Town Column : Edgartown
Happy Valentine's Day, my least favorite holiday ever. Actually, it's not even my least favorite. Ask my family. I hate it. I consider it a manufactured and exclusionary holiday, one that emphasizes those who are alone. Except for the whole chocolate thing, I wouldn't miss it at all if it ceased being a holiday. It certainly has taken the pressure off my husband over the years. All he had to do was completely ignore the day to make me happy. Does it get any easier than that?
My children, however, don't know that their mother is a cynic so alas, we do celebrate Valentine's Day in our house because they enjoy it. So they get candy and stuffed animals and hearts and flowers and give out Valentines to all their friends at school. It's a great day for them, so I try to hide my cynicism.
The Edgartown Council on Aging (ECOA) is hosting a Valentine Open House from 10 am to 12 noon today down at the Anchors. Stop by for hot chocolate, tea or coffee, and homemade cinnamon buns! Yum!
Also mark your calendars for Feb. 21 at the ECOA for Tranquility Day from 10 am to 12 noon, where you can treat yourself to relaxation and rejuvenation! The staff from Vineyard Complementary Medicine will provide a mini retreat that includes hand massage, accupressure, acutonics and more. Boost your immune system, and learn ways to combat stress. Healthy refreshments follow.
Then on March 11 you can venture off with the ECOA to the Boston Flower Show! Please inquire at the center for more details. When I received this information, they still needed nine more participants to make this trip happen! What a great way to bring on an early spring, if only for one day.
You may recall that back in the fall I included a bit in the column regarding a contest Amy Coffey had entered to become a Torchbearer for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Although Amy won't be a torchbearer in Beijing, she will be heading to the Olympics in a different capacity.
Amy has been a consultant for NBC Sports, in addition to working at Wallace and Co., and many other Island jobs (i.e. Derby volunteer)! She worked the 2006 Torino Olympics for NBC and lived in Italy for three months.
This time, she has temporarily moved to Stamford, Conn., to work out of the NBC offices there in preparation for heading off to China. Amy will be in Stamford until July and will then be in Beijing from July 8 through Sept. 1.
Amy works in Games Services handling logistics, hotel accommodations, transportation, ticketing, and lots of other things. She works with the group of about 90 executives and producers headed up by Chappy summer resident and Chairman of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol. Amy says she is very lucky to be part of this group of 4,000 employees NBC brings over in order to produce the television cast of the Games. Amy offered to correspond with any Islanders who have an interest in the Olympics so if you would like to be added to her email list, drop her a note at amy.coffey@nbcuni.com.
Happy birthday wishes go out to Judy Hathaway, who celebrated a special birthday on Feb. 7. Because Judy turned 70 this year, the family had a big surprise party for her on Feb. 9 with about 25 close friends to celebrate the milestone with her. Molly said it was a great time. She also noted that her youngest sister, Wendy Hathaway, also celebrated a birthday last week, turning 33 on Feb. 8. Sorry Wendy, but after growing up with Karen and Molly, in my mind you'll always be about five because that's about how old you were when Karen and I chummed around.
You may recall I wrote in last week's column that I had threatened some people with rumors because people will believe anything in February on Martha's Vineyard. Well, in one of the great ironies of life, I found myself on the receiving end of one such rumor myself last week, one, which, I might add, was completely untrue. When it got back to me, which it did fairly rapidly because it's a small town and it's February, I was shocked, angry, and hurt. And at the same time, I learned an important lesson about rumors and how damaging they can be, even if said in jest - a valuable lesson indeed.
I'm sure that as soon as I send this off to my editor I'll get five new messages with news to include but for now, I think that's all we've got. Winter on the Island isn't too exciting, I guess. Have a great week.
