Life, Love, & All That Jazz

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Bossy

I read this article in the Wall Street Journal and it really hit home. I posted it on Facebook, but found that I had more to say about the subject.

On Saturday, my daughter who will be 11 on March 25th had her birthday party. Twelve of her friends from school, plus a couple family friends, came over to play in our yard with a bounce house and slide I rented. It was a beautiful day. My mom commented how delightful all the girls were–they were polite, friendly, happy, answered when spoken to, and while they were waiting for ice cream cake, they sat around the table singing songs from their upcoming 4th/5th grade school play (at the top of their lungs, but all in key!)

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Tagged with: bossy, girls, leadership, women, words
Posted in Allison Brennan, Life, Love, & All That Jazz

Travel, With Kids

I was an only child. Wherever my mom went, so did I. My grandparents took me camping often in their trailer, and my grandpa had a cabin in Woodside where I spent many, many weekends either with him and my grandma or with my cousin, Matt.

When it was just Dan, me and Katie, travel was relatively easy. Sure, we needed extra clothes, and diapers, and bottles, and a host of other baby supplies, but once we got used to having a third, travel wasn’t all that difficult. Even when Kelly came, it was manageable. Two parents, two kids. Easy, peasy.

We don’t travel a lot. We do a lot of day trips, but as our family grew, our money shrank, and vacations became a lot more complicated. One of the hardest things was the age range in the kids — the older kids could do much more than the younger kids. Longer hikes, longer drives, bigger rides. So our two big family trips in the last few years were Disneyland and Lake Tahoe. And while we all had fun, it was exhausting. Not much of a vacation!

However, I’m rethinking this after our very successful two days in Los Angeles.

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Tagged with: Allison Brennan, bittersweet memories, family, kids, travel
Posted in Allison Brennan, Life, Love, & All That Jazz

Out of Town

I’m out of town and won’t be blogging until Friday (provided I get back at a decent hour on Thursday.)

Larry Brennan 1925-2014

My father-in-law passed away last week at the age of 88, and we’re taking the family down to L.A. for the funeral mass. It’s certainly bittersweet. We wish our kids could have lived closer to their grandfather to see him more often, but we feel blessed that they knew him at all. Too many kids grow up without knowing their grandparents at all, and our kids have their grandmother (my mom) and had their grandfather (my father-in-law.)

I love talking to the senior generation. They did more with less and for all the complaints we have today, they lived through so much more, world wars and a much bigger depression than we’ve faced. They had less debt and families generally stayed in the same town, or at least the same state. The past isn’t perfect, but it’s still wonderful. I loved listening to my own grandparents tell stories about growing up, and what it was like living in California during WWII. I loved listening to Larry talk about his life. We should all take the time to listen to our parents and grandparents, because their experiences are invaluable and we can learn so much from them.

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Posted in Allison Brennan, Life, Love, & All That Jazz

And the winner is …

I’m back from Oregon!

I had a wonderful time with my mom and daughter visiting Southern Oregon University. Kelly likes the school. I don’t know if it’s her first choice, but we’re both fairly confident that if she gets in and decides to attend, she’d be happy there.

I had never been to Ashland before, and it’s a charming town with lots to do, including great food and fun shops. We went to a couple art galleries and saw a musical Saturday night, DOUBLE TROUBLE, which was a fun two-man comedy (they played ALL 11 parts!) They were very talented and obviously had fun with the show. The Oregon Cabaret Theatre is in a renovated church, three levels, with dinner before and dessert during intermission. I would definitely return.

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Tagged with: Allison Brennan, anthology, Ashland, Dead Heat, Notorious, Oregon, RWA, Shasta Lake
Posted in Allison Brennan, Life, Love, & All That Jazz

GETTING OLD SUCKS…..SORTA

Sometimes life gives you little reminders of how much of it has slipped into the past. For instance:

One day it dawns on you that you really can’t cop to being in your forties when your son is almost thirty–although I am from the South…and complex math is not my strong suit.

When a bartender who looks like he never had to live through the indignities of the 70’s nor even the rebound of the 80’s tells you that the drink you just ordered is the drink of middle-aged women everywhere. (Between you and me, he didn’t deserve to live….but he wasn’t worth the jail time.) You give him a jaundiced eye and ask him why it seemed like a good idea to tell you that. And he shrugs and says, “You want to avoid stereotypes , you know. Okay, maybe he was worth the jail time….

You realize that somehow the word f**cking became an adjective and you missed it.

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Tagged with: sliderpost
Posted in Deborah Coonts, Life, Love, & All That Jazz

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Bossy

Travel, With Kids

Out of Town

And the winner is …

GETTING OLD SUCKS…..SORTA

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