It's Friday; It's a Good Thing

I haven't done one of these posts in a long time, and after a few hard days, it's time to focus on the good again.

So some good things in life:

1. My family is all tucked in asleep as I write this, healthy, safe.... I take this for granted too often. And other times I worry about it. Tonight, I am grateful.

2. My camera. There's something about holding it, feeling the weight in my hands, looking through the eye piece that makes everything else disappear and I am focused on just the small, beautiful thing in the lens.

3. A husband I love who is home every night. I have friends with husbands in Iraq they haven't hardly seen in 400 days. I have friends who aren't married, with no serious prospects. When I am sad, or lonely, or even happy, I can cuddle up with my husband, feel safe under his arms. I can talk endlessly with him and he appears to actually listen and care. And most of the time, he knows exactly what to say to make me suddenly feel a little better.

4. Wii. It's just plain fun. And I haven't hurt myself playing it in over a year. :)

5. The DVR. Face it - those of us with kids who have homework and bedtimes (and can't bring ourselves to let them put themselves to bed by themselves yet) pretty much have shot prime time TV. Anything worth watching is on during the putting to bed times. Now I DVR it all, and watch it when I want. Usually on Friday ... a whole slew of them hour after ungodly hour, with a bottle of wine. And that great husband. And his safe arms.

6. Which brings us to Survivor. It begins again. I love this time of year. American Idol and Survivor at the same time! Survivor tops my DVR list. Exotic locations. Ridiculous challenges. Backstabbing. Twists. Real people, acting real stupid, real arrogant, real conniving.... can you ask for more? I DVR it and watch it Friday night. With that glass of wine. And the hubs. A perfect night.

7. Electric blankets.

8. Good books.

9. Surprise emails.

10. People who smile, even if they don't know you.

11. The crossing guard who directs traffic at my kids' school. Rain, snow, high winds, below zero or above a hundred degrees. She is there. And everything is smooth. And when she isn't, it takes fifteen minutes and a nightmarish backup to get into the parking lot. And she always smiles.

12. Friends who know exactly what to say to keep me from jumping off that cliff... even if they don't know how important what they are saying is.

13. The hope of a warm, tropical vacation.

14. Really good teachers. There are a few of them.

15. Punctuation and grammar. I've got an abnormal love for them. And occasionally misusing them. But only with purpose.

Okay, I'm done for now. Some things need to be saved for next Friday. What are some of your favorite thing?

By The Number

The last two weeks have been maddeningly up-ended. Routines shot to heck. Abnormality all around. It seems like I am constantly keeping count of stuff in my head. So here's a few totally useless numbers I've been tossing around:

In the last 12 days:

Lowest temperature: 16 degrees (F)
Highest temperature: 55 degrees (F)
Days schools were closed for weather: 3
Days at least one kid was home throwing up: 4
Loads of laundry washed: 10
Loads of laundry folded and put away: 9
Highest blood sugar: 318
Lowest blood sugar: 37
Sinus infections from hell: 1
Cups of coffee I normally drink in 12 days: 12
Cups of coffee I drank: 2
Number of son's science fair project plants: 40
Number of science fair project plants still alive: 38
Average hours of uninterrupted sleep: 3
Nightmares that someone broke into our house: 1
Books read: 1
Blogs read: too many to count
Words written on new book: 1,500
New queries sent out: 14
Requests for my full manuscript: 1
Emails read and replied to: all of them
Tears: none
Days at the gym: 3
Miles run: 17.85
Hotels in the Caribbean I've researched for our anniversary: 6

I'm off to try and double that word written on new book statistic. Hope you all have a great weekend!

If I Lived Another Life..

Do you ever wonder what you'd be doing if you weren't you? Or rather - if you weren't where you are in life, having made the choices you've made... maybe what you'd be doing if you could have chosen the gifts and personality you'd wanted, or if you had another life to live...

I love my life. Given anything in the world, this is what I'd want. I love my husband and kids with a fierce passion. I love being a mom, and a media production creator, and a photographer, and writer. I love my house in the woods and minivan I swore I'd never own (but mostly for those bun warmers!).

But I do find myself wondering every now and then... what if?

There is a photographer I follow on Twitter. I don't know him. He followed me first and, intrigued by his photo ID (which showed him on a mountain top taking a photo), I added him too. From what I can tell, all he does is travel around taking pictures. He sits in San Francisco cafes and drinks mocha frappucinos, listens to really cool music and takes awesome photos of whatever strikes his fancy. He travels to exotic locations like Rome and Paris and takes photos of kids swinging over lakes in summer and birds taking off from the pond in front of the Capital building. He also does weddings, although even those are not your run-of-the-mill weddings.

I fantasize sometimes about doing that. Certainly not leaving the life I love, but having another life to live that way - to travel at whim, take amazing photos of wherever I land, centering my whole existence around getting the shots I want and making beautiful images rather than trying to make something beautiful out of wherever I am at the time.

I fantasize about being the kind of person who is comfortable traveling alone and making friends everywhere I go. Having nothing to tie me to anything. And to be okay with that.

Truth is - even if everything I had right now disappeared, I'd never be that person. I like the ties that bind me to people, and to places. I like having some roots and routines. And I like traveling with someone that I can share those experiences with.

Still, it's fascinating.

It makes me think that this is what writing is for: to live vicariously through characters I create - to get to be them for a while. Maybe I'll write a book with my fictitious roving photographer. How fun would it be to live in that world every day for a few hours!?

Do you ever think about what you'd love to do or be if you had another life to live?

Just For Fun

I stumbled across yet another website that promises a bit of wasting time. It's called Despair Inc.

I'm usually a very positive person. A glass half full, if you will. Even so, I'm not against a little sarcasm every now and then, a bit of harsh reality mixed in. I found these de-motivational posters pretty hilarious! If you are one of those people who take things too much to heart, you might want to stop reading.

Some you have to see the picture that goes with the saying, but some sayings are pretty funny on their own. Here are a few of my favorites:

Success: Some people dream of success, while other people live to crush those dreams.

Mistakes: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

Procrastination: Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now

Priorities: Hundreds of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.

Motivation: If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.

Give Up: At some point, hanging in there just makes you look like an even bigger loser

Government: If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions.

Give Up: At some point, hanging in there just makes you look like an even bigger loser

Demotivation: Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people.

Adversity: That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable

Consulting: If you're not a part of the solution,there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem

Cluelessness: There are No Stupid Questions. But there a LOT of Inquisitive Idiots

Blame: The Secret of Success is knowing who to Blame for Your Failures

5 Memorable Things My Husband Said Today To Me

1. Thanks to you I could talk intelligently about the Super Bowl today.

2. Remember there's always someone out there who doesn't understand quality.

3. I've never known you to back down from a good fight, so stay the course as long as it's the right course to take.

4. ain't no dead horses here! (channeling those Texas roots...)

5. I love you. (okay, he says this every day, but it's always worth noting that he says it!)

So hon, that first dedication is for you! Whenever it comes around. You are the one who gets me through each day! And I'm glad to fill you in on those football highlights you couldn't care less about.

What's Next to Go - Excalmation Points and Question Marks?

I heard about this tidbit on the news a few nights ago and have been scouring the Internet trying to find it in print. And here it is.

In one of England's largest town, they are getting rid of the apostrophe.

That's right. They think it's a nuisance. It's confusing. It's hard to use on a GPS. It's - get this - expensive. So now it's gone.

Possessiveness is archaic and antiquated, they say. It shouldn't matter. So now it's gone.

I found this so appalling I wanted to rant about it a while... but honestly? I'm so stunned I have no words.