Chuck Bass is Alive! And other reasons to be happy.

Imagine my joy when Perez Hilton posted new Gossip Girl stills from the upcoming season, and I saw Chuck there, and not on a stretcher. I called across the apartment to S, "Chuck Bass is alive! And he's wearing jeans!!"

We're about to enter the month of September, which means many things, like leaves changes, fall falling, and kids back to school. For S it means his work, which peaks in summer, becomes a little less hectic, and for me, the exact opposite.

I'm a little overwhelmed already, but not mortified, because there are the small pleasures in life like Chuck Bass in jeans, Mondo on Project Runway, our trip yesterday to the reservation, and this insanely beautiful weather we've been having, to keep a smile on my face. I'm sure all of this won't be enough sometimes, but life is good, God is good, and we'll all get through the fall just fine.

I may be blogging less or more these days, since I'll be away from home for at least half the of month traveling for work - I could be totally stressed out every minute or bored in a hotel room somewhere needing to blog, I have no clue.

I hope everyone out there enjoys whatever this month and this fall is bringing to them!

Life is good

On the 9th at 4:35am, one of my very best friends the in the whole world welcomed her second beautiful son into the world!

Welcome to the world, little LKG! In August, 2010.

Congratulations to her, her husband, the little big brother of the family, and of course their pug puppy, who K always refers to as "her first child."With her first (human) son in October 2008.

I am so proud of her as a mom, a volunteer in the community, and of course, as an amazing friend.

Enjoy your boys, and lots of love, KT!

Random Find

So I had already gone to a delicious Italian Ladies' Lunch Out with dah ladies from work, and S had already picked up a turkey bacon flat from Dunkin' for breakfast, but that doesn't mean it isn't Friday, and worth another food-related celebration!

S and I went to our favorite sports bar, a really chill place with the best, largest Greek salad ever served (and of course a bacon cheeseburger for S), and had a fun time catching up on what exactly it is that he does for a living, and what exactly I attempt to do (the long and short of it is that there are lots of acronyms involved).

At any rate, after lovely dinner conversation and full bellies, we were headed out the restaurant door when we spotted, for the first of the many times we'd visited this place, the oddest, coolest (in my opinion) thing. It was a bench, on a hill, overlooking the restaurant.Now this is or was, and you would agree if you could see it for yourself, a totally random looking set up for a bench. The restaurant is on a turnpike, so it's not too scenic, and the bench was just "there," kind of on a bolder, with no conceivable easy way to get up to it.So of course I begged S to climb up with me, and when he finally conceded, I convinced him to get a random pic taken with me in that random place.The reward for all of this was that the bench faced west, and we got to enjoy the first sunset we've watched together in ages. :)

Life requires cream and sugar

I often forget how much I love summer and the sunshine until it is gone and I am frozen, hoping my winter boots won't let in the snowy sleet and the windchill doesn't end me. So we've been trying, even on work days when it seems impossible, to go on tiny little outings while it's still daylight, just to get out of the proverbial cubicle for a little while and catch some rays/time to relax while it's warm and oh so nice out.Our mid-week adventure was to the Dairy Barn - not to be confused with the proliferated Dair Queen or even the S-D favorite ice cream shop in our town, Daddy's Dairy. The Dairy Barn specializes in soft serve yogurts and gelati, as well as a variety of cookies and fruits all dunked in chocolate and dazzled in sprinkles.S opted for the ever class hot fudge sundae while I indulged in a coffee/raspberry twist that both S and I agreed was "very fruity."After our mini-date out for ice cream, we headed to the library, where we rented Quarantine, a ridiculous but entertaining horror movie about a rabies-like virus threatening the lives of a D-list film crew, and I checked out The Productivity Handbook, which I admit I have only gotten through 4 pages of. Perhaps high-stress weeks at work aren't exactly the time for that kind of reading? But they are exactly the time for ice cream!

Summa time stroll

This weekend we took a hike up through the blue trail of the Blue Hills.

The weather was a perfect eighty-degrees with sunshine, breeze, and low humidity.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday when it's just too nice to sit inside!

Every day I see my dream

The Proverbs of King David describe temptation that goes against the wisdom of God as a woman with honey dripping from her lips, full of lust and instant/fleeting satisfaction.

I am glad temptation is a woman, not say, a teen werewolf or a Coach bag or anything that I might find appealing, because the image is a bit of a gross-out for me, and it helps hint that maybe I should step back and think twice about temptations, so as not to make a fool out of myself.

But temptation is everywhere, not only in the aforementioned examples, but in the temptation to compare my life to someone else's, to judge them or pity myself, or to anticipate my own failure instead of success.

There's also the very cunning temptation, especially when there's stress, to take a shortcut as opposed to some better course of decision-making. I realized this today, as I revised some of our curricula on teen decision-making. Here I am helping young people make good decisions with strategies I don't use 9 out of 10 times in my own life, which, forgive me teens, carries real consequences in some ways that the kiddies just won't encounter (YET, so pay attention in class!).

Pros and cons lists? Not when you are tired and bored and just need to escape. But the fallacy in this kind of thinking, (let's not mention the hypocrisy of not practicing what I preach), is that there is a higher goal to this life, and shortcuts don't get me there.

I want big things, like a happy, stable marriage that grows in love through trials and joys; well-adjusted, talented, generous children; legacies of compassion and creativity; and a clean conscience.

This is why, as I rock out to LMFAO's "Yes," their lyrics "Every day I see my dream," become profound.

Obtaining these dreams will require a marathon of consistent choices, based on seeing my dreams and listening to wisdom not just at the beginning and the end of this race, but every step of the way.

Duh duh...duh duh....duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh Duh-DUH!

So maybe I haven't been doing a great job reading my classics this year, but I did get to chapter 3 of Wuthering Heights before I became diverted by some delicious summer reading - Jaws!

What I like about Jaws is that it is the author's first fiction novel, and it has a straightforward, exciting plot line upfront, with some interesting themes somewhat under the radar.

Sure, there's a shark, and he eats old guys, little kids, and gasp, young women. He also eats the crazy fisher-person Quint and the affair-provoking ichthyologist Hooper, while sparing the tried-and-true hero Brody, so that in the end, valor wins the day.

But beyond the shark, the book brings up the question of integrity, of the trajectory of one's choices, and how one will look back on them, eaten or not.

So should I watch the movie? I'd love to take a trip to the 70's, but I am not sure I would like the action-heavy version of this deeper book (pun?), which actually got me thinking about how making good decisions is 25% about a choice and 75% about living it.

My only regret - reading Jaws indoors, without my feet in the sand.