Family

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.
~H. Jackson Brown

I love this quote, and I'll tell you why. I love having discussions with people who aren't out to convince me to change to their point of view, but are just to help me to understand why they think the way they do. I really do enjoy having conversations with people who have a different viewpoint than mine, because I'm always interested in what makes people tick. I like to study people. People are so interesting, aren't they?

Who knows, I might learn a thing or two but rarely do I have a conversation about a topic that I haven't already thought through at some point.

Let's face it. I'm 51 years old and have pretty much thought through and made up my mind on all of the important stuff.

I'll let you in on a little secret: Just because I'm silent, it doesn't mean I agree with you. It means that I'm studying you.... in fact, my silence often indicates that I disagree with you, but I know that I’m talking to a “right-fighter” and my input will be perceived as arguing. Arguing isn’t very much fun to me, so I avoid it.

BJ and I couldn't be any different in the way we think about many things and what our core beliefs are, but I still respect his right to his beliefs and love the guy no matter what his beliefs. A big gap is our belief in life after death and a belief in a larger power than ourselves. I love it that we can talk about this stuff and end it with an agreement to disagree. Voices are never raised and respect of each other's intelligence is always part of our discussions. I guess one of us (probably him... ha ha ha) will find out that they are wrong after they take their last breath. I hope that I'm not the one who is wrong, but I'll find out sooner or later. I suppose that if I'm wrong, then there won't be any "finding out" anything. I'll simply end. It sounds kind of like waiting for retirement to come and once work ends, I lapse into a coma. What a drag!

I could even apply this thought process to the many people in my life that smoke. I HATE it that they smoke, but as an adult it's their decision as long as they don't do it in my house. I do things that other people might not agree with, but I'm an adult and it's my decision. Hmmmm... sounds like I'm pontificating.. but I'm just trying to make a point.

I learned a really good lesson this week, which is why I've posted the quote. I'm not going to get into the details because this blog is public, but will share that it had to do with one of my sons. I called him last night and a great conversation came out of it. What a great kid I have. He knows what he's doing, and knows what's best for him. I must have done something right with that kid, that's for sure.

Or perhaps, he was just born to be awesome no matter who his mother is (most likely the case.)

I can't even fathom that I am now a parent to a 30 year old. How did that happen? I'm sticking to my story that I was a precocious 12 year old.

I thought I loved having tots, but have to say that having adult kids is the best. I'm so thankful that I have a wonderful relationship with both of my 'boys' and my bonus daughter (a benefit of having great sons!)

We'll be celebrating a couple of times- - Saturday night with their friends and then we're taking them to Disneyland sometime in October. It'll be so fun to take the boys to Disneyland and not have to pay them to be nice to each other.

.....or will I?

I wonder if the price has gone up. It was five dollars back then. With inflation and the economy the way it is, who knows how much it would cost me now to pay them to behave.

Or perhaps I'll get all my money back and they'll be paying ME to behave. You know how I can be.

Hey, this blogging every day stuff is working out great! Two days in a row! Go me!

I have a new client as of today, located in Hawaii! Gee, how awful will it be to go visit them?

Of course, I'll have to take my entourage (my accountant, BJ; my designer, Cameron; and my soon-to-be new writer, Michael.) Michael probably has no idea what he's gotten himself in to, but hopefully he won't notice until after the 4th quarter rush is over. Several companies seem to be waiting for that magical quarter to give me their contracts. It's gonna be crazy if they all follow through with what they're telling me.

I won't even get into what's happening in 2012. Suffice it to say, the train is moving down the track and there is no slowing it down. eeek.

So, rather than make myself crazy with dwelling on the work ahead, I'm going to write about reality TV. BJ wonders why I like reality TV so much, but it makes a lot of sense to me. I need SOMETHING to turn off my brain at night. Reality TV is my drug of choice. Arrest me, sue me, whatever you want to do- - just don't make me THINK! Justin Timberlake uses the wacky tabacky, I watch reality TV. We all have our vices.

With that said, I'm not confirming or denying that I watch Bachelor Pad, but if I did- I'd say that someone ought to create a new drinking game. Every time Vienna says "literally", people need to take a swig of their favorite beverage. Mine happens to be Fresca, so all that will do for me is keep me running to the bathroom all night. Thanks a lot, Vienna.

OK, NOW I can write about the weekend. We were invited to a 'tribe' weekend at a lodge just outside of Leavenworth for a tribe member's surprise birthday. The 'tribe' consists of friends that BJ has had for over 20 years. I got lucky when I married BJ because he has a wonderful group of friends. Bonus! They're all starting their families, so I got to play with babies and little girls all weekend. Squee!

Here's where we stayed. We (the tribe, consisting of five families and one single guy) had the entire lodge to ourselves. We stayed in "Brook".



I didn't take a lick of work with me (another bonus!), and actually relaxed for a change. Well, to be honest "relaxed" is a relative term for me. I think the only time I truly relax is when I'm under anesthesia. Even when I'm sleeping, I'm working on something.

The first night, we played lots of DVD trivia games. We split into two teams, and I'll have you know that people WANTED me on their team. Especially when it came to things like celebrity news. I'm on top of that, yessiree. Sports? Not so much, but the guys had that stuff covered.

We had a GREAT kitchen, so we cooked all our meals except breakfast on Sunday morning. Cleaning up was so quick with lots of women and THREE sinks!

Saturday, the most of the guys (including BJ) and their wives went out snow-mobiling (sp?). My physical therapist threatened me with terrible things to keep me from partaking in that particular activity. I know that she knows how to hurt me, so I stayed in the lodge with the kiddos. I finally finished a book I'd been nursing for about two months. I don't know why I kept reading it once it got to cannibalism and other gruesome things, but the end was worth it. No, I'm not going to tell you the name of the book. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Saturday night, more DVD trivia and then Texas Hold'em poker. Five dollars was the buy-in, which was a good thing because BJ and I lost our shorts (not really... nobody wants to see that.) All of the adults played, so there was a big pot (55 dollars!) I don't know who won, because BJ and I are old and went to bed at about 11pm.

Sunday was a real treat. We went to a buffet breakfast. Normally I'm not a big fan of buffets, but this was a high-priced buffet and was DE-lishious. Oh my gosh, the Belgium waffles were to die for. There was hardly anything to them; really light and crispy. Every pork product (high end) you could think of, and even salmon. After breakfast, we went for a sleigh ride. There wasn't a lot of snow, so it was noisy and bumpy (and cold, boy was it cold!) The kids loved it though and it was fun to watch them enjoy themselves.

BJ and I left a couple of hours after that. Frankly, our charm reservoir was getting empty and we needed a little bit of quiet. We didn't even turn on the radio the whole 2.5 hour trip.

Unfortunately, Einstein was sick when we picked him up from doggy daycare, so I had to immediately take him to the vet. He had some plant debris embedded in his ear (not from doggy day care), and it was infected. Poor little puppy was miserable. He's still afraid to bark two days later because it hurt so much. He's on pain pills and antibiotics now, so he should be feeling better soon.

To make the weekend even better, I've finally resolved something that has plagued me for too long. Resolved probably isn't the right word. Maybe resigned is a better word. Resigned myself that I've done everything I can in a situation I won't be sharing here and I can freely walk away with a clear conscious. I once learned in counseling that sometimes resolution needs to be done all on your own without the cooperation of the other party. I'm glad that the counselor shared that with me, though I never thought I'd be using that advice in my relationship with this person.

I'm looking at this situation as part of my evolution. I believe we come here as imperfect stones. Each rough situation we're in polishes us a little bit more until hopefully we come out of this with very few rough edges. Unless we accept the situation for what it is, learn from it and move on we'll leave this life with many imperfections. I don't think I'll ever be perfect, but I've had quite a few opportunities to be polished and I'm honestly thankful for those opportunities. I'm proud of the person I am and would not be me without the rough stuff along with the good stuff.

Who knew all this could happen in three days? What an awesome life I live, and I'm grateful every day for that.

Poor little blog, you must feel ignored!

So many things to blog about, so little time so guess what? I'm going to write a This and That!

• My dad chose the next Soul Pancake assignment. The assignment was, "List 5 questions you hate not having the answer to." My answer:
  
  1. What will be the cause of my death?
  
  
  2. Am I done living all my lives (Is class over?)
  
  
  3. Will my family ever truly accept the spiritual path I’ve taken?
  
  
  4. Will I be guaranteed to never be destitute?
  
  
  5. Will there be a cure for Alzheimer’s before I get it? (this is my greatest fear)



• Big Fish extended my contract for the whole year and added more hours (kaCHING). There's only one of me, so Ranger Mike will be working with me at TLS (my company) along with Cameron (son #1). My plan is to do work exclusively for Big Fish and oversee Cameron and Ranger Mike (finally, payback for when he used to try to punch me in the head when we were kids!) on the rest of the clients. I keep saying I hope I don't get any bigger, but that doesn't seem to be working. I guess I need to just live with the idea that TLS is too good to be small.



• Physical therapy is going well on the fankle. It was a piece of cake in the beginning, but now it's getting serious. I am doing weight bearing exercises for 1.5 hours along with electrical stimulation therapy and ultrasound therapy. I'm getting quite a work out three times a week and won't be done (according to my PT) until at least the end of March. I also have 3x a day fankle exercises to do at home. I have an assigned PT to catch me if I start to pass out now. Can you guess why? Yeah- I started passing out a few of times and made them nervous. My answer to that was to not make me work so hard. They didn't like that answer very much.
  
  I really like the 'kids' there. They're all in their 20's and really nice kids. We joke around with each other and I've shared with them that I'd like them all to dance the "Thriller" dance for my graduation. Everyone else gets a shirt. Dontcha worry, I'll bring my video camera if they come through for me. ::snicker::
  
  I've noticed something really funny. My ankle now feels "floppy" to me. When I told my PT about it she said, "That's how NORMAL ankles work". Now I know for sure that my left fankle also has a coalition because it isn't 'floppy'. Having an extra bone in the ankle is great when you're wearing heels because your ankle doesn't wobble about. Now I wonder if I'll be able to wear heels ever again. For the record, I do not plan to have surgery on my left fankle. I'll just leave it locked up. At least this explains why I ran 'funny'.



• BJ and I have a REALLY fun weekend planned. Can't say much about it until afterward, but suffice it to say I'm really looking forward to it. Sadly, we can't take Einstein. I'm not too upset for him because he's practically a mascot at the puppy hotel. They love him there. He loves it there too. How do I know this? He allows the girls that work there to carry him around like a little baby. He won't let BJ or me carry him around. Little brat! He's just so darned cute (and smart.)