I was sitting on my couch snuggled up next to Mister Miles (as Eva likes to call him) surfing my most favorite blogs when I ran into this. Sweet Amy is like a soul sister. We've only communicated through a few emails, lots of thoughtful comments, and hours spent reading each other's blogs. We've never met, but I swear I must have known her in another life. And to stop by her Commonplace Life to find something so unbelievably unexpected, so thoughtful, so beautiful, so generous...there are no words.
This picture was taken by Anna about 4 seconds after Eva and I rolled out of bed...thus, the awesome bed head. We decided to wait for Anna outside on the porch and did our very best to keep bundled...thus, the two headed monster.
In this moment, I am grateful for Eva who is sitting on the other side of the couch eating strawberries, periodically leaning over to ask me to bite off the 'green trees' so she can enjoy them sans stem.
I'm grateful for the baby I haven't met yet who is stretching his/her rump up into my right rib cage. I'm also grateful that there are only four weeks until our introduction.
I'm grateful for my husband who is upstairs riding the bike trainer I got him for his birthday while watching season 1 of Arrested Development. The idea is to have some form of exercise at our fingertips when we're likely not to leave the house until mid March. On second thought, perhaps it wasn't especially wise to choose a form of exercise requiring me to straddle a bike seat after giving birth.
I've been traveling around the internet, looking for inspiration among fellow blogger business people. You see, this blog and my photography business are soon to become my main gig...along with the whole mom thing (smirk, wink). It's an absolute dream come true, and I want to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. Even more, I want to position myself to create even more opportunities than I thought imaginable. I once heard someone say they don't believe in 'luck'. They believe in 'opportunity meets hard work'. Word.
Maggie Mason, of the Mighty Empire just wrapped up a campaign for Intel. She had previously created a Mighty List of things she wanted to accomplish in her lifetime, and, soon after, Intel came calling, ready to sponsor her quest. There is nothing happier or more inspiring than this.
It makes me so happy to see people prosper, expand, create, and live life to the fullest. Just when I think I can barely put one foot in front of the next, I look to lovely women like Maggie and dream.
Hey, folks. Greetings from Pocasmello, land of the free and home of the brave. The heartland, if you will. Saturday morning, we boarded a plane in Boston and flew our cute little tushes westward. Truthfully, we've only been in Pocasmello for a very short time.
Most of our time has been spent in Salt Lake City with Ferris' family, and then Ferris and I stole away for a decadent 36 hours in Sun Valley. Note in the iPhone pic below, I'm desperately trying to snap a lovers moment while Ferris is glued to the Monday night pre-season football game...per the usual.
Yesterday morning, we found ourselves lazily wondering through our favorite local bookstore, Iconoclast, when I ran smack into this...
No kidding, I almost wet my pants in a completely pregnancy-unrelated way. An aside: Whenever Ferris and I see something on TV featuring the family with 18 biological children, the first and only thing Ferris says is, "There's not one chance that poor woman can hold her pee." Listen, I'm on number two and have already felt some of those effects. SOME, I said. I can't even imagine.
Anyhooters, with the strong prospect of losing my job in two months, I've been searching inward and looking back on the New Year's Intentions I made earlier this year...specifically Part Three. There's so much up in the air...so many unknowns that may not resolve themselves for some time. Until they do, I'm holding onto my belly and trying my best to see this uncertainty as an opportunity to grow. Grow in which direction? Only time will tell.
The title has absolutely nothing to do with the content. It's a license plate on a soccer mom SUV I saw this morning as Eva and I were running errands. Awesome.
Over the weekend, Ferris and I went with some friends to see Ira Glass speak at the Merrill Auditorium. We sat dead middle about 15 rows back. I tried my damnedest to get a good picture with my camera phone all to no avail. Not only was it too dark, but every time I raised my phone to get the shot Ferris would grab at my arm with the kind of intensity that insisted, "Must you always embarrass me with your incessant need to DOCUMENT EVERYTHING?" To which I raised my phone again and clicked.
Ira was no disappointment. He's a slight, gangly, older Jewish man...superhero nerd with superhero nerd glasses. He is imaginative, witty, smart, and completely clear about his craft. He's almost compulsive about story telling which I found video of and posted below. But more than simply being entertaining, he does a very good job drawing you in and captivating your attention. I would argue that most truly creative and inspirational people have one thing in common. They have a unique clarity about their craft, whatever that may be. They have an almost savant-like genius in their particular area of interest.
I have no doubt Ira Glass was made fun of on the playground. I have no doubt some people were supportive, but I bet the majority of people in his life had little understanding or appreciation of his creativity. That said, there must have been something compelling and motivating him to work at NPR from the bottom up to form and sustain one of the most popular radio programs in the country.
The most interesting point was made about the popularization of opinion journalism (Jon Stewart, Hannity, Rachel Maddow) and the flopping of 'real journalism'. He argued that opinion journalism has become more popular because the journalists (or hosts) speak like real people. I can't help but think that a similar thing has happened with blogs. Millions of people visit blogs on a daily basis partly because real people are creating real content. Sure, a fair amount of that content is total crap, but most of it is inspiring and good...very good.
My take home lesson (whether Ira intended it or not) was to feel great about my means of creative expression...my little space in the blogosphere...no matter who may misunderstand or criticize and to support anyone and everyone who does the same.
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 01:57PM 
