Seeing Friends and Getting Things Done

Yayyyy!! Good Morning, friends!! So excited for the day, and it's Friday!
The only Friday that I will be home this month!  Business is so good, and has me traveling a lot this month!  The last couple days have been kinda busy too!  My phone and emails have been keeping me busy with work throughout the day...a good thing when people are calling/emailing me!  And then one of my dear friends, Nesti Mendoza, once was a famous photographer in NYC, still is the photographer of Raquel Welch, but has become a million dollar earner in real estate, celebrated his 61st birthday yesterday...time flies when you keep yourself young body and mind! We found ourselves at the new Four Season's here on South Beach,

and the restaurant/bar inside called "Le Sirenuse."  Wow! Just a beautiful place!  Can't wait to return.  Then, after work yesterday, I met a couple of my beautiful blonde Ausie girlfriends, who both live

here in South Beach, at our local Monty's at the marina for a couple of beers and some peel & eat shrimp...it was Happy Hour!  But, I have to say the best part of my week was when I returned home last night, and my two middle daughters, Caroline, age 22, and Tiffany, age 20,, were CLEANING our new condo...and better...hanging things on the walls!!  We all lived apart since the girls left Panama for school, a couple years, before I moved back to the states, and chose South Beach...hence, being one of the reasons that I moved back.  So, I jumped right in, throwing away boxes, etc.  Then came the pivoting moment when Caroline asked me if I wanted to share a bottle of wine with her.  Tiffany had gone to bed tired.  I said, "No, honey I had a couple beers at Monty's with the girls."  But then I saw her losing steam...getting tired...we still had a bunch more mirrors that needed to be hung on the wall...and, mind you, this is no easy task...it takes a mathematician, with precise technique...a pencil and a few nails and a hammer.  Caroline and her room-mate helped me decorate my first apartment when I moved to South Beach...actually, they virtually did it.  They took my credit card, and went to IKEA, and bought these "God-forsaken" things, not knowing what they were getting into, and that they would have to re-calibrate, and move them to my new apartment 6 months later, when I had to move out of the Flamingo Towers due to mold.  Now in our newest condo, I brought the mirrors, but Caroline had said there is "no way" she will ever hang those again...but she was on a role last night!!  So, then I changed my tune: "I will open a bottle of wine and drink it with you (because this seemed to be the deal maker), if you will hang those mirrors on the wall."  She briefly thought

about it, and then to my surprise, she agreed!!  So, honestly, we had the nicest night sharing, and I told her stories about how much she is like my own mother.  First of all, Caroline is a genius. She

scored 100% on the nursing school entrance exam on both the english and math portions!! And, secondly, she is a DO-er...She gets up and gets things done...she can do anything.  My mom was just like this.  No stranger to putting together ANYTHING...she gardened, wrote, she supported my Dad in every dream he had, helped us all with home-work, hammer in a nail and all while being dressed to the nine's and wearing high heels in a secluded home on 25 acres in Leo, Indiana...After my car accident, when I went back to college, it was no easy task...I couldn't write to take notes...I recorded my classes, and do you know that my mother in Ft. Wayne, Indiana bought the same books I had for my classes at IU, Bloomington, and would go over them with me at night.  Anyway, after Caroline and I got the job done, and finished the bottle of wine, we climbed into my bed, talked some more, and then called my oldest daughter, Marlaina, who just moved to LA...it was getting quite late here, but she was just getting home from her day there.  Wow, it was such a great night, and it is so

wonderful to be living with my kids again...and in a place big enough for all of us!! The last couple years since I returned to the states, my kids have been in and out of my one bedroom apartment, after
they returned to the states after living 4 years with just me and a maid in Panama after my divorce.