Dana Daily

a Thursday funny. . . Sal is playing in the orchestra for Steubenville High School's Spring musical, Cinderella . Last Sunday was the orchestra's first rehearsal, and afterward Sal was telling me a few funny stories from practice. He, the percussionist, asked me at one point if I know what a bell tree is. Rapidly, I processed his question in my mind - Beltree? Beltree, hmmm. Oh, belfry??? Of course I know what a belfry is; Paul Revere's Ride  came to mind as well as the phrase, "bats in the belfry". However, that didn't make any sense to me whatsoever and I was pretty sure I misunderstood him. I just told him that "No, I do not know what a 'bell-whatever you said' is." He sent me a picture. Bell Tree I've been giggling about this to myself all week. P.S. I located an image of a belfry (complete with bats) for this blog entry.

So now that Sal and I have been together for 4 months and we’ve met each other’s families (for the most part), would you like to know how we met? www.match.com Yep. Online. We didn’t meet in Paris (my favorite scenario) or through mutual friends (we had none). We met through a good old matchmaking service. Dana’s Story Dana's match profile pic Knowing I needed a change, my work BFF suggested last October that I go online, create a profile, and just see who was out there. I was skeptical, but she kept pushing me and I finally caved. I paid for one month, 30 days. Just to see. I’ll tell you, I had the best time reading profiles of all different kinds of people. How the guys described themselves, the things they chose to mention, the pictures they posted. It was all very interesting, and quite entertaining. Surprisingly, my profile got more views than I ever would have expected and I received a few emails as well. I came up with fun names for the few guys with whom I cha...

Nakama Japanese Steakhouse - March 24, 2012

Then Now Here it is. A day at one time I thought would never come. Sarah is five years old. Well, almost. Technically, not until 2:56pm. For some reason "five" has been the magic age since the time Sarah was about 2 weeks old. She was in the middle of yet another crying fit and looking at her I remember thinking, "this kid is never going to be five. She's never going to grow up." Well, here we are. And in hindsight, what a blur.

In February, I took Sal to Franklin for the first time. It was a bitterly cold day and we experienced the worst snow storm of the winter, but since we were there for the winter festival, Franklin on Ice, it seemed rather appropriate.  I gave him a quick tour of downtown and we warmed up in a coffee shop, and said we'd have to come back in nicer weather. Then I told him I'd like to see his hometown of Akron, Ohio and we started making plans. On March 17, the most gorgeous day of the year thus far, we decided to visit Akron. It was a long, busy day, but so much fun. We left his place at 7:38am and did not return until 12:15am, and we did not get to see everything on his list. Sal's trip down memory lane took us to: Hale Farm and Village , a living history museum Rascissi Pizza , where Sal worked as a teenager Gorge Metro Park , county park and site of Mary Campbell Cave DiVitis Italian Market , an Italian grocery store that Sal says hasn't changed in 20...

Everything about today is so ordinary. On the couch, I'm surrounded by schoolwork and materials, down the hall the dryer is tossing clothes round and round, and from a room away I can hear faint piano music. Sal's working on some stuff for school as well. It's just another Sunday afternoon. It hit me how nice "ordinary" can be.