you can. Even though you’re busy with your life or with your family or work, having that time away with friends is a plus. It recharges your life batteries. It shakes up the old routine. It just keeps things fresh and new. Plus there is nothing better then being with other women to laugh and talk and renew your spirit.

A Friend

Along the way, I have always had at least one friend. To me a friend is someone to talk to, share secrets, ask advice, and especially one to laugh with.

I think sharing secrets and laughter are two of the most important things in a friendship. It is always important to talk to someone about what bothers you. But laughter is probably the most essential component of the friendship.

I have a very close friend, well more of a blood sister to be exact. On one crazy day, we cut each other and let our blood flow and mingle with each others. Yes, my friend and I are crazy and we love to laugh together. Now, we have each others blood to add to our friendship.

I know when I am down; I can count on my friend. She was the one who stood by my side when my ex first left. She was the one I could call anytime of the day or night (I never really called too late), morning, noon, or night. She never chastised me or criticized me. She patiently listened to all of my stories, over and over. She was the one who pushed the Kleenex box in front of me, hugged me, told me that I wasn’t crazy, and promised me things would get better when I thought that my grief just might kill me.

She encouraged me to take the plunge when I thought about going back to grad school for my writing. As for my writing, she was my writing buddy and was the one who would proof my work and be a sounding board.

My friend was in lock step with me, every step of the way, until I graduated and was divorced and finally could see the brighter, clearer world. I like to think that I have been as good of a friend to her as she has been to me.

So, for anyone who has a friend, a girl friend, a close friend or a blood sister biologically or one where you used a sterilized needle with…this might be the perfect time to praise them, thank them, or just hug them.

To my friend…Thank you!

Family

Sometimes when I am in a nostalgic mood…I think a lot about the old days and my family. I remember how much fun I had when I would visit my relatives in Utica, New York. I recall how my brother and I would go to the corner store and buy candy and read the comic books on the shelves, or follow the railroad tracks and walk from one grandparents house to the other. Or how we would go to the corner store at my Grandma Preston’s house and be able to buy a slice of Tomato Pie. Or, during the summer, we would sit on the upstairs porch, flip the big rattan chairs over and make a big fort out of them, and hang inside and play.

I remember spending summers at my Grandma Preston’s house and playing rummy or gin rummy with my grandmother and Uncle Carl, all day long. Or playing cards with my Uncle Bugsy (that was his real name and he was also a card shark). I actually cheated in cards with him and when he caught me, besides laughing, he called me a little snot. I learned how to cheat from my Dad in cards; or rather he taught me how to deal from the seconds and thirds of the deck of cards. He was a gambler, worked in Vegas and actually gambled away the family house.

There are a million and one memories that come to mind. I usually share these with my kids and wonder if they will ever remember them or if they will ever be a part of their life, as it was a big part of my life. Then I realized that if you never have met those people, those memories are not theirs but mine. So I share my life and stories with them and try to make them come alive.

Four incidents recently occurred that made me know that some of my kids and grandchildren really are interested in what I say or share with them. They actually have heard me, which surprised me. First, my oldest grandson, Matthew, has a blog called Hot Dog Comics and Other Cool Things. He and his father (my oldest son) are sports nuts. I had seen a really good sports documentary on HBO about Joe Namath and I told my grandson about him. Matthew had never heard about Joe Namath…not surprising, since my grandson is only 11-years-old. But since Broadway Joe was from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, I thought that it was important to know who he was and what he accomplished. I told Matthew a lot of interesting things and before I knew it…he wrote a blog about Joe Namath. It made me smile when I read it.

The second thing was that I had told my granddaughter, Brooke, about when I was pregnant with my last daughter that I craved and ate a Twix candy bar and drank a can of Orange Crush every day. At Christmas, Brooke handed me her present and when I opened it, there were two Twix candy bars and a six pack of Orange Crush. Wow!!!!

Then my oldest granddaughter, Hannah, asked me about my grandparents and presented their story for her class assignment. She used photos, my grandfather’s naturalization paper and a few other items.

Then there are the other stories about my father that I have shared with my son Brian, and he in turn shared those with his three little girls. They honor my father’s memory at Christmas when they put up one of their trees in their dining room. They decorate the tree with his ornaments and call it Grandpa Aiello’s tree!

All these memories and sharing them and having seen the results makes me feel good and puts a smile inside and one on my face.

Writing

Writing for me is as essential as eating. I love to eat and therefore, I love to write and need to do both on a daily basis to survive. Everyday, I write in my journal. A lot of the time my journal writing holds the key to my other writing.

I do work on my Blog (http://ayearoutsidethepython.blogspot.com). My subject matters vary. I am a random person and my writing covers three main topics: family, working at my daughter’s catering kitchen, and any topic that strikes my fancy at the present. Those topics vary from what irritates me, makes me happy, and makes me laugh, or makes me shake my head in disbelief. Sometimes, I write about my favorites – people, movies, sports, books, and more.

Right now, I am working on a book. After three years, my magazine article in Primo Magazine has been published. Just seeing my story, the photos and my by-line in print, has fueled and energized my writing. I have e-published my first book on Amazon for Kindle and it can also be purchased through the Barnes and Noble site for the Nook. The name of my first book is The Doctors’ Wives. Presently, I am working on the sequel to that book.

While working on my book, I usually average from 5-10 pages of writing a day. Once I do that I go over my writing and make corrections and additions. Eventually, I will go back over my story and add more descriptions of the people and the scenery. I find that with this book, I have grown extremely fond of my characters. They are a part of me as is the story.

Actually, I have written three other books with more ideas of other books and stories to follow, along with my Blog, and journal writing. Whatever happens, I know one thing, I am a writer with a lot to say and I will continue to work on my own or as a freelance writer.

Bottom line – I write because I love it.

A Pierogie Kind of Day

When I first think of pierogies it brings me way back to when I was a young kid and lived off of Lorain Street in Cleveland, Ohio. I would walk down the street and pass the bars, and believe me there were a lot of bars on Lorain Street. In the windows there would always be a sign – Friday Night Pierogie Special and Beer. Pierogies? But being Italian, that word was an alien one but eventually I would come to recognize it as pure Cleveland. Now, when I walk by a bar or restaurant in Pittsburgh…the signs read Wings and Beer Specials. Times have changed.

I am 100% Italian. I love Italian food. I especially love angel hair pasta with sauce and meatballs and pizza. As a matter of fact, I make a fantastic marinara sauce and outstanding meatballs. I own a pasta machine and made homemade pasta once for two. But it is a tedious job and could you imagine how much dough it would take to make pasta for 11? I bet you do!

My pasta machine is now at my daughter’s catering kitchen. I don’t make pasta dough with it but I have made pierogie dough. I use the machine to make the pierogie dough thin before cutting it into small circles. Growing up in my house my kids always made me buy Mrs. T.’s frozen pierogies, (for my Polish friend, Elaine…I apologize for this). For snacks which seemed like all the time, my kids would pull out the package, sauté onions and add the pierogies, sit down and eat them with gusto!

But yesterday was my pierogie day. I was at my daughter’s kitchen at 9 a.m.and was the last person out of the kitchen at 5:30p.m. In between, I cleaned 8 dozen mushrooms, removed the stems and stuffed 4 dozen with a sausage and cheese filling. The other 4 dozen mushrooms would be stuffed with a savory herb filling later in the morning. I cleaned and ran the dishes through her machine, constantly.

I started on the pierogie dough. It is a basic simple recipe with five ingredients to it, but I had to make five single recipes instead of making five recipes all at once. The dough comes out better if you make single recipes. I placed each single recipe, after it was kneaded, into a bowl, covered, and placed each on the top of the stove to keep warm and to set. Then I made the potato/cheese filling. My daughter set up the machine for me and left the kitchen to go home and take a long nap.

From noon until 5:30, I worked on pierogies. Using the pasta machine, I pulled off medium sized pieces rolled it and put it through the pasta maker three different times. With a small jar top, I made circles and placed the circles on a long sheet tray sprinkled with flour on the parchment so none of the circles would stick. I kept doing this layer after layer of circles with plenty of flour and parchment in between each layer, until the sheet tray was filled.

I checked the master food sheet to see how many pierogies needed to be made - 12 dozen pierogies. I could have placed everything in the Walk In refrigerator, cleaned up and finished my job tomorrow but decided to keep going. I filled each circle with a quarter size of potato/cheese filling and added some water on the seams to pinch them tight into half moons. By 5:15 I was tired but I had finished my job. I put everything away, ran the last tray of dishes, knives, and bowls through the dishwasher, washed off the counters, put on my coat, and thankfully locked up.

Outside, I felt a wave of relief, a sense of accomplishment to go along with my aching feet. I hope the 12 dozen pierogies taste as good as they looked.