lxforever

“You’re looking at me / I’m looking at you / we’re looking at each other and we don’t know what to do”

—The Who

“One for sorrow / Two for joy / Three for girls and four for boys / Five for silver, Six for gold and / Seven for a secret never to be told / … / Change, change, change / change, change, change / change, change, change”

—Counting Crows

time 8:19 am feeling TIRED wearing red dress Diana also has! reading Dominique Moceanu’s books for kids…yes I know music ?? ready for the evening next wireframes

Only a narcissistic showoff would do ten pullups at the Marines booth at the State Fair and then tell everyone about it.

Which is what I did.

NO SHAME!

Anyway, hello dear reader(s) (I’m [see above] assuming there are more than 1, I guess; then again HAVING this ‘blog’ at all means: see above). This weekend was kind of all about All The Right Moves, that is, a LONG weekend of FUN. Much much better than the same weekend last year, which was fun but full of fear, fear, fear.

I woke up this morning so happy to be able to wake up and be in love. With JEFF! And to be safe.

Anyway, since I started with that, here are a few WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:
-ran into one of my old, dear professors from my FIRST semester of college 12 years ago! (I blame my BWK-lookup for conjuring that up.) Of course I was inappropriately dressed (swimsuit/bike helmet, aw yeah) but it was SO GREAT to see her and catch up…I can’t believe she remembered me!! I guess we were a memorable class. Anyway, awwww. She was so so sweet. I’m glad she is still teaching.
-out to breakfast AND lunch with Jeff…YAY. Mostly this weekend was about HANGING OUT with Jeff which I love. LOVE! We also discovered a really cool Bruegger’s in an old fire station. Weird/cool!
-fancy dinner Saturday night with Kristin at the Lowry which I am in LOVE with…yeah! I am also in friend-love with Kristin, ha. She is amazing.
-followed by THE DRAFT Sunday morning! I actually was terrible at this. Well we’ll see. At least I did Jeff a favor and drafted Moss in the last round :P.
-yoga!!
-bike ride!!
-helped Liz and Alex lift a ‘heavy tool’, ha ha. Random/Jenny’s friends/neighbors! Glad I could help, though.
-THE FAIR with Jeff! Where we randomly saw a Wilson Phillips concert, to Jeff’s delight.
-Went to the beach and read my book on my mom’s Nook (where a girl tried to sell me a tamale[??] and was mystified by the Nook)…and even swam a bit. Beautiful!
-Getting Things Done with Jeff!
-Probably a lot more, I can’t remember. BUT it was great and fun and relaxing and I miss it (obviously). Ha.

Also you should read this article on the value Americans place on work ethic:
Virtually Exhausted
^ agreed/speaking of my weekend… Duh.

Here are some other philosophical(?) musings this fine day:
1) Andre Agassi (does it end? NO!). 2 things about that. First, how his father kept saying “hit HARDER!” when Andre was little/training under him (note, this was basically child abuse, but, that’s not the point of this; still, not cool; anyway). This is one motto I have for myself lately, but with a different meaning (uh, duh, I am not a tennis player)…hit HARDER!

Two…grind on, grind on, grind on. THAT I mentioned a few weeks(months?) ago in another post, but it stands. Grind on, grind on, grind on. Someday…things will sort themselves out. Until then…Just Keep Swimming.

2) Ka-Mei. Quickly becoming another favorite yoga instructor, after Macarena of course. Ka-Mei gave us a challenging, wonderful class on Saturday, but also a dose of (normal, helpful!) yoga-ese. I won’t be able to do it justice, but more or less she talked about how if things come from the heart, they can’t be wrong, no matter what. If the intention is good, from your heart, well then…you’re on the right path. Whatever that is. Furthermore, she talked about not putting yourself, in life or in yoga, in a ‘bind’ if you are not ready or not up for it or whatever. THIS I can identify with and very much appreciate! Awww Ka-Mei. LIFE. Do what you can, don’t do what you can’t (“Do things that make you happy / don’t do things that don’t” -Andrea, 1999).

3) Removing negative influences. Kelly calls this ‘removing negativity from your life’ (speaking of, I get to see her soon!!! YAY), while some of my HS friends back in the day referred to it rather crudely as ‘cutting out the tumors’ (ha). This has been another theme of this year/as of late and it has also served me well (Short List etc.). I recently made a pretty drastic cut in this way and it has freed up a LOT more energy for the rest of challenges life throws me. So I am grateful for that and for recognizing that. It’s good. It helps.

4) (This one is weirder) I just finished reading 11/22/63, a Stephen King book my mom recommended. I have a hard time w/ Stephen King, I feel like he hates women, but, I digress. ANYWAY. It was pretty good. But at the end there is this vision of a dystopian(?)/alternate future and it reminded me of this: I am pretty sure I believe there are 2937402957409879287432 (infinite) alternate realities going on RIGHT NOW and another one created basically every second. I call this my 5th-Dimension belief. (I also think you see these in your dreams.) Anyway…the point is, if you don’t like how things are going, imagine that it went differently for an alternate you, but be happy for the good things you DO have going on in this reality. I know I am…that was a very scary end to the book and I am very very happy our reality is 3947329047392x better!! 🙂

All right. That is all. Last night I stayed up way too late watching Michelle Obama, I loved her dress, but that was BAD because tonight I teach preschoolers…x2…very scary indeed…;)…then see Diana which I feel will be the HIGHLIGHT OF MY DAY. I miss her very much. She is like all of the qualities I could imagine in a local BFF (Jenny being my nonlocal 🙁 one 🙂 ) wrapped into one person. Amazing. AND this is the WEEK(month) of BIRTHDAYS so let’s do a roll call…happy birthday this week to Dave, a former coworker, and Anna Li (yesterday); Daniel and my cousin Katie (today); Misty (tomorrow); and Ange (Friday)! Sayonara.

ETA: just got an email w/ a link to a web album containing 600+ pictures of 12th grade. Oh dear (oh deer). (I actually don’t know how I got on that particular list.)

ETA2: Also HBD to Anil Dash today.

I hate change.

And that, my friends, is likely what this Great Unease is all about.

“Cool in his own way, a great helper and drawer of circles”

—review of one of my math teachers of yore…I’m sure Jeff is rolling his eyes right now

“I guess I’m taking my chances / trading in my things for a couple wings on a / little white dove / And one big love one big love / one big love”

—Emmylou Harris

^ The title of this post was the subject line of an email my mom sent me/Jenny this week…yes it is actually referring to fairytale movies on VHS tapes. But it seemed like a great blog post title, too, even if inaccurate.

Anyway! Happy Wednesday. Somehow my brain is convinced that August has only 29 days (seriously). Obviously…this is not the case, and September is not until Saturday…but this has my paranoid, control-freak mind absolutely SURE that something terrible will happen tomorrow and/or Friday. Since, you know, August sucks. I need to stop thinking this, because I’m sure it could/would become a self-fulfilling prophecy, but, whatever man! So this is your lesson of the day: August has 31 days. The End.

Just kidding. Here is your stalker tip of the day – some amazing reviews of one of my favorite teachers from many moons ago:
Barry Kolbe

My favorite may be this:
“Cool in his own way, a great helper and drawer of circles”

Spot-on! Indeed he was. But they are all pretty great reviews, he was completely underrated in my time. He taught my AB Calc class. Such a fan! Um, as for WHY/how I found this, I won’t even go into it. Long stalker story. THAT is THAT. What a great teacher! “BWK Approved”

Moving along. Continuing our FALL CONCERT SERIES 2012, apparently Smashing Pumpkins are coming back to Twin Cities this fall, oh yes. As Jeff’s Date For Life I am excited to attend this (provided we secure tickets), especially because I kind of love the new album. YEAH! Concert Roll Call: SP, Zelda orchestra thing, Caspian (really Minus the Bear). HOORAY.

Anil Dash just favorited one of my tweets, now I feel famous. (It was about Janet Jackson’s ‘If’, though, so…not really valuable discourse. STILL.) Woo!

Republicans STILL hate women and I STILL hate them for that. Especially Rick Santorum…gross! “Get off the stage before you lose us a million votes / he must be wearing a shock collar…oh wait” -some Repubs agree…

September is STILL the month of birthdays…fun all around!

Happily I heard from our other former Level 10 (Missy) last week!! LOVE IT. She had been traveling the world like a glamor fiend, whoa. Now she is back wanting to do adult gymnastics in the Midwest with me/Diana again. AWWWWWW! Diana: “oh Jesus…I’ll bet her $50 to catch a geinger from my couch.” LOL! We’ll see about all that…

I also heard from one of my sister’s BFFs last eve. It was very nice/gratifying to be able to talk to her and attempt to make her feel OK. I’ve had a lot of unexpected interactions with Jenny’s friends/almost-30-year-olds as of late. 30!

On that note (actually not at all)…adios friends!

ETA: I must now include this amusing line I read today: “Also I’ll hang on to the elephant until if and when you two work out the ownership.” Ha!

“I want to hurry home to you / put on a slow dumb show for you / crack you up / So you can put a blue ribbon on my brain / God I’m very, very frightening / I’ll overdo it”

—The National, Slow Show

“But compassion isn’t about solutions. It’s about giving all the love that you’ve got.”

—Sugar

First, here is your reading list for today:

–DEAR SUGAR, THE RUMPUS ADVICE COLUMN #67: THE BLACK ARC OF IT, oh-so-lovely if very sad; and
–Fear of a Black President, from the Atlantic (NOTE: originally I clicked on this solely because the title reminded me of that crazy movie of old, but this is actually a pretty amazing read and made me a bit teary, too [yes I know].)

RE: the second piece. I did not realize this, but basically the Trayvon Martin thing did not become polarizing until Obama deigned to mention it. THEN, all of a sudden, it was right-wingers against left, and everything exploded. The article does a much better job of articulating all of this than I ever could, so just go read it. In the end…Trayvon Martin is still dead.

DESPITE all this touchy-feely-and-sad-ness, I’m actually feeling quite remarkable. There are certainly reasons for this:

1) Jenny came to visit this past weekend. JENNY!! Always wonderful! We went shopping (MOA/Desigual, oh yeah!), went to Birchwood (turkey-cilantro salad and veggie handpie, fantastic – thanks JJ for craving ‘wheatberries’ randomly), had ice cream with 30-year-old smartphone-having Liz, went to Ka-Mei yoga with Jeff which was pretty killer (“it’s just yoooooga….aaaaaahhhhhhhhh / you all look like you want to murrrrrrder someonnnnne” oh Ka-Mei!), to the farmers’ market where Jenny insisted we buy a whole big bag of SweeTangos AND amazing strawberries (thanks Jenny!), then to Caribou for Black Forest coolers…EXCELENTE. We then went home and made an egg-salad feast lunch/chatted/made a card, then to the fish store (we live by a fish store). FISH! TURTLES! Jeff is way into turtles…sorry hon. We were on the hunt for piranhas but I think they moved…instead we played hide-and-seek with a saltwater grouper fish. FISH! That was a weird but very fun way to spend a rainy afternoon.

THEN we went to Liz’s, watched some FRIENDS(! “have you guys seen this show, ‘Friends’?!”), hung out with her REALLY COOL friends Suki and Becca, talked about what crime we would commit and what year we hate, then were off to Bar La Grassa for Liz’s bday celebration! Suki and Liz had the MAGIC TOUCH that day and we scored a table outside immediately (shortly thereafter, there was a terrible wait). Suki was almost too cool for words, I was kind of afraid she would think I was a loser. Becca was also fantastic, very dark and sarcastic and ALSO another JMM -> UMNer, aw yeah. And of course I love Liz and JENNY! At Suki’s very smart rec, we shared a bunch of different pastas and bruschetta. The best pasta was the orange-cauliflower gnocchi and I am still in love with it today. Service was good too. We stalked a bachelorette party and then decided…off to Lurcat for dessert! Our server looked like Clark Kent. He was pretty great. He gave us free donuts for Liz and a candle too. We also stalked a 40th bday party there (“OK THIS IS WHAT WE FOUND OUT!” -Liz/Jenny aka Dit/Dot / “we already know…it’s a 40th birthday party” -Suki LOL!) and Jenny was sad about “THE ZARLINGS oh no!” and Liz was shocked that there was a commissioner in Fantasy Football. “And GET THIS – they call him THE COMMISSIONER!” -Liz / “um that’s what he is…” -me/Becca. HAHAHA.

HOME and read magazines and bed. Then Jenny had to go to the airport in the morning after smoothies/toast. AWWWW! But what a lovely visit. It made me so happy!

2) TO THE FAIR with Jeff Sunday. As I told him, I think I like the Fair w/ him because then we just HANG OUT alllllllllll day long. Which we did. It was hot but wonderful. We met up with Sue/Greg briefly, but mostly just wandered the fair admiring little kid artwork, eco building, UMN building (tap dancers!!! so cool!), etc. AND eating (duh). We were whomped from the walking but in a good way. We also made up a new fair game. I was sorely in need of some quality Jeff Time and that is exactly what I got so YAY.

3) Along those lines, I’ve been getting some quality physical activity in over the past few days. I think I require more physical activity than previously thought.…just to burn off energy (mental or whatever). SO! Yoga w/ Ka-Mei that left me sore, followed by walking for miles at the Fair, followed by biking to work and home today = YES. I KNOW I have worked hard (ha) at learning to be lazy/not always go all-out, but I think my brain prefers MORE activity. Anyway. THAT is most definitely contributing to my excellent mood.

4) A friend, who can either read my mind (possible) or still reads this blog, suggested that I may need to eat more/sleep more to deal with this Great Unease. Which…duh…BUT the point is, I have been eating a lot AND sleeping well (compared to the previous two weeks), and that has made an ENORMOUS difference. OH YEAH.

5) Another friend wrote me a misty-eyed Monday-morning email that made me realize it’s OK too to succumb to the Great Unease. SO that was lovely and quite nice to read. COMPASSION. Etc.

6) Fantasy Football draft this weekend! GET ON IT! Actually…I have no idea what I’m doing…but it will be fun.

7) FOUR DAY WEEK! Followed by FOUR DAY WEEKEND that kicks off…dun dun dun…SEPTEMBER! So that is also great.

8) I have a great boss and a pretty fantastic gig.

9) I live in an era where people expect HOLOGRAM phones! That just blows my mind…seriously. What a weird/amazing world.

Also, I got a great new YA gymnastics book (no shame) AND Dominique Moceanu retweeted me. With that, friends, I am off. Just know, sleep + food + physical activity + JJs = MUCH HAPPIER. Yay.

“Settle down / it’ll all be clear / Don’t pay no mind to the demons / they fill you with fear”

—Phillip Phillips…yes I know

Not Not Not / spacespacespace

The theme of 2011: lowering expectations.
I don’t know that this is good. I think it is not. But regardless, it was achieved, and continues. More on that in a minute.

The theme of 2012: Survival.
So far, so good (if that can be counted as good, I guess).

The first 2/3 of August were pretty fantastic, especially WRT position:relative for August, but also position:absolute for all (CSS TERMS ALERT!). It’s still pretty good but I have been struck by The Great Unease for the past few days, rendering me somewhat useless and always worried.

As usual?

And sleepless.

(But last night was a success. Thank You Air Conditioning/closed windows! I think that is Key.)

Survival. Though it’s shooting pretty low (heh), it’s been immensely helpful to make this THE goal of 2012 (along with attending Jenny’s wedding, which was fabuloso, indeed!). I need that guidance every time I get Off Track. Unfortunately, Survival means limits to what I can do. I’m sorry for that, but I’m not, because this is just How It Must Be. Remembering that helps me to make good choices for ME and not out of obligations to Others or to the Social Life. Hence the Short List, alone time, saying NO, etc. Sorry, casualties. It’s how it must be.

WHATEVER I am sick of this sh*t. So HAPPY FRIDAY!! Today is a wonderful day. Jenny is coming to visit!!! We are going to Hang Out, shop, go to yoga, go out with Liz to a fancy restaurant, and get cherry-chocolate Caribou coolers (if they still have them). YAY! Then Sunday Jeff and I shall attend the fair. DOUBLE YAY! AND I got a free coldpress this AM. From my punch card, from my favorite barista who loves EITS and Florence + The Machine and biking, so is pretty cool. BOOM. SO, in summary, once you get some sleep :), life is good. And when your 2 favorite JJs are around all weekend long, life is VERY good indeed.

AND when you’ve been introduced to the idea of measuring time in milliseconds since 1/1/1970…well then you have a whole other rabbit hole of numbersmania. (Probably not good, but interesting nonetheless.)

(Now if we could just be done with those men [Rethugs] who hate women and want them barefoot and bleeding in the kitchen…that’d be great. F THEM!)

In other exciting news, FFL shall start soon, Macarena is back on the 8th, and Ka-Mei is subbing for her til then. (I had a Nielle nightmare last night.) YAY for good yoga teachers. Also, I got to have tea with Michael. Also, in 3 hours I shall pick up JENNY! HAPPY Friday indeed 🙂

ETA: I realize I did not talk about lowering expectations. Well I guess I didn’t want to! So there. Ha ha.

Friday FIVE! I love Friday Five today and also sent a couple of emails to friends w/ Friday Five in it…haha sorry friends. Today, we’re going with RANDOMNESS (um, as per usual)…I am not super-motivated to write, I have not slept well all week (no idea why, mostly I keep waking up hungry), AND this week has been a bit crazy at work. So…’you get what you get!’ LOL.

(I thought about making this a ‘Friday Five’ of ‘Five Reasons Paul Ryan Sucks’, but, that would quickly stretch to 50…plus, I’m still pretty confident in Barack Obama sticking around. So! Whatevs [for now, I’m sure I’ll be back here ranting before you know it…].)

FIVE!

1. I think I’m about to get hacked again…watch out! OR one of you visited this home page 30 times a few days ago (which is > 3x more than usual…so, I have to suspect SPAMMERS). Anyway so if there is a post here ever that looks all shady, don’t click on the link! You know what my writing sounds like, use your great brains! Hope I am wrong, though…

2. I got to see both Anna AND Tiffany for lunch this week (separately) and it was superb! Tiffany, like Andrea, has the effect of making me feel super hopeful and optimistic after talking with her, so, yay. And somehow, despite how some things in our lives are very different (OK mainly political views), I ADORE hanging out w/ Anna (Anna P, that is, not to be confused with my niece Anna) and we always have a fantastic time. We went to a cool sandwich shop where we used touchscreens and got overly excited.

3. Land of 10,000 lakes/followers! Coming right up? Also land of beautiful fall-like weather…I would like to go to the pool, but Jeff loves this weather/it makes him happy, so that makes me happy.

4. Madeleine officially moved on from our Parks class last week 🙁 awwww! But she is on to do more gymnastics at a ‘real’ gym so I am super excited! Also she/her mom gave us little thank-you cards with a gift certificate to Turtle Bread (we saw her there once after class)! Oh my gosh! So super sweet! This reminded me of Avabelle, a girl I taught at another park last year. I only taught her for like 6 weeks, but at the end, her mom gave me a card with a little Caribou gift card in it – awwwwww! Seriously the little cards (Isabella made us CERTIFICATES even!) just melt my heart. What dears.

Anyway, back to Avabelle – I hadn’t thought of her in awhile, until Wednesday. Then Thursday at noon, GET THIS – I am almost 100% sure I saw her walking downtown with her Dad to a Twins game! No, I’m serious!!! BUT I did not say anything because (a) she is 5 (well, 6 now) (b) I’m sure she wouldn’t have recognized me in ‘street clothes’ haha. Anyway. COOL! If it wasn’t here, then I am delusional (possible).

Also amusing: Noah’s “I found a plant frog / now it’s my pet” comment from the last class. Noah came in to the class SUPER DUPER shy and quiet and finally got comfortable/chatty…it’s totally AMAZING what 10 weeks means when you are 3 years old!

5. FIERCE! Sorry, can’t help it ;). I’d say one of the Words Of The Year this year will definitely be FIERCE. I know I had a reason other than the gymnasts (who are still so super-cute and friends, I love it), but right now it escapes me…still. Great word! FIERCE!

FRIDAY! Happy Friday. Enjoy.

It’s August 10th!

WHAMMO!!!!!!

It is also the birthday of one of our former Level 10s. I am not in touch w/ her but I have a frighteningly amazing memory for things like birthdates and phone numbers. And so there you go.

(Also I was always jealous of her bday because she was a Leo…which I always wondered if that should have been my Sign/I was meant to be born then. RELATEDLY, I often wonder if I was meant to be born in July so my birthstone would be a ruby. Although sapphires are stellar and DID YOU KNOW a ruby is merely a RED sapphire? I bet you did not! OK obviously I think about this too much, the end.)

I’m still obsessed with the gold-medal-winning US gymnastics team. And I’m still 30…so I’m still creepy. But still. I want to be their friend LOL. What an Olympics!

Do you think Tulsa will host the 2024 Olympic games? I didn’t either. But there they are. Vamos a ver! …in 2015.

Do you think rhythmic gymnastics should be an Olympic sport or even exist? I didn’t either. Bleah!

Jenny and I have always had matching bike helmets. Well, since we got our ‘big’ aka multiple-speeds bikes in late middleschool/early highschool. First the green ones (one of which was replaced when one of us landed on her head after trying to bike over a curb with NO HANDS…oops). Then I got us blue ones when I learned you should replace your helmets every-so-often…this is when I lied to the salesperson about having a twin and wondered if I might be turning into a pathological liar (note: still wondering). THEN last year(??) Jenny upgraded her helmet to a cool white-and-silver one, and what did I do? Decided that I too needed that…so demanded the details of hers, then went to the REI in MN and got myself one.

It’s great. I was just thinking about that on my bike ride this morning (which was quite glorious).

Sara sent me a postagram yesterday!!! SO SUPER COOL! All the way from her trip to Idaho!

We are going to hang out on a lake tonight with Sarah L! Also super cool!!!

My new swimsuit came in the mail! Love it!

I won something at work! Last time that happened I was an intern, when I won a first-aid kit for answering a safety quiz correctly. Hahaha.

I’m so HAPPY for it being August and all! Waiting for that other shoe…

Do you think I should work? Yes I thought so too. Adios!

It’s only August 7th and already I’m ready for September. But no no no I’m not ready, I mean. Aughhhh August, you and I and our complicated relationship (“it’s complicated”), when summer is still on but also when it ends, and even when you’re not in school (for years! for years! for 9/13 whole years!) it feels the same. August August August. The WINDS of CHANGE are coming about again, I can feel it, they will do so oh-so-heartily this fall, this September, and that’s part of it; the WINDS of CHANGE _almost_ came about in a very Bad Way last August and yet were escaped. And yet…it’s only August 7th.

Ali talks about this not being Her Year and I totally get that – though there are a few more months to go/goodness in it; Aly gets her medals, going-for-broke, nails it, and I know that, too – this year with AAPL and KO and Olympics fun and UX and gymnastics could in some ways be mine yet; Jordyn tries to convince herself it’s not happening, that her friends aren’t going on to AA finals without her, lives in this weird quiet place of sadness but semi-denial for awhile and then the scores come up and what she’d suspected is put right in front of her face and her hands fly to that face, screwed-up in sadness, to hold in the tears – oh oh oh, how I know know know that feeling, so well. So well.

Madeleine and Isabella move on, just like you wanted them to, but still, oh, sad!; August turns to fall turns to winter turns to 2013 and you’re writing the date as 8/7/13 and what?!?; and Jenny’s married and Anna is 6 and ENTJ and and and.

And replaying the Olympics over and over, of course, at least the amazing parts, every day.

August August Augussssssst.

Saturday summary:

Basement = forts, ‘jail’ (aka Anna/Mason putting Jeff in ‘jail’ aka ‘down in the basement’ aka the back basement), and tiny water bottles. Forts kept getting wrecked then rebuilt. BLANKETS! “Cover up there’s rain!” Kids spitting on us…hahaha/oops. LOTS of spit! Mason comes up the basement stairs, Stephie says: “where’s Jeff?” Mason: “He’s dead. I killed him” and matter-of-factly moves on to the next thing. I then go downstairs to discover Jeff playing dead on the pile of blankets, tongue hanging out. Heh. Anna to me: “Go get your doll!” (luckily I still have this doll…Kirsten and McKenna keepin’ it real in the fort.)

Main level = Legos, drawing, wrestling/football/pillow fights?, and gymnastics lessons. “Just relax and set your hands on the floor” / “3-point stance!” Also some breaks for iPad/iPhone viewing/fake-naps. Whew.

Outdoors = water fight. Anna and I were terrible at this. Anna’s swimsuit: pink and white stripes with roses, mine: black with orange slashes. Hmmmm. First against Mason (tough) and Mike, then “Grandpa Steve”. Before the storm…great!

Upstairs = dollhouses and ‘playing catch’ aka Mason throwing the plastic golf ball over the edge of the loft over and over and then covering his mouth in ‘surprise’ (LIES). Mason calls me Aunt Jenny, Anna: “why do you call her Aunt Jenny?!” Mason: “I don’t know what her name is!” Mason: “I have to go destroy Uncle Jeff. Be right back.” LOTS of ‘destruction’.

Wonderful day!

“Gabs for AA Oly champ 2012!!”

—me, 3/4/12

What if somehow this IS The Year after all????

USA WOMEN, OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS TEAM CHAMPIONS 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (much as I love Gabby, I love this one the most still…LOVE this team!)

GABRIELLE DOUGLAS, OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS ALL-AROUND CHAMPION 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (AMAZING!)

(I timed this post to publish late at night in case any of you readers dared to stay unspoiled for primetime coverage.)

It’s almost too good to be true!!

This stuff NEVER happens!!!

Maybe Christie’s doll was THE good-luck charm…???

(also, looking forward to coaching little gymnasts inspired by these Games for years to come!)

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!