I Wish I Were a Swimmer

I could always swim, but I was not a swimmer.  I love that my boys have caught on to this sport.  They've tried football, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, but none of those sports really clicked quite as well as competitive swimming has.  Makes me proud.  I wish I had tried this sport in my youth.

This is Oli in lane 4.  He's the last one off the block, but he took 2nd in his heat.  Butterfly is beautiful.

Dear John Letter

Dear Chocolate,

As you may have suspected, I've decided to break up with you. Since we've hardly seen each other for 4 days now, I'll assume you got the hint. It's not that I don't love you. I do. I always will. But we were just together way too much, and it wasn't a healthy relationship. When I was with you, I didn't care about anything else, I just wanted more of you. It was becoming obsessive. I was completely dependent on you.

Even though I really miss you, I've been okay filling in that void with Fruits and Vegetables. They are very mature, fresh, colorful, and good for me right now. It is the proper match.

I hope we can still be friends. I mean, like get together once in a while in small doses. Maybe if I'm really good, we can even have a big "hurrah" in a couple of weeks on my birthday. But then we have to back off again.  Promise me that you'll understand and stay away the best that you can. Chocolate, you will always be my dear, special friend with whom I have so many happy memories.

Love,

VaLene

Unbroken

Once in a great while a book grabs my whole self, and I can hardly detach myself from the pages.  The author of Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand, tells a gripping true story about Louis Zamperini in her latest book, Unbroken.  Louis was a troublemaker as a kid, then an olympic runner, then a bombardier in World War II, then a plane crash survivor, then a life raft survivor in the Pacific ocean, then a Japanese prisoner of war survivor, and finally a survivor of post traumatic stress disorder.  This man's life is astounding, and Laura's research and telling of it is masterful.  It's been years since I was so consumed by one book.