Nothing like Nostalgia......

Nostalgia is an amazing thing.....one minute you're driving along in your current day to day life, and a song comes on the radio; a song you haven't heard since you were in college. In my case the song was "She's a Beauty," an 80's classic. In an instant I was on a bar stool at a local college hangout, singing along with my friends. Although I attended college in the late 90's, this particular bar was known for playing old school 80's music (probably to draw in people like us). Our friend Scott bar tended there and was known to offer a free drink to anyone who could name the band and song title. He would sing along at the top of his lungs, playing drums on the bar. I was overwhelmed by the vividness of that memory - how in one instant I was back there with my friends on a Saturday night, absolutely loving life. Don't get me wrong; my life now is very good and I wouldn't trade it for anything......but I might give up an hour or two just to go back and hang out for a drink and one more song.....

 

I was hit with another flash of nostalgia today, when a new ad for the Superbowl was announced.  This ad for the new Honda CR-V was on the Today Show this morning......"Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?"
 

That's right, Honda has taken the classic 80's movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and made it into (what I believe), will be a great marketing tool. Those of us who came of age in that time period should be hit with some pretty good memories. I love the intro where he speaks to the camera about this being his worst performance, and yet his boss bought it. However, I was a little saddened when the person covering the story, commented on the fact that Matthew Broderick is now 49!!

(What?? Ferris isn't ageless??).....time really doesn't stop, does it? I'm also disappointed that Cameron and Sloane weren't part of the commercial - wouldn't they all still be together? In my world they would be.....Oh well...either way, it made me smile and flash back on a great time in my life.
 

          So that's my trip back in time.......how about you? 

        Have you taken any trips down memory lane lately?

Adrienne

PS - The name of the band is The Tubes......

PPS - I can't resist........"When Cameron was in Egypt's land... let my Cameron go!"

Giving thanks for ......Glasses?

The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world.

~ Leonardo Da Vinci

      It's been awhile now since I've written anything. I haven't had the ability to concentrate on anything more than getting through each day for the past week or so. Yesterday I had minor eye surgery (somewhat of an oxymoron if you ask me.) I'd had a consultation this summer for laser eye surgery to see if I could finally do away with contacts and glasses. I'd developed an allergy to my contacts and glasses were just an annoyance.

              It's amazing how quickly your perspective can change.

     During the consultation and subsequent follow up appointments, it was determined that not only did I not qualify for laser eye surgery, I also had a condition in one eye, that was causing my cornea to deteriorate. Left untreated, over time there was a possibility of one day needing a corneal transplant. Let's not even go into the complications and implications of that scenario. I was lucky that the practice I went to are leaders in the field of laser eye surgery, as well as specializing in many other eye conditions. It was recommended that I have a procedure done that would help to stabilize the cornea and hopefully, help to keep the condition from deteriorating any further. The doctor commented yesterday that he was extremely optimistic about my procedure, as the cornea is usually in far worse shape by the time someone has this procedure. In essence, my consultation for laser eye surgery is what brought the condition to light. A regular eye doctor doesn't do the kind of testing that would show this. My understanding is that the condition would have become much worse before they would have seen anything.

     The procedure itself was no more than 20 minutes and I was awake the entire time. Let me say right now that the doctors were wonderful, the procedure was painless and my recovery thus far has been amazing. Some swelling, dryness and irritation from the one stitch (that's right 1 - isn't science amazing??) However, despite all of this, I will admit that the days leading up to, and the 20 minutes of the procedure, we're mildly terrifying. I mean, it's your EYE - right?? No matter how many surgeries they have done, no matter how well trained they are, there is always something that could go wrong. I went from being annoyed at having to wear glasses to praying that glasses would be the worst outcome.

    We can take so many things for granted in our life and complain about daily annoyances, but there are so many things that could be taken away, literally in the blink of any eye. To say this has given me pause, is an understatement. I can't say that I will never again complain, or take something for granted, but for now I'm going to reflect on all of the wonderful things that I am able to see.... :)

                                                        ~ Adrienne  

Tuesday Testimonial.......

Life is short.....get the crab legs and the cupcakes!


While I am no food critic, I felt that today's testimonial had to revolve around my pre-birthday dinner, at The Iris Restaurant in Amherst NY. For those of you from the area, this (sadly) not (yet) well known restaurant is located in the Maple Ridge Plaza, near the AMC theater. They feature a very eclectic menu, which we plan on returning to try more of in the future. However, tonight's menu featured one of our favorites - all you can eat crab legs. 

They were hot, buttery sweet and cooked to perfection. Paired with a nice Malbec and a background of live music, we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We finished off our meal with a duo of cupcakes. Hubby had the Irish Car Bomb - a chocolate cupcake, made with Guinness and an Irish Whiskey ganache. 

My cupcake was vanilla with butter cream frosting (sorry, my phone photography does not do the food justice.) 

Both of them were a YUMMY way to end the meal. From the service to the chefs, the entire experience couldn't have been more pleasant. Sadly, we were one of the few tables there to enjoy the evening. It is a newer restaurant and just hasn't gotten the exposure that it deserves.

After our dinner we moved into their adjoining bar, The Library for an after dinner drink. A cozy little bar, set up to resemble, surprise! - a library. They also feature small, intimate, musical performances and an impressive 20 beers on tap. The restaurant itself is situated in between The Library and The Forum, a performance venue, which features bands and musicians from all musical genres. Even the Iris itself gets into the musical act each Tuesday night, for their featured Jazz night. Word must be getting out, as we attended this 2 weeks ago, and it was standing room only by the end. We were told tonight, that AM Buffalo taped a segment recently, that will air this Wednesday morning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will do them justice. 

Either way, if you like good food and good music, I think you owe it to yourself (and them) to check out - 
The Iris/The Forum/The Library 
and see what they have to offer.

Oh, and when it's your birthday, you order dinner and dessert....no questions asked.....Life is too short!

~ Adrienne

PS. I was able to find this feature on The Library, from an old Gusto article. Looks like we weren't the only ones impressed.

PPS. I could have written a "You can't make this stuff up," about the nasty table of four dining near us (I mean seriously, how demanding can you be?) And how could you possibly have gotten the only cold crab legs, when the rest of us are burning our hands off over here??" But that would have taken up my entire article.

Tuesday Testimonial.......

Sleep - A condition of body and mind such as that which typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous system is inactive,...

Dreams - A series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep.

Comatose - Of or in a state of deep unconsciousness for a prolonged or indefinite period

To sleep, perchance to dream........honestly there hasn't been much of either around here lately (right now I'm aiming for comatose.) 

 This has pretty much been the motto around my house for the last few weeks..................

                

I don't know about your house, but Christmas and New Year's came to stay about 2 weeks ago and just left in a whirlwind. Between working full time, hosting, visiting with out of town family and friends, Festivus party, Jeff Dunham show (awesome by the way!) and New Year's festivities...

                              well..... let's just say that not only was the candle burned at both ends - the candle pretty much went kaput. So badly in fact that I went to bed at 6:30, yes 6:30 Sunday night and I didn't even realize how early it was.

Therefore, today's testimonial is all about sleep. Now that the holidays are done and the long nights of winter are kicking into high gear, I think it's time we focus on catching up on all the hours we lost in the last couple of weeks. Whether it's turning the computer, TV or whatever electronic gadget you're addicted to, off an hour earlier, or catching a cat nap on the weekends, we need to find a way to get more Zzzzzzzz's! We all know what usually happens after we let ourselves get run down from the holidays, don't we?

The signs of it are already finding there way into my office, so I'm going to do what I can to fight it off, even if that means going to bed at 6:30 at night! 

So Happy New Year's my friends and I wish you all a healthy new year filled with pleasant dreams. 

~ Adrienne