The best to you...

Just a few of my favorite quotes I collected in 2005. Hope they speak
to you in whatever way they are supposed to...you never know what one
or two little words may spark in your heart.

"Allow Events to Change You: You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openess to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them. (Bruce Mau, designer : from An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth)

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." (Steve Jobs)

"The idea was to eliminate every thing unnecessary, to make the whole
as direct and simple as possible, but always with the beautiful in mind
as the first goal." (Henry Mather Greene)

And from the book Be :

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the
breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which
runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset." (Crowfoot,
Native American Orator)

"At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a
silent pulse of perfect rhythm, which is absolutely individual and
unique, and yet which connects us to everything else." (George Leonard)

This year we celebrated New Year's at my friend Amy's in Portland. She is my bestest friend from back in the day. Silly. Crazy. Fun. Love her. We headed up on Friday night so that we could hang out a bit on Saturday before the party.

Chris, Jason, Simon, and Ruby went to the Portland Children's Museum on Saturday morning while Amy and I went grocery shopping and clothes shopping for funky outfits. Amy wins in this category everytime. I end up wimping out and going with things that I will wear more regularly - like trouser pants and short sleeved blouses. She did help me pick out some cool jewelry that I would not have chosen had I been there on my own - the wonderful benefit of uber-stylish friends!

We did all our shopping at a store called Forever 21 because they have tons of interesting things at cheap prices. Cheap rocks. Actually they had all kinds of cool things there that I would wear and I would like to go back again one of these days.

The party was a kid-friendly party with almost all the guests bringing their kids along. A bunch of us slept over - making it a big slumber party - taking over Amy & Jason's basement. Tons of kids (pretty much all under 5) = tons of fun. It was great to know that we were just going to be staying there for the night. We could eat and drink and hang out without having to worry about cab rides, babysitters and all the other things that go into going out in downtown Portland.

The drink of choice: a pomegranate martini. And oh was it delicious!

Also had very tasty BBQ catered by Campbell's BBQ.

Simon spent a bunch of time in Amy and Jason's bedroom watching videos. He hung out for a bit but once most of the people had arrived he was ready to chill more on his own. The whole sharing thing is a challenge for him - especially when it comes to trains. So videos it was - and it worked out great. He was happy and content.

One of the coolest things we witnessed happened this morning when Simon was playing chase with the two other boys who stayed over night. They were sliding down the stairs and then running through the basement laughing and screeching  and chasing and having the best time. It was cool for us to see Simon interacting more - I think taking the toys out of the equation really helped.

Hope you did something special to welcome to new year.

Peace.