Trick Or Treat!

Have a safe and fun Halloween.

Because Mondays Need A Laugh

I don't know why this makes me giggle so.

Continuing Education

There is a blog I read often that I find utterly fascinating. And I think that everyone should peruse it, read it in depth, contemplate what this woman shares and become very familiar with her cause, her crusade.

Tell me what you think.

Unreal

I saw this news article and just found myself speechless. What was further amazing was the description of this as a "horrible accident". Horrible, yes, but hardly an accident. Is there any way to grasp such a lack of appreciation for life---one's own and that of an unsuspecting, innocent victim? Did this girl think that no one would be driving the other car? Did it not matter at all who was in it? Did she really think that there was some magical guarantee that the other person was going to come out of this unhurt, unscathed? It boggles the mind to consider such utter selfishness. I know that we can be in the depths of despair at times. It happens. But it's something else entirely to be so callous and selfish about the solution.

My heart hurts to think of that little family and even to think of the parents of this girl. What a waste.

Still-Life Pose

A woman hand-feeding hummingbirds.

Remembering

It gives us pause, and we remember

(Thanks to my mom for passing this on)

Animator vs Animation

This is just SO cool and well-done.

A-Cute Deprivation

Tonight my husband was nice enough to treat me to dinner at a restaurant where I've been wanting to go for awhile. My youngest really wanted to go to a different one, but mom's vote holds more sway.
Very unimpressed, boy laments, "Don't I have any rights?"

More Money Than Sense

I think this was a great way to spend $54,000+. After all, some things are just really really important.

An Uncommon Enemy

So I've gotten to where, when I see my sleep machine (CPAP machine), I want to kick it. It's become the enemy in a way. I try to use it, it bothers me all night, I fuss and fiddle with it....and often I wind up not using it after all. My two options seem to be: 1) not use my machine and sleep all night without waking up BUT not get any decent quality of sleep. Or 2) use (TRY to use) my machine, wake up throughout the night to adjust something but possibly get decent quality of sleep in the times I'm sleeping. I can't decide which one to go with. Last night I couldn't seem to get past the mental claustraphobia of having everything on me. Usually I'm so tired I'm able to just fall asleep and bypass the mental game.

SO...Nothing seems to work and I can feel the effects of it all eventually. Tiredness, headaches, disconnected feeling with everything around me, lack of patience.....the list goes on. I've tried a different mask, I've tried a chin strap----let me tell ya, you feel REALLY attractive with everything on----but nothing's been the magic combination. I'm sick of being tired. I'm sick of something as natural as sleeping, for cryin' out loud, being so hard to manage. Somebody should just shoot me I guess and put me out of everybody's misery.

*Sigh*

The Art Of Communication

This always makes me laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwGiA6MbkAA

I'm Getting A New P.R. Guy

Yesterday while making myself a salad (after having walked twice for a half-hour each time, which is pretty standard for my weekend cardio), my 8-yr-old says to me: "Shouldn't you be in shape for all the stuff you do?"

Excuse me???

A grand ringing endorsement, wouldn't you say?

Perspective Is Everything

Some friends of ours have a daughter who is battling cancer. She receives her treatments, her scans, her chemo in a hospital near where I live. I don't think that little K is even three years old. When she first came down to the area to start treatment, just looking at her broke your heart. She was terribly skinny, barely eating, in pain and fussy. Now, however, after being on a feeding tube and responding to different treatments, etc., she's gained weight and is an utter delight---smiling, grinning, being silly.

Yesterday I went to spend part of the day at the hospital with her to give her mom and grandma a break. We had a good time, K and I. We went to the day room where the little kids can play. K is smart and funny and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. She does what every other 2-yr-old does, despite the tubes coming from various parts of her body, despite the metal tree to which all the tubes connect that we pulled along beside us everywhere we went.

Perhaps the most poignant moment, though, came when we were playing on her hospital bed. We'd been having some fun with her stuffed animals when she took one of them and told it to throw up into this little tube-like container. "Throw up," she matter-of-factly commanded. "Again." My heart just seized up inside my chest at the stark evidence of what her reality is. Her life is defined---and has been for as long as she can remember---by doctors and beeps and medicine and pain. It was so wrong somehow for that to be part of her play, and yet it's a very real part of her life. And for children, doesn't so much of play just imitate real life?

Her unquenchable spirit makes her precious to me. The reminder that the richness of life is all about our perspective is a lesson I want not to forget.

The First Rain

In ways that are unexplainable, while the gray made me feel gray, the first rain of the season has made me feel happy. I actually love this season and there's something about the rain that can be extremely cozy and intimate and wonderful. One of the loneliest and yet most lovely sounds to me is the sound of tires on a rainy street. And then the sound of the rain against the roof and against the windows while you're warm and comfortable inside....*sigh*. I know rain can get old, and I couldn't live with it constantly. But that first rain---it's almost always a welcome guest.

Seasonal Adjustments

Sometimes when the skies turn gray, you do too. Overcast covers the world around you and clouds hang low on the horizon. You listen to "Dance Me To The End Of Love" by Leonard Cohen 178 times in row and counting. You try to read a book but nothing holds your interest---too sad or too happy or too hard to get into. You walk a lot, warming up the outside and waiting for it to seep inside. You eat mostly carrots because nothing tastes good. You stick to the routine of every day and wait for the sun to come back out because it always does.