Wine trip to Pismo and Paso Robles

We joined Marc and Sonrisa for a day of wine tasting, picnicking, swimming and fine dining.  And then came the animals... 

Alligator petting at Peachy Canyon...this alligator was rescued from a crack house by the LA Sheriff's dept.  Luckily, he found a good home with Zoo to You, and this caretaker who has had him for 16 years.

First stop was at Grey Wolf.  We tasted wine and then played with a lemur!

Scott on the patio at Hearthstone

What a perfect day we had! Three hours from Tehachapi to Arroyo Grande, we started at Laetitia. We sat in the sun in a pair of comfy adirondack chairs and waited for Marc and Sonrisa to arrive.  We already felt so lucky to be here in this place at this time, satisfied just to be sitting in the sun waiting for friends looking forward to a lovely picnic. Warm enough to swim overlooking the ocean and dinner at Ventana Grill, couldn't have asked for a better day.

Reagan Library

It was quite a fun day, all in all.  It only took 30 seconds of being in the library before I was called an idiot by a man walking by.  Mind your own business, man! But after that, we ignored the Reagan propaganda and enjoyed the history. The lunch was delicious, and our table mates were interesting and compassionate (Gita really got their attention when she told the story of meeting Matthew, home from Afghanistan,  in Texas this weekend.  The ladies at the table all cried.) We walked down Air Force One!  and the best part was the Spy Exhibit.  Shoe phones and hidden cameras.  The ice pick that assassinated Leon Trotsky in Mexico.  The umbrella that poked ricin into the spy in London.  A submarine CANOE! Hidden cameras and secret tunnels. A laser maze, which I totally failed at navigating.  I was crawling through the secret tunnel when I heard someone laughing hysterically, you know the kind of laughter where tears flow, and I thought, " That is my mother laughing!" and when I crawled out of the tunnel, I discovered it wasn't so secret after all.  She was watching me on a hidden camera. I began reading spy novels in high school, and devoured Helen MacInnes, John Le Carre and Ian Fleming books with gusto.  So to see all of those gadgets and to play spy was fun.  BTW, Gita was Mrs. Peel and I got to be Agent 99.  And then there was the young woman who came running to the elevator our little docent led group was getting into and pushed her way in, followed by a red faced security guard screaming "Did you just flip me off?" The young woman, who looked a little sketchy, claimed innocence, "I was waving at my mother" Stunned silence as the elevator door closed.

Sorry about the terrible quality picture.  I had to take a picture of my phone with the computer to get it on here.  This is me, the idiot. 

Awake at 4:58 am in Waianae

Why am I awake ? Hmmmm. That is a long and interesting story. It all started Tuesday night. We were getting the house and pets ready for our leaving them in the capable hands of Carina. The short version of this part of the story is that I was holding Patch when she saw Kato and had a hissy (literally) fit. Kato barks and lunges, Patch bites...unfortunately, it was my hand that she bit. And wrist. And arm. She also got Kato in the lip.. That cat has mad super powers! I washed and neosporined myself up, found some antibiotics from Dr. Wells, dds, and went to bell choir practice. My hand oozed and swelled, but all I could think about was getting to Hawaii. So after not sleeping a wink, we got up at 2:30 and left for Burbank. It was more than a little painful and very swollen. Uh oh. I texted Susie from our layover in Seattle and told her I may need to see a dr ...I knew there was Kaiser in Honolulu so I knew I would be taken care of. By the time we landed, I had red streaks going up my arm to my elbow, I was shaking uncontrollably, nauseous, and light headed. I hurt like heck...no, it was cuss worthy pain, I hurt like hell! We were stuck in Honolulu traffic, so my wonderful personal assistant got on his smart phone, found kaiser's number, talked to several different people and was told to turn around and take me to the Kaiser ER. Which Susie managed very well, and even Maxwell was very good natured with his long stint in the car. Of course, he did have grandma sitting in the car next to him...singing and making faces...kaiser was suitably impressed with my injury, and many caring nurse and doctor type people came and went. Took blood. Took x-rays. Put in an IV with antibiotics. Brought me heated towels and numbed my hand for about ten blessed minutes, during which time they opened and irrigated the wounds, THAT was fun...!!! Joe arrived and Susie took Maxwell home. Finally, I was discharged with antibiotics, anti emetics, and pain meds. Stopped at McD's for a Big Mac and our first night of vacation was about over.  Oh, and oxycodone...that is good stuff! Made me want to live again! So today I have an appt with an orthopedic, my swelling is down, red streaks are gone and we go to Hilo to see volcanoes and waterfalls.  But...big sad face...no swimming in the ocean. And I feel better, so I am up and awake early...ready to start the day. In Hawaii!

Notice the good

I had this post written as I lounged in bed this morning, listening to someone laugh outside my window and the crunch and swish of the leaves as someone else walked by, but now I am sitting here drinking my coffee and wanting to turn on the TV...The Amazing Race is waiting.  The movie I saw Saturday, and the radio show I listened to yesterday and the devotional I read a few days ago are swirling around my head and I am not sure if I can pull it together. So...just start.
You know this picture?

Well, the little Vietnamese girl whose clothes were burned off of her by a napalm bomb spent many years being bitter and angry.  She is now in her 50's and lives in Canada and finally realized that she was wasting her life and now looks for the joy in the present instead of living in the despair of the past.  I am definitely paraphrasing what I heard on the radio show (which was about the ethics of spending scientific resources on instruments of war and destruction, nothing about my topic) She has changed her focus...negative to positive.

If you could live every day of your adult life twice, what would you do differently the second time around?  How would you use that "do-over" to live better?  

THAT

is how we should be living the days that we are given.

Not "That inconsiderate person just woke me up early on a holiday morning..." But, "Someone is laughing! Early on a holiday, how wonderful to be awoken by laughter!"

The sunshine on the leaves

not

the shadows under the roots

smiles

not

frowns

 love

not

criticism

As for me, I choose joy.  I choose belief. I choose hope. I choose life.

Conquer Chiari Walk Across America

Another year beginning...I was talking to a retired teacher the other day and she told me that she still feels that September is the new year, not January.  I understand exactly what she means.  And with the beginning of a new year is the realization-again- that the world has moved on without Aiden.  In my mind he has continued to grow, just as his classmates have and I have to remind myself that he stopped at 5 years 11 months 3 weeks.  It is not just that he is not here now, but now I have to remember that he also missed first grade, and second grade and now his classmates are going to third grade.

Also at the "beginning" of our year is the Chiari Malformation Walk which we will walk on September 21 in memory of Aiden.

Rock Creek: Still special after 20 years

Teacher anxiety dreams...even during the summer!

So...I walk into an administrator's office and she hands me an envelope.  In the envelope is notification that I am being removed from my classroom and sent to a second grade class at Tompkins...as a STUDENT! So I head on over to Tompkins and squish my grown up self into a tiny student desk next to a sweet girl named Erica.  The teacher is a pretty blonde woman and I move through the course of the day as a mix of student and colleague.  I help the other students and mentor the teacher.  At one point, the students are doing math by choosing and matching objects and I tried to get a little boy to recognize and name "rectangle" and I looked up at the teacher and we said in unison," haven't taught geometry yet, that goes closer to the test window".  Then the teacher went to lunch, leaving 4 students in the room with me and I wasn't sure what to do with them.  Fortunately, the room had a big arch cut into the wall, connecting it with another room.  The teacher in that room told me that the little blonde pony tail girl could be very wild at which point the wild girl opened her lunch box to eat while she did her work.  then I headed back over to GH to see if I could find out why I had been exiled.  No one could tell me.  Finally I ran into Cyndi pushing Charli and Olivia in a stroller down the hall.  Their hair had been dyed with dark gray and blonde streaks.  She told me that "they" were getting rid of "problems". I ran into Neva in the cafeteria and she told me that she was subbing for my class.  It didn't make sense for me that the district was paying me to sit in another class and paying for a sub for my class. I went back over to Tompkins to talk to the administrator, who was Heather, and ran into Stacie and the twins. At this point I had a giant six foot tall box of Rice Krispies.  The secretary told me that Heather would not be available for 15 minutes and I said I needed to talk to her, and I and my cereal box would wait however long it took, even if I had to sleep there all night.  She asked what the cereal box was for and I told her that it was just a visual.  Stacie and I go out to the grassy area under the palm trees to wait and run into a high school class that is being walked out with the hands behind their backs.  They stand in a circle and Keenan says something funny and Stacie and I are reprimanded by the teacher for laughing too loudly.  The secretary comes out to find us and as we head back into the office, I wake up.  I NEVER FIND OUT WHY I WAS BEING PUNISHED! ACK!