DAY 72: ATONEMENT

     Today at sundown Jews begin to observe Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, when you ask for forgiveness for all of your sins from the year before.  It's 24 hours of praying and fasting.  I was talking about it with someone recently and she asked what about all of those people who owe you an apology, but never do?   What about all of those people who have hurt you and never sought atonement for their actions? What about them?  My guess is that a rabbi would tell you to forgive them even if they never asked you for forgiveness or offered an apology.  That's a tall order to get your head around.  A really tall order.  Even if you can find a way to forgive those people, why would you want them in your life after that?  I need to think about it some more, which is what this reflection period is probably all about...

DAY 71: RUNNING

     I signed up for the Spartan 8 mile run.  It's a mud run with other obstacles.  What was I thinking?  The most I've ever run is 5 miles.  But I'm going to do it and so are 2 of my friends.  I've even started to get ready for it--I took a Tread and Shred class at the gym today.  4 miles!  Ok so some of it was walking, but it was walking on a 12 degree incline.

DAY 70: FABRIC SOFTENER

     The smell of fabric softener on someone's clothes makes me like them.  Something about that fresh smell makes that person seem like he or she is well taken care of...whatever it is it's comforting to me.
     But nowadays with all this Luon and air wicking fabric you're not supposed to use fabric softener.  That good smelling, concentrated liquid ruins the effect of the moisture wicking fabric.  What a whip.  Oh, and I've also noticed that fabric softener makes my bath towels less absorbent.  So never mind me using fabric softener on those items, I'll just have to sniff it out on someone else.

DAY 69: GOODY BAGS

     I love goody bags.  No I mean I really love goody bags.  I'll go to an event just for a good bag.  In fact I went to an event a couple years ago and they gave the goody bags at the start of the party--who does that?
Where was I supposed to put it?  Thank goodness the event was at a hotel.  I checked my goody bag with the concierge.  My date was horrified and acted like that couldn't be done.  Umm, a goody bag can count as luggage.  Giving the concierge my good bag to hold until the end of the night was just like me giving the concierge my coat at the coat check?  Who's with me?

DAY 68: BODY ODOR

     My doubles tennis partner's body odor distracted me yesterday.  I'm not kidding when I say I could smell it before I even walked on the court, and we were playing outdoors.  Now, come on, that's bad B.O.  Really bad.  Our changes overs were the worst, I didn't want to sit next to him or strategize.  I just wanted to towel off and get some water without dry heaving.
     In addition to the smell, a girl playing on the court next to us wasn't wearing proper tennis wear.  We were at tennis, not yoga.  Why was she wearing a too small yoga top with her tennis skirt?  She didn't have any support and was flopping around all over the place, in addition to showing half her stomach.  If I knew who she was I'd encourage her to read about proper undergarments from Day 15.  Jeez Louise, all I wanted to do was play my tennis match.

DAY 67: FIRST GRADE FRIEND

     When Mom dropped me off for my first day of first grade in Mrs. Johnson's class at Hubert Humphrey Elementary I couldn't stop crying. I cried and cried, until another girl in my class came up to me.  Her name was Celeste.  She said "I'll be your friend."  And that was that.  That was all it took.  I stopped crying, started to put away my school supplies in my desk and knew I had a new friend.  First grade was going to be ok.  
     I saw Celeste yesterday while I was home.  It was so great to see her.  And all these years later we're still friends.  Even though we hadn't seen each other in 6 years, we started from where we left off and it was the same as always.  That's how it is with first grade friends, they're yours for forever...well at least that's how it is with mine.
 

DAY 66: MASS ASCENSION

     In Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta...CHECK

     Woke up at 5am to see the weather balloons and get to Balloon Fiesta Park on time...CHECK

     Ate a funnel cake and drank hot cocoa at 6am...CHECK

     Was present at 7am for the Mass Ascension...CHECK

     Took lots and lots of pictures...CHECK

     Made my sister take lots and lots of pictures of me posing in front of special shape balloons...CHECK

     Tired...CHECK

     But feel like it was totally worth it...CHECK

     There's no place like home...CHECK CHECK CHECK CHECK CHECK INFINITY