Category: Personal

Even with chapped lips my nephew Nathan is a knock-out! And he’s a killer at Monopoly. He wins… every… single… time…

One of my favorite sensations… Being slightly sunburned – just arms, upper back and shoulders, and maybe a little on the cheeks – and then that same night, letting a chilly summer evening breeze blow across my hot skin, and give me shivers. It’s bliss.

I also love laying in the sun, at the beach, on a towel on the sand, and letting the sun bake down. Not for long, but for a few brief minutes, how much damage can you do?

I actually love the way my pale skin looks – I’m one of those rare people too pale to match most makeup brands, but I tan easily. But tanning makes me look older, so I avoid it… Pale is good, right? But this weekend, while moving, I ended up spending a lot of time in the sun, and came away slightly pink everywhere that wasn’t covered up – even the back of my neck got some sun – since I had my hair up.

As I was driving the moving truck back last night, traveling down Highway 101, right along the beach, and letting the cool night air give me chills, I just felt so fortunate and lucky and eager! And I was singing with the radio the whole way down. I only sing when I’m happy. It’s impossible not to sing, when I feel that way, it just comes out – at full volume! And when I’m not happy? Well I don’t sing. So I always sort of know, that if I’m in the middle of a change – big change, little change, any kind of change at all – and if I find myself singing, it’s an excellent sign!

I’m actually enjoying the night breeze again tonight – with my laptop out on the deck – perfect summer night! I’d never intentionally get sunburned – I’m too aware of how damaging it is – but it was accidental this time, and I see nothing wrong with thoroughly enjoying every sensation I can!

I had an interesting experience at the polls today. When I first registered to vote, at age 18, I registered with one party – but I haven’t always voted for the candidates put forth by that party. I tend to pick my candidate based on who they are as a person, and what they espouse, and less on what party label they wear. So today, I once again was attracted to a candidate for president in the other party, but I realized it was the first time I’ve ever felt that way in a Primary Election – so I explained to the poll worker what I wanted to do, and asked how best to accomplish that – since obviously if they handed me the ballot for my “official” party, my preferred candidate’s name would not appear on it.

The poll worker told me first it wasn’t possible – that I should have changed my party affiliation before the deadline, and now it was impossible. So then I asked how to write-in a candidate’s name, and she said that I could do that, but it probably wouldn’t count. And I told her that was fine, I might still do it anyway! She was completely kind and helpful, but luckily another poll worker nearby heard the exchange and grabbed the policy book and looked it up and discovered that I could indeed vote under another party, using a Provisional Ballot. Yeah!

So I got my special little peach colored envelope and as they explained it to me, the guy in line behind me said he wanted to do the same thing. And we all kind of laughed over it. Here I was the first person all day with that question – and it was really late in the day – and now they had two of us in a row. So I went over to the little cardboard voting booths and filled in the little bubbles with a pen – no electronic voting in Fallbrook! And when I was done, and waiting to hand over the peach envelope with my provisional ballot, I noticed a bunch of people getting peach envelopes. Now they could have been people from other areas, people who have recently moved – there are lots of reasons to use a provisional ballot. But as I left I smiled at the poll worker who had helped me and said, “Wow, there are lots of us all of a sudden!” and she smiled back and said, “Yeah, you really started something!” and she gave me the OK sign.

It made me feel good to realize that I’m not the only one – and also to know that because I asked the question, it opened the door to other voters getting to vote for the candidate they truly believe in, rather than having to stick to their official party’s candidates. I have no idea who they all voted for – but I think it’s VERY cool they got to make the choice they really wanted to make!

The days leading up to New Year’s are some of my favorite of the whole year. Almost everyone is still in vacation mode, but the stress some associate with getting ready for Christmas is over, so everyone seems happy and cheerful and not in a rush. They smile at you in the market, and let pedestrians have the right of way on the roads, and you see lots of people in new clothes – and anyone in a new outfit automatically walks a little taller! New clothes are fun!

But the main reason I love the couple of days before the new year is because we all start to reflect on the past year, and I think that’s a really healthy thing to do. I think it’s important to examine what you accomplished in the last year – and take some time to celebrate it! I also think it’s important to think about where you want to go next, and make sure your life is headed in the direction you want. It’s so easy to get caught up in day to day stuff, and to neglect your big goals. And the flip side of that is to not notice how far you’ve come on a big goal – sometimes we don’t notice all the progress we make along the way. So stopping at the end of the year, and really looking back, and noticing everything is fun! And healthy!

I’m not a real big proponent of resolutions. Mine are always sort of vague – I want to do better in these three areas, healthy living, business, and love. That feels good – and do-able – to me.

But specific resolutions like “I’ll never drink another Diet Coke again” are way too rigid for me. I may be hoping I can do that, but the fact is I love Diet Coke, so I probably will have one at some point during the year!

This year I sent out New Year’s cards instead of Christmas cards – it seemed fun and different, and I love New Year’s, so why not? The image I used is one I shot in early December and it features the railing on Elder House – which is a very distinctive part of the architecture, so it seemed appropriate for my first year here. It was shot with my favorite fun lens – a Lensbaby 3G– very cool!

When I was growing up my favorite Christmas tradition – other than getting a ton of gifts! – was Gingerbread Boy Day! But it started long before I was born…

My grandmother, Sophia Spelts, in the early 1950’s when her children were small, was heartbroken when she learned that the children in an orphanage in San Diego often didn’t receive anything at all for Christmas. She was an excellent cook and baker – in fact she worked in a bakery as a young woman – so I guess it was only made sense to her to try and fill that gap by baking! She would make dozens of Gingerbread Boys, decorate them with frosting and candy, back each one individually with a sheet of cardboard, wrap it up, and tie it with a big beautiful bow. And for some of those children, it was the only gift they got that year.

When her own children grew up and got married, she brought the new spouses into her tradition. On a Sunday before Christmas everyone would come to her house and decorate cookies for her to deliver to the children.

I was the first grandchild, and I remember vividly my first time at the table with a big butter knife and bowl of pink frosting and getting to decorate a cookie – although I think by then the orphanage had closed, and so that part of the story had ended – but Gingerbread Boy Day lived on as a family tradition. And the number of cousins participating grew and grew. I remember my Grandma had a real thing about monsters. If the decorating didn’t pass her standards, it was labeled a monster. Most of the boys made monsters! But the monsters tasted better – they had gumdrops for eyes, and big chocolate chips all over and maybe even coconut and red hots – all on one cookie. So yeah, not always very pretty, but definitely tasty!

Because I was the oldest and artistic, Grandma would always make one special cookie for me to decorate – usually it was a big tree, large enough for a small family to share – and I’d spend half the day making sure that special cookie was a masterpiece. I was also the first to put a paper skirt on a Gingerbread Boy, making it a Gingerbread Girl. I took a stiff napkin, pleated it, and used some frosting to glue it on – and it was cute!

After my Grandma passed on, we kept up the tradition, and through the years the frosting colors have strayed from her preferred pastels to darker more garish hues – she’d shake her head if she could see how bright the yellow is now! But I think she’d be thrilled to know that 23 years after her death, new family members are joining in, and that a tradition she started nearly sixty years ago is still going strong!

Getting started is always a little overwhelming. So many colors, so many choices…

Here’s a helpful hint in cookie selection! Make sure you grab the cookies with no visible flour on the surface. Flour is ugly! The only solution if you get stuck with a cookie with flour on it, is to cover the whole cookie with frosting. Thicker cookies usually taste better. And look for a cookie with a nice shape – one that’s waving one arm, or has a jaunty angle to his head is always good!

Josh showing off his work!

I think Nathan loaded this one with so much good stuff, it’s face is about to slide off…

Nathan watches my Mom stack finished cookies.

Hint number two! All Gingerbread Boys need a Gingerbread Girl… She has a little flour on her leg – obviously I wasn’t quick enough at grabbing the good cookies!

Josh is the artist in his generation. Whatever he does, it’s always beautiful.

You can see it in his hands as he works…

And here’s the finished product! I think this was the cookie of the day!