525600 Minutes

06.01.2008: {isolation}

Daily Mantra: "Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets." -Dr. Paul Tournier

 

05.31.2008: {a.note}

Daily Mantra: “Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable."

-Joyce Brothers

and a face:

05.30.2008: {full.coverage.in.a.cup}

Daily Mantra:  “Friends are like bras: close to your heart and there for support.” -funny person I don't know

My friend Heather and I were at lunch yesturday...

It was the middle of the afternoon in an out of the way Mexican place called Pepino's in the booming metropolis of Bangor, Maine. Its quiet...since its the middle of the week, and no one else feels like a margarita at 11:30 AM other than us.

"Just two today," the perky little college host with the college like ponytail, asks. (A few years ago her annoying tone would have been okay, but at this almost thirty stage, I feel like punching her or crying...or both)

"Guess its just us. We don't have our imaginary friend today". I said joking. Okay it was a bad joke, but did I tell you that I am kind of getting sad about being almost 30?! And her hair was way too pretty.

"No one else would be our friend anyway..." Heather remarks with a snicker. She often laughs at her own jokes. Ask her Buddha.

Heather is too nice and apologizes to the waitress (not the host, who is the person I am sure we offended, because she is already talking behind or backs to the bar tender...also a 13 year old...I mean 18 year old. SAME THING).

Next to my husband, Heather and I are the bestest of best friends. If the YaYa movie wasn't made yet, we would make it, only with less violence against or children, because as we discovered yesturday, our children pretty much rule the roost and we are simply their little puppets that dance around them and make silly noises to make them laugh.

Our current endevor as friends: the MDI Marathon...training starts in two weeks. Here is to a swift 26.2 miles (maybe we could take a boat instead), and an everlasting friendship between two people who can only stand eachother.

05.29.2008: {a.day.in.light}

Daily Mantra: "Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it."

-anais nin

There is no connection more divine than the connection between a mom and her babies. I had such a fun session this morning in the park with Jack and his mom. Very relaxed and seamless really. These two really have a special bond with eachother.

Thank you all for you sweet comments on my trip to Connecticut, and YES those clouds are real...I am not that good at photoshop. Hahaha.

Xoxoxo to you guys.

05.28.2008: {sharing.more.of.grandma's.house}

Daily Mantra: "“We understand why children are afraid of the darkness, but why are men afraid of the light?” - Plato


{simply a profuse amount of photos}
 

05.27.2008: [to.grandma's.house.we.go]

Daily Mantra: "Home is where it feels right to walk around with no shoes." -unknown

I think we were like 150 days into POTD or something like that, and I hadn't missed a day. I needed a break, so I took it. A simple photo...untouched except for cropping and sharpening.

I never thought I would feel at home any other place than near an ocean. My mother and father-in-laws picturesque home seems to hug me as soon as I get a glimpse of the driveway.


 

04.24.2008: [wonderful.wonder]

Daily Mantra: "Wonder is the beginning of wisdom." -Greek Proverb

05.23.2008: {my.mom.will.ask.about.this.photo.tomorrow}

Daily Mantra: " Think positively about yourself.... ask God who made you to keep on remaking you." ~Norman Vincent Peale

And she will ask if I ever wear my clothes in any of my self portraits.

I will tell her that I always wear clothes...you just can't see them. (because I really, really do)

She won't believe me, and go out and buy me a new shirt.

 

05.22.2008: [morning.sun]

Daily Mantra: " Happiness often sneaks through a door you didn't know you left open." -John Barrymore

05.21.2008: {happy.is.as.happy.does}

Daily Mantra: " If you want to be happy, be." -Leo Tolstoy.

I think that this quote just MIGHT be my favorite quote ever. Upon my search for THE perfect happiness quote to go along with my photos today, I found it. And let me just tell you...I think that this quote is pure jackpot.

First, let me say, that I pretty darn sure that Mom has been ripping quotes off from Tolstoy for far too long, because as I was looking through all of his sayings, all of her little "smartisms" just came pouring out. (That is just bad, Mom!! I know your secrets now)

I am about one of the happiest people you will ever meet, despite my occasional moodiness and tenancy to brood over my own (and somethings other people's) mistakes. I had someone tell me recently..." Your life is perfect, what do you have to be unhappy about anyway, that is why you are always happy." For the most part...its true. My life is perfect in a truly dysfunctional way. However, in my 24 years on the planet (ok...that is lie or just me in denial...I am almost 28), it hasn't ALWAYS been as nice. Everyone has a past...everyone has hard times. What I am trying to really say is that it has sucked at times. The good news is, that my darling Mom (no matter how much stuff she has stolen from Tolstoy) instilled in me this idea that happiness is something you create for yourself.

Story time...this post is getting a bit long...so if you want to leave at this point, be my guest.

My parents divorced when I was 4...which as it turned out, was not a sad thing in the least as they are both wonderful people but just not meant for eachother. My mom and I moved into this apartment on the coast, and we were really on the edge financially. We moved in the winter, and the apartment was very old, with very high ceilings. Very, very cold. My mom could not afford heating oil, so we had shut off the living room and another side room in the house, and basically lived out of the kitchen and our bedrooms. She heated with karosine heaters (not the nice ones they have now either...the ones that, in all honesty, might as well be a portable bomb). Maine winter = more cold than cold in an old house with no insulation. I could wake up on some days and see my breath and the windows had frosted on the INSIDE on really bad days. I knew that it was cold, but mom would help me to play "make believe" that we were camping out, or we would just dance around in a silly way, and she would really make a fun time out of it, as we were all bundled up and she was trying to get the heaters lighted. Sometimes she would even dress me all up, take me to my grandma's down the street (grandma's house is always warm, of course...haha). I had totally NO clue at all that we were even poor until years later...like 4 years ago, as she was watching be bring my babe Mikki ( a year old at the time) into the doorway of the house dancing like  a crazy person to try and warm up from the cold weather we had just been in.

"Remember when you used to do this with me, Mom?"

A mom memorable chuckle coming from the other side of her head when I can tell she is thinking back at how silly, and ridiculous, those times where, and how I clearly don't know ANYTHING about how bad things really were because she was too busy trying to make everything fun.

Ok...point already, Amanda!

Chose happiness. Stuff can be *^%@#%. We all know that, but wallowing in misery never helped your mood get better.

*Notes to self* Come back and read this when you are having a crappy day. Another note, try a shorter post tomorrow so as not to bore anyone with any of your childhood tales.