Cancer, I'm over it.

My mom was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer today. It's been less than two years since my dad died from lung cancer. I'm mad at cancer. I'm completely freaked out and worried about my mom, but trying to remain positive. We're going to fight this with everything we have. My mom's doing ok so far, she's excited about getting implants and that her boobs will be perky when she's 90...that's a good sign. Please pray for my mom and for my family. We've been through hell and back the last 2-3 years.

Zombies!

I've been laughing about this news from right here in Austin for a couple days now -- and just saw that the story was on the Today Show. Somebody broke into the electronic message boards along North Lamar Blvd. and changed the messages to warnings about vampires and zombies. You gotta hand it to them -- if you're gonna commit a crime, at least be creative! I used to work for the department that manages the project these message boards are placed at, so it's particularly funny to me. Love that it made National news. Greatness.

The Way I See It

Stopped at Stabucks today after a very early 6:30am meeting. The quote on my cup was great:

The Way I See It
I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stumped by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say, "Hi." They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And THAT possibility is worth that one word.

~Augusten Burroughs (author of Running with Scissors)

So if I seem to be saying "hi" a lot more often, you know why! ;)

Macs Rule, PCs drool!

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh computer. I love this article I just read about the devotion people feel for Mac. Once you go Mac, you don't go back, right? The article talks about how Apple's founder, Steve Jobs, not only created this amazingly wonderful new machine, but he also changed culture -- and that's rare. Nowdays, Apple employs my sister and allows me to function every day, so for those things I say, Bless you, Steve Jobs and Apple! Happy 25th birthday!

Thumbs Up, Dad

Too tired to really blog tonight, but here are some of my favorite images from today's exciting inauguration:

A New Day

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

(taken from President Barack Obama’s inaugural address January 26, 2009)

Cover dog

Took a great shot of my mom's dog, Hero. Just had to share. Added ones of my sister's dog, Cali, and my cat, Bridget...don't want any of the little critters to get jealous. :)

Obama = Super Man?

Today I saw a news story about a new store and Web site where “official” inauguration collectibles are being sold. Is there always a store for official inauguration items? Am I the only person who didn’t know this? When we were visiting San Francisco, I saw t-shirts emblazoned with Obama’s face for sale in several different souvenir shops. And San Francisco is all the way across the country from his home state of Illinois and from Washington D.C. I even witnessed one man who had bought an Obama t-shirt with a replica of the TIME magazine cover on it – he walked out of the store, then took the shirt, spread it out wide with his hands in front of him to look at it and just smiled. He stood there for several seconds and I watched, taking it all in. And it made me smile too.

It’s an exciting time for us, likely with lots of change ahead. And we’re ready for it. All this build up, however, makes me wonder if we’re setting up Obama for failure. He has many, many challenges ahead, as all presidents do. Do we see him as sort of a Super Man? What happens if he’s not Super Man? From what I can tell, no president has been able to be completely effective – they face limitations we cannot even imagine.

I’m still reading Obama’s book, “Dreams of My Father.” It’s well written and is giving me some great insight into the personality of our next president – he’s very intelligent, has had some very diverse experiences and family is of utmost importance to him. Just from his writing, I can tell that he looks at things from all sides and makes calculated, educated decisions. And frankly, that’s enough for me. Our new president doesn’t need to Super Man.

Best Christmas Present Ever

This year there was a series of TV commercials (for a car, I think) showing grown ups reminiscing about their favorite Christmas present ever. They got me to thinking about what mine would be, but I’ve had a hard time narrowing the choices down! We may not have had much money, but my parents always made Christmas HUGE for us kids. I’m sure they went WAY beyond their means, but it was important to them for Christmas to be special. I look at my 14 year old nephew, who this Christmas alone, received an iPod Touch, a mini Dell laptop and Britney Spears concert tickets, never mind all the small stuff! I think, “Wow, he’s SPOILED.”

But the fact is, I was spoiled too! I’m still spoiled! I had not one, not two, but THREE family Christmas celebrations this year and then left on a week long trip to San Francisco the day after Christmas. Spoiled, no bones about it. Never mind that I really shouldn’t have spent the money on the trip. I went with my baby sister, who I also went to New York City with two years ago. We may not always be able to travel together and we’re very lucky we can stand to be around each other 24/7 for a week. (Minus a few small disagreements that passed very quickly and the time she mistook my arm for a pillow.)

But more importantly – and forgive me if I sound cliché here – I’m also spoiled because my family is so close. (Cue Anne Murray singing, “Even though we ain’t got money…” here.) We truly are lucky to have each other, even if we don’t always realize it. So one of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to appreciate the people in my life more – as much as we appreciated “Tigger” that year at Christmas! We didn’t care that he wasn’t the real Tigger from Winnie the Pooh – in our minds, he was real. We jumped on and played with that giant stuffed “Tigger” until all his stuffing came out. I think I was in high school when mom was finally able to sneak what was left of him out of the house for good. I can still feel the tough stuffing of his insides and smell the slightly musty, smoky fur…

Happy New Year!

My sister and I returned from our trip to San Francisco Friday night -- we're exhausted, but we had a great time! The best part of the trip was ringing in the new year on a dinner cruise and watching the fireworks in the San Francisco bay. Absolutely beautiful. None of my pictures do it justice, so for now, I'll just post one. Stay tuned for more blogs about the trip. HAPPY NEW YEAR!