The Finer Things

Isn't life funny? The ebb and flow and all that? As anyone who breathes knows, life come at you fast. And usually all at once. Just as you think you're getting on top of everything, life throws a curve ball at you. Yes, life is just that bold. So when that curve ball comes, it helps not to stare it down as it whizzes past your head. (Did I mention that curve ball intends to reduce you to tears at the first available opportunity?) In fact, it helps not to focus on it at all. You see, life has a way of offering proportional diversions - the little moments that bring unexpected levity, joy, and rapture to any given day. And for those diversions I will be eternally grateful. For just as the latest curve ball advanced on its potentially vicious trajectory, the finer things emerged and took my breath away. What might those things be you wonder? Well.....

Wildly dancing about the kitchen to the Tarzan soundtrack with my very own Twila Tharp and Martha Graham

The ambient sounds of lawnmowers around the neighborhood accompanied by the exquisite smell of freshly cut grass

Trying to dance about in the car to the Tarzan soundtrack while all of the drivers around us stare and laugh (Did I mention the girls are on a Tarzan kick?)

Beating another car to the merge on Victory Road while driving to my Grandma's house for our weekly visit

Finding out my great-great uncle literally ran away with the circus

Finding out that same great-great uncle homesteaded in Wyoming after the circus abandoned him following a fall off of the tightrope

Reading a book about my favorite bookstore on the planet (Curious? Email me and I will send you the title!)

Sunshine (It's been a LONG and wet winter/spring!)

Listening to Brian Stokes Mitchell sing "Some Enchanted Evening"

Dipping fresh french bread in cool, tangy pesto

Dave shaving his winter beard into a 70s 'stache worthy of Starsky and Hutch

A ridiculously fun field trip to Chuck E. Cheese's with Ellie's preschool

Finding the perfect top to go with a denim skirt that has been relegated to the depths of my closet for far too long

Being in possession of "favorite books" lists from independent bookstores from across the country

Being in possession of "favorite books" lists for every conceivable genre from my favorite bookstore on the planet

Realizing I have a LOT of books to read before I can consider myself well-read in any way, shape, or form

The butterflies in my stomach I feel when I settle on my next literary conquest - a little Salman Rushdie, anyone?

...And so it goes. Yes, life has been a wicked pitcher lately, throwing the aforementioned curve balls with some serious heat. Thank goodness it also offers the finer things in life to provide a little balance. Isn't life funny?