"...one sees well only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes."
Le Petit Prince (1943) by Antoine de Saint Exupéry.
Every time I look at photos of you guys, I am stunned by your beauty and grace. I'm astounded daily with the fact that I helped bring you into this world and you have become such wonderful and amazing people.
L,They're supposed to walk THROUGH the Ant Bait Trap of Death, not walk around it.
Grrr.
Where you show up for a final exam and you look down the list of questions and realize that this is the one class you bagged all semester and missed all the classes? And you break out in a cold flunk sweat when you realize how hosed you are?
I had one of those dreams this morning. I was up until almost midnight last night fiddling around with some recalcitrant equipment (cough - BlackBerry) that I had to bring to a customer meeting today and demo and I simply wasn't have a very sucessful time in making all the bits work together in synchrony so that it was all smooth and fabulous and I would look like I knew what I was doing. Several calls to the helpdesk, googling stuff online etc. I went to bed pissed off that it was all so complicated and didn't work. Not my fault, of course.
So my dream happened at that right-before-waking time where I was sort of aware that I was awake, but still delta waving away. Flailing around in my brain pan, looking for answers.
Here's the best part: this is the first non-academic "that kind of dream" I've ever had! Hence, it was probably far more useful to me. This dream put me back in my first career as an architect (which I was for 16 years... I KNOW, right?!?) and I was competing against a much younger man (why are my dreams so realistic?) for a basic CAD drawing job on a computer. We interviewed separately, we interviewed together. The male architect who was hiring was aware that I had absolutely no experience using the computer for drawing as I had grown up in the pen, pencil and mylar era, whereas the young man was an experienced computer jockey.
The architect selected me, and could tell that I was shocked. He told me: "I'm giving you a chance to prove yourself - don't disappoint me." It was at that point I sat straight up in bed and literally shouted out "NO!!" and got immediately out of bed. I ended up in the bathroom, looking in the mirror and laughing at myself.
This is the first time I've ever stopped a dream and flung myself out of bed to prevent carrying on being miserable. Progress, no?
Oh, and the (cough - BlackBerry) thing? The thing that was not my fault and all messed up? Pilot error. It was ALL me.
'nuff said.
iChat rocks.
It's a rare thing when we get to do this with a nine hour time difference between us. Ali captured the moment when we were having a cute attack with French kitties. And no, Lina didn't get kitties. They are just at the place where she was visiting.
Lina also educated us on this new thing called "email" and how to do "attachments." (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)
Coincidentally, one of Peter Sagal's quiz questions this week on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me was:
4) A significant part of American life might disappear if nothing is done ... what?
A) The U.S. Post Office
B) Florida
C) Free television
D) Pop-rocks candy
and the answer was:
4) A. The Post Office: It's running billions of dollars in deficits, and may not be able to service its debts. For readers under 30, the Post Office is a massive bureaucracy that takes printed out emails and hand delivers them to their recipient in four or five days.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Love you guys!
Attempt #2. There were some complaints about the video not loading. So you can either go to this linkie:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/09/beach-creatures.html
Or I'll attempt to be snazzy again and see if that works.
~~~~~~~
How delightful is this? I'm not a huge fan of performance art, but Theo is obviously as much of an engineer as he is an artist.
How delightful is this? I'm not a huge fan of performance art, but Theo is obviously as much of an engineer as he is an artist.
A summary of the article here.
How delightful is this? I'm not a huge fan of performance art, but Theo is obviously as much of an engineer as he is an artist.
A summary of the article here.
How delightful is this? I'm not a huge fan of performance art, but Theo is obviously as much of an engineer as he is an artist.
A summary of the article here.
I just watched an episode of "The Daily Show" and Jon Stewart interviewed Dr. Sanjay Gupta about his special "Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Terror in the Dust" airing on CNN. Although I haven't seen it yet, the punchline is that the collapse of the twin towers created a toxic pile of smoldering crap that the first responders unselfishly waded through, looking for survivors and bits of survivors and many of them are either now dead or dying and our slimy, weasly insurance oligarchy is refusing to cover their expenses.
How low have we sunk as a country where this is okay? Why is there not a shred of human decency in these large corporate bodies who are so concerned about their own welfare and shareholders? As Dr. Gupta said (and I'm paraphrasing) "So what if we treat one undeserving, ineligible person if a hundred other deserving people are taken care of?"
I am disgusted and overwhelmed with shame at the collapse of our country's lack of compassion. After ten years, is this all that we are left with?
Watch this Frontline episode and tell me how you feel about how your tax dollars are being spent.
"...FRONTLINE reveals 9/11's unprecedented yet largely invisible legacy: the creation of a vast maze of clandestine government and private agencies designed to hunt terrorists and prevent future attacks on the U.S....."
"Top Secret America: FRONTLINE reveals 9/11's unprecedented yet largely invisible legacy."
<p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #808080; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 512px;">Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.</p>
Belated, of course. But I know you don't like to celebrate them. However, it does look like you had a wonderful meal at your favorite restaurant, Cafe Provence. Photos courtesy of my brother Peter and his wife Margie.
I can guess what you had: mussels and lamb. Your favorites. Mom's too.Love you!
Ali spent a lot of time with the Austin family during his latter years in high school, and Keelin and Tony are part of the close group of skateboarders in KC that he hangs with. Lori and Brad were always so welcoming to all the boys and there was a lot of meals served, bonfires lit, and just general hanging around that happened at their house. Good times.
Lori and Brad were also part of the Heroic Team That Helped Clear Out My House Last Summer and supported Lina through the traumatic event. Keelin was Ali's co-pilot driving my car west and edited the video that they shot: Ali & KeeKee, 3 cats, and my car awash in fast food wrappers and cat litter.
Brad and Lori are moving to North Carolina, and the boys are remaining behind, entrenched in jobs and the local skateboarding scene. Safe travels!
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