Awesome

My friend Adam blogged about this. It really fits with my "little things that count theme" so I thought I'd blog about it too... enjoy.

http://1000awesomethings.com/

In the Presence of Greatness...

I have been a fan of Elton John and Billy Joel for almost as long as I can remember. To see them in concert this past weekend was nothing short of a dream come true. And with 2 full months from the time of the purchase of the tickets to the time of the concert to anticipate, I was a little worried they wouldn't live up to my expectations. I was right. They exceeded my expectations. Four hours straight of their biggest hits mixed in with some very impressive improvisation, and a few witty remarks on the part of Billy Joel makes for a VERY entertaining evening!! (And I think the 25000 or so other people there that night would agree!)

One of the friends I went with put it like this: Everyone knows they're famous. Everyone can hum along with a few of their songs. And they're good songs. But then you see them perform live and you realize WHY they're so famous. It's because they're geniuses. I sat listening, soaking it in, and trying to absorb the fact that it was all really happening. That I really was lucky enough to be there. And that they've been playing some of these songs for longer than I've been alive!!

Here are a few samples of what we heard - the light show was the same, so I'm thinking this was just elsewhere on the same tour.

Pianoman (the finale to the 9-song encore)... Sorry - the videographer insisted on singing along... :-(



My Life - approximately the same distance from the stage that we were.

carnegie mellon professor strikes again

I think I blogged a while back about the late Randy Pausch, and posted a couple of versions of his "last lecture."

In need of some inspiration today, I simply went to youtube and typed "inspire" in the search engine. Here's what I found. Caution - you may need some kleenex nearby!

quote

Just what I needed to be reminded of today:

"The road to success is always under construction." - Lily Tomlin

and another one!

Britain's Got Talent's latest discovery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4mB94ejivU

WOW!

90

My maternal grandmother turned 90 on Friday. We had family home from BC, Alberta, Ontario and all over southern Manitoba to celebrate. It was chaotic with 48 people in one house, but it was also great fun! And my grandma continues to amaze me. After raising 6 kids during a time when maternity leave from her job as a nurse was NOT a year per baby, she has continued to stay active and spry enough to thoroughly enjoy her 20ish grandkids (and their significant others) and 10 great-grandkids.

I stood back a few minutes after the cake cutting and just watched the busy-ness of the place as my cousins and aunts started dishing up cake and ice cream. I thought about how lucky we are, to have so many people to support us.

How lucky we are, to have no one in the family who's gotten into any significant trouble, like drugs or teen pregnancy (that we know of!)....

How lucky we are, that every grandchild has at LEAST a high school education (except for the youngest who's still working on hers!)

How lucky we are that the vast majority of us have been able to go on to post-secondary and finish at least one degree.

How lucky we are to have so many people to call family who really get what family is about, and who love to just spend time together. One memory that someone mentioned on Friday at our gathering was of the day that most of our extended family went rafting down the Assiniboine river one summer about 20 years ago. We had lawn chairs and snacks on the make-shift rafts (plywood over empty oil drums if I recall), and a couple of canoes and inner tubes for those that were tired of the rafts. I think it's my all-time favorite memory of our family because it's such a significant image of us just being together, laughing and having a great time in the process!

And then I thought that all of that stuff is learned. Passed down through generations. And we are so blessed to have a grandmother who's still with it enough to continue to teach us about patience, love, wisdom and laughter.

Happy birthday, Grandma - we all love you!!

PS - welcome to the world, Gabriel Arthur!

*giggle*

Just had a good, engaging day of professional development. This was part of it. I laughed really hard, so I wanted to share it.