A Life Inspired

The credits are rolling on the Oscars.  Normally, I don't watch much of it but this year was such a strong year for movies.  Last night Todd and I watched "Dallas Buyers Club" and SPOILER ALERT... it won for best actor and best supporting actor.  What an inspiring movie!  I was blown away by the fight of the main characters to make their lives mean something.  In the process, they positively changed people's lives who were and remain victims of illness, hate and ignorance. 

While I am grateful for and satisfied with my job, I yearn to make a deeper impact.  I've been giving a lot of thought to short and long term career goals (thanks, Todd for listening me talk about this endlessly) and hope to make a contribution to the community at large that will make the world a place where people have opportunities to build their skills and be treated with respect regardless of their socioeconomic status, sex, gender identity, race, and so on.  I have been so incredibly fortunate to have all of this quality time with Sydney (my work schedule could change after this summer) and hope to continue to find a balance that works best for all of us while feeling challenged and fulfilled in my work outside the house. 

Sydney is now 1.5 years old and she is an absolute blast!  A few interesting things she's putting together these days:

• I walked into her room this morning and snot was dripping down her nose.  She tearfully pointed at it and said "bless you".
• Yesterday we walked to a bakery (Devil's Teeth for those of you who live in SF... it's DELISH).  She shared a piece of sidewalk chalk with an older boy then proceeded to repeatedly tell him to say thank you (or as it sounds when it comes out of her mouth... "doggies").
• She sat on several of her big stackable blocks this morning and said "poo poo" as she sat on each one.  We took a hint and went to Target to buy her a baby toilet since she's showing so much interest.
• Syd is very interested in babies these days- both plastic doll babies and real live babies.  Her friend Nava was here yesterday.  She was crying in her mom's arms and Sydney reached up to try to hold her.