A different perspective...

Once again, my journal entry began with the words, Southern California is burning... Over the weekend, firefighters battled fires in highly populated areas of Southern California ... Brea, Yorba Linda, Corona, Diamond Bar ... You can't help being drawn to the 24/7 live coverage of those fires raging out of control. It's mesmerizing in a way, and then you feel guilty for 'watching' as people lose their homes, and possessions. Ron has friends and co-workers living in those cities. We watched in disbelief as people were forced to evacuate their homes, hundreds of which burned to the ground. Monday morning, as the fires were finally 'contained,' we found out that his supervisor's house was one of the homes in Yorba Linda which was destroyed. It changes your whole perspective watching the fires when you know someone personally who has lost so much. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Alex ... and to the hundreds of others we don't know who lost their homes...

Just when you thought...

Today was one of those days I woke up feeling overwhelmed... After basically fixing dinner 3 times last night (yes, 3 times!)...and doing dishes each time, is it any wonder I left the crock pot plugged in all night?! Not only was it plugged in, it was still on and the spaghetti sauce still simmering ... uh, make that still burning. Why 3 dinners? Well, I ate before taking Matthew to practice (at 5:30 p.m.); then just as I was dropping Matthew off at practice, Aaron called -


Deiga, I'm finished with football practice - do you want to pick me up at school or mom's?


Well, gee - I'm at the community field with Matthew, have you tried calling your dad? (He was supposed to be on his way to the ball field)


Yes, but he didn't answer.


Ok...I'll come pick you up right now.


But, picking him up now means I have to take him home and he will be starving, so I'll have to cook the noodles and bread for him, and do it all again after Matt's football practice for Ron and Matthew. Oh, well... so I fix Aaron's dinner and sit and chat with him while he eats. And, sure enough I do it all again at 8:15 p.m. for the other two.



By now, I'm exhausted. Tired of cooking. Tired of doing dishes - and it's election night, so I'm also trying to keep an eye on the results ... which is why I guess I left the crock pot on. All of that to explain why when I woke up this morning - I was feeling overwhelmed.



Aaron and I ended up having breakfast together this morning, and over our coffee we were wondering if proposition 8 had passed or not. (For my non-California readers, that's the proposition to protect tradtional marriage in the state of California.) He went off to school...and while I'm getting ready for work I'm feeling down about being overwhelmed by life and wondering if I need counseling or something... then I hear my cell phone ring. I'm thinking someone has forgotten something ... I check and it's a text message from Aaron -

"Yes on 8 passed."

Funny, how that simple text message changed my attitude and my day. It wasn't the fact that the proposition passed, it was the fact that Aaron thought about me when he found out and took the time to send that simple text message.

I'm still overwhelmed ... but I feel better about it.