This is just one of those "I have to write" moments

So, imagine back to 1958 0r 1959. Imagine Kearns, Utah - a west side (wrong side of town) suburb of Salt Lake City... A young girl 5 or 6 years old is watching her parents bring in and set up this funny wooden box on a table into the front room. They plug it in and and it makes a bright light and has fuzzy black and white people moving around in it! Our first TV! It wasn't really instant love for me. For quite a while I didn't really see the point of it. But I remember my older brother lying in front of it watching Howdy Doody and Soupy Sales everyday. Like any kid I soon became a BIG fan, especially of cartoons on the Captain Kangaroo show after school. And later a big fan of the m0vies that would come on in the evening. Sometimes if I was really, really quiet and acted like I was invisible, my Mom would not make me go to bed (I really believed she could not see me) and I could stay up and watch a movie with her and Dad. I fondly remember a movie called "Tea for Two" that I got to stay up late and watch because I was so invisible on the couch. But often I was sent to bed without being able to finish the movie and that had major traumatic consequences - even to this day I can't ever NOT finish a movie. It is better to not start a movie than to not finish it! I just think about it forever and ever until I can finally wrangle a way to finish it, sometimes waiting for many years. I'm patient and persistent in these matters. I don't even care that much if it is a bad ending, I just have to know!

So anyway...

as a young girl, who was most often sent to bed not being able to finish a show, I would lie in bed upset and wish I could have a tiny little TV that I could set on my stomach and watch all the movies, clear to the very end.

I imagined having this little TV over and over again, time after time, wishing and hoping someday it would be invented for me. (I think my idea was also spawned by watching Dick Tracy calling Joe Jitsu on his wrist-watch sized phone!)

Well....

About two weeks ago my husband lets me cash in his credit card points (that are about to expire). There are just enough points for me to order an Ipod Touch - with 16GB. (He had a LOT of points.) I had heard you could download podcasts and audio books and such and thought that would be fun. It arrived and I've been learning how to use it. And then, just the day before yesterday, I got really brave and bought the video of "Twilight" the movie on itunes and downloaded it onto my new Ipod. (yes, I actually figured out how to do it and everything all by myself). I was so excited to see the movie again that I took the Ipod to bed with me to just sneak a quick peak of what the movie would look like on the little screen (about 3" x 2" for those not familiar) before I went to sleep.

I still can't believe how good the picture is on that little bugger - absolutely freakin' amazing. I lay there and watched the whole show again! And then it hit me like a lightning bolt; my ancient dream had come true! 50 years later! but here I am lying in bed watching a movie on a little TV. It is even better than I could have ever imagined! I don't even have to plug it into an outlet! It was so perfect the tears rolled down my face. I just had to cry, the reality just suddenly overwhelmed me and I'm really not much of a crier.

My grandmother was born in 1898 and died in 1996. I used to ask her over and over, "what are you most amazed about today that you didn't have back when you were young?" She thought a tape recorder was amazing and was afraid to use it to hear the recordings I made for her - she thought she might break it. I believe she loved her mix-master the most, however.

I was just sitting here tonight, twirling my Grandma's wedding ring that I now wear, and was thinking how I know exactly how Grandma must have thought about modern conveniences. I'm seeing the most amazing accomplishments by humans in my own lifetime! There is stuff now that I could never have imagined: computers, internet, cell phones, ipods, thumbdrives - heck, I'm still fascinated and amazed by a calculator! And I want to be buried with my microwave oven!

I can't believe I am lucky enough to live in a time where people have taken advantage of being able to get a great education and then together have pushed the collective knowledge to such amazing heights that we have reaped fantastic technologies. One receiver and user of such technologies, I think, is our current, unbelievably miraculous modern healthcare. Because, as you see, I have been given 12 more years of life (so far) so that now, instead of surrending helplessly to death by breast cancer, I can now lie in bed with a little TV on my stomach and watch a movie -all the way to the end!

I WORSHIP EDUCATION! and I love those who strive and sacrifice for it and put it to USE! Thank you All! Thank you so much!

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Ok, thank you for the indulgence - now I'll go back to finishing the bracelet I was working on for a fellow teacher - a gorgeous charm bracelet made of 18 Swarovski 10mm hearts dangling like charms from a 4mm crystal and chain bracelet - a super sparkler!