'Twas the Night Before

Very excited for The Ridgewood Run and Strides For Sylvie tomorrow. The day we've all been waiting for! Spent the better part of today prepping for tomorrow. Ann's sleeping over. Cindy and Adam are driving up from LBI VERY early with breakfast goodies. My parents will be here bright and early, too. Caryn is working da tent and guarding the signed Yankees and Mets auction items among others while we run the 10K although I have a feeling that Michael may be the highest bidder for the signed Joba Chamberlain jersey! Andy and Catherine's house looks like a campaign office. They RULE! Tomorrow will be one of the most memorable days of our lives. I can't wait to see everyone who comprises the team Strides for Sylvie. Andy said there are over 100 people running! Thank you in advance to everyone who is has supported Strides For Sylvie and the Tomorrows Children's Fund. I've never run in a race before and haven't run 6 miles in about 8 years. Thank you in advance to those coming in from out of town or cutting your holiday weekend short to show your support. Thank you for organizing your own teams and fundraising events. We are blessed and fortunate to have you in our lives desipite the misfortunes of Sylvie being ill in the first place. This is a homecoming of sorts.

Strides For Sylvie made the front page of the sports section of The Bergen Record today! The headline was bigger than the Yankees article!

I made a very special Strides For Sylvie mix on my iPod, too, featuring:
Keane "Spiraling"
Carolina Liar "Show Me What I'm Looking For"
REM "Superman"
The White Stripes "Fell in Love With a Girl"
Into the Presence "Lovers"
Muse "Hysteria"
Wolfmother "Woman"
Cage The Elephant "In One Ear"
Muse "Time is Running Out"
LFAS "Battleflag"
Low Vs Diamond "Heart Attack"
Muse "Supermassive Black Hole"
Screaming Trees "Nearly Lost You"
Temple of the Dog "Call Me a Dog"
Anberlin "Feel Good Drag"
Kill Hannah "Lips Like Morphine"
Rise Against "Ready to Fall"
Wolfmother "White Unicorn"
Cage The Elephant "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked"
Jack's Mannequin "The Resolution"
Led Zeppelin "Kashmir"
Led Zeppelin "Houses of the Holy"

Jamiroquai "Canned Heat"
Butch Walker "The Weight of Her"
Silversun Pickups "Panic Switch"
Pearl Jam "Alive"
The Jayhawks "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me"
Into the Presence "End Game"
MGMT "Electric Feel"

Very different from Sylvie's birthday mix vol. 3. Sorry my favorites Ryan Adams & Patty Griffin do not make good running music!

Yesterday, Michael and I went to the Yankees game; it was our first time at the new stadium b/c the previous games we had tickets to were all rained out. It was also the inaugural launch of the Tarrytown express train to the house that Ruth built and let me tell you--- 20 minutes direct to Yankee Stadium! It was AWESOME! We thought parking would be a problem in Tarrytown; either all metered or that Blue Car would be broken in. We went through the effort of covering the fancy GPS/stereo with my treasured map of India from National Geographic that has remained in the car for over a year. A seven year-old boy who was in remission from cancer threw out the first pitch and we cried a little. Tears fell in our sushi and avocado salad though-- Yankee Stadium rocks. Then they played on the loud speaker system The Ataris cover of "Boys of Summer" of which I'm certain Michael and I were the only people who knew that. The floor beneath our seats was clean enough for me to put my purse on the ground! It got a little freezing. The stadium is a wind tunnel. Only I didn't want to buy a $100 sweatshirt so we huddled. My sister-in-law Sandi babysat a Tylenol with Codeined Sylvie. Sylvie told her all about wheelchairs, the hospital and seeing mommy and daddy on the television. Kind of wish my kid talked about something else.

We were supposed to go kayaking today in the Hudson but the weather was going to be horrible. So Sylvie went to my parents house for the first time since January-- I think my mom needed it badly. They had a ball. We ran errands while listening to Cage The Elephant. Pretty cool. Black Crowes meets Blind Melon in a wierd way? And the new Silversun Pickups rocks too. I have no idea what they look like but whenever I hear the singer's voice it conjures up the actor Edward Furlong from Terminator and I think a Guns and Roses video.

Our evenings have been filled with TiVo. Gossip Girl finale-- Triumphant! And my latest obsession: Real Housewives of New Jersey. Make that Bergen County. Make that less than 9 miles from our house! You would think that Franklin Lakes is not only in a different county, different state but altogether different planet and solar system where the women have enormous fake breasts. I did see my former hair dresser from high school Victor styling Dina's hair before a Project Ladybug event. I loved it when Dina said during a tennis match with her teen daughter, "I'm sweating my balls off" and that her 'bubbies' are too big to play tennis. One would think their husbands and their business partners would be less than thrilled by the tv show and its exploits because, I mean, allegedly, they have a lot of cash. The show does harken back to my Jersey roots though. I even went to my friend Eric's wedding at The Brownstone in 1994, the day after my dear friend John Franck's college graduation from Fordham. John and I went to the wedding together. We were insanely hung over from his graduation festivities that rendered me crashing on the couch of his friend's apartment on the Upper West Side the previous night after he ditched me at the Raccoon Lodge or Bamboo Bernies or The Bear Bar and went to see Living Colour at The Ritz. I was so green the next morning that my mom didn't have to yell at me when I came home, took a shower, put on a fancy dress and met John an hour later to go to the wedding. It was the first and last time I've ever had a Bloody Mary. It was a beautiful wedding. Eric and John both read PrincessSylvie and are amazed by my attention to detail.

Ok enough nostalgia.

Will Twitter tomorrow!!!!!

Going to sleep before Sylvie demands an egg wrap with cheese around 3 am and our 6 am wake up call to pick up dessert and get ready for the race!