Before I fill everyone in one the trip to Uruguay, I wanted to show some curious people this. I have always loved the music from the opera "Carmen." I even had the music at my wedding. This is one of the reasons why. It's kind of freaky to look back on it but I loved it when it was on Sesame Street.

This past weekend was my husband's 20th high school reunion. It was unlike any reunion I had ever attended, but I haven't attended that many. Martin's graduating class had about 800 students. Martin had a major in high school: aerospace. (Is anyone surprised at that one?) Martin's high school had about 9 floors, including a pool in the basement, the second largest auditorium in NYC (after Radio City Music Hall) and the girls' gym was on the 8th floor. We're talking huge. He knew several people from his class and we met his English and History teachers and watched a bunch of what I called "Old Brooklyn" walk across the stage from the class of 1937. It was quite nice to wander around a school that about a dozen elevators and rooftop handball courts. Martin's school was quite awesome so I totally understand how he could have such fond memories of an actual building.

Also, bought me a smaller Manhattan Portage bag. I think that they might not be as cool as they once were, but I carry my large one almost everywhere and it looks so nasty that I thought a new one might be in order. It is gray where my older one is blue. I ate rice balls at this Italian restaurant for the very first time. They were...interesting.

So, I have a nickname and it is Sunshine. This name has a long and wonderful history back from I was bubbly and young. In college I had a friend who would often annouce: "And representing the Sunshine State, it's Amy!" This is because I'm from Florida and I was attending school in Louisiana. I'm sure there were other students from Florida, but I never met them and my friend seemed to get a kick of announcing my entrance into a group this way. So fast forward a few years to grad school. I am dubbed 'Sunshine.' I am not sure if this is a carry-over from the original Sunshine State connotation or a new invention all together based on the fact that my personality is like a big ray of sunshine. (I know a lot of you are probably snickering at this and you can stop right now).
The nickname is used by all of four people that I know of.

On a related note, I went to Birmingham this weekend. Actually most of my time was spent in Tuscaloosa. When I was younger my parents and I would go to Tuscaloosa to spend the day shopping at the mall and then eat at the Picadilly cafeteria. This mall was awesome for two reasons. They had a Gyro place in the food court and they had a Sanrio (Hello Kitty) store. I would save up a month of allowance just to go hog wild in that store. I have no idea if we went to Tuscaloosa 5 times or 20. I just remember that the mall was huge to my small eyes. Wow! Are things always smaller than how you remember them? On a rainy Sunday the mall took us about 35 minutes to explore. This did not include our 1 hour lunch at the Picadilly. I did not get liver & onions, my all time fave, since I didn't see it until after I had ordered the chicken. Oh well.

Driving around Tuscaloosa was a delight as I was with one of the four known people that refer to me as Sunshine. I had delish BBQ in Birmingham with Sweetie as well and got to see the Vulcan up close and personal. While talking pretty much the entire weekend ( I sound like Bea Arthur today)the Mz. and I were discussing other lovely sites to see in Alabama and we began talking about the Ava Maria Grotto in Cullman, AL. Then we started talking about this place. It looks like a beautiful place and so today I looked them up and due to a wonderful teacher my sophomore year in high school I learned about the Order of the Poor Clares and was thrilled to find them in Alabama of all places. These are by far the coolest looking nuns I have ever seen: Check this lovely lady out. It's amazing that I wanted to be a nun when I was little. I think I just liked the idea of having a bunch of girls that all lived with each other. Maybe it was because I never had a sister.