Tuesday, August 2, 2011

ww2, old traveling pictures, etcetera.

  sunday evening before leaving with the fam 
and cousin david to see captain america: me likey!!
my thought summarization, 
if you care to read: 
. . . i liked captain america very much. did not think much of the red-faced dude, however. 
the brunette lady needed more screen time. 
random blonde lady needs to suck lemon water or join a convent in a dungeon somewhere... 
and that was a pretty decent ending and after-credits scene. :) :)
the end.

~~~

When you dance, 
your purpose is not 
to get to a certain place on the floor. 
It's to enjoy each step along the way. brilliant thought of the moment: canvas worthy?? :)
[Wayne Dyer]

that quote reminds me of swing dancing, and the things we learned without the scheduled lesson [tips were given to us by the lovely martha:]; rather, through the actual dance. no instructor walking you through tip-toe increments and counting, hold and technique. we were learning through mirroring the someone else's steps. learning through positioning your hands just so, to sense the push and the pull and the nudges of larger hands around ours.
gram would be so proud; just how many years back, she would've gone out there and cut a rug herself. :)
dance rant over.

i've started reading the introvert advantage.
i'm thinking that i'm . . . an introvert. but that doesn't necessarily mean the stereotypical shy, doesn't like being around people much, book reader type all the time.
sure, those come in, ebbing and flowing sometimes. but it's more about how extroverst and introverts are on opposite ends of the energy continuum.
in one paragraph on page 7 of the overture, it says
"where we fall on that continuum predicts how we derive our life energy. people on the more introverted end of the continuum focus inward to gain energy. people on the more extroverted end of the continuum focus outward to gain energy. this fundamental difference in focus can be seen in practically everything we do..."
i have page 23 of chapter one dog-eared. it's good reading but i think it's going to take me a while.

monday, anna came home and showed me these pictures, from gram's trips more than 9 years ago...2000? 2001? estimated, that's what i say.
it's just amazing, though.
yes. in verona, the juliet statue. that's gram, to the right, with aunt loraine . . . a . . . niece of hers? or something.

just like in letters to juliet.
next . . .

yes, you guessed it. france.

eiffel tower. wowza.
now, the latest movie i saw with this thing in it was monte carlo. sad, huh? referencing all these chick flicks as my latest vicarious experience of such wonders? it's what you resort to when you don't have hundreds on hand to travel with at the moment. :P
also, they went in anne frank's house. mhmm.
just seeing these pictures makes it even more real that gram was there, once upon a time, standing in that room, seeing smelling hearing and feeling everything there. crazy.

my gram was one very traveled lady. :)

and this book . . . i'm going to read it sometime.
it takes the breath out of me, fascinates me to no end to just stare at artifacts like this, from another time.

it holds even more mystery because one of gram's older brothers was MIA/KIA in ww2 somewhere over hawaii; never found, not even his plane . . .
i have to say, i have imagined him somewhere on an island out there, 88ish by now, living the life of an islander since 1944 or 45. my great uncle. that would be something.
i know it's kind of impossible, in reality . . . 
hey, i can imagine, can't i?

now for something from today:
anna and i drove to meet skylar and her cousin, destiny, at a coffee shop this morning. [dest on the left, sky on the right.]
 Photobucket
we haven't seen sky since march, because everyone's lives are just so darn busy, hahaha, so it was good to get together and reminisce on when she was our neighbor . . . and nearly live-in sister.i do believe she's still in the "the peoples" tab up there; though she's not a daily person in our lives anymore.
here's the thing with me and that coffee shop: i love it. it's so darn cute. but it's a little too far away and therefore not worth the gas every day if i wanted to work there someday . . .
sigh.
then, tonight, around 5, a storm rolled in.
wonderful thunder, really lovely downpour and breeze, pretty sweet lightning, too, until i saw it strike right out in front; on the freaking boulevard not 40 feet from our house. yikes.
you can imagine the thunder from that hit.
around 5:50, the power went out. [huge smile]
fun stuff.
it was out until 6:30, and i know that's nothing to some people.
our power goes out about 1-3 times a year, and no more than a couple hours each time due to snazzy storms like these. they don't come that often. although the rain is so good for some of the crops and especially good for the brother's lawn business [green gold and all that;)] i'd take the rain without the light and thunder most of the time, thankyou.

5 comments:

jessicajane said...

oh wow, I would love to go to Paris :) I think everyone would. And the photo of the house Anne Frank was in, pretty neat!! I watched the newer version of an Anne Frank movie a few weeks ago!

jessicajane said...

p.s. I stayed on your blog for a good 10-15 minutes listening to your playlist. Great music.

Anonymous said...

Oh man those old pictures are fabulous! Amazing that she got to go to Anne Franks house.. For some reason I am so intrigued by the Holocuast/WW2. I just love to travel.. wish I was a millionaire...sigh

erika said...

What fabulous adventures your gram had! :)

charla beth said...

ahh, i love your writing about dancing in this: "...to sense the push and the pull and the nudges of larger hands around ours." so much beautiful visualization and love felt in those words.

wow; i love what you shared about introverts. i always felt like that, that i need to be alone in order to refocus and find a good medium. but so many of my friends just adore going out constantly constantly constantly whereas i would be exhausted if i did that all the time. i always wondered if i was strange for being different. it's beyond wonderful to think there's a reason for that! i think i'm going to have to pick up that book myself. ;)

and those pictures of your gram? just incredible. one of these days you'll be walking in her footsteps, your feet dusting the same soil and landmarks. <3 thanks for sharing those pictures with us.

p.s. the rain pictures in this are amazing. you have me longing to be where you are! a good storm now and then can be so refreshing.