Jumping off Life's Treadmill

No matter how much you LIKE exercising, sometimes you just want to get off the treadmill for a minute. (Okay, confession: maybe this was a bad analogy, as really, right now; clearly exercising hasn’t been my best friend.) I’m sure you’ll agree, sometimes it just seems like you have so much to do and just not enough time to do it. There’s family, work, friends, play, chores and ahem, exercise, and simply just not enough of you to go around!
After a whirlwind couple of weeks, I finally feel sort of caught up. My kid is back in school after a teacher’s strike, work is getting caught up, the show is hanging and who knows, I might even get to the drycleaners today!

Here are a few reflections and a little work stuff from life on my pretty cool treadmill:

Several weeks back we vacationed on the Big Island--Hawaii. Here’s a list of my favorite things:

1. Listening to the waves crash is my second favorite way to fall asleep. How I would love to hear that every night!

2. My VERY favorite way to fall asleep is listening to the waves crash while it rains.

3. I love that my kid's favorite way to fall asleep was listening to reggae music.

4. It's impossible to buy 110 film for my underwater camera off the shelf—next time I will plan ahead.

5. I have profound respect for underwater photographers--sort of like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time--not only are they moving, the water is moving, the sea life is moving and well, breathing is good too.

6. Canadians are super cool—and we now have new pen pals from Canada!

7. You really CAN spend all day at the pool, particularly if Mai Tai’s are involved.

8. We LOVE swimming with the sea turtles!!

9. Longs Drugstore has better souvenirs than Hilo Hattie's at much better prices!

10. It’s awesome to see a pod of dolphins jumping and spinning from your lanai.
11. French toast is really best made with Hawaiian sweet bread.
And finally...

12. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Upon arriving home, it was all work for the show. Michael and I went up to LA on Thursday to hang the show, which turned into an impromptu date night to avoid traffic. On Friday, the kid turned six (how did THAT happen?!) and on Saturday, the show, The Eye of the Beholder, opened. Many, many thanks to my family, friends and fans for making this a superlative experience!

I couldn't resist her.  We spoke for a while--she is looking for a movie deal for her marionette fox.  The fox she brought to the show is really a stand-in--a body double of sorts.  The real marionette fox was at home.  She brings this one because people like to pet it and it makes it sort of dirty.  This way, the real one stays clean.

 

My kid is definitely not the only one who seems to grow like a weed—here is Kate, once again. Those eyes! Thanks to Kate’s mom and dad for trusting me to capture all their growing flowers on a continuing basis!

And lastly, just because I’m so proud of myself: here I am with a jackhammer. Michael and I have been talking about removing some cement planters in our yard for as long as we’ve owned this house. On Friday, I made a comment in passing that maybe we should actually do it, and by Friday afternoon, we were hauling the cement blocks out of the yard. Okay, so I didn’t really do much of the jack hammering to take out the planter boxes, but really, I had to try it! Just in case you were wondering, jack hammers are really heavy!!  Talk about jumping off that treadmill!