Coffee Cup Mondays: Superbowl Aftermath, and then some! |

Photo by David Bares: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-ceramic-teacup-343669/

Congratulations to 2025 Superbowl Champions:

I Can’t say I have ever had many aftermath leftovers at any Superbowl party I’ve hosted or just had for my immediate family, but if you do, freeze, eat or revamp them into another dish! Kids like to eat pizza for lunch so freeze and send it with them to school for lunch the rest of the week with a salad, it will thaw by lunchtime. I tell you what IS needed the day after the Superbowl….COFFEE, and LOTS of it! I try to make sure I don’t have a lot of clean up at all because I never feel like it, especially if my team loses. I usually bake something for dessert the day of the Superbowl so we can just have that with coffee on the morning after. Win- Win.

I remember in 2002, it was Superbowl XXXVI and I was pregnant with my one and only daughter/child. I was DUE to have her ON Superbowl Sunday! Of ALLL days, little missy! I told our doctor; we had to WAIT! It was the St. Louis Rams and my Tom Brady Patriots- who ended up winning 20- 17 on February 3rd! And I ended up WINNING THE WAIT! My daughter’s due date was changed to the 9th after a sonogram the Friday before the game! I was in the hospital in labor for almost 2 whole days until they decided it was enough and ordered a C-section because he did not want to arrive. She was born February 12th, 8 pounds, 13 ounces, perfectly healthy. What a relief, and a miracle for someone who thought she NEVER wanted to have kids.

My pregnancy was like no other I guess, as every woman is different. I never got sick, I never craved anything except Juicy Juice drink in the can, all hours of the very early morning only like from midnight to 4am. I on the other hand, ‘Hated’ everything. I posted in a previous Blog how my crab boil dates with my sister abruptly came to an end because I ‘loathed’ crabs! (we grew up on Cape Cod, ate crabs and seafood all our live, my sister and I had crabs every Friday with beer and fun for yearrrs). And I hated them for 3 years afterward. My sister was soo hurt. awww.

I didn’t even show a belly bump until 7-1/2- 8 months and was actively working as a hairdresser during the day and singing with my music unit at night through my 6th month. I stopped taking my last hair client the week before I went into the hospital to deliver. My demeanor never changed (my husband said I was a pleasure as a pregnant wife) except after having my daughter home, I was ‘convinced’ she Hated me. My husband’s body temperature is naturally (or unnaturally for some) very warm all the time. She would cry with me always, and he would come and pick her up and she would lay on his chest and instantly stop crying, I was crushed. I couldn’t give her enough to eat through breast feeding at all, he would give her a bottle and she would be satiated, warm and fall fast asleep.

I used to have to have him come home for lunch so I could take a shower and cry. I felt that if I went right back to work I would feel better and my mind would get out of the funk I felt I was in so I (against my Doc an husband) went back to the salon I worked in just after 1 week of being home (and 1 week in hospital) and did one client and had to rush to the bathroom as my c-section burst open. My doctor told us to get right to the hospital and she would meet us there, just give my name and there would be a special surgery room for me waiting. I had to be put back together basically and there was a very deep air pocket that had not healed, hence the incision breaking open so it could have happened at home as well but going back to work did NOT help.

I was sent home having a nurse’s care daily to undo and redo my dressing that had to be packed into an open incision that could only heal from the inside out….the most painful thing to have done every day, twice a day for 2 weeks that once a day until it healed, and it took a long while. It was so painful; she came early to give me pain meds to get though the ordeal. My wings were thankfully clipped by this incident. I started to understand and treat or postpartum. I had begun to feel like I just wanted to get in my car and drive and never stop driving until the car ran out of gas. It’s not your fault; it’s your postpartum mind set. It feels like its sooo real the thoughts that go through our head at the time. It was awful. But there is hope and help.

You can see it in my eyes, especially if you know me. But at this time, she and I were getting to be ‘friends’ in my mind (with some help). She was ‘warming’ up to me, I felt. Maybe she did like me after all. I needed more sleep, so I learned to sleep when she slept, and things slowly got better. And then one day, I just didn’t need to call my husband home from work at lunch so I could take a shower to cry anymore.

She grew so fast that in a blink of an eye, it was Father/ Daughter dance in kindergarten, she had to have everything pink, I had to paint her room to look like she was under the sea because she was an absolute Mermaid! She was the most beautiful flower girl in her cousin Aubrey’s Wedding that her photo was entered into a contest in which she won a prize for.

At 13 she added zebra print and Justin Bieber to the pink, the room had to be repainted blue with posters of Aaliyah, Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars, and low and behold she had to have her ears pierced in the middle of a day trip to Newport or else she would ‘never-ever-ever’ get them done because she was scared. She’s such an old soul through music with me being in the industry and he Father a doo-wop nut and shares his love or old antique cars so much so, she’s a walking dictionary on cars.

The years kept coming faster and faster…..16…….18, when she decided she wanted to move out. Oh, the tears I shed! But I thought she didn’t like me? I was so broken hearted and lost. She meant everything to me, now I didn’t know how to do anything, I had done so much for and with her. After a while things didn’t work out, she contracted Covid, came home and we both got it and nursed ourselves back to health in each other’s arms. I didn’t really care so much that I had Covid (although I am high risk), I was just happy to have her safely home again after a not so favorable time out in the cruel world on her own.

She was so happy to be back with us she said she was never leaving again. We both started new jobs together and moved on to other jobs but near each other so we would meet after work and go have dinner or shop. We fell on the hard times with a very cruel landlord that benefited from all the Covid benefits then decided to sell the place we rented for 6 years out from under us. We spent a lot of saved money and time in a hotel because after Covid there was NOTHING to be had to rent that wasn’t through the roof! Landlords were taking advantage of people terribly. Thankfully the hotel we were in was homing the homeless as well and I knew 2 friends I grew up with that worked for the program and saw them there on a bad day of crying and they helped us stay there and put us in the program just as we ran out of funds. It was a blessing for sure! I will get back to that in another post another day.

Today, I want to celebrate us being semi-back on our feet, my daughter back with us and now turning 23 years old in 4 days. I do not celebrate birthdays, but I am so happy she was born and thank God it all worked out. She shares my love of wine, and I enjoy sipping with her especially if we have our nails done. Lol

Look at my beauty….

Discover That there Will Be New Things Ahead

Remember, it all works out! Things get tough for all of us. I always tell my daughter, it’s not what we went through- it’s How we come Back from it! Keep fighting the good fight, there WILL be a morning after. And, another Superbowl.

See You Friday, Road Tripping!