Thursday, July 06, 2006

Discovery

Last night Beano called and told us that if we went outside between 8:57 and 9:05 and looked in the northeastern sky, we'd be able to see the space shuttle Discovery.

So we did.

It gave me chills and goosebumps to watch it. A beautiful star, tracking steadily across the early night sky. I stood there with my husband and my daughter, and marveled at the little point of light that I knew carried people just like us. It reminded me of my Papa waking me up at 3 a.m. to go out in the backyard, shivering, waiting to see Mir, the Russian space station, fly overhead. We were so excited to see it, running from the backyard to the front to keep it in sight as long as we could, that we couldn't go back to sleep long after it was gone. We sat in the kitchen and talked until dawn about spaceflight and what it means and how it impacts us, and what the future held in store. It is one of my fondest memories, and I love that I can continue that tradition with M and Zozo.

Am feeling rather blah this morning. Begged a $20 off M and stopped at Starbucks, and am hoping that this little shot of mocha will give me a boost.

Do you ever feel like you're a bunch of different people all rolled up into one person? Sometimes I feel like that. Especially when I look at houses. There is part of me that thinks it would be fantastic to live in a loft in downtown STL, or a highrise in Chicago or Manhattan. There is part of me that wishes to have a little stone cottage way out in the country somewhere, with no neighbors for miles. Sometimes I look at really old, beautiful houses and I think about how magical it would be to live in a place with so much character and history, and other times I crave a brand spankin' new, built-to-my-personal-specifications starter castle.

Sometimes I just want a box in Colorado, as my M-I-L says. Just one big room. Give me a bed, my photography gear (which includes the digital darkroom of course) and a place to make some food, and I'm set. I don't even need a TV, although a small radio would be nice so I could continue my NPR habit. See, the only problem with this idea is that I'd also want to bring my husband and child along, and they come with a ton of stuff. M alone would need a small building just to hold the Christmas Display, not to mention all his tools and toys. Zozo, just by virtue of being a baby, has a boatload of her own goodies.

Maybe when we retire, and M no longer has the energy to put up the Christmas Display (I do believe it'll take him to well into his nineties to reach that point), and Zozo is out on her own with her own family, we can have a box in Colorado.

Uncle Marty, Aunt Dee and Cousin Demery are in town b/c of the 4th, and tonight we're all getting together. I love it when they come in, because with all the excitement of getting to see them again, they also bring peace. I can't describe it, but their whole family (including Cousin Brie, who couldn't make this trip) radiates peace and love and grace. They are an inspiration to me daily and I just try to soak up as much of their peace as I can when they are in. Plus, Marty is one heck of a cook and he just might be making dinner tonight. Woooo wooooo!

Okay, time to start the prayers again. Uncle Cloyd is in the hospital due to an extremely high fever. His doctors are not quite sure what is going on, so they've poked the poor man too many times to count to draw blood, and CAT-scanned him to heck, and are throwing about all sorts of theories. Aunt Jo, his wife, is still coming into work and putting in full days, and visiting him at St. John's before driving back home to O'Fallon, Missouri, and I'm sure she's pretty darn worried, so pray for her, too. We stopped by the hospital last night at work to visit, and he looked pretty good and said he was feeling better. He's the IT guy here at work, so my diagnosis is that he's got a nasty computer virus that's moving all his files around on his hard drive. He wanted to know if it was possible to re-boot, and we all had a good laugh.

That's about all that's going on here. Sorry for no post last night, but I was in bed by 10 and asleep by 10:30 for a sorely-needed 8 hours of sleep.

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