Some Sadnesses

{one fell off and broke his head}

Along came a few wake up calls this summer that have changed my thinking in many ways.

* I'd venture to say if you read this blog, you read NieNie's blog. I don't know her in real life and probably never will, but I've known her through her blog for a couple years now. I stumbled on the blog from another blog and the first post I saw of hers featured her freshly painted bright green kitchen cabinets. Bright green kitchen cabinets! I knew I had found a style icon that I wanted to follow. I came to check the blog first thing every morning, drinking in her unbelievable true-life style and neverending positive, but real, attitude. So, I was shocked out of my socks to read one mid-August morning about something that happened to her that only happens to people I don't know. But that's the thing! I don't know her! Yet, I couldn't sleep for several nights after I learned about her plane crash. How could this have happened to such a bright light? What is her adorable family to do without her? And, selfishly, how will my experience with blogs ever be the same? Then something happened with blogs that made my experience with blogs never to be the same. The blogosphere rallied together and GAVE BACK to this woman who gave us so much. Silent auctions filled every blog I checked regularly. The NieNie Dialogues fan club is projected to raise $100,000 to go toward her recovery. Her story has made it into NYTimes. It will be on the Today Show tomorrow morning. What is the root of this story? I ask myself, as a PR person always asks ... At the root of the story is HER. The story became news after the blogosphere joined hands in singing her praises, but Stephanie is the reason. Who she IS has ignited the rest of US. It's really changed my perspective on how much one person can do with one blog.

* Another closer to home sadness was realized last month when my second cousin, 2-year-old Sarah, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. A more darling child, there never was. I met her for the first time at her uncle's wedding in Arizona in May and looked forward to watching her grow along with her beautiful siblings. Sarah has a newborn sister as of yesterday, so this time is bittersweet for their family. It reminds me that my cousins mean the world to me and that my cousins' children are precious little extensions of these personalities I grew up with and played on grandpa's farm with and went sledding with and teeter tottered on teeter totters with. We can never celebrate our families and our families' families too much and need to enjoy our time on earth together as long as we can.

* Last week there was a shooting right outside our apartment window. Adam and I were about to fall asleep when we heard what sounded like a super loud firecracker. Police surrounded the neighboring building and stayed until late the next morning. We had little knowledge of what happened until we read the news the next day. Sadly, the firecracker noise was the Irvine SWAT team reacting to a man in the neighboring building pointing a gun at them. It all started because of a domestic dispute, and now the man is dead. The police were doing their job, but we were unnerved by the fact that it happened so close, and wondered how it happened in one of the safest cities in America. We talked to the family members of the family and learned about the man who died. He was loved by his family but deeply troubled and may have pointed the gun because he knew the outcome would be what he really wanted: an end to his life. It's hard not to draw a quick judgement about a man who abuses his wife, and points a gun at policemen. But I learned that day that we almost never know the whole story and thank goodness it's not up to us to judge.

* This one is trite compared to the rest, but it literally rocked my world. It also broke the neck of the smallest giraffe in my measuring spoons set. Pity! August 4th, I was sitting at my desk when there came a rumbling from down deep in the earth. It was the sound of a semi-truck being delivered to my front door by a bulldozer. I was totally bewildered at the deafening sound and looked outside. It wasn't just me that was shaking. It was the BUSH and the SIGN and the ROAD and my CO-WORKERS! I let out a screech and the three of us in the front room (we work in a very old house - scary in and of itself) just looked at each other in panic. After about 10 seconds of that, and someone explaining what it was - I looked online and yep, LAT & NYT already had something posted: A 5.4 earthquake shook Southern California, with an epicenter in Chino Hills. Chino What? I didn't know where that was, but I did know that I have almost no food storage and am ill-prepared for any and all disasters. I went to the store the next day and bought as many gallons of water as my very small storage space could hold. I've got some wheat, some macaroni and some dried banana chips (ok, I don't have that last one, but man the cannery cans some tasty dried banana chips). Just like last October when the fires came w/in 5 miles of our house, I realized there is something I am learning about living in this state: the end is near ... and the end is starting in California.