Life

According to the dictionary life is the animate existence or period of animate existence of an individual.  Put that way -- once you are no longer animate you are not alive -- seems scary and enlightening at the same time.  I am older but alive.

Age is encroaching -- something one never thinks will happen.  I am getting those wrinkles on my chest I used to see on older women.  My face looks older, but when I imagine myself I remember the way I looked when I was younger.  One's children get older, move away, go away, -- one way or another they are...away.  My oldest son, whom my world revolved around, is somewhat estranged from me.  No he is estranged, but he is nineteen -- does that count?  I think about death more now.  My death the deaths of my loved ones.  I fear dying alone, again something I never thought about before.  Perhaps being an Rn has focused much of my attention on the latter encroachment-of-age issue.  I see so many many older people discarded in the hospital and alone.  They have children because the tell me they do -- but they never visit.  I would rather be quartered and hung, no, fall from a plane, than to be in the hospital in my old age...alone.  I never thought about these things before, but my skin is changing.  My sleep habits are changing.  Age is encroaching, but I am still alive.

I look at anti-age creams now.  A year ago I did not.  I even think about extreme anti-aging measures like face lifts like which one is best and is 44 to early?  And of course botox or maybe dermabrasion.  Can I get botox injections into those permanent wrinkles in my chest?  At the end of the day, once gravity has finally kicked in, the wrinkles on my chest disappear but only because the weight of the aging skin below the chest pulls everything above taut.  I also have gray hair.  At first it was one or two but now there are so many new recruits.  I used to tweeze them out but then they came back kind of wiry.  Now I cut them off at the base but there are just too many.  I guess I should find solace in the fact I am still animate.  Alive.  And I do, I just wish I were the younger looking version of me without the more animated features of chest wrinkles, gray hair, spongy dry skin (yes, there is such a thing).  It is so hard to see oneself grow older.  Even harder to see your parents grow older.  It is the circle of life.  That's life.  The facts of life.  Life is what we make it.  Life is a canvas.  Life is full of ups and downs.  Yes, life, a very animated life with wrinkles is the much preferred alternative to the inanimate with or without wrinkles.  Although I prefer without wrinkles.

Coronado Island

Prior to moving to Chandler all we could think about was getting away to California for a cool (as in temperature) vacation.  For those of you who don't know we moved in July to a house with a swimming pool and "Wow!" who knew summer in Arizona could be so fun?  Alas summer is nearly over (yes, it is still in the 90's even in November) and we have been working so hard (that is another blog) we decided we should go on our much needed vacation to California. 

Our California destination?  Well our first pick was Santa Monica because of its 25 miles of bike pathway along the ocean, however the drive time seemed a bit difficult to navigate with only four days off so we decided on Coronado Island instead.  We stayed at Loew's Resort which was 4 miles from downtown Coronado and connected by a very nice two lane bike path. The Loew's was a decent hotel with horrible restaurant food -- seems to be more popular with conferences than families.  We did however enjoy the kayaking offered at their dock near the popular neighborhood of Coronado Cays.

If I were to review the town of Coronado (Island) I would say it has a beautiful sandy beach in front of Hotel del Coronado, a walkable downtown with lots of shopping and dining options.  They also had a really great dog park at the beach which the entire family enjoyed.  I would definitely not recommend biking in town.  I was nearly hit by a big suv trying to cross a crosswalk while the "little white man" was showing safe to walk.  Granted you may say it was an isolated incident however the downtown area was very congested with cars, with no bike lane and no riding on the sidewalks.  I had read there is a 30 mile-plus bike path along the entire San Diego Bay shoreline which perhaps is more conducive to hardcore cyclists than a biking family.  Overall for a biking mini-vacation it was fun, relaxing and active : two and half days of riding five hours each day to the town, around the town and to the beach.

Our next holiday/vacation is in December and we are headed to what should have been my birthplace: Boston.  I can't wait and aside from not anticipating the plane flight I am absolutely ecstatic!  Having visited Boston now three times I can't think of any other place where I feel most at home.  I love the weather, in the winter of course, the transportation system, the culture, the architecture -- the list goes on. We could not go to Germany this year due to buying our house but look forward to seeing my husband's family next summer as well as northern France.  Stay tuned.....