Random the Conqueror

I was shocked to hear that tornadoes had touched down in Oklahoma yesterday, especially when I heard that it had hit an elementary school. Tornadoes are something we prepare for, but never believe will happen. My heart goes out to the families and the people who've lost everything. It's times like this that my natural parental anxiety rears its ugly head, and I want to grab Zane and hide him away from the world.  I am sure that I am not alone in feeling these emotions, but I know that I can't give in to those feelings, no matter how strong.  Zane will one day be an adult, and he needs to explore the world, meet other people, and experience life, otherwise he will be completely unprepared for the slings and arrows that will come his way.  

Speaking of Zane, he took a test last week to find out if he was ready to move onto Kinder next year.  I had some concerns that Zane would not take anything seriously.  I have a good idea of what he knows, but he's not always willing to participate. We got the results when we picked him up from school, and he did just fine.  Mastered all of the areas he needed to learn.  His father and I are so proud!  He has conquered Pre-K!  Now he has the entire summer to forget everything he's learned.  That's what summers are for!

Our house is full of San Antonio Spurs supporters, and we could not be happier that the team is in the playoffs.  Those guys are all that is good about the sport of basketball.  They are never in the paper about bad stuff, like driving drunk or drunken bar fights. Players who do that get traded or cut from the Spurs. Instead, the Spurs focus on basketball, which is what they are paid to focus on.  The lack of a side show makes for less drama for the television channels, but as far as I'm concerned, the game should be the focus, not whether Kobe tweeted during a game. 

Iron Man 3 has made a lot of money at the box office.  So much money that Robert Downey, Jr. should never have to work another day in his life.  I envy that a little.  Wouldn't it be great to work because you wanted to, not because you had to?  Think of the stress lifted off your chest!  You would certainly look at a job differently if you didn't need it.  Not that I'm disparaging Robert Downey, Jr., for making all that money, because if there was ever a 'where there's a will' story, it's his.  He could have been just another actor who fell into the drug addiction pit and disappeared.  Instead, he got himself cleaned up and got himself a second chance.  Here is further proof that it is never too late to make a change for the better.   

Larry and Zane have been exploring the world using Google Earth, one soccer stadium at a time.  They've been to Old Trafford and other stadiums in England, and they've traveled to Germany to see Bayern Munich, to Spain to see where Messi plays, to France to see where Beckham plays.  They're going to work their way around to the World Cup location, but that's next year.  I like the idea of using Google Earth to learn some geography.  Geography presented in schools these days seems so dry and boring, and exploring new countries should be exciting. 

I have been feeling stressed out and just plain down on life.  My good friend Andrea over at Maybe It's Just Me sent me a care package that made my day--80s music!  How is that for a good friend?  Now when I am feeling low, I can put on these cds and just dance my cares away.  Thank you, my friend!

Go visit Stacy today, and make her day!

A Day in Random

I am glad that hurricane season is finally here. Not that I want the death and destruction that comes with a hurricane. I just want the rain. Lots and lots of steady rain. We are still in a drought here, and the summer heat will pull even more moisture from the air.  I'm not worried about the cacti. It's all the other plants and trees that I don't want to lose.  Not to mention all the critters that will come looking for water and scare the bejeebers out of my husband. 

The San Antonio Spurs are my favorite basketball team, let's just get that out of the way.  I am not a huge basketball fanatic.  But I like the Spurs.   They don't talk smack.  People talk smack about them, and they don't respond, or they just laugh.  The Spurs don't deliberately hurt other players.  Even Dennis Rodman made a Herculean effort to behave himself when he was a Spur.  The Spurs are just nice people.  Oh, and they also play some killer b-ball. 

My husband likes to go to Wal-mart.  Not for any actual shopping, mind you.  He was looking for this particular spider:

What he was actually asked to go to the store for was milk.   Do other husbands hit the store for one thing and come home with something completely different?  I want to know!   But the older Lego kids often remain closed until their owner reaches the appropriate age, so I'll be looking at the spider for awhile.

Am I the only person who noticed that the Lady Antebellum song "Need You Now"  is actually a booty call?  Yep, it's after 1am, and I'm drunk, so get your butt over here NOW for some lovin'!   So romantic, these kids today!   I suppose it keeps them off the street.  

WKRP in Cincinnati was one of the funniest shows on television, back in the day.  Sometimes I miss Herb Tarlek.  And Venus Flytrap.  And Les Nesman.  Occasionally I will get tape, and in his honor, make myself a door for my cubicle.  That always makes me smile. 

And now, from the random child files:  "Frogs are naked!"  Yes, indeed they are naked.  As God intended.  We would probably freak if they started wearing clothing.  Frogs would probably be snappy dressers. 

X Marks A Spot

X was how some people, those who couldn't write, used to sign their name. The county I live in, Bexar, has an X in the middle of it, reportedly because the man, Bear, would put an X for his name, and someone else would write out the rest of his name for him. I suppose at the time there were quite a few people signing their names with an X and they needed to differentiate on important documents like property deeds and so forth. Turned out that was a smart thing to do, otherwise all those Xs would have come back to haunt the tax assessor.

We all want to make our mark on the world in some way, don't we? When we are young, we have big dreams of doing big things. My 3 year old son has been running all over the house these days, yelling "Tony Parker to the rescue!" as he attempts to throw a basketball into a hoop. (for the uninitiated or uninterested, Tony Parker is the point guard for the San Antonio Spurs.) When he is a little older, I hope to steer him toward more realistic goals, but right now, he can be Tony Parker, all he wants. He can also be Kid Flash, a character from the TV show Young Justice, or Captain America from The Avengers

At that age, I had some big dreams too. The nuns in my EXTREMELY Catholic family told me that I planned to marry Peter Noonan from Herman's Hermit when I was two. I wouldn't think that nuns, especially nuns related to me, would lie about such a thing, so I suppose I must have established the dream of marrying a rock star.

Those first dreams about the world we want seemed to drift further away as I aged, curling into the air like tendrils of smoke, dissipating over time. Plus, my dreams changed with each new thing I learned or read about. When I was reading Trixie Belden and the Hardy Boys, I wanted to be a detective. When I say To Kill A Mockingbird, I wanted to be white trash. (I kid--it was a lawyer.) Hell, I even wanted to be Mr. Tibbs! (if you don't know who Mr. Tibbs is, google In the Heat of the Night )

I wanted to be a contender in the contest of life. Who doesn't want to be on top of the heap at the end of the day? That is how a lot of people 'make their mark', by getting to the top of whatever pile that counts these days. You climb to the top of the pile, you get to be King of the Mountain, you get to write your X. That's it. You're done. You've reached the pinnacle of your dream. That thing that you've lived your entire life to get? It's got.

Now what? Is that the end of the line, or the start of something new? One door shuts, another one opens. Or as a very wise man once told me "Another train comes along every 5 minutes." Just because we want to leave our mark on the world doesn't mean we only get the one opportunity. If we've reached one goal, it's time for a new one. There's not any reason that we have to settle down and coast.

I have a goal of becoming a novelist. Blogging is my way of relearning the writing process. Once I reach my goal, who knows?