Pay No Attention to The (Wo)Man Behind the Curtain

I am waaaaay too sensitive sometimes. Don't worry 'bout it. Everything is Just Fine. :)

Seriously

My feelings have been hurt just recently by something, and I'm trying hard to get over it before I send a crabby email. But Whatever.

Five Years

This weekend, I had some new friends over for a pool gathering. During the process of the visit, one of these friends spotted a picture of Andrew & me from New Year's 2003/4. That's just a bit over four years ago, the year before we became parents. It's a really good picture, taken with this long lost camera that flipped around so you could see the picture and get the best side, pose, light, etc. This was the year we all discovered that if you took a picture while kind of lying down (head back on couch, camera held up above) you got an instant face lift. :) This picture of Andrew & me is on a fridge, where I guess it's been since then (when we moved, everything that had been on the old fridge just got put back up there).

This new friend was really kind of surprised that it was me in the picture. And it's got me thinking-- have I aged so much in the last five years that I don't even look like that slightly younger version of myself? I've always been pretty happy with my aging. I do weigh a lot more right now. That New Year's I was in great shape-- working out every day, in fact, I was an aerobics instructor. My hair was long, and wasn't growing out a perm so it was pretty good. And I had makeup on, which I don't wear on a daily basis. But I don't think I look so different from that person that shock would be most people's reaction normally, but apparently, I do.

I want to age "gracefully" but I'm fine with aging. I don't want to botox & plump & lift, although I can now understand better the desire to do so.

I don't feel bad, necessarily, but it's a really powerful lesson. I look at my daughter, who looks so much like I did when I was little, and I see her pretty face & it makes me feel good about me. I may be an almost forty mom with about 20 pounds too much fat on my belly & butt and a few more grey hairs & wrinkles than I had before I had my kids, but I have that joy and my girl & my boy. I'm not generally super vain but it was enlightening that she was so surprised the hot chick in the picture was me.

It's a great "wake up and go to the gym more" call.

Kid Pix

I haven't posted pictures here in forever because mostly I've been doing much of my "bloggy content" on Facebook. It's kind of hard to keep up with multiple platforms. But there are a couple of family members who still haven't taken the FB plunge, so I'm going to post several recent pix here for them to see.

This is Maia on the "pirate floaty" that the kids really had a great time with about a month ago. We couldn't get them off of the thing for days. Now, it mostly floats alone. But they're still sometimes dueling with their various swords. :) I just don't have any pictures of that yet.

Another favorite activity is riding in circle around mom & dad's pool chairs. Here they are from my cell phone. The one of Maia is a little blurry, since it's a so so phone.



That's all I've got on this laptop. I need to go to the other computer and see what I have. But this should get you a quick fix for now. :)

Light or Dark Yellow?

At the gym, in the ladies' room (I don't know if it's in the men's... probably) they have this chart on the inner door to the stalls. It's a "urine color chart." Light yellow means you're just fine.... Hydrated, etc. Then it gets darker, to a mustardy color at the bottom that means you're a cactus & should drink like five gallons of water instantly. (I'm exaggerating. That's not really the advice. But close.)

I always wonder if anyone seriously checks this. They hold up the chart after going? And take the advice seriously? I mean, yes, it's hot. One should drink water while exercising. But that chart just seems wrong on so many levels.

And yes, I'm well-hydrated. How about you? Checked lately? ;)

Summer Starts Yesterday, I Think

I guess. It was the first sunburn of the year... I usually try NOT to get a sunburn, but it was between my shoulders and the spray on sunscreen did not catch it. So now I have that ouchy burn there.

We went to the air show on base. It was not too crowded, but I will never understand why so many places have their airshows in the crazy heat of summer. There were two months here in LA where it was sunny & mostly nice when it would have been kind of cool outside but perfect weather to hang out look at planes do tricks & stand on an acre of concrete. But yesterday was not it. We ended up at home, watching one pass of the Blue Angels over our pool as they rounded for some acrobatics over the crowd & had to swing wide. Much better than being in the heat where there are 5.00 chicken sandwiches you'd pay 99 cents for at Sam's, frozen, and 5.00 frozen lemon ice things you can get for about 1% of that anywhere.

Here's my take on the "festivals" (and by these I include airshows) issue. Once upon a time, it was really neat. You couldn't GET these kinds of things on a daily basis. Dr. Pepper, for example, apparently debuted at a World's Fair, many years ago. Hamburgers, too. People marveled over these unique items, met their friends, mingled.

Nowadays, they charge ridiculous amounts for items you literally can go to Sam's or Costco and buy for pennies. In the South, they're most commonly held in the summer months when it's 99 degrees outside, muggy, hot, sunny. You're getting crispy skin, increasing your skin cancer risk, crabby because you have to use port-o-potties & stand in long lines while an old guy tells you to "pretend you're a Pacific island that was just taken over by the enemy forces, and watch a mock dogfight to take it back". Yeah. At least if it were a Pacific island I could watch this dogfight from the cool of the water nearby instead of roasting like a chicken on a spit.

At these events, my hubby's work usually rents one of those kid jumpy things. This one was not well inflated, listed to one side, and was filled with big kids who wanted to oppress the littler ones. I warned one kid three times and then used the "BIG VOICE" (inhereted from my DI mom) to tell him to get out and get over to his mom. I had to be the "mean mom" because he was climbing on top of the damn thing about to break his fool neck.

So that was fun./sarcasm I was just glad to get home, swim in my pool & drink a mojito beer thing. People wonder why I'm a bit on the hermit-ish side. This would be it.

7 days without blogging makes one week

Hah! So I can use that lame church slogan here. Score!?

This last week has been funny. I am finishing up a semester, have been trying to catch up on work at home, and am very disconnected from my work-life. It's partly like this every year at this time. The school year is mostly over-- all that's left is final exams, and I have two to give & grade. So one doesn't really see students, or other faculty for that matter. It's kind of like the "Academic Rapture"--those of us "Left Behind" marvel at how quiet it is with students mostly gone. :) But it's kind of been a weird semester, for some reason. All the action seems to have happened a long time ago. I don't know if it's because of the "Read-in"-- which meant a lot of flurry of activity back in Jan & Feb and then a bit of a letdown afterwards or just the nature of this particular year. Beats the heck out of me.

I just know I am really, really happy to be looking at several months of being completely on my own schedule. And then, Fall will be very light teaching. So, movin' on movin' up movin' movin'.