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Sweet Caroline | Good Times Never Seemed So Good

Kathleen — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:26:00 +0000

The AP reported the good times never seemed so good for Neil Diamond. Neil Diamond will be honored with Broadway singer Barbara Cook, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, saxophonist Sonny Rollins, and actress Meryl Streep for their contributions to American culture through the arts. I smiled fondly reading the article. Carolyn would have been ecstatic about the news! She was the biggest Neil Diamond fan I ever knew.

My mother in law – Carolyn – simply adored Neil Diamond. In fact, back in 2008 when she found out Neil was performing in Tampa, she pitched an “I’ll buy, you fly” deal to me. You see, traffic and the never-ending roadwork in Florida make driving for seniors difficult and frightening. There was simply no way I would refuse this dear 70 year old woman the opportunity. It was early spring when we bought the tickets. Level one directly across from the stage about 10 rows up were the best tickets I could get. She was elated with the whole idea even though she had already seen Neil Diamond live several times before. An instant smile was drawn as I listened to her speak about our date in anticipation.

As life would have it, Carolyn fell and broke her hip sometime in late June. This was her second fall and much worse than the first time. She spent the night, over 12 hours, alone on the floor until my brother in law stopped by to visit and found her. Beyond that, she spent two months in a convalescent home recovering, missed a trip to Italy with her church and her great nephew’s wedding. On top of that, there was no way she could climb stairs to the seats for the Neil Diamond concert in the fall. After finally arriving home in September, she told me to sell the tickets. I refused. The woman had suffered so much and for too long, I was determined to find a way for her to attend.

I contacted Ticketmaster and explained the dilemma. They had me contact the St. Pete Forum to investigate handicap seating. The Forum customer service was excellent. They provided me with entrance information as well as the row and seat numbers to accommodate my mother in law. Back on the line with Ticketmaster, the conversation was almost miraculous. Not only did they issue a refund of the original tickets but also waived the return fees and gave us floor seats for the same price!

Oh and it gets better. Once we gained entry to the Forum and made our way onto the ground level, we learned the stage had been reconfigured. This landed us in the first section about 10 rows back from the stage! I’ll never forget the look of sheer jubilation and exultation as the usher pointed out our new seats.

Every time the crowd stood, she stood too. I was freaking out, worried she might fall again. Thankfully, the man seated behind her put up his hands every time she stood just in case. I thanked him repeatedly. Neil Diamond is an exemplary performer and sounds great live even at seventy years old. I knew upon performing his first song the reason Mom adored Neil Diamond. He is, without doubt, worthy of The Kennedy Center Honors.

Diamond said he used to get distracted when people sang along with him to hits like “Sweet Caroline,” which was written for presidential daughter Caroline Kennedy.

“But I realized pretty quickly that it was a compliment and I had no choice in the matter anyway, so I got with the program and just learned to love it,” said Diamond, who earlier this year was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (AP)

I knew it would be difficult and a bit scary to make this two and half hour trip with a wheel chair bound senior in tow, I simply would not cancel. Hubby, his brother, and Mom were all concerned about us going. I stood firm, to deny her yet another vital occasion was unthinkable. Mom talked about this trip for months afterwards. We laughed about how difficult the uphill walk to the Forum entrance had been and the scary moments trudging through parking lots to make back to our car afterwards.

Unbeknownst to us, Mom never truly recovered from the injury. The surgeon informed us back then that 80% of the people who sustain a broken hip in this situation do not live a full year. Mom passed away in July 2009 almost to the date of her accident, but not before seeing her beloved Neil Diamond one more time!

Caring for our seniors can sometimes be daunting and even bewildering at times. However, regret for things left undone is far worse. Of this, I am certain.

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Kathleen

Hey, there I'm Kathleen. My friends call me Kathy; to my kids I'm Momia. Life has afforded me many hats: Mom, wife, sister, friend, business owner... and most recently a midlife blogger. From college to marriage and babies, in the midst of business and wealthy boomers, midlife retrospection validates this extraordinary journey called life.

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Upromise College Rewards Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Kathleen — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 03:25:49 +0000

This post brought to you by UPromise. All opinions are 100% mine.

Midlife has brought about a new lifestyle, qualifying me for The Sandwich Generation inclusion. Yes, I am included in the ever-growing generation who simultaneously care for parents and children. This cultural shift in combination with the horrible economy nearly made college unattainable for my youngest son, which brings me to share a bit about Upromise.

Upromise is a reward program that can help parents pay for college. This month Upromise is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in a big way! Hard to believe I have been a member for ten years.

Upromise Dream Sweepstakes

To celebrate the Upromise 10th anniversary they are giving away $20,000 to users who share their story. Parents can participate in the sweepstakes by sharing how they supported a child’s dream! Users can vote on their favorite stories by “liking” them. Upromise is giving 10 winners $1000.00 and a grand prizewinner $10,000.00.

With nothing to loose parents should enter for a chance to win, I did. Upromise would like to spread the word among parents to join the movement, share their experiences to start a buzz that will fuel the flame of their future dreams. Read the dream wall official rules then share your dream at www.upromisetodream.com.

My Upromise Dream

My youngest son was a video and music lover. Perhaps your thinking, aren’t most teens of that mindset? Not to this caliber. He spent incalculable hours filming and editing every topic imaginable. Then, adding music cuts, text, and all sorts of creative frames. He took TV production classes in high school and began to excel in that area. In my heart, I just knew that someday, somehow, he would be working with a camera, as this was his love and my dream for him!

Business was good back then and as a result, hubby and I overindulged one Christmas. We bought him a computer powerful enough to handle video editing. He was in awe of the machine and continued to improve his editing skills.

Today he is in his 3rd year of college, to achieve a Bachelor of Fine Arts, major professional photography.

About Upromise College Rewards

Upromise members have received more than $600 million in college savings through their rewards program. Through credit card accounts, shopping online, retail credit accounts, dining, and select grocery stores, members earn cash back to be used for their child’s college. Members can pay down loans, invest in 529 college savings plans, high yield savings accounts, or receive a check to cover other college expenses.

Given the turn in economics and our midlife changes, I wish I had taken full advantage of the Upromise program. While I did register my participating credit accounts, we failed to set up a 529-college savings plan nor did we ask family members to register their accounts to help.

Upromise is free to join and I encourage you do so, the sooner the better. A four-year degree, including books, living expenses, and lab supplies costs about $100,000.00.

Kathleen

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Is the Social Media Landscape Influencing your Family?

Annie — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:32:19 +0000

Social media seems to be just about everywhere these days. Whereas people used to stand next to their friends and chat with them, now they’re deciding how many of the ten different bands on Myspace they want to allow to friend them. And how long has it been since people sent their messages through a phone, using that antique thing people used to call “their voice?” These are just the possible musings of people who predate the current fixation with social media and excessive reliance on technology. Let’s take a look at some of the new realities that social media is imposing on family life.

Consider how about only ten years or so ago, kids used to beg their parents for cell phones. Do not feel old if you can remember when they used to beg for pagers – that was only 20 years ago. But now, it seems like the latest smart phone grows out of a child’s hand around the age of 12. Consider how much more open it makes communications between parent and child when they can message one another through their social networks of choice at will. Parents cajole and badger their children until they are friends on Facebook, and then communication becomes more than just texting them when it’s time to come home.

Through social media, a kid can arrange a lot of things without arousing any overt suspicions. But whenever someone writes something on the kid’s profile wall, it’s in full view of the parents. But if the kid decides not to have a wall, that can also arouse suspicions of its own accord. The whole thing is a slippery slope.

Consider how much kids used to be able to hide from their parents, simply through not talking to them. The party coming up in a few days that’ll certainly involve no supervision and tons of substance abuse? Unless there’s a very strict code of silence or some excellent euphemisms bandied about, parents have a leg up on finding out about it that they never would have had in the past. And once something like that has happened, the kids had better disavow it Mission Impossible style, or the pics of them draped over the toilet with the shot glass still in hand will be seen sooner or later.

Basically, parents can spy on their kids in a way parents of the past would have killed for. But of course, the parents themselves had better stay beyond reproach, unless they would like a “good for the goose, good for the gander” style of argument when they bring up a child’s less-glorious deeds.

Granted, parents will probably only tweet “business appropriate” things. But kids who tweet (which isn’t too popular yet, but may grow in popularity down the road) will probably end up saying the darnedest things. Consider what would happen if a parent had access to their kid’s random thoughts and recent activities (that they’re trying to brag to their friends about) 24 hours a day. While you might not be this connected yet, technology follows a familiar path: “Wait a few minutes, and everything will change again.”

Annie is a stay-at-home mom and social media strategist for Mobile Phone Finder, the free online tool helping families keep in touch.

Annie

Ann blogs on variety of topics at Viral Mom, where she offers tips on creating and optimizing your (first) blog as well as sharing useful tools and resources.

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