small things...

Happy Birthday, Daddio

Today would have been my dad's 65th birthday.  So in honor of my pops, George S. Loughlin here is a list of all the things I loved (and miss) about him:

• His sense of humor.  He was often embarrassing, but always funny
• His taste in music.  His music collection is something to behold - a lot can be learned about the the history of music by simply perusing that collection
• His dancing.  Along with listening to his music, he loved to dance to it and often argued with mom over which of them was a better dancer.  *Note to all the men who read this blog: it does not matter whether you CAN dance, only whether you WILL dance.
• His passion for travel
• His storytelling - a true irishman
• His friendships
• His filterless mouth - you could count on dad to say exactly what you hoped no one would
• His welcoming spirit.  All of my friends were always welcome in our home - they were sometimes teased mercilessly, but nonetheless, welcome
• His love of food - cooking and eating!
• His views on work - he worked for 30+ years for Big Blue and could probably have been the boss many times over, but he worked in order to have the life he wanted and was happy to do well where he was

Advice/ideas I never took from dad (some now regretfully):

• "You'd be a really good cab driver!"
• "You should think about taking up gambling!"
• "You should learn web design  - I really think this world wide web thing is going to be big." (this was the early 90's - I did not learn web design)
• "I wish I could put all of my music onto my computer and play it like a jukebox."  (This was waaaaaaaaay before the IPOD - again early/mid 90s)

Many of you who read this blog knew our dad, please join me and wishing him a happy birthday wherever he is and please feel free to leave your own memories here.

thankfulness

This weekend was full.  Full of family, old friends, difficult memories, good sleep and weird dreams.  It was not full of turkey however.  I've been sick since Thursday morning so thanksgiving this year was cancelled. 

So since I didn't get the chance, but would like to get my gratitude on: I wanted to thank all of YOU for being here these last several months.  Especially to those of you who share your thoughts with me here on the blog.  It has meant a world of comfort to me.

For the curious...

If you've ever found yourself wondering what type of wisdom I share with my clients in the privacy of the counseling office, let me share with you a some sage words I shared with one lucky client this quarter:

Client: (after talking about her envy of a friend's 'easier' life) "I guess the grass is always greener..."

Me, brilliant therapist: "Sure, but isn't it all just grass...?"

Client: .........uh huh.

Me: Heh.

So I leave you with that dear friends, as we embark into the stress of the holiday season and the keeping up with the Joneses that sometimes happens...

ITS ALL JUST GRASS.

Weekend 2 - IIN

I was prepared to be pooped by the time I got to the airport.  I expected to sleep on the plane and wondered if I might fall asleep in the airport.  As I approached the waiting area in Chicago I kept my eye peeled for a spot I could curl up in when a man in a fur hat wandered by with his son and I stopped dead in my tracks and tried not to appear bug-eyed.  It was Jeff Tweedy!  I don't know what Jeff Tweedy or Wilco means to you, but to me he/they are rock gods and hometown heroes. So um, I was a little excited.  I ended up sitting near him and his family in the waiting area.  No, I didn't talk to them, but I thoroughly enjoyed spying on him and his 2 rock n'roll sons.  I sat there trying to think of who I could spill my excitement and realized I could only think of a few people who might be as geeked out about seeing Jeff Tweedy as I was. 

The rest of my weekend went similarly.  Filled with people who I was beside myself with excitement to see/hear and the friends I told excitedly about who I was seeing were all like, "um...who?"  But no matter!  Here are the hightlights:

• We talked about macrobiotics, vegetarianism, the power of WATER (very cool stuff)
• Andrea Beaman, alumni of IIN, former Top Chef competitor and funny presenter spoke about grains and curing herself 2x from thyroid disease
• Marion Nestle, 3x author and expert on how politics and money affect the messages we receive about nutrition
• We were supposed to hear from this dude, but it turned out his schedule was too busy!
• So instead we were suprised by celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz. Who was awesome and inspiring and funny and got a rockstar welcome from that bunch of nutrition junkies.
• And we rounded out the weekend with raw foods guru David Wolfe, or "Avocado", as it turns out he likes to be called.  For real.  I'm not sure I could call anyone Avocado, but it's not like we're hanging out...like me and Jeff Tweedy.  He was funny and super exicted the entire time.  Just about everything he spoke about was ultimately referred to as being the "BEST EVER".  Raw foodies all seem to be similarly energetic and exciteable.  Maybe there is something to all that live food energy.
• ALSO! I got to visit with an old friend from college, Joanne and her husband and their cute kiddo, Nico
• And of course another weekend with Ali and her boyfriend Greg.  We tried to watch "A Might Heart", but we didn't realize that you could turn the subtitles on when they didn't appear automatically.  I sat there through much of the movie thinking "I guess they trying to be all authentic with the language and we're on our own with the story. Damn you, Angelina Jolie" But then we figured it out. 

The thing I haven't mentioned is that each week they give us books and other useful items.  It feels like walking away with presents every month. 

Yay for weekend trips and lots of good learning and getting to see personal heroes in person.

But now I am seriously tired.

"Over and over, we begin again"

- From "Kitchen" by Banana Yoshimoto

Heading back to NYC this afternoon.  It looks to be another very busy weekend full of juicy good nutrition learnin'!  This month has been really busy and I face this weekend tired and on the verge of a cold. I've also got a touch of the blues, so I'm working on shaking that off as well.  So I'm going to do what I can to be rested.  I'm normally a person who requires, and has, a lot of downtime.  Not so much this past month.  Some people thrive on activity...and I do too, as long as it's followed by a toasty nap on my couch.

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend! 

PS - check out my friend Andrew's blog - he just won an award!

Another season at the lake

We went to Michigan again last weekend for another visit with our friends in Sawyer.  The last of fall weather before the long winter settles in.  The lake will soon enough become sheets of ice and the air painfully cold.  But for now, the sun is still warm, the water still blue and the woods still made for walking.

:: Sawyer beach

:: Skipping stones

:: Emmett was determined to walk all the way home through the woods.  Up and down hills, through a wooded path, refusing to be picked up for most of the way until he just couldn't make it any longer.  He even attempted a brief crawl just to avoid giving up on his goal.  But it was a long walk for such a little guy and were were all very impressed.

I'm hoping it will stay fall for just a while longer.  I'm not ready for winter.

Legend of the She-Cat

Last night Megan and I had dinner with 3 of my mom's friends from our old-neighborhood.  The four of them had gotten together regularly over the years for a girls night out and after mom died they'd been wanting to take us out.  We had a really great time with them.  During the dinner one of the ladies shared a story she remembered about our mom - which I will share with you now.

Our mom was always a fashionable woman.  She dressed herself well; she dressed us well.  I've seen the kinds of clothing gifts other mom's give their children - Megan and I counted our blessings - clothing gifts from mom were always good.  Mom was also often up for a good fight if she believed she was right and you were wrong.  At the crossroads of fashion and justice-seeking you will find the story of the "She-Cat".

One day, many years ago, my mom brought a favorite and fashionable dress to our local dry cleaner, Henri.  She dropped the dress off on Friday and returned the following Monday to pick it up.  When she arrived home and took a good look at the dress she noticed immediately that it had shrunk considerably.  She marched right back out the door and back to Henri's for an explanation.  Henri denied any responsibility for the shrinkage and told her that she clearly had put on weight since she dropped the dress off.  Ignoring any possible insult she might have felt and not about to just let the loss of a good dress go to waste, she challenged Henri by pointing out that it was impossible that she could have gained that much weight over the weekend. 

Henri, flustered and agitated by this point and aghast that she would dare question him, exclaimed, "You are behaving like a She-Cat!"

Mom went on to sue good ol' Henri in small claims court  and won.  She later decided to go to law school and continue the good fight against the Henri's of the world.  Just like any good She-Cat would.

Names, details and truthiness of this story cannot be confirmed.  Mom, the original She-Cat, is the only one who knows for sure.  :)

This is the first day of my life

This is nice.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zwFS69nA-1w

snippets

When I was in New York on the last day we were asked to close our eyes and visualize what our lives would look like if we allowed for the possibility that we could live out what our dreams detail.  Everytime I closed my eyes I pictured myself on a beach before any other thought made it's way through.  When we were finished I turned to my friend, Jess and said, "I think I'm gonna live on a beach!"  At the time I assumed it must be Hawaii or somewhere equally tropical.

Saturday I went on a long winding walk through the next town over (Wilmette) and ended up on a small bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and it's sandy beaches.  And it occured to me...I am going to live on a beach. Some time next year I'll be buying my sister's half of mom's condo and moving in to a home on the beach. (For those of you unawares - Evanston has beautiful sandy beaches on a lake that looks like an ocean.) Visualizing rocks the house.

Speaking of visuals...

::Friday was my friend Leah's birthday and she got a big ol' suprise party at Prairie Moon. She was totally surprised and totally still pissed at me b/c I totally lied to her about why I couldn't go out with her for her birthday - so I totally took one for the surprise party team - but it was worth it!  Very fun birthday

::I drive through these woods on my way to work

:: Hi, Fall, yer pretty

:: Emmett takes a back seat  for a ride in the fast lane.  Me too.

:: as promised, here was the prize given to my friend Rebecca r. for winning the produce contest...3 homemade (by me!)  magnets, here proudly displayed on what I assume is her fridge.

later, kids!