Follow Your Own Path ...
Judy had a thought on her site today about blazing a new trail. And then I logged into my email and my daily inspirational thought had a Joseph Campbell quote about paths:
"If you see your path laid out in front of you -- Step one, Step two, Step three -- you only know one thing... it is not your path. Your path is created in the moment of action. If you can see it laid out in front of you, you can be sure it is someone else's path. That is why you see it so clearly."
More things that make me smile -
Tee Shirt:
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world"
Those who understand binary and those who don't.
Bumper Stickers:
Illiterate?
write for help
Quit Honking
I'm on the Phone
ONE NATION
under surveillance
Only TWO more days ...
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Tucker Report
I met with the team at Tucker's school yesterday. It went very well. The meeting lasted about two hours total and I'm not going to repeat everything here. But I did want to tell you about one moment.
One of the team members asked, "is he a perfectionist?" And while I was shaking my head "no" three other people said, "YES."
I was surprised. Okay astonished, that's probably a better word. I thought that would be a good time for me to be quiet and just listen. They described perfectionist behaviors and I was chagrined. It certainly sounded like perfectionism. How did I miss that? I thought I knew Tucker as well as it was possible for a parent to know her child.
Last night I watched him doing homework. He erased every single word - EVERY single word - at least four times in his effort to "get it right." 
No wonder he's having trouble completing assignments.
I mentioned this to my best friend, "I don't know WHERE he would get that ..." 
Okay, okay. I get it. But now what do I do about it?
Whooooo Hoooooo, Wednesday
If it's Wednesday, I have my regular weekly lunch date with Tina. How cool is that? Maybe I'll even try to get a photo or something. I don't know where we're going yet, I'm letting her make suggestions and decisions until I learn my way around better. And maybe even then I'll let her make suggestions and decisions cause it's fun to be surprised.
I have another lunch planned for Friday with my beautiful young cousin in town whom I have not seen in ... 20 years? or more? Talk about things that make you feel OLD.
There was no SIMSing on my part last night. Michael looked at me with the big puppy eyes when he got home from school and said, "After my homework, may I have a turn?" Well, what kind of Mom would say no to that?!? Michael mostly likes to build houses, so that's what he did last night. Although he did create a family for about the last hour he was playing. And at the end he said, "Having kids is a lot more work than it looks like for you. Aren't you glad we aren't like these guys?"
o_0
Yeah.
Glad.
Still happy.
o_0
I guess it's been a while since I played SIMS and I never have spent that much time playing SIMS 2. It took a while to set things up. Then my little people got started and they had minds of their own! The daughter didn't do her homework and then she was too sad to go to school. So the social worker came and took her away. About midnight last night.
I didn't think that was the kind of thing I should save.
I'll do better tonight.
The Best Part of Parenting
You know, I love my kids. I can't imagine what I used to do for entertainment back in the days before I had them. I can't remember days of having time for entertainment.
But one of the best parts of living with the guys is that I get to hear their take on my life.
"She's playing with fire again."
"I don't think now is the time to ask her, she looks like she needs chocolate."
and my favorite from this afternoon
"She's working, if you ask her now, she'll never pay attention and you'll get a "yes" for sure."
o_0
Psssst - kids ... come here ... "She's not DEAF."
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I've been promising Andrea that I'd get a new soundcard installed so we could do real video conferencing with sound and everything. It got installed today. (yeah!) So now I'm all ready and I'm going to ....
Play Sims.
YES!
Grill Bits -
It's been a lovely day in Albuquerque. A perfect, rather mild summer day. Breezes blowing through the trees. Just the kind of day that makes you want to grill something. So I lit up a fire in my little grill. Apparently, the idea was contagious because within a half hour there were at least six other residents of this complex lighting fires in their own grills. Smoke was everywhere.
Kids were out on the lawn running with puppies and tossing a football. Grown-ups were waving spatulas at each other and grinning across from their vantage points behind various sizzling meats.
It's an illness. I know it has to be. There's just something about hot coals that makes me ... well, a little crazy. I just can't stand to only cook a little bit. Once the coals are hot and ready, I want to grill everything I can get my hands on.
Tonight, I was JUST gonna grill up some burgers. Something simple, you know?
But when the coals got hot I started thinking ... Don't I have some chicken in there? Or something?
I grilled burgers, hot dogs, the buns for the aforementioned, mahi mahi fillets, chicken breasts, and some zucchini that had the misfortune to catch my eye. I won't have to cook anything for a week.
Life is good.
The night view of the restaurant where we had breakfast yesterday.
We had a GREAT day. DIdn't do everything on the list, but we were flexible and we had a great day.
Started off with breakfast at the Owl Cafe. Really cool, shaped like an Owl. Part of the old Route 66. And great food.
Then we headed on over to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. I had an enlightening conversation with the host. I mentioned that I'd read on the internet that Pueblo Culture was one of the last remaining matriarchal societies left on the earth and he bacame almost affronted. At first he lectured me that I shouldn't believe everything I read on the internet because 99% of everything written about Pueblo sulture is written from the perspective of an outsider, and what could an outsider say that wouldn't seriously misrepresent the truth?
Then he went on to say that it's not merely a matriarchal culture, it's a matrilineal culture. He explained that the perspective of his people is for the future. For that reason, not only is property passed down from mother to daughter, the property goes to the youngest daughter because she will most probably be the one who will walk the furthest into the future.
The conversation was particularly inteersting to me because Cool Mary and I (more her than me) have been working on a story based on our idea of what a matriarchal society might be like. And in fact, I have realized that it is so difficult for me to separate from the ideas of patriarchy that most of my ideas are simply a swapping of gender roles as I understand them between men and women.
But rather than a society controlled by "powerful" women. Maybe it's important to let go of the ideas of power and control altogether. After all, a woman in her natural state of being, and a woman's perspective is rarely about power or control I'm not saying that women aren't powerful or that they don't seek some control. Ask any child of a mother if you doubt that.
But women are rarely about conquest and rules. We're a little more organic in our control. Maybe.
Anyway, it's something I'm still thinking through.
And while I was thinking these things we learned about the history, architecture, culture, and prayer of the Pueblo peoples.
Dancers preparing their ceremonial costumes.
Tucker trying the pump drill used to create holes in shell. (at least in this demo.)
Michael and Tucker out on the grounds.
Beginning a rain dance. The host explained that in Pueblo Culture dance is a form of prayer. He also talked about how many of the Pueblo People were converted to Christianity many centuries ago. In fact, some of the Pueblos are named for their patron saint. I was reminded in many ways of the expression of Christianity aomngst the Celtic Peoples of the British Isles. They too accepted conversion but kept many of their traditional forms of worship and directed them toward the Creator God.
Anyway, it was uplifting in ways I had not expected to see and be invited to pray for rain with these worshippers.
I Have Decided ...
... to take time on Saturday to play tourist in our new hometown. We will start at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center at 10.
Then I'll take the kids to Old Town for lunch and photos. Albuquerque was founded in 1706 under a charter from King Philip of Spain. Old Town, well, I'm not sure that any of the buildings left are actually a full 300 years old, but there are some very old ones. And lots of touristy things. The boys will probably want to buy junk, and I'll find a unique little treasure ... Or a cool tee-shirt. You know, those Conquistadores were really big into cool tee-shirts. It'll be authentico.
We'll end the day with a ride up the Tram to the top of Sandia Peak. I won't make them hike the trail. The website said it's a 2 mile trail, which is no big deal if it weren't at 10,000 feet. I'm not thinking that I'm ready to carry them when they get winded. But the word on the street is that the incredible Albuquerque sunsets we've enjoyed so much are even more spectacular up there.
Our home is only a few miles from the base of the Tram so that makes a good ending to the day. Yep. I think that will take care of it. Even if it rains we're good.
Have you ever noticed when you go to a new place how many of the locals have never done the tourist thing in their own town? Isn't that a shame? Other people will drive for days to do and see things that the locals barely know anything about. I know, I'm generalizing and not everyone avoids the touristy places. But if you haven't done it in a while, you might consider playing tourist at home. See your home with other eyes.
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Plan B? Well, that would involve scrubbing bathrooms and doing laundry. Just in case they aren't excited about Plan A.
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