I Love My Mom

Mom went to the hospital with a nasty cough and came out with congestive heart failure. She has all the doctors scratching their collective heads as to a cause. So rather than write about that, which just makes me cry, I'm going to tell you a story.

When I was about 12 I wanted to be a model. Seventeen magazine was having a contest to find models and I was sure I could win. I've never been tall and at 4 foot nothing, I'm sure modeling was not in my future. But my Mom didn't tell me that. She took the pictures I needed and encouraged me to enter the contest. She always encouraged us to go after our dreams. It wasn't her place to tell us if our dreams were achievable or not, it was the world's place. Even if we didn't achieve our dreams, at least we tried. And we had no one to blame but ourselves when those dreams didn't come true.

Another dream I had was to work in graphic design. After spending 4 years getting an economics degree, I got a respectable job in DC working in defense contracting. I think my Mom was the only one who said, "Good for you" when I quit that job to chase after my graphics dream. Everybody else thought I was crazy especially since I quit without having another job lined up. She knew I would make it work because she raised us to be responsible for ourselves and to be true to who we are - whoever that turned out to be.

I didn't win that contest to become a model, but I did manage to work in the design industry (and I still do). Dreams come and go, but Moms are forever.

My New Car: I Want to Throw Up

Today I bought a new car. The Honda Insight. Spending money makes me want to throw up. It didn't help that I was trading in my dream car, my PT Cruiser. It had everything that I loved in a car, it sat a little higher than average, it had awesome storage, leather heated seats, flat fold down front seat, removable back seats, manual transmission. If I thought it would last forever, I would have kept it forever.

This car sits a little lower, no tinted windows, no heated seats, no fold down front seat, tiny 15 inch wheels, automatic transmission. Ugh, why get the thing? Well it does get 40 mpg (on a bad day). And I can control everything from my steering wheel. There's voice activation, bluetooth, navigation. I made sure I was in the car for all my phone calls today. I think that's a little wasteful, driving around the neighborhood talking on the phone, but hopefully the novelty of that will wear off.

If the car wasn't new, I would spend half my time driving and talking on the phone and the other half, driving and eating! Heck since I'm talking hands-free and I have a free hand, I could drive, talk and eat all at the same time. Ah the joy of the automatic car!

Oh, and I've spent 8 years operating the windows from the center console, what's with the crazy window controls on the door?

Low Humidity

I love summer days with low humidity. These kind of days make me incredibly happy to be alive.

And another reason to get rid of humidity is to get rid of the saying, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." You can't live in DC and not hear that every time you mention how hot is it. No, I don't care how humid free 114 is, it's still hot. However, I did gain a new appreciation for that comment when I went to Miami in July. I really couldn't grasp how 85 degrees could be so amazingly unpleasant. Apparently, it's not the heat, it's the humidity; which, by the way, you wear like a hot wooly sweater.

But today nobody will utter those words. It's a perfect day. 72 degrees, sunny and humid free.