Working Girl

I was watching WORKING GIRL tonight, the eighties movie with Melanie Griffith (before the lips) and Harrison Ford (before the earring), and it made me very thankful for all of those women out there who busted there butts over the years to break out of the roles they were told they were supposed to have and instead took the ones they wanted. I don't take it for granted that I can walk into a room full of business men and be taken seriously, and I'm happy to say I've never once been asked to fetch them a cup of coffee, or worse. I know there's still discrepancies when it comes to gender in the workplace, but I am very glad for how far we've come...and I'm proud to stand on those padded shoulders that came before me.

All shook up

I'm thankful that I had no real reason to be scared even though I was scared of the earthquake tonight because I live in a solid home that's built to just sway. And sway it did! I'm thankful I have such a wonderful husband who always makes me feel calm when I'm freaked out. And I'm thankful that while the cats (who were on my lap at the time) fled, the dogs stayed by my side. I know it's quite overdramatic to say, but moments like that, no matter how small, are a good reminder of how thankful I am to be alive.

Sunday in the park

Today I got to wear one of my favorite sundresses to the park where we ate cherries and rode a paddle boat through a pond filled with white ducks and googly eyed frogs and a crazy looking loon while we listened to a real live dixie land band and I did cartwheels in a field buzzing with hundreds of lady bugs that I'd like to think mean I'll have a hundred times the good luck this week:) What a day!

Pardon

My dog burps. Loudly. Like all the time. Pretty much every time he sits next to me, he looks up into my face with his big puppy eyes, opens his mouth, and lets one loose. And I laugh EVERY time. I'm pretty sure that somehow my laughter has trained him, and now he does it on purpose just to make me happy. And man oh man does it.

Mental photograph

I held cousin Sarah's baby tonight at a lovely picnic gathering of friends and family at Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in Los Angeles and it was a perfect moment with the clouds turning lavender and the Griffith Observatory lighting up in the background and Olivia's big brown eyes looking up at me and the soft light highlighting her beautiful auburn hair (so striking on a 7 week old baby!) and it was all topped off by her sticking out her tongue at me an making me laugh so hard I almost dropped her. Awesome:)

No risk no reward

I'm thankful for the times when you take a risk...and it pays off. I had a meeting today and decided to pitch an idea that other people had told me maybe I should put on hold -- but I put it out there and the person I was meeting with practically did a cartwheel she loved it so much. Take that, self doubt!

Sun Power

Three days worth of spinach, two months into the carrot, a week's worth of green beans... (along with some lovely additions from Whole Foods)... and that was one heck of a partially-home-grown salad nicoise!

A beautiful dinner from a tiny little seed. Maybe I'll toss in my actor hat and become a farmer. Farmers can sleep in till 10am, right...?

Thank you Amadeus:)

Driving home after a long day, I decided to forgo my usual radio selections of NPR and Broadway tunes for some good old fashioned classical music and it was a delightful breath of fresh air. Listening to some Chopin followed by a little Mozart and my mind felt exactly like how my body feels when I float in the ocean -- free, supported, caressed, and completely relaxed. Somehow my thoughts always seem to be more focused, grounded, centered when buoyed by a wonderful piece of classical music.

A taste of home

I invented a new breakfast this morning and it made me very happy...a bowl of salty buttery grits with an egg over easy right on top. When I broke the egg, all the golden goodness poured like gravy onto the grits and it was a taste of pure southern joy. Yeehaw!

Escape from LA

I'm thankful for such a vacation that was so magical that I didn't even think to open my computer once last week! And I'm thankful that I was missed while I was gone:)