Goodbye Uncle Marty...

Marty and I, just after my dad passed away.

There are some people that touch your life that you will always be grateful for. My Great Uncle Marty was definitely that kind of person. Some of my first memories with Uncle Marty center around his visits to Wisconsin from California. Occasionally he would join us at a family picnic, and I remember many times being mercilessly beat at his hands in backgammon. But then he moved from California, to be closer to family in Wisconsin. No longer was he just an occasional visitor in my life, I knew there was a gem there.

The memories that I have of our time together will remain vivid and cherished. With every clack of the dice on the backgammon board I will think of the many games we played together. I will remember with great warmth all of the times that we sat together in his living room and he talked about his life, his youth, his family and our shared heritage. Uncle Marty offered a wealth of history to the Kaprelian side of my family. He had stories and answers to questions about our family that I never had the chance to ask his sister, my Grandma Alice.

I could ramble on and on about all that I've learned from Uncle Marty, about life or about our family...but maybe what's more important is just to take a moment and enjoy my relationship with him, and share with you how profound his presence in my life was. Uncle Marty was the grandfather I never had (I never knew either of my grandfathers), he was an enormous support to my sisters and I while my dad was sick, he was advice and wisdom with a side of extra life experience. No one can truly measure the impact one person can or will have on their life. But I can say that Uncle Marty's impact on my life was great (both in scope and emotion). I am fortunate to be able to count him as such a positive influence during some of the most formative years in my life.

Uncle Marty passed away peacefully today, four months short of his 100th birthday. But it is not the number years, or days, or hours that someone lives that makes them extraordinary....it is the impact they have, and the memories they created that matter most. He is loved and will be greatly missed....


Thank you Uncle Marty.

Central Park - A Scent of Spring

Felipe among the lilacs.

The past few days of spring here in New York City have been rainy and cool. Today was particularly blustery in the morning, but it had cleared a bit by the end of the workday. I decided to walk home, and Felipe joined me, meeting me at Lexington Avenue and 66th Street - our rendezvous spot when we decide to walk home together. One of my main motivators for walking home is the lilacs. I love lilacs, the smell - the look, it's among my favorite flowers. Just by the Sheep's Meadow there is a grouping of lilac trees and bushes, that when in bloom, perfume the entire surrounding area. I wish I could put a sample of the beautiful smell onto my blog...but we haven't perfected that technology yet! Right now the lilacs are in their early blooms, and so it's a perfect time.








A few people enjoying the cool evening.

I love springtime in Central Park. I mean, I suppose I love all season in Central Park - but it happens to be spring now and so it's right at the forefront. We've had a very mild, sometimes summer-like spring so far (even as far back as February!) so I've had a lot of time to enjoy evening walks home through the park. Here are a couple of photos I took back in mid-March of the cherry blossoms.

Catch Up: She puts the "Grand" in Grandma!

At the very end of February, Felipe and I took a weekend to visit my grandma Hall who lives in Orlando, Florida. It had been much much too long since I had seen her in person last - and while I talk to her frequently over the phone - it's just not the same. So we flew down to Orlando on Friday afternoon and stayed in one of the guest rooms at her retirement community until Monday morning.


Grandma was quite pleased to cook us chicken and pilaf for dinner the first night we were in town - and even had strawberries and pound cake for dessert. :)


Of course we got our usual games of backgammon in.


And don't forget kings in the corner!


Most of the time we just sat and chatted. We did take a short walk down to Lake Eola - which is only a few short blocks from where she lives. And she gave us a tour of her building - it seems like a really wonderful place. We also had breakfast in the dining room on the main floor and met several other nice residents and staff. I'm so glad that grandma is so happy where she's living now. I know it was a big adjustment for her several years ago when she sold her home.





I hope to see her again soon - we may try to make it down for another weekend visit. Grandma will be celebrating her 95th birthday this coming June too!

Catch Up: Laura's Visit

As I mentioned in the Thanksgiving Post, Laura came for a short visit to NYC. The day after thanksgiving we took went on a bit of an adventure with her. One of the things she wanted to do while she was here was go to the MTA Transit Museum here in Brooklyn. It's something that Felipe and I had wanted to do for some time, and so it was the perfect opportunity.


A photo of Laura in the read subway station - not the staged one you see at the museum.


Token please!!


One of the old cars from the 1930s.


Another car very similar to the one above, but with slightly different seating.




On one of today's subway cars - minus all the people.

After the museum we walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures from that and forgot to copy a few from Laura's camera. But I'm sure you all know what the Brooklyn Bridge looks like!

I know it wasn't the same day as the museum, maybe it was tuesday night Laura and I met felipe at work in the evening. They had a huge tree in the courtyard so we took some photos.


And here's a photo of Felipe and I where I can only say that I think it looks like we're in space....


We had a really nice visit with Laura - and I think she enjoyed it too! (I know she did...she wrote a whole post about it here.) I hope she decides to come back sometime!

Catch Up: Thanksgiving 2011

Throwing back to the crisp cool days of Autumn - here's my long delayed Thanksgiving post! Where was I?

My friend Laura, whom I've known since I was a freshman in high school, and went to college with, had come to NYC to spend Thanksgiving with me and Felipe. It was wonderful to have the time together - since we haven't had more than an hour here and there to hang out since college. Laura arrived on the Monday before thanksgiving (if I recall correctly) - but I had work all week. Thankfully Laura has done a lot of travel and is one independent gal and doesn't mind touring around on her own a bit. So during the week she went to a variety of touristy things (the tenement museum, Louis Armtrong's house, etc). On Wednesday night Felipe and I had an opera to go to, but I got out of work a bit early and went with Laura to see the Macy's balloons being inflated. She had plans to go to the parade itself - but I'm not one who's much for crowds like that, and I had cooking to do - so I went with her to see the balloons.

It was SUPER CROWDED!!! oh New York City, I shouldn't be surprised, it's a tradition for Thanksgiving. At least they were organized with how they allowed people to view the balloons. It was fun too to see them kind of "sleeping" on the ground before their big day.






After the balloons came back down to the apartment and I went to the opera with Felipe while Laura relaxed at home. She had to get up real early the next day - so relaxing was a good thing!

Thanksgiving day I did my usual prep and got the whole meal together. We don't get too fancy here - so I had the turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, and Laura made some terrific corn bread.



Sammi, Nicole and Mike joined us and we had a delicious dinner, played some games and just enjoyed the evening. And of course - we ate too much food...but not so much that there weren't left overs ;)

Catch Up: A Holiday Gathering with Friends

There's nothing better than spending times with friends or family. We were really lucky this holiday to get a lot of quality friends time in! Claire and Sean were in NYC for the New Years holiday, and so we made plan with the usuals to have a couple of get togethers - Josh and Virginia hosted an amazing 5 course New Years Eve Dinner, and so we didn't want to do another full dinner party just before that. Instead we had everyone over on the 30th of December for a pre-new years eve party - just drinks and a huge lot of random food. But the friends are more important than food and drink! Every year we host a holiday dinner, and the last couple of years it's been lacking Sean and Claire - as they live in San Francisco - and we were so stoked to have them hanging out with us this year!


The silly photo.


Good Conversation :)



It's not often the whole group of us can get together - but we do have fun when we do. I wish I had photos to share from the amazing New Years Eve dinner that Josh and Virginia posted - but I was too busy enjoying their delicious food to have a camera in my hands. Overall, our holidays rocked - we had two and half short but fun packed days with my family, and then three short but fun packed days with friends. If only all of life could be this way!

Catch Up: Operation Christmas Miracle

So my sisters and I had batted around the idea that it would be nice to get together for Christmas in Wisconsin with my mom in 2012, not only because it had been a few years since we were all together for Christmas, but also because mom will be celebrating a milestone birthday (her birthday is Christmas day). But, when Grace told me that she was going to be deployed to Afghanistan in December of 2012, I knew that meant our Christmas plans would be spoiled. Grace was planning to go to Wisconsin for Christmas this year (2011...I know how late this post is!), and Mariam said she'd be going too...it seemed like there was no excuse for not going. We weren't originally planning to make it back for Christmas, as we really had no vacation time left, but we managed to take the weekend and purchased tickets Thanksgiving weekend.

Oh man, oh man...I've never had to keep a secret so long! And it wasn't easy either, given that I went back to Wisconsin in early December (see previous post). A huge thanks to Mariam and Grace too - who knew but helped keep my secret. Mariam dubbed it Operation: Christmas Miracle. Coming down to the week ahead of time, I would tell anyone who would listen for five seconds that I was planning to surprise my mom, it was so exciting! And surprising someone - it's the best way to travel. There were no hassles about "oh, we're going to be late" or this and that - you know...because if we were late it didn't matter - just that we were going to get to be there was what was important!

Grace convinced mom to take a day in Milwaukee of shopping and going out to dinner, and then - since they'd be there anyway - pick up her friend from the airport because "she needed a ride home". So under that pretense Grace got mom to hang out at Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee on December 23rd, at 9pm. Our flight landed about an hour late and Felipe and I walked through the terminal...I was positively giddy. Grace and I were furiously texting back and forth to get the plans all worked out. I sent mom a quick video of me lip syncing to an old Raffi Christmas song that we both enjoyed - "Christmas times' a comin'"...whose chorus goes: Christmas times' a comin', Christmas times' a comin', and you know I'm goin' home". It was a teaser...to see if she would catch on.

And the moment came, I exited security and locked my gaze in on where mom was standing, and grace started recording. I was walking straight towards her, and she was looking right at me, but it didn't seem to register until I waved at her. And then her jaw dropped. And I mean it DROPPED. Best mom moment ever. You can see the video of it at the top of this post. I don't think mom's mood fell one bit from that high that it reached right there (I mean this too - at one point we almost caught the coffee table on fire and she didn't even flinch!). Right then she knew that the next day we would all be together and that she could have a truly happy Birthday/Christmas. Operation: Christmas Miracle was a success!

So commencing with the photos of a fun filled, super short two and a half day holiday at home:

A visit with Aunt Barb and Wendy's family in Milwaukee after we picked up Mar.

FOOD and Mariam's Famous Pickled Bloody Mary's (lots and lots of food - thanks to Grace who had to field many questions from mom about just how much the three of them would need to eat...)



mmmm...pickles.

I woke up Christmas morning and quietly stepped outside of the room to find this scene in the living room. Mar was asleep on the couch and grace on the airbed. Seems that mom and grace had a little mother/daughter cuddle time.


Cuddle time finished and eventually everyone woke up, had their requisite coffee and we got going on a rousing day of more food, old movies and some games.


You can't forget pictures by the tree!










And then there was more food (and candy cane cookies!!!)




Overall I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. It was so nice to spend the time with my mom and sisters. Something I really miss about living closer by. It was nice to see mom in such a happy mood too! We're going to have to surprise her more often, it leaves a good feeling. Soon we'll reconnect some more when we visit Mariam and Elijah in Seattle - mom will be flying out midway through our stay - so we'll have some overlapping days. Maybe Grace can surprise us and join us for the weekend....we shall see.

Catch Up: A Visit to Wisconsin

Mom decorating the Christmas tree.

Since I wasn't going to be able to go home for Christmas, I decided that I would visit in early December. I flew out to Milwaukee on a Wednesday night (I think...) and mom picked me up from the airport. We spent a bit of time in Delavan and set up her Christmas tree. It killed me to not tell her that I had purchased tickets to come to Wisconsin for Christmas (it was decided Thanksgiving weekend) - the whole time I had to say "well if I can't be here to celebrate christmas with you and mariam and grace, I'll just have to help decorate the tree...". She didn't suspect a thing.

We had a nice time decorating the tree, it's always fun to go through the ornaments and remembering the years of seeing them adorn the tree. Here's my first ornament :)


Before we left delavan, mom wanted to stop at school for a quick moment, and so I got to see her classroom for the first time. I thought it would be nice to get a photo of mom at her desk.


While in Madison we visited with my great uncle Marty, I always look forward to my visits with him. He's the grandfather I never had. Uncle Marty's health has been up and down in the last year (to be expected when you are 99 years old!), and so I am grateful for any time that I have with him. I think he was happy to see us as well.


We also had a very nice visit with my aunt Miriam. She's a must visit when I'm in town...and lucky for me this busy lady always makes time to see me!


It was a short visit - only a long weekend, but a cherished weekend for sure. It's nice to have a bit of one on one mom time, and I do love my visits to Wisconsin. It gives a good respite from the city life here in Manhattan. Mom enjoyed it too - although she had no idea what was to come!...look for that in the next post.