Tuesday's This, That, and the Other

While we were in Colorado the kids took me to a running store to buy new shoes.  Make no assumption, I’m not a runner, but I do trot along and my feet hurt, so they bought me some new shoes for Mother’s Day.  The first feat at the store was to learn how to jog on a treadmill so the saleswoman could see what kind of shoes I needed.  I never did conquer that treadmill.  Baby steps on my tip toes was the only way I could stay on it.  I think I have watched far too many cartoons where the character gets slapped on the treadmill and whips around and around as it goes faster and faster to ever trust a treadmill.  After repeated attempts to lengthen my stride, the shoe specialist finally said she’d seen what she needed and relieved me of my embarrassment.  She said I ran very correctly J (she was one good saleswoman) meaning that I don’t run on the outsides of my feet.  Several shoes later (I kept saying, “Could we go just a little bit wider please”), we came up with a pair of men’s Brooks, double-E width shoes.  She had me take them out in the parking lot and run in them.  Abe went with me.  Those shoes were so light I even attempted a couple of heel clicks which made Abe laugh and simultaneously scold me that I might fall on the asphalt.  It felt good to have the roles temporarily reversed.

I cannot tell you what a difference those good shoes make.  Before, I’d think, “If I could only take ten pounds off of each leg they wouldn’t be so heavy to lift,” but magically those shoes removed the weight and my legs aren't heavy now.  What a relief.  I stink at dieting.

  

Ty and Michelle have been here the last couple of days.  Ty doesn’t report to his Air Force base in Maryland until the end of July so they’ll stay in Washington until Cali and Ray’s baby is born (the baby is due on Ty’s birthday and he’s still trying to convince them to name it Tyger).  It’s so fun to have Ty and Michelle here.  They are very companionable and compatible and bring out the best in each other.  Today Ty was sorting through his tub of childhood possessions.  Oh.  It was sad.  He had tiger postcards he bought at Yellowstone when he was eight or nine years old and he finally threw them away.  I’m a tosser so it’s not like I could tell him to save them, but I wanted to.  What for I don’t know, but I wanted to hang on to every last little boy memento that he tossed in the trash – even wolf cards.  As he sorted we watched the DVD that Ty and Michelle made from pictures of their lives.  It made my throat burn seeing those growing up pictures– through their babyhoods, childhoods, young adulthoods, college-hoods, and missionary-hoods.  The DVD ended with wedding pictures at the temple.  It doesn’t make one bit of sense how I can miss their pasts when their present and future is so exciting and inviting.  No mother in her right mind would wish today’s happiness away for yesterday’s uncertainties.  But somehow seeing those little boy and little girl pictures made me miss yesterday no matter how bright tomorrow is.  The morning Ty and Michelle got married Brian (Michelle’s dad) said, “I woke up so nostalgic this morning and then I’d get excited for what was ahead and I’d be okay until I remembered her as a little girl and then I’d lose it again.”  Today was like that – a happy day with nostalgia (it was those dumb tiger cards) – so I did the thing any respectable mourning mother would do and played Neil Diamond while I fixed supper.

. . . and reminded myself that "the best is yet to be."

Do you have a pair of magic shoes?

What triggers nostalgia for you and who would you feed/drown your nostalgia with?