i want to know more people like this guy!

Someone in my Facebook feed this morning shared this video of a fan at a Celtics game busting out into a fantastic dance. He exhibits the kind of enthusiasm I just LOVE! I wish I knew this guy in real life. This is brilliant. Brightened my whole day.

test...Instagram photo from yesterday

This is the first time I've tried sharing an Instagram photo on the blog. Yesterday's prompt was "window."

august break

I'm joining in on the lovely Susannah Conway's no-rules photo project, August Break.

Pause, look around you and shoot what you see. Live inside each moment. Pay attention to what’s there. If it’s the summer where you are it’s a lovely way to be present to the moments that will be gone before you know it. 

 That is right up my alley. Happy to be part of this one!

the drive to do things well

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition I listened to the talented Yuja Wang chat and giggle while she played portions of the famously difficult Piano Concerto No. 3 by Rachmaninov. The drive she'd had since childhood to play the piano this beautifully made me stop and think (and well up a bit):

"The first thing that really got me was [Mauricio] Pollini's recording of Chopin's etudes. I just really wanted to have the same sound. You know how girls really want a doll or a toy? I really wanted to play the way I wanted to play. So I was really working towards that."

"I really wanted to play the way I wanted to play." I love that. That is what you need to be able to do something so well.

up

Well. Today's my birthday, and so far it's a good one: 

• Scott gave me a Jawbone UP that I hope will help me become more active and aware of my decisions that affect my health.
• We got our tax refund, just in time to pay a big bill.
• I got the barbell set I ordered, so I can get a great workout today.
• I decided to take the day off work, because I can.
• I plan to get a massage, and maybe even a pedicure.
• Every few minutes I get a friendly message from someone on Facebook.

So I feel happy and grateful. Off to do my workout!

joyful laughter

This photo was taken almost three years ago while the four of us were out for dinner. I have no recollection what made them laugh so hard, but I get a rush of joy each time I see this photo of my girls looking so happy.

election day

On this election day, I'm grateful for my landline voicemail, which gets transcribed and sent to my email, so I don't have to answer the phone when it rings every 20 minutes with someone calling to exhort me to vote for their candidate. Not only do I get to quickly see who called and what they said when I don't answer, but most of the transcriptions are so hilariously messed up that I usually get a good laugh when I read them. Here is the one I just got:

"Orange remind you that. Hello, this is Ervin isn't a responsible leadership. I'm calling to remind you that today is election day, hey Ronnie, Heather Clinton heat America back on track we can't afford four more years of uncle I have president. Please vote for me and he hasn't called me for their response when we are not authorized by any any work you need me." 

Hey Ronnie...we can't afford four more years of uncle... Ohhh-kay. And I am wondering who this Heather Clinton is. 

Last Saturday I got one that said:

"We need leaders who will stand up for the bodies we share the rest of my lawyers for Bobby's vote for life, bowling for family both against Barack Obama." 

 I'm not sure why all my callers are so against Obama, but bowling for family doesn't sound too bad.

beauty in boulder

We drove up to Boulder tonight to see my daughter's choir perform. I'm thankful for the beautiful sunset we caught on the way up there and for the beautiful sound of voices raised together in song.

berry grateful

Today I'm grateful for the yummy breakfast I have almost every morning: Fage 0% Greek yogurt with walnuts, fruit, and a drizzle of honey. The last few days I've tried sprinkling my yogurt with frozen organic blueberries. So delicious and antioxidant-y. I can eat them frozen (sort of like biting into a tiny popsicle) or let them thaw a little. Either way, yum. Just thought I would give those little berries a shout-out today.

Also, and unrelated...Hook 'em Horns!

grateful

I'm having a weird day and feeling really out of sorts, not getting anything done, feeling yucky. So I thought it would be a good idea to post a little gratitude:

• I'm thankful that my trusty old Honda with 135,000 miles is still running great.
• I'm grateful that I have a flexible work schedule and don't have to worry about getting to the office when my car is in the shop for minor recall work.
• I'm so thankful for my sweet dog, who I would swear is even cuter now than she was as a 3-pound puppy.
• I'm grateful for my loving and hardworking husband.
• I'm happy that my college-girl daughter is doing so very well.
• I'm really enjoying spending time with my high-school daughter.

And I'm really glad tomorrow is another day to start over.

the first of november

So... NaBloPoMo is when you post every November 1, without fail, right?

That's how I always do it anyway...

memory of a beautiful moment

The other day I shared a photo someone posted of Hamilton Pool on Google+ and I had to go back and find the photos of the last time we were there. It's been 9 years! Too long. What a beautiful spot. I need to remember to go back and see it again next time we go to Austin.

day 4: something green

I noticed yesterday when I went out to take my "cloud" photo that our big tree in the backyard is budding. I love how the sun is out today and shining through the new green leaves. 

"If spring came but once a century instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change. "  -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

day 3: clouds

no interesting cloud formations today...just a cloudy sky that's spitting out snow and sleet.

day 2: what I wore

Here is what I wore today: it's my Mary Tyler-Moore dress. I think of it that way because the first time I tried it on, I felt like Mary Richards, snazzy career gal of the 70s. 

I don't wear it often, but I was feeling like wearing a dress today, and instead of being 80 degrees like it was on Sunday, it was a 40-degree Monday. So sweater-dress and boots it was. 

I'm gonna make it after all!

30-day photo challenge

I needed something to inspire me to take more photos, and something to post on this-here blog-thing, so when I ran across this 30-day photo challenge, I thought it sounded like something I could do.

This is day 1: self-portrait.

I am going to try to do this each day this month and post here. Let's see how I do!

counting my blessings

If my biggest problem is that I can't think of anything to write about on my blog, or that my husband wants to take my daughter to Paris while my other daughter and I are on a mother-daughter girl scout cruise, then I don't really have any problems.

The photo above is of balloons we released at a gathering last weekend to honor the life and birthday of a boy that my daughter went to school with from kindergarten through sixth grade. He was born with a heart defect and had received a heart transplant as a tiny baby. He was always struggling with health issues but was a lively, funny, quirky kid and I always enjoyed him. He was the only child of a single mom, who adored him.

He died before he ever made it to middle school.

My family is healthy. I don't really have any problems.

am I going to do something with this?

I am always looking for a way to be inspired to be more creative. The THING that's going to get me to stretch creatively and do something new.

Before Christmas, my in-laws asked me to add more items to my Amazon wishlist to give faraway family members some ideas for gifts to get for me. On a whim, I added a package of 8x10 canvas panels, some acrylic paints, and paintbrushes. Thinking I might like to paint something colorful and textury like this.

My in-laws thought, hmm, art supplies? Didn't know she painted . . . okay.

I opened up a couple of packages when we visited at Christmastime and ended up receiving the canvases and the brushes. No paints.

Oh well, it's not like I was going to paint anything while I was up in Wisconsin anyway.

But when I got home I decided that if I actually had the paints on hand, maybe I would paint something. So I ordered them from Amazon. And here they sit.

I don't really know what to do with them. My creative impulse has kind of blown over at the moment. I don't have a good place to set up to paint. How do you even work with acrylic paints? I can't even WRITE about painting. It's taken me a good three days to even put together this disjointed little blog post.

BUT . . . I am inspired by my talented friend Lisa. She used some time that fell into her lap to sit down and create something cool and beautiful. I need to learn to use my time like that. 

what sparkles

My dear friend Lisa challenged me to post something today, since I haven't done anything here in a while. She gave me a prompt of "what is sparkling in your life this week?"

Well, there's been a lot of sparkling going on, since it IS the holiday season, but I decided on this: the giant wedge of cheese that they "drop" on New Year's Eve in my husband's little Wisconsin hometown.

Our family tradition, when we are in Wisconsin for the holidays every other year, is to go downtown at quarter to midnight on New Year's Eve and watch the cheese get lowered from the tall ladder of the town firetruck. Families gather beneath the lit-up "cheese" wedge with their mittens and hot chocolate and count down from 10 as the cheese, dangling on a cable, gets brought down. Lights flash and sirens blare as the crowd cheers when the cheese reaches the ground.

It's a short drop, but it's a lot of fun and everyone loves sending up "that ball drop they do in New York." Each year we've gone (and we were there for the first one), it's drawn more of a crowd and they've gotten more efficient with the hoisting and lowering.

While the cheese itself was festooned with lights, what really sparkled for me last night was the glow of the happy crowd, the smiles of my girls (giggling even though they are teenagers and so over it), and the warmth of a family tradition renewed.

grateful

I am feeling thankful today. Grateful for my nice, newly single neighbor who let us park one of our cars in her newly half-empty garage for the snowstorm. Thankful that today was a snow day that let us sleep in but turned into a beautiful sunny afternoon and evening. And happy that my ordeal from yesterday (thyroid biopsy) is over and I am feeling okay.