Family

For the past few evenings, we've been catching up on this season's episodes of Blue Bloods, which is a about  family where all the men were/all cops, starting with the grandpa and ending with the youngest son. The dad is played by Tom Selleck and he is the Police Commisioner.  Anyway, while I don't really watch too many cop shows, I like this one because it isn't only about being policemen, its about family.  They always show at least one scene where they are having their usual Sunday dinner and everyone is there, the daughter with her daughter, the son with his family, and the single son. 

And it made me think back to when I was a kid and we would go to family things (well, not my father who didn't like my mom's family and vice versa) and have Thanksgiving with the other half of Mom's family (who did like Dad and vice versa). (Confused yet?)   And when I met Ed and started going with him, we were always around family and having big dinners and hanging out. 

But somewhere, it all fell away and now almost no family.  Which makes me feel bad for Sean Michael because he only has us and his sister and his aunts.  I don't know if he really cares or not, but it still makes me sad for him.  I can remember having a lot of fun with my cousins and Ed's cousins and always having someone to talk to. 

I know Blue Bloods is just a tv show, but I think the concept of family dinners every Sunday is a nice thing to do.  And it makes me wish I had a big family to have that with; maybe not every week but once a month.

And then again maybe I am just old-fashioned liking that kind of stuff. It's kind of funny to think I'm old-fashioned in this modern world, but if it means family and family dinners, then I'm good with it.

A little old-fashionedness never hurt anyone....and could make for a better world. Too bad it's gone by the wayside.

The Bucket List, Part II

Yes, I have finally done it.  Started a Bucket List.  Why, you ask?  I was reading a magazine the other day and there was an article about Amsterdam and it just looked so pretty that I thought I would really love to go there and see it.  So I put it in my note section on my phone, and while I was doing that, I started thinking of other things I wanted to do in the future, and then it hit me that yes, this could be the ever elusive Bucket List. 

Right now there are only those four things on it, and each one is something I had been talking about just recently, and I figured they were as good as any to put on the list.   I've always liked to write and have been jotting down ideas and titles for books to write;  and last week we were watching one of those shows about fixing up cars and they had this El Camino on it and oh my they took this old rusty heap of one and turned it into an absolutely beautiful car and I was like, I really need to own another El Camino in my life time.  And it is a car that is still around and there are ads for them.  I did actually go to Hawaii once.....for an hour.  It was the first time I went to Okinawa back in 1976 when Ed was stationed there, and we landed there long enough to get a glass of fresh pineapple juice (nothing else like it...it was delicious!).  So after joking around a week ago about Sean Michael flying home alone and hopefully he wouldn't end up in Hawaii but if he did I definitely would go get him, I decided that should go on the list too.

So there we have it.  I have a Bucket List.  Or the beginnings of one anyway.  I'm not sure how long or short they're supposed to be, I suppose it doesn't really matter?  What matters is trying to make them happen so you can cross them off and be able to say "Yep, I've been there" or "I've done that" or "I own that".  Here's hoping.

Someday.