Turning the big 5-0!

I really don't feel 50 years old. My inner self is only about 14 so how can the outer be 50? It's been a fun ride. I could probably write several books with titles such as "Winning Radio Contests -- A Complete Guide to Never Paying for Anything," "Planning Spectacular Parties Using Movies, Colors or Haiku," "Pranks - Just Do 'Em" and "Why Alter Egos are More Fun Than Real Life" by Gladiola Wickiwack. I'm not sure why there's been so much craziness in my life - I blame my mother.

I've learned a few things along the way, some I should have learned early, early on. Maybe this list will help young mothers.

1) All the silverware in the drawer doesn't have to match. Neither do the towels.
2) It's not the presents that are important at birthdays and holidays - it's the people.
3) Don't waste money on cheap toys or good walking shoes. Choose wisely.
4) More than one person can be right and something can be done correctly more than one way.
5) There's never a reason to be rude.
6) God hears and answers prayers. Sometimes the answer is no. Then things work out anyway.
7) Exercise. Just enough.
8) Love your skin. If you are naughty to it, it changes and you won't like those changes.
9) Get enough calcium. You don't want to be the hunchback of Notre Dame when you are 75.
10) Spend money to make memories, not to have things.
11) The more we own, the more trapped we are by things we have to store, dust, insure, move, trip over, clean and organize.
12) Your mother was right. Stand up straight.
13) Protect your ears. Wear earplugs when blow drying or to sleep at girl's camp.
14) Doorbell ditch. Leave treats. (My address is ... )
15) You don't have to overindulge at buffets to get your money's worth.
16) Take care of your teeth. Floss the ones you want to keep.
17) Good people don't have to be churchy but churchy people should be good.
18) The world won't end if you miss trash day.
19) When kids make messes, don't get mad - take a picture. You'll have a fun memory to talk about later and pictures to show potential boyfriends/girlfriends.
20) Heaven is not going to be all white.
21) Don't teach someone how to do something and then go back and re-do it when they aren't looking. They'll notice.
22) Being on time is a show of respect to those running the show. But being late occasionally for a good reason isn't a crime.
23) Collect friends.
24) Sneak a drink out of the milk jug once in a while. No one is going to die.
25) Just be nice. Kindness is not overrated.

Well that's half of 50 - maybe I'll learn another 25 in the next 50 years. If you are reading this I must love you because I invited you here. Thanks for being a part of my first 50 years.

Paris, Paris, Paris!

Wow - we just got home from the trip of a lifetime. We've had other trips of a lifetime (Tahiti, Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan, Australia, Denmark and Sweden) but this was really our trip - just the two of us, no meetings, no catching bugs (except two at the top of the Eiffel Tower, c'mon, I'm with Riley). We spent 8 1/2 days wandering the streets of Paris. We saw more old art, more people wearing black, more high heels, more scarves, more creperies, more old buildings and more tourists than we've seen in a lifetime. Quite the place.

My favorites:
The Eiffel Tower - going to the top in the elevators, wandering around the top, seeing all of Paris.
The Eiffel Tower at night - magnificent!
The Arc d'Triomphe - climbing 284 stairs to the top.
Notre Dame - climbing the 384 stairs to the bell tower. Riley posing as Quasimodo. The gargoyles.
Walking hand in hand by the Seine.
Walking hand in hand down Champ Elysees.
Buying and eating pastries and Nutella and banana crepes.
Eating out every night except ...
Our picnic inside our apartment balcony - roast chicken, tabouli, salad, baguette
Versailles - not really a favorite but I liked Marie Antoinette's smaller castle and country area.
Seeing the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus de Milo.
Coming home.

I'm tired but I have many memories to run through my head for a long time.

The ebb and flow of life

Life is sometimes like gentle lapping ocean waves, easily receding and advancing, the rhythm a natural cadence of back and forth, in and out. Once is a while the waves move at a quicker pace, something underwater is making them pick up speed and the cadence increases but still remains regular. Occasionally a storm cell with lightning bolts and high wind develops out over the water and the waves begin crashing on the shore, wiping out all semblance of normalcy, changing the landscape of the earth it touches.

My life has mostly been gentle lapping waves, a regular rhythm of day-to-day life with some changes in tide for good measure. It's been comfortable, this life of mine, and although there have been rough spots, I learned and grew from them. Sometimes the waves crashing caused heartache and difficulty. Other times the waves crashed as periods of change entered my life. I can name those days or stretches of time:

Leaving home at age 19
My marriage to Riley
The birth of each of my three children
The moves we made to California, Texas and Utah
Losing Aileen, Winston, my dad and Stacie (I lost others along the way but the change to my life in those instances where not as severe)
Seeing each of my children leave home
Graduating from college
My mom's health these past 16 months

Maybe I'm being more contemplative as I near my 50th birthday. It truly is a milestone and one I fear and relish at the same time. I have books I want to write, adventures I want to take and places I want to travel to yet I love the natural cadence of my every day life and want to revel in each moment. The waves that crash upsetting the rhythm of my life are sometimes unwelcome and I want to moan about what's put upon me but in the end, it just becomes a part of the natural ebb and flow. The waves always calm. I just have to be ready.

Blunder of extreme proportion

I am a planner, an organizer. I make things happen because I think about things days, weeks, even months in advance. It's a gift. Or a curse, depending on how you look at it or if you are involved in my planning.

Yesterday I had some time to think about our trip to Paris. I've been gone every day from early until late and just haven't been able to pull things together regarding the trip - it all can't just fall into place the day before we go, I have to plan.

So I got the toiletry bag out and went through it, making mental notes of what I need to buy, well ahead of time. Went online, read up about Paris, how to use their bathrooms, the Euros exchange rate, what the weather is like. My friend Jera is here and we were talking about France. She mentioned she doesn't have a passport. I told her to get one and she could go with. Passport, hmmm. Maybe I should get those out. Riley's - good til 2017. Kaye's - good til 2010, wait, what - Jan 25, 2010. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! My heart fell into my socks. I stared at the numbers trying to make it be 2012 which is what I thought it was. No amount of staring at the 0 made it a 2. I yelled for Amy - she was the only one in the house so of course I had to yell for/at someone. I held out the evil passport, the betrayer, my hopes dashed. She said not to worry, she'd find out how to expedite it since she'd had to do that before.

The phone call she made left me feeling like a baby, an onlooker. I should have been making the call, taking care of my own problem yet my 23-year-old daughter was calmly handling the woman on the other end who told Amy I NEEDED TO SHOW UP IN AURORA, COLORADO, SAN FRANCISCO OR TUCSON to get my new passport. THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING - ARRRRGGGHHHHH! I explain through tears to her I can't leave the state - it's end of semester, I'm interviewing and hiring new students in the newsroom and doing final grades, I'm moving grandma from Stonehenge to home next week - I can't take a day trip!

I called Riley and wailed, we can't go to France - my passport is expired. Even as I'm saying it I'm planning how to get it renewed in time but the swell of improbability swallows me up and I have to be dramatic. It's ridiculous. He is sympathetic and says to call Lorie, our travel agent at BYU. I call her, knowing she won't answer because she NEVER answers - I always have to leave a message.

She answers.

I explain my dilemma. Oh, she says, there's this great place in Salt Lake. You just have to take your old passport and two passport photos to them. It's a bit expensive, she says. Anything - I'll pay whatever, I tell her. I think aloud - I'll need to get those photos somewhere. She says, just come in to my office, we take them here. I am silently thanking my lucky stars for her, for my calm daughter who got the ball rolling, for the company in SL that's going to charge me a bundle and for a Heavenly Father who planted a tiny seed in my head to GO LOOK AT THE PASSPORTS! Imagine if I hadn't looked until the day of our trip. Horrors.

So, on Monday I will drive to Salt Lake, pay Travel Brokers several hundred dollars, and hopefully have my renewed passport before April 14 when we hopefully leave for Paris.

It was a harrowing experience. Amy commented, well mom, if you didn't have 40,000 people's lives to look after right now (OK, she exaggerated a bit), you might have thought to look at your passport. It's true. I am overextended a bit. I really need this getaway, if for nothing else than to clear my mind and come home to take it all on again.