nice weekend

so I actually had a nice weekend and thought I would do what everyone else does....share it with the world....Friday, I went out to a late lunch with Maren. She is getting married in a month and is possibly the most laid back bride-to-be I have ever met - very casual and relaxed about the whole thing. Her fiance is the nicest guy, and also fairly laid back...it is truly a match made in heaven. I have a new favorite salad...it is spinach, with either feta, goat or white cheese, some random fruit, like blueberries, strawberries, maybe some apples or pears. Then add a handful of walnuts or almonds, then a light drizzle of poppyseed dressing...yummm..both the Eclectic Cafe and Zona 78 are after my votes right now for the best summer salad.

After dinner, I put my sneakers on and did 3 laps at Udall Park - a little more than 2 miles. :-)

Saturday, I had a great step class, then a couple miles on the treadmill - then a short nap. I headed way up north to meet up with Gloria. K was SUPPOSED to meet us for dinner and a movie, but he wimped out. I don't blame him- the last time he joined me and Gloria was new years eve (photo at right with Gloria, me, K and Stace - who i think liked K, but he didn't feel the same about her aooarently). I ended up getting so drunk, I passed out on his couch (after puking all over his bathroom).

Anyway, since we were boyless, Gloria and I saw the Women, which sucked for as talented as a cast as it had....then we ate at Old Pueblo Grill which wins, hands down, with their green chili macaroni and cheese....mama mia...i felt like CRAP i was so full. So then, back to Gloria's - her son was at a slumber party so we drank a bottle of wine and watched Prime, which is actually pretty good, and Meryl Streep is hilarious - rent it! I crashed on her couch. We got up around 8 and she COOKED breakfast, then we went for a 3 mile stroll...it was 95 degrees out there...bleah...can't believe autumn begins tomorrow....

This afternoon, I went to a complete stranger's house and we all made phone calls for Move On. org to get people in Colorado organized for the upcoming election...CO is a swing state, apparently, and moveon.org is having a big rally to get folks registered etc. So I did my part, and met some awesome people - surprisingly, I was the youngest person there - most everyone was in the 50s and 60s...i thought that older guard was all a bunch of staunch republicans - glad to see they aren't..... So yeah, a nice weekend!

What did YOU do?

2003 was a wild one

I love being home, sleeping in my own bed, sitting on the floor in front of the TiVo eating dinner at 10pm, making paper. But my natural tendencies towards chaos and turmoil took over (again) after an email from dad, who was sailing with his friend, Carol, which said "wish you were here. Everything is in French!" I had two other trips already planned, (not to mention those pesky taxes), so I initially said NO WAY...but then some fiendish fever took over my brain, I called American Airlines to cash in a few frequent flyer miles and three days later, I was on my way to the Caribbean!

I missed my connection in San Juan, but AA put me up in a hotel where I pretended to be French to avoid the tacky Americans. The next day I flew on to Guadeloupe. Dad looked tan and healthy, and Carol was nice—they made a good sailing team. We provisioned up (diet coke, rum, Nutella and french bread) and did some day sails around the island. I learned nada about sailing per se, other than being reminded that it makes me throw up, but I had a GREAT time. We sampled the local delicacies in Basse Terre (many made with the local rum) and I managed to hitch us a ride back to the marina...on a school bus. It was too rough to go ashore at Pigeon Island, so we sat on the boat, gazing wistfully at shore with all that fresh french bread out of reach. We drank pina coladas as the sun set in the bay of Deshaies.

Finally, we made the crossing to Antigua, on a gorgeous day. Dinner in English Harbour was memorable, even without french bread, and the next morning my week was OVER! There was some “friction” at customs, since I’d never legally “entered” the country, but the less said about THAT, the better, I am sure.

From sea level, back home to 4,000’, and the very next day, I was at 12,000’ for the annual NAST snooze-a-rama, I mean, “schools of drama,” conference. It was held at Snowbird resort in Utah, and thanks to some creative scheduling, there was time to hit the slopes! The last time I skied, I’d broken bones, so this was the proverbial getting back on the horse. I’m thrilled to say it came right back and I actually cried with joy—I called mama and thanked her for making me get on that &^$*! ski bus every Saturday for 6 years when I was a kid!! Me and Scott even blew off the final day’s presentation to ski again. I stayed an extra night in Salt Lake and forced myself to do my taxes. The free cocktails at the Embassy Suites certainly helped.

Home on the 14th, mailed them on the 15th and on the 16th, it was off to Grand Rapids for Easter with Erin’s family and mom. I got to ride Erin’s horse—another thing I hadn’t done in years...and of course, the beast decides to throw me….well, ok, he went right and I went left, but I didn’t hit the dirt. I managed to attach myself to the fence, a la Spiderman, and Prince pulled away from under me...Erin, a talented horsewoman herself, was impressed with my graceful dismount. There was no getting back on THIS proverbial horse!

oh the rest of the year was great too....but that's enough reminiscing for now....

need to go!

I have no desire to actually pack or go through "security," but I do have a burning urge to GO somewhere far far away, especially if John McCain gets elected. My last out of the US trip was 2004 and I have been meaning to do a full account of this amazing 4 week trip, so here is a start on that. If you click on the photos, you get a better view...some are pretty good!

I flew into Brussels and spent a few days there and in Bruges (and it was then hilarious to see the very underrated Colin Ferrell movie IN BRUGES, and be able to laugh out loud with the mere idea of those large Americans trying to make it up the stairs to the belltower). I sat in the Church of Notre Dame (Bruges version) and listened to the choir - I love that sound!! Ya know, I truly despised Brussels the first time I was there in 1981 - it was hot and I was tired and cranky and probably really sick, and I was determined to find something to like this time, and I did. In addition to discovering Kriek, I also fell in love with some of the sculpture - here is a lovely angel I found on a fountain, and then there is also the little pissing boy! They actually clothe him - he has outfits for the different holidays - all with a convenient hole for his wee wee I also spent a couple of days in Germany with the guy I'd met on line, and who paid for the airplane ticket - no, there was no hanky panky involved, in fact he couldn't have been less interested in me which was fine with me. He spent more time talking about his money and his business and his ex wife! One day, we took a Rhine river cruise, but he spent the whole time inside reading the newspaper! Another day, he dropped me off at the train station so I could go to Cologne - it was a lovely day, particularly since he wasn't with me. I had not gone more than 5 steps from the train station when I was approached by a weirdo who wanted to know if I needed a "friend." Hell no! The church was simply incredible - this shot was from across the river and turned out GREAT! The day really cleared up nicely as well! I took a little bus tour of town and visited the Cultural Museum.

After a tearful run in with the Belgian Train Service, I took the TGV (bullet train) to Paris, in first class (tears rule), and spent most of the rest of the trip in France. I ran errands with Isabelle and her kids, just like a housewife anywhere, shopping, going to school, etc. I even babysat for her two kids one night so she and Christian could go out. In Paris, I stayed with Isabelle’s mom, who has a cute little apartment on the northwest side of town, and Ijust wandered the city. I attended an unforgettable string concert in La Chapelle. This photograph is from inside this gorgeous chapel - from the outside you would never know it was there. Isabelle's sister's Quartet played Vivaldi's Four Seasons in here...can you EVEN imagine??
From Paris, I headed out to explore the Normandy coast - I took a bus tour to Arromanches, the American Cemetery Pointe du Hoc, and Longues sur Mer to see the sites and learn about the history of D-Day. A highlight of the entire trip was meeting a D-Day veteran, Reginald in Bayeux. He’d come over from England for the ceremony the week before, but couldn’t get out of the hostel parking lot, as Bush’s motorcade was due to come by – so he missed the entire thing – I was stupefied! Together, we visited Mère St. Eglise, where he rightfully, (and I, by association), was treated like royalty. He was in the second wave who flew over to help end the war - amazing guy and I am glad I decided to eat breakfast IN the youth hostel that day and had my "nice, approachable" face on, rather than the surly "get the hell away from me" one.

After Normandy, I got close, but not all the way to Mont St. Michel. This is what I get for relying on "others." I had met some other backpackers who insisted there was no way to get there on Sunday and still make it to Rennes to catch the last train south...and I didn't check it my ownself. They were wrong, and all I got was this photo of me on the ROAD to MSM...

I spent a couple of rainy days in Aix en Provence, where I saw this sculpture by the door of a government building...I thought it was very unusual!....I met some really interesting people at the youth hostel including Ricardo from Italy who spoke to English and very little french - my italian came back - fortunately the World Cup was on so there wasn't too much to discuss!!

Then on to a blissfully sunny Riviera. I adore this place. I remember the first time I saw it from the bus back in high school as we drove down from Dijon...My first view of the Mediterranean will be with me forever...I stayed a few nights in Nice, as well as further east along the Côte d’Azur, in Cap D’ail, and Menton, which is where I would like to be buried...if I wanted to be buried, that is, on the Italian border. The view from the youth hostel is like a Cezanne painting! One day, I walked along the coast into Italy and found a lovely private beach. I got very tan and even lost 10lbs eating French bread, chocolate and Camembert, washed down by 50 cent bottles of Evian - that, combined with walking at least 16,000 steps every day and carrying a 900 lb backpack! While I was here, I found out my dear friend Maria had breast cancer and I started lighting candles for her in every church I passed!!

I took a little bus tour up into the mountain areas north of Menton and after the harrowing ride to get there, it was a beautiful quiet day. I wandered the little village and explored the castle ruins and gardens. While I was sitting here in St. Agnes, the fog rolled in, and by the time I had got my camera and turned around, you could no longer see the mountains in the background. Waiting for the bus to go back down, I was literally sitting IN a cloud.Back in Paris, I stayed with Isabelle's mom a few more nights. She took great care of me, made me sack lunches, did my laundry, just a real sweet lady (and like all moms, she drives Isabelle insane :-) ). She sang in an abysmal concert at the Sorbonne; but it was followed by exquisite ice cream at the famous Berthillon, so that was OK.

I spent my birthday with a bunch of cows, shoveling rocks at the thatch-roofed, half-timbered house near Honfleur that Isabelle is single-handedly restoring. She is actually balancing on one leg on the ladder leaning up against the side of the house in this photo...I haven't seen photos since, but I bet it is amazing!

I took the train back to Brussels, exhausted...I was much too old to be backpacking around Europe, but just too poor to do it any other way…oh well....hopefully next summer I will do more of the same! The French were wonderful to me, as always, and were very concerned for us and our “shooting-ourselves-in-the-foot” politics. we will see how all that fares in a month or so....

Burn

I found a cool web site courtesy of Charmaine's blog: http://wordle.net/create.

It takes your words and creates an interesting, dare I say, piece of art.... :-) Here is something I wrote, all Wordled up:


the original is somewhere further down on the blog

In Memory of the Buffs

September Saturdays always make me think of CU Football games.....

The biting chill of autumn days
Puts football in my veins.
Though far away and out of sight,
The memory remains.

We infiltrate the stadium
To cheer our padded boys.
A winning score is not our aim -
Just making lots of noise.

Drowning out the marching band,
The hot dogs and the beers.
The paper planes and making up
Of dirty obscene cheers.

Yelling at the referee,
The passing up of bodies,
Sipping spiked hot chocolate drinks -
Those minty flavored toddies.

The crunching of the shoulder pads,
The grunts and yellow flags,
Even though we never win,
Our ardor never lags.

We know the team will lose the game,
But still we love our Buffs,
Even though we rant and rave,
and call them "Powderpuffs".

But one rare time, we were surprised.
We won the victory crown.
Frenzied and ecstatic,
We tore a goal post down.

Though now the field lays empty
And icy winds blow through,
The echo of our chant lives on -
"We love you, dear C.U." ( I wrote this in 1984 in a creative writing class at UCSB...I was sorely missing Boulder!)

I am raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundations. Click HERE to go to the secure JDRF page and make a donation. Or ask me for my mailing address is you want to send a check.

time to donate

Every year about 15,000 people are diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, mostly kids. A few years after Santa groped me in the photo below, I was one of those kids. Type 1 Diabetes is an immune disorder that cannot be prevented and there is no cure...YET. The JDRF needs support - and not just our good wishes and warm thoughts. They need cold hard cash.

Again with the begging, you say. Every year, I harass and harangue you to donate hard earned dollars. Gas and food costs are soaring, the economy is tanking, the sky is dissolving, the Russians are invading and yet...

I still have hope.

One day, people like me won't have to poke holes in our skin just to survive. One night, we will crawl into bed without worrying we might not wake up again. We won't have to worry about blindness, amputation, dialysis, and those are just the things I can spell!

If you have a few minutes, go see these short videos. Then, please come back and sponsor my fight to find a cure for this disease.

This one is poignant: http://www.youtube.com/cooper3678

This one is funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDATgiMwRNA&feature=related

If you have kids, you may know the Jonas Brothers - this is Nick's story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDFAUvGzvHM&feature=related

Forward the videos to your friends! You tell two friends, and they will tell two friends, and so on and so on, and so on....and maybe someday the war will be over...and I am not just talking about Iraq here...

Thank you to my friends and family who have so generously supported me in the past, but I can't let you off the hook yet. I hate to ask when you have all been so good to my cause in the past, but until there is a cure, I plan to be a pest. Feel free to ignore...I will get you next year...Maybe instead of donating, you might consider forwarding this to someone on your email list?

My goal is $1,500. Just click HERE to go to the secure JDRF page and make a donation. Or ask me for my mailing address is you want to send a check. Please pass it on and put it on your blogs!

JDRF is ranked near the top in terms of philanthropic organizations - Almost 90% if every dollar raised goes directly to research, as opposed to some organizations that spend most of the money raised on administration and advertising....AND it is tax deductible for many people.

Thank you for your friendship, love and support - you all mean so much to me. You give my REAL life REAL meaning!

In Memory

"Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day our world was broken," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It lives forever in our hearts and our history, a tragedy that unites us in a common memory and a common story ... the day that began like any other and ended as none ever has."

LEAP by Brian Doyle:
A couple leaped from the south tower, hand in hand. They reached for each other and their hands met and they jumped.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them falling, hand in hand.

Many people jumped. Perhaps hundreds. No one knows. They struck the pavement with such force that there was a pink mist in the air.

The mayor reported the mist.

A kindergarten boy who saw people falling in flames told his teacher that the birds were on fire. She ran with him on her shoulders out of the ashes.

Tiffany Keeling saw fireballs falling that she later realized were people. Jennifer Griffin saw people falling and wept as she told the story. Niko Winstral saw people free-falling backwards with their hands out, like they were parachuting. Joe Duncan on his roof on Duane Street looked up and saw people jumping. Henry Weintraub saw people "leaping as they flew out." John Carson saw six people fall, "falling over themselves, falling, they were somersaulting." Steve Miller saw people jumping from a thousand feet in the air.

Kirk Kjeldsen saw people flailing on the way down, people lining up and jumping, "too many people falling." Jane Tedder saw people leaping and the sight haunts her at night.

Steve Tamas counted fourteen people jumping and then he stopped counting. Stuart DeHann saw one woman's dress billowing as she fell, and he saw a shirtless man falling end over end, and he too saw the couple leaping hand in hand.

Several pedestrians were killed by people falling from the sky. A fireman was killed by a body falling from the sky.

But he reached for her hand and she reached for his hand and they leaped out the window holding hands.

I try to whisper prayers for the sudden dead and the harrowed families of the dead and the screaming souls of the murderers but I keep coming back to his hand and her hand nestled in each other with such extraordinary ordinary succinct ancient naked stunning perfect simple ferocious love.

Their hands reaching and joining are the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful. It is everything that we are capable of against horror and loss and death. It is what makes me believe that we are not craven fools and charlatans to believe in God, to believe that human beings have greatness and holiness within them
like seeds that open only under great fires, to believe that some unimaginable essence of who we are persists past the dissolution of what we were, to believe against such evil hourly evidence that love is why we are here.

No one knows who they were: husband and wife, lovers, dear friends, colleagues, strangers thrown together at the window there at the lip of hell. Maybe they didn't even reach for each other consciously, maybe it was instinctive, a reflex, as they both decided at the same time to take two running steps and jump out the shattered window, but they
did reach for each other, and they held on tight, and leaped, and fell endlessly into the smoking canyon, at two hundred miles an hour, falling so far and so fast that they would have blacked out before they hit the pavement near Liberty Street so hard that there was a pink mist in the air.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them holding hands, and Stuart DeHann saw them holding hands, and I hold onto that.


.....and 7 years later....so do I (Sara)

(written by Brian Doyle, it is copyrighted and NOT mine)

labor day

I took the idea of labor day, and a day off from work, to heart this weekend. This is the first time I have opened the laptop since Friday and I tell ya what, it has been nice. I am actually supposed to still be in Monterey, having fun, I guess. Friday evening the hotel had trouble with the fire alarms - they kept going off and they were loud so I took my book and wandered around the property for a while, hoping I would run into, well, you know who...but I didn't. So I went to the sports bar to read and watch the Broncos cream someone.....and had some chicken fingers....wandered by the business center thinking, maybe he might be down there...nahh...so I fell asleep with the TV on. My room faces the golf course, so I was woken at 730 by the lawn guys and the lawn mowers! I complained around 8 and it stopped shortly thereafter, and as I started to drift back into slumber, the fire alarm went off....sonovabitch...the security guys were banging on my door to get out and I just turned the TV up and said GO AWAY!!!

I was going to walk into Monterey and sit on the beach, but as I was getting in the shower the alarm went off again....and then again, and I was just feeling aggravated and frustrated and lonely and mad, so I called Express Jet...they could get me out that day for only $35...the hotel wasn't going to charge me (in fact 0ffered to comp my stay but I wanted the points and besides K was paying so screw it!) , and so I left. Yep. I canceled my rent car and my visit down to Esalen, which killed me, but I had to go. I cut bait, I ran, I gave up, I wimped out, I just was SICK of being there, and just needed to get the hell out. After the busy crush of all week, it was just really painful to be alone...I knew I wasn't going to have K to play with all weekend like last year...though I actually DIDN'T know that when I had planned to stay all weekend...He was staying til Sunday, I knew,and I thought we could at least hang out and have fun like we did last year, but with no G....but no. He had plans...with whattzerface.

Crap. He has not called, or emailed or anything - and that is really unusual. i sure hope he is happy. I got my digital converter box and my friend Matt hooked it up for me, as my brain was not in tech gear, so now I have 5 PBS stations - wahh hooooo! HAPPY LABOR DAY!

just friends

that is all we are, that is all he considers me - a friend, and it is like a knife in my gut everytime he is with me. He just makes me feel all warm when I am with him, and she has been such a whiny baby the whole time - We went to dinner on Wed,and K and I laughed and joked the whole time....told her about new years eve even. She was just "whatever" - had nothing interesting to add to the conversation, just swished her luxurious black hair over her slim shoulders and batted her long eyelashes over her almond shaped eyes. I lost my mind for a minuter and asked her to go sit in the bar with me last night while K was setting up his exhibit, mainly cuz I just didn't want to have to talk to any of those right wing, McCain supporting neo cons who were already in there, and she was such a bore. "what do you do for fun?" ummmmmm no response...oh I read. "what have you read" ummmmmm nothing lately. "have you read Harry Potter" nooooo, "do you work out?" ummmmmmm no not really. "do you have family near? no...only child....gawd it was like pulling teeth. Finally K comes and she is so quiet and sullen. He and I are laughing and having fun - he eats the rest of my dinner right off my plate....It looks like they are going to go and he says he is just going to say bye to a guy we know - she asks for the keys and storms out....He says bye to the guy and heads out.....and is back in 5 minutes....she apparently peeled out and left him there...so we sat there for another hour and while he ate his own dinner, he told me all about the woes and traumas, and how badly she was treating him. Granted, she took a week vacation to come to Monterey for what I bet she thought was going to be a romantic fun time....he works almost all night and is at the conference all day, so I don't know what she expected! I was blunt and told him I thought she was a bitch and that he could do a lot better....(MEMMEMEMEMMEMEMEME)....he just does not get it, does he? He does not see me cuz I am too old, too fat, too self sufficient...whatever....Today he took me to campus to return the keys then to Kinkos to mail the stuff back to Tucson and he is asking ME for advice. sunovabitch! we are so alike, and i think we are a perfect match. why does he not see how wrong all these girls are. he is a complete and total loser, granted, a workaholic with completely stunted social abilities, but i like him! He gets me and my warped humor and he really makes me laugh....i wanna just grab him and slap him and say look, you dumb scientist geek, HERE I AM right in front of you. I know it will never happen and I make myself MISERABLE "wishing" he would notice me, like I am 14. I have been surrounded by gorgeous men, coast guard, navy guys in their summer whites...mmmm and the only one I care about is him. Jerk. I feel like Meredith and her trials and tribulations with McSteamy on Grey's Anatomy! Pick me! Choose me! LOVE ME!!!!

off to CA

going to monterey tomorrow...was looking forward to it, and kinda still am, but not as much now that I know K2 has a "friend" coming - a german friend - no a thai friend with german citizenship. Who works in DC. At a hotel. this is the type of woman he likes. I just don't get it. Not that i expected there to be any more to "it" than last year and probably even less since he has been such a complete ass and dare I say UNfriendlike for the last several weeks. Last year was just classic dumb ass me...after an incredible dinner, after getting rid of the other two buzz kills who came with, joking, laughing, having a fricking GREAT time. We sat and talked and planned Saturday out...awesome day planned, and as we were walking out, there was G, the asian scientist from Boston...female, little, hot...K stops to chat. "oh, a day off tomorrow," she chortles, "what are you doing?" I tell her we are going to the aquarium and then a drive around the coast to see the famous tree and the sunset. "oh how fun," she exclaims, to which I reply.......YOU SHOULD COME WITH US...what, I Hear myself saying in my head, as I am saying the stupid words with my mouth WHAT THE F*(K ArE YOU DOING??? "ok, that would be fun," she says with a note of finality.........so the next day is spent waiting on her to get ready, waiting on this and that. She comes with us to the amazing aquarium (nice jellyfish) and we go everywhere SHE wants...i don't even both suggesting anything - he is smitten I think...We leave juuuuust in time for me to get my boxes to fed ex...oh, yes, I have been sitting n the BACK seat with the boxes....so then we race out to the coast, but dammit to hell, we miss it, so we pull over some random place and watch the end of it. I could have been fine just sitting there but she was COLD, so we left...Then, she determined where we ate. She proceeded to drink a butt load for such a skinny girl and yes, she was trashed...and then she twisted her ankle...If I wasn't so cranked off, I would have felt sorry for her, but I was kinda GLAD. So, K and I haul her to the car and drive back to the hotel. We help her into her room and I get a bag with some ice and prop her foot up, and as K and I are leaving, she says, "OH, I wanted to show you my research on plasmotics" or something, to kevin, this was NOT directed at me....so we go back in...i sit in the chair politely waiting while they get into it. I mean get into the plasmotics..."here, sit by me Kevin, so I can leave my foot up...." which is when I slip out unnoticed and go back to my room. two minutes later, K calls, "where'd ya go?" not my scene I tell him, looked like you needed some privacy. "nahhhhh, it's not like that" but she WANTED him and was drunk enough to attack him. The Naaaaahhhh is coming from the guy who has no idea I have longed for him for almost 3 years! I mean, if he DID have any clue how much I adore him, do you think he would keep hiring me to work for him??? Anyway......she is not coming this year, her GROUP is, but I conveniently left her email off...by accident.....but NOW he has arranged for his thai, german friend to come, and she is gonna "help out" - do what I wonder? Do i get to boss her around and have her run shit detail for me?? I tell you WHAT however. I Am NOT sitting in the BACK seat!!!

so here are some pictures of my last trip to Denver. Here I am walking on a trail to nowhere
This is Cece's little boy Ethan
This is me and Briana...the coolest roommate EVER and still a really awesome girl! Her kids are following in her footsteps!
I used the babysit Amy and Dori....They are both married contributing members of society now..Dori even teaches at WRHS.....

Me in front of Pikes Peak....

snot

There is nothing worse than having a fever when it is 99 degrees outside. It hurts your skin to go outside cuz you feel like you are burning on both sides! Not to mention the snot! Why don't I lose three pounds every morning after I blow my nose? It is just not fair.

Comtrex works pretty good, but what is really doing the trick is the Valerian root. According to my neighbor I have coughed ALL night the last two nights, but I have managed to sleep through it. Maybe she ought to take some Valerian?

assumption

i think today is the day of assumption - i assume it is....i seem to remember being in france on august 16th in 1994 or thereabouts and everything being shut down, less because it was sunday but because it was assumption. i have no idea what it means, but since I live my life assuming things, i thought it would be a good day to resume posting...oh crap. today is the 17th, ins't it. well there goes THAT premise! see what happens when you assume?? how presumptive of me...see what happens when you don't have to go to an office and don't live by a clock or a calendar??? oh well....better luck next year.

summer fun

June came and went, and so did I...camped in the grand canyon with my awesome aunt, spent 4th of july with my family and friends, spent July avoiding the rain, and spent the last week on the road...Chicago and now Denver, which I consider my home town...Is home where you ARE or is home where you come from??? for me, it is where I am...and even so, I feel a little lost here...it has grown and gone on without me, but it sure is good to see my friends, and my old hangouts. The trees are bigger, Wide Acres is gone, but Little Theater is still there, and Manning has been renovated, but it is still a school...the Hilton is now a Sheraton, but the Petroleum Club is still there....They say you can't go home....but what if home is a part of you? You CAN take it with you, I think and Bon Jovi did a great song about that...I may not be a smalltown girl, but I was definitely born a rolling stone.... and I am glad I can find home whereever I go! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VYNSQXQCMI

assmilation

i have worn an insulin pump for 15 years now...today i added the next step in the search for a closed loop system - a sensor...supposedly it will send a message to my new pump every 5 minutes telling me what my sugar is...i have had it in 8 hours and so far the only reading i have are from the finger pokes i have had to do...supposedly i am only going to have to do at most 4 per day to calibrate this sucker...i have done close to 10 already today as i have been running high since i switched over to the new pump - this is irritating as all hell..the learning curve, not to mention the cost are just DAUNTING!!

stay tuned for more info...as if anyone besides Laurie even reads this...and she won't know what in the heck i am talking about (fortunately for her)

convoy

For some reason, this song always brings tears to my eyes....guess it is the spirit of freedom? memories of my childhood? I know Sammy loved this song when he was little. My sister wore out the tape I made her with this song....enjoy, 10-4 good buddy~~

Inspiration

Well, I gotta share......I found out about the Inspired by Diabetes Creative Expression" competition a while back and thought, "hell, I can be "creative" when i express my thoughts and feelings on diabetes," and since the format could be anything, art work, musical composition, written essay, I submitted something I had written for a JDRF talk I had just given.

Today, I got a fed ex delivery from an unknown person...It was pretty heavy, and I am thinking, someone is finally sending me one of those heads I often command be chopped off, and yet they never are (dammitohell). I open it up to find a gorgeous glass trophy and a letter letting me know I had won second place in this NATIONAL competition!!

Apparently a $500 donation has been made in my name to the American Diabetes Assoc., in support of youth diabetes summer camps and I have been entered in the International competition that will happen sometime this month. I love the reaction and response my words bring forth in my annual christmas letters and the various rants I write, and now, to be recognized by Eli Lilly and the ADA, totally impartial and not obligated to love me in any way - well, it just feels really good...

Geez, I am actually crying with happiness - I mean how often does THAT happen in regards to diabetes??

eyes

Window to the soul.....I can't stand it when people won't look at me when they talk to me. Is there something you'd RATHER be looking at? there was a time there I thought I was going to be blind, (diabetes sucks, but modern technology is truly a miracle), I'd look in the mirror and try to imagine NOT seeing my eyes...or anything...every morning when I go outside and put on my glasses and those amazing mountains sharpen up, I get a little rush! I'd rather be deaf than blind. How about you?

little black hairs

I guess in one respect, it is a good thing K was out of town, but i still have this burning urge to slap him. He knows I wouldn't, or couldn't, be that irrational in public...but he also KNOWS the craving would be there....on the other hand, I am grateful to him for stirring up that ire...made me realize that, while I may not have children to love me or take care of me when i get old, I have had an incredible life....and I have all intentions of continuing to have fun and find contentment...and my sister's children love and adore me!! I do not believe I need a man, or children, to complete me or make my life full....and I almost pity women who feel that way. Yes, I get sad sometimes when I get to hold a sweet-smelling, wiggling little person, knowing I won't have one of my own, but that is encoded into our DNA...if women didn't have genetic, intuitive longings or urges for children, do you think they would put up with the stinky socks on the couch, those little black hairs in the sink and the mental abuse that goes on so often? I think NOT.

There are a few other things we tolerate men for. They can almost always get the pickle jar open, which comes in especially handy, I would imagine, if they knock us up; they aren't afraid of the big black crawly thing with 14 legs under the table; they usually have jumper cables, whereas WE might have taken that stupid "emergency kit" out to make room for the 4 boxes of stuff that will (one day) go to good will - and better still, they probably know how to use them without blowing up the car. There are a few other things men are probably better at, but I am not going to make them public knowledge....The less they know we know about them, the better off we all remain.

words

have you ever looked, i mean REALLY looked, at a page of print. Does it not ASTOUND you that no matter where you look on any page in any book (in english) that you will UNDERSTAND what the words are (you may not understand the concept or the idea), but the WORDS will POP out at you? THE CAT FECUND COMPOSE STUN SHATTER ERGO...all words you can put together in your head!!! What an amazing skill! Who invented this? who thought to put T and H together to make TH???? My reading has been slowed down lately cuz I am just amazed at how COOL this really is.