Journaling and pre-Birthday Celebrations

(Note: There's nothing quite like writing out a blog entry and then posting it weeks later to make you feel, well, behind the times... Oh well! Here you are anyways, folks. It was written within a week after my birthday!!)

Well hello there, old friend! Don't you just love it when something you have to do will count towards something ELSE you have to do?? For example, I promised my adorable husband that I would write on our blog within a week of my birthday explaining all the wonders that were my birthday week celebration! It just so happens that my assignment for my Qualitative Research Methods class is to journal for 15 minutes straight three days in a row. So that is how, dear reader, you come to see my blog rising from the ashes! It may not be the most reflective journal entry, but it's better than nothing as I am fond of saying.

My textbook mentions six different categories of journalists: Travelers (recording a trip or special time); Pilgrims (people out to discover themselves); Creators (people who plan out or capture ideas and inventions); Apologists (people writing to justify something or plead their case); Confessors ("people who conduct ritual unburdenings with the promise of secrecy of anonymity" WHOA!); and Prisoners (people who live in prisons or are invalids and live through their journal). So I thought this was interesting enough to share with all of you blog-centric people.

The other thing that was interesting in my text about journal keeping is various techniques: Lists of really pretty much anything; Portraits describing people; Maps of consciousness (trust me, you need to try this one!) essentially it is using stick figures to depict what you're thinking; Guided imagery which is, as I understand it, daydream topics; Altered point of view - writing from someone else's perspective; Unsent letters to someone who will never read it; and dialogues which is I guess a conversation between individuals. I think a cool challenge would be to do one blog entry for each of those different journaling techniques. Let me know if you are up to the challenge!

At the Keswick Theater for the Melody Gardot concert.

My birthday was fantastic! Tony surprised me with a concert at Keswick Theater (about 3 minutes from our house) the week before my birthday. The performer was Melody Gardot. She is a very interesting and talented singer. We enjoyed the concert and loved being together at the Keswick.

Handsome Tony soaking up the rays in AC, NJ

Here I am loving the sounds of the ocean

The day before my birthday we went to "the Shore." Spending the day in New Jersey (where I happened to come into the world) seemed very apropos somehow. We drove across the bridge into NJ and had breakfast at a real Jersey diner. Nothing like it. We traveled on to Atlantic City. I'd never been there and it was an adventure! We walked the boardwalk for a couple of hours, tasted the original salt water taffy, and caught a bit of the USA v. England game at a bar in Resorts. Then we took a beautiful drive South down to Cape May, a beautiful, quaint seaside city.

Tony and Frank - friends forever - at The Resorts in AC

Atlantic City in all its glory

Along the boardwalk in AC

Tony took me for a fabulous birthday dinner at 410 Bank Street. It is a very yummy, beautiful charming restaurant. Dinner was fantastic. I wanted to take a picture of my meal, but that was a little too much for my hubby. So here is what we had: portobello mushroom soup with baguette slice and shrimp toppers (for me), blackened scallops (for Tony); pork tenderloin chops covered by two different sauces (berry and apple) with mashed potatoes (topped by edible flower) and some beautiful haricots verts; followed up by crustless cheesecake with cocoa sauce and a selection of perfect little berries and fruits. All in all - delicious!


We drove around town a little and then headed home. It was a perfect day. Tony knows how to make a girl happy!!