tedwords

Happy birthday to my sexy ex! Josie, you are a wonderful mother, a good, caring person, a great friend, and I've been so fortunate to have you in my life for the past 27 years. I never dreamed when I first met that young girl who had volunteered to donate her rabbit for a theater production that I had made a partner for life, in the raising of three beautiful kids. And yet, here we are today.

Very nice, don't you think? Lovely sentiment, right? And I meant every word of it, when I posted it Sunday on Facebook. And yet, what did I get from Josie in response?

Thanks Ted ...I'd almost believe you love me but then you include THAT photo. ..lol

"I think it's a nice one," I remarked to Josie when I saw her later that day. "And a bunch of people liked it, too, so it couldn't have been that bad."

"They liked what you wrote," she replied. "But that photo is horrible."

"How can you say that?" I protested.

"I can say that because I am probably sixty pounds lighter now," she replied. "Look at how puffy my cheeks are. Look at that big fat belly. That is not a good photo me at all."

"You can't see any belly, you're wearing black." Josie chose to ignore me. The subject to her was closed. Sigh.

I mean, I get it. Josie is proud of the weight that she's lost through the years, and justifiably so. She's worked hard to stick to her diet, and certainly looks terrific. So maybe posting a photo that reminds her of what she looked like when she was less than petite isn't something she wants to see.

Except, I don't see the photo as a bad one! To me, Josie looks lovely in it. She appears calm and relaxed. I would say caring, too. She looks at peace. Her eyes are looking straight at the camera and she appears confident. That's exactly the way I like to think of Josie. What 's so bad about that, I ask you?

Personally, I think people can be beautiful at any shape or size, and Josie is certainly a beautiful woman now, and she was a beautiful woman then. Why do people have to get hung up on things like that?

Of course, I'm one to talk. I had photos taken of me in a tux a few weeks ago and someone commented that it looked as though the buttons on the suit were getting close to popping. It immediately put me on a spiral and has made it hard for me to look at any of the photos from that event. It also prompted me to join Weight Watchers, and I've so far lost seven pounds. I don't think I am too heavy, so I probably only have ten more pounds to go. Of course, Josie warns that the last five are the hardest.

So, I get it. People are vain, and women are impossible when it comes to their own photos, and will always complain, no matter which one you select. It's like those people who find one photo of themselves that they like and that's the only one they will ever use for the rest of their lives.

Still, I wish we could find it posible to love ourselves enough to look back on the echoes of the person we once were many years ago, and smile. Embrace it. Life's a rainbow, people exist on a spectrum. Like as many versions of yourself as you can.   

Today's photo is of my oldest...and still my baby, Annie, who turned 27 today. I know, can you believe  a dazzling urbanite like me has a child that old?

Honestly, it seems hard to believe she's 27. I swear that only yesterday, she was walking around, looking like Punky Brewster. But she's still the same sweet gentle soul that she was two decades ago...only now, she has a child of her own. Annie, as many of you know, is actually my adopted daughter, as Josie had her as a teen mom, and I started dating Josie when Annie was about a year old. And yet, for all that, she's as much my child as any of the others. She even drives like me!

Now she has a grandchild..which makes this dazzling urbanite even that much older. I just posted this photo on Facebook and Annie said thank you, and I told her I was getting all choked up. She called me sappy and I couldn't disagree...but I did point out, it's a wonderful mixture of sap and pure vodka!

Today's photo has to belong to my mother, because it's her birthday today! She is 68 today, and looking great.

This is a photo of Mom with two of her best friends, Cathy and Jim, in one of their favorite places, Cape Cod. Mom's is sitting in the foreground with a kleenex in her hand. I have no idea why. Maybe she had a cold that day? We lost Cathy to cancer about a year ago, and her loss is felt tremendously.

I am actually posting this to Facebook, but I'm going to crop it a bit, if only for one big reason: is it me, or is your eye naturally drawn to the gap in Jim's shorts? I almost feel like, if I stared hard enough, I can see his junk. Gaaaaaaa!

Anyway, say happy birthday to my Mum! She's one in a million.

With Corb's grandmother spending time in rehab, he's decided to embark on a project of taking some of her photos and scanning them, then printing copies at the local Eldredge print shop, so everyone in the family can have access to their family history.

This photo is probably my favorite--Corb's grandfather (second on far right, kneeling), serving in the Air Force, standing with his crew. He was serving as a tailgunner in this photo. He ended up as a pilot in the early days of commercial aviation, but tragically lost his life at a young age when a military plane he was piloting lost control and crashed. Corb's mother was only five or six at the time, and her brother was not yet even born. She claims her father visited her at the foot of her bed to say good-bye the night the plane went down.