NATIVES ON TOUR IN LAS VEGAS FOR THANKSGIVING

07 Jan 2011 11 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in Family Activities, Holiday Celebrations

Natives on Tour in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving

How can I begin this saga? I will begin with regret. Regret that we chose Las Vegas for our Thanksgiving weekend and high regret for the place we chose to stay. I cannot name the place because that would not be fair, but perhaps you can guess.

The check in process went smoothly and when you are checking in for seven rooms, this says a lot about the registration department of this hotel. I mention “the hotel” because; I never set foot outside of it due the trauma that was to unfold on the inside.

Everyone began to settle into their room assignments. I upgraded ours because I felt we needed a larger space to meet and greet.

At first the upgraded room from hell looked good. It was on the 62^nd floor facing the airport. After enjoying a few take offs and landings we set about nesting. Within the first twenty minutes my black pants were full of blonde hairs. I called down and asked the front desk if perhaps this was as doggie room. She assured me it was not. There were further masses of hairs clinging to my pants. I called Housekeeping and they came to increase the cleaning process. Then, an inspector came up to see that the job was done. I took my black sweater and rubbed my arm all along the sides of the bed and furniture. More masses of hairs clung. The woman’s jaw dropped and she said the house cleaners would come again. They came and this time I stayed to watch the process. They changed all the bedding and vacuumed all along the sides of the furniture several times and that seemed to solve the problem for cleanliness for the most part. It took the rest of our day to get this job done. What irks me to no end is that I paid good hard earned money for this upgrade from Hell. It was not a free upgrade or a compensated room.

I need to mention that the phones did not work, except for the ones in each bathroom. I spent a good amount of time on the potty seat talking from the bathroom, which possessed the only working phone to call the various people when I needed to get help. They never did fix the phones for normal talking; they got them to work on speakerphone, which is a yelling kind of talking. Talking exclusively on speakerphone is frustrating and headache producing for certain.

An Ethical Will To My Children: I Did Not Give You Life to Prolong Mine.

11 Nov 2010 7 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in Family Activities, Reflections, Trials and Tribulations

1971

When I was very young, I explored dying. Not the horrid slow, suffering kind of dying I came to view as I grew into my aging years, done by grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and friends. As a youngster, I viewed dying as leaving some very sad people and how they would grieve for me.

I am not afraid to die; I am afraid of the pain and long suffering and I do not want grieving. I want my death to be a celebration. I am afraid of the care that I will need to survive. Please God, please children of mine, do not make me survive past the time I can rise from my bed, take the pills I need to keep my systems going, comb my hair, brush my teeth, pee, poop and feed myself. Do not let me live past giving myself life-giving care.

Four Daughters

03 Nov 2010 8 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in Family Activities, Family History, Reflections

Here they are, four daughters in a row. Can you pick out the twins? I can. When the twins were babies I could be blindfolded and tell them apart just by their smell. I was very animalistic then about my babies. I still am. Better be careful. I bite.

No, I have not forgotten our wonderful loving son. He comes into view when we brought the twins into the house and he said, “Mom you had a girl and a boy and then you messed it all up.” Now, he cherishes all of the girls and they, him. But later we will talk son, talk, but for now it is daughter talk.

What is a daughter? Goodness, a daughter is so many things it would fill pages and pages, but let me see if I can condense it for you. A daughter is a challenging and trying human being that you love no matter what. Sometimes you think you have created a monster and other times an angel. Daughters do not take all that you have to give, they tend to leave a little more for next time. They give you only so much of what you need from them and keep you waiting to hear more. You want to know how their day went and how they are feeling. They say the word “fine” and you leave it at that creating a lull in the conversation. Sometimes on the other hand you get way more than you wanted in all ways. Not all daughters are the same; even if they share exact DNA, trust me.

You have heard many quotations about daughters no doubt. For example to quote a few, “A daughter is a gift of love.” “A son is a son until he takes a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life.”

Here is one that is priceless: “Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a Gorilla.” Jim Bishop. Then, there are ones like:

“ A mother’s treasure is her daughter.” “ To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter. “ Oh this is all hogwash; ok not all, but mostly. Sorry, but I’ll bet each one of you can come up with a saying, a personal quote, closer to home and truer than the words I have quoted above. So I am waiting. Post your personal quote. Here is mine

“If you have a choice of a son or a daughter, order both.” Or, like my mother told me; “ I wish you a daughter just like yourself.”

Natives are on Tour Again in Santa Barbara, California

20 Jul 2010 1 Comment

by Sheila Clapkin in Day Trips, Family Activities

Tomorrow, all seventeen of us we will head up to Santa Barbara, which is an hour and 20-30 minutes from home for a three day, two-night visit. We will all be staying at a quaint little B&B. I say that now because I really have not seen the place up close and personal. We will though, very soon. We have an outline of places to see and have left plenty of time for beaching. We will be located 1/2 block walk to the beach and I understand they have a wonderful playground on our beach, which will be perfect for the kids. Our list of things to definitely see begins with the Santa Barbara Zoo. You know that this zoo is one of the nation’s smallest, but most enjoyable, and family friendly. There are over 600 animals, so how small can it be??? More

Natives On Tour of Hollywood Return Home

12 Jul 2010 4 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in Day Trips, Family Activities

We are home, all seventeen of us, from our “Natives on Tour in Hollywood” adventure. We did not feel like natives, we felt like tourists. Yes, before you can ask, we saw the Hollywood Wax Museum, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and The Guinness World Records Museum. All of these entities need upgrading. But when in Hollywood, like when in Rome, you do and see what they have available to you. We ate at Miceil’s Pizza where nearly umpteen million years ago I went on my first date. It felt out of the ordinary to be sitting within sight of the table where I sat with a stranger eating my first taste of pizza, switching gears and looking at our family all sitting, eating, laughing, and enjoying the moment. We also ate at The Pig and Whistle, which is housed in a most wonderful, historical building and the food was very good. Morning came and we found our large party at Mel’s Diner, which was a perfect beginning of day two. By the way, you must also know that we ate our way all day at the coffee establishments and the various “snackettes,” mixed with an abundance of shopping and the offer of tours offered along the boulevard. There is no shortage of food, fun eating, shopping and people watching in Hollywood. In the middle of our jaunting, a huge cloud spread across the skies and within five minutes it started to rain. Hey, this is Southern California. It does not rain here in the summer. But it did. You should have seen Hollywood Boulevard with everyone scrambling for every nook and cranny to stay dry. The streets thinned of people and were soaked. Ten minutes later the rain had stopped and the streets began to dry. More

Natives on Tour in Hollywood

08 Jul 2010 3 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in Day Trips, Family Activities

Our family lives in Los Angeles, California. It is a hop, skip, and a jump on the new subway to get to Hollywood Blvd, where we have six rooms reserved at the old (1927) Roosevelt Hotel. All seventeen of us are natives of Los Angeles, but we are going to play like tourists in Hollywood. There is enough to keep us constantly busy. We have two days on Hollywood Blvd and one night at the hotel. I will keep you posted on our adventure:Natives on Tour In Hollywood.

Our plans have us lunching at Musso and Frank’s, touring the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with all of the characters on parade, viewing the stars of famous people on the Boulevard, seeing Toy Story 3 at the El Capitan, dining at The Pig and Whistle, and swimming at the hotel. The next day we will breakfast at Mel’s Diner, go on a tour of the Kodak Theater, walk the Walk of Fame, view the Wax Museum, and Ripley’s Believe it or not. Some of us plan to go to the Max Factor Museum while the others go on their appointed rounds. We want to make certain that we save enough time to enjoy the hotel and all its glory as well as seeing all of the wonderful places we have outlined for our adventure: Natives on Tour in Hollywood.

A Family Photo

20 Feb 2009 Leave a comment

by Sheila Clapkin in Family Activities

Today’s Bits and Pieces: Granny Maxine the Matchmaker

18 Feb 2009 Leave a comment

by Sheila Clapkin in Family Activities

Granny Maxine the Matchmaker.

April (our granddaughter) is in the first grade at Wilbur Ave School. She has a classroom volunteer the kids call Granny. Granny is the grandmother of a little boy named Devon.

Granny also happens to be Maxine the lady who fixed Skip and I up on a blind date all those years ago (49) and also wore my wedding dress after I did.

Granny was helping the teacher do something with the attendance cards and noticed that April’s emergency contact # was to call Sheila and Skip. She really made a big deal about it and the whole class and teacher were so excited about it. Granny told the class and the teacher the whole blind date story and the double wearing of the same wedding dress. It so happens April sits right next to Granny’s grandson Devon. What a revelation. Granny has been with the class since Kindergarten & they just found out about the connection. Cracky.

Granny called me to catch up after nearly 50 years and will call again when she comes to volunteer in the classroom. We will get together and chat awhile. April called and told me the story and she was so excited that she now knows the whole story about how her grandparents became introduced.

Today’s Bits and Pieces: The Colors of My Mother

22 May 2008 Leave a comment

by Sheila Clapkin in Family Activities, Life Events, Reflections

THE COLORS OF MY MOTHER

Nearly two years after my mother passed, my father passed. Many of us were helping to clean out the condo and ready it for sale. My niece came upon a bag stuffed full with what appeared to be dozens of scarves. She gave them to me and said she thought I might like to have them. I tucked the bag of colors in my box of goodies and when I came home the first thing I did was to empty the scarves into the drier for a whirl. After 5 minutes I opened the drier door to a shock that went through my body faster than a bolt of lightning. The colors of my mother leapt out of the drier and into my hands. I carried them to the table and continued my astonishment. My mother appeared out of every single scarf and her expressions changed as each scarf was laid next the one that had already given a performance.

My mother liked a preponderance of light brown, the color of caramel and ground spices. She liked to back it with a light aqua softness. She splashed a green color to keep things up front, insuring she would not disappear in the background of softness. All of her colors are background colors to me, but when I look at this bunch I can see that her background colors were foreground colors to her.

She used a golden rod yellow to accent the soft browns, therefore gathering the strength and brightness of sunlight, yet allowed for the softness of sunbeams as they cascade down the scarves giving a prerequisite to the uplifting spirit of caramel and ground spices on overloaded.

As I look at the collection of my mothers colors, there is one slight, almost splash of red. Oh mother are you saying, ‘blood of my blood?” Our blood of each other has created such different entities. Our colors are so very dissimilar. I always knew that, but this experience with your scarves is so graphically explicit. I have hung the scarves on a beautiful hand carved hanger and they intermingle creating an interplay that is expressing to me all of you and all that I knew about you.

I would someday like to uncover a secret, a hole in your character, but that will never happen because you strove to be perfect; you always were and you always will be. I do thank you because I always knew you did the best you could, more because you wanted the best. I know now that we are who we have become through the ages, through the stages and it remains just this way today as well as for those who will continue after us. We have done our best with our soft and vibrant personalities, with our soft browns and our brilliant reds, through our yellows, our greens, your blues and my black. You never wore white, neither did I. If you could see the beautiful colors of you, I would see your precious smile again.

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