We Live Where

We live where summer is a series of beautiful blue cloudless days that go on and on. Today the temp has already reached 80 degrees by 8am. It will be hot enough that the flowers will need a squirt morning AND night, hot enough for friends to stop by for pool time, hot enough for the a/c to run past midnight before we are able to welcome the fresh and cool outside air.

We live where the quiet is broken by an occasional dog barking or someone building a fence. We live on the quietest busy street in the city, a main thoroughfare where the ambulances rushing to and from the hospital turn off their sirens unless it is super urgent, and when we hear it we know to say a prayer of safekeeping.

Joke of the Day

Just in from Facebook: I went into the bookstore and asked the saleslady where the Self Help section was. She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

Life Plan

I was cleaning the pool and checking chemicals yesterday and  was reminded about pH and its role in our health control. So I hopped online and sure 'nough there are all sorts of well-developed sites talking about alkalinity and acidity and how it relates to what we eat and how healthy we feel.

Maintaining a balanced pH is the most essential element of a moderate, healthy and active life, they say. It is achieved through a complicated but highly logical series of choices - earth foods (naturally grown in our environment), leaner meats, less starches and fat.  In other words, eating the foods that remain close to their natural state revvs up the internal gearing to break down food into the nutrients we can absorb and use. That's what burns calories. That's what creates health. That's what keeps our body in balance. Pool water = people water.

Weekends

You know when your adult children are gone for the weekend when their toothbrushes are gone and their beds are made...

Perennialists

Discovered something pretty amazing this morning, thanks Eileen! Philosophically I hail partially from the branch of something immense and wonderful. It is the God-in-action part of a firm belief system that allows for a more Perennial life. Thank you ~Alexander Green~ for writing, in part:

"Perennialists believe you should learn – and pass along to your children and students – those things that are of everlasting importance to all people everywhere. What are those things? Humanity's best ideas about how to live.

"Some will insist, of course, that we've hit a snag right out of the gate. After all, the world is full of divergent views. People simply don't agree on these matters. But perennialists counter that enlightened people everywhere agree on certain core principles. These are handed down from generation to generation, through the ages, and across nations and cultures.

Cardies

Cardfinders R Us. I stand in the spanish section trying to make out the meanings of cards I will never send, christenings and fathers days and sister cards. I screen them for witticisms. I laugh aloud. The card aisle is a free and entertaining boost on a dreary day.

Maybe I am destined to be a maker of cards for card people, you know the kind of people that find it eminently worthwhile to dig up a stamp, sit down and write a note, seal and send. And these days, it's sad but true that it has to be entertaining to be worthwhile.

Routines

I haven't had a very good track record with joining a gym. I have an aversion to wasting money and long ago came to the conclusion that for me a gym is a waste of time.

Most gyms require a big commitment, the kiss of death for a non-athletic overweight middle aged person attempting to integrate this slowly into a lifestyle. The commitment seems to have an inverse relatioship between how much it costs and how little its used once you sign on the dotted line. The last gym was paid for up front and I immediately found reasons not to go. Unless I went with Sue.

A Sense of Expectation

I can feel my brow furrow. What is today good for and what will it bring? A friend came for a bbq and swim last weekend and we talked and laughed and ate and did I mention talked? No matter where the discussion led, work, books, social life, new hobbies, in crept the very real question of -- what do we want life to hold for us and where do we find it?  A more rhetorical question might be: Does the music come from the tip of the conductor's baton or from the harmonious chorus within?

Love Bunches

I read a drive-by yesterday, an internet article about menopausal women and the cheery news they should expect to gain 10-20 pounds. So THAT'S where it's coming from. I've been blaming all the romantic dinners out and entertaining friends around the pool munching on chips and dip. But like any red blooded American girl who can't see her feet, I long to be less than I am.

Our daughter recently lost 30 lbs and a neighbor is down 28, and a niece, 24, using various diets but all including exercise and eating a more modest amount. You know,  discipline.

Off Point

My mother once said the one thing she did better than anything else was be a friend. It was definitely one of her strengths. She carefully tended to relationships from all over the country, some of them for over 60 years. Her friends filled her radar screen with little loving blips.

It was here that I learned to recognize the rhythm of an enduring friendship and what makes it able to withstand the challenges of life. I could almost feel the precise moment when my own friendships moved from exceptional to enduring and I also came to know friendships that were adaptable and strong in spite of ourselves, or maybe because of it.

FB

It's an enticing idea, to be able to find and talk to people from your past from the convenience of your own desk. And I suppose it satisfies the most basic social aspects of an electronic society with just minutes to spare as they rush through their day. But it hasn't hit a very responsive chord in me.

An Old, Unfinished Blog

This was from February, and after I came down from the whirl of excitement from the wedding, it seemed good to edit and post it.

The memories are strong from the wedding and I will want to write of it forever. For one day, two really, it seemed like real life and imagination merged. How often does that happen?  Not often enough.

Ahead of time, we talked of wishes for the day, how we wanted it to be a time to join together families and give back in a gesture to celebrate them in our lives. And we actually were able to see those wishes come true in the wide smiles, conga lines, funny stories, laughter and general gladness.

On With It

One of the best parts of being a woman is being able to get my nails done. I love it. It feels really feminine to have them put all those chemicals to cover the chew bitten stumps that are there. It makes me want to wear high heels and skirts, not that I do.

The thought of being in a home based business keeps coming up because in this economy, it's a crap shoot to even find a job let alone to be paid fairly for an extensive skillset and years of experience. Ideas keep popping up and after a lot of research and tons of talking about it, something stops it from moving forward.

Me.

Enlightenment

My ex wrote the other day, a really nice letter addressed to me and the Mr but it was really for the boys. Do you think it is still courageous to extend an olive branch through an emissary rather than directly?

There is no doubt about the devastating experience of divorce and the lingering bitter aftertaste. It is a horrible event. From the euphoria of meeting and the intense commitment of marriage, it degrades into a proof-positive moment when you know you are expendable. It is a death and you grieve just as deeply.

Divorce is where the walls of our heart are the weakest and where broken promises litter the ground. Our children inexcusably suffer from our failure.

The Car

Italian trains

This is hard to admit being from the country that invented the automobile, but I have fallen out of love with it. Do I need to relinquish my citizenship? Until recently, I truly earnestly believed that to give up my car would give up my freedom. But no more.

Is gas an afterthought?

Our somewhat more organic trip of Europe included all public transportation. Planes, buses, lots of walking, metro/underground, Vaporetto (water buses), and the Eurail. This was going to be a real treat and with my husband's experience with public transit in San Francisco, I had faith we would get along.

Paris metro with map

I grew up in the suburbs and always loved the convenience of having a car. I biked a lot when I was younger, but my experience with public transit was limited to an extremely unsatisfactory Greyhound Bus trip to the Midwest and the occasional fun excursion on BART into The City. If someone took the bus, I always asked if their car was in the shop.

Typical express train

London Underground

Here, from my mouth to yours, is the truth about European public transportation: it is fun. It was fun figuring out the timetables and how to read the wall maps on the Underground. It was fun learning how to get from a train to a bus to a metro all in one day. It was even fun hauling luggage up and down stairs and over and under bridges and to discover trains have little luggage alcoves built in. We felt like a local as we sprung on and off boats in Venice and took ourselves down uneven stone streets on flimsy luggage wheels that held up remarkably well. We did, too!

Bldg on left is Venice
vaporetto bus stop

We met memorable people along the way. It was even ok to wait in lines for tickets and advice. It was good to recognize and appreciate the hard work of those who kept the trains on time, safe and clean. And the biggest discovery was the myth that this kind of travel is hard or inconvenient. A few American cities have put top notch public transit systems in place, but there are woefully few of them and often not self-sustaining by the people it serves.

 London street map

It was interesting to observe a public transit that attracts people from all walks of life, who good naturedly spend part of their day together every single day. The families we met have cars for weekend excursions but choose public transportation as a daily routine. The buses and trains and metros were clean and free of graffiti and vandalism. There was no trash in the aisles. There were no guards. It's as though traveling together breaks down the barriers within the community and brings out the best in them. They seem to recognize and respect the system itself, all things we appear yet to learn. 

Extreme Rome

And that brings me back to our insane love of cars. I returned home thinking how unfortunate it is to have such an affordable option as owning a car and being a solitary driver in a gas guzzler and willing to sit five lanes wide in traffic for hours without meeting or talking to or learning about anyone around us.

Life (and the environment) would be so much better off if we would.

Coach Natalie Randolph

FAN HOUSE
Article written by Michelle Smith, 6.7.2010, Senior College Sports Writer

Natalie Randolph knew it would be a "big deal" when she accepted the job as the head football coach at Coolidge High School in Washington D.C. She'd already had a taste of the attention and media coverage when she became an assistant coach on the football team at H.D. Woodson High two years before.

"Big deal" doesn't do this justice.

Randolph, 30, joins a handful of women serving as high school football coaches at any level. As for head coaches, it is believed there are only two -- Randolph and Debbie Vance, at Lehman High in the Bronx.