You Look Marvelous

Back in the 1980s, Fernando Lamas (aka Billy Crystal) used the catch phrase “You look maahhvelous.” It was a great Saturday Night Live sketch. Today, I realize that I am still trying to make myself look marvelous. Back in October I wrote about my attempts to make myself look good.

Why is it that I still want to keep up appearances? What is so inherently ingrained in my psyche that I want people to like me and don’t want to show my flaws? Why can’t I accept the fact that there will be people who still accept me, despite my inadequacies?

I struggle with lots of things. I’ve typed the list here and reedited it and ultimately deleted it because… I fear showing people what I’m ashamed of in my life. The shortcomings, the addictions, the flaws… some are major, some are minor; some I’m working on, some I try to ignore myself.

Ultimately, I am scared of what people will think of me. I’m worried about disappointing my family and friends. I’m apprehensive that people won’t like me if I’m really vulnerable.

So, I continue to put fresh paint on the broken down parts of my life hoping that they continue to look good. And I think I’m doing a pretty good job at looking marvelous.

The Forecast Looks GREAT!

My son Zach is a fairly normal teenage boy. He is full of energy, loves video games, has a passion for Bionicles, and has a very vivid imagination which he acts out from time to time… OK lots of the time. I will admit that he sometimes gets on my nerves with his boundless energy.

But tonight I was honored to see a different side of my son. We spent a couple of hours at the High School for Forecasting Night, gathering information about his upcoming Freshman year in school. I was impressed by his thoughtfulness in picking classes, his care in choosing electives, and his reasoning behind the school he should choose (Newberg High School is divided into five small schools).

Sometimes I’m so close to the daily routines of Zach’s life that I miss the young man behind the long hair and creative imagination. I’m very proud of the man Zach is becoming. And I’m excited to see how the careful choices he made tonight will effect him in the years to come.

I have always been interested in genealogy. My active participation in research ebbs and flows based on my time and the tools I have around me. But I've discovered a cool new tool that is causing a resurgence in my ancestral investigation.

I've discovered Geni.com. This great web page is similar to social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. I can invite my family members who can join and add the information they have on their family members.

On the first day, I personally added 100 names. In just 10 days, there are now more than 530 people listed in my tree, most of them added by other family members. How cool is that!

Spanish Love Song

Maybe it is due to the distance between my wife and I right now (she's visiting family in North Carolina.) Or maybe it is because I keep trying to get my daughter to showcase her language skills. Whatever reason, I had to share this video!