Catch-sup.

I suddenly have what seems to be a couple of seconds to make a quick post, so here's the news:

I start massage school Thursday. A generous friend who is already in the industry is leading me along nicely and even letting me borrow her books, which is great.

I am also now a plasma donor, which is great news mostly because it means I have a wonderfully clean bill of health...As far as anything like blood and hormones and proteins and blood related diseases and viruses and stuff. So that is great. My first experience was wonderful. I joked with the attendant that after seeing the epidural needles and going through that, no arm poke - even with a big needle - was going to phase me. The environment was clean and contemporary. I read a book in complete peace and quiet which was an unexpected and much needed surprise. I got paid a very little bit but left it on an account to pick up later as it accrues - it can go toward extra expenses over the next few months of school, etc. I left feeling healthy and positive. It was a surprisingly self-benefiting and rewarding way to make a non-monetary contribution to the world.

I still have not heard from Dell about the evening sales position, which might be a blessing in disguise. They have until Thursday to meet the three week lead time they gave me.

A good friend from Tileworks/Lakeview Management Tory Harding was in town yesterday. We met her for brunch at Michael's favorite, Double Dave's Pizza, after church. It was so nice of her to think of us while she was in town. We had a long lunch, since Stella was with us - baby goo-goo time.

The house is coming along. Since we've moved back in October no one has felt much like unpacking...again. But it is coming together. Ethan and Stella's beds are in the same room to give Ethan one room just to himself for toys, toys, toys. Ethan recently started sleeping on the top bunk of his bed. He can see inside Stella's crib from there, so when she is in the room sleeping, when we can manage to get her and keep her there, he can see her. He seems to relish the big-boy responsibility of watching over her and is very quiet and respectful.

That's the news! Michael has so great and funny pics of the family up. Check it out. www.themorphememan.com

Community and Education

Calling all Angels! Michael and I are going to church! In fact, we went to church. This is really a glorious moment for Michael, so I will let him share the bulk of the story with you, but I had a very encouraging and uplifting experience.

We attended and will be attending Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church in North Austin. Our first visit, by all accounts, exciting. Michael has not been to church in years and years, and I stopped going when Ethan neared one year. (At the time, I just couldn't make church - in the Christian sense - be what I needed it to be for me. I felt fraudulent most of the time because my round-peg ideas didn't fit in Christianity's square holes...But I didn't know where else to look for what I needed. And though the experience started out fulfilling and moving, I felt disappointed in the end).

So, we arrived just in time, and parked under a big tree. Many gray-headed couples and trios were weaving paths through the parking lot. A younger man carried a school-aged girl into a side door. Ethan and I had taken family yoga with the girl the previous Saturday at Ruta Maya. She recognized me but didn't say anything.

Michael was a little nervous, and so was I in fact. (One thing the Catholic church does not do is teach about its competitors...Why would it? So I am completely unprepared for any other spiritual experiences I encounter - aside from reading I've done on my own, which isn't a lot). Ethan wasn't sure what was going on at all, but they had an excellent playground on first glance, so he was interested at a minimum. I put Stella in the sling, and after a brief debate about which door was the best door to enter, the four of us bravely marched up to what appeared to be the front door.

The first thing I noticed was a very small, triangular, native habitat planting to the left of the walk with a plaque stating its significance and a "torture is wrong" banner hanging high against the brick. We were, as in every church I'd ever been to, greeted warmly by a swarm of men and women wearing name tags - one wore a small sandwich board sign: Ask me anything. A man a few feet away from us wore a T-shirt with a poignant spiritual quote from the Dali Lama.

I took Ethan to the kid's room, and he stayed happily only after a little persuading. (One of the things Michael really liked about this church was the program for religious education for children, but I'll let him explain that). Stella, still in the sling, and I met Michael for the service.

I won't go into too much detail because, as I said this community find is truly Michael's victory to describe, but the service and the speaker (in sharp red-framed eye glasses) both were funny, liberal, relevant, political and inspiring. I left feeling called. In fact, when I got home I wrote on my bathroom mirror with soap, "Choose your sacred work," so I would remember how inspired I felt after the sermon.

When the room started moving and filing out, Michael and I dashed away. (There is a coffee hour held after each service, but I hadn't checked on Ethan as I had promised because Stella fell asleep in my lap...Michael was just ready to go. He was so excited and nervous and overwhelmed, which is a good sign most of the time, in case you are wondering). Ethan was "doing laundry" in the playroom when we got to him. They said he was great - very good at puzzles. We skirted down a back hallway out of the building.

We finished up the morning with Michael's favorite - Double Dave's Pizza - to celebrate our new found community, and for me education. Look for a post from Michael to hear more details!

In Year Two We Play.

Thanks to Dad and Patty who have always been very generous in more than one way in supporting my marriage, Michael and I "hit the town" alone twice in the last two weeks.

While Dad and Patty watched the kids, we went dancing at 80's night on New Year's Eve/our anniversary. (Michael is a blast to dance with, by the way. I have never had so much fun with a guy at a club). And this last Saturday we went to the Cheesecake Factory for an adult, quiet, lavish, overwhelming meal and the for a couple quick and dirty games of bowling. It was a blast. I rolled three strikes for my all-time highest score ever, which I won't share with you because it is really not that high. (Hee, hee). Michael, of course, beats me most of the time. I pretend it is because he has bigger biceps.

Oh to be a big kid again! Glorious...

When people called to congratulate Michael and I on our first year together - to congratulate us for "making it" in other terms - it took me some time to realize what that meant. Frazzled, exhausted and glossy-eyed, we get so caught up in the day-to-day of being parents and employees and house maids and whatever...Finally, it hit me: man the first year was damn hard. (That was not just hard, but damn hard - for those of you that didn't pick up on the emphasis). And now it seems so much easier. We even get some time out. It's not all work! Imagine that! I get to play with my husband? Play? What? As in the beginning, I am blissfully happy with Michael, but ironically, we couldn't have made it this far without the love and support of our family, without the people who understand what a "first year" meant for us.

Thank you family and sweet, sweet husband for giving us such a great life.

A Six Month Commitment: Healing

I have been really wanting to post about/announce this for days. It is well over-due.

(You'd think with all the snow and ice keeping the kids and me inside, I would've finally had the time. Yeah right. Quite the opposite. Both of them are bundles of anxious, bored, pent-up energy. Michael has been home, too, because of bad weather closures at Dell, so I also spent the last two days taking advantage of the great company and willing helping hand. It has been sooo nice having him home for an extended weekend).

Here is the scoop: In an effort to take a huge risk and try something completely different in the way of work and livelihood, I begin massage school on February 1st at Texas Healing Arts on Burnet Road. At the end of the 4 month program that runs daily from 9:30-1 pm and an internship that follows, I will be licensed to perform massage therapy in Texas. I hope to work with a good friend of mine who has an more than established client base for esthetics and massage.

So you are thinking: Where did this come from? Massage therapy is a hard field to be in. You're right! Most massage therapists burn out after 7 years, make $10-15/hour, work a lot and don't make their own schedules. What the hell is she thinking? I'm thinking I've tried everything else. And I'm thinking the glass is half full - some therapists make $45-90/hour and do make their own schedule - like my friend who is in the industry already.

I've tried the sales jobs, having the kids in daycare all day every day and living on a shoestring budget even though Michael and I are both working our tails off. I've done what I think everyone else thinks I should do, which is ridiculous even just as a thought. I believe it is time to try something else. And since my years of dance and anatomy classes, I have always been facinated with how the body works.

(But, for those of you who are freaking out: I am trying to maintain a tid-bit of realism and caution, I have also applied for a part time evening inside sales position with Dell Round Rock to supplement Michael's income and keep one foot squarely in the sales world. The interview went swimmingly, and I'll find out about this job for sure by the end of January).

So that is the plan. For the next six months or so, I am committed to learning how to heal and relax strangers' bodies. Although, I do have to tell you, I am looking forward to this as an opportunity to learn how to relax and balance myself as well and do something I want to do as a method to center myself and heal a part of my body - my heart - so I can take better care of myself and my family in this precious life.

More later about the program!

Check it out: Texas Healing Arts

http://www.texashealingarts.com/

Check this artist out!

http://www.toddkurtzman.com/

Dark Energy as Defined by Wikipedia

In physical cosmology, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and has strong negative pressure.[1] According to the Theory of Relativity, the effect of such a negative pressure is qualitatively similar to a force acting in opposition to gravity at large scales. Invoking such an effect is currently the most popular method for explaining recent observations that the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate, as well as accounting for a significant portion of the missing mass in the universe.

Interested? Though I don't pretend to understand most of it, I am rivoted! See also:

Evidence of Dark Energy
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/nov/HQ_06353_Hubble_Dark_Energy.html

Dark Energy Changes the Universe
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/deepspace/f_dark-energy.html

Dark Energy Pushing Galaxies Apart
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/cosmic_darknrg_020115-1.html

Human Origin and Dark Energy
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040531.html

Belated Gingerbread Adventure

We were well prepared...

All parties were present...

(This is Michael's breadman. It is the closest to a picture of him you will get in this montage, because he refused to relinquish the camera for a close up).

It is a serious business making a gingerbread man. Skittle buttons were the most essential body part in 2006...

And a smile, of course. A little breadman would be truly naked without one.

And so we were all content. A happy end to a happily exhausted holiday season.

(That nose has never seen so much sugar!)

Michael's art shot. Wouldn't be a family event without creative documentation. Thank you, M James!

Another Exercise in Creativity: Little Bird, Little Phoenix

Devastating
Wicked
Prophetic
Important
Introspective

Serotonin – constituent of many venoms
Oxytocin – feeling like heroin
Vasopressin – pairs with oxytocin

Big









Little Bird, Little Phoenix

I am perched like a bee humming -
bird on your hips, you wicked smile.
I need to be light.
Feathered importance weighs on this
love. We were prophets in earlier years
on serotonin heroin highs, oxytocin wild rides.
We saw this coming.
And now I am devastated

by the introspective enormity
of my chemical heart in this small cage -
no breath in this gray breast for exploding stars.
Seemingly still on your crest, curve of the moon
to be light
I fear my intention has no other word
to describe this love, this love, this love, no other -
word other than
big.

More than you might want to know...

More than you might want to know about love. Economist covers it all - including prairie voles and oxytocin overload:
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=2424049