What could possibly go wrong???

Elephant Polo

What could POSSIBLY go wrong??

Sunshine

I've been thinking about Erin a lot the past couple of days. It's been one year today since she died (at 29).

I do not believe that anyone ever had the audacity to tell me that life was fair (and if anyone did I should have hit them upside the head with a jackhammer). It isn't, and sometimes it sucks. One thing that really sucks is when a vibrant, young, hopeful, promising person is taken from us before we're ready to let go. For all I know (and I do believe) Erin is in a much better place. I don't believe that makes anyone miss her any less.

I first met Erin about 20 years ago. I was friends with her mom, and met Erin and her sister Katie. At the time I lived about 3 hours drive away from my two nieces so I sort of unofficially adopted the girls as my pseudo nieces. Charming girls. One thing I did for them (which I had forgotten until Erin reminded me a couple of years ago) was I would buy them books for every "A" they got on their report cards (Katie got more books than Erin) I watched both girls grow from charming innocent little girls, to normal teenagers.

Erin had her mom's looks and her dad's personality (the angel and the devil). She "grew up" and moved away, eventually her mom moved and I also moved. (Some people do get thrown from the vortex that is Champaign-Urbana). A few years ago I was in Kansas City on business for a few days, and in the evenings instead of doing the touristy thing with the people that were at my meetings (going to a Kansas City Royals baseball game) I rode shotgun on my friend Sarah's life. (How often, when you're visting another town, do you go to an open house, at the high school, in the classroom where the pregnant teens take childbirth and parenting classes. I don't believe I've ever seen that listed on a tour of ANY town I've ever visited). After hanging around for a while Sarah and I went to visit her oldest daughter at the Spanish restaurant where Erin was a waitress. We got there after the shift was about done, and only had some nosh and a bit of sangria. But it was great to visit Erin and see the lovely adult that she had become. Somehow when I think of her as an adult I always think of really BIG nature. I know she loved the area around Santa Fe, and I know she loved the Pacific Northwest.

Erin honey I don't know where you are, but I'm sure it's a much brighter place with your presence.

Love, your "other" Auntie M

Happy Valentine's Day

A poem for you - for Valentine's Day.

By Dorothy Parker.

One Perfect Rose

A single flower he sent me, since we met.
All tenderly his messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet--
One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;
"My fragile leaves," it said, "his heart enclose."
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.



Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.

Food for thought -- 2008

I was listening to
The Tavis Smiley Show today from Public Radio International. The candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was discussed. I met Spouse and Princess for lunch, and I was just sort of wondering what difference it makes to the people of a state if "their" candidate becomes President. Spouse pointed out then every time candidate comes "home" it makes a mess (think motorcades on the Kennedy Expressway -- do we really need that).

And then we started talking about the press corp following Mr. President around.

Back in the day - heading out to visit the Kennedys at Hyannisport didn't seem such a bad trip



And going to Kennebunkport to visit George H.W. Bush wasn't a bad place to visit.



But something tells me that Chicago's south shore would be missing some of the charisma of the above.



I wonder if the press ever takes things like this into consideration when making endorsements?????

I guess I'm not really all that

This morning I was out shoveling snow. I had fuzzybutt with me off leash (as the tie out was buried under the snow that I was shoveling).

I was out there for about 15 minutes and he was doing absolutely fine hanging out close to me. Not in the way, but still on our turf. All was well until .....

Trackchick came out from next door. Trackchick is in 5th grade and in addition to having her backpack, she had her lunchbox. Trackchick starts heading to the bus with Fuzzybutt following close behind. I managed to get him back but then, a little while later Trackchick backtracked home because she had forgotten her Valentines. So now Trackchick is heading out not only with lunch but also with snacks. Fuzzy had no chance at this point it time. He was off to the bus. Luckily Cowtipper was out and wasn't going to let Fuzzybutt get past her so eventually I got him by the collar and dragged him home.

I might be able to take priority over a kid, or a neighbor, or even lunch, but NOT Valentine Treats.

Happy Valentine's day to all. May your love not run away from you.

Heartbreak and devastation...

This morning, I had to be the bearer of bad news for Chip. As he woke up at 8:00 this morning (wondering why on earth he wasn't woken up at 7:15) I had to tell him that there was no school due to a snow day. He was devastated. He tried to hide his disappointment by jumping and cheering, but I was not fooled.



I think he'll survive though.

PRETTY BLING

I'm not one for jewelry -- for instance, at this moment I have *NO* jewelry on -- sometimes I wear a claddagh that doubles as a wedding band. I have had pierced ears in the past but I'm pretty sure that my ears have closed up since it's been so long since I've worn earrings.

NOTE -- I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with people liking jewelry -- I'm just not a really a jewelry person.

But today -- while I was looking at some other stuff ...

A Christie's employee displays an important fancy intense purple cushion-shaped pink diamond ring, weighing 7.50 carats during a press preview in Geneva, Switzerland, February 12, 2007. Fancy intense purple cushion-shaped pink
diamond ring is estimated to sell 2,500,000-3,000,000 US dollars.

As Keats said -- A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

A few questions remain

Ran across an article on Reuters. I'll put the link here, but I've got some excerpts below:

Some advice to take to heart -- take a nap
Tue Feb 13, 2007 9:07 AM
ET CHICAGO, Feb 12 (Reuters Life!) -
Regular naps are good for your heart,researchers said on Monday. A six-year study of nearly 24,000 Greek adults found those who regularly took midday naps lowered their risk of dying from heart disease by more than a third.
...

The same conclusion could not be made for working women because of a limited number of subjects.

I suppose they couldn't find any women with time to take a nap??

Unlike previous studies that have produced mixed findings on the heart benefits of napping, this study controlled for the effect from smoking, diet and exercise.

© Reuters 2007.

A few questions remain ...

Why couldn't they find enough women subjects? I mean seriously someone calls me up and says "we need to do a study on naps and we need you to take a nap 3 days a week" I'd be on that like white on rice honey. (We must all do our part to further scientific study)

Also - are people that take naps less likely to have heart problems? OR are people that are more likely to take naps less likely to have heart problems. (If you're the type that will take a time out, maybe you're less likely to get overstressed).

I've done some thinking about this, and I've come to a conclusion. This merits further contemplation on my part -- and I'll do that. Just after my nap.

z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z

just in case you were wondering

You know -- on the off chance that anyone is reading this and thinking "HEY that R.M. is one heck of a person - I think I ought to do something nice for her" ...

you can see it more clearly here.

I wouldn't complain -- I'm just saying.