Smart & Mobile

This is my first post written completely on a mobile device (in this case, Adam's smart phone). It's proving to be more painful than exciting, unfortunately. However, seeing as how I am in a very warm, very germy hotel room with a sick husband and cranky-but-now-thankfully-napping 3-year old, I'll take what I can get.    Wow, this thing wont even let me start a new paragraph...novelty has definitely worn off. I've spent the better part of this afternoon reading obituaries (does this girl know how to ride out a weekend or what?!). I've been catching up on all the newspapers and magazines I haven't found time to read in the last couple weeks, so now I'm tackling the 'end of 2012' stuff. The Washington Post magazine devoted its entire copy to notable DC Metro residents who died last year. none of them were famous, but they certainly had lives well-lived. It'a gotten me to thinking...maybe I'm going about things all wrong. Instead of waiting for a job to come my way (because it feels like I'm going to be waiting a long time), maybe it's time I create my own destiny. I don't know what that means yet(or,for that matter,how to do it), but I'm getting tired and frustrated by rhe lack of opportukity rifht now. I think I need to make my own. I guess I dont want my obit to read 'She hoped really hard but never fulfilled her dreams or potential.' How sad. I also hope they don't use a bad picture of me. That's almost sadder.  It's like, do a girl a solid at the very end, and at least make me look good, ok? It's not everyday a gal gets into the newspaper. So...to be continued..perhaps I might just shock the pants off us all and do something great..

Hail and Farewell

It is customary in the military to have a "hail and farewell" event to welcome in new members to the unit, and to bid adieu to those who are leaving.  The military is all about its customs, at which I usually inwardly smirk.  But sometimes customs and tradition aren't so bad, I suppose.

So, I welcome 2013 with open arms, a sense of purpose and determination, and with preliminary thanks for the learning experiences that are sure to come.  My previous self would have said, "Bring it!" with an eye for daring, danger and thrills that might be lurking in the future months.  My current motherly self, instead, flinches unconsciously as I contemplate all the many bad things that this new year could bring to our family.  I try hard to focus on the positives, but the reality of the world can be so negative that it's hard not to live with some fear from time to time.

And...Farewell, my friend Ruth.  I learned yesterday that a dear friend, Ruth Affleck, died after a long and difficult battle with pancreatic cancer.  She was a beautiful woman, a real lady's lady, with long, thick white hair that she always had done up in barrettes.  She owned an alpaca farm and spun the wool into yarn.  She was an amazing knitter and had such a great accent, being that she was from New Zealand and Australia...yup, a little bit of both.  Ruth had returned to school at a later age and received her degree in bookkeeping, and had decided to plug on for another degree right before being diagnosed with cancer.  She was not just the average "special person" people talk about when someone has died.  Ruth was rugged, soft, funny, serious, talented and average.  She was exactly the friend you'd want to have in the room during a winter's night spent knitting over tea.  And she loved her cats.  That was her, too.  I see and hear her so vividly in my mind right now; that gives me comfort that she'll never be far from memory.  We'll miss you, Ruth. 

Time to start up with my winter knitting again.  Sometimes customs aren't so bad, I suppose.