On My Way

I love this picture and have since the moment it was taken (thanks Jami, you are amazing). I am fascinated by perspective and how it changes everything. For a long time whenever I saw this shot, I thought it said"I'm outa here". Today I looked at it and it screamed, "I'm on my way". Maybe it sounds like semantics, but for me it it is a world of difference.

Fashion Police

I'm not sure if Roger Federer has a stylist, but if so, he/she should be fired. I get it, he is an amazing tennis player and the clothes shouldn't matter. I don't mean to sound sexist but turquoise, for a male athlete, really? It is all a little too matchy matchy for me. BTW, the shorts were white with a turquoise Nike swoosh.

We Are The World

Julie said no more books, so I will move on to music. Yesterday I read in the news that Quincy Jones is planning a remake of the Aid for Africa, We Are the World to raise money for Haiti. Holy nostalgia. I loved that video. I distinctly remember the first time I saw it. I was 12 years old and watched it at Charlene's house after school. Last night Tim and I found the video on utube. It was just as great as the first time. I was able to name all but one of the artists. Pretty impressed with my pop culture skills. Enjoy!



I can't wait for the updated version.

By the way, can someone help me figure out how to make the link show the video?

Pulitzer Prize

The book we are currently reading for book group is Olive Kitteridge, the 2009 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. That got me thinking and I realized that I didn't really know much about the prize. So, I did some reading and here are a few things I learned:
1. It is pronounced with a uh for the "u" sound, as in "pull-it-sir";
2. There are numerous Pulitzer Prizes, each for some type of writing. The one for fiction is given for "distinguished fiction by an American author, the book preferably dealing with American life".
3.The voting jury doesn't consider all books written in any particular year. A book is only considered if an application is submitted with a $50 fee.
4. I have read 8 Pulitzer Prize winning books:
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
1988 - Beloved, Toni Morrison
1999 - The Hours, Michael Cunningham
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
2003 - Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
2004 - The Known World, Edward P. Jones
2006 - March, Geraldine Brooks
2009 - Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout.
I loved March and HATED Middlesex. Everything else was somewhere in between.

What have you been reading?

My Peeps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJNfAJlFcz8
Last night I heard this song on the radio. It's a little trashy, but it made me smile. This was my first introduction to "my peeps". I had to ask my newphew what it meant. I've been a changed person ever since.

Blogtastic

Tonight when Tim was driving to meet me for dinner he passed a vehicle that had been pulled over. The driver was surrounded by several cop cars and was out, doing sobriety tests. The best part:

THIS IS WHAT HE WAS DRIVING!

The King

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - 75

I hope you found some peace.

Book club this month was Sci Fi. I think the girls are on a quest to get me to like it. They keep picking books that challenge my opinions of sci fi. It's tough to describe the book in a succinct way so I thought I would cheat and use the publisher's summary:

"One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a nicely furnished apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy the state of the art recreation facilities, and live the few remaining days of her life in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over sixty–single, childless, and without jobs in progressive industries–are sequestered for their final few years; they are considered outsiders. In the Unit they are expected to contribute themselves for drug and psychological testing, and ultimately donate their organs, little by little, until the final donation. Despite the ruthless nature of this practice, the ethos of this near-future society and the Unit is to take care of others, and Dorrit finds herself living under very pleasant conditions: well-housed, well-fed, and well-attended. She is resigned to her fate and discovers her days there to be rather consoling and peaceful. But when she meets a man inside the Unit and falls in love, the extraordinary becomes a reality and life suddenly turns unbearable. Dorrit is faced with compliance or escape, and…well, then what? "

The writing wasn't perfect but it was still a great read and an even better discussion. It's written in such a way that I vacillated between being horrified and thinking that life inside the unit wouldn't be so bad. At one point even Dorrit says "This whole thing...is significantly more humane than I could have imagined at first". Clearly I would never actually support a system like this - human guinea pigs and harvesting one person's organs for someone who is deemed more deserving. But it definitely made me think about the greater good vs. the rights and needs of the one.

Not the top of my list but it was definitely worth reading. If anyone wants to borrow my copy, let me know.

B+

Sean's Birthday

I made a quick trip this week Dallas to celebrate Sean's birthday. It was a big one - not his 18th, not his 25th, not even his 30th. Let's just say that it was one worth traveling to celebrate.

Apparently it was cold at Josh's work so he had to pull out the left behind grandma sweater. Girls, try to restrain yourselves. Doesn't Jesse look fabulous - love the head band.
To celebrate his birthday, I slept in and then let Sean take me out to lunch. We had amazing sushi. I introduced Sean to the unhealthy side of sushi, cream cheese and tempura fried shrimp. The Dallas roll did us right and perfect for a birthday. Oh man, just writing about it has me craving sushi.
Check out this great action shot. Not sure what the numbers on the cake signified but they created a great flame to blow out. Sean got some great supervision from Grayson, Tad and Greg. The icecream cake was delicious. What better present than "The Killers". Little test, who is the guy on Josh's shirt? Someone thought it was Santa Clause. What??

Sophie and Julie, worn out from the partying.

The trip was fas and furious and I felt like I spent almost a much time in an airport/airplane as with my family, but soooo worth it.