Tuesday Randomality

Some random thoughts that have been percolating around in my head today....

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Today was the first day that really said "spring" to me. Even without the sun out, the atmosphere felt warm and gentle and softened around the edges. The harsh, barren look of winter is gone! The birdsong ringing throughout the neighborhood made me think of a Baroque symphony as I walked Jewel, and I could smell the earth. Finally, you can see a haze of soft pink and red and yes, even green on the tips of the trees. When I get home from work, I hear kid's voices outside--see kids on bicycles.

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Yesterday at work, I had an illuminating conversation with a customer. A painter who is somewhat well-known in the area had come in to price frames for an upcoming show. She asked if I, too, was an artist and I said I was, b-u-t...really hadn't done much with my art since becoming a parent. She told me she didn't take off with her art until after her last child was away at college. That was inspiring to me and made me think it might be "okay" to be a late bloomer after all.

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I saw this magazine cover when I was in the grocery store today: Why does every celebrity now think they are that interesting when they are pregnant? Do they not realize that millions of other people have, yes, carried babies and the public have seen plenty of bulging bellies. And, Mariah, that is a rather unflattering photo of you and why do you have a need to share it with the whole world? Didn't Demi Moore and countless other copy-cat expectant celeb mothers already do this gimmick?? Why do so many celebrities feel that their pregnancy is so much more interesting than any other pregnancy? "All about the babies"...spare me!

Just last weekend, I finished re-reading the second of the two memoirs ("A Girl From Yamhill" was the first, and "My Own Two Feet" the second) written by Beverly Cleary, of Beezus and Ramona, Henry Huggins, Mouse And The Motorcycle, and other books fame. I was so enchanted with her early life in the 1920's and Depression era 1930's that I started to wonder if she were even still alive and I had to look it up. I was relieved to learn she was indeed, still alive and would turn 95 this year. And her birthday happens to be today. This is a woman whose books I discovered in the second grade and I felt I "knew" her characters, especially Beezus and her little sister, Ramona. To walk to my elementary schools when I was growing up in Augusta, Maine, I cut through two yards from my street to a Quimby Street, and that was the last name of Ramona in the book(who actually lived on Klikitat Street--I'll always remember that). I really related to those books, and even though Cleary's characters in her books lived on the other coast all the way over in Oregon, I saw my own neighborhood when I read the books and it felt familiar to me. I got to relive a little of my childhood over again when I read some of the Beezus and Ramona books to Rachel when she was younger, too.

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Finally, an amazing video showing some intra-species love(or else the fish breath on the dolphin was what was attracting the cat!). This is guaranteed to make you feel all gooey inside...awww...