Day 8- Happy St. Patricks Day Grandpa!

When I was in Kindergarten, they used to do something at every snack time that repulsed me. They would dye the milk. I decided this would be a good trick to play on grandpa for St. Patrick's day. So last night I snuck into the kitchen and dyed the milk green.

He woke up like a ray of sunshine pretending he was tap dancing into the kitchen, and singing a little jig. We were discussing the weather when he discovered the "blue milk". Heheheheeee. He was laughing and calling me a turkey.


We spent a good part of our night chatting in the rocking chairs on the front porch. When I walked into the garden beds to take a picture of a flower, grandpa yelled to his neighbor Jimmy "Hey Jimmy! I got a new trophy wife!". Oh goodness..Then I started to feel like I was really becoming Jane when I left for the store and he called me "babe"...I'm the turkey..grandma's the babe!

Two pieces of advice grandpa gave me while we were having our cup of green coffee, and watching Cash Cab this morning.. 1- "remember, a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future" and 2-"..take the money and run Lexi." He might be grandmas Jeffery, but maybe I'm Katniss, and he's my Haymitch.

the famous Pin Oak grandpa planted when they first moved in 46 years ago.

Day 7- Babysitting Grandpa

It was sadly my last day nannying today and I'm gonna miss my buddy. We were lucky to have a beautiful day, so we took advantage and spent it with some seagulls on the beach. I thought grandpa and I might have a drink on the porch when I got home, but to my surprise he said "we're celebrating! Go put on your lipstick! I got my tax return!" We'll save the porch for tomorrow.

We went to the clam bar by the ferries in Bay Shore, one of grandpas favorite places. He was wearing a beautiful blue shirt I complimented him on last week but forgot to take a picture of, I got him this time. Then he asked to take a picture of me. My dad and his brothers used to be clammers in their summers home from college, and grandpa and grandma love to reminisce about this. I like to hear their stories because it reminds me where my desire to be by the water partially stems from. When we got back to "the ranch" I taught grandpa how to do laundry, he took thorough notes and did a great job when I had him do it on his own. My favorite part was when he wrote out the description of a dryer sheet "freshens clothes and removes static electricity".

Babysitting Grandpa-The weekend

On Friday morning I came downstairs and caught grandpa before he was leaving for "the office" which is code for, playing poker at the country club. He told me he had to make money to take me out to Captain Bills, and he sure did! He won 14 dollars. So he took me out, and It was a pleasant surprise when we ran into my aunt and uncle. As soon as we sat down he got ketchup on his sweater vest, and compared it to a Seinfeld episode. My aunt advised me to look elsewhere if I wanted to waitress, so I took her advice. After dinner grandpa joked around and asked me if I wanted to go dancing, I said of course! He thought I was joking..but I really wanted to.

I felt I was taking a risk but I spent Saturday in the city, I know he's his own man and he can handle it for a day. When I walked in the door Sunday afternoon he told me he had something important to show me. He took me to his desk and showed me a hand written letter to decline a wedding invitation. It was a beautiful hand scripted letter, but I wasn't sure what his point was. Then he pulled out a lined piece of paper, which he had gone over the lines with a sharpie pen. What a clever trick, he places the blank stationary paper over the sharpie lined paper and uses it as a guide. This is all part of his "training program", if your lucky one day, you may be invited personally by him to take part in it. Afterwards I checked around the house and everything looked in its place, but there were a few extra crumbs on the counter..Jane wouldn't have liked this..

It's going to be in the 60s here all week, which means we might be taking cocktail hour to the rocking chairs on the porch, this is classic Jane and Carl and the little Southerner in me loves it.

Day 3- Babysitting Grandpa

Grandpa and I both had nightmares last night, so we got a late start on our day. He told me he was so terrified, he couldn't wait to wake up, me too, I dreamt my eyeball fell out. He played golf, and I ran around town running Jane errands all day. As soon as I walked into the grocery store my mind went completely blank. Im positive I walked around the store in circles 5 times. But then I got a phone call from my pal Sharon, and she helped me regroup. I think it turned out to be a successful trip, I made sure I checked all the expiration dates and ended up being there for an hour. I'm pretty sure people thought I was a mom because I was driving Grandmas Bonneville and I had a baby seat in the back of the car. I was going for "young Jane in her 30's".

As I was carrying the groceries from the garage to the house, I heard Grandpa calling my name. I was getting confused because I didn't see his car. I turned the corner to see him sitting on the porch bench with his face in his hands and his shoes off, when he looked up at me his face was bright red. My heart started beating faster and I immediately starting thinking somebody beat him up. He looked at me and said "..The car got stolen............I'm jus kiddin!".....Wow Grandpa. It turned out he got sun burned on the golf course. He was dropped off because he realized he'd left his wallet at the house, and he didn't want to risk driving the half mile home without his license. He is definitely a "better safe than sorry" kind of guy.

Grandma has been calling in to check in on us. Grandpa told me at dinner "oh Janey, she's so cute, she worries about us". We had a very passionate conversation about organization, and how it can change your life. He pointed out two very good benefits of organization, 1) it eliminates stress 2) it gives you more time, and time is precious. I couldn't agree more.


Little Jane

Day 2- Babysitting Grandpa

Grandpa has actually been very sweet to me. I think he senses my nervousness. When I saw him all calm and cool while I was trying to get dinner on the table by 6:15, I put the pressures of being Jane on the back burner for the night. I realized, this man is on a schedule, and my most important goal should be to stick to that schedule. So I'm sticking to the schedule. While we were having a conversation at dinner I couldn't stop thinking that he reminded me of a gentle silver back gorilla.

If you ever catch the Fire Island ferry in Bay Shore and you pass Garden Park, that land was going to be apartments, but grandpa led a petition for two years and got the county to buy that land. He calls it "His Park", and we're taking a field trip there tomorrow evening. We ended the night watching our favorite movie, Singin in the Rain. We couldn't decide on our favorite scene because every one is so amazing. But I really think his is the classic Gene Kelly Singin in the Rain number. He told me a little trivia that Gene did that in just one take, that impressed me. I'm hoping he'll want to watch it again, because I already want to.



*ps! Merci for all your sweet comments, I'm glad you're enjoying lil till! Thank you to my brother CJ for letting me use his beautiful picture of a ballerina in the street! ;)*

Day 1-babysitting grandpa

Grandma woke up bright and early this morning. I woke up kind of nervous, seeing grandpa run around the house like a riled up chipmunk was making me anxious. I finally felt more docile once grandma got dressed and put her bags in the car. I asked her to give me three final tips before she left, which were: 1- Grandpa doesn't like cabbage, or cauliflower, so don't give it to him (I already know this) 2- If he gets annoyed, just ignore him 3- Keep it cool. Perfect, easy peasy. The rest of the day was pretty calm, Grandpa spent most of it exploring La Guardia airport and delivering a baby gift, so I got some work done and went to a yoga class. Not very Jane like, but she digs it, so it's cool. And she said keep cool. Grandpa tried to make me have dinner at 5, but I told him that was extremely too early. We agreed he'd eat at 5, and I'd eat after my class. We had leftovers.

I don't know why but I am so nervous about this cooking thing that i'm starting to feel nauseous. I just want to close my eyes and give him peanut butter and jellies all week. I was so relieved he wanted leftovers today. I know how to cook, I love to cook, but Grandma is his Ina, and he is her Jeffery. I can't live up to that yet.

neatly organized, very lady like. I love it.

Becoming Jane..

Grandma Jane will be escaping town for two weeks to visit our family in the south. This makes me officially in charge of babysitting Grandpa, and taking over the role of Grandma for two weeks. This is great, because this is finally my chance to prove to Grandpa I'm a real woman now, and to everyone else, that being an old lady is awesome. Here's a list of some typical Grandma things I'll be doing..

-wearing moo moos (I already tried these on Saturday)
-3 hour ironing/steaming sessions
-cooking..apron on at 5 o'clock sharp
-making Grandpas cocktail at 5:30pm (usually a martini or Rob Roy)
-taking disco naps and reading Barbara Kingsolver novels on the couch
-watching Barefoot Contessa
-standing in for Grandma at mahjong
-keeping on top of leftovers in the fridge. Grandmas mantra, "I hate wasting food."
-asking to look at strangers babies in public places
-shopping at Macy's
-checking expiration dates on all food consider buying at grocery store

Grandpa and I already have a date at the Captain Bills Thursday night for cheeseburgers, says he knows a lady at the bar that can get me a waitressing job. I know I'm going to kill this. My goal is comfort, while working hard, so i'll be wearing stretchy pants both weeks.


Love,
Little Jane