Deb, Jodie and Jenn

Jodie and Jenn patently refuse to call me by Heidi's nickname for me, Roxy! Jodie said, 'I fell in love with you as Deb and I'm keeping it!!!' Sorry Heidi! In case, that has not been explained herein... Heidi decided last year, Deb is not exciting enough for my personality and after much deliberation changed my moniker to Roxy. I responded that I should also take her last name of Doxey and be her fun aunt Roxy Doxey! Now if you search through this blog you will find Heidi's photo and her comments peppered throughout and a bit about a Q&A she made me answer!

But back to Jodie and Jenn... I met Jodie and her now husband Ralph at Bad Ass Coffee Shop when I first moved to SLC in 2005. The first thing they invited me to was a BBQ in Park City. Jodie said bring anyone you want so I invited a date. That was not what she had in mind and had invited 5 single male friends of hers! I was the only unattached chick person! Ah communication... she meant for me to bring single girlfriends.

Jenn, I met through Jodie and the stories of the 3 of us are colorful and heartwarming, generally involving wine, Italian, cheesecake and even a couple of Cubans. When Jenn picked up the check once at Buca de Bepo she said she enjoyed my company so much if she had to buy my friendship, she would!

Jodie once told me she didn't understand why I was single as I was a bundle of excellence! With friends like I have, I can get through any difficulities and have such amazing people to spend the great times of my life with!

Friends...

So, the blonde on the left is Miss Anna. Gorgeous and can kick your ass! She is engaged to David, yummy boy. They met on match.com and very quickly committed to each other enough for David to move to SLC from CA! What Anna has not done in her life is a much shorter list than what she has done! She got her marine biology degree at the University of Hawaii although being from half way around the world in Florida. She ran a barrage of tanning salons in Idaho and boxed professionally for awhile. She is 6 foot tall and 25 years old. Her passion besides being my friend and engaged to David is puppies. She is an amazing trainer and certified canine nutritionalist. Check out her website: http://puppenschnoodles.com/index.html

Now Miss Tressa in the middle of this shot is 34, from Kansas City, yes she does know they have a football team and is devoted to her friends, family and fabulous job. We were concerned for her dad this last year but he is doing great and her mom has been a rock. While visiting SLC last January Mom came to my not so suprising surprise birthday party this year! Tressa deserves every bit of happiness and would probably like a yummy boy in her life who thought she was freakin' hot in her gorgeous shoe collection.

So, that's me on the right and the hot chick missing from this circle of friends is Lysa Scarano, originally from NY, but has lived all over. Lysa is the 'F' word old as of March... (forty) Don't say it too loud! Seh celebrated in a big way by gathering friends in the Big Apple for shoe shopping, favorite restaurant, Little Italy and all kinds of fun. Don't ask about her cats misbehavior while mommy was away... Lysa, a vibrant redhead with the prettiest face not on this blog is a rabid workoutaholic at Bally's on Fort Union! The sounds she makes while working out pretty much make one think of things better left behind closed bedroom doors!!! Sexy wench!

The thing we all love about this circle of friends is it hits 4 decades. At ages 25, 34, 40 and me at 52, we are gorgeous women in 4D. And for some of us there is extra emphasis on the DDDDDDDDD'S!!! Can't wait for David's birthday party the 29th at the Bayou! Stop by to say Hey, if you are out and about that night!!!

Sarah Marie Felton

This is my mom, born Sarah Marie Felton. She was raised on a farm in central Missouri with 2 older brothers. A fish out of water, mom dreamed of becoming a great fashion designer like Edith Head, who did costumes for famous movies. Her dad died when she was a senior in high school and there was no money for college. A man in her little town of Rogersville, paid for her college expenses to go to Southern Missouri State and then to fulfill her dream as a college student at Ray Vogue Art School in Chicago. She was a prolific designer and was remembered by a man she introduced me to when years later she took me downtown in Chicago to buy wedding dress fabric. He remembered her over 2 decades later. She also modeled a lot and I remember seeing many pictures of mom in various outfits and poses including the Jackie O pose... one foot slightly ahead of the other and very proper, erect posture. I also remember poses of her holding a cigarette or doing the pin-up poses or even ones when she was pregnant with me. She loved the feel of fine fabrics and passed that gene on to me!

Mom

My mom and my grandma Pearl are 2 of the greatest women I have ever had the pleasure to know. Grandma Pearl was a widow at 45 and never remarried. She worked most of her life as a nurses aid, living in a studio apartment within walking distance of the hospital where she worked. She sat at her kitchen table to visit company and to watch her favorite tv shows, mostly game shows. When she passed away after about 8 heart attacks, she left each of her 2 sons and my mom $10,000 each she had saved. The only things that were important to her, were her kids and grandkids. Her pleasures in life were getting her hair done on Saturdays, which she never touched cuz it was lacquered and talking to my mom on the phone. She lived her whole life in Rogersville and then Springfield MO, while we lived in Chicago and it's burbs. I remember her coming to visit when I was in the 4th grade and taking us kids to see "Mary Poppins" in the theater. She came again when I was in the 7th grade. We went to MO to visit her when I was 19 and that was the last time I saw her. I called her once when I was 29 to see if I could bring my young family to visit and she said no cuz she didn't think her heart could take the excitement. I told her I would continue to write and see her in the next life. I'm coming up on the 9th year since I lost my mom and it makes me think about her and her relationship with her mom. Right now both my daughters live with me and my daughter-in-law is visiting. I remember mom talking about how much she enjoyed going to lunch with my little sisters. Wish I could take her to lunch now. Wish she had lived to see my kids grow up and that I am on my own and much happier now. I miss you Mom.

Chaosssssssssssssssss

There are 11 people staying at my house right now and I'm about ready to run away! You will appreciate this but the other night, I stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, looked at all the people and thought, 'What have I done?'

At the time I gave birth to so many people, so long ago, it never occurred to me the sheer impact of those decisions! What a collection of personalities!!! Then combine them all and stir them up in Mom's 'fun' house and all I have to say is argh!!! All day at work I kept dreaming whistfully of my hottub... the only thing I miss from my last marriage. I have to qualify that as my 'last' marriage, back to the whole point of this diatribe. I don't miss anything from my first marriage... they are mostly all here!!!

Well, I do miss David and Stephan, a lot, everyday. Wish you were here...

Passion & Courage

To art and music, to chemistry and electricity, to beauty and laughter, to passion and to courage. Why courage? Because life loves us so much, it’s always presenting us with wonderful presents: love affairs and interesting work; clove cigarettes andsunlight through clouds; whispering aspens and thescent of rain. It gives us all these terrific things, but by far it’s greatest gifts are the things it teaches us. I think those lessons are kisses from life, and I really believe that the best ones are reserved for the courageous. It has lessons for the timid and the fearful but the really good ones, it reserves for the brave. Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not knows no release From little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings. (Amelia Earhart) Every important journey is scary, and the big ones, you usually take alone, but if you got faith, you gonna find your bags packed with enough courage to get you where you need to go. (Anne O. Faulk) (Or maybe you won’t go alone…) Passion lies at the bottom of all of us, down the slippery anchor chain to the base of who we are, the real, the shameful, the furious. It’s born in the screaming, moaning, frenzied core of us. Most people learn early that it’s a dangerous thing, best kept in check. By the end of adolescence, certainly by the end of early adulthood, they’ve successfully eradicated passion… unless you hold out! HOLD OUT!