8 Minute Meditation

I've been wanting to learn meditation for a few years now. I'd heard it was really good for you and a few speakers and authors that I read suggested it. The problem was that I didn't "get" it. I bought a few self guided tapes that really turned me off. They all had zen music in the background and two of them even had the "Ommmm" taped into them. Ick. Then somehow I saw this book "8 Minute Meditation" by Victor Davich. Eight minutes sounded good to me, something I could do. I looked it up on Amazon and all the real people reviews raved about it, so I ordered it.

I love it.

Not only do I love it, but I've finally found the answer to my swimming dilemma.

The swimming practive for my relay in Elba has been going well, but I still had to solve my boredom/wandering mind problem. I get bored swimming. Whatever workout I have I can talk myself into doing less or if I'm swimming with someone, I can become one of those people that talk for half an hour while waiting to push off again. This summer I thought I'd be able to find a solution while I was at the beach but it was actually worse . There were more distractions in the sea, and not having the certainty of the black line and the 50mt push off, I'd still stop every few minutes to look up.

8 minute meditation is an 8 week program and has you sample eight different meditation techniques. The first week was centered around breathing. You set a timer for eight minutes and the book gives you detailed instructions on how to go about the meditation, how to deal with the wandering mind, etc.

The wandering mind...my biggest problem. I sometimes have a really difficult time in concentrating on one thing at a time. I multi task like there's no tomorrow and will often get up in the middle of a project that I'm working on to go "fix" something else that's flashed before my brain agenda.

That's when I hit upon that my problem with swimming was my wandering mind and that I could maybe try the meditation while I was swimming.

Bingo!

It worked like a charm. Not that I get all zen while I swim, but I put my concentration on my stroke and where my body is. More importantly when all those thoughts about where I should be and what else I could be doing come up, I just take them and let them go. Then I latch back onto the stroke that I'm performing and the breathing. Yesterday I took ten minutes off my 3000mt workout so I know it's working.

No Blame

I received several private emails about my previous entry, centered around that last phrase I wrote. I just wanted to make a clarification on it so that you don't get the wrong idea about what went on then or after.

I wrote an email to my father the other day with this being the central part of the message:

"The other day I was on my bike and I started thinking about my childhood.

I just had these flashes of things that had happened. It must have lasted about

five seconds but I had images of going to Muir Beach when I was about eight,

playing on the fire station lawn on a summer night, barbecueing at Stinson

Beach with you and Mom, all those fairs you used to take us to, La Ginestra,

that Triumph you used to cram all five of us in, hiking on Mt. Tam, all the great friends

I used to have. And I thought "what a great childhood I had".

And then I laughed to myself.

I thought it was funny because if anybody knew what we all had gone through

together, maybe they wouldn't see it that way. And I did go through a phase

where I resented it, but then I realised that whatever had happened had made me

the person that I was today and so it was all for a purpose - and maybe perfect in

its' own way."

I had what a lot of people might define as a difficult childhood. I don't want to list all the events or elaborate on who did what because I don't think it really matters anymore. You can drown yourself in blame and resentment and feeling like you got the raw end of the deal. You can actually do that for your entire lifetime and then drag it onto other areas of your life that had nothing to do with the initial trigger event because you go back and use that event as the reason why things aren't working out now. When that happens it's really difficult to let go, move on and start living life in the here and now.

I was able to let go, though it took me a while to do it. Like twenty years. And in the meantime there were more family deaths and divorces and remarriages to add to the heap.

Everybody has had some terrible thing that happened in the past, be it five, ten, or thirty five years ago. Ask. You won't find anybody that has had a perfect life. But the one's that are presently the happiest are the ones that don't put any blame on the situations.

After I let go and stopped blaming, I could start remembering all the wonderful things that had happened and it was truly liberating.

I never had a trauma because I wasn't able to say goodbye to my Mom before she was killed by a drunk driver while crossing the street. I was sad, but not traumatized. Besides, I absolutely believe that I will see her again, in one form or another. That still makes me happy to think about.

My First Decade

My First Decade

Age 1: I only weigh five and a half pounds at birth. Considering that I would reach the height of 5 ft 10 inches by my 13th birthday, that's a lot of growing to do.

Age 2: My first memory: being in my crib, white bars, trying to crawl over and out. Never made it.

Age 3: The ice cream truck comes down the road every day at 2 pm. There's music in the air as it slowly drives down the street. I have a nickel in my little hand and make a run to the truck with my brothers. I always choose vanilla with orange sherbert on a stick. I continue to buy the same ice cream for the next ten years.

Age 4: I have a solo in a ballet recital. I'm supposed to be a girl in a painting that comes alive. Just as I'm rounding the corner on some sort of twirl my biggest fear comes true; I fall down. I'm able to gracefully pick myself up and I get a mini standing ovation.

Age 5: Kindergarten. We're sitting around in a circle and the teacher has put cream and sugar in jar. We pass it around and each have to shake it so that we can make sweet butter. I can still taste it on my tongue to this day.

Age 6: My mother does volunteer work at the school thrift store. Today the car is broken so she decides that the two of us can walk there. It's a sunny day and we walk from our house to downtown Tiburon, a three mile hike.

Age 7: We're talking about geography in class. Normally I never say a word but today I pipe up and tell this elaborate story about how in India the cows are sacred and nobody eats them like we do. Sister Cecilia knows what I'm talking about and is enthusiastic about my having this knowledge. All my other classmates give me blank stares.

Age 8: I go with my older brother David and my younger brother Billy along with two other friends from the neighborhood in Mill Valley, into San Francisco. The bus costs ten cents. We go to the Emporium to see Santa Claus. David has the most money, fourteen dollars. We all buy each other Christmas presents and pretend the other isn't really looking.

Age 9: I'm in bed with my mother, I go there almost every morning to snuggle. I tell my Mom I'm going to give her a "Hollywood Kiss". It's quite long and with our lips smooshed together. After I'm done she tells me very sweetly that maybe I'm too big to give her the HK. I'm absolutely crushed...

Age 10: The babysitter arrives at our house as my Mom is leaving to go away for the weekend up to Lake Tahoe. I'm so excited at having the babysitter there and I want to show her my secret trick! I can stop the apartment elevator between floors...but then we really did get stuck and it takes us a minute to get it moving again. We go back into the house and my Mom has already left for her trip. I think she knew I would cry and so she thought she'd take a quick exit. I never saw her again. I never did get to say goodbye.

Giovedì Gratitude Post

Piero came home tonight after ten days on the road. I hate when he drives so much and am really thankful that when he leaves again in three days he'll be taking a train. September is not my favorite month since it's is the one moment out the year when it's guaranteed that he'll be gone (for work). But I'm grateful for the three days we have together now. Tomorrow we'll probably go downtown to give a farewell to Pavarotti, may he rest in peace. Modena is now without it's number one citizen.

Just like flying

I woke up with the sound of wind banging on the windows. During the summer I sleep with the shutters closed and the windows open so that I can feel the fresh air in the house. I raced around from window to window, closing each one. I had to run out into the yard in my pajamas to save a book that had been left overnight outside on a table. I secured the lawnmower which had already been pushed up against the fence. Then the rain started to come down. It only lasted thirty minutes, if that. But I knew it was enough to scare away any prospective swimmers from going to the outdoor pool. As soon as the worst of the storm was over I headed to the pool.

When I arrived the lifeguard was busy tweezing out ingrown hairs on his legs from a bad wax job. There were a few other swimmers, but the pool is big enough that I had my own swimming lane. My very own fifty metre swimming lane! Heaven. I warmed up with 1000 metres and then did 500 metres of technique. At the end of that I decided before swimming another 1000 metres I would stretch my back out. I took a board, flipped onto my back and stretched my arms up over my head using the board to keep my arms balanced but then just did soft kicks with my legs under the water. My ears were under the water so everything was silent. I had taken my goggles off so what I saw looking up was this:

I immediately started to uncontrollably giggle. I just couldn't help myself. The sensation was one of the most exhilirating that I've ever had. I lifted my head to look around...the other swimmer was still swimming and the lifeguard had moved onto a conversation on his cell phone while massaging his pecs. I set myself up in the same position: on my back, ears under water, looking at the clouds... again came the uncontrollable giggling. And then it came to me why. It felt like flying. No gravity, clouds swirling around, silence... It's the easiest high I've had in a really long time. It only lasted about a minute because then the sun came out and I couldn't see without squinting and I couldn't get that same situation in play again...but out of all the swimming I've done this summer that will be the one moment I'll always remember.

Really really bad joke

The other night, like 1.00 am night, I watched the World Championships women's marathon. After it was over the Italian Television did an interview with the winner Catherine Ndereba. I had to translate for P:

Me: She said that it wasn't her actually running the marathon but rather Jesus Christ running in her place...

Him: Can't she be disqualified for that?

Yep, you're supposed to laugh.

She looks like an absolute Queen while she runs. For anyone who didn't watch the race, she kept cool a hundred feet back from the lead group while they duked it out for the first 35km and then she made her move. Her pace coming into the stadium was just incredible...Sigh...

Giovedì Gratitude Post

Your little face is usually the first thing I see when I wake up. This morning I was watching you sleep. While your father kind of snores on his back with his mouth open and your sister tends to drool, you're still in that youthful stage where you look perfectly angelic. Which you are. I'm really sorry if I seem impatient with you these days. I can see that little brain of yours whirling away all day, asking me questions every three seconds. Why? is the key word these days. I loved the Why? question for today: "Why does fruit have peels to protect them?" That one came just before "What is in water?" and "Why aren't the stars planets?". Why indeed. Sometimes I try and answer you with real answers but other times I just don't know what to say. I mean, I don't know the answers to some of your questions and you are listening to the answers. I know because I've tested you out a few times and you know when I'm giving you a bogus answer.
Anyway, while I was watching you sleep this morning I just thought how grateful I was to have you in my life. I couldn't imagine it without you. Tomorrow I'll try and give you some really good answers to those Why? questions. Maybe I'll study some science facts tonight...

Dearest...

Dearest Fifty Metre Outdoor Pool,
Yesterday when I came to visit you and saw the leaflet near the cashier I was stunned for a few minutes. Yes, I knew that you'd be closing eventually, I just didn't think that it would be in just ten short days. Now I'm really sad. Sad that I didn't come and visit you more often. There is nothing like coming to see you first thing in the morning on a summer day. It gives me a feeling of being careless and free and having nothing to do (even though work awaits). It also means that summer is starting to come to a close and that saddens me even more, though not for any particular reason. Maybe just the passing of time...

So while I was swimming in the sun I tried to think of all the positives thing that would come about with your departure. They'll change your water. By the end of the summer I can barely stand the amount of chemicals you have in the water. I know, I know, it's all regulated and everything but I can still smell them. Yesterday I nearly gagged after only 1000 metres. Probably the fact that it was 100° degrees out didn't help. They'll start lessons again. I've been thinking about taking a swim class again and that can't happen until the fall since they don't offer them during the summer. The pool will be filled with dedicated swimmers again. The one thing I can't stand during the summer is that they rope off only four lanes of you for lap swimming and leave the rest for "swimming". But those teenage kids are drawn like magnets to the roped off lanes...Remember that time in July when those guys (they were definately over 20 years old) decided to play wrestling under the lap lanes? After having to stop for them about ten times because I was afraid I was going to get hurt I kept swimming and just dug my nails into one of their backs...Yes, I know...I'm still a little embarrassed by that passive aggressive move. On the other hand they stopped playing their little game and we could all swim again.
So, I'll come and visit you a little more often in these last days before they put that ridiculous bubble over you for the winter. I know, it keeps you warm, but it still looks silly.
Anyway, I'll be here for you again next year - take care!
Love,
Julia

Thousands of miles (or kilometres, if you prefer)

At the beginning of the month I sent P and Evan down to the beach house without us. The plan was that Olivia would not be coming this year and I would be coming mid month for ten days. I have to admit that I spent the first week sort of delirious from the freedom to do whatever I wanted (almost). More relaxed meal timing, no scrambling to get a babysitter for workouts, no having to think of something for the kids to do all day. I went biking and running and swimming every single day just because I could. I bought a new book to read, I left the house alone for a week and then I cleaned it really well. I cleaned my closet out. I went to the movies with Olivia. Don't laugh, I haven't been to a movie theatre in almost two years. On day five I really really started missing "the boys". I found a way to go see them for the weekend, not an easy feat since they're 800 kms away. It involved driving with my brother in law and his friend by night (we left at 10.00 pm and arrived at 6.00 am) and then taking an eight hour train back to Modena four days later. This was all made possible by the fantastic Linda, who I adore. She spent the nights with Olivia over the weekend and tried to entertain her in some way. Tomorrow I go back on the train to the beach, this time for ten days. This all sounds involved and complicated but I can assure you that everybody is happier this summer. Me included.

This morning Linda and I went running. We started out at 8.00 am but it was already too too hot. Today got almost up to 95° so it must have been about 85° when we were halfway through the workout...which was:

3 x (20 min run + 1km fast)

The first km I just ran at what I felt was a "moderate" speed without exhausting myself too much. I came in at about 5'40". On the second km I started it out in the same way but this time I tried to concentrate on both my stride rate and length, trying to keep it relaxed. 5'25".
I get into that habit of being "comfortable" and not changing gears. Not that I have to push myself, I just have to remember what I'm doing and pay more attention to it.

I was fooling around...

...with my blog and POOF! It went away. Oops! The easiest thing (less time consuming) for me to do is just to put it in automatic mode and continue, which is what I did, hence the "new" look. I'll get around to putting in all the old links and stuff later...Gotta go on a bike ride now!

On becoming a swimmer

Did I tell you I'm signed up to swim 3,8km (2,4 miles) on september 30th as part of an Ironman relay team? Well, I am. Oops, not supposed to say Ironman if it doesn't have the trademark! Me and IronMauro and another friend will be doing Elbaman. I do have a secret desire to one day race an Ironman and since one of the components that intimidates me the most is the swim, I thought that completing the distance in a relay might help me get over that "I'll never make it" feeling. I've been swimming three times a week in the last month, that in itself constitutes serious training for me since I just hate the chlorine and have never, ever gone to the pool more than twice a week. But while I swim I know that I could improve because sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. Is my arm entry okay? Am I pulling as much as I could? Questions that only a swimming coach could answer for me, but in the middle of august in Italy that's impossible. Then I remembered that I had an old VHS videotape by Steve Tarpinian and that maybe I could look at that to get some ideas.

I think the tape was made in the '80's or something. Steve has on a pair of Dolphin shorts and white socks that come halfway up his shins. Plus he has a few really really corny "skits" in the tape and talks r-e-a-l-l-y slow, just to make sure you get in every word. So as soon as I stopped laughing over the age warp I was able to focus on a few of my mistakes right away:

• I put my head down to far. Steve says the water should hit between my goggles and my hairline. See, I was putting my head further down since I remember some random person telling me that I should be looking at the bottom of the pool. Lesson learned: stop listening to random people that give out advice.
• I rarely bend my elbow enough underwater to get a good pull. Tried this and found some new arm muscles.
• Steve said the water with your kick should look like water boiling in a pot. No foam, no feet. Even though I have a good kick, the visual of this helped me a lot.
• Steve said that if you work out in a pool you should give yourself the advantage of doing flip turns so you get a good rhythm. I had stopped doing them a long time ago because they made me dizzy. In the tape he says that when you flip you should land on your back and then as you push off the wall start turning over. This really really helped me. Again, some random person told me that I should already be turned over when I push off the wall.
  
• Incorporate drills into every-single-workout you do. I'm totally guilty of just going to the pool and swimming laps.

So, equipped with this newfound knowledge I went back to the pool for a Steve T workout.


500mt warmup
6 x 50mt one arm pulls
3 x 100mt side kicks
6 x 50mt , rec. 30" freestyle
3 x 100mt , rec. 1', freestyle
500mt whatever

The results were that on my first three 6 x 50mts I came in on 45 seconds! That's a 10 second improvement for me! Now I'm all excited to workout in the pool again (as opposed to dreading it) though I'm pretty sure that I'll be almost last in the swim relay in Elbaman. The important thing is to complete the distance, right?

Baiso rivisited

I really wanted to go on a long bike ride. This week my boys are at the beach so I've been pretty free to do what I wanted and in my head "ride bike" was one of the activities I wanted to schedule. I really wanted to go back to Baiso because I love the climb up there. Round trip it's about 66km which I knew would be stretching it a bit since 55km was the furthest I'd gone this summer, but I knew that if I wasn't in a hurry I'd be okay. I invited my friend Alessia to come with me. The plan was to meet at her house at 4 p.m. so that we'd be home by 8 p.m., before it got dark. As sort of an afterthought I decided to extend the invitation to ride with us to this guy I know named Paolo. He's the ex-husband of a friend of mine and he lives about three blocks from my house. Whenever I see him he always mentions to me that he's available for bike rides. I don't call him often, in fact we've only been riding together three or four times, mostly because I decide at the last minute to go and just take off. I texted him a message to let him know that we were going to Baiso and if he wanted to come along he was welcome. He said yes and told us to meet him in front of a coffee place which was just around the corner from Alessia's house.

We picked Paolo up and the first thing I noticed was that he didn't have a helmet on. I'm a pretty free spirit but I hate riding with people that don't wear helmets! He said that he couldn't find it and then took off. He started going toward Sassuolo where all the traffic was instead of through Rubiera where there were a lot of country roads.

"Oh, I've never been to Baiso before so I'll just follow you."

Right.

We were almost at the road that you have to cut onto, the Via Emilia, where you have to share the road with huge trucks for just 500mts. He said we could take another road.

"Just as long as there are NO TRUCKS, because I hate the trucks". I wanted to trust him. He was local and even though he'd never biked to Baiso he had to know the roads, right?

One country road, two country roads, then on the third one he takes a left instead of a right. He's a guy and has a strong pedal and I can't keep up with him, I just figure he knows where he's going and follow along. Within ten minutes we're in the center of Sassuolo which is totally NOT where we're supposed to be going. At a certain point he and Alessia are so far ahead that at an intersection I have no idea if they've gone straight or turned right. I stop and wait for about three minutes and they come back. He just starts pedalling to the right and we follow. Now since we've hit Sassuolo we are totally surrounded by trucks since Sassuolo is known for their ceramics and tiles and these trucks are hauling them left and right. We just keep following this guy when all of the sudden we realize that he is leading us onto a friggin' FREEWAY. It was surreal. I started laughing like a maniac because I totally couldn't believe what he was doing. Alessia was right in front of me with a hand on top of her helmet repeating "Oh my God, oh my God...". I saw that there was an exit just 180mts ahead and told her to get off there. In the meantime we watch as Paolo tries to jump a couple lanes and go straight!

Once we're back on a normal road we stop and decide where to go from there. I stopped a car and he told us we were only 3 minutes away from a country road that would lead us to Baiso. Just as we're taking off Paolo comes up the same road exit that we had gotten off on...which means that he had to have backtracked on the freeway. Alessia has the excuse that she doesn't know him so decides that she won't say anything. Me? I told him that I really loved my life and that I have two young children that still need me and that I didn't have any thoughts of suicide lately but mostly, WHATTHEFUCKWEREYOUTHINKINGYOUCOMPLETEANDTOTALMORON??!?! The thing is, he didn't know what was wrong or why I was upset. It seemed totally normal to him. That's what he said, but I really can't believe that he really thought that. In any case I told him he was welcome to follow me but that we would no longer be following him.

We made it to the bottom of the hill, now we had 20km of climbing up 500mts. I told him to go ahead, there was no way he could make a wrong turn now, so off he went. We climbed and climbed and it was really nice and peaceful . Very little traffic and lots of cyclists going up or already coming down. We were almost at the top when guess who comes racing down...as he passes us he shouts "see you in Modena!". I couldn't believe it...or maybe I could. At the top we stopped to fill our water bottles and bought an ice cream and then headed down. I look down at the mileage and calculate that by the time we get home we'd have ridden almost 100km. Hello! I've never gone past 80km in my life! The downhill is a thrill but now we have to try and hurry to get back home before dark. My muscles are sore and I had a moment where I just wanted to stop, but I talked myself into everything being okay. For the last 10km we decided to get on the main road so we could get home faster. About 5km from home I felt my back wheel wobble. Flat tire. Good thing I have a sense of humour here 'cause I started laughing again. We tried to change it but it was dark and I didn't have my glasses so I couldn't really see what I was doing. In the end Alessia went ahead and got my car and came back to get me. Total for me: 95km, total for her:100km.

A few good things came out of this experience:

nr.1 - I will never have to feel guilty again about not calling Paolo for a ride. Whew! Thank you!

nr.2- Today we road 67km and it seems like a stroll compared to the 95km. I think I'm on my way to being a biker.

nr.3 - I can still laugh about the incident and probably will for a long time to come.

Good 'ole calesthetics

A couple months ago me and my partner in running crimes (a.k.a. Linda) decided that we wanted to start putting regular strength exercise sessions in our workouts. Both of our problem areas are in the rear. Not only do I have a big bum, but it's really difficult for me to even work on it since I have a sway back and naturally concentrate all exercises on my thighs rather than my glutes. That ends up to be rather a Catch-22 - where my thighs get stronger and my glutes get weaker. We started dedicating mondays to these sessions. The first monday we did:

• 15' warmup run

4 x

• 100mt uphill running
• 20 steps on park bench
• 100mt run downhill
• 5 lunges per leg
• back leg lifts - 10 x leg

• 15' cool down run

The first time I did this session I could barely walk two days later. I think the thing that did me in were the lunges. I was really careful to not come up using my thigh muscles but rather the glutes.
We were on our third week and I was all excited because it started to feel right. I told P about it and he burst our little bubble. "To be really effective you should be doing them twice a week".
Oh. Okay, twice a week. I like that when I tell Linda these kind of things she doesn't even flinch.

Every week we upped the series by one so that we would start the month out at four and end with eight. On the second month I came up with this one:

• 15' warmup run

4 x

• 50mt uphill sprint
• 20 half squat
• 15 leg circles (on knees)
• 25 leg lifts (on knees)
• 1' posture stretch
• 15' warm down run

In the second series we briefly had two other women that were coming with us but after a couple of weeks they started showing up late (no apologies) and altogether missing sessions. We hadn't even let them know that we were doing it twice a week!

This week Linda is in Prague so I was on my own for the new session this month. I wanted to put the lunges in since I think those really help and I added a jump rope for coordinating my "running" feet. So this month is:

• 30' run

4 x

• 20 walking lunges
• 20 elbow to knee
• 1' jumprope
• 15 arms behind head
• 100mt stride
• 100mt skipping, rec.1'

This was great because the next day I was sore in all the right places! So the big news is that I can really FEEL the difference. I'm building muscles and, when I run, I can really feel them working for me. I'm hoping that by having some glute muscles it'll help me have better posture and run with them rather than reverting to my quads to take the brunt of the run. My cycling seems to have benefited from it also. Yippee!

The Pause a.k.a. The Women's Only Entry

By now I'm pretty used to it. Instead of talking about my time of the month we can discuss my time of the year. I was okay with that, having it come three times a year. Then last month all the symptoms came down on me at once: hot flashes, irritabilility and bloating bloating bloating. I've always been a water retainer, but recently it's been getting worse. Cellulite on my lower thighs down to the knees, a huge belly that won't go away. The one hundred degree heat wave weather that we've been having was making it worse. One day I had a mini-breakdown in the car with P. I started blubbering about my body being hijacked and not recognizing myself. For someone who really tries to take care of her body through sport and good nutrition, it's totally frustrating that no matter what I did, my body had another direction it wanted to go in.
I've already been to doctors and gynocologists who confirm, yes, you are in perimenopause and total menopause - even if a little early (this whole thing started at 44 for me) should come any time now. No, not a lot you can do about it.

No, I won't take hormone replacements.

So, to get rid of the bloating I'm trying every trick in the book: I drink 2 lts of water a day, I supplement with green tea, exercise is good, I've started cutting out any excess carbohydrates and I've added more protein. At the end of my showers I turn the water on COLD only for one or two minutes. I found a masseuse that doesn't charge a fortune to go to once a week (love that!). I take dandelion drops three times a day. All this combination seems to have helped out and calmed some of the symptoms. It's the not feeling in charge that bothered me the most. Now I'm back in the driver's seat. I'm sure I'll have to keep tweaking myself to figure out what to change, but that's better than just sitting back and feeling hopeless that there is nothing I can do about it. There is and I will.

On the way home

Friday night we went to the Golden Gala in Rome, it's always exciting to see live athletics. Piero had to go work for the first half of the meet, more specifically his job was to film Oscar Pitorius while he ran the 400mt race. The IAAF was studying him and his request to run the world championship in Osaka next month. He was looking at his gait and number of steps per 100mts. Very interesting stuff.
Evan filled himself with and ice cream at about 8.00pm, and by 8.30pm he was fast asleep in my arms! Music, starting guns, screaming crowds did not disturb him! At one point I heard him snoring. We witnessed the freak accident with the Javelin. Just next to us another guy fainted watching what happened and hit his head on a rail. It was total chaos for about ten minutes.

We left Rome at about 10.00 pm and headed up to Roccaraso where Piero was following the marathoners workout the next day. Nobody is going to the World Championships this year since they don't want to get cooked, so they're all going to be doing a fall marathon, probably NYCM.
The workout was a 5km on the track.

Before they started warming up I asked them if they would take a picture with Evan. I'm supposed to do an album for his school, "What I did this summer". So on week three of summer vacation he spent time with athletic champions. Left to right: Giacomo Leone (1996 NYCM winner), Stefano Baldini (Olympic Gold Medal Athens Marathon), Piero holding Evan, Mimmo Caliandro (3km 2007 European indoor champion), Ottavio Andriani (1st place, 2007 Trieste marathon).


Before we left for the workout I went running on my own. I climbed up this hill that looked over the valley. Beautiful and silent, I had one of those beautiful moments where I am totally grateful for the life I have and to be in this world. I've noticed those moments have been coming more and more often...

Vacation

Well, the title is a bit allusive because I didn't really go on vacation. Summer is one of my busier working periods since everybody starts to gear up for fall marathons. We went to the beach house for one week but I had my computer with my so that I could work every day. One week is the perfect amount of time for me to be at the beach house. I went swimming every day and rode my bike once and went running several times. I ate my weight in watermelon. I had some health issues which I'll write about later (no time now!). Today we're in Rome because Piero had to come back to work (I'm in his office using the internet) and tonight we're going to the Golden Gala athletic meeting. Yesterday we accompanied Piero to the stadium. So cool to be inside that huge Olympic stadium with nobody inside! Here's a few pics:

Running up and down the beach. Perfect stategy to get him to faint into bed in the evening.

In the Olympic stadium in Rome, trying to get a picture taken together.
Running in the Olympic stadium. Can't wait to see it filled with people tomorrow!

My favorite photos

I told Olly I wanted to print my favorite photos that she shot this last month and hang them somewhere at home. These are my pics from May... May be Mamma's pride, but I say she has a special eye for details.

My other half

I know that I don't talk about my daughter that much in this space. I know she wouldn't like it. We have a rather volatile relationship which goes from deep love to violent hate, sometimes in a matter of minutes. Part of that is her personality, part is a fourteen year old's hormones, another part is her being angry at life in general. These last two years have been particularly difficult for her at school. In grades 1 - 5 I sent her to a private catholic school. No nuns or priests, it was close to home, and they were in school until 4.00 pm and no school on saturday. This as opposed to 12.30 pm at the public school with saturdays included. When it came time to select a middle school for grades 6 - 8 I gave her the choice of the public school next to our house (walking distance) or to continue on at the catholic school where I would drive her in the morning but she had to take the public bus back home. It was only a ten minute ride, but a much bigger decision. It was also a different set of teachers and administration. Most of the friends she had made in school were continuing on at the private catholic school, she doesn't like change in general, so she decided to stay there.

The problem was that she changed. My sweet little first born started becoming a strong willed, opinionated, creative soul. This probably all happened at too young of an age for her and everyone around her, which threw her teachers off completely. So it's been a rough three years.

In Italy high schools are divided into specialties. You're expected to know what you want to do at fourteen and then choose that direction in your five years of studies. They have a "classic" high school where you study greek and latin, or a "scientific" high school where you study math and science. Olivia chose an art institute, with emphasis on photography and graphics. We're very happy with this choice because not only is it where she definately has talent, but she chose this particular school THREE YEARS AGO. She already knew what she wanted.

I hope the storms that she feels around and inside of her start to cease and she can find some peace in her creativity. I love her more than anything in the world.

Gift idea!

After three trillion orders with Amazon, the other day they sent me a coupon for a free photo album book through Shutterfly.com
If you don't know what to get Dad, Husband, Boyfriend, Signficant Other or ANY father you know, go put together a photo album. It was so much fun and so so easy. I took all the pictures that I had from my trip to Memphis, picked the best and then made a book out of them with captions and some writing. Then I sent it off to my Dad. Very very cool. I'll probably use it again at Christmas or for some important occasion.

When you get something different than what you went for...

I had a great time. The first few moments were a little ackward, if only for the time factor. Seeing people you know so well that have different faces and bodies is...surprising. But then ten minutes later you're already used to them again and all is well. My sister had her usual freak out moment, which I knew would come but I didn't realise that she creates them all on her own. Mmm, gave me lots to think about. In any case, I went there for me toteing Evan along with me without realising that we were actually going for him. When we arrived there my Dad was waiting for us, having already been at my brother's for a couple of days. Evan rushed up to my Dad and yelled "Grandpa!". Unfortunately my father is a little on the non responding, unemotional side so he didn't get it. We called Piero to let him know that we'd had a safe trip and Ev announced that Grandpa had a moustache and spoke in english. He didn't have trouble understanding anybody but he kept talking in italian on the first, second and third day. The fourth day he broke out of it and started speaking complete sentences in english with everybody. A non stop talker in both languages now! I mean he just never stops talking, plus he's in the "why?" stage. He played, he shopped, he loved running around at water parks and playing with his cousins. He went in the pool every day and learned not to be afraid of the water. He was happy to go home to his "Pappy".
Yesterday he was telling me that he likes speaking in english. I told him I was very happy for him and that I was happy that he met my family. His reply: "They're my family too!"

Carramba che Sorpresa!

A few years ago the Italian State televison offered a bizarre variety show called "Carramba, che sorpresa". It was hosted by the queen of italian telly hosting, Raffaella Carrà, who through the years was able to recycle herself from showgirl to dancer and singer, on through quiz shows, and finally into variety show hostess. The word "Carramba" is a leftover from her spending some of her career in Spain and South America, definately not an Italian exclamation. The whole point of the show was to surprise someone by having them see people they hadn't seen in a long time. Ninety-nine percent of the guests were people from South America (mostly Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela) who had immigrated to Italy in the fifties and had never been back. Every week, for four endless months they would drag some lady or man onto the stage, sit them down next to Raffaella while she told their life story and how they hadn't seen their sister, cousin, brother, for the last twenty-five years. And guess what? Carramba, che sorpresa...they're here tonight!!! The format was exactly the same every week and of course I couldn't help but cry every episode. Each week I would ask myself how can they not see they're family for 25 friggin' years! Buy an airplane ticket, go for Christmas! Did they have a fight? Maybe they didn't want to see each other! Not in a million years would I ever think to find myself in a similar predicament. No, I'm not going on a variety show...

In the eighties I used to go to California at least twice a year: sometime during the summer and then for Christmas. I did a work stint at the end of the eighties for a travel agency and I'd travel four times a year to the east or west coast. After Olivia was born in the 90's I tried really hard to see at least one member of my family once a year. That would be three people. My Mom passed away when I was a child, my little brother passed away in the mid eighties so that leaves my Father who still lives in Northern California, my sister in Kauai (three children) and my older brother who now lives in Tennessee (three children).

The last time I saw my brother was in 1997. I went there for Christmas with Olivia and don't remember it as being a particularly nice visit since I was just divorced and really struggling with a lot of stuff. In 2000 I earned a good chunk of money and was able to travel to Kauai with Olivia in tow to see my sister. I still remember crying at the airport and wondering why we had scattered to opposite sides of the planet. My father came to Italy in the spring of 2001 to see me. After 9/11 he hasn't ever wanted to travel back to Europe. Me? 2001 was the year I bought my house so all my money went into that. 2002 I was pregnant for four months then miscarried, 2003 pregnant again and giving birth. Traveling to the States doesn't mean just me anymore, it means taking the family. Four airplane tickets cost 6.000,00 and it's just money I don't have to spend on travel these days. I have been back to New York for work four times, and even if it's great to be back on home turf it's still not the same as going "home".

My brother has three sons. The first, Jonathan, is graduating from high school next saturday. He's won a full scholarship (in baseball) to the University of Memphis and we are all excited for him. When I found out my father was going to the graduation I thought that I'd just have to find the money to go, even if it meant just me traveling. When my sister found out that I was coming she decided to come too and bring one of her three children. I just could not go without bringing Evan with me. I'll be eating beans for months, but my family will finally meet my son.

The last time my father, my sister, my brother and I occupied the same space was 1985. Twenty-one years. Carramba, che sorpresa!

I can't wait to see everybody (especially my sister, shhhh...). I'm getting tears in my eyes even writing about it. I won't be updating my blog until after the first of June. I'll be busy checking out Elvis's mansion and drinking American coffee. My sister-in-law has already booked me into some spinning classes and gotten me pool passes. She knows me well!

Solidarity

One thing I forgot to mention about the Tri in Viareggio: I was sick. On Saturday I was feeling achy and nauseous but I had a huge day ahead of me that went like this:

5.00am wake up

6.30am throw Evan while still in pajamas into the car and leave for Milan.

9.00am arrive in Milan, find park, meet babysitter, dress, feed and bring son to restroom. Thank the stars that Olly is self sufficient and can get to school on her own.

9.45 - 12.00 - Teach group of 20 runners.

12.00 - 13.00 - Coaching (business) session live.

13.00 - 15.00 - Find huge sports store to get last minute stuff for the race and try and control Evan who wants to buy every ball he sees in the store. Eat before leaving.

15.00 - 17.00 - Drive back home

17.00 - When I got home, waiting for me was my ex-stepmother (don't ask!) and step sister (double don't ask!!) who were visiting from Wyoming for only one evening, on their way to Switzerland. I hadn't seen Nancy (Mom) since I was pregnant with Evan and Susan since 1982! I took them to the center of town where we had a really nice walk while we talked. I was still upright but a little dizzy.

20.00 - Made dinner for everyone. Somewhere around this time Piero came home from Rome.
I ate a little but wasn't hungry, cleaned the dishes and straightened up.

22.00 - Alessia came over to pack the bikes in her car. I think I fainted on the couch (my bed occupied by guests) somewhere around 11.00 pm

The next day we got up at 5.30 am, left the house somewhere around 6.00 am. I slept for about an hour and a half in the car. At this point I just felt like I had a big cold. Why didn't I just bag the race you ask? Because I had talked my friend Alessia into doing a triathlon! In Italy this is an impossible feat since most women a) don't swim well b) don't own a racing bike c) don't have time to train for all three disciplines. When I mentioned that she too could participate in a triathlon she immediatley said yes and started training with me. She bought a new (used) bike and borrowed a wetsuit and went through all the nervous rituals that many of us go through when doubting our abilities. I could not say that I wasn't feeling well and was skipping out!

I felt fine during the race and okay for the rest of the day. Then monday morning hit and it was like I paid back all those dues...Hacking cough, flu like symptoms. Today I brought the kids to school in the morning, came back home to write but before that happened I thought I'd lie down for a minute. THREE HOURS LATER (!!!) I woke up. The positive to that is the annoying hacking cough just disappeared so maybe I needed the rest.

Sprint tri 2007 nr.1

On Sunday I raced my first tri of the season, a sprint in Viareggio. My last sprint race had been 7 years ago so I was a little nervous to do this. How bad could I have gotten in seven years?

The race started at 10.30 so I knew I'd be running under the 85°F sun at noon. 39 women at the start, more than 300 men.

I was happy to see that there were six women in my age group! (45-49)

Swim: 15'56" 750 mts

One of my "strong" points is my ability to swim a straight line. Not so much for other women!

I was going straight for the buoy and I'd get drifted by a bunch that started swimming into me

on the left. Then they'd realize that they were going off course so they start swimming to the right.

I really wanted to hit them but thought that I wouldn't make a lot of friends that way...

T1: 4'27"

Long stretch of beach to run up and then onto the far side of the transition.

Bike: 39'31" 20.22km

In sprints and Olympics drafting is legal and encouraged. What can I say? I caught a train...Pancake flat course with four hairpin curves. This is also the area where I need to work on. I used to be really fast!

T2: 1'40"

Run: 30'37" 5km

I didn't care about my time here, the only thing I really wanted to do was keep moving. It was two loops on the boardwalk and as I was coming out of t2 I watched the winners come in. I only walked once for about twenty seconds and thought to myself "why am I walking?" I passed one woman - yippee!

So I'm coming into the main stretch and I see a woman holding a rose for someone. As I passed by I asked "is that for me?" and immediately thought "It's Mother's Day...the kids didn't say or remember or..." as I'm mulling this in my mind and coming into the home stretch my little Evan, three and a half years old, squeezed in through the tapes and ran after me on the course. He took my hand and started running to the finish with me. I had to slow down to a walk 'cause his little legs go just so fast. He had this HUGE smile on his face and as we crossed the finish yelled "ABBIAMO VINTO!" (We won).

Now THAT is a Mother's Day present

Total time: 1h32'04

I had sort of predicted a 1h40' (based on NOTHING, just my cosmic psychic powers) so I'm really happy with the time and feel totally inspired to work harder on everything.

I used to live only a half hour from here so an old friend of mine Patrizia and her husband had come to watch the race. Afterwards we all went and had lunch on the boardwalk. The two hours we sat in the outdoor restaurant eating pasta with mushrooms and a chocolate gelato, with the sea breeze, friends, my family, my first tri in the bag...wow...I love life!

As American as...Tiramisù!

Today my little boy became an American citizen. I'm so proud! Now I just have to teach him the National Anthem. (Sorry about the blurry photo but he wouldn't stop wiggling).

Marathon!

In the past few years Piero's work responsabilities have changed a lot. He used to do more coaching and following the teams, but for the past two years they've put him into testing and research. He likes it a lot, especially going around and testing the athletes, helping out their coaches in understanding where, how they can improve. From a ten second taping or a glance at someone running he can tell you exactly where their defect is and what they need to do to improve. Anyway, he spends a lot of his working time in the Rome office of the Italian Athletics Association but he still has a few runners that he trains personally. Two of them are guys that he has trained since they were adolescents, Ottavio and Giacomo. They had both chosen to run the Trieste Marathon which in Italy is pretty much the last chance to run the distance for the spring season. There are two or three more races but it's just too hot to get a decent time in. As it was the tempature in Trieste was in the 80's, so it's a wonder they did well at all. Giacomo had tripped and fallen during a training session ten days before and missed out on two important workouts. Piero said he was running funny from the start of the race and eventually pulled out at 25km. Ottavio was doing okay but of course all the Africans were ahead of him with a group of eight that had surged ahead and started battling it out up front.


I was oblivious to all of this though. Evan and I had been dropped off by the organization in the Piazza Grande at 7.00 am. We went and got a coffee for me and a juice for Evan at a beautiful bar then I searched for a newstand where I bought the paper and Evan picked out a Chip & Dale magazine with a free harmonica included. When the race started we had the maxi screen to watch it on but it was so hot just standing there, I saw that Evan after only fifteen minutes into the race was already starting to fade. I took him down to the peers where there was a breeze from the water and we watched some row teams practicing. They had a mini ferris wheel that we went on, he loved that (me too!). Then we watched the marathoners as they passed by the Piazza and the half marathon finish. Evan tooted his harmonica for everybody. There were so many drop outs at this point which confirms why I hate two loop marathons. You have to be really mentally strong to keep going if you're feeling even a little bad at the half point

We positioned ourselves in front of the maxi screen again at 1h55' into the race which is exactly where Ottavio decided to make his move. He was in six place at the 38th kilometre. Apparently Piero yelled to him that the Kenyan in front of him was starting to look bad. First he passed one, then two...until he got to the last (first) and passed him at the 41st km. The whole Piazza roared as he positioned himself into first place. Winning time with heat and all: 2h10'56".

I'm always amazed at how impatient amateur runners are. Right now I'm argueing it out with this guy I train that wants to call it quits because he's not improving as fast as he would like to. I mean he is improving, he just wants more now. Ottavio is 34 years old. This is the second marathon he's won in his career. The first one he won was ten years ago. Ten years ago! And we're not counting the previous ten years. That takes a lot of persistence and patience and hard work and really believing in what you're doing. I don't know what he's going to do with his career now, but he really did have the race of a lifetime.

Ten days that changed my life

I'll do a one a day post for a week to try and catch up and then I have to take another ten day break.

Yep, it's hard to believe but my life changed in ten days. I just have a few minutes to write about it and then I have to get back to work so I'll try to condense this as much as I can. A few weeks ago I talked about feeling flat. Part of the problem was that I'd get up in the morning, cut my head off, run around for fourteen hours and then collapse at the end of the day. Usually in front of the television with some cop or lawyer show. I really felt like I had no time to do anything and that nothing was concluded. Not always of course, but on the few occasions that I was able to finish a project or work I was never satisfied. I worried about money a lot, didn't feel I could make plans because Hubby was always gone...the list just goes on and on.

I also mentioned here that I'm training a group to run NYCM. They're thirty entrepreneurs that own their own companies. The common link they have is that all of them use the service of a Coaching Service. a Business Coaching service. Everybody of course paid for me to train them for the year but the head of the coaching business asked if we could barter our services. They have a lot different course to take so I said yes but that I'd have to think about what I wanted to do. Last month I came up with what the exchange for me would be. I wanted him to help me get organized. I thought it would be something simple where he would show me that I needed to keep a schedule or something...which I do, but it went a little deeper than that.

First he had me draw a chart that I divided into eight areas of my life and draw lines where I wrote in what I wanted out of each area by the end of the year. Then he had me do a affirmation test on four areas on my life which had a points total. My strong area turned out to be in personal relations, my weak was finance. I'm shocked... Then he had me do another chart where I drew in my levels of satisfaction in the eight areas comparing 2002 to 2007. For those that don't know 2002 is also known as "The year that totally sucked" in every aspect of my life. The chart was easy to do but I was surprised that my satisfaction level since then in a lot of areas hasn't raised much.

I circled three areas out of the eight that I wanted to concentrate on: finance, work, body (mine). The first two are obvious but I need to underline that by "body" I mean sports, workouts, races, spirit.

Now that I had narrowed the three areas of concentration he had me break them down and tell him exactly what I wanted to accomplish, how I was going to go about doing that and a time frame them. All of this took hours of work until we finally got down to a one half hour phone call and we were able to condense the conversation and get to work. The first ten days I did this it really helped that Piero took Evan down to his Grandmother's for a visit. I had most of the day open (except when I did stuff with Olivia) to work on my itemized list and get myself organized.

It's just amazing how much energy I had by taking care of business that I had put on the backburner for months. Just for a reference, I am self employed. I have several companies I work for plus a regular writing gig for a magazine where I do have deadlines. The rest is all up to me. It's great because I can be available for the kids whenever, it's difficult because I need to give myself direction all the time and sometimes that is not easy. Just having a 30 minute appointment once a week with someone who asks me why I didn't get something done and when am I planning on getting it done has totally changed my life.

This is the first time in a long time that I really look forward to sitting down and working. The wheels are turning, that blah feeling is gone. Hurray!

***************************
Like I said, in the next few days I'll try and do a post a day before another break.
Highlights:

• my first tri of the season!
• Olly's going to Art School!
• New women to train with!
• My husband's athlete won a marathon!
• Evan becomes a US citizen!
• I'm seeing my family for the first time in 7 years!!!!!

Simple Requests

We bought the house we live in here in the north of Italy five years ago. We knew that we'd be staying in Modena for at least another ten years and we didn't want to keep forking over rent money to someone else, so we decided that we'd make the investment and buy. I know for American standards it's quite small, only one hundred and ten square metres, but for Italian city standards it is big. The number one thing that made us choose this house was the garden. We're situated one kilometre from the historic center of the city and even though it is in a condominium, three sides of the house is surrounded by a private garden. In April the house totally transforms itself because with the warm weather we can open all the doors up (and put the screen doors down!) and literally gain another two hundred square metres of living space. Whenever I get restless working I can just walk into our garden and relax. When it's really hot in the summer I like to get up early and have my tea on the patio table outside.In the evening I often work on my computer on the back terrace where I planted all the herbs. Neither Piero nor I are gardeners per sè, but we love to be outside. The one thing that really excited us was being able to plant our own garden. The house was brand new when we bought it so the garden was just this plot of dirt. We decided from the beginning that I was the designer and Piero was the laborer. Fair enough! I didn't really know what the heck I was doing but one thing I did have clear: the back corner of the garden, the one on the far side of the house was going to be the "scent" area. I wanted all my herbs planted on that side so that I could just go to one corner for all of my cooking needs. On the far wall ending the garden I wanted jasmine vines covering the fence.

When we bought the house we pretty much spent all of our savings and bigger than life mortage on the house itself. Plus this was that year that I was blessed with a late life, totally unexpected pregnancy, so extra cash was scarce. I opted for buying small plants that were inexpensive and tried to have faith in our gardening skills and patience with the plants growing. The jasmine bush cost about ten dollars. It wasn't very big, maybe five feet tall with two stalks coming up from the ground, but the perfume that the blossoms gave off was inebriating. I couldn't wait for it to grow!

Grow it did. Those shoots seemed to take off overnight. I coaxed them off to the left and the right and tied them onto the fence. Over the winter the plant survived and had no trouble fighting off even the coldest snowy climate. When spring came around I was all excited, anticipating the sensorial experience, but nothing happened. No buds, no blooms, no flowers.

I thought to myself that this must be how it works; the plant has to grow and the first year there will be no flowers... but wait 'til next year! Next year did come...and go. In the meantime the plant was growing. I had to cut it down to prevent it from taking over the whole back garden. I regularly chopped off the shoots that were growing outwards and on to the persimmon tree. To get it to bloom I tried giving it more water. When that didn't work I tried giving it less. I tried liquid, pellet, and organic homegrown fertilizer. Nothing, niente, nada, not even one little bloom.

Three weeks ago Piero and I were in the back gardening and he asked me what I wanted to do with the Jasmine vines. I said that I was going to give them one more year and then they were out because it had been five years now and they really had been given all the time in the world to produce some flowers with no results so far. I stepped over to the jasmine vines and said to them "I really really like having you here but if you don't produce any flowers this year I'm going to have to take you out. You have about another month and then I'll be planting photinia bushes in your place. So, make a decision here." I said this out loud and straight to the plants. Piero was watching me. No, he doesn't think I'm crazy. Besides he's seen me do these type of things before. Observing me having a one to one, serious conversation with a jasmine vine didn't phase him at all.

Today I walked outside and smelt something in the air...


I immediately called Piero on the phone. "You know that Jasmine vine?" He started laughing. I didn't even have to tell him what had happened.

No excuses!

Go read Nancy Toby's entry for today HERE and then tell me you don't have time to workout. Puts us all to shame...What a strong woman!

In limbo

I am still in training limbo. Not feeling so bad that I can't get out there and do something, not good enough to actually do any sort of structured training or (heaven forbid!) actually PUSH. Today was my last day on antibiotics and, even though I'll have to see the doctor again about my ear since I still can't hear out of it, I should start to be feeling better sometime this week. Linda sent me a phone msg this morning offering to watch Evan at the park for an hour while I ran. What a great friend! I have a new unidentified pain area in my left glute so I just 1' walk/1' ran the entire time. It did satisfy me!

I wanted to post some photos of my food obsession of the week: cooked apples. I love these and they are good and good for you!

Step One: Ingredients - big apples (I use Fuji apples) and pitted prunes. One large pan to use in the oven. Wash the apples and dig the core out of the them. Warm the oven to 325°F

Step 2: Place one prune where the apple core used to be. Place apples in the pan and fill the pan with about an inch of water. Bake in oven for one hour.

These are actually better when they're colder, but I eat them warm...or piping hot. The colder they get the sweeter they are, you choose! Variations can be using pears (those brown ones with the thick skin, can't remember the name) or sprinkling cinnamon on top. I know some people that slather them with sugar, but that sort of negates the healthy part of the whole operation. I can totally eat several of these a day. Buon appetito!

1)

Easter (cough, hack...)

What went as planned:

• Beautiful Easter weather, about 70° with floating clouds and being able to once again wear sleeveless shirts.
• Easter lunch with friends, homemade pasta with zucchini shrimp sauce, fish, fabulous potatoe/artichoke/zucchini vegetable ring, cakes and chocolate chocolate chocolate.
• Hanging out with friends, no hurries...
• The half marathon, one woman in our group that I train ran a 1h36' PR and won her age category.
  

What DIDN'T go as planned:

• Evan has been sick for about ten days now, hack coughing into my face every five minutes. It finally caught onto me. I started to lose my voice around friday. Saturday I was out of it but at that point I didn't want to call all the people I had invited over to Easter lunch and the half marathon the next day. Plus, I always think that I'm going to get better.
• Sunday night when I felt everything shift into my left ear, I knew it was over. Around 11.00 pm P took me down to the emergency room and they have me five different prescriptions, including antibiotics.
• No half marathon for me. I slept in for about 12 hours.
  

I still have another day of antibiotics and then it'll probably take another ten days to feel decent again. I obviously haven't made it back to the pool but I have gotten back on the bike. The uber gorgeous springtime weather we are having here really helps.

Yummy Easter Cupcakes

Happy Easter

This is our Easter photo from 1965. My Mom is in the middle, I'm in yellow on the right and my older sister on the left. My Mom had made all of our outfits, including her own. Check out the Jacky-O hat! My Mom was really tall, 5'11". I came out small at 5'10". We're in front of the church with my Dad taking the picture. I think she probably wanted an all girls shot, seeing as our two brothers are missing. Anyway, Happy Easter to all!