Delayed gratification

 It only gets harder as you get older, little S. 

 One day we'll both get puppies. 

Hang in there!

Moments

Having a low key weekend or two has its benefits.

I can’t believe it is almost August, and time for work to start picking up again for the school year. I can’t believe that within a series of a few months, I’ll be moving, presenting, and training all over the place again.

This was the perfect weekend to relax and prepare for the onslaught ahead.

Saturday and Sunday were beautiful and sunny. On Saturday, I spent the early afternoon at the pool, re-reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and enjoying the warmth, water, and the airplanes on the flight path over my head.

Later in the afternoon, S and I took a weekend drive and hiked the Blue Hills. After that late week thunder storm extravaganza we had up here, the weather couldn’t have been better for a hike – bright with continually cool breezes wafting over us.

We then went for a snack run and settled in for an evening of a movie (Tropic Thunder – really funny) and Pictionary (the most funny thing we do as a family perhaps).

Sunday was a day of cleaning, organizing, and getting a jumpstart on the work week.

A quote has been playing on my mind recently – “What if you woke up with only those things that you’d thanked God for yesterday?”

Whatever your belief system, this can really hit home. How many moments do we truly appreciate, express gratitude for, and value each day? How many of the blessings in our lives do we actively accept and rejoice in?

This weekend was a chance for me to slow down and begin again.

Family

The Ys - S’s clan - graced us with their presence this week.

We did things like visit the Asian Market in Quincy, the Blue Hills in Milford, and the Library in Randolph. Basic things. Fun family things that we would have done on our own time, but loved doing with them.

Among our most touristy days were those spent in Cambridge, where Poppa Y, chemistry professor, was presenting at a conference on “green” chemistry.

We toured around MIT and Harvard and dined at some lovely restaurants while there. Around the table at meals we got a chance to talk politics, science and life.

S’s mom is as sweet and funny as ever, and S’s little brother L is as tall as a tree, and I am actually pretty proud to say, a really good teenager.

It is funny to hang out with S’s family and see the traits he shares with them - his dad, who tends to make everything bigger than life, his mom, who share’s most of S’s eccentric phobias, and his little brother, who shares S’s love of all things video game.

As much fun as it was, and as good as it was to see them, it also made me appreciate my own little nuclear family – how I got to grow up a “friendly introvert” with plenty of time to myself and to share.

It is refreshing to know that families of all types can keep forming us for the better even when we’re grown.

The most beautiful place in the world

Alternative titles for this post might include Rhode Island, who knew?! or So I've never really wanted to go to Rhode Island.

Taking a couple vacation breather days to myself, I decided I needed at least one solo road trip, to someplace that I'd never been and that was pretty. I looked up places via Google suggestions and came up with Beavertail State Park in Jamestown, Rhode Island because it was 1) close, 2) free and 3) well reviewed by real people on Yelp. What I think really convinced me that this might be a decent place, even though I'd never ever heard it mentioned before in a travel guide or tourist brochure, was that people chose it as a wedding destination. I figured at the very least, it would be pretty in the sunny weather we've been having lately. And I was not disappointed.

Seriously, who knew Rhode Island could be this gorgeous, boasting some of the most beautiful New England coast line locales out there? I certainly didn't, and I feel bashful at the number of times I've previously discounted the state as that place you drive through to get back to Massachusetts. S and I had been to Providence once, but only for a few hours, and I admit I'd been charmed by the place, but not convinced that the rest of the state was enthralling. I suppose I'd heard of Newport before, but in my mind, it couldn't hold a candle to the Cape. Well, now I am thinking I am probably wrong, and I have to give Rhode Island its due.

For a day trip, especially one to get some solitude and to appreciate a commune with nature, this place was perfect. The reviews said it was always busy, but that's not really the case if you are the adventuresome sort and go off trail a bit, which was irresistible for me once I saw the coastline for myself.

The sounds of the water at a public beach tend to be so soothing and peaceful in their own way, but the voice of the waters assaulting these cliffs with such authority and grace was just really something else. Even as the noonday sun beat down on me, I felt like I could have been lulled to sleep by the breeze and the tides and the beauty of it all. At the same time, I felt energized by these same elements (as well as likely the adrenaline shooting through me, as I attempted some pretty amateurish and impromptu rock climbing).

I know we have a lot to be proud of as a civilization for all we have created and innovated, but I take one look at our natural world in places largely untouched by human hands, and I know that this creation will never be contested. How lucky we are to have life in this messy, vibrant, growing world. It baffles me constantly, and I am not thankful for it enough.

I lou-ver you!

I've delved into quite a few areas of interest blogging about life with O the cat and S the man, but have never ventured into DIY (do-it-yourself) blogging territory. That changes today.

Last weekend S and I installed louvers on Mustang Sally. What are louvers, you ask? Good question! They are overlapping fins or slats that, in this case, cover S’s back windows. They are a fairly cosmetic modification to S’s vehicle. If we’re cutting straight to the chase, louvers make a Mustang look more like a shark, and that’s cool.

As it turns out, installing louvers is pretty easy and very fun. There’s something about summertime that makes such projects seem apropos, and S and I make a pretty good partnership for such things. After traveling together, paying bills together, and raising a hamster and two (not-so-well-behaved) cats, we have learned the art of teamwork.

For covering a car’s windows, louvers are big, but not too unwieldy. Here are some reference shots, to give you a sense of their proportion:

We felt confident about embarking on this project after learning what we could and could not do to S’s car in the past. For instance, while we failed miserably at installing S’s new exhaust system, S very successfully tinted his own taillights for a darker and more streamlined appearance (S also had his car’s springs modified, but after the exhaust attempt, he let this be a shop job from the very start). We learned that cosmetic changes we could handle well, but performance changes were best left to the pros.

For the louver install, step one involved prepping the louver itself with an adhesive primer, and cleaning the area around the car’s windows with alcohol:

Step two required affixing a two-sided tape around the inner edges of the louver:

Step three was to eyeball the position that the louver would have over the car’s window:

And step four was to affix the louver around the window, ensuring the adherence of the tape to the car’s window frame:

Oh, and then lather, rinse, repeat:

S’s car is a lot of fun, and a great foil to my basic-in-every-way lady friend (Our cars, unlike our cats, are both female). While part of that fun is in the actual experience of driving and riding in the car, the other part is in the car’s upkeep and modification. Like anything practical at its root (a home, an office space, or a wardrobe), a car is a possession not only to be utilized and cared for, but to be personalized and appreciated.

And I have say it – sorry in advance – It gives me joy to see S lou-ver the task of taking care of Sally.

Fight your way through that

I thought this was great. Saw it catching up on ragamuffinsoul.com and wanted to share. I see this applying to anything in life, not just the creative arts and communications.

I love Mr. Glass' comfirmation that "your taste is still good."

If you have a taste for something, a conviction about something, a gut passion or calling or instinct or hunch that something is important and you are meant to pursue it, don't let lack of experience or even talent stop you. Go for it with all your heart, because that's what hearts are for, after all.

Thanks for the inspiration, Ira and Los!

Scary, true and disturbing…my life’s challenge in a paragraph

Today I want to step away from the small picture (summertime, moving, working, and eating publically on my blog) to flesh out the bigger picture for just a second. I hope you don’t mind.

My blog (and life) mission statement, if you will, is Learning to express the joys of life, creation, and the journey taken with a loving Creator. Yours, mine, and especially, ours.

My blog title is Education. My blog mottos are a secular one, “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one,” and spiritual one, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

What does that all actually mean though? And why do I post pictures of my cat?

Well, my biggest concern as a believer is that each piece of creation (people, animals, the earth, the energy that makes up the universe[s], and along with that, little me) is in one, some, or many ways away from the God who created us in love. What if, I think, I could do something to get myself and others to step toward our unconditionally loving God, and I chose not to? It’s not my business to judge people as “needing to be saved,” nor within my power to understand what exactly comes after death for any of us, even after much study, prayer, and trust in God. I trust God is here now, and is eternal, so my concern is not for the future, but for the constant present. In the constant present, it is my concern to share. To share the God I trust and believe in so that others (yes, including that scoundrel O the cat) can see a God that I believe is theirs too, so they might get to know God better on their own terms and in their own time, even if their journey is something I can’t understand or might not agree with. If I struggle daily to live as my authentic self (in union with my Creator), I believe I will be expressing my truth, that Jesus, who is my God, said and meant and made it so that “It is finished.” This truth transforms my life from an existence separate from God to journey beautifully tangled up in God’s love. That’s it. Scary to say, and even harder to live. But it’s the only life worth living, the only life that’s true for me.

Oh hi there, Boston

Last weekend S and I were treated to another visit from his friend (and I guess my friend now too!) from Japan. He and S originally met at S’s first job out of college at a contract pharmaceutical company in Greenville, North Carolina. S met M when he routinely would visit the “cack-a-lack” as we belovedly call NC from Japan in order to provide the company with technical assistance.

Once S moved up north again, M was eager to visit a new spot in the US and we were happy to be tour guides. See, as much as we explore the area on our own, it’s not often that we dish out the big bucks on a truly fancy meal or tourist experience, like the Prudential Center visit of last year or this year’s ride on the Boston Duck Boats. It’s so fun to have family or friends visit, because we like to show them a good time, and have seen more of Boston and the surrounding areas this way probably more than any other.

M visited on Friday evening, when we took him out to a chic meal of lobster, haddock and goat cheese pasta for me at a French restaurant overlooking Boston Common. M is on a mission to eat seafood whenever he visits, so I was glad there were items on the menu that did not disappoint. We then window shopped Newbury Street at night, talking about the various wedding dresses in some of the shop windows, and how M’s wife’s white wedding kimono - and wedding hair apparently - weighed a ton!

The next day we hopped on over to the Boston Museum of Science to get tickets for the duck boat tour, which has been something on M’s sightseeing list since last year. We really did have a good time – coming from Baltimore, S and I have built an appreciation for the history and culture of different neighborhoods sprinkled throughout a big city, and the tour broke that down for us quite nicely, explaining the influence of the Anglican and Puritan religions in the early years of settling the city. The water portion of the tour was just plain fun, and a good chance to see Boston-Cambridge from the Charles River.

Since the duck boats depart and arrive back at the Museum of Science anyway, we spent the rest of the day there, going through the exhibits one by one. We liked the pendulum exhibit, which demonstrated how the earth is rotating, the probability and math exhibit, which visualized mathematical properties through mobiles, tracks and rubber balls, and this hidden gem of a display with two live primates – whose species currently escapes me. S say’s they’re “tim-a-lanka limpurs,” but I remain unconvinced. They we teeny tiny, with old man faces, and long white plumes of fur sprouting off their faces like a mane – so fascinating to watch.

Thanks for visiting, M! We had such a great time meandering around the city, and we can’t wait to see you soon!

America merriment

Wasn't it nice to have a mid-week holiday for Independence Day this year?

S and I decided that, since we are indeed moving from our little South Shore town to the dreaded MetroWest (I bemoan oh so melodramatically), we'd stick really close to home this year, even closer than last year and the year before, to celebrate America's birthday. We headed to a brand spanking new community park in the middle of town, and may or may not have played on the play ground before enjoying a grownup picnic and a stroll around the park's walking trails.

It was lovely to bid our fair and first home here in New England adieu in this way. And no worries - even though we didn't plan to sit out for fireworks this year, there turned out to be a really pretty show visible from our bedroom window when we got home. Sweet serendipity for our last summer here.

This is a little how I feel today

Except, in my own scenario, I am both the mother and the child.

Time for a vacation soon. As much as I love work, I'm due for a battery recharge.