God help us when this fashion hits Walmart!

What you see are not see-thru skirts.  They’re actually prints
on the skirts to make it look as if the panties are visible.

They’re the current rage in Japan!

I’m not sure this is the skirt I would choose to buy,
but to each his her own!

Photo Credits:  Sandy

Maya Muses:  The title says it all!  Happy Birthday Mom!  I wish I was there with you celebrating you being 88 years young!  You’re an amazing woman and we’re so lucky to have you as a mom!!!  Love and miss you so much!  (Pack your bags and come to Paris!)

Mom taking a rest from gardening.

Mom in her younger years!

Mom and I enjoying a laugh!

Mom looking pretty spiffy if you ask me!!!

Mom in Paris!

Mom with her little sister.

Mom getting wet at the Place de la Concorde!

Mom acting goofy!!!

Mom with Bruno San Martino!

Mom traveling this year with some of her kids and grand kids!

Photo Credits: Personal Photos

Birthday Cake Photo: Flickr

Maya Muses:  And the French think that the people in Belgium don’t know how to let their hair down and have a good time!

Then Saturday afternoon a couple was sitting at a sidewalk café in the 9th arrondissement at the Place Estienne-d’Orves when two young guys came up to the couple. One guy slit the man’s throat with a broken bottle. Thanks to a retired ambulance worker who witnessed the agression, he was able to control the bleeding until the young man was air-lifted by helicopter that touched down in front of l’Opéra Garnier.

I know, I know!  I haven’t been writing much on my blog lately, but believe me it’s not because I haven’t been writing.  Just the opposite!  Yesterday I wrote 30 pages, yep, 30 pages of a novel that I’m writing.  I’ve had this idea in my head for quite some time and when the story started developing and entering into my dreams, I thought I should write it. Then each morning I’d wake up thinking about it and I knew it was time to start writing.

I can’t help but be inspired with the beautiful view that I have from “my office” so to speak.  I’ve got more than one third finished.  At the rate I’m going I should have it written by the end of August and then of course comes the rewrites.  I don’t know about other writers out there, but rather than just zooming ahead, I’ve been going back to the chapters that are already done and rewriting them.  Then when I get inspired, I continue with a new chapter.

Actually, I wrote the end first.  I began with the last two chapters and then jumped to the first three and then jumped once again to the middle of the story and wrote four more chapters.  Sometimes I wonder if anyone else writes this way (?) but for me it seems to be working.

Maya Muses:  Just some photos of us running around Paris and snapping photos from the car.  Patrick drives like all the other Parisians, but even though I should be getting my French license soon, I don’t think I’ll be taking to the road anytime soon!

The Métro and buses work just fine for me!

I don’t know which it is, but whatever Patrick is drinking it’s not working that well. Patrick was watching the quarter finals in the World Cup between Paraguay and Spain the other day when I came into the living room.
“Who’s playing” I said, sitting down to watch the game.
“Paraguay and Spain.”
“Who’s who?”
“Spain is red and white, Paraguay is in blue.” Patrick said.
“I want Paraguay to win, they’re a small country.”
“Yeah, me too.” Patrick agreed.

So we spent the next 40 minutes rooting for the guys in the blue uniforms.

“Paraguay deserves to win,” I said, “they’re so much better than Spain. They’ve been controlling the ball almost throughout the entire game, just like Mexico did with France.”
“I know!” Patrick’s eyes were still on the screen.

For some reason, I kept thinking, something isn’t right. Those red and yellow stripes on the blue shirts look like the Spanish flag and isn’t Paraguay’s flag red, white, and blue? Besides, Spain is one of the favorites and the way they’re playing sure doesn’t seem that way. I got up.

“Are you sure Spain is in red and white and Paraguay is in the blue?”
“Yep!”
At that moment, the blue team made a goal!

“Whoo hooo!” Patrick jumped up excited.
“Yes!” I said, raising my arms in the air. “Go Paraguay!”

“Wait a minute!” I said, “what did the announcer just say?”
I stopped.  There it was right on the screen.
“It says Spain made the goal! Are you telling me we’ve been rooting for the wrong team the whole game?! I thought something was wrong!”
“Uh, are you sure?” Patrick asked.
“Uh, yeah! It says, Spain 1 - Paraguay 0 !!!”

Maya Muses: And this is only the beginning! There’s a lot more to come!

Photo Credits:  Flickr and Skubble

I know, I know, Hemingway was speaking figuratively when he spoke about Paris being a moveable feast, but for the past month since arriving back in France it has literally been a moveable feast!  We have done nothing but travel  throughout France eating, drinking, and socializing with family and friends.

We arrived in Paris and left immediately to Cherbourg to see Patrick’s parents.  Patrick’s mom out did herself with lunches that lasted until evening and dinners that lasted until the wee hours of the morning.  From Cherbourg we stopped at a gite not far from Saumur for a truly remarkable evening of fine dining with a lovely French couple who brought out all their best wines to pair with each course.  The free range hens that they raise were prepared in a white wine sauce that melted in your mouth. It was an unforgettable evening for so many reasons.

The following day we continued on to Tarbes where we began each day for the next two weeks at noon with an apéro, a Kir for me and a Pastis for Patrick, and then lunch which lasted until 5 each afternoon.  After a nice little nap we were back at the table around 6:30 until almost midnight each evening filled with course after course of the best foods, wines and cheeses that France has to offer, not to mention all the delicious crusty French breads and creamy butter we kept stuffing ourselves with.

Two days were spent with everyone hunting snails for an escargot feast, but Patrick’s nieces and nephews wanted to keep them as pets, so we ended up letting them all go!  Lucky escargots that get to live for another day rather than ending up in a delicious garlic sauce, so we had a raclette instead!

We took a little side trip to Spain where we had a picnic at a favorite spot and once again we took advantage of the local cuisine.  We stocked up on all sorts of sausages, wines and liquors that for tax purposes came out a lot cheaper than purchasing them in France.

We were invited to Biarritz before making our way up to Bordeaux and continued our culinary extravaganza on to Saint-Nazaire where Patrick’s nephew, Sedrik, entertained us in fine style with the local fruits de mer.

From there we traveled to Genêts where we had a wonderful view of the Mont Saint-Michel.  Considered one of the 7 Wonders of the World, over 3 million people visit this old monastery every year which dates back to 709 A.D.

The entire area is protected.  No one can buy or sell their property; either the homes and the land are passed down from generation to generation, or it becomes the property of the government and protected against any further building. We were fortunate enough to sleep in the cutest little cabin near the beach.

Patrick’s grandfather owned one of the few houses that has the right to still be there and which now belongs to his aunt.  As we ate lunch in her garden with a fantastic view of the side of Mont Saint-Michel that many people rarely see, we realized what a privilege it was.

Once again we spent the next few days eating, drinking and socializing with a few shopping trips to the cute town of Avranches.  We made a final stop along the way to see an old friend (a wonderful leisurely lunch ensued of course) before making our way back to Paris.

A day to relax and recuperate before heading the next day to Mériel where we celebrated a friend’s birthday with great food, wines, champagnes and fun.  We arrived at 1 p.m. and everyone was still eating and drinking at 1 a.m.

This is how we saw everything around 3 a.m.!!!

Maya Muses:  Today I was more than a little hesitant to step on the bathroom scale which I hadn’t done since the first day arriving in Paris.  I finally looked at what one month of continuous eating of wonderful breads, butter, creamy sauces, fabulous cheeses and not to mention drinking did and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had lost a kilo and a half!!!  Will wonders never cease!  Yes!!!

Oh yeah, Patrick ended up gaining 4 kilos!  And those of you who know Patrick know that he’s happy for every ounce that he puts on!

Photo Credits:  Personal Photos

Last night Mom, Bob, Patrick and I went to see America in concert.  Talk about memories!  Two of the three original members who started the group, Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley, graduated from high school in 1969 and by the following year were playing their first gigs as the group, America.  Michael Woods (guitar/keyboard) and Willie Leacox (drums) have been with America for more than 35 years.  Richard Campbell (bass guitar) rounds out the group.  All three of these guys are extraordinary musicians in their own right.  They’re so talented; definitely an understatement!!!

The night was a mix of good and bad.  Good memories, bad acoustics.  It was the first time I had ever attended a concert at the music hall in the Carnegie Library of Homestead, but the sound was horrible.  It ruined a good part of our evening, afterall when you attend a concert, it’s to hear the music!  The too loud muffled acoustics made it impossible to understand the lyrics.  Not so much a problem for Bob, Patrick and myself, since we knew most of the words by heart, but for someone like mom, she couldn’t make out heads or tails of what was being sung.

The evening started out slow, afterall these guys are no longer the young kids that we once knew, but who was I kidding, neither were we!  The audience was made up of mostly baby boomers who grew up with America.  We were the teenagers who use to sing A Horse With No Name, Ventura Highway, Tin Man, and Muskrat Love!

I asked myself, were we sitting here because we were now refined adults or were we just too tired after a days work to find the energy to get up on our feet and jam a little?

Whatever the reason, not much was happening until almost the end of the show.  After Willie’s drum solo people stood up to give him a standing ovation and must have thought, might as well stay standing and stretch a little now that I’m up, and that’s when all of us began to feel the music.  For two or three songs we were on our feet jamming along like when we were young teenagers and then all too soon the concert was over.  As an encore they played the well awaited song, A Horse With No Name, but Muskrat Love wasn’t even a part of their repertoire.  And so the night ended.

After the concert, Bob had them sign his cd and I took a photo of the three of them.  I think if they hadn’t played Ventura Highway (my favorite song of theirs) I would have complained and asked for my money back.  With the sound being so bad, I was already thinking about it, but then I thought how wonderful it was to be at a concert with my mom - 87 years young - and the night was perfect!

Maya Muses:  40 years of these two guys jamming together.  40 years gone by so quickly.  We were 18 years young and then old before we knew it.  Where did the time go?  Memories - so many memories….

Dan Peek, Gerry Beckley, and Dewey Bunnell

Mom getting ready to go talk to the guys!

Photo Credits:  Personal Photos

We pulled into a gas station and everyone scrambled out of the bus in search of restrooms, coffee, snacks, and souvenirs.  As we returned to the van and started piling in, two local Border Patrol cars were parked a few feet away from us, watching our every move.  As my 87 year-old mom finally made her way back to the bus, a young 20-something kid wearing his spanking new uniform came over to us and started asking my brother where we were going.

Bam:  “Oh, we’re heading over to Phoenix to see my son and his wife for a few days.”
Patrol Guy:  (Craning his neck to see who was all inside.)  “You don’t mind if I ask some of these people here a few questions?”

Uh oh, Buddy!  You just messed with the wrong bunch of Chicanos!!!  The women in my family all took after my maternal grandmother; we’re strong, opinionated, don’t take crap from anybody kind of women!  My sister, Rose, has been in Homeland Security for close to 30 years and would basically be this young kid’s superior officer.  The situation would have been rather funny, if it wasn’t so tragic!

This was racial profiling plain and simple.  There was no reason for this guy to come and talk to us other than the fact that we looked Mexican, and therefore, there was a good chance (in his mind) that we didn’t belong here in the US.  Bullshit!  Mexicans have been in the Southwest way before white settlers arrived in the Northeast!  Like my cousin Dan likes to remind people, when Christopher Columbus came to America, they weren’t speaking Italian on the Niña, the Pinta, nor the Santa Maria!!!  They were speaking Spanish!!!  People seem to forget that it was Queen Isabella from Spain who supplied Columbus with the ships and crew!  (That’s right!)

Anyway, back to my story!  The guy comes over and Rose is pissed.

Rose:  “He has no right asking us anything.”  Rose lowered her window.  “You have no right stopping us and asking us anything.”
Patrol Guy:  “I do have the right to stop and ask you whatever questions I want.”
Rose:  “No-o-o!….you don’t!  You don’t know who you’re….”

My brother Bob, who also worked for the American government for a number of years, interrupted my sister.
Bob:  “She’s been in Homeland Security for nearly 30 years, I think she knows what she’s saying.”

At this point I rolled down my window as well to get in on the conversation!  I was ready to go into my whole spiel….See that woman in the front seat?  That’s my mother, she built battleships during World War II so today you’re speaking English instead of German or Japanese!  You dare ask me if I belong here when I was born in Pennsylvania; I have uncles, cousins, nephews who have fought in the Korean War, Vietnam, the Gulf War, in Iraq and Afghanistan so you and I can have our freedom!  How dare you take my freedom away from me!

So I began….

Me:  “You want to talk to us?  You want to ask us questions?  Go ahead ask me something!  Ask me anything you want!  What do you want to know?  Go head, what do you want to know?  See that woman in the front seat?  That’s my mother….”
Patrol Officer:  “Uhhh, thank you, Ma’am.  Ha-have a nice trip.”

Maya Muses:  The next time I am stopped by any authority for no reason other than what I look like and they want me to show proof of citizenship, I will sue the government!  (And every Mexican-American born in the States or who is here legally should do the same!!!  In the meantime, boycott Arizona!!!)

Photo Credits:  Flickr