Cherry Trees & Aviator Sunglasses

I doubt my sister Christine will sit down a write a post (it’s just not her style), so I’ll go ahead and talk about her behind her back (or, as my brother is quick to point out, in front of her back).

Christine is turning 20 tomorrow! That’s right – my tall, gorgeous sister of infamous pouty lip and artistic excellence is stepping into a new decade. She is leaving her teen years behind, embarking on what is believed to be the best years of one’s life. We spoke about this transition as a family last night; it turns out that during my mom’s 20s, she got engaged, got married, moved three times, bought a house, had two children, and switched jobs upwards of four times. When asked what she was doing when she actually turned 20, as Christine will be doing tomorrow, she grinned and said, “The same thing I had been doing before – getting into trouble!” [Our mom was a real wild child.] We are all looking forward to seeing what Christine accomplishes in this new decade.

She started the celebrations last week with a birthday dinner at Cowfish, among friends. Cowfish was recommended by Morgan, who had gone with a friend and enjoyed her meal immensely. It’s a SouthPark restaurant specializing in sushi and burgers, oddly enough. Their menu is a veritable book, and the choices are endless. Eating kosher is a little tricky, but Christine printed off the menu for us before we went, so that we could pore over it, Sharpie in hand, and cross out anything we couldn’t have. Worked like a charm. Christine strategically invited some friends to join us, and it was a really fun time. Mary was snapping pictures non-stop, so we also have some good memories.

Tomorrow evening, we will be spending time as a [complete] family – Greg & Morgan will be here with us, eating Christine’s favorite dish, salmon, and helping us celebrate the fact that we have Christine. She’s a special lady.

In Judaism, birthdays aren’t such a huge deal. However, I like to think of them as a day we can each set apart to look back on our lives and thank G-d for all that He has allowed us to do, and where He has allowed us to go. It’s an opportunity to thank G-d for those who have influenced our lives for the better, and pray that we merit to do the same in the lives of others. B”H, He will enable us to continue to walk in His ways and touch the future.

In honor of Christine, we pray:

G-d of days and years, Author of life, our times are in Your hand. We thank You for the blessing of life and for all that enriches our lives. We gather today in special thankfulness to share in the happiness of Christine Squicciarini. Be with her always as the joy of her life.

May she be blessed in health and happiness, and with the strength to overcome sickness and sorrow. May we have the joy of coming together for many more years, united by mutual reverence and love. Then will our lives be filled with abundance and blessing.

Amen! So may it be. Happy birthday, Christine! We *all* love you.

 

[today is twenty-eight days of the Omer; that is, 4 weeks]

Album Art

Greg & Morgan didn’t have a whole lot of pictures from their wedding featuring the two of them in their wedding garb, looking newlywed. Because of this, paired with their desire for such pictures, we had a photo shoot with them up in SouthPark! Christine, Mary, and I pulled out our cameras and creativity and walked around the Morrison shopping center with the groom & bride, snapping continuously. I actually put my camera on the continual shooting mode, which made for a lot of pictures…!

I was so proud of Morgan, confidently parading down the sidewalks in her sparkly white dress and pearl-studded veil! It proved ever so slightly tricky to get perfect shots, with Morgan always talking and Greg always laughing, but we did our best, and hopefully there will be some workable options in the end. I thought it was a cool idea to wait to do a wedding shoot until after the wedding and after the honeymoon, because a) the wedding guests weren’t left hanging for who-knows-how-long, waiting for the couple to finish with their photographer, and b) Greg & Morgan still retain the vestiges of their Bahama tans. Good call on their part.

As you are all well aware, we do not use our blog to post pictures, because we are wordsmiths. However, should you be interested in any copies of these pictures of the happy couple, feel free to request them via email, and I’ll see what we can do.

[today is Day 2 of the Omer]

Glow in the Dark: Light the Night

by Julianna Squicciarini

This year, our family is participating in the “Light the Night” Walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It will take place on the evening of October 17, in Symphony Park up in Southpark. We are very excited – it’s the first “walk” we’ve done for a cause like this. And for those of you who are unaware, this cause is close to our hearts, as our grandmother died from leukemia twelve years ago.

And hey – you know us. The Squicciarini Family just can’t help but make everything a party. How about you come walk with us? The more the merrier! Maybe we’ll even get extended curfew for that night… To register to walk with us, go to the following website: http://pages.lightthenight.org/nc/Charlnc09/Squicciarini. Obviously, we want you to join our group. How fun would that be?!

So yesterday was Light the Night’s kick-off luncheon, sponsored by and hosted at Noble’s Restaurant in Southpark <wow>. The five of us “kids” are the ones registered to walk, so we went together. Didn’t really know what to expect…but this is Noble’s, after all. So we dressed up a little, drove up to Southpark, and walked into Noble’s. There was a welcoming committee of sorts sitting by the door. We were asked to create our own nametags, containing our names, our fundraising goal, and our favorite movie (this year’s luncheon was Hollywood themed). All of us started writing…until we realized that we hadn’t even thought about our “fundraising goal”. I mean, please. This is all about WALKING. (And, as we learned, AWARENESS.) Not MONEY. You know? So, being the realistic Squicciarinis that we are, we settled for the nice, safe goal of $500. Easy enough, right? Right. Like they say, “aim small, miss small.”

They had this “red carpet” set up leading into the dining area. We felt like movie stars, parading in, dressed to the…eight-and-a-halfs, the paparazzi snapping pictures. It was really cool. We browsed their table of informational stuff, and chose seats. The tables were set with five chairs each. How apropos. So there we were, sitting in this gorgeous dining room, chatting away with each other, laughing about different things, as the room gradually filled with people. And then it happened. These two men walked in. I looked up and just barely caught their fundraising goal as they passed us. $40,000. FORTY. THOUSAND. DOLLARS. Um…that’s a lot of money. A lot of money. All of the sudden, we felt like pathetic dweebs only there for the food. <sigh> We started looking at the fundraising goals proudly posted on people all around us, resisting the urge to hastily cover our nametags with extravagantly expressive hand gestures whenever anyone came near us. $1,000 for the heavyset man in the pink shirt; $2,000 for the seven-foot redhead and her six-year-old daughter; $5,000 for the group of businesswomen at the next table. Holy toledo – we’re losers.

But all was not lost. The Squiccarini Family does not bow down. That is, we quickly caucused at our table, and came up with a fix. Morgan snatched a green Sharpie from the middle of the table – how convenient – and expertly added another zero to her nametag. Five people – $5,000. Doable. Peter smirked and handed his nametag over. And within seconds, our entire table had increased their fundraising goal by a factor of ten. It was beautiful. A prompt, perfectly-performed solution to the problem at hand. Talk about on-the-spot quick thinking.

Shortly thereafter, the speaking began and the food was served. All in all, the luncheon was very informative and the viands excellent. And although there were no less than four drawings for various prizes, none of the five of us won anything. <sigh> Sometimes I think those things are rigged…

So come walk with us on October 17! It’s only two miles! You can do it.

ACES

by Julianna Squicciarini

Due to the magnetic force of Facebook <gasp>, many of our regular posters (and by that I mean Morgan and I) have had a hard time finding time to keep all of our faithful readers updated on the family blog.  Our stats have plummeted, and we take full responsibility for that

So, just to keep you interested, here’s what we did yesterday: the Aces had their annual luncheon planning meeting.  For more explanation regarding who and what the Aces are, please comment below.  We went to Upstream, which is very upscale.  Morgan had found us a wonderful list of Charlotte’s top restaurants, and we found that Upstream has an excellent lunch menu.  We had a delicious meal!  Morgan got a bento box of salmon, rice, and vegetables – SO cool!  The food was very good, and we would definitely recommend going there again for lunch.  Unfortunately, the money spent on a dinner could probably be used as a downpayment on a car or house, so we won’t be doing that

Anyway, the Aces will be taking a short trip to the [hopefully snowy] mountains of Bristol, VA, later this month.  Usually, we have a Christmas Eve sleepover, but our plans and traditions have dramatically changed.  So, now that we are older, we have chosen to change our normal routine and spend three days *alone* in a beautiful house in a gorgeous neighborhood, compliments of our generous grandparents.  We are very excited (who wouldn’t be?).

So there is the update for these past few days.  All kinds of fun.  When we have this planning meeting, we always dress to the nines.  It’s one of my favorite times of year

Please remember that our choir concert is tomorrow night at 7:00pm in the Christ Covenant sanctuary.  You are welcome to come, and we hope to see you there.

Also, the ice-cold walk to Dilworth is on, scheduled for this Friday.  We are leaving our home at 8:30am SHARP, so if you want to come, please be at The Residence no later than 8:20am.  Thanks, and hope you’ll join us.

Die Fledermaus

Tuesday April 29 was the last of Opera Carolina’s 2007-08 performances, and the four of us went uptown (without Rachel Allison this time) to see Die Fledermaus, an opera written by Johann Strauss II. Although written in German, the opera was performed in English – a refreshing change from Italian or French songs. The story was amusingly lighthearted, a comedy of errors involving marital intrigue and various assumed identities, played in a mischievous spirit.  How unusual to see an opera that does not end with tragedy and tears!

Act II featured a lovely waltz danced by several couples, including a tiny boy and girl. They were all very impressive! We are big fans of ballroom dancing, both in film and real life.

Although we had planned to head home after the opera, the call of night life was too much for us! We ended up having dessert at Maggiano’s in Southpark, having a lively time as usual It was a late night, but what’s the use of living if— well, never mind.