Going Back

There are some places I'd often like to return, but much of the time make excuses, "oh, no I shouldn't, I don't have time" or just don't think outside of a narrowly regimented schedule. I am understanding that things are often more available to me than I usually expect. For example...returning to Malibu, the 'bu, the Rock, Young Life's Malibu Club. Last week, I was on the phone with the folks I worked with in Portland. These are the folks I met at Malibu, in Canada, back in 2000. "You have to come to Malibu the last week of August!" Oh, how I wanted to so badly, but didn't know how to make it work within my regimented thinking. So I started thinking about life outside of the planned calendar of events. I decided it was going to happen and started taking the necessary steps. The photos following show where I will be spending the last week of August serving at the camp during a week long "Military Camp." What?? Yes, the camp will be hosting military families, many if not most, whose fathers are over serving in Iraq.

This place is a place of personal retreat for me, so remote and removed. I spent one summer and part of another here and have some great memories. One of the pictures from the slide show at Gramp's service was taken on the "inner dock." Dad, Gramp, and another buddy were on a fishing trip a few inlets over. We tried to plan a trip for them to hire a water taxi and come over (the only way into camp is by boat or seaplane), but the trip through the inlets was too long for the timing and so I didn't expect to see them. Little did I know the connections they had. I woke up to a phone call on my day off somewhere between 9 and 10 in the morning. Remember, this was my day off (normal days had me up and running at 5am before camp came to life) so I was hoping to sleep in late especially after a night of "silent hockey." My boss called from one of the few phones in camp, "Stephanie, I need you to come down to the office as soon as you can." Yikes! Ok what's going on? I threw on my shorts and pulled my hair back as I descended the rock down to the boardwalk where the office sat. As soon as I got there, a couple of my co-workers started acting funny trying to distract me from the main street boardwalk. Finally, they let me out of the office door and there stood Dad and Gramp about 15 yards down the walk. I was so surprised and still rubbing sleep out of my eyes, but ecstatic to see them and have them on the property. I had 45 minutes to show them all of camp and then they were off again in the seaplane. It was a VERY special time for me...Malibu!

Shuttle Shuttle Shuttle!

Here they are! Some more pics, only I'm realizing as I pull them up to post that they may not be as exciting as expected! I don't know if I explained in the previous post, we couldn't actually see the shuttle until about 10 seconds after it launched. We were at a restaurant deck miles away, not at the actual NASA site. Anyway, 10 seconds into it you could see the shuttle and then the rumble started, kind of like thunder, as the massive shuttle lifts off. It really was exciting and basically unbelievable when you really think about it. I have since rented Apollo 13 and watched all the "extras" on the DVD as I continue my own space education!

Another launch is scheduled for August 7th. One of the mission specialist, Barbara Morgan, was the "back up" teacher for the '86 Challenger launch.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts118/index.html

More Pics, say Pretty Please! :)

NTT I'm rolling on the floor here you have such a good memory and are adamant that I get those pictures up here!!! I'm going to have to stage another shuttle launch for you just to get some darn pictures! LOL Ok, I will try again. I didn't have my camera and one of the guys there said he'd email me pics and hasn't, so I'll try again! :) Love you!

Through the ways of my world

A new quote to ponder...

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
-Henry David Thoreau

If I might have the platform here to introduce you to a book I've been mulling over. As I've stated previously, Florida has been a gift of understanding more about how I'm wired, why I value certain things, how I respond in different situations, and where I am most productive and personally fulfilled, why I always feel somewhat discontented. Did you know that stirring inside is actually part of my wiring. That it is my personality to always feel somewhat discontented, but with a high level of commitment and responsibility. As for the responsibility piece, I could live without that. :) I could go on and on forever about this stuff, but really just intended to share with you a part from the book, PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME II, by David Keirsey.

"If you do not want what I want, Please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.
Or if my beliefs are different from yours, at least pause before you set out ot correct them.
Or if my emotion seems less or more intense than yours, given the circumstances, try not to ask me to feel other than I do.
Or if I act, or fail to act, in the manner of your design for action, please let me be.
I do not, for the moment at least, ask you to understand me. That will come only when you are willing to give up trying to change me into a copy of you.
If you will allow me any of my own wants, or emotions, or beliefs, or actions, then you open yourself to the possibility that some day these ways of mine might not seem so wrong, and might finally appear as right-for me. To put up with me is the first step to understanding me.
Not that you embrace my ways as right for you, but that you are no longer irritated or disappointed with me for my seeming waywardness. And one day, perhaps, in trying to understand me, you might come to prize my differences, and , far from seeking to change me, might preserve and even cherish those differences.
I may be your spouse, your parent, your offspring, your friend, your colleague. But, whatever our relation, this I know: You and I are fundamentally different and both of us have to march to our own drummer. "

Process and Analysis

Running out of steam this week. I've read way too many books in the last 7 days, not all of them from cover to cover, but my brain has been inundated and I'm on information overload! I knocked on my neighbor's door last night at 9:30 PM, "Can I borrow a movie?" I just needed to be able to check out with some very brainless activity minus tv commercials. Problem being, I continued to analyze, not myself, but the movie! That's what happens when you watch it alone, you have the permission to rewind and catch that phrase-word that you missed. So, I had the sub-titles on and was not about to miss anything. Deep sigh of relief...loosening the grip...relax...finding myself in another place...Costa Rica? Oh no, Florida! Ahh, but this too is good. The warm evenings are so nice!

Now that I've led you on one of my random rabbit trails! You are welcome, by the way. I know how much you love to follow the brain currents as the nuerons synapse from one to another! Wow, I'll stop!

Some food for thought...been busy making adjustments in life. You know, the story of the boat and the rudder. The captain is always making slight adjustments, nothing huge, just ever so slightly because if not, he will end up in a place he did not intend. He continually checks his position and makes the necessary changes. As with life, I am continuing to check my position and make the ever so slight adjustments. They are not significant for today or this week or even this month, but if I leave it for a few years I will find myself in a place I did not intend. So, the continually process... Process, analysis, RELAX, repeat. (The relax piece is new! At least in as much as learning to not only physically relax, but mentally taking a break too!)