My favorite night of the year

Good evening.  Welcome to my favorite night of the year.  I’m not even joking, I start the countdown January 1 and I’ve been celebrating all day. There will also be hand cut french fries tonight because I know how to live 😎

Anniversary Celebration

Yesterday was amazing and perfect and everything we would ever want for an anniversary celebration.

Because Julie is in the middle of a month long tour across America which hits the Philly area tonight (Yes!  Can’t wait!), we couldn’t celebrate on the actual date, but three days later, on her day off yesterday, Eric flew in from Nashville and after spending an incredible day together, the two of them took Gary and me out to dinner at our absolute favorite special occasion restaurant, The Saloon.

What’s great about the four of us is that we see each other only 2-3 times a year but we pick up right where we left off.  We spent the entire two plus hours at dinner talking nonstop and giggling like little kids.

Oh my god, the food at the Saloon.  They make their pasta in house, it’s perfection.  I not so jokingly said to Gary the Saloon is our last real reason for staying in Philadelphia.

Because yesterday also confirmed how much I hate living so far from the kids and I came up with the perfect solution, sell the house and get two small apartments, one in Seattle where we’ll spend spring and summer and one in Nashville where we’ll spend fall and winter.

“What?  Are you crazy?” Gary asked.

“This is a newsflash to you?  But this time I’m serious.”

Oh, I’m kidding.  I’m just basking in the glow of yesterday but know the reality.  Right now there will be no going anywhere.  That said…

A girl can dream.

Anyway, I’m very stoked about the Remain in Light show with Julie at the Keswick Theatre tonight.  

See you there 😎

Fifty years

 

Gary and I are married fifty years today.

Yeah, I know, how is that possible when we don’t even remotely look like we’re fifty? 

Har har.

We got married at eighteen and much to the disbelief of everyone who attended our wedding, I wasn’t pregnant.

Married at eighteen.

WHO DOES THAT?

Whose parents let them do that?

I’m always flirting with the idea of writing a memoir. A lot of it isn’t pretty but oh well, at least it’s entertaining.

Especially if you like watching burning buildings.

Some of the knuckleheaded stuff Gary and I did over the years would have ended even the stablest of marriages but we’re Exhibits A-Z of whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.

Between the two of us, we’ve covered every twelve step program imaginable.  If it was illegal or batshit crazy, we were first in line.

But despite our best efforts to destroy ourselves and each other, we survived. Gary is my best friend, my love, my rock.  He makes me laugh every day and I doubt I could live with anyone else.  Besides, who would ever feed me like that?  His cooking, always five star gourmet, has reached extraordinary new levels since our retirement.  Not that I care about food or anything.  

Much.

Most importantly, though, he’s an incredible father. I don’t have enough hours to go there but all you have to do is observe and speak to our kids.  They’re pretty fucking special.

And woo hoo, now we can add being quarantined together for the past three years and not killing each other to our list of accomplishments.  Besides the kids, I think it’s #2 on our greatest hits list.

Oh, we go out, we travel, but we limit what we do because Covid is still around and people over sixty-five with wonky hearts and such have to be, um, cautious. Okay, try terrified. But we’re reclusive homebodies anyway, which really sounds funny coming from 2023 Robin. 1973 Robin would not have believed it, she was the one out every night dancing on the table wearing the lampshade and not much else while 1973 Gary was busy breaking the most Jello shots and bong hits by a human record.

Ah, well.  Passages.  

Getting older is weird and to quote George Martin, it sure isn’t for sissies.

The problem is, when you do get older, you realize not only are you suddenly invisible and irrelevant, there’s a daily onslaught of change and death and destruction in a world you no longer understand so guess what, you can’t avoid becoming a sissy.

Haha, well, not Gary.  He’s gonna be the cranky old coot screaming at you to get off his lawn.  He’s still fearless and thinks he’s nineteen.

I’m the one whimpering and hiding from the UPS guy knocking on the door.

“But Gary, I read on the Citizens App there’s a maniac delivery guy impersonator in the neighborhood preying on seniors…”

“Oh my god, Rob, go breathe in a paper bag. Seniors?  I don’t see no fucking seniors!”  

He laughs.

Truth: We still have a mummified package of brown paper lunch bags from when the kids were little that Gary loves breaking out when he tells me to calm down, which is often and when I want to kill him the most but I have been known to use the damn bags because yeah yeah I do hyperventilate when I’m upset sometimes maybe.

What can I say, we’re the yin to each other’s yang.

Last year I wrote a book addressing fear of change and loss and getting older called The Crazy House but I just changed the title to Leaving Candyland and I still can’t decide what to do with it but that’s a story for another post.  The new title has me stoked because it says it all.

Anyway…

Fifty fucking years.  Man.  I still can’t believe it.  

We should have some cake or something.

Yay us.

Minds blown

Even though we’ve known about it for weeks, as lifelong Beatle fans, Gary and I can barely wrap our brains around Julie on a tour with Sean Lennon this spring. Our minds are completely blown 😎

Happy birthday Julie

I was going to type a whole Happy birthday Julie story here but then I thought, wait a second, I’ve been keeping online journals since 2000, I bet I wrote about it somewhere.  Yep!  And now this classic story from 15 years ago has me in tears all over again. http://inherownwrite.blogspot.com/2006/01/happy-birthday-julie.html

Hello 2023

So I promised Gary I would put my phone down more in 2023 and to be honest, between January’s unspeakable deaths and the lunatic insurrectionists running Congress, it’s been easy.

But why hasn’t that fuckwit Donald been arrested and his vile cult vaporized?

WHY?

No clue.

I know nothing right now and I’m so fucking happy.

And really, it’s been unbelievably liberating waking up every day without having to announce or memorialize my daily plans on social media.

It’s even more liberating not having an ego anymore but that’s a whole ‘nother story and an unexpected gift I got when I retired.  

That said, what do I do when my daughter-in-law sends me an awesome pic she snapped this morning of my son, daughter and granddog right before said daughter went off to jam with Wynona Judd and Vicky from the Bangles?

Haha three guesses.

I better post it now while Gary is out walking the dog 😜

Slick Family Year in Review 2022

 Slick Family Year in Review, 2022.

Is everyone happy?  

Yep!

Is everyone healthy?

Yep!

Did everyone have enough money to get by?

Yep!

Okay, then.  It was a great fucking year.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Hope yours was, too, and if not, here’s hoping for better days in 2023.

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays 3 featuring Eddie Vedder

 Yesterday, Eric gave me the greatest gift I have ever received.  Normally, I would not post a 17 minute home movie, but my home movie contains a cameo by Eddie Vedder and very young Eric and Julie and their School of Rock co-stars.  Does yours? 😎

Eric, Natalie and my granddog Herbie visited this week and it was EVERYTHING.  And Gary brought down the house with his vegetarian French onion soup.  HAPPY FUCKING NEW YEAR!

Happy Holidays Part 2

 So tomorrow Julie goes home to Seattle and it’s really true, she arrives in a burst of twinkling stars and rainbows and when she leaves, my world goes black and white and dull but okay, I’m good with that, I guess, I’m old. 

We baked literally 1,000 cookies, filled cookie tin after cookie tin, typed mailing labels, made two trips to the post office, and I am happy to say that all of Julie’s top tier Bandcamp subscribers will be receiving their special thank yous in the next couple days.

Other than marathon baking and mailing, I can’t believe what we crammed into a week.

The highlight was Sunday when Eric surprised us with a visit on his way home from a gig in Massachusetts.  Talk about kvelling, I had to fight back serious tears of joy because I knew everyone would make fun of me.

Before they hugged me, that is.

Besides going to a Flyers’ game, Gary and Julie had some really cool father daughter time, visiting a luthier who repairs vintage guitars and of course he knew Adrian so Gary got to do the Dad brag telling him Julie’s been his bassist for 16 years.  Gary has an extensive collection of said vintage guitars and he’s got a 50s Guild that needs rebinding so knowing this trip would include hours of nerd talk, I opted to stay home and watch the Holiday Baking Championship, because I, too am a nerd.

Also, because I do all of my holiday shopping while reclining on my sofa, I had to stay home for UPS.

The following day Gary and Julie went to the Italian Market and bought supplies for homemade pizza.  

Once again, I had to stay home and wait for UPS.  Yay me.  

Julie taught Gary how to make pizza dough from scratch using the recipe she got from Bedia Pizza and now my life is complete.  I’m not even lying, my life is now perfect.

Anyway, I was jealous of no Julie time so today the two of us hung out and it was like the pandemic never happened and she never left Philadelphia.

We walked into town and had a most excellent adventure.  We hit Macy’s to see the holiday lights and play with toys (I wanted to see Santa but can you believe it, you needed a reservation 😂), Reading Terminal Market for some gifts and snacks, all the Christmas Villages around City Hall and Love Park, we had an incredible Thai meal at JJ’s, popped into Long in the Tooth for some vinyl, and we finished with wine, cocktails, and a basket of hot, homemade potato chips at Tria Wine Bar.  I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but whatever, here’s the obligatory photographic proof.

Happy holidays

So we’ve been madly baking the Slick family Christmas cookies and oh my god, for the first time since 2019 and what’s turned out to be a three year pandemic, the Slick family band is back together again!

 I’m the happiest I’ve been since 2019.  Julie had scheduled her visit here so that we could spend a week baking the aforementioned cookies for her bandcamp subscribers but Eric’s surprise Sunday pop on his way home from a gig in Massachusetts on his way to freaking Germany tonight blew our minds!

Today we’re baking yet 1000 more cookies, tomorrow Julie and I are going on one of our old school holiday dates downtown…shopping, five star lunch at an upscale sushi restaurant, drinks at McGillins because McGILLINS https://mcgillins.com/…and then Wednesday morning our coach turns back into a pumpkin and we drive Julie to the airport.

Wah!

But Eric, Natalie and our granddog Herbie will be back for Christmas!  And possibly New Years!  Heart be still, I love my little family so much.

And we have a fantastic Hanukkah party at my cousin Jill’s, where I will be bringing a new joint creation by Gary and me, garlic butter mushroom kugel…so damn good we should have it patented 😎

Everybody just needs to stay healthy.  A big ask these days, huh.

Anyway, to wrap this up, here’s my Christmas wish.  DONALD TRUMP MUST BE INDICTED ALONG WITH ALL OF THE CONGRESS PEOPLE WHO ASSISTED HIS COUP ATTEMPTS.

I hate that motherfucker so much, but even more, I hate the motherfuckers who voted for him.  How can anyone be so uninformed and ignorant?

How can any Christian totally misinterpret the teachings of Christ and support him?

Don’t know, don’t really care anymore.  I just want them all gone.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 😜