Friday, March 31, 2006

Things I learned on vacation . . .


1. My family will talk with anyone. All of us. Disney offered ample opportunity for us to chat up fellow riders in the long lines that were waiting at each attraction. We met great people from California, Iowa, Colorado, Arizona, and many from Oregon who were on spring break as well. My kids are growing up to be as outgoing as their charming dad!

2. Disney and the people behind the corporate machine of the organization are brilliant. Say what you will about the way they mass market their characters to the death, but these people are incredibly talented. The rides, the shows, the experience - amazing. I would love a job where you figure out how to create a ride that looks like it was made out of things from your garbage can! (The Bug's Life rides at Californial Adventure were so wonderfully creative - a 7 foot replica of a cool whip container was the base of one of the rides!)

3. My daughter is much braver than I am. She started the week adamant that she WOULD NOT ride ANY roller coasters. She ended it by riding the California Screamin' ride (the one that goes upside down) and BEGGING us to take her on Space Mountain before we could leave Disneyland on our last day. I am so proud of her.

4. My family can survive and even enjoy a 17 hour car ride when split into two days if there is a portable DVD in the vehicle. (That was a purchase worth every penny!)

5. I spend too much time on the computer and am too obsessed with the minute details of daily national and local news. I survived for a whole week on 10 minute rations of local California evening news. (But I missed reading my favorite blogs and am trying to catch up on everyone's news!)

6. I really needed a vacation! I'm tired, but I have so enjoyed not thinking about the daily frustrations that had been weighing so heavily on me lately. I'm going to enjoy the rest of the weekend before heading back to the real world on Monday.

Hope those of you on spring break had as much fun as we did!

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Brush with Celebrity


When I was about 10 years old, we took a trip to Seattle to visit some old friends that used to live next door to us in Omaha, Nebraska. The Schoenoman family had a house full of kids and I had missed the crazy hum of their house filled with noise and the smell of the lemon scented bleach that Mrs. Schoenoman used to clean her floors. Most of all, I missed my good friend Cheryl so much since they had moved. She was my best Barbie-playing, swing-pushing, cotton-candy-eating, hide-and-seek-in-the-culdesac-late-into-the-night friend. Fate had brought both of our dads to the west coast; hers with Boeing, mine with the US Army Corps of Engineers. (Dams and Jets - no wonder these two guys became life-long friends.) I couldn't wait to see her again.

While in Seattle, we visited downtown and while I was amazed by the size of the Space Needle, and the incredible sights and sounds of Pike's Market, the highlight of my 10-year old trip to Seattle was stumbling across a shooting of one of my favorite shows - Emergency! (You young whippersnappers may not remember this classic - It was like an early version of "Third Watch" but only about the paramedics). There, on the streets of Seattle, was Johnny Gage! Stud-muffin paramedic with the smile that could melt a young girl's heart.

(My sincere appologies to hardcore fans - as a 10 year old, I didn't know the actor's real name and the show must have gone off the air before I learned it. That, or my 30-something brain has had to dump that information from the archeives to make room for other very useful tidbits of information, like the names and food alergies of my kids' friends, the phone numbers of the best pizza places on our side of town, and the grouchy clerks to avoid at my local "one stop shopping" joint.)

It was my first brush with celebrity and on a very short list of my encounters with anyone I'd consider "famous". I barely got close enough to even verify that it was actually him, but for a 10 year-old, it was close enough to brag about at school the next week!

My celebrity encounters since then have been few and far between. Working at a classy downtown Portland eatery in college offered some opportunities to see local and visiting celebs and big-name local politicians, but none made my heart skip and my knees feel like macaroni like Johnny Gage.

Tonight I feel like I've had just a taste of that feeling again. Two of my favorite bloggers (Marvelous Madness, GrowWings) left comments on my little ol' site. Wow! They don't know this, but I've been following their blogs for weeks (along with other ultra-creative and inspiring women in the blogosphere: Christine Miller/Swirly, selftaughtgirl, Andrea/Superhero, jengray). I'm amazed by their creativity, their passion for their art and the wisdom and humor that come through in their writing. Thank you so much Alexandra G. and Laini! Your comments were so kind and encourging and just the inspiration I needed to keep blogging. In case you visit again - You are my stars!

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

The Winter Funk



I think I'm in it to my neck right now.

I just can't seem to shake the feeling that I'm slodging through my days with boots caked with layers of mud on the bottom. It's that heavy feeling, like each step takes more and more effort, but covers less and less space.

I've been trying to keep up my reading as that seems to add light to the days as we're waiting for the warmer days of Spring. Finished Blue Like Jazz and loved the prose and the stories. But I was left feeling like, "OK God, now what do I do with this?" It has challenged me to think about my faith and how much of it is just the "window dressing" of Christianity and how much is a true devotion to a savior. Sometimes looking closer at our flaws and imperfections can be just down-right unsettling. Especially when we think we're at a place where we're pretty "together".

Next on the reading list: Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt (started this one this week and it's bringing back wonderful memories of all my Shakespeare classes!); A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell (the new book club selection); Journey to the Well by Vashti M. McKenzie; Death Sentences by Don Watson (a book for grammar geeks like myself) and Son of a Witch (sequel to Wicked - a recent addition to my all-time favorite list) by Greggory MacGuire. Yes, I'm one of those schitzophrenic readers that can't just read one book at a time. I'll probably have 2 or 3 going at once. If anyone stumbles across my little ol' blog, I'd love to hear what you're reading. Let me know what's on your nightstand or in your backpack!

Anyway - coundown to Disney has started. We leave in 17 days! Hooray! The Happiest Place on Earth should be a good way to shake the winter blues! Splash Mountain, here I come!