The Spa

Transported back in time...
Azul & white tile echo
Water and waves.
My shoulders drop.
I am home.

 

 

 

 

Obsession with...Colosseo in Roma

Lately, I have been noticing that certain images, places, etc...really, really strike a nerve with me.  I guess things, people and places have always done that but now I want to know why.

Was it a past lives association?  Something in the colour, texture, other that catches a deep distant memory temporarily locked away in my cerebral cortex?

Here is a drawing of the Coliseum in Rome (built 72-80 A.D.) that grabs me...I like attempts at what it may have looked like more then what it now looks like and I'm not sure why, though there are some beauts of pics on flickr with some gorgeous Roman azul sky.

 

I like the fact that it may have been used for mock naval battles as well.  And had pretty awnings to shade the more affluent side/curve/end of the building.

 

 

Medieval depiction of Rome (artist unknown)

 

 

 

The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)

 

 

Pollice Verso ("Thumbs Down") by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872

 

Thomas Cole, 1832

 

 

I like that there were 2 grand doors at either end and the gladiators would exit either the Gate of Life (back to gladiator school) or the Gate of Death, which in most cases, would be their freedom finally.

 

I will leave you with your thoughts and this great pano site:

 

http://www.panoramas.dk/7-wonders/colosseum.html

 

 

 

#worldcupv.wimbledon

How on earth are we (the united international sport of all trade fans) supposed to decide on what to watch??

Especially us Canadians.  I guess we go wimbledy since we have 2 canucks in the finals/semis
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Canada Day Festivities Inside the House, Inside My Head

Its 2 o'clock and so far I've decorated for our family party, heated pan au chocolat, baked and iced 24 devils food cupcakes, not showered, catnapped and watched the bday movie:  The Lego Movie.

Time to take tea and hop in the shower or time to blog?  Mmmm...

So my baby is 5 today and will start kindy in 2 months!!  The big baby (literally) will start Grade 4 then.  It's weird to never have a baby again and never change diapers again.  (Now that I actually know what I'm doing!!) Physically, I was great (kinda) at pregnancy.  Mentally and chemically, not so much.  Exhausted with the second but still good, happy, back ailments disappeared again and only gained 25 pounds again.

It's such a weird time in one's life.  Everything changes so quickly and keeps on changing so quickly!!  They're born, they get older.  We get older. 

I wonder if this (pregnancy/delivery) is when everything changes or is it when you tie the knot?  Is it better if you don't tie the knot and live in sin?  The later has always appealed much more to me.  No, I disagree with myself.  It's hard.  First world hard.  To do it all right now.  It's bloody hard no matter who you are.  You just have to forget about it (Donnie Brasco & Johnny Depp).

It must change at the drop of the first kiss.  The first screw?  The first date.  The first 'I love u'.  I don't know anymore but I do want to know if it's a primal male female thing.  Is it that we automatically revert into cooker and handyperson?  hunter-gatherer?  When does this change take place and does it take place for everyone?

I know plenty of gents who cook and are excellent chefs but this seems to make their female signif. others even more challenged to also cook a great meal.  I know a few chicks whose husbands do the majority of the cooking and in most other ways, all else is the new (this century or so) 'normal'.  That is to say, he does the fixing up and she does the cleaning up.

I constantly think about when the shift took place in history.  When did the Amazonian way of female life subside?  Why were women considered the 'weaker' sex and when did this happen?

How to be a Good Wife in 2011/12/13/14

It really is hard, isn't it?

We've created this gigantic mess for ourselves, haven't we? By 'mess' I mean that we really r doing it all & too much all. Doing it all, all of the time, non-stop 24/7 can only lead to one thing...crash & burn.

At which point, most of our gallant partners will waltz in & attempt to take over. I still remember when my 9 year old was born and in the hospital neo-natal with me for 9 days, my husband did some laundry-never again! He washed brand new Costco pale yellow flannel sheets with bike chain greased-up rags.

Yeah, that really made my day after being released from the hospital with my first child!

So, I guess I really don't know how to be a 'good' wife in any year.  But I do know how to be a good person.

I am now giving myself time outs-I have always tried to do that. It's sound advice. I am now living in a messier house where I do not clean the fridge every few months.  I am lucky to do the whole fridge at once maybe annually.  Now I clean one row or a bin at a time maybe every other month.  Or take a moment when the milk has leaked to clean that & a little more.

I used to organize my night stand every once in awhile pre-kids.  Now I push the sliding stack of mags under the bed.

The laundry I stay on top of (if you could see my laundry room you would wonder what I mean by that!! stand on top of maybe!), thanks to a new room & machines which handle way more clothes, towels, etc. than our old duo.  The kitchen I am actually better at though large pots & pans tend to sit and wait me out on the counter as always.  But I do try to clean one instead of grabbing a clean one before cooking.

I find myself waking early (its currently 4:28 am).  It seems that this is the only time that I get to spend with myself (besides a shortened lunch hour at work).  This is the time when my body wakes, telling me to get up & just be. So I will listen and respond. 

Probably should go back to sleep now.  And remember to book a spa appointment in the am.

the mom ornament

The mammoth amounts of snow are finally melting here in the Canadian Rockies!  So much so that yesterday afternoon everything seemed to turn brown.  Today, when I went home for lunch, I found one of the lovely little 'mom' snow person ornaments that our wonderful cousins in Northern Ontario send us every Christmas, lying in the mud right under our balcony.  They also send 'dad', 'cameron' & 'connor' ones.

My husband is the tree guy.  He is very particular about choosing his tree, bringing safely home and dumping it in water.  The rest of us don't even go with him anymore to help pick out.  This is a man who used to refuse to cut down trees for the holidays (pre-kids) and now he is the crazy tree guy.

So this tree guy likes to toss the usually now dead tree over our balcony so it drops less needles all over the house and then he can drag it to the car and head to the tree chipper (yuck, what a horrible 2 words).

So there I am walking into my house for lunch yesterday when I come across the mom ornament, covered in mud, a tiny, dead, brown pine branch stuck to it.  How sad.

Sad, too, that I barely have time for toast & a boiled egg at lunch as I am putting laundry away & emptying the dishwasher.  Oh yeah, I did make time for a quickie espresso & warm milk via my verisimo.

Time to hit the gym again at lunch time!  And stop this sad, little story.