7:26 Am, do you know where your children are?

Ahhh, I think I need to find stronger tea. There just isnt enough caffeine in there to get me going in the morns. Sometimes drinking a cup of tea is just so relaxing that I could crawl back into bed. Of course, that doesnt happen, because I am working here, people. I could go back to bed, but bad things would happen to good kids.

I need a morning beverage that gives me the shivers. Maybe I should start drinking Buckley's Cough syrup. I heard there are ground up pine needles in there.

Went to a wake on Wed for Sandy's mom. She died on Sunday. Looking at all those old pictures, thinking about this woman, my best friend's mother, who I have known for 27 years. Poor Sandy! I mean, they will have to scrape me off the floor if my mom dies. If I even think about it I get all sorry for myself and a lump in my throat and I have to think about something else quick.

My earliest memory of Gladys Stachura is of her being on the other end of the phone. She would call Sandy and talk and talk, and Sandy would let me listen to her for a few minutes. Man, she could talk. Sandy would take the phone by the curly cord and swing it around the room, her mom never knew a thing.

Also when we were kids we would sleep over at Gladys's at her apartment on Mohawk Road. It was kind of exotic to me, being in an apartment. She had these huge ostrich feathers in one corner, and she always had ice cream. She liked me because I was polite. She had a lot of makeup, which we would slather on, and then go for a walk down the hallway. Sometimes we even went in the elevator.

Sandys mom could talk about a deal she got on a sweater for half an hour. I never saw her, not once, without her hair done. She was 'friends' with my uncle Donny for twenty years. So weird that she is gone, just like that.

Again and as always I got a chance to admire Sandy this week. I don't know another person who can do what needs to be done like her. I really am lucky that she has keep me around all these years.

Alright, well it is 747 now (blogging interrupted several times already) and before someone else needs me I better go. Is it Friday already?

A.