This one's for the pioneers.

Do you ever wonder what you would have been like if you were born in pioneer times? I'm pretty sure there's a good reason (or maybe 100 good reasons) I wasn't born then.

The Mysterious Tall Bike

I was sitting on the porch the other night when two guys rode by on tall bikes and piqued my interest. Ever since then, I've been plagued with questions of how someone mounts and dismounts or stops on one of these bikes. I spent some time on YouTube and Wikipedia the other night educating myself about the tall bike and was able to figure out the mount and dismount, but still no A's to my Q's about the stop. Does anyone know how people who ride tall bikes stop at stop lights? Do they look for a pole? Do they just avoid stopping altogether? I need answers so I can sleep at night.

Then what?

You know when you meet people and have the obligatory "get to know you" conversation? You know, the one that goes something like, "Where are you from? And what do you do? Oh, you only have one year left of your Masters? Then what?"

You know that conversation? I do.

I'm approaching my second and final year of grad. school and to be honest, I'm just not quite sure about the "then what?" part. All I know is that at the end of a long and successful career as a social worker or therapist or mom or professional acrobat (okay, it might be a little late to shoot for that one), I want to spend ample time on a beach with my old, adorable husband (I'm taking applications if anyone is interested), playing Rummikub and drinking soda.

I watched this couple on the beach in Corona Del Mar as they played Rummikub for 4 hours and intermittently pulled sodies and snacks from their Coleman. And maybe I was a little jealous.

Brings a tear to my eye.

I don't cry often, but SYTYCD (I still have to think really hard every time I write that) was so good last night, I may have shed a tear.