Ten years ago I watched the horror unfolding on TV with a sense of detachment, thinking how lucky I was that the tragedy didn’t affect me directly.

Over the last decade I’ve learned how much it did. Yes, on a larger scale we were all affected, but as time passed it became much clearer how connected we all are. I learned later of an old friend who had perished on that day, the brother of a friend who narrowly escaped; the 391 employees & contractors of a company I worked for soon after; and the many lost loved ones of other friends, family, and co-workers.

Today I mourn for all those who were lost on that day and in the following years in Iraq & Afghanistan. My heart breaks for all their loved ones. May you find peace, and may peace prevail on earth.

A little message to myself

I found this essay on a friend of a friend's Facebook page. It kind of cut right to the core for me. I cleaned up the grammatical errors (and inserted a few of my own I'm sure) and posted it here for all my many (0) readers to see. Oh yeah, and as a reminder to myself.

You're right. It is easier to eat pizza than to run on the treadmill. It's easier to turn to ice cream rather than other people for support. It's easier to say "Fuck this, I give up" than to say "Fuck this, I can do it".

So you know what? I’m not going to sit here and tell you day after day you can do this. If you don't believe you can, then you can't. That's the honest truth. You need to do this for you, and if you don't want it enough, then you sure as hell won't achieve it. So take the easy way out and remain unhealthy and continue to gain weight because you refuse to realize you are the only one hurting yourself or get up, get moving, make the right choices, not the easy ones, and take care of yourself.

I didn't say it would be easy. I said it would be worth it.

Ok then... Are you worth it Robin?

Wow! It's been a long time...

I've been off. and on. and off again. Mostly I've been off.

I've been off having fun and I've been off having not so much fun.

The fun stuff? I took my darling daughter to Maui for her birthday. Would you belive there was ANOTHER tsunami while I was there? Yep. I think I'm banned from Maui. Maybe next time a different island? I love Maui so much though...

More fun? My amazing oldest son and his long time girlfriend whom I adore decided to get married. I have never been so happy and proud while crying... I finally understand the concept of "Tears of Joy".

One of these days I'll talk about learning to snowshoe earlier this year and how much I love snow. Especially snow that you can get to (and subsequently LEAVE) in about an hour.

The not so fun? I'm injured. Again. Plantar Faciitis. I did it to myself while trying to train to hard to fast for the San Jose 1/2 Marathon. Now I don't get to go, but I hope to be better in time to train for the Las Vegas 1/2...

I've got big plans for next year, and soon I'll lay out my 100 day plan to bring me up to New Year's Day, but for now I'll just say I'm back, I'm glad, and I've missed you all!