run on sentences

The high chair sat on top of some old boards in our garage ever since we moved to this house in the early 90's.  We had talked about giving it away but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  My mom gave it to us when we had Kseniya.  Bruce refinished the wood and made a tray for it. I think the chair came from Ernie's house but I am not sure.  Ernie was a guy who lived with us for 30 years - we were his family as he had none.  It's a long story and a different post for some day, but the short version is that Ernie came over one night and was too drunk to drive back to his farm - so he stayed.  For the rest of his life.  My mom and dad had a habit of taking in strays - people, dogs, cats, whatever.  I learned from them to be kind to the underdog (human, canine or feline) and look for the good.  When Ernie died, the only photo in his wallet was of my kids. I am not sure how we got the chair.  My mom never drove out here and when Kseni...

When my kids were little, I worked four ten hour shifts so I had every Friday off.  I started a tradition with Kseniya when she was a baby, of taking her to "the cookie store"on Fridays.  It wasn't really a specific store, but any coffee house or bakery that sold cookies - mostly chocolate chip cookies.   Sometimes it was the now defunct Cottonwood Mall where we got a Mrs. Field's cookie. That was Billy's favorite.  Kseniya liked the hot dog on a stick place.  Dan liked the pretzel place where you could get a hot pretzel slathered in butter.  None of it was healthy stuff but I am happy to say it didn't ruin my kids and they all now eat very healthy diets and exercise as well. Kseniya and I did this until she was in first grade and I no longer had Fridays off.  By then Billy was born and he became my cookie store date.   By the time we had Dan and he was old enough, he and I went to the cookie store every Friday until he was in school five d...

I have been alienated from much of my wardrobe this year - we have had a distant relationship at best.  We get back together for funerals and sometimes to go to church but then we go back to our separate ways and separate parts of the closet. When I was working, I wore what my daughter, when she was little, called my "big lady clothes".  There's the nice dressy pants (I preferred those from the Gap because they seemed to fit me better), nice sweaters and shirts, and a great suit from Banana republic that they convinced me to buy by sending me a lot of emails - each one increasing the percent off and offering free shipping.  There's also a nice J. Crew suit that my kids got me for Christmas and a pinstripe one from  Ann Taylor Loft that I wore when I was on an Institute of Medicine Committee on Emergency Care.    That was a big deal (not the suit, but the committee) and was an honor to be on, but it pretty much went unnoticed in my work world.  I...

Today I woke up at 5 AM and my first thought was "Oh man I have to do a long run".  Then I got mad at myself and said "dammit you will do it and you WILL like it".  The power of suggestion - you can laugh if you want but it works for me and sometimes if you act the way you want to feel (another tidbit from the Happiness Project book), you will soon feel that way. Anyway I got up, got on my ready running clothes that were nicely splayed on the bathroom floor, made coffee, let Jack out, gave him milk bones and ate my chia seed roll (home made by me) with peanut butter on it.  Then I sat on my little blue rocking chair with the heating pad nicely warming up my stiff lumbar spine and waited for round one of my 21 mile adventure.  "Yay I GET to run 21 miles today" I told my dubious self.  My imaginary friend Jennifer sat in the background saying "Oh that will be so hard.  And you don't even have makeup on.  Are you going to wear those shorts?"  ...

Now that I am a woman with few responsibilities, I took the time to look through the community education catalog that came in the mail about a month ago.  There were many interesting classes that caught my eye, but the class on Laughter Yoga seemed especially intriguing.  Who doesn't like to laugh?  Besides I had heard about it recently in a book I read by Gretchen Rubin "The Happiness Project"  Her blog can be found here.   This book outlines her attempts to make her life happier and she developed a year long project.  One of the many things she tried  was a Laughter Yoga  class but  she didn't like it.  Not the best recommendation but it was enough for me that she didn't like it to tempt me to try it.  I  like the challenging of liking something that other people don't.  I have always been for the underdog. I had images of people doing the downward dog, laughing so hard they would toot, and then tip over - or pee thei...

Last week I was flying to SLC from St. Louis, where I had been visiting Bill and Scarlett and sweet grandbaby Des.  As I always do, I surveyed the crowd waiting to board the plane.  I  expect to see someone I know but I never do.  Then I try to guess who might sit next to me.   It's rare anymore, that a person ever gets a seat alone. It was hard to not notice the slender youngish mom  trying to handle two children - one who looked to be about 6 and the other around 18 months - both girls.  The younger one had this ear splitting, glass shattering, eardrum breaking scream - I am sure that scream could be heard all over the airport.  I said a silent prayer for the poor mother and then another one to please God, don't let them sit with or near me. God had better things to do I guess so when I boarded the plane, I ended up sitting across the aisle from the mom and the two little girls.   I decided to be positive.   I have kids. ...

I love to run but I don't live to run.  I like that about myself.  This year I have had good runs in Michigan, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, and Austin, Texas - not to mention my home state.  I have also had days where I chose not to run while on vacation in these places and it was okay.  I don't think I lost any of my "base" or turned to mush or harmed my training.  I never regretted not running because there was usually something else I wanted to do that was more meaningful to me.   I suppose I could run later in the day but I am only a morning runner.  My most recent vacation involved a trip to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to visit Kseniya and CAJ.  Yeah it is the time of year where I should be getting my long runs in for the St. George Marathon in October.  Carlisle is a nice college town and I like to run there in the humid climate, past all the beautiful colonial houses and the college,  but....it was also nice to drink coffee with Kseniya ...