Thirteen Things you should do right now I apologize in advance for the serious nature of this TT, but I am writing it with a heavy heart today. One of my oldest and dearest friends lost her mom to a long battle with cancer yesterday, and I just found out about it today. I met this particular friend on the very first day of college, and we have been true friends since then. Through the past 10 or so years, there have been loves and heartbreaks, marriages and babies (for her, not me), home purchases (for both of us), career advancements, and setbacks, and so many other things we have shared in. I knew her mother well, and she was certainly an amazing and strong person, who will most certainly be missed. My heart aches for her family today. Learning of something like this puts everything into perspective for your day, and makes you value every second you have with those you love...in that sense, I give you my TT. Thirteen things you should do right now: 1. Tell your loved ones how special they are to you 2. Do your job during work hours, but spend your free time enjoying your life 3. Take that vacation NOW, don't wait until...whenever 4. Say a prayer, send a blessing, project good vibes (whatever it is that you do and believe in) toward someone who is hurting today. 5. Go ahead, do that thing you've been scared to do 6. Love with all that you've got, regardless of the consequences 7. Turn off the television, or the computer, and go do something with a living breathing being 8. Call those friends you've been meaning to call...do it, right now 9. Take a "mental health day" from work, enjoy the sunshine 10. Eat dessert (and hey, I'm on a diet) 11. Don't feel guilty for your blessings, but share them with others 12. Hug someone 13. Just LIVE as best you can, we only get this one shot

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Wordless Wednesday - Baby Blue

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Wordless Wednesday




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1.

The Diary of Rutka Laskier

If you have not yet heard about, or had a chance to read about the discovery of another diary written by a teenage Jewish girl, living during the Holocaust, do yourself a favor, and take a moment to read this.

“The Diary of Anne Frank” is one of those books that will forever haunt me. I honestly don’t remember how old I was when I read it, but I was probably 14 years old myself, and I recall the impact it had on me then. I too was a teenage girl, I too kept a diary, and I too felt a bit like the world didn’t want me, I didn’t fit in, so I identified with Anne Frank. But unlike her, I wasn’t in fear for my life, I wasn’t “in hiding” and unable to tell people who I really was. I cried for Anne Frank and her pain and suffering, for the injustice she, and all others like her were put through. But I admired her strength, her perseverance, her ability to keep dreaming about a normal life, when she was living anything but one.

It has been decades since I read her diary, and when it was recently mentioned in another book I was reading, I wondered if I should pick it up again. Would it still have such an impact on me now, a grown woman? Would I still identify with Anne?

Then today I hear about Rutka Laskier’s diary. Another formidable teenager, caught in the same turmoil as Anne Frank, using her diary as a means of expressing not only her anger and pain, but also her dreams and fantasies. And as I read the article above, tears formed in the corners of my eyes and I had my answers to those questions. No, I probably wouldn’t necessarily identify with her still, but yes, Anne’s story, Rutka’s story, would still have an impact on me. Only now, as an adult who has seen more of the horrors of the world, who has suffered some heartbreak of her own, it would have an even deeper impact.

What an unbelievably cruel world this has to be for such things to occur. And yet, what a testament to the human spirit that a diary such as this has appeared after all this time to remind us that we can never forget. To teach us that we must remember to treat our fellow humans with some semblance of respect, to alert us to the fact that a 14 year old deserves and needs time to be a child, to have their dreams and fantasies.

I wonder what legacies we’ll leave behind. Will our teenagers’ diaries, most likely in form of “blogs”, hold such an impact for future generations? Imagine if Anne Frank, or Rutka Laskier had had access to the Internet, what form their blogs would have taken. And then I remember we have teenagers across the world suffering the same injustices, and I wonder if they keep diaries? I hope they do, and I hope they are full of their silly fantasies and dreams amidst all the atrocities they see.

I think I will re-read Anne Frank’s Diary, now and again, we need a dose of harsh reality, to keep us humble, to keep us feeling as blessed as we are. For, I am blessed.

Moody Monday - Random thoughts

What a crummy, rainy, yucky day it is outside today. You've got to love New England! On Saturday it was 90 degrees and humid. Yesterday and today? About 50 to 60, cold, wet, dreary...as they say, if you don't like the weather today in New England, just wait till tomorrow. (you'll like it even less...haha)...okay, they don't say that part, I do.

Anyway, moody Mondays bring about a contemplative state in me, so...some celebrity centered random thoughts:

Paris Hilton: oh okay, I know, I know...not really something very deep to start off this discussion with, but I'm moody, so I read celebrity gossip to cheer me up. Because when you're feeling down in the dumps, there's nothing like a hotel heiress going to prison to cheer you up. She turned herself into jail last night to serve her 20+ day sentence. She is supposedly not going to receive special treatment, and is going to serve the entire sentence. And I'll believe it when I see it. Now, all things said, I actually feel slightly badly for her. Don't get me wrong, I think she's a spoiled brat, who was driving "recklessly" (aka DRUNK) and lost her license, and then continued to drive, because she figured the rules didn't apply to her. I don't pity her for very long, but, I put myself in her very expensive shoes, and I feel for her. Throw me in jail for ONE day and I'd freak out, and I'm not NEARLY as high maintenance as she is. This is certainly punishment, no doubt. And overall, spoiled brat or not, this is all her parents' fault...they should have thought her how to better handle her wealth.

Speaking of Paris, I watched the MTV Movie Awards last night, and man, did they single her out to completely humiliate her, WHILE she was sitting in the audience. I have to give her props for not storming out, and if I were Sarah Silverman, I'd hire a bodyguard, because I think the Hiltons might have a hit out on her at this point.

Now, about the MTV Awards...how horrible were they? I'm a sucker for awards shows, so I tend to Tivo them, and watch them with my finger glued to the fast forward button. I think I watched this particular awards show in record time. Did I ever really used to find that type of humor funny? Am I just getting old or was it just bad? And how can actors of the caliber of Jack Nicholson lower themselves to be a part of such a childish display of...of...I have no idea what to call it. It was just bad. Not funny, not imaginative, not even slightly enjoyable, just bad. Or am I just getting old?

I will, however, give credit to Johnny Depp showing up, because you could totally tell it wasn't his scene, and he didn't even do the red carpet thing, and wasn't even sitting in the audience, but obviously aware that he was going to win something, he showed up to thank his fans, and then promptly walked off the stage and probably ran to the safety of MTV world. That was cool.

Well, my pounding headache is making it way too hard to write coherently, so I'm going to leave you with this:

No matter how moody your Monday is today, at least you're not Paris Hilton.

R.I.P. -Blueberry the Beta

Blueberry was a fish who lived the best kind of life that a Beta, Siamese Fighting Fish could wish to live.

His childhood spent in a pet shop, living in a small plastic container, Blueberry was adopted and given a home in a pretty fish bowl, surrounded by pretty blue rocks on a desk, in the office of his new owner, Karina.

And in his new home, he could swim around in circles and circles every day.

His owner Karina would feed him every other day, and change his water weekly. She had even purchased a lamp so that he could have some wonderful light to swim under.

He brightened up her office space, and gave her someone to talk to when she was having a particularly bad day. There were days where she knew if Blueberry wasn’t there to calm her down, with his peaceful travels around the fishbowl, she might have seriously punched one of her co-workers on the nose.

Then one day in May, the last day in May, Blueberry seemed blue.
He kept hiding under the pretty blue stones, and Karina kept asking him
“Are you okay my fish?”
But then he would swim to the top, and do his rounds, and she thought everything would be okay. Karina knew that Blueberry liked to burrow, always had, so she figured he was just in one of his burrowing moods.

Then one day in June, the first day in June, Karina came into her office and said
“Good Morning my fish”…but Blueberry didn’t swim to the top as usual. In fact, Blueberry wasn’t swimming at all…and Karina was very sad to learn that Blueberry the Beta, Siamese Fighting Fish…had ceased his fight.

Rest In Peace old buddy…I’ll get a Blueberry 2.0, but it just won’t be the same. You’ll always be my first Beta.