The Land of the Midnight Sun

Well, I've been a ball of sunshine lately, haven't I? It's official. I have the winter blues. Thank God February is almost over, this really might be my least favorite month. Even though it's the shortest, it seems to go on forever. January has some holiday spill over, March has St. Patty's day and it starts to get warm in April, but February is just a big blank period of cold, dreary nothing. Yuck.

Things other than the weather have been contributing to my mood, but they'd be a hell of a lot easier to deal with if it was 75 degrees and sunny. I was supposed to leave for Alaska tomorrow (not exactly the tropics, I know), but that isn't happening anymore and I'm kind of sad about it.

My Aunt Dorothy, my grandmother's sister, had been very sick for quite some time when she asked my grandma to come visit. However, it was asked that my grandfather not accompany her. My grandparents have been to Alaska several times over the years, but my grandfather can be a little difficult to handle if you don't have to love him because you're related to him. Don't get me wrong, he's an awesome guy and I love him to death (not just because I have to), but he can be an ornery old man who's set in his ways and yells a lot. He's also Italian. With my great aunt's weakened condition and the emotional stress on her family, I just don't think they were prepared to deal with a visit from Uncle Frank.

So, my mom and I were going to take my grandmother to see her sister in Anchorage. Aunt Dorothy's three daughters even donated air miles, so the trip was paid for. It was going to be 10 days of adventure and bonding with some pretty incredible women in the Last Frontier. And then two weeks before we were to leave, Aunt Dorothy had a stroke. She hung on for a few days, but she wasn't really there, and she passed away on February 13, four days after her 83rd birthday.

I wasn't expecting the emotions that I felt after I got the news. I met Aunt Dorothy a few times on her visits to Buffalo, but I was young and don't really remember it. What I do remember vividly, and always will, are the stories my grandparents told about their trips to Alaska. They'd come back with tales about beautiful wildflowers growing on the side of the road, breathtaking glaciers, ice-capped mountains and moose roaming the streets. It all sounded so cool.

What I really loved hearing about though, were the stories they'd tell about the people. My aunt, her three daughters, their husbands and children and grandchildren. I have a connection to this whole clan 4,000 miles away and I've never met most of them. I don't even really know much about them, but I'm so incredibly interested. I want to know who they really are, what their personalities are like, what their relationships with each other are like, what they like to do. I want to know them like family and I was so looking forward to the chance to finally do that.

From what I do know about my Aunt Dorothy, she was a really cool lady. She moved to Anchorage in the 1970s with her husband Paul, an air force pilot. She worked as a Rosie the Riveter during WWII on the B-29 bombers that her husband was flying. She fearlessly left behind her entire family in Buffalo and built a new life in Alaska. That's quite a task.

I think part of the intrigue for me, especially when it came to wanting to get to know Aunt Dorothy, was that it provided a little window to my grandmother's past. I know my grandma as Nana, that's what I call her. I made it up when I was little and that's what she's always been to me. The only other name I've heard her answer to is Geri or Geraldine, which my grandfather calls her, or Mom. But everyone in Alaska calls her Sissy. That's what all of her brothers and sisters called her, and my aunt's kids know her as Aunt Sissy. It kind of blows my mind that there's this whole other personality she has that I know nothing about. She's MY grandmother, I'm her only granddaughter, and I know nothing about Sissy. I want to know.

Nana is very, very protective of her family, which makes her a little suspicious of anyone that isn't me, my grandfather, mom, dad or brother. She would bend over backwards for us and has, many times, but anyone else can forget it. We joke that she thinks everyone is out to get her, especially the cashier at the grocery store that overcharges her a nickel for a head of lettuce. It's kind of true though.

I've seen her interact with her youngest brother Jim and his family, who live in Orchard Park, and she's good with them. I see the nicer, gentler side of her with them, the personality that I grew up with. I wanted to watch her interact with her family in Alaska. She always speaks so lovingly about Patty, Susan, Terri (Aunt Dorothy's daughters) and their families. Aunt Sissy must be the same wonderful, giving woman to them that my Nana is to me.

It makes me really sad that we were all robbed of the time we could have spent together. Maybe it happened for a reason though. Nana is going to be 79 in August and although she travels with my grandpa all the time, it's a process for her. She's the most nervous person I've ever met and just the thought of this trip was definitely taking a toll on her. Had we been there when my aunt had the stroke, it would have been incredibly difficult on her. But still, what an experience it would have been.

I will make it to Alaska some day. I've thought about taking my brother when he graduates from college. I really would like to go with my grandma, maybe we'll all go, who knows? I just feel like it's something I have to do, part of my family's history is there and I need to experience it. Someday.

Sick

I'm sick of winter.
I'm sick of the cold.
I'm sick of being sick.
I'm sick of being stuck inside.
I'm sick of not getting enough sleep for no good reason.
I'm sick of my ridiculously long drive back and forth to work.
I'm sick of my clothes.
I'm sick of this city (sometimes).
I'm sick of certain people.
I'm sick of certain thoughts that won't leave my head.
I'm sick of wondering..

The Night I was Cool

This little story was written by Melissa Militello and I stole it from her myspace page...


I am not cool. I have never been cool, I've never tried to be cool…but god damn it I felt cool this past weekend.

It has taken me a LONG time to be able to talk about this night without becoming giddy and talking in exclamation points. I think enough time has passed, and I will try to do my best.

Though some small miracle (named Terese), Erin and myself got the chance to volunteer for the Ryan Miller Catwalk for Charity at the Statler. We had the most awesome job ever: take tickets at the door, and hand out maps. Not only did we get to see everybody who came through the door, we only had to work for approximately two hours and were free the rest of the night to just party. We saw Ryan Miller….Rob Ray….The Hanson Brothers….Rick Jeanerette even came up and asked Erin where the martini bar was!!! Damn exclamation points.

We worked with these two other chicks that took off after half an hour of taking tickets. It made me mad; not only was I extremely cold from standing by the door, but I was also hungry. That is the worst combination for me to be, it made me start feeling the rage. The chicks came back after an hour of partying and I told them we were going on a break. Those bitches gave me attitude, so I left with Erin and we didn't return for the rest of the night. Bitches.

The first thing we do is get a drink at the bar, then we went to eat…and I bumped into Brian Campbell. The whole night was so surreal…you eat, drink, and party with hockey players. We ran into a girl that I work with, and then we all went to see Robbie from the Goo Goo Dolls play with Ryan Miller and Drew Stafford on stage. I know they were playing with someone else, but by this time I was feeling all the vodka and guinness just a bit. All I know is that we were also standing next to Jason Pominville. Anyway, I left to use the bathroom and get a new drink, and when I came back Erin and this girl from work were standing at a table with Adam Mair. OH MY GOD. So I walk up and start eating Erin's food right away, to try and pace myself so that I can keep drinking without turning into Puddles. In the mean time, the guy with Adam Mair starts talking to us – his name is David Greene and he's super cool. My glasses were a damn pick up line. All of these blonde, tall, perfect-looking models, and we were the ones talking to the cool people. My friend from work had to leave because she locked her keys in her car – Erin and I agreed that even if our cars were on fire we wouldn't have left that party. As soon as she leaves TIM CONNELLY walks up right next to me and says something like "Do you mind if I eat here?" David Greene turns out to be a high school friend of Tim Connelly…we so made friends with the right person. He introduced himself as Timmy and asked where we were from. He knew South Buffalo, which was pretty awesome. He was really nice, even when the other people at the table were asking him about his injuries and that kind of stuff. So finally Timmy and Adam had to leave because they were in the fashion show, which was highly entertaining. At the end of the fashion show I remember slapping hands with all of the Sabres that were in the show, not to mention the Hanson brothers. Then we went back to the bar for more drinks, and ran into David again.

After the fashion show, we hung out with David and the rest of the guys for awhile. We drank, did shots…Erin was smart enough to spit hers out. I was too drunk to be smart. I ran into Timmy(!) and told him we needed to do a shot. I didn't remember the rest until Erin reminded me what happened. I went up to the bar to get the shots, which were vodka apparently. Then I noticed an entourage of people already surrounded Timmy…and I almost chickened out. I said to Erin "I can't bother him." Erin said, "Do it or you'll regret it." Did I mention Erin is smart? I tapped Timmy on the shoulder and he was like "oh, shit." As in, you're really going to make me do this shot…and then I did a shot with Tim Connolly. It was awesome.

We partied at the Statler for a bit longer - among other things I remember us getting into a political conversation with Paul Gaustad, about Obama and universal health care. Was this my life? I was ok while I was talking to them, then I would kind of look around and be like oh my god, is this really happening? The party ended at 12, but we didn't leave until around 1:30ish…in a LIMO with David Greene, Tim Connelly, Paul Gaustad, and Adam Mair. I know there were other people in the limo, but I don't remember them after drinking so much. We went to Big Shots, from what I do remember – we followed Timmy in. We were in with the cool crowd. Adam bought drinks for everyone, and I escaped to the bathroom to avoid being hit on. While Erin and I were in the bathroom everybody left to go to Tim Connelly's house for a party – everybody but David. He wanted to stay to let us know…although I'm pretty sure he had ulterior motives. Erin, David, and I took a cab back to the Statler, and the valet had Erin's car parked right out front luckily. We then drove David to Timmy's house, but we did not go into the party. I was too drunk, and Erin recognized that…who knows what I would have done. But we didn't care, because we still had an amazing story to tell.

While this story is extremely long to type out, I know that I've probably left out some details that I'm sure Erin Collins will fill in. Erin and I always get into random situations together, but this tops them all. Thank you Erin for knowing Terese, for being cool and sharing this night with me, and for recognizing when I am on the verge of becoming Puddles and reminding me of it.

8:41 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment


Comments from the Peanut Gallery (me)...

Melissa, you did a fine job of recalling the fuzzy details of the best night of our lives. I will never forget looking into number 19's beautiful blue eyes as he reached out his hand to me and said, "Hi, my name's Timmy. What's yours."

I do have a few highlights to add, including when you switched glasses with David Greene and passed the spectacles to each other through our friend Timmy, who in turn, touched your glasses. I believe Adam Mair and I had an exchange about life without impaired vision during this time. When Timmy asked where we were from and we said South Buffalo (that's right folks, we were so engaging that he was asking the questions), his response was, "Oh, you must be Irish," to which I'm pretty sure you yelled, "I'm Polish and Italian and Prussian and Sicilian!"

The other person playing on stage with Ryan and Drew was Toni Lydman on drums. Later in the night, Derek Roy joined them to belt out a rendition of "Better Man." I have a video clip of this glorious concert on my page, although the sound is very shotty.

We did indeed have the pleasure of listening to a political rant from the Goose, who went on about the evils of universal healthcare and how the only reason people like Obama is because he's black and articulate. I might have been able to come up with something semi-intelligent to say if I wasn't practically standing with my shoulder in his armpit, as his arm was wrapped around the pillar that I was leaning on and he is a tall drink of water.

The limo ride was beyond words. True, it was a mere three blocks from the Statler to Big Shots (I'm still not entirely positive that is where we ended up, due to my beyond-intoxicated state at this point in the evening). The brevity of the ride did not take away from the fact that we pulled up to a Chippewa establishment and got out of the same limo as Timmy Connelly, Adam Mair and Paul Gaustad. I have never and will never again be that cool.

I don't think it was ever actually determined where our posse went while we were in the bathroom pinching ourselves, whether it was back to Timmy's house or to another bar. We did drive David Greene back to his high school pal's lovely home near the harbor, however we did not go in for several reasons. Number one being that Melissa was turning a pukey shade of Puddles, number two being that David Greene wanted to get in her pants and number three, we were not sure that there was an actual party going on and didn't think Tom Connelly really wanted us hanging out in his living room at 4AM if there wasn't. It would have been funny if you puked in Tim Connelly's house though.

There was just a shady feeling in our guts and we decided right then and there in my car parked outside of the Connelly residence that this night would go down in history as the 1 Drunken Adventure of Erin and Melissa and nothing would ever top it, no matter what. We didn't need to go in. Our lives were complete as it was.

You can view a multitude of pictures and videos from the fashion show on my page. Please note that we do not have any pictures of ourselves with our famous friends. You see, we were "in." We had made it into the inner circle and asking for a photograph would have been just about the most uncool thing we could have done. I have all the pictures I need in my head.

Posted by Erin on February 6, 2008 - Wednesday at 11:11 PM