Beeker’s Words

I bought tickets for the Yankees versus the Orioles for my husband’s birthday gift. He loves the Orioles. He hates the Yankees but he wanted to see a game in the stadium since this is the last season for the stadium. The Yankees need the new stadium. I have not been in a more uncomfortable space since my last MRI. The price of their tickets is equal to the cost of airfare to the Caribbean. I love baseball and I enjoy going to the games. Much to my husband’s dismay, my favorite part of baseball is the baseball players butts. The Yankees have a very expensive roster of players and some of the best butts in the Majors.

Derek Jeter

Jason Giambi

Xavier Nady

Alex Rodriguez

Johnny Damon

(He is a right handed batter and he never made it to third base during this game. He is a cutey and I think deserving of some mention.)

I spent the last week in Gatlinburg, Tennessee with my friend Nicole and her son. We stayed in an amazing cabin that Nicole arranged through Parkside Cabins.  The cabin was close to Arts and Crafts community in Gatlinburg and a few minutes from downtown Gatlinburg.  Gatlinburg is a tourist spot but I enjoyed the Aquarium, the arts/crafts, sweet tea, and the music. I bought a number of craft items from a pair of copper Dogwood blossom earrings to a small oil painting by Iva Prince, the Grandma Moses of the Smokies. Gatlinburg is very kid friendly and the drive to get there is very scenic.  I loved the people of Gatlinburg. They were friendly and helpful. I couldn’t get the parking brake to go down on my friend’s car and within minutes I had two men offering assistance.

I cannot say enough about the cabin we stayed in! The cabin was private, extremely comfortable and allowed you to enjoy nature.  If you are a bird watcher, looking for a place to honeymoon, or just wanting to get away, I recommend Parkside Cabins in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I know I will be going back with my husband and I am recommending it for next years Girls getaway.

He repeats this a lot in his song “Say”. I need to say this song drives me up the wall. I rank it up there with fingernails on a chalk board and listening to dolphins calling each other. This song keeps popping up on the radio while Pete and I are driving around. I usually get sick of hearing, “Say what you need to say.” and change the channel in the middle of Pete trying to count how many times that lines gets repeated. I like John Mayer and I even own his first CD, but I can’t stand that song. Since I have thwarted Pete’s attempts to count the number of times the line is repeated, I just came in and watched the video to count how many times that line is repeated….41 times. If you don’t believe me, watch the video and count yourself.

I was reading Reuters and came across the headline, “Do You Take This Credit Card?” It caught my interest so I click and read the following:

“JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Guests at an Israeli wedding hall can now insert a credit card into a machine at its entrance, tap in a sum and leave a gift for the bride and groom.

“It’s new in Israel and the world,” Aya Alon Kaufman of the Gan Oranim hall in Tel Aviv said on Israel’s Channel 10 television. “It’s very convenient … guests can give a gift even if they forget their chequebooks.”

She said couples pay 500 shekels ($155) to rent the device, which resembles an automated teller machine, and the recorded funds are transferred into their bank account the next day.”

I understand that for a significant portion of this world, it is common to give cash gifts to newlyweds. It is however a gift, meaning there is no pressure and it is given of someone’s free will. I think people take gifts for granted and I have been horrified at more than one gift registry for weddings that I have been invited to attend.  (Suggestion to the engaged couple: Place a variety of items with a wide range of prices on your registry. If I have met you twice socially and your fiance has worked with me for 8 months, I am not spending $200 on a gift for you.) I just think it is the height of tackiness to rent a credit card machine for those who forgot their checkbooks.  I think good manners says you could wait the few days to receive a check from those who may have forgotten their check.  The only obligation for an attending guest is to show up on time.  Their gift is their presence on your special day. If they have a gift, it should be received with a smile and a prompt thank you after the wedding. If I ever see one of these at a wedding stateside, you better believe I will comment to the lovely couple.

You know that commercial with the little girl who keeps saying she doesn’t like chicken or broccoli. Well I don’t like taking hormones. We started the fertility process a bit sooner than I was planning and at this point, I am starting to understand the flood of American women who are going to India to hire surrogates. I have to watch everything and record everything. My diet, my medications, my temperature, and my moods. I just feel like at the moment I am perpetual bitch mode. I just want to sit in the dark and not talk to a living soul. I feel so sorry for my husband. He did not marry this crazed lunatic. I also feel a little out of place because while having a child would be a blessing, I just seem lazy compared to other women going through this process. I have been getting tons of advice through the support groups and fertility networks, but I don’t think having a child will define me as much as being an amazing addition to our great family. I am not going to be depressed for the rest of my life if this does not happen. I am 100% committed to the process but do I have to become obsessive about this?

Last night Pete and I went up to NYC to Radio City Music Hall to see our favorite comedian, the amazing Eddie Izzard! His show was freaking hilarious and we had a great time. I have not laughed so hard in months. I will never look at Wikipedia, Moses, Soup, or the Great Flood in the same way ever again. If you have the opportunity to see his new show “Stripped”, run to buy your tickets!

Things have been a little crazy around my neck of the woods. I have been spending time with my family and friends. I had some female health problems that after a visit with my new ob/gyn have been taken care of and I am recovering. Because of these problems the Project Baby timeline has moved up drastically. Pete and I will be starting fertility treatment in the next few weeks, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. My job is to stay relaxed and to think fertile thoughts.

How much money and time was spent trying to prosecute R. Kelly over the years? It only took the jury 6 hours to find him innocent. They didn’t even have to call out for lunch. I can remember listening to his song “You Remind Me of Something” over and over and over. It cracked me up that he won a Grammy for his gospel song, “I Believe I Can Fly”. It is a good song.

I saw FitFlops in Macy’s and I have seen them highlighted in magazines and television. I am thinking about buying a pair. Is there anyone out there who has tried them?