SURPRISE ! ! !

When I turned 49 last year in 2007 I said to myself that I have got to learn to lower my stress level. I cannot continue to live at such a high speed for the rest of my days. I cut the grass, dust the furniture, do grocery shopping, walk the dog, do laundry, etc., etc., etc., all the way up to the last minute before I have to go to work. Then I hop on my bike and pedal like crazy to get to work on time. But when you are 49 years old, hard habits are bad to break. I think I may have lived up to my new year's resolution maybe just a hand full of times. My reasoning is: why show up to work early when you can just pedal a little faster.

Also when I turned 49 I knew that I would soon have to come up with a really big and exciting plan for the Big Five Oh!

I want to travel for my 50th birthday celebration. I want to go some place that I have not been to before. My sister Jeanette told me that she wanted to spend my birthday with me no matter where I was going to be. She was not necessarily big on a beach holiday but decided anyway to be with me at most likely Gran Canaria. "Don't worry about it, " I comforted her, "I don't want a beach blanket bingo birthday either."

I told her that I have been thinking about Rome. I was thinking about it because I had never been there before and I have recently heard from several people - including my mother and very good long time friend, George from LA, that Rome is beautiful.

Of course Rome is definitely not on Jens's list of places to visit. "I can't stand to listen to all that yelling and screaming", Jens explained to me with big hand movements - his impersonation of an Italian speaking no doubt. "Did you know", he said to me, "that the Italian telephone boxes are twice as large as any other phone box in the world?" "No", I answered, "I didn't know that. Why?" "It's because they need all that extra space just to have a conversation with their hands", he told me.

I told him to relax because Rome is most likely filled with non-speaking tourist anyway and besides, he wouldn't have to talk to anyone other than my sister and me.

OK - so then within this last year, Jens was becoming more disabled. By the month of May we had to rent a wheelchair to take with us to Gran Canaria. How in the world is this going to work - I wondered. It was very important for me that my 50th was with Jens. If he was having a hard time getting around Grand Canaria, a place that he likes, then I knew I was going to have to scratch Rome off of the list.

Over the years Jens has mentioned several times that he would love to see Athens. Both my sister and I have been to Athens in 1980 but who can remember a whirl wind tour of 5 countries on 2 continents in 14 days? Jeanette was big on Rome but just so so on Athens. When I explained that it was important for me to have Jens with me on my 50th she just said, "anywhere is fine with me just as long as I am with you,Eddie". How sweet is that!? So I had to scrap Rome and replace it with Athens.

By the end of Spring, it was clear that Jens wasn't going anywhere. Just going to the bathroom was a big deal and challenge.

From October 14th, 2007, I had run all kinds of plans in my head. The big final plan was to take 3 weeks off of work. 2 of the weeks were going to be spent in the US. I wanted to be with my family since I knew they wouldn't be coming out my way. With my discount airfare possibilities it made more sense for me to go see them. I wanted to spend time with George who also turns 50 just 4 days before me. Plus I was going to make a visit to see Tom T in Texas and Alec and Russell in their new home state Arizona.

Tom and Alec & Russel - this is the first you are hearing this and it is because I didn't want to say that I was going to come and visit you and then call later and say that there was a change of plans.

That is exactly what happened when I was out visiting my niece in Connecticut last spring. I made plans to see Chris in DC and James in Massachusetts. While I was in Connecticut I had to call and cancel my plans at the absolute last minute. I felt so retarded. But it was important for me to cut my trip short and tend to Jens as he was feeling really badly and it was important for me to not be gone for too long.

So ok - back to my big US birthday celebration in CA, TX and AZ. The reason those plans never came to be reality is again - Jens's health issues and the big announcement that popped in through the mail slot: I was officially invited to the wedding of Scott and Nicole - my niece - on October 11.

There was no longer a need to go to CA to see my family since they were all going to be on the east coast. And since I was not going to be anywhere near TX nor AZ, I decided to just keep that part of the plan to myself.

I of course was frustrated with now having to plan a 50th bang of a celebration for the 14th when a wedding on the 11th was taking up the attention. In the end it all worked out because with the extreme difficulty that Jens was having, I wouldn't have made that long trip to CA anyway. Now going to the east coast to see my family actually made more sense and it was only half the distance. I did a mini celebration on my own for one night in New York where I landed from CPH. And the following day Christine, my sister, along with Bob, Scott's father, drove from Bridgeport to LaGuardia Airport to pick up Robert and Jacob, Christine's husband and son. I met them there and tagged along with them back to Bridgeport.

This was funny and unusual; seeing my family in CT instead of CA.
I was with my family for the 3 days before the wedding, the day of the wedding and then the day after the wedding I returned back to CPH.

For 4 days it went like this:
Oh the brides maids!
Oh the dresses !
Oh the groom !
Oh the tuxedos!
Oh the beautiful cake!
Oh the beautiful flowers!
Oh the beautiful wedding dress!
Oh the this !
Oh the that!
Oh the food!
Oh the ring!
Oh yeah - happy birthday Eddie.
Oh the gifts!
Oh the reception hall!
Oh the view!
Oh the amazing guest!
Oh the music!
blah blah blah

Here now are a few pix from the 4 day in Connecticut.


The pix above is my niece Nicole all dressed up for the bridal shower. Below is her mother, my sister, Christine.
The day after the bridal shower there was a dinner for the wedding party; the actual people involved in the wedding. And of course a few VIP's were invited too. Below is the bride to be, her mother- Christine with husband Robert and their son, Jacob - Nicole's brother.At the pre-wedding dinner party with Christine, my mother, Cecilia and my sister Jeanette.
One of the VIP's at the wedding dinner party. Notice that the wine stained teeth match the grape colored sweater.
The next day is the actual wedding at a wonderful golf course. When I heard that the wedding was at a golf course, I laughed. But this place specializes in wedding and banquets and the course is beautiful and especially since the autumn colors were starting to explode. Here I am with my wonderful Pop - Mike
Nicole and Scott are now Husband and Wife.



Jacob - Scott - Nicole - Christine - Robert
Nicole - send me the name of the man on the left and who he is and the name of Scott's Grandfather I will update this.
Second from the left is Scott's little brother, Greg - Scott - Nicole - Scott's mother, Carolin - Scott's father, Bob and Scott's Grandfather.
The traditional wedding dance.
The wedding reception was so fantastic. Here are my sisters and sister-in-law, Cathy dancing.
Cutting the cake.

Nicole and a few of the bridesmaids.

For those of you who absolutely must see more of Nicole and Scott's wedding, click here to see all of my 196 pix. Click on the bottom of the site where it says "see all 196 photos" and then click on the next page under where it says "order prints" , click onto where it says "slide show" to see the pix in large format.

The day after the wedding my sister and I along with Tami and my second cousin , Lilian drove back to Newark Airport. Tami had the first flight out. After dropping her off, Jeanette, Lillian and I drove to down-town Newark to check out the sites because we had a few hours to kill. Newark was so scary we were scared that it was going to be us that were going to be killed. Newark is not a place you want to be in and we were there on a mid Sunday morning. It was so spooky we even locked the car doors when we had to pull into a gas station to fill up.
We decided to head back to the airport and have lunch there where it was safe (minus a hijacker or two) We had a nice talk with Lillian, finished our lunch. We clinked our cheap and nearly alcohol free margarita glasses to wish us happy landing and happy birthday and then Lillian was on her way. Then Jeanette and I were the next to depart. The plan was to depart on the 12th and land on the 13th and celebrate together with Jens on the 14th. But the worst that you could imagine happened. Jeanette had to be re-routed to depart the next day and have a special overnight service deliver her passport. But it all worked out well and Jeanette arrived in CPH on the morning of the 14h. Because she can magically sleep anywhere any time, she was more refreshed and way less jet lagged than I was and I had already been home for 24 hours.

As I mentioned before - it was very important for me to have Jens celebrate my b-day with me.
So this is why it was important for me to be home on the 14th. For some reason Jens thought lots of people were going to show up in the middle of the day, a Tuesday, to congratulate me on my half century saggy old butt. So he went out and ordered 3 cakes. This one is from the dog.



In the begging of this blog I mentioned that I was to visit with Chris in Washington DC but I had canceled at the last minute. I told Chris that I would try to see him on my next visit to the east coast. Of course that wasn't going to happen either because Jens was feeling even worse now then on the first cancellation. Plus at the same time I was in Connecticut for a wedding, Chris was in Copenhagen for a visit with his Danish girlfriend, Laila.
I wasn't planning on anything more than just a simple dinner with my hubby Jens, Jeanette and Torben - the young man who lives with us. But it would have been to dumb to be in the same part of town and not have Chris come by for a cuppa-java and a slice-o-cake. So here they are and it was wonderful to see them.
Chris and I went to a Danish laungage camp together eons ago but now he is back in the USA.
Birthe, Jens's ex-wife and her husband John came by as well as crazy man Lars.

Here is Torben. He and Jens have taken on a father / son role and it's been good for both of them.
My lovely and crazy sister packed many gifts and table decorations in her suitcase all the way from California. It was pretty festive for a non-planned party. And it was about half a cake per person. Later on Preben and Anne came by. Preben is actually an old bible school pal of Jeanette's. They met at the school in CA approximently 100 years ago. I said to Preaben that Jeanette is in town for one day so if you want to see her, this would be the time.
Everybody was gone by dinner time when just the four of us sat down for a Thai take-out b-day dinner. After dinner Jeanette and I packed and departed for Rome the following day.
Our apartment was just 2 blocks away from the top of the Spanish Steps.

Here is Jeanette now at the bottom of the the Spanish Steps
Our first of many Roman nibble meals. The amount of out door cafés was endless and we tried to hit them all.
At the famous Trevi fountain.


A really groovy recycle shop. We wanted that chair and we were thinking of you, Tami, when we saw it.
Though it was the 15th, we celebrated my 50th birthday here at this swanky Italian nuvo restaurant.

The vatican was unbelievable and endless. There is so much to see you could click your camera forever and still not get it all. But for now, here are just 2 pix.

Here I am inside St. Peter's Basilica.
Here we are on the front side of the Basilica
At Piazza Navona.
Inside one of the many gelato butiques.
Here Jeanette is making a plan to steal a plate from a very delicious and enjoyable café
Jeanette at the Pantheon.

Jeanette waving out of the apartment window. See pix and a short video clip of our apartment
At the Colosseum.
Jeanette buys a small designer hand bag for Tami in this butique. It's easier to pack than a used chair.
Looking out over the Fourm and towards the Momunent of Victor Emanuel II (google it - very interesting)
Standing at the oldest doors in Rome in the Fourm. I kept saying to my sister that it almost looks just like Las Vegas.
It's clear to see that I know nothing of fashion. And look at those bony bowed legs! Well I found something to help me cover up a multitude of sins.
Our farwell dinner. This may be our last night in Rome but it is surly not the last time we visit this wonderful grand city of antient civilization.
My sister is so clever; going home she was able to get me into business class - even I couldn't do that and I work for the darn company.

To view all 205 pix from my Rome Sweet Rome tour, please click here. When you get to the photo page, click onto the first photo and then click onto "slide show" and that will display the pictures in a large format. (if there is only one pix on the screen then just click the link that says "slideshow")

Thanks for viewing my blog. Feel free to leave a comment below if you want. No need to sign up for a blog of your own - just click onto annonymous and let me know what you think.