Birthday-Gras ... Day Four

Clock is ticking on this late-night post ... only 24-days pre-birthday. I'm thankful for home. Mine and yours. I'm thankful for my family's health and well-being ... all of us. Those of us who have lost shingles but kept most everything. Those of us who kept our shingles and have lost most everything. Those of us who lost nothing but an enormous piece of her heart. I took Galveston Island much too for granted. During the years that I played tourist on that Island, my children made memories with their grandparents and I got to share the happiness of my parents' home on that Island. It was a large part of my childhood but an even larger part of my adulthood. If you were to visit the city's home page or that of the local daily, you'd see that all of our previous haunts ... restaurants, clothing shops, candy stores ... "closed." Gutted. Gone. But, with the promise to rebuild.



THAT up there is a picture (from the Houston Chronicle) of the Stork Club where my parents had before/after theatre-drinks w/ their favorite bartender AND the place where I took The Big One and The Short One for hamburgers one night in the corner booth. YES, I had my babies in a bar! And it was fantastic.

THAT is Buchanan Gallery ... the site of the best wine and best scene during monthly Art Walk. "You don't have to like it, you just have to experience it," said Grandmommy to The Big One. And he did and he does. And he still talks about the exhibit w/ "all the fruit." They're boarding it up because it's wet and muddy and empty. Because this gallery is on the same street w/ my favorite clothing store, tho' I've seen no pictures of it specifically ... sigh ...


THAT was our lunch place in July. JULY! We dined here for lunch w/ both boys and praised the invention of the Nintendo DS. We'd never dined there w/ them before because of the white table cloths and "quiet ambience" and hard chairs, but on this day we enjoyed the a/c, a lunch of wine and gnocchi, and the boys never really knew what hit 'em. Until Grandmommy told the story of a previous dinner when the neighboring table caught on fire in a crazy candle/napkin conflagration and the boys spent the remainder of our lunch SURE that we were about to spontaneously combust.

THAT'S Yaga's Restaurant where RIGHT NEXT DOOR the boys chose their first day of school outfits.

I've come across many, many more photos like these. I don't have the patience to post them. But, I know them all. I don't have a recent memory of feeling more homesick. That sicky, lumpy-throated, thickness that sits on your heart ...

The inspiration behind all the Greek food references on this here blog. And it sits in the parking lot where Jim Cantore (Weather Channel) stood on Sept. 12 and declared ... "This'll all be gone. All of it. See that 'Olympia Grill' over there? It'll have 10 ft. of water in it." It could've. But, it didn't. And the mousaka awaits.

Oh! Lastly. Finally! Word on Steve and the Home of the Chocolate Toffee Cookie and Lovely Flower Tea Cozy Things ...

I'm thankful for memories. I'm thankful for The Short One and his sweetness. The Big One and his neediness when he's feverish (tonight) and sickish (all afternoon and tonight). I'm thankful for my discovery today of coffee ice cream. I'm thankful for The Tall One and his handiness and diligence and trust and for taking such damn good care of us. I do so little to deserve all of you.

I'm thankful it's my birthday month. For blog posts that go nowhere. And for you for listening.

I'm thankful for good places to start. And happy endings.