Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2003. Mattie was a year and half old and we were headed to celebrate Christmas in Los Angeles with my parents. Mattie, unlike me, LOVED to fly! In fact, he was all about adventure and exploring new things. Mattie pushed me out of my comfort zone in many ways and seeing the world through his eyes was perhaps one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. Keeping Mattie entertained on a five hour flight wasn't easy, as he wasn't a napper. I traveled with a bag of toys, books, and hot wheel cars. I had so many things with me, that on a few flights, other children around me borrowed our items! 

Quote of the day: The world is very quiet without you around. ~ Lemony Snicket

Today felt like a whirlwind! Once I dropped my dad off at his memory care center, I drove my very full and packed car with candy and snacks to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. Though Bethesda isn't geographically that far from me, with traffic, it took my over an hour to get there. Literally at one point, I wasn't moving on the beltway! When I tell you I was driving around town for over three hours, I am not exaggerating and every location I went to, I faced bumper to bumper traffic. 

Doing a Foundation donation at NIH is no easy feat, because you just can't waltz onto campus. You and all the contents in your car have to be screened. Which I need to account for whenever I make an appointment there.... as all of this takes time! From Bethesda, I then got back on the beltway and headed to the Foundation's post office in Arlington, VA. Again, I ran into a lot of traffic. But the Foundation's holiday mailers were ready to go and I like bringing them to the post office where our PO Box exists, as the postal employees know me well! When I got to the post office, I had them reweigh my envelopes, because with my luck, I would have put the wrong postage on the envelopes and then hundreds of envelopes would be returned to me for MORE postage. Any case, they alleviated my fears and now all the envelopes are out of my hands. Which is a great feeling of accomplishment, especially since I manage this whole mailing myself now. 

But here is what I noticed today! I may have been driving for three hours and in non-stop traffic, but I did not get overwhelmed or annoyed. In fact, I found being away from my usual routine was therapeutic. I had the radio on and for that moment of time, I felt productive, and took a pause from what is usually running around in my mind. To drive from Bethesda to Arlington, I landed up driving on the George Washington Parkway. This is a road I absolutely love, because it is tree lined, has no commercial nonsense around it, and it has beautiful views of the Potomac River and Georgetown (where Mattie's hospital was located!). In fact, the first time I visited Washington, DC in the 1990s, I traversed this parkway. I will never forget how in awe I was of this road, and that special feeling, remains with me today. Decades have gone by, but feelings for me always remain. I may not have a memory for specifics or facts, but my brain is like a steel trap regarding feelings.