Prepare to be happy~

I've decided on reflection that I am going to choose to be happy.  Nothing is going to get me down.  I have a good life and it seems the lives of others have a ripple effect that can cause one to be tense, nervous, and, down right unhappy.  But their (adult) choices are not mine, their mistakes are not mine, and their troubles are not mine, so why make them such?  You give your best advice and if they don't take it and want other options then they misinterpret the meaning of ' best advice.' I have also come to the conclusion that some people thrive on drama and if that is the only way they can get attention they stir the pot until everything and everyone  is in an uproar. When I was in Paris I rented an apartment from a woman named Marion.  She was so chipper and happy and everything was just all right with her--YES, she was French. She had cancer and was on foot, but with the knowledge she was to die in short order.  Beyond that, she had many children who had this trouble and that trouble, grandchildren out of control, and a husband with a reputation, yet she one day decided to always be happy and positive and that is the way she lived the last years of her life.  It was beautiful to behold.  The last time I rented her apartment she stood on the steps waving me and my fifteen trunks good-bye and as I looked back I knew it was the last time I would see her.  Yet her lesson keeps reappearing in my mind.  You have it good, decide to be happy. She had it bad and she decided to be happy, so I am one step ahead of the game. You know the people with troubles are going to out live you and one day they are going to have to get it right and they will have to do it on their own without your best advice, which they usually don't take any way.  So why keep on keeping on?

So on to happy notes: We re having around twenty-five people for Memorial Day.  It is to be, I read, 83 degrees and sunny.  Perfect.  I have been making two dishes a day to get ahead of the game.  I'm setting up the serving areas and Andy is the store runner and the pool man. He likes those jobs.  Yesterday I nearly killed my back weeding the bricks and trimming around the pool, work that I hate. ( Oops, see, it is not easy to be positive when it comes to bad weeds.) However, I loved the results. There. I'm back to positive. (It takes practice and as long as I don't drive past the welfare offices during the first week of the month, I can maintain positive.)  I am an inside girl and that work I don't mind.  Unless I am sitting in the sun reading or playing cards and having drinks, I don't want to be doing anything more strenuous than that outdoors.

So the menu: Two meals, one around brunch time with starters, asparagus and Mushroom Frittata (why in color and under lined?), cheese boards, wings, chicken balls, ham and bean soup, ribs, pastas of many kinds, salads, pulled pork sliders, buffalo chicken sliders and pies by Pam.

 Meal two: deviled eggs, hamburgers, brats, hot dogs on the grill, fruit salads, sides. (Plenty of wine, cocktails and various drinks.)

We are celebrating Alex's graduation with honors, Andrew's return home from service for good and unharmed, and our men in service and our wounded warriors whom we should all be taking care of in as many ways as possible. Thank you for your service to our country,

Happy days ahead for all of you and a wonderful Memorial week end.