Joel Berti
Joel is 40 years old today!! ! OMG, it’s hard to say it out loud! How is it possible that my first born child, my son, is 40 years old? This IS the only time I’m going to admit in writing that I actually have a 40 yr old son.
It doesn’t seem that long ago…I was supposed to attend one of my best friends’ wedding. I had a doctor’s appointment that morning and then I was going to be off to the wedding. Well you know where this is going; the doctor examined me and said “you’re not going to any wedding, you’re going straight to the hospital. Where is your husband?” I said, “He’s at work”. So the doctor said, “Well how are you going to get to the hospital”? “I’ll drive myself”!
So I called my husband’s office and left a message (these were the day before cell phones) and drove off to the hospital. By the time I got there, I was a little panicked. I was having contractions and didn’t know what to do with the car so I pulled into the Emergency Room parking lot and parked the car. As I was getting out of the car, a cop came running over, shouting, “Lady you can’t park there”! I looked at him, started to cry and said, “I’m having a baby”! Oh boy, that did it – he said, “Don’t move” and went and got me a wheel chair. Meantime, uh, where was that husband?
A couple of hours later, the nurse brought me a bundled blonde haired boy and I said, “Oh no, I had a girl”. She assured me that this was my baby and I insisted that I had a girl. After one more go around of this conversation, she snatched the baby from my arms and said words to the effect that perhaps tomorrow I would feel differently about this beautiful little baby boy.
She was right of course. Joel has my heart. I love him for so many reasons; he is a good person, kind-hearted, he never says anything bad about anyone, he is a gentle soul. He is easy-going (sometime way too laid back for me), creative, a thinker, an artist, and smart enough to look inward often and assess what he sees. He seeks the truth in all things, is often naive about people he meets, he adored his baby sister and often let her tag along with him and his friends. I’m so happy that she flew out to California yesterday with Finley and Francesca to be with him on this landmark birthday.
I thought this post might be like an open letter, telling Joel how proud I am of him, how much I love him and hope that he is happy in the life he has chosen for himself. He is very different from Chiara in so many ways and their lives are as diametrically opposite as the coasts they each inhabit.
I wonder if he’s ever going to marry and settle down. The path doesn’t seem to lead in that direction, time will tell. I’d like to see him as a father, he seems so at ease with his nephew and nieces.
Astrology, therapy, numerology, Frank Sinatra, new wave, Pseudolous, older women, younger women, surfing, GCA waiter, room-mates, acting, writing in his journal, lactose-intolerant, allergic to my cats, Charlie Brown, Wilie Wonka, Mr. Smee, Hartford Stage, “why don’t you model?”, a vintage motorcycle, house music, Father Sarducci, Acme Theater, preppy Izods, Louise’s, La Jolla Country Club, bartending, catering, PB+J’s, oh those blue eyes, tuna fish, sometimes poor, playwright, roofer, Bee Pollen, beard-no beard, penguins, vintage tee shirts, Wrangler corduroy jeans, Halloween…
Now if only he would return calls and call his mother more often……
I love you Joel Berti – Happy Birthday!!
Joel in San Diego 2008
Joel and Finley
Joel at The Sneak Joint in San Diego
Pumpkin Carving
Ready to Roll
My Wedding 2005
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 
Flags At Half-Mast in New Jersey!? What is he thinking?
Posted in BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged Bruce Springsteen, Chris Christie, Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, Half-staff, Houston, Jersey, Kevin Spacey, New Jersey, United States, Whitney Houston on February 15, 2012| 5 Comments »
Governor Chris Christie has ordered that all flags in New Jersey be flown at half-mast the day of Whitney Houston’s funeral! OMG! Are you kidding me?
I believe flags should be flown half-mast for heroes and very important public officials of the state. I think Whitney Houston was beautiful, talented, probably a kind and loving person BUT I do not want my grandchildren to think she was a hero! She was a drug addict and you can call it a disease and that’s fine with me BUT it is not a disease that you contract like polio or cancer! It is a self-induced, self-inflicted affliction and the sick person has to own that. I tried to teach my own children to be responsible for their own actions and that every action has a consequence (good or bad).
So Governor Christie thinks she’s an icon of the state; That’s interesting, I never even knew she was from New Jersey and I have lived in the tri-state area my whole life. Sadly, more people associate Snooki from the show Jersey Shore as an icon and she doesn’t even come from New Jersey. I know Frank Sinatra came from New Jersey and that Bruce Springsteen comes from New Jersey. I loved
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songs, I loved that he was Italian (as I am) and that he came from Hoboken, like my grandmother did but he was certainly no hero! Whitney Houston is NOT a hero; She was a fantastic singer/entertainer with a remarkable God-given gift and unfortunately for her and us, she took her own life and has robbed us of her gift.
I certainly hope no other celebrity dies soon, as I cherish their talents more and more each year as yet another and another slips away. New Jersey has been the birthplace of so much talent that if we were to fly the flags at half-mast each time one of them died, we would hardly have full mast flown flags. Here’s just a handful of New Jersey born celebrities:
Bruce Sprinsteen: 1949
Jon Bon Jovi: 1962
Kevin Spacey: 1959
Meryl Streep: 1949
Judy Blume: 1938
Joe Piscapo: 1951
David Copperfield: 1956
Dionne Warwick: 1940
Ray Liotta: 1954
Jerry Lewis: 1926
Ice-T: 1958
Jack Nicholson: 1937
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