Am I the Only One Who Thinks Like This?

I was listening to NPR this morning and they were doing a story about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. It was a great piece. You can listen to it here. As I was listening, I kept thinking, man, she really made something of her life. I wish I could have done more with my life. And then it struck me that I was talking to myself like my life was already over and I had missed my chance. The reality is that I can do something great with my life (and I've done a couple pretty good things already). I just have to recognize opportunities and capitalize on them. I don't know why my first instinct is to think that I'm not special enough to do something great. Can anybody relate?

Name Game

It occurred to me last night that Harper doesn't know what my name is. I asked her "Where's Elaine? Where's Elaine?". She just looked around the room. Then I asked her "Where's Momma?" and she pointed right to me. For some reason, I think that's funny.

On a side note, did you happen to see the beautiful Harper's moon last night? It was pretty cool. If you missed it last night, check it out tonight.

When the Science Hits the Fan - Memory Test

My dad told me about this cool BBC sleep related memory test. It measures two aspects of your memory: recognition and temporal memory. The first part of the test will show you 12 pictures of people's faces. Next, they show you 12 more pictures of people's faces. Finally, they show you 48 pictures of people's faces and you have to decide whether you saw them in the first group, the second group, or not at all. The score they give you is broken down into 2 components. The first score is your recognition score - this measures your ability to recognize that you have seen the face regardless of which group it was in. Recognition memory is unaffected by lack of sleep. The other score is your temporal memory score - this measures your ability to decide which group you saw the face in. Recognition memory can be affected by lack of sleep and aging. Here's my score from this morning.

I slept well last night and I'm kind of good at remembering things which probably explains why I did pretty well. Take the test yourself and see how well you can do. Here's the link to the site. Despite my rather complicated explanation, the actual website does a good job of explaining what to do and what your results mean. Have fun!

A Few of Our Favorite Things

We had a great 4th of July weekend. Harper did 2 of her most favorite things in the whole world - looked at animals and went swimming. On Friday, we went to the Nashville Zoo. It was really nice (not Cincinnati Zoo nice, but still nice). Harper had a lot of fun. She loved the meerkats. She kept pointing to them and saying "Sagie" (our cat's name). It was actually her second visit to the Nashville Zoo. She was about 5 months old the last time we brought her. How time flies.

Then...

...and now

On Saturday and Sunday, we spent most of our time at the swimming pool. There's nothing better than a sunny day, good friends, a warm pool, and delicious food. All in all, a great weekend.

Changing My M.O.

The other day, my friend Jamie and I were reminiscing about high school. I made the comment that I feel like I could have been a nicer person during that time. I don't remember ever being out and out mean to anyone (maybe I was and just selectively blocked it out of my memory), but I rarely went out of my way to be super nice to people who weren't in my immediate circle of friends. I used to live by the motto "Live and let die." If a situation didn't directly impact me in some way, I didn't care about it. Like I said, I wasn't outwardly mean, I just didn't care that much about the welfare of others. As I grew up a little, I started to realize that this was not the way it was supposed to be. I adopted a new M.O. - "Live and let live." At the time, this seemed like the right way to operate. I would try to live my life the best I could and I would encourage others to do the same. My frame of mind was getting closer to correct, but it was still a very passive way of living. Now, I think there is an even better way. "Live and help live." Or maybe even "Thrive and help thrive." Not only should I try to live my life the best I can, I want to actively help others to do the same. I am still working on putting this into practice. My default mode is still "Live and let die" and if I'm not careful, I can slip into that mindset easier than I would like to admit. However, I am really starting to think about the people around me (friends and strangers) and how I can positively impact their lives. To be honest, it's a stretch for me. I'm glad I have people around me who can model this for me and inspire me to do what they do.

I know that this is a personal subject, but where do you guys come down on this? What is your default mode? How are you impacting the lives of those around you?

Random Ohio Thoughts

Going back to my home town as an adult is always a great but strange experience. I feel like I'm in a time warp. Everything looks relatively the same, but I am a completely different person than the 18 year old who left 11 years ago. Going away and then coming back provides a nice perspective on things. Here are some things (mostly trivial and random) that I thought about while I was home.

• I love pedicures, but I'm always conflicted about the fact that it's another human's job to wash my feet and paint my toe nails.
• Hands down - white bread tastes way better than wheat bread. If you don't agree, you are just fooling yourself.
• The farm country of Northeast Ohio is some of the most beautiful landscape in the world.
• It's vitally important to keep in touch with your extended family even if they live far away. You share experiences and have an understanding that no one else in the world can match.
• Not being able to just fix my baby when she is sick is the hardest thing about being a parent for me.
• Having a beer with an old friend from high school is good for your heart.

Home Again

Well, our trip back to my home town didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to. On Thursday, Harper came home from baby school with a runny nose. No big deal (or so I thought). By Saturday night, I was contemplating taking her to the emergency room. Don't worry. She's fine - just a respiratory infection and an ear infection. Although Harper wasn't 100% we did manage to do a couple things while we were home.

My mom and I took Harper to Boardman Park to swing on the swings. This kid loves to swing.

We also went to my aunts house to have dinner with my grandma, my cousin and her children, and my mom and dad of course. Dinner was soooo good. No one makes pasta sauce like my family does. The highlight for Harper was making a new friend.

We also managed to squeeze in a trip to a Boardman institution - Handles Homemade Ice Cream. This is the best ice cream in the whole world. If you think that your local ice cream is better, it's only because you haven't had Handle's yet. Celebrities like Oprah and Bill Cosby have it delivered to them. National Geographic recently named it one of the best ice cream shops in the country. I got a single scoop of cake batter ice cream in a sugar cone and the girl literally put three scoops of ice cream on the cone. When she handed it to me, I said "Is this a single scoop?" and she said "Yep." And guess how much it cost. $2.00, not $4.00 like all of the big chain ice cream places. $2.00. Perfect.

For as sick as Harper was, she was a real trooper. We'll just have to make another trip home to do all of the things we missed out on this time around.