I’ve added a new feature to the website: podcasts. So far, all I have is an audio clip of me reading my Welcome The Rain poem. I’m not sure what I’ll podcast about next, but hey, this is a good start.

I’m experiencing that feeling you get when you hear your own answering machine message or, to bring things up to the twenty-first century, voice mail message. Where the voice that you’re hearing is not the same one that you hear from inside of your head all day long. It’s like I’m listening to a close relative: I recognize that voice, I’m familiar with the cadence, accent, and annunciation, I just don’t happen to own that voice. Strange, really.

But back to the podcasts. I hope you enjoy hearing the poem, read by me. Not the me that I hear in my head, the other me. The recorded me.

Women’s Edge magazine recently interviewed me for an article about my book for their July issue. Actually, it was Gary Tomlinson who did the interviewing. Thanks, Gary! The article is in my media room. Thanks for checking it out!

I’m a little slow when it comes to technology. Marketing types would never call me an “early adopter” by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not like I work by candle light or have completely banned all signs of the modern age from my life (I listen to my MP3 player, have a digital camera, and use my GPS system to get from place to place), I’m just not that great with all of the fancy gadgets or technology terms. In fact, when my web designer has technical questions, I try to stay out of it. I send him directly to the IT team. If the question goes through me, he might as well be talking with my 4-year-old son, because it will most certainly become lost in translation.

I must say, I come by it naturally.

We’ve taken five mini-vacations so far this year. Nothing big. But still, there’s packing, traveling, sleeping, socializing, abundant eating and drinking, dancing, sleeping, traveling, and unpacking. A few weeks will pass and then we do it all over again. Most of our travels this year have taken us to visit family in Mexico. So, for me, the trip looks something like this: pack, travel, sleep, socialize, listen, translate in my head, talk, listen, translate in my head... Even though I’m quite comfortable speaking Spanish, I’m not a native speaker. It still takes my brain a day or two to switch gears and once again be able to easily process this foreign language.

This picture was taken five years ago, on our last vacation before we had children. Little did I know that my world was about to be turned upside down forever.

I’ll never be one of those tall, elegant model types. For me, at 5’3”, it’s never going to happen. I’ll also never be the mysterious stranger or completely happy-go-lucky and carefree. And I have great rhythm when the music's on, but turn the music off, and I’m a total klutz. But, I am who I am.

I can become so caught up in my own thoughts that I don’t always look around me to see what obstacles are in my path. I have a friend that I’ve known since childhood. She knows how easily I can trip, fall, or run into things. Even now, when we’re talking and walking down the street together, she’ll say pole or curb, right in the middle of the sentence. I know to look up, move over, and we just keep going.