WHAT REMAINS by Carole Radziwill

A summary:

What Remains is a vivid and haunting memoir about a girl from a working-class town who becomes an award-winning television producer and marries a prince, Anthony Radziwill. Carole grew up in a small suburb with a large, eccentric cast of characters. At nineteen, she struck out for New York City to find a different life. Her career at ABC News led her to the refugee camps of Cambodia, to a bunker in Tel Aviv, and to the scene of the Menendez murders. Her marriage led her into the old world of European nobility and the newer world of American aristocracy.

What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. With unflinching honesty and a journalist's keen eye, Carole Radziwill explores the enduring ties of family, the complexities of marriage, the importance of friendship, and the challenges of self-invention.

MY opinion:

She seems to want to pull you in by milking her relationship with the Famous John and Carolyn Kennedy...so the beginning of the book is a little odd and doesn't lead into the history of her own life us a lower-class New Yorker very well, BUT her descriptions of living through cancer and learning how to be a part of a Royal family...this was better. I read it in a week, which is good for me, so it was worth the read for sure. I'd be curious to see if she could write something else. Sad story, really.

*** out of *****

Neighborhood Experiences

When we were living in Pascagoula we lived in an area that had very few homes in it-most of them were now offices and businesses. There were still a few homes left-rotating through renters on a regular basis. One of them even had 2 dogs that continually scared the crap out of me when they would come into our yard late at night and bark under my windows. There were also a lot of people who would walk through our yard and across the front yard on their way by to the busier Market street. I was scared sometimes, but I always had my 3 locks done up on the doors and I got used to it after 2 years.

Here in Maine we are in a real neighborhood again-with an array of different people-from the old lady across the street, the single mother and her 2 year old little girl, the gentleman behind us, and the white trash (I say this in the nicest way possible) who have visitors at all hours next door. Most of the houses are OLD and have been made into 3 or 4 apartments. The buildings are run-down and in need of painting, doors need to be shimmed, steps need to be replaced...our house is, by far, the nicest one on our little half circle. We didn't really realize what kind of neighborhood we were moving into when we camem to look at the house because it was winter time and the house was so wonderful we just figured the neighborhood would be wonderful too. Not that it is horrible...not at all-it's just not what I expected, I guess. We have the kids with the dirtbikes and four wheelers on the corner, the active house next door, the 2 different houses with bikers who ride in very loudly every day... but all that can be dealt with just fine and I've pretty much gotten used to it. We're in MAINE. We don't even worry about having only 1 lock on our door or leaving our windows open when we leave the house during the day! That's what I LOVE about coming back here! It's so SAFE-even with some odd white trash living down the street.:)

BUT the other night I got a shock when I woke up at 3am to a very large dude and his friends stumbling out of one of the apartments across the street screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs and groaning like he was in extreme pain. Robert, the cats, and I all jumped out of bed in shock and rushed to the window to make sure no one was being killed in the street! We deduced that the 4 guys were actually running from the building acrossed the street and that one of them must have been pepper-sprayed by one of the younger girls living over there. The one guy was pounding on the girl's car and banging on the porch as the other guys tried to get him away. The fact that the dude who was in pain and screaming VERY vulgar obscenities had to have been 6'4" and was HUGE (taking 3 guys to drag him down the street) was a LITTLE bit scary. We could hear him yelling all the way to the corner and it gave me such a stomach ache to think that there are people like that visiting the other residences around us at 3am...Robert dismissed it as, "Oh, well, I thought those girls were strippers. I Guess I was right." and when the cops showed up within 5 minutes and entered the building I was reassured that at least there was a quick response and that the other neighbors were obviously worried too.

Still, I was a bit shocked and shaken for the rest of the day...loud confrontations like that are not my cup of tea. I just hope the girl is okay and that those guys don't come back. The fact that this is really our only negative experience since we have moved here IS encouraging, though.
I just needed to write this down, not so mom could worry, but because it effecteed me so.:)

re-post...HOME

Had to repost this due to the yellow font not being read-able.:) Just scroll down to the photos at the bottom of the last post:).
I don't want this to seem negative toward the other places I've lived, the family I've been close to there, and the other friends I have made (because of love them all), but I have realize that I AM HOME. Maine is my home. I am here and I hope we are both here to stay. I am so happy with life-I love our house, I really like my job, I'm relatively stress free, my cats are happy and losing weight because they get so much exercise around the house, Robert hasn't complained about being hot for weeks, I've managed to workout regularly for the past few weeks, the weather is PERFECT...the list goes on and on...but the thing that makes me happiest about being back in Maine is that I get to see my friends all the time! I love it...and I wanted to share some of the more awesome photographic moments from the past month of being truly Home: