a full life

I haven't blogged in a long while--not since I began graduate school, which has taken up all of my time that is not dedicated to Rosie.  In one of my rhetoric classes we are discussing blogs and why people blog and what blogs should be about and how often bloggers post, etc. etc. etc. Lots to discuss.  Lots to discuss about the growing role of technology in general, in our lives, in our school, in our minds.  An article I read talks about how to begin a blog and especially what you need to begin one (an urgency for your subject matter, an important/reasonable purpose, a sense of authority/qualification, strong personal interest, and an audience to supply positive feedback).  I think that's asking a lot, especially because my reasons for blogging are much more laid-back. Academic discussions are interesting, but usually I walk away musing about the purpose of life and why I do what I do--questions rather than answers.

But the reason I (we, thank-you for your occasional post, Dustin) started this blog was #1 to keep a record of the fun places we visit (not quite as exotic as of late, seeing as most of our time goes towards work and most of our money goes towards school) and #2 to remind myself and others of the quirks, joys, happenings, and consequences life brings.  Today I wanted to share a few things that makes my life fuller:

First, there are machines that run through our neighborhood eating leaves.  Yesterday there was a lengthy gusting of wind which caused most of our burgundy and gold leaves to take a tumble to earth.  Today most of them have disappeared into the belly of the whirring beasts that roll through the gutters and drive-ways of our suburb.  However, for some reason yesterday Rosie and I decided to take a break from life and homework and go out stomping int he leaves.  Rosie is learning to sit up, so she sat in the leaves smashing, throwing, and biting them.  She giggled as I swung her through the swirling colored leaves and I had a moment to take a breath and look at my mountains and realize once again how beautiful my favorite season is, even in its later throws of transformation.  Today the leaves are gone, but yesterday gave us enough time to make a memory with them.

Second, the joy of food.  Dustin and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on Monday by going to a fancy restaurant and ordering a platter of lobster tail, king crab, salmon, and a few different varieties of shrimp.  It was my first time eating lobster and MAN it was delicious.  It was fun using the nut-cracker device and dipping steaming meats in butter and doing it all with the person I love more than anyone else in the world.  Even better than all of that, when we showed up to the restaurant there was a 40 minute wait, so we put our name on the waiting list and went out for a dessert-before-dinner run.  Ice cream is the food of the gods, and it makes waiting infinitely more enjoyable.

Well, my list of a few things has been shortened to a mention of two--Rosie is waking up and I still have 3 articles to read before beginning a paper that is due tomorrow...then I have to start my homework for the next class :)  I sure have enjoyed this year of blogging, and I still look forward to the comments I get from old friends and new followers.  Thanks to all of you out there that make my life means something, who give me vibrant personalities to anchor my own to against the blusterings of life that would obliviate the fullness of life except for the strength of people like you.