21st Century Mom

Today's Hump Day Miscellany celebrates - Canada! That's where I went last weekend. Toronto, to be precise. I had no idea it was just a big, bustling city. Frankly I'd rather drive in either San Francisco or Boston than Toronto because they have wicked traffic and tons of people on the street and they have signs that tell you you can't turn right OR left. It was tres difficile as some of the people up there would say. Here are some random things about Canada

1). The squirrels are black. Ebony black. Other than that they act just like squirrels
2). Canadians are VERY aggressive about making left hand turns. Right of way? Yield? No way, eh?
3). They call Dunkin' Donuts Tim Horton and they call donut holes Timbits. We confused the lady at the counter pretty badly.
4). The weather was most unpredictable. One minute sun, the next a wicked thunder storm. It wrecked our play day. I did manage to run 6 miles and swim 920 meters (the pool was 23 meters, eh?)
5). Toronto caters to the homeless and my brother in law's van was broken into by a crack head on a bicycle. Fortunatly the van had a great alarm system and they were sitting outside having coffee but still - it was a bummer.
6). My daughter picked up a map that showed where all the gay people live by having a drawing of rainbow flags flying in that neighborhood. It was adorable.
7) Gay marriage is legal and that's why we went. My niece got married to her girlfriend in what was both a traditional and non-traditional wedding. It was lovely and I cried - several times.
8). I learned on this trip to Canada that my little Pookie, having been accepted to the University of Cape Town, SA got a new tat on her wrist that says "Be Brave". I want one, too.

Photobucket is broken right now but I"ll post pics when it is fixed.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

So I'm off to Canada until Monday night and I'm missing 1 long bike ride, 1 swim and 2 runs. Actually, that would be 2 swims because I'm supposed to do a 40 minute recovery swim on Sundays but I never do because of where I swim. Anyhooooo..... this morning I tacked another 30 minutes on to my ride (big whoop!) and I went to the pool and swam 1500 meters which is less than I should but I had decided just to let it go and enjoy my trip. I figured I could get in a run, anyhow. Maybe 2.

Then I started printing out the "stuff" for the trip - boarding pass and reservations for hotel and car. I took a look at the hotel ameneties and almost peed my pants with joy - FITNESS CENTER!!! LAP POOL!!! Seriously - my heart soared like an eagle. Now I'm going to check out 'Map my Run' and find a route in the area where I'm staying.

This is why when someone does their first triathlon I always think, and sometimes say - "Welcome to the crackhouse!".

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

It's Tuesday! So shoot me - I just didn't feel like writing yesterday. I thought about all of you all week and all weekend as I blogged in my head repeatedly. I thought about how it's the little things in life that make a lot of little smiles grow into a big one. Little things that happened that made me smile:

1). The cat ate a teeny, tiny piece of turkey that I didn't have to cram down her throat. And then she stopped and it was back to the force feeding. At least she tried.

2). The cat has started leaving my bed to come sit on my lap when I'm watching TV. This is HUGE

3). The cat visciously attacked my hand the other day while I was petting her - she's coming back to life!

4). I had a great call with Humbly Ann who was struggling with some stuff and I helped her feel better. Nothing warms a Mom's heart more than helping her child out of a shadow. (That and learning that she didn't get eaten by a shark - see previous post).

5). I was good about getting my 2 weekday rides in. I even rode the road that has the hill that kicks my butt and it did not. Good times!

6). The weather was gorgeous this weekend. My 90 minute run did not suck as much as last weekend's 70 minute run so I was very happy about that.

7). I ran out of book on the run and started listening to music and heard the most perfect, sunny day running song, Sunny Day by Hyim If you click on that link you can hear it, too. The tempo is a little slow but on a hot sunny day when you are out running it feels just right.

8). I went to a bike maintenance clinic and not only learned some stuff but was finally told I look like I've lost weight. It wasn't really the first time. Humbly Ann told me I looked skinnier in early April but I hadn't started noticing it yet so it didn't have the same impact as me noticing I'd lost weight and then not hearing that from other people. Now I SO appreciate both comments. I'm 6 pounds down and doing fine.

9). I climbed to the junction of Mt. Diablo again on Sunday. It wasn't quite as hard as it had been the week before. The rest of my group went on to the top but I just didn't feel like it was my day to do that so I'm scheduling that for May 17.

10). I have 2 events coming up! Next Saturday I am riding the Wine Country Century (metric) and May 10 I have my season opener triathlon, The Golden Bear. I'm excited!

11). I went to swim clinic Saturday morning and went from flailing in the water like a crazy person to actually pulling some water and making some progress. It was really great to have that experience BEFORE my first tri where I'm sure I would have gone nowhere fast for the first 10 minutes of the swim, otherwise. I love my race club!
And all of those little things add up to big things - sunny days, training progress and happiness.

This is my life with the cat now. We do this 2 or 3 times a day:

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 08:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

By now I'm sure we've all seen this very tragic and horrible story about a man who was killed by a great white shark off of San Diego while swimming with his tri club. Commodore even knows a guy who is a friend of the victim. It's a small world.

I first saw this story on yahoo at about 10:30 AM and instantly remembered that my daughter has a surfing lesson, off the coast of San Diego, at 10 or noon or something. I was very, very uncomfortable. The first story wasn't very specific and I was worried. Then I saw a story that said the tri club was off Solana Beach, 14 miles north of San Diego but it didn't really help much because for all I know they put the kids in a bus and take them wherever.

I sent email and then I called and told her to call me IMMEDIATELY. The fact that this guy was on an open water swim with his club wasn't really registering yet - I just knew where they were.

She called and told me she was fine and did I realize how far away that was? I said I figured 14 miles wasn't very far for a fast moving shark but I did realize she wasn't at the same beach. She said the Coast Guard helicopters were overhead and there were lots of life guards and it was fine. And then she proudly told me that her teacher says she is a natural and can't wait to get her further out in the water to see her ride a wave for a long time. Go Pookie! But not if there are seals nearby. This shark was probably hunting seal which had been seen in that area recently.

So now I"m thinking like a triathlete and like a human and my heart goes out to that man's family and friends. And especially to any friend who feels like it might not have happened had he been there. Sharks are fast - they don't target the fast swimmers vs. the slow swimmers. They just see something in the water and they bite. The really tragic part of this is that sharks don't like human flesh at all. That's why they bite and then leave which is what they did with this man. Unfortunately the bite was fatal.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

What a great weekend. Both of my girls were home. We hung out, went out to dinner (whcih was, unfortunately mediocre but the company was great), went to the beach, went shopping, hugged and laughed and had a grand time.

It's possible that training suffered this weekend but I couldn't care less. I ran 6 miles on Saturday AM and had intended to ride Sunday afternoon when the girls went up to their Dad's for dinner but alas my bike had a flat so I skipped it. HA! No training Monday because I took Pooks back to the airport *sniffle* and no training Tuesday AM because I have to take Humbly back to catch a plan (update - she does in fact, have to hatch a plan but this morning she was catching a plane) *sniffle* but maybe Tuesday evening I will assuage my broken heart with a track workout. We'll see.

I wish I could kidnap my girls and keep them with me all the time. *SOB*

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Every day is a proud Mama day but today is an especially proud day.

Humbly Bumbly has done something magnificent. She has been accepted into the 2 top graduate programs in her chosen field. As though this isn't marvelous enough, her background makes it even more so.

In high school she was the Queen of the literary arts and she was very involved in drama (not THAT kind - the kind where you learn about plays and playwrites and you perform). She worked on the newspaper, took AP English and she took creative writing. She graduated significantly more educated in literature and grammar than her Mom.

In college she decided that science was where it's at and studied biology, physics, chemistry and ecology to major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. After graduating she got a well paying job in a water testing lab which did great things for her checking account but did nothing to make her happy. She fretted about her choices and wondered, as do we all, "what will I do with my life". She pondered her interests and her skills and her education and decided that she could marry her 2 backgrounds by becoming an architect. She looked into that and realized that she wasn't so interested in the engineering side of things but that landscape architecture would be the perfect marriage of a love of things beautiful and artistic and a background in science.

I was really impressed when she came up with that solution and even more so when she showed me the work she developed for her portfolio. It turns out that my daughter has considerable artistic skills. I knew she had some but really, I had no idea how talented she is because she didn't take art classes in high school. I helped her work on her essays a bit for her application (making her cry in the process - way to go, Mom!) and ultimately she came up with a very strong portfolio that reflected her interests, her intellect and her talent. And it worked - she's got choices!

Her husband has also been accepted to the top school in his chosen profession as well as another that must be near the top. Humbly is a smart woman who married well. Now they have a hard choice to make because they could go to school in the same geographic area but she isn't crazy about the program there or they could go to school in cities that are 500 miles apart and will cost quite a bit more. Not easy choices but as things go, having to make a choice like that is a nice problem to have.

Small son turns 22 tomorrow. He's in college and doing well. I'm proud of him, too.

My little Pookie is flying to Sweden on Saturday to take a trip she paid for all by herself. In fact, she has money in the bank AND a fully paid for ticket. She is also in college and doing well and I'm very proud of her, too.

I don't usually take any credit for my kids but today I'm just going to say ' Way to go, Mom! You are 3 for 3!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

My weekend in southern California was super fun.

I got in Friday night and DN2 (Pookie, Daughter Number 2) picked me up at the airport and off we went to a Mexican food place she's been telling me about for the last year and half. When she talked about it I was sure she was telling me about Cody Hahn which I thought was one of those comical restaurant names like Carols Goldstien or Shamus Gonzales. I was wrong. We went to this place

A woman who was there asked how it is pronounced and suffice it to say that Cody Hahn is somewhat lacking but there's no good way to write it. What's more important than the name was the meal - a ginormous plate of nachos. When we both declared ourselves stuffed DN2 took her water and poured it all over what was left on the plate. I was both stunned and impressed. If you need help to quit stuffing your face do try it - it was 100% effective.

Back to the on-campus apartment we headed, stopping first to meet her friends who were puppy sitting. A picture of the pup is forthcoming but alas, I don't have it yet. Petting a puppy was EXACTLY what I needed. That and a strawberry creamcheese empanada from a Paula Dean recipie. Yum!

After a night of sleep that reminded me of how hard sleep can be to come by on a college campus I got up, ran 6 miles, showered, had a protein shake and then DN2 and I headed for a day at the San Diego Zoo where we walked our feet down to nubbins. I made a movie of our day that is at the end of this post.

Then it was off to Long Beach to see my prodigal Son and have dinner at McKennas By the Bay. It was lovely to see where he lived and have a really nice meal.

Saturday night, completely spent from traipsing around the zoo and then driving a couple hundred miles I slept like the dead. No amount of collegiate ruckus could penetrate my slumber and apparenlty I dreamt of running because DN2 told me I sort of snored only what she described as a snore sounded like I was inhaling through my nose and making whoofing exhales through my mouth.

As much as I loved all of that I think Sunday was my favorite day. We got up a little later and headed to the La Jolla shore for brunch. First we stopped by Children's Beach where the children have been displaced by a colony of seals.

We watched them for quite some time before heading up to the Brockton Villa Restaurant for some Coast Toast. If there is something more sublime than a beautiful sunny day on the veranda enjoying the deliciousness of Coast Toast I'm not sure what it is in this moment. My mind is suffused in a maple syrup sunshine pool of bliss. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........

We were very happy

After brunch we stood overlooking the water and watched the world's most amazing body surfer. With the aid of fins and webbed gloves this guy was able to ride right on top of the waves from way out until he had to duck under to keep from getting tossed on the rocks. I included a couple of shots of him the video.

Our final tour was of the Birch Aquarium but at that point my camera was out of battery from all the video I shot so I have no pictures.
Many thanks to DN2, Pookie for showing me such a great weekend.

Here is my video memento of the trip. I took all of these with my humble little Casio camera so please pardon its inability to maintain focus on the close-ups.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 08:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The beautiful thing about getting to the end of one year and living in a culture that celebrates the beginning of a new year is that it gives us pause to stop and reflect on things past and on what we want for the future for ourselves. Most of our lives are wrapped up in thinking about other things and people - our jobs, our homes, our families, our community. All too often we barely squeeze ourselves in to the mix of what is important and when we make ourselves a priority we suffer guilt and then we suffer guilt when we don't make ourselves a priority and fail to meet our goals. Oh geez - must life be so difficult?

New Year's Day is all about the goodness that is "me". It is about assessing the year gone by for its highs and lows and deciding how this year can be better, richer, more fulfilling, and both more self absorbed and more selfless. It is about finding ways to be more dedicated to what is really important in life which requires us to think about what is most important in life and how we can, i n the words of my all time favorite insect, accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. .



My goal for 2008 is to do just that - be more positive. Most of you don't know this but I'm a bit of a cranky pants. I'm pretty quick to focus on the negative get all worked up about perceived injustice and then act on that and when I say "act" I mean "lash out". And then I get a grip, stop and cover and apologize and smooth things over. I'd like to improve on that and really focus on seeing that glass half full so I don't go through the cranky pants routine.

Another tendancy I have is toward self-sabotage so I want to start honoring my intentions instead of blowing them off with cheap excuses. I want to toss myself out the door for a swim or a run or a ride knowing that whatever reason I have to avoid it isn't worthy of derailing my plans. I want to spend less time surifing the web and more time indulging my interests. I want to push for a strong finish in whatever I am doing be it a race or creating a report for work and not give up with that cheapest of all cheap excuses "it doesn't really matter, anyhow". In short I want to stay on top of things instead of putting myself in react mode and then pushing the rock up the hill against the added weight of self generated defeat. I want to march forward with a sense of purpose and optimism calling out "Feets don't fail me now!" with no particular reason to think they will.

All of this reminded me of my favorite Tracy Chapman song - Change.

This song asks the question 'how bad does it have to get before you'll change". The beauty of New Year's is that the intention to assess and change isn't motivated by fear or sadness or problems - it is motivated by hope and the promise of new beginnings and New Year that is as bright and shiny and unsullied as a newly minted penny. So here's to everyone's shiny bright New Year. May you realize your goals and may your penny be as bright and shiny at the end of December as it is today.

One minute you are foot loose and fancy free and the next you are trying to comfort a crying baby. One minute you are up to your elbows in dirty diapers and piles of laundry consisting of liliputian sized garments and the next you are dropping them off for the first day of kindergarten. One minute you are reading them a story and tucking them in bed and the next you are helping them move into the dorm. One minute you are helping them cope with the rigors and stress of college life and the next you are helping them pack the car to move to another state. One minute you are making a Thanksgiving feast and sitting down with your whole family and other guests and the next minute you are taking your daughter and son in law to the airport to return to their very adult and fully independent life.

It was so nice to have all the kids here if only for a moment. Tonight Daughter number one is back in the mid-west, daughter number two is out with her college friends (which might not be tolerable if it weren't for the fact that she will be back in 3 weeks) and small son is off with a friend working on a school project. He'll be blowing back through here for a minute on Saturday night before he heads back to Southern California.

I feel like I've crashed from a sugar high. I was going to go for a run to pick myself up but I managed to sidestep that by reading blogs until it got dark. I suppose I could just go eat some more pie but I don't think that will really do the trick. Where is the teleporter when you need one?

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

And a lovely day it was. There was cooking and eating and visiting and Trivial Pursuit and it was fun and I loved it. No Turkey Trot for me, though - no time! I will try to get a run in tomrrow.

Thanks to all for the Thanksgivng well wishes - the feelings are mutual!

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

My favorite bumper sticker of all time reads "Moms know everything and they are always right"

And now I have a favorite video to go with that

williamtelloverture.wmv

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Yesterday the FedEx truck pulled up and I did a quick mental inventory trying to figure out what it could be. He unloaded and delivered a fairly large box from Smith and Hawken addressed to me. This was not my first Smith and Hawken box so I had an idea that it might be a tree of some sort since my first born Humbly Anne had sent me a beautiful miniature grapefruit tree for mother's day. But it wasn't Mother's Day and it wasn't my birthday. It wasn't even Halloween. It was just Sept. 23, an unremarkable date in my life (if it's your Birthday then Happy Belated Birthday!!).

I opened it up and what should I find but a really beautiful bonsai tree. It's a Golden Gate Ficus.

I pulled the card out and read it and sure enough and it was a note of congratulations and assurances that the best was yet to come. It was signed "Your Kids".

That's how generous and kind my Humbly Ann is. The other 2 kids didn't know a thing. She sent it to me to add a bit of brightness and love to my newly empty nest. Go ahead and say it. All together now "Aw Shucks, Mom! You must be the best mother in the world". And although I'm sure that's true what I really am is the most blessed.

Love you, Sweetie. You know how much.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)