It's the little things
A friend of mine has a blog called "Little Moments" that's dedicated to tracking her progress in a photography class she's taking. I, of course, am so impressed with her for taking up photography, but also the title of her blog brings all sorts of other things to mind.
I'm a fan of little moments. People who know me well have probably seen me, at least one or two times, stop what I'm doing just to take in a moment and commit it to memory.
Right now, I'm on vacation. I'm two and a half weeks in to my third sinus infection in six months (during which time I also had strep throat once). I went to the doctor on about day nine of sickness but they told me to wait it out. Then, the day after I landed in Colorado for vacation, it got much, much worse. Luckily on day three of vacation I was able to get a prescription for antibiotics called in to a local pharmacy, but as is usually the case for me the antibiotics made me feel worse at first. Given my current state you might imagine my vacation to be ruined, but it hasn't been, because there have been some great moments.
First of all when I went to pick up my prescription a Three Dog Night song came on the radio in the drug store. The song was "Never Been to Spain" and it's one of my favorites. I love it for a few reasons, first of all it's a great song, second it reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of my all time favorite TV show (but that's another blog entry), and third it reminds me of some of the great little moments I had when I did go to Spain last year. The song seemed like a good omen so I started to cheer up. I even had a pretty good day despite being sick; I got a massage and sat in the vapor caves. It turns out I'm in a perfect vacation spot for rest and recuperation anyway.
Later that night my mother and I were trying to decide where to eat dinner and a woman called out to us that the restaurant we were passing had the best food and live music so we decided to try it out. We'd been there about twenty minutes, and the band (actually just one guy with a guitar and an amazing voice) started into "Never Been to Spain". It was a really great moment, sitting with my mom having a fabulous meal and listening to some great live music. Even if the set list hadn't consisted almost exclusively of my favorite songs it would still have been a great moment.
The next morning I felt worse though because, as previously noted, I'd started on antibiotics. I really didn't even want to get out of bed but my mom and I had plans to go see some old friends so I did. We drove about an hour to meet them and I slept the whole way there so I started to feel better. The town we met them in was super cute (I'd say it was so cute it freaked me out but I think the reference might be lost on most of my readers) and while we were there it started snowing. Now, my disdain for snow is pretty well known among my friends and family, but it is entirely based on the practicality of having to drive to work in it. So, when I'm on vacation, in the mountains, and my mom is driving because my birthday was just before we left and I haven't had the chance to renew my driver's license yet, and we're with some really great people who I haven't seen in a long time, well, in that case I love the snow and it makes for one of those really great moments. It was only a little bit of snow but it was enough.
The reason we came to this particular town for vacation was because I'd read an article in the New York Times about it that said it had the largest natural hot springs pool in the country (or maybe the world, I don't remember). However, the first day we got here it was threatening rain and I wasn't feeling well so we didn't go to it. We'd heard the weather was supposed to get better towards the end of the week anyway. The next day it did rain and also we had a bunch of other stuff we wanted to do so, again, we skipped the hot springs pool. Finally today we decided we had to go since it's our last day here before heading back to Boulder. We made the plan to go to the pool after we got back from the above mentioned lunch with old friends, but when we got back it was raining pretty hard. My mom wanted to go anyway. We were standing under the awning at our hotel and I said if it didn't stop raining I refused to go in the pool and she said it looked like it was about to let up. So, we went across the street to the pool and we changed and by the time we came out of the locker room there was no sign it had ever been raining. It was beautiful, and the "healing waters" were remarkably relaxing and actually did make me feel a little better, but that moment when we stepped out and the sun was shining was really terrific.
Some of my favorite little moments involve firsts, especially the first time I eat something I've never tried before. One of the great moments of my aforementioned trip to Spain last year involved my first ever taste of gazpacho. I was with a friend who didn't know me very well at the time so my stopping with the spoon half way to my mouth to enjoy the moment may have seemed a little odd to him. Tonight though, I was with my mother when I had my first bite ever of lobster. I'm not much of a shell fish eater, I've never really liked it (with the exception of crab), perhaps the distaste for shellfish is in my blood, my brother calls lobster (and shrimp) bugs of the sea. I really liked the lobster though. Not only that but just ordering it and the anticipation of eating it, and being here, on vacation with my mom (who is also one of my best friends), made me really, purely, happy.
You don't always have a camera handy, and a photograph won't always capture what makes one of the little moments in life so perfect, but I really think it's great that my friend is cataloging her efforts to capture them on film. While I don't have any pictures from this trip (yet), I think the little moments will stay with me anyway.
I'm a fan of little moments. People who know me well have probably seen me, at least one or two times, stop what I'm doing just to take in a moment and commit it to memory.
Right now, I'm on vacation. I'm two and a half weeks in to my third sinus infection in six months (during which time I also had strep throat once). I went to the doctor on about day nine of sickness but they told me to wait it out. Then, the day after I landed in Colorado for vacation, it got much, much worse. Luckily on day three of vacation I was able to get a prescription for antibiotics called in to a local pharmacy, but as is usually the case for me the antibiotics made me feel worse at first. Given my current state you might imagine my vacation to be ruined, but it hasn't been, because there have been some great moments.
First of all when I went to pick up my prescription a Three Dog Night song came on the radio in the drug store. The song was "Never Been to Spain" and it's one of my favorites. I love it for a few reasons, first of all it's a great song, second it reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of my all time favorite TV show (but that's another blog entry), and third it reminds me of some of the great little moments I had when I did go to Spain last year. The song seemed like a good omen so I started to cheer up. I even had a pretty good day despite being sick; I got a massage and sat in the vapor caves. It turns out I'm in a perfect vacation spot for rest and recuperation anyway.
Later that night my mother and I were trying to decide where to eat dinner and a woman called out to us that the restaurant we were passing had the best food and live music so we decided to try it out. We'd been there about twenty minutes, and the band (actually just one guy with a guitar and an amazing voice) started into "Never Been to Spain". It was a really great moment, sitting with my mom having a fabulous meal and listening to some great live music. Even if the set list hadn't consisted almost exclusively of my favorite songs it would still have been a great moment.
The next morning I felt worse though because, as previously noted, I'd started on antibiotics. I really didn't even want to get out of bed but my mom and I had plans to go see some old friends so I did. We drove about an hour to meet them and I slept the whole way there so I started to feel better. The town we met them in was super cute (I'd say it was so cute it freaked me out but I think the reference might be lost on most of my readers) and while we were there it started snowing. Now, my disdain for snow is pretty well known among my friends and family, but it is entirely based on the practicality of having to drive to work in it. So, when I'm on vacation, in the mountains, and my mom is driving because my birthday was just before we left and I haven't had the chance to renew my driver's license yet, and we're with some really great people who I haven't seen in a long time, well, in that case I love the snow and it makes for one of those really great moments. It was only a little bit of snow but it was enough.
The reason we came to this particular town for vacation was because I'd read an article in the New York Times about it that said it had the largest natural hot springs pool in the country (or maybe the world, I don't remember). However, the first day we got here it was threatening rain and I wasn't feeling well so we didn't go to it. We'd heard the weather was supposed to get better towards the end of the week anyway. The next day it did rain and also we had a bunch of other stuff we wanted to do so, again, we skipped the hot springs pool. Finally today we decided we had to go since it's our last day here before heading back to Boulder. We made the plan to go to the pool after we got back from the above mentioned lunch with old friends, but when we got back it was raining pretty hard. My mom wanted to go anyway. We were standing under the awning at our hotel and I said if it didn't stop raining I refused to go in the pool and she said it looked like it was about to let up. So, we went across the street to the pool and we changed and by the time we came out of the locker room there was no sign it had ever been raining. It was beautiful, and the "healing waters" were remarkably relaxing and actually did make me feel a little better, but that moment when we stepped out and the sun was shining was really terrific.
Some of my favorite little moments involve firsts, especially the first time I eat something I've never tried before. One of the great moments of my aforementioned trip to Spain last year involved my first ever taste of gazpacho. I was with a friend who didn't know me very well at the time so my stopping with the spoon half way to my mouth to enjoy the moment may have seemed a little odd to him. Tonight though, I was with my mother when I had my first bite ever of lobster. I'm not much of a shell fish eater, I've never really liked it (with the exception of crab), perhaps the distaste for shellfish is in my blood, my brother calls lobster (and shrimp) bugs of the sea. I really liked the lobster though. Not only that but just ordering it and the anticipation of eating it, and being here, on vacation with my mom (who is also one of my best friends), made me really, purely, happy.
You don't always have a camera handy, and a photograph won't always capture what makes one of the little moments in life so perfect, but I really think it's great that my friend is cataloging her efforts to capture them on film. While I don't have any pictures from this trip (yet), I think the little moments will stay with me anyway.
posted by Beth at
9:18 PM
1 Comments:
i was going to comment the gazpacho moment but you beat me to it
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