Swoosh

I don't remember this ad from Nike, but I'm glad I caught it this go 'round across the blogosphere .

You were born a daughter.
You looked up to your mother.
You looked up to your father.
You looked up at everyone.

You wanted to be a princess.
You thought you were a princess.

You wanted to own a horse.
You wanted to be a horse.
You wanted your brother to be a horse.

You wanted to wear pink.
You never wanted to wear pink.

You wanted to be a Veterinarian.
You wanted to be President.
You wanted to be the President's Veterinarian.

You were picked last for the team.
You were the best one on the team.
You refused to be on the team.

You wanted to be good in algebra.
You hid during algebra.

You wanted the boys to notice you.
You were afraid the boys would notice you.

You started to get acne.
You started to get breasts.
You started to get acne that was bigger than your breasts.

You wouldn't wear a bra.
You couldn't wait to wear a bra.
You couldn't fit into a bra.

You didn't like the way you looked.
You didn't like the way your parents looked.
You didn't want to grow up.

You had your first best friend.
You had your first date.
You had your second best friend.
You had your second first date.

You spent hours on the telephone.

You got kissed.
You got to kiss back.

You went to the prom.
You didn't go to the prom.
You went to the prom with the wrong person.

You spent hours on the telephone.

You fell in love.
You fell in love.
You fell in love.

You lost your best friend.
You lost your other best friend.

You really fell in love.

You became a steady girlfriend.
You became a significant other.

YOU BECAME SIGNIFICANT TO YOURSELF.

Sooner or later, you start taking yourself seriously. You know when you need a break. You know when you need a rest. You know what to get worked up about and what to get rid of. And you know when it's time to take care of yourself, for yourself. To do something that makes you stronger, faster, more complete.

Because you know it's never too late to have a life. And never too late to change one.

JUST DO IT

~Nike

Exit

I have been fortunate enough to visit the Louvre and frankly, within a half an hour I was looking for the way out. It may be my imagination, and please forgive the sacrilege but I felt a bit captive, much like a newbie in Ikea on a Saturday afternoon; there ain't but one way in and out of that place and if you lose sight of the arrows amongst the chaos, you're kind of screwed.

I'm not sure what about large museums exhausts me so...the crowds of people to negotiate, the echo of foreign language filling cavernous rooms, the pressure to understand the significance in each piece; or maybe it's just all that art and I'm an unappreciative cretin.

Whatever the case, have you seen The Google Art Project? It's kind of amazing, and the escape route is just a click away.


photo July 2010, Tierrasanta

Grocery List

Annie's Homegrown Mac n Cheese.....$2.09

5 lbs All Purpose Flour.....$4.69

Mission Carb Balance Tortillas.....$6.09

Menu planning with my six year old.....Priceless.

Compare and Contrast...

"You're better than a twig."

"The only problem about being older is that I will die sooner."

"Your ring is pretty, but not as pretty as you are Mommy."

"I used to tell lies, but now I understand that lies make your life more difficult."

"Real life is better than tv."

"I love you more than the puppy, but the puppy is cuter than you."

"You're better than the world, actually, you are the world."

A Timely Gift:

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."
~Henry David Thoreau

Harper Rey

Words fail me, so I'm gonna stick with the facts.


This is my niece Harper Rey. She was born on Sunday February 13, 2011 at 12:38am. 7lbs 5oz, 20+ inches long. She is really beautiful, and not just because she's my niece.


And baby makes three. This is about 15 hours after the birth, they look great.


Three generations: Grandma, Momma, and Baby Harper.


Also three generations: Momma, Baby Harper and Grandpa.


She has a swirling hairline and her Daddy thinks she's gonna be a great tree climber because at the moment she has the cutest little gecko toes.


Harper's birth-day was two years, to the day, after Terry accepted Jeffrey's marriage proposal. Not sure how he's going to top this!


She seems to settle quickly, doesn't like to be swaddled and likes to sleep on her side stretched out. Oh, and do you see that perfect little round head? That's a story for another day, hopefully one I can get my sister to write and share. Suffice it to say Harper's mom rocks!

"Might As Well Jump"

It was the Saturday before Easter, though it felt more like the Fourth of July. The air was hot and dry, but more than the weather, was the lure of possibility that only long summer days promise. My roommate, Meg drove us as fast as her little ‘89 Toyota Tercel would take us that morning. We rolled the windows down and rocked out to the classics of Gloria Gainor and the Pointer Sisters for at least two hours before we started our descent into the valley.

Later, the sun burned straight overhead while prop planes whirred against a backdrop of mustard weed and lupine. The scent of eucalyptus floated across the valley. We completed the last of the required classes and signed piles of disclaimers in triplicate. The risks were now quantified and could not be mitigated with one more off key sing-along to Gloria Gainor’s, “I Will Survive”. Even still, knowing the plane could crash, the parachutes may not open, rattlesnakes lurked on the ground, or even tandem instructors potentially becoming incapacitated during the jump—none of it seemed relevant, at least not on paper. Glassy eyed, I tossed all of the disclaimers into the trash barrel at the end of the deck. We took the first of three steps down off the platform and sat shoulder to shoulder and waited, silent.

Meg, who had recently graduated from UCSD with a Mathematics degree, was alert; her eyes darted amongst the injured and disfigured regulars that passed before us. Thankfully, she restrained herself from regaling me with any sort of actuarial hypotheses.

My focus was dulled, having drawn myself into a comfortable state of numb to deal with the dread of what I could see no way out of. I turned toward several deeply weathered guys packing chutes under an awning. They bobbled unlit cigarettes at the outer edges of their lips while calling out endearments disguised as obscenities in volumes much louder than necessary. I wondered vaguely who was responsible for the precise job of folding the expanse of nylon that would prevent me from plummeting to my death.


“We don’t have to do this you know,” I said.

“I know,” she said, “but we are.”

I stared off into the middle distance. Voices became slow and misshapen as if played on a child’s record player at the wrong speed. Splashes of color appeared in the clear blue and floated down like the last bits of confetti on a New Year’s night. Coffee and nerves rotted my gut. I wondered if people actually soiled themselves in moments of great fear and would the five pounds I shaved off of my reported weight result in certain death? When would the bead of sweat making its way across my scalp reach the last row of hair and slide down and around my neck?

I heard my name called. I presume I did as I was told because too soon I was crouched in the open doorway of a plane looking at the patchwork of landscape 13,000 feet below. I gripped the bars on either side of the doorway and leaned back into the chest of the stranger latched to my back. He smelled of Irish Spring and spearmint gum. His hands held onto the bars above mine, his body curved around me as he maneuvered himself into position. Finally, he leaned forward and spoke over the din of the plane, but still soft, almost on my ear, “I won’t ask if you’re ready, we’ll simply go out on my count of three.” I closed my eyes. He rocked back and forth and as promised, on three, we tumbled over and out.