Tuesday, January 20, 2009

My Golden City

When I was a little girl my parents owned a business that they ran out of a large old building. The history of the building was fascinating- in middle school I did a report on it- it had been a speak easy during prohibition, a theater before "talkies" and even after, an ice house where the ice from the river was stored for people to buy to keep their food cold. It was a beautiful old building. With lots of stories to tell.

Behind the building was a huge yard- it wasn't used on a regular basis for anything in particular.- but there was a huge spot light to light the building up since it abutted some railroad tracks. But in the winter time I used the yard all the time.

Just after a snow fall when everything is white and peaceful, there is that amazing silence and beauty that comes with a new fallen snow. I would walk over to the building and look at the yard, with the spot light the new snow shown almost golden. It was here that I spent hours playing, imagining I lived in a city of gold.

During the snow storm last weekend I was reminded of those moments as I shoveled and watched Sunshine build a city out of the snow piles created by the snow plow. Each pile was a different house in the city and served a different purpose, different people visited and she made a bench for me to come and sit on to talk to her.

I hope that when she is my age that her memories of her city are as fond as my memories of my golden city.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Hamster

I was sitting on the couch working and heard a noise.. I look over and this is what I see:


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Who I Am

I was accepted into a training program recently. I was hesitant to even apply for it because I thought when would I actually have the time to take the classes and do homework and that kind of thing?

But I did and last weekend I attended the first class. It was a wonderful experience meeting a couple dozen professional, intelligent, funny, successful women.

The first class was on communication and as you might expect we had to introduce ourselves. I have been thinking about my introduction of myself since then.

It was not my intention but when I introduced myself I focused on the fact that I am a Mom, a single Mom at that, and I left out all the other stuff I am.

I think because 100% of the time I am a Mom I loose sight of the other things I am. Maybe not loose sight, but maybe forget about the other things. There is always a percentage of my brain devoted to Sunshine, what is she doing? What do I need to do for her? What will she wear tomorrow? What about lunch? Do I have food for her lunch box? Did we remember her library book? Are we out of chocolate milk? Did she have homework?

I think sometimes I hide behind the fact that I am a Mom. It is easy to do, think of all the times you show up some place with your kid(s) and everyone has said hello to Sunshine and then Oh, Hi Mom. I'm not saying this is a bad thing in anyway. It is what it is and I love being a Mom- best and most difficult job I've ever had.

What I need to remind myself and remember is that I am a smart, professional woman who manages people, projects and products well. A volunteer for my community in several different way. A friend, a confidant, a pet owner, a runner and a whole bunch of other things, who happens to also be a Mom.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Science Museum

We were given tickets to take the train to Boston, a bit of a luxury. But a lot of fun.


We arrived in Boston and hopped on the T to the Science Museum.

I have little more to say than WOW. We could have spent a whole day if not more there.


All about the human body, so very cool. Kind of glad she wasn't interested in the section on how babies come from cells. :-)



This was a cool place of mythical creatures, we couldn't take pictures inside, lots of old artifacts. Beautiful Chinese dragons and mermaids and griffins. Wonderful.




We got tickets to the butterfly garden and really they were this close. Sunshine was a bit freaked that they landed on you so we didn't get to stay very long.



The map geek in me loves this picture.



Happy holidays T-Rex



This was an area on senses- taste, touch, see, hear, smell and this is a time delayed photo of us.



Am I just a dance of molecules?


This amazingly large light bright, lots of fun, I made the heart!

We also had a chance to take in a show at the planetarium on "What Happened to Pluto?" which reminded me that we need to visit our local planetarium more.

As we were leaving, good night T-Rex.

I want to try and make this an annual visit, this was so much fun.