loss

The First Pata

Got the news that my great aunt Tante Gretel passed away early this morning in Germany. She was the last surviving sibling of my grandmother and would have been 100 years old today. Imagine all the changes she saw in her life. She was my…
Hummels

Hummel Nights

I picked up my habit of collecting Hummels from my German family and my mom in particular. I was able to take a few of hers home with me after she passed last month and my favorite is on the mantel. I have been doing…

Under The Bus

If you know my husband Bryan, he had crazy hair throughout his teen years. He got grief about it and swore he would let our kid do what he wanted. So, Dex had his hair longer for a while. Every single time I talked to…

Coming Home To A New World

The last two weeks have been a flurry of flights and European cities. I attended the Web Summit in Lisbon for the first time, a conference where the world's tech community comes together to exchange ideas. I was there by myself, which was a bit isolating and overwhelming, but also afforded me the chance to speak to people from all over the globe. In the middle of all this was, of course, the election. To say I am shocked and saddened by the outcome is an understatement. More to the point, I am still in the denial stage of grief and only since returning home have I started to even process what happened. I was at dinner with a friend and several of his friends the day after the vote. It's important to know that all the men present were pro-business and while not necessarily pro-Trump, were definitely anti-establishment. They saw the election as a way to shake things up - and I came to see that side of the argument. What I still can't wrap my head around is how Trump (or "He Who Shall Not Be Named" as many of us are now calling him) is the person to do the shaking. Unless you want the vibrations to be racist, misogynistic, bigoted and from a place of poorly-run businesses. One of the men asked me, "How then, do you think, did Trump win the election?" "White supremacists." His jaw dropped at my answer, and let me explain. If you look at the numbers of who voted for Trump, it was vastly white people. While I don't think all those voters are racists in the traditional sense of the word, in that they would deny someone a job or call a person names because of the color of the skin - that is exactly what they did with their vote. By overlooking Trump's many, many, many, many, many comments and actions in that direction. By not being concerned about how others would be treated in a Trump presidency.
Friendships

Split

This is probably going to sound very self-pitying and whiny, but trust me, I am grateful for my life. It's just that things have shifted so greatly over the last few years, it's hard not to be reflective. Given our work and hobbies, not to mention the kid, we've had friendships that cross into several different groups of people. Primarily, for me, that has meant mom bloggers, musicians, tech/social media peeps and PTA parents. Our connections within those groups swelled so much that they crossed over within each other and life was pretty frenetic. Almost every single night there was one, two, three or more possibilities for going out in any one, two or more of these areas. Foursquare was roaring because you could check in, and regularly find out a friend was not only nearby, but often times was in the same bar. If I went to see a local band, I could expect to know many people there. Heck, we used to run into people, all the time, all over.