Light Summer Poetry

 

 

November 2, 2012

This was true long before I knew I was a Light Summer.

I had my colors analyzed in the 12 Blueprints system and found out I was a Light Summer.  I also discovered that my personality was very much tied to my colors and was truly fascinated by this.   I decided to write out my thoughts about this.  If you are a Light Summer with 12 Blueprints Color Analysis then maybe it will resonate with you too.  I have no doubt that some of my description has to do with my personal style and body type as well, but maybe, at least, some of it is true for all light summers.

Being a light summer feels like choosing colors from a rainbow to wear each day!

Ok...true confessions...it wasn't so much concrete as it was a bunch of metaphors that helped me understand the harmony of the elegance, fun, and sport of light summer with elegance carrying the melody.   I was struggling to wrap my mind around who I was in life as it seemed like several things at once without necessarily being mixed together to become something else...and yet, like music, sounding like one song at the same time.  Our skin tone, rather than becoming lavender, the pink and blue remain separate and in contrast to each other while also complementing each other with a yellow undertone warming everything up as though the sun is rising through a cool dawn mist.

A Light Summer 

Light summer is the serene summer sunrise with a kiss of vibrant spring.  This is calm with some passion and not too serious...a pool of warm clear blue water with small waves and the sun sparkling on tips of the waves of a spraying fountain...a day on a sail boat with sails at full mast on a bright warm day...cool mist in the air on a warm sunny day...the gentle, but playful lap of the clear blue water at the feet of sunbathers on the beach...a butterfly with it's delicate wings and vibrant colors withstanding the strong gals of wind in life...the pale, but still bright color of a cherry or orange sherbet popsicle dripping on a warm summer day while playing in the sprinkler on the lawn...a ballerina dancing to beach or pop music...an attorney wearing pink and grey with her collar unbuttoned...a pageant girl with a shy, but mischievous smile on stage. 

It's the unexpected.

 

Beyond light summer I'm delicate, but strong...like the pastel, but radiant beams of a sunrise piercing the darkness...in clothes that means light-hearted and bright, but hazy colors with specific structure...even if it looks unstructured - it's not messy or sloppy or with no form.

I'm fun with a purpose...everything feels light-hearted, but I know that there is a definite plan and reason for everything...the clothing translation of that would be that it could flutter in the wind, but it's striking and has a very intentional and elegant silhouette.

 

I am serious, but comforting and amiable, which means, in terms of clothes, that I could wear a color that might seem bland such as grey or beige, but will emphasize the texture or give some subliminal attention to the detailed stitching or lace or unique button embellishments...the outline will be definitively feminine.  This is the kiss of spring on summer. 

My desire is to convey a message of elegance and design in everything I do.  As a rose with drops of dew on the petals in the hours of the sunrise just before the full break of day...never a completely matte face, but also not a shiny one...just enough moisture to be considered dewy from the morning mist.

Radiant hair is the best, not because it is over-powering or in your face, but because it accentuates the faint passionate fire mixed with the coolness of a soothing balm beneath my skin.  My hair is golden, light, warm like the sun or caramel or an elegant fur.  It is the accent to the face and eyes like the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae.  It is shiny though not slick.  It's as though the sun were beaming out of it or as if it were a smooth mink coat...soft, soothing, warm...silky.

My eyes reflect the sun, but coupled with the calm and comfort of the mist of a summer day to shield from the sun's full strength.  There is a hint of mischief in the midst of the serenity of the moment.  There is a twinkle of fun and joy in the comfort and calm like the sparkle of the sun on a calm pool of water in a misting fountain.

Light summer is delicate, but strong...elegant, but not fragile...structured, but not rigid...calm, but not boring...striking, but not harsh...vibrant, but not glaringly so...flexible, but stable...creative, but not wandering...soft spoken, but not timid...outgoing, but not brash...sensitive, but not easily offended...warm, but not hot...cool, but not cold...comforting, but not smothering...interdependent, but no more than that...light-hearted, but purposeful...determined, but reasonable...daring, but not too bold...fun with purpose...a level-headed risk-taker...a thoughtful dreamer...a grounded visionary...a quiet champion...a capable leader...a lover of fine art...a creative catalyst. 

 

This is what a light summer sounds like...

 

 

 

 

The beat never feels loud, brash, or out of place, but it is unmistakably present...it's the spring in the step of the summer's light motion...the sparkle on the breeze.  A light summer dances on the very tips of her toes with a spring in her step...it's graceful  and fun.  Her movements are magical as she floats by with a purposeful quickness in her step.  Like a gentle breeze on a warm day, she flutters by almost unnoticed except for the warm caress felt as she passes by.  It's as though she has caressed your heart without you knowing simply by being present.  Her presence is unmistakable with her calm countenance, warm smile, sparkling eyes, and an energy that lingers long after she walks away.  If you could not find your senses to react quickly enough, you may realize she has slipped away without your reaction, but you will know, without a doubt, she was there.   She is mysterious as she fluidly and magically dances through life with a profound purposefulness.  She is captivating and mesmerizing.

 

 

Light summer sparkles in the most graceful way possible...she is the ultimate sophistication and elegance.  She is that china face who is standing straight with twinkling eyes that no one can take their eyes off of and who they never forget.  She makes people feel like they are the most important in the world and collects friends wherever she goes.  She is loyal, discreet, appropriate, and dignified at every turn.  Everything she does is subtle, but extraordinary.  Her life is full of moments and memories that could be captured and set free in poetry, but the number of them is nearly overwhelming and so often lives on in the soul.  This is why she leaves sparkles and sunshine in her wake...she's sharing the beauty of all of the moments and memories that could not be shared in any other way.  She is the tranquil moments, the thought-provoking quiet, the beautiful picture imprinted on the mind forever of sweet innocence so perfectly combined with sophisticated femininity.  She is not ashamed of her womanliness, but rather revels in its quiet power. 

 

 

She is a world of opposites, but not to the extreme...she is much of summer with a hint of spring.  However, light summer is not simply a mixture of two things - she is never the middle, mediocre, or bland...she is a vibrant rainbow after the rain!  She might struggle to take her place among the more flashy, dominant, and overwhelming types in the world.  However, once she knows who she is and settles into that knowledge, she becomes more noticeable and memorable than all the others with her quiet radiance and warm eyes.  A light summer need not stand and shout...no...a rainbow never shouts, but is rarely, if ever, ignored.  She simply stands and shines...and illuminates the hopes and dreams of all in her presence.   

 
A light summer is truly unforgettable 



This is how I see a light summer and the best me...though sometimes I tend to try to be something else, I am most as ease when I'm being a light summer.  Now to live up to such a description.

Some of this post was inspired by Kathryn Kalisz of Sci/ART and 

Christine Scaman's description of a Light Summer on the 12 Blueprints website.

http://www.12blueprints.com/light-summer-ce-and-being-not-pale/



 

Collaborating with Stanford and The Department of Veterans Affairs

November 6, 2012

I was asked by Stanford University and the Department of Veteran's Affairs to participate in a Workshop to create a video that would help educate medical staff, encourage fellow veteran's and raise public awareness.  I was excited, but I really had no idea the profound effect it would have on my life.  

January 14, 2013, the day I returned from the three day Workshop in Palo Alto, CA, I wrote...

There are moments in life that change you forever. This weekend I got together with fellow female veterans at the poly trauma unit of the Veterans Affairs Hospital to work on a project to share our experiences with traumatic brain injuries that we acquired while in the military and how they affected our lives. I was a little apprehensive knowing that what I shared would be going into the Smithsonian National Archives, however, knowing it would also help doctors, medical staff, and the public understand the affects of traumatic brain injuries on woman veterans and encourage fellow traumatic brain injury survivors, I was determined to do it. Something difficult to talk about turned into acceptance, camaraderie, validation...and healing. 

There is no way to describe the bond I felt with my fellow comrades in arms.  We expressed many things, but we had seen so much and didn't have words for it all.  In those spaces where words did not suffice, there was a quiet understanding...a look, a hug, a tearful nod...it said it all.  We had all been there and felt no need to explain it to each other. 

There are so many things that happen to a woman that are different than when they happen to a man when they are injured.  Since all the studies for the affects of  traumatic brain injuries on military personnel had been done on men, the medical staff were often baffled when it came to helping a woman veteran deal with such an injury, which led them to begin a study to find out what the differences are between how men and women cope with this particular trauma.  My three battle buddies and I became the first women to be studied by the Department of Veteran's Affairs for the affects of traumatic brain injuries on female veterans.  I felt incredibly honored and overwhelmed as the press snapped pictures, jotted down statements, and the head of the Poly Trauma Units of Stanford and the Department of Veterans Affairs introduced themselves to us.  The significance of this event began to settle in...we were making history.   However, the lasting impression of the event was the care of the doctors, the beautiful hearts of my fellow veterans, and the impact we made on each other.

For all the tragedy we had seen and been through, we laughed openly, joked around, and had immense fun!  I have to admit that some of the most fun we had during those four days making our videos was actually in the evening when we got to know each other.  We stayed at a "Hometel" on the Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital campus, which was supposed to be a cross between a hotel and hostel, but really they could have just described it as a  converted hospital.  Two of us ended up in one room with a third who also stayed at the Hometel in another room on the other side of the hospital. 

After dinner one evening we headed inside when a police officer appeared and startled me.  I nearly jumped into the bushes.  He looked at me very strange trying to figure out if I was guilty or just crazy!  We all had a good laugh about it.  Later that night we decided that the battle (battle buddy) on the other side of the hall should come to our room to sleep...especially since her leg was in a cast...she needed to have supervision.  My pregnant battle buddy / roommate and I took off for the other hall, told her she needed to get her stuff and hop aboard the hometel (hospital) bed.  As we wheeled her down the hall and around the receptionists desk, I was being the point man and keeping a look out.  Just as I pulled the bed into the hall past the receptionists area, there was the same police officer walking down the hall toward us.  I began to shove the bed that I'd been pulling and began to jump around saying, "Go back, go back."  You would have thought we were under fire in all out war...we laughed hysterically about it later.  The officer stopped and just stared at me once he got around the corner.  I think he was still trying to figure out if I was crazy.  My battle kept a cool head and just kept on pushing the bed toward our room letting him know that we needed to keep her under supervision due to her injury.  He just blinked and then stared at us eventually walking on out the front doors.   

Sharron, Rachel (Me), Nadine in the "Hometel"

Away from the analysis, studies, projects, and the words that would be recorded and archived at the National Smithsonian, we settled in and began to tell the gritty version of our stories, the horrors we
had faced, and the struggles we were still going through.  The knowledge that we were not as alone as we thought we were when we had each struggled in our own ways through our nightmares, was more encouraging than anything else could have been.  Knowing that we had each been through hell and high water (so to speak) and lived to tell about it was suddenly realized as an accomplishment.  So many don't make it back, but we were each better off than we had been and found a gratefulness and joy in that very significant fact.

I will never forget any of them as they left indelible footprints on my heart.  I will never forget the care of the doctors and their humble interaction or the digital story telling facilitator and her patience with our banter or how my battle buddies chose to courageously tell their stories when it was easier to leave them untold ...amazing women gathered together in the name of making a difference in the lives of others.  Truly unforgettable.

 

 

Me, Nadine, Angelina, Dr. Joyce, and Sharron at dinner together the last night.

 

Thank you, Dr. Carmelinda, Dr Joyce, Andrea, Nadine, Sharron, and Angelina, for leaving such beautiful footprints on my life. 

The final version of my digital story from this workshop...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBt1jvGtbK8

 

*See the post "In Her Own Words" on June 29, 2013 for an update

Skydiving...Somehow...Someway.

May 28, 2012

 

I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing, I even rode a few seconds on a bull, but his name wasn't fu Manchu...



A Whole New Perspective - Me and My Instructor Ravi

Memorial day to me just seemed like the most appropriate day to go sky diving, something I'd had on my bucket list since I was in high school.  I never doubted that I would sky dive someday and talked about it regularly even though I had been injured so badly in the Army that I was told I would likely never walk without assistance.  As is usually the case with me, I thought "watch me".  I was determined I wasn't just going to walk again, I was going to run...someway...somehow.   I still had a brain tumor and was trying my best to recover from heart failure and a traumatic brain injury, but I decided that I could either die having lived or live while already dead.  For me there wasn't even a question.  I picked up my cane and hobbled out of the clinic in my Army uniform and tennis shoes determined to get better...somehow...someway.  I didn't know right then, but it would take years, tears, and plenty of frustration for me to recover, but with my battle buddies loosing body parts in Iraq or coming back in a box, I was happy to be alive and have my limbs.  My leg was partially paralyzed, the pain that radiated from  my back was nothing shy of excruciating and my foot felt like it was sparking with electricity regularly, but I wasn't going to let the limbs I was blessed to still have sit idle.  I figured if I was going to make a difference in this life, I couldn't give up no matter how much I wanted to curl up in a corner and call it a day.  Besides, I still had several things on my list to do...like sky diving.

Now as an Army veteran, the day finally arrived...on Memorial Day I was going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane and fall to the ground...at least that's how my doctors described it.  I think they were trying to talk me out of it in their own way.  I was already intoxicated with the thought of seeing the world from a new perspective and feeling the rush of the wind in my face...leaving my troubles on the ground for a moment in time and free-falling 15,000 feet!  Nope, there was no stopping me.  I walked into the sky diving facility to let them know I was ready to go and saw people strapping their equipment on.  My heart sped up...this is it...finally.  I walked outside and watched them pile into a little plane and take off.  It looked like they were going straight up...oh wow!  I went back inside and waited for them to come back as I read the messages on the wall.  It seemed everyone had something fun to say...my anticipation grew...if that was possible. 

I sat on the couch in front of the TV that was playing instructions again on how to sky dive wondering when my turn would come.  I heard my name.  I looked at my husband, "Did you hear my name?"  He shook his head.  The TV was pretty loud, but there it was again...it was our turn!!  After a little confusion I was introduced to the person I would tandem jump with through an interpreter.  I spoke very little Russian and he spoke very little English so we were ironing out the signals for each stage of the jump through our interpreter.  Wow...well, this was definitely going to add a little adventure to the this unique trip...lol!  Before I knew it, we were suited up and partnered with our respective instructors walking to that little plane we had seen earlier.  We piled in...I was the first in and then my husband, Erick.  We were going to jump from a couple thousand more feet than everyone else.  As they piled in, I was surprised by how many people could actually fit into this little plane...16, 17, 18...whew.  Up we went nose tilted toward the high noon sun.  My heart began to pound...what was I doing?.  I looked out the window as the earth became smaller and smaller. 


We leveled off and the door opened just inches from my foot which was extended out in front of me facing the back of the plane.  The first set of divers slid out the door.  They didn't have far to go since they were right up against the door on the way up.  Then the next set...and the next...and the next...and the next...and the next until there was just Erick and I and our instructors.  The camera got turned on about this time as I stared out the window wondering if I really should have done this after all...I mean that's long way down.  The higher we climbed the tighter my grip got on the bar over my head.  Erick's instructor asked me a question, which I answered very candidly about my true feelings at the moment in a southern accent at that. 

 

 Suddenly the door shut and the plane took a sharp turn upward as we climbed a couple more thousand feet.  Erick did his best to comfort me as I was looking a little jittery.

 

 My instructor pried my hand off of the bar over my head and stuck it in my lap.  We couldn't communicate very well verbally so he made it clear through body language that in my lap was where I was to keep my hands by giving them a little extra shove.  I complied...reluctantly.  Whew...this was more scary than I had imagined.  I probably shouldn't have read all those stories about people's parachute's malfunctioning. 

We slid toward the door and my instructor leaned over to open the door.  Talk about scary...I was strapped to the front of him which meant I was looking out at the ground not just hundreds of feet up, but thousands, the instant the door opened.  Yikes!  I put my head back against his shoulder and stared at the roof of the plane as our feet dangled over the side of the plane.  After a few failed attempts of him trying to get me to look at the camera, he finally made the camera look at me and scooted on out.  Suddenly it was fun, except that I couldn't breath!  I was surprised by the force of air coming at me and my mouth was as dry as cotton, but the fear was gone.  I figured whatever happened from here was going to happen no matter what so I was going to enjoy the moment!  I was in awe.



Looking at the video later, I saw myself acting like a little kid and making these unusual expressions...for me anyway.  You could tell that I was in child-like wonder of everything that was going on.  While I just made a leap out of an airplane and landed safely (well...somewhat safely, as you can see at the end of the video) in the physical sense, the leap I've made inside by doing so is much bigger.  I'm going to conquer, not just my fears and frustrations by pursuing my dreams even when they seem impossible or feel incredibly difficult to obtain, but I'm also going to make a difference in some way even if it's just by simply not giving up.  




My Official Skydiving Certificate



Joining the Fight to Stop Human Trafficking!

2011

The first time I saw trafficking that I can remember clearly was in 1998.  It was shocking to say the least and I wish I'd known what to do as I watched a young girl in a gas station hiding in a corner with the look of terror in her eyes.  I asked if I could help her, but didn't fully understand what was going on until later.  She just shook her head and looked away.  My heart broke, but it would be years before I realized what was happening. 

By 2001, I was ready to do something about it and helped rescue a woman from trafficking.  It was one of the hardest rescues I've taken part in.  The life I was introducing her to was so unfamiliar that it was hard for her to stay and get help, but after repeating the process a few times, the pleasure of her calling one day to say she had made it through a life-changing program and was now living a completely different life, going to church, dating a good man, and starting to see some of her ten children that had been taken from her made all the struggle feel like nothing.

Not long after that I walked into a rather bizarre situation at a truck stop not far from my home when I stopped to get gas just off the freeway.  I was dressed in a business dress, but was very nearly trafficked as truckers were cornering me and asking for services.  I was stunned to say the least!!  Not long after that, I ended up seeing an entire group of women of all ages lined up on the floor of a boarded up building at the truck stop as the door flew open and the beam of my headlights hit them full in the face.  In shock and hardly knowing where to turn as the 1990's and early 2000's didn't have organizations raising awareness about human trafficking, I didn't know where to turn, but started asking how to help these women and what was going on.  I found out it nearly landed me in the hottest water of my life, but felt it was worth it too as the police intervened.  I rested easy not realizing that it was not as rare of a situation as I thought at that moment.

It was the summer of 2005 when I was nearly taken from a sidewalk in California to be trafficked.  Men in a white van tried to take me when I threw away a candy wrapper in the trash while my friends walked on up the sidewalk ahead of me on a main street downtown.  Thankfully my battle buddies from the Army turned and saw what was happening and prevented the situation from going any further.  Close call, but I was safe...or at least I thought so. 

Then in 2006 a government official from South America began to stalk me.  Somehow he knew where I was all the time and showed up all over town with his friend.  One day I realized the seriousness of the situation when they began searching for me in and out of shops and peering through restaurant windows.  Intuition told me they were looking for me, which was confirmed when one of them spotted me and they both began an all-out sprint in my direction.  By the time I'd taken to hiding under restaurant tables, I realized that I needed help with the situation.  Just days later the military had an impromptu safety briefing in which they warned us to be on the look out for a man who was stalking another Soldier with intent to harm.  When they flashed his picture across the screen, I realized that I needed to let them know what I knew...it was the same man that was stalking me! I'd managed to get his name, where he lived, his phone number (which I had because he got a hold of mine and was calling me multiple times a day), a description of his friends, and a guess at his nationality among other things.  The very next day the moving trucks were at his house - he was being deported.  I found out there was evidence that his intentions were to traffic me and the other tall redhead who was in the Army with me when he went to South America.  

The very next year, 2007, I worked with a female Soldier who told me about how she'd been trafficked from down town Monterey and had been rescued two weeks later, but how she never feels safe anywhere now.  I could almost see the scars on her heart through her pale blue eyes.  Pale white skin and copper hair, she was so young with so much life ahead.  My heart broke.   Just weeks later, I heard that my battle (a female Soldier friend of mine) had been trafficked.  After slipping a drug into her drink, a group of traffickers told her friends that she knew them once she was drugged.  Then took her to Salinas where she was trafficked until she was rescued two weeks later.  I never saw her after that, but heard she was never the same again.  I remember her vibrant green eyes, silky black hair, beautiful face, her exquisite taste in clothes that she wore on her 5'10" frame, bubbly personality, and infectious smile.  Whenever I think of her, I still hear her excitement over the champagne heels she found with just the right amount of class.  I can still see her bright eyes as she stood tall in her uniform, waved and said she'd see me later in our last encounter. 

I would experience more people's attempts to traffic and exploit me, which never ceased to alarm me knowing all that I had come to learn about that terrifying world.  What about those who didn't escape?  How could I ignore this horrific crime against humanity??  Human trafficking had become the second highest and fastest rising crime in the world, the nation, and my own backyard...literally.  I went back to school the fall of 2010 to finish the degrees I started and began writing my school papers on human trafficking.  That's when I first came across Sara Kruzan... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR7mno6p9iQ  I realized that I could be looking a Sara in the eyes every day.


(Linked - click picture "How to keep your child safe")

I realized I had to do more...something...anything...to prevent this from happening.  I began researching, but there was so little on the internet about it.  I had been involved in so many charities that helped youth at risk, abused children, and the less fortunate, and knew there was a lot of awareness being raised for them...but who was helping the trafficked???  I had to find a way!

 

After tons of research, I heard of an organization that was rescuing young girls from sex trafficking and could hardly wait to get involved!!  In 2011, I signed up to be trained by the Sacramento Police Department Chaplaincy to help the organization Courage 2BU (which has become Courage Worldwide http://courageworldwide.org/ ).  My husband was on board too!  Every Saturday we woke up at the crack of dawn, traveled for three and a half hours to take an eight-hour training course, and drive three and a half hours back home for a month.  It was grueling with our forty-hour work weeks, but so worth it.  Getting to know Mindi Russell (head chaplain of the Sacramento Police Department Chaplaincy http://www.sacchaplains.com/chaplain-team/mindi-russell/ ) and Jenny Williamson (founder and CEO of Courage Worldwide http://courageworldwide.org/about/ ) was an incredible honor and being trained by these amazing women was beyond amazing and inspiring!

I set out with excitement to educate my community about human trafficking only to find out that it was easier for people to look the other way.  No one returned phone calls about setting up a concert to raise funds, people denied there was such a thing as slavery going on today, very few wanted to hear how they could make a difference too.  I was disappointed, but undaunted...I would never stop telling the truth about what is happening in our own backyard, throughout the county, in this state, across our nation, and around the world.

 

(Linked)

 

 

Want to donate to a worthy cause?  This is worth it in every way...your energy, time, and money can change the lives of so many in the most profound ways you could imagine.  FREE THE SLAVES!

http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Trafficking-in-human-beings/Trafficking-in-human-beings


If you think you see human trafficking anywhere, call 1-888-373-7888 and report it.  You may save one life or many!

National Human Trafficking Resource Center

SMS: 233733 (Text "HELP" or "INFO")

Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week

Languages: English, Spanish

Website: traffickingresourcecenter.org

(Linked)

On Being a Soldier...

February 23, 2011

Still working for the Army and as I watched out the window today, I saw the four branches of the military interact from the other side of the glass.  It was quite a different perspective than the one I got standing among them.  I saw the Sergeant who really thought he had some rank...thumbs tucked into his pockets while swaying back and forth on his feet…his stance seemed to be letting everyone know he has pretty important.  As he talked, a Private played with her I Phone and a Specialist tried to look interested.  The other Sergeants seemed to be trying to one-up each other the way the body language looked.  The officer, on-the-other-hand, stood back a little with his arms crossed comfortably taking it all in.  He seemed relaxed and had a bit of a smirk on his face.  He was obviously not threatened by their play for power and was finding it all rather amusing.  A Sailor sauntered by.  He seemed to be returning from somewhere, but was in no hurry to get wherever he was going.  Then a Marine popped into view.  She was making a bee-line for a doorway when a Marine officer appeared out of another doorway.  He shouted something to her and she volleyed back.  It reminded me of an exchange I used to have with one of my platoon Sergeants.  He would always shout, “Air Assault” and I would echo back “Airborne”.  He, of course, had his Air Assault badge proudly displayed on his uniform while I was applying for Airborne School. 

The exchange between them started an avalanche of memories.    Those days in uniform seem so far away…like they were from another life time.  I try not to think about it for too long as there are so many memories that are painful to recall for reasons I dare not say.  Just the same, I stand in awe that I was once there…and while I find a guilty pleasure in the fact that I no longer have to crawl out of bed at 4:00 am to survive physical training every morning, I still find a surge of pride that I once served this nation as G.I. Jane.  Not everyone can say that…and many times I wonder that I can.  It truly was by the sheer grace of God that I had the honor of serving the people of America in one of the toughest organizations in America…signing away my life and willingly giving up my citizenship to become government property.  And now, knowing the price that is paid everyday…a price that no one will ever know unless they have walked a mile in combat boots…I can never take for granted the sacrifice military members make in the name of freedom, while giving up their own freedom to decide where to live, how much to weigh, who to have as friends, and so much more.  As I watch out my work window, I know that they are the real heroes of today…they may never get the fame of a Hollywood star or the pay of an all-star athlete…no, when they die, only their family and local town will know that they have paid with blood by the few lines in the obituary section…even though they give so much more than some overdosed pop star who makes headlines.  While on a battalion run with my platoon, my drill sergeant said, “There are guys that run around in a pair of tights and get paid millions of dollars for it, but you are the real heroes of today.”  It was nice to hear.

My last crew - attached to S3 / Operations of the 229th MI BN

25 Random Things About me

1. I love to sing!!!!!
2. I sleep lightly and with one eye partially open ever since I joined the Army.
3. I love Calvin and Hobbes!!! My husband bought me all the entire series of Calvin and Hobbes comics!
4. My favorite sounds in the whole world are the wind in the prairie grass, the cry of mourning doves, crickets and tree frogs on a summer night, snow on the window pane, the sound of the central heat coming on when it's blizzarding, and contagious laughter.
5. I know enough Arabic and Persian-Farsi to get myself in trouble.
6. One of my biggest wishes is to be, not just a minor, but a MAJOR philanthropist!
7. I have been mountain climbing, rappelling, bungi jumping, stunt plane riding, white water rafting, and more, but my list is not complete until I sky dive.
8. One of my favorite childhood pastimes was playing in the snow...especially sledding on the big hills near my house.
9. I taught kindergarten in the same classroom that I was taught kindergarten in.
10. I have a photographic memory when I'm not stressed.
11. I'm still friends with someone I "met" when we were less than 1 year old...love you, Mel! :)
12. I wish I hadn't passed up the opportunity to fly fighter jets when I had it.
13. My husband and I have all the same nationalities in us except for two...we each have a parent that's half Norwegian and even come from the same American Indian tribe...Cherokee. Of course he has his Spanish heritage...thus the name Martinez. ;)
14. "Barbie" is my longest standing nickname...the latest was "Combat Barbie"...I stand corrected...my mother has called me "Sugar" and "SugaRay" most of my life. =) So I guess "Barbie" was used by the most people.
15. Being the oldest of 7 is more responsibility than I bargained for...and I'm not sure I'm any good at it.
16. After teaching I decided that to teach is live through crises, die laughing, and mold a thousand dreams.
17. I've learned so much from my brother Jeremy...I've watched him LITERALLY give the shirt off of his back and the mattress off of his bed to someone in need...and still he is given more than he gives away.
18. I have watched the lives of many "great" people, but the ones who touched me most were the "ordinary" people who went an extraordinary distance.
19. I'm learning to hold the good memories close, forget the bad stuff, and give life everything I can today.
20. Kindness has never been lost on me...even if it looked like it didn't affect me...I never forgot it.
21.There are a lot of wrongs I wish I could make right...especially the wrongs I caused.
22. I've learned that the more tough stuff I go through in life the more people I'm able to relate to and empathize with.
23. I was very mischievous in college...my entire hall almost got in big trouble for a prank I instigated and we all did on my b-day...LOLAL...no hard feelings though...they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me from their beds while the dorm supervisors decided what to do with us. :]
24. I'll never take the sacrifice of Soldier or any other military personnel for granted.
25. I hope that when I'm gone it can be said that, "She laughed often, lived courageously, loved gently, and gave sacrificially." I hope it can also be said that my life was dangerously beautiful and inspired others to be more than they thought they were meant to be.