BeBa

Wow, my first blog entry in over a year. I sure have fallen out of the habit. Well, no promises that this is a reversal of the trend. I’m just in the mood for blogging today. We’ll see where it goes from here, if anywhere.

Without further fanfare…

So speaking of habits I’ve fallen out of: Working out. This lack of working out has been stressing me out. My job and life is soooo sedentary, I really need to be making a more concentrated effort for the sake of my heart and longevity. Plus, I know I need to be setting a better example. Rather than endure this burden of guilt and obligation, it really would be less stressful to just get off my duff already.

Mira (now age 10) has really been pushing me to go on bike rides with her – she even took the initiative and pumped up my bicycle tires and washed down my bike! Sweetie. How could I procrastinate in the wake of that effort?

So last week we started regularly biking. Ouch, my butt. I knew I’d have to suffer through that a few times (right?) before it would get better. But it’s not been getting ANY better. We stopped by REI in Tempe last weekend for the express purpose of purchasing me a pair of padded bicycle shorts. Nope, no improvement.

Today I googled (<< it’s time for spellcheck to consider this a real word already – oh, and “spellcheck,” too) to see how long it would be before I’m, erm, toughed up. Two weeks, one person said – apparently it takes about two weeks to get used to it. Maybe.

But then I found some suggestions about angling the seat so it’s tilting slightly down in front. I thought about that and the physics make sense… that way more pressure is put on your actual BUTT (instead of the pointy sit-bones and other tender tissue I’m euphemistically calling “butt” in the title of this post but you know that’s not really what I mean).

Tonight Scott dug out his Allen wrench and adjusted the tilt on my bike seat. The difference? It felt like MAGIC on my little test run – no uncomfortable pressure at all! We’ll see how it holds up on my next real bike ride, hopefully tomorrow. No promises that this is the reversal of a trend, or anything. I’m just in the mood for bike riding right now.

This email just came in for my 8 year old from her best friend:

I know it’s not fair. I might get a DS for
X-Mas. Did you know Santa’s not real my
Mom and Dad were talking a bout him last
night.
From,
Paige

Even after that email – and you assume some discussion later that day at school – she is not questioning. We don’t even really promote Santa much these days. We do stockings, but nothing is ever labeled “from Santa,” we don’t do letters to Santa or sitting on Santa’s lap. No putting out milk and cookies. She just has decided to believe. I was the same. I remember sustaining some level of belief internally well until I was 11 or 12!

I remember riding around with my Grandma around our town on Christmas Eve when I was around that age, looking at Christmas lights (an annual tradition) and listening to Christmas music on the radio. Periodically the announcers would do the “Santa tracking” thing and I thought grown up adults wouldn’t go to such lengths if there was no Santa. Even though another part of my mind knew this just really didn’t work rationally.

I was the oldest sibling, though! It’s hard to imagine her more jaded older sibs haven’t spilled the beans, eh? I rather think they MUST have and she’s just persistent in her belief. The power of denial – and the power of believing what we WANT to believe just has to be true – even the most irrational, literal version of the myth.

Show us your last text message.

Sent from her dad’s cell phone…

Hi mom it’s Mira how are you doing today we are in ohio we just ate. We were in a big storme last night it was scary because we heard hospital cars.

My girls are visiting their Grandma in Ohio for the next few weeks. They had pretty hellish travel yesterday! Their dad works for an airline so he can fly them on standby for a very small fee. Thing is, what with airlines cutting flights and it being summer travel season, getting standby for a 3-4 person party is TOUGH. They missed out on two direct flights before they finally got on board a flight with a Chicago connection. Then it stormed en route to Columbus from Chicago. The girls were pretty frightened, they said – they were in the thunder and lightening as they made their descent. Ack! I don’t think that’s even happened to ME and I’ve flown lots.

The storm continued well after they landed all during their one hour drive to Grandma’s house (apparently a tornado also touched down in the Columbus area). They left their dad’s house in Phoenix around 9 am PST yesterday and arrived at their grandma’s at 2 am EST.

Ughhhh.

Anyway, all is well, but it made quite an impression on them…

Mira is making progress.

Mira had her first piano recital tonight. She’s been taking lessons for just a few months. We’re very proud of her performances tonight! She was very poised and professional for being so new to it.

Now watch her perform!