Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

(My youngest... about five years back.)

Soak It Up

Savor your life as it happens. Everything changes faster than you might imagine. Remember that silly old song about the tapestry? True.

Wordless Wednesday

Mural by Diego Rivera, located in The City Club of San Francisco

My father and stepmother were married here in 1994

I love this mural-his first here in the United States.

Phone message waiting for me when I got in from work:"No cancer." Anyone that has lost a parent to that (damned) disease knows about the fear you carry around. Always. Thanks to those who expressed their concern. Including my wonderful son, who learned of it when he looked in on my blog. He called Monday night, alarmed to learn of it HERE, and not from me directly. (Sorry, Aaron!)

Daffodil Season

It was heart-shaped. Also itchy. So I showed her, and whoosh! First, an ultrasound of my right leg. Followed by the swift knife of Linda, who "wanted that thing in a bucket." Quickly sewn-up, and off to the grocery store. The work day erased completely from the day's schedule, so as to accommodate these sudden medical procedures.

Then home to my eventual thoughts of mortality, odds, and a pretty much doomed genetic predisposition. Ah, sweet life. How easy it is... to take our unfolding days for granted.

The what-if's are looming today, yet I feel strangely grateful for the chance to face my own mortality. Each day's a gift, after all.

Lilly and Eddie

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Signed Into Law Today

From the National Women's Law Center- (Washington, DC) President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law today, reversing the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in 2007 and restoring the ability of victims of wage discrimination to hold their employers accountable for injustice and challenge the practice in court.

“This is truly a monumental achievement for women – and all workers. The Supreme Court stripped workers of their ability to fight wage discrimination but now a new President and Congress have stepped in and restored their basic legal rights,” said Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center. “Employers will now be held accountable for each discriminatorily reduced paycheck, because every time pay is unfairly lowered, it’s a violation of the law and fundamental fairness.”

16 - Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam

Mele Kaliki Maha !

I got what I wanted this year...on November 4th, 2008.

Hawaiian Cowboy - Sol K. Brights Hollywaiians

Be Thankful

More shameless promotion of my children. Sorry. That is my son at the ripe young age of two weeks. At home, in Aptos California~April 1982. Yes, that's a tiny batik shirt he is wearing. Not tie dye! Batik. Remember?

My son and his girlfriend are joining us for Thanksgiving dinner. This thrills my household, because we've missed the lad. Although he is just three hours away, he is kept busy with work and his band and life. Much like his sister, my older daughter. It's funny. I want them to be independent and capable, and they are. But I miss them both terribly at times. Yet another perplexing paradox to ponder.

I'm definitely thankful for what I got.

The accompanying tune is another fun flashback to my youth.

Help On The Way !!!

'Paradise waits on the crest of a wave...'

Robert Hunter

Mavericks 2008~Pacifica, California ('Mavericks' is purely coincidental.)

Where to start... my heart is full. A little over three years ago, I took up blogging. It coincided with the 'loss' of the election in 2004. My rage was real, and this was solid therapy. I love you all!
(You know who you are!)

'Without love in a dream it will never come true.'

Whew

Here's Tatiana resting on her perch. She picked it out immediately, back in May. She's tuckered out and we are too. Older daughter was here for about a week. I took the week off to hang out with both daughters. I didn't do much domestically, but I sure enjoyed the days. We even had some people over on Saturday evening, for drinks and appetizers. The new place is nice for such things.

I realized the other day that when my mother was the age I am now, she was a year or so away from dying. She would now be seventy-nine, had she not slipped away far too soon. This realization has messed with my mind in various ways. I feel an odd sense of guilt, since I don't have cancer. Also, a powerful feeling of gratitude, for being alive and here and healthy. And afraid to my core that I'll be suddenly stricken without warning and taken from all I cherish. Such is life when your mother dies at fifty-two. Weird.

I looked out my bedroom window a few days ago and watched nineteen geese fly and land in perfect formation. Crazy beautiful.

Cool Yule

Our little tree is on the front porch. It presents too much temptation for our curious kitten this year. She loves to shred! We are off to the big city for the day and night. I wish all of my blog readers peaceful, lovely times. "Thanks for noticing me" (A favorite Eeyore quote)

Baby Turns Fifty

Me with my great-grandmother, Jessie. March 1958. She attended Stanford University in the late-1800's! This photo was taken at her home in Burlingame. I do believe that's a hoya plant, behind us!



Today, my youngest child and I will make that sentimental journey to the city-by-the-bay.
We will spend the weekend with my older children, my parents, and assorted extended family members. Why all the trouble? Because I will be fifty-years-old this Sunday. (I can't say "fifty-years-old" without seeing Molly Shannon on S.N.L., way-back-when.) We'll walk and talk, dine in and out, and visit a museum. I'm both thrilled and terrified at the prospect of such focused attention. Fifty years? That can't be possible. I'm just getting started!

Although it will be a stark celebration with my true love stranded on a Pacific island, we shall do our best to carry on in style. He's fine. Lonely. Bored. Looking so forward to his return in ten more days. This is the longest we've been apart in our eight years of life together.

Tomorrow is a fun anniversary of sorts. On that date, I was invited to birthday (#33) dinner out, with a few friends in Marin. (C.B.?-you were there, too-remember?)
I decided I would call G and invite him to join us. A brazen idea? Perhaps. I had only met him once, several weeks before my birthday. He'd made an impression. To my giddy delight, he accepted my invite.(He was a good friend of the folks taking me to dinner.) The five of us drove out to Olema. Much later that same night, I was visiting with G at his home. "Tremors" was on. (One of the silliest films ever?) We discovered a love we'd never known. It took another nine years to get together, completely. It was worth the wait.

I'll be back home in a few days.