I really enjoyed your music tastes! And WOW...good looking sons! lol, lucky me, I'm on of the singles on TM! JK.

_________________

KristinLynn --Thank you. Spending time with Bryson truly is a blessing. I was going through a terrible let-down after our trip, having to leave him. He called last evening and we talked for about an hour, and that helped tremendously. I slept better last night

Backup Bella --He is an officer aboard the USCGC Healy, based out of Seattle. Among other things, it patrols the Bering Sea and up into the Arctic as a polar icebreaker and environmental research vessel (and is available for rescues, of course). They just returned from a three-month mission studying walrus populations, taking ice core samples, charting ice floes (heh heh...making "floe charts"), things like that. Right now they're in Seattle re-outfitting for the next trip which will be a long one, lasting June through October. They'll once again venture up above Point Barrow (the northernmost point of the United States), counting polar bears, measuring glaciers, enduring days without night, weathering rough seas, and looking at ice, ice, ice, and more ice. Much of that time they'll be out of range of phone or internet connections, so we'll only hear from him sporadically. But when he does have email capability, he'll send spectacular pictures, I know. He did last summer when they were up there. Maybe I should post a couple here.

nighttime --Congratulations on your appointment to Volterra! It's great news and you're already doing a fantastic job. You just jumped right in, no hesitation. Me, I was much wussier about it. You should have seen how nervous I was before moving my first thread

Cathy --Thank you! I'm nothing and no one without my family, so I'm afraid I go a little overboard talking about them

Joanne Maria --LOL YOU are the tiny one, like a sweet little woodland fairy or watersprite. You're so dainty. But tell me true--are you graceful like Alice or a klutz like Bella?

Onyx --Hi you! I'll see if I can find some midnight sun pix from Bryson's voyage last summer. I know we have some, it just may take a while to find 'em. Brian filed hundreds of pictures with only their numbers, he didn't give them names. Even when he does assign descriptive labels to photos he does it like this: "Bering Strait1; Bering Strait2; Bering..." You get the idea? I love him to pieces but he drives me crazy.

Amie --I'm glad you liked them

Twilight_Tasha --Do you know, as soon as Brian realized that I was listing a nonexistent playlist (remember I said, "If I carried an Ipod it would play such-and-such..."?) he ordered me one, and now I've got a teency-tinecy MP3 player smaller than my keychain and it's got all the artists I mentioned and a few I didn't (Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dixie Chicks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jo-el Sonnier, Arcade Fire, Sting, Eric Clapton, The Police, Thompson Twins, Tears For Fears, Aaron Neville, Bob Marley, Romanian Women's Chorus....) Why am I only now discovering the joys of tuning out the world this way?!

And since you mention it...Skuyler has a steady girlfriend but Bryson's currently unattached Unfortunately, he's also going to spend the next 4 or 5 months "on ice"!

_________________

Joanne Maria --LOL YOU are the tiny one, like a sweet little woodland fairy or watersprite. You're so dainty. But tell me true--are you graceful like Alice or a klutz like Bella?


well, I like to think that I am graceful when I dance, but for the most part a KLUTZ..very prone to hurting myself, REALLY stupid stuff!!!

AND YOU???

_________________
"I felt his hand, lighter than a moth's wing, brushing my damp hair back, so that his lips could touch the hollow beneath my ear"

Jaime, Jaime, Jaime, you're bacccccccck........yeah..........!

Missed you my friend, and love the pictures! My favorite...midday son of course

Love the short hair, it is beautiful on you!!

_________________
A rewakening of life....beholden before us, a new BREAKING DAWN

"You are my life now" Twilight page 314

Awesome! I would so love his job!

_________________
"I have to step out for a second...Don't do anything funny while I'm gone." - Emmett
Click Here for Spam Thread

Shimmerskin........I have to comment again since you mentioned TOM PETTY I have been a fan since I was 13 (now 43 ) I just got an ipod for my b-day & I am a very happy camper. I have TWILIGHT on it & Tom Petty....I don't need anything else.....well actually, I would like to have New Moon & Eclipse on my ipod too but there is not enough room

I'll tell you alittle about Winnie. It was a long time before I even thought about getting another dog. I decided that I wanted find my next dog & actually keep it myself, I wanted a small dog & a female (only b/c my last dog was male). I was following my sister & praying that I would NOT see a stray. I had not even turned my car off when I saw a tail sticking out of the weeds. Of course, I investigated..........& now have the best/cutest little dog ever. She is blind in one eye (most likely from abuse) but is so loving. The funny part is that the whole time following my sister, I was wondering why she was going the LONGEST route possible. BUT, if she had not, winnie would not have been in that exact spot at the exact time i was......that's my MEANT TO BE PART.......I truly believe I was meant to find & save her. Everyone else tells me Winnie was waiting there for me b/c she is so spoiled. I see it as simply treating her the way she should have been her whole life! Well...that's Winnie's story. I tried to keep it short.

_________________
"You'll always be my Bella, you'll just be a little more durable." Edward, p. 274, eclipse

Lisa, Lisa, Lisa --Remember that time I called you from Juneau, AK because even though I was faced with the majesty and beauty and excitement of the "Great Land" of the North I was having Twilight withdrawals? Thank you for talking me through that.

Backup_Bella --I wouldn't! I SAW his job. When he's EOW (Engineer of the Watch) he's alone down in the control room (the giant nerve center of this gigantic ship) for hours, responsible for ensuring that all the systems keep working. Engines, generators, HVAC system, sewage system, electrical system, propulsion system, desalination system (potable water), the tanks, the fuel...Healy is like a self-contained, small industrial city that floats. I was so impressed. But I wouldn't want that much responsibility.

I wouldn't want to be the OOD, either (Officer of the Deck). One of my favorite things on the trip was being on the bridge (Healy has a vast bridge, practically a football field) so we visitors were able to be there where the ship is navigated without getting in anyone's way...and it takes a lot of people to navigate something that size, especially going through icy channels or narrow passages (or icy, narrow channel passages). It got interesting when the weather was bad But anyway, when we arrived in Seattle, one of Bryson's classmates from the Academy, Tasha, was in charge so she was giving the orders for docking the ship. I was on tenterhooks the whole time even though it was obvious she had everything under control. I wasn't nervous about her ability, I just didn't want anything to mess it up for her. This tiny 23 yr old kid got that behemoth vessel into the teeming Port of Seattle amid busy traffic--everything from small boats to tankers to huge barges having their huge shipping containers removed by huge cranes--turning a sharp corner, squeezing into a tight berth, manouvering the vessel perfectly into position alongside the dock behind and between other ships without so much as a bump or scrape. Obviously, Tasha didn't do it alone, it takes a lot of people to do something like that, but she was in charge. It was massively impressive!

ryansaunt1--I'm so happy you told us about Winnie. I wasn't just saying that when I said I wanted details I love people's stories about their pets; pets have been an incredibly important part of my life and I know they are for others, too. I definitely believe you were led to Winnie that day. There is a rich spiritual connection between animals and people if we will let ourselves be available to it, and a kind of communication that operates on a very deep, subconscious level we can become aware of if we'll just listen for it.

I like your ipod story, too. I'm having a blast with mine. It even makes loading the dishwasher fun. I wouldn't be singing and bopping and clinking the forks and glasses to the beat if I just had the stereo on, but something about that miniscule player and the headphones puts me in a private world where I can dance if I want to and feel safe doing it. And I'm a person who never dances, isn't that pathetic? (I was very traumatized as a kid about dancing). But putting on this ipod thingy is like stepping into a protected bubble of sensation separating me from everything else, including my own inhibitions. And I owe it all to TwilightMoms. If it hadn't been for the interview, Brian wouldn't have noticed I was missing out on a feature of life the rest of you are experiencing, and I wouldn't have rediscovered how much I need music wherever I go, and I certainly wouldn't be dancing around my house!

_________________

Thanks for sharing all your awesome photos! I love the bookcase one - that is HI-larious!! What a coincidence!! The sky photos are just gorgeous!!

_________________

bluembrownlee wrote:

Thanks for sharing all your awesome photos! I love the bookcase one - that is HI-larious!! What a coincidence!! The sky photos are just gorgeous!!

Um, that's very nice of you, Mary, but don't you have some important merchandise to put up on your thread?! Sheesh! I've been waiting, like, a day already. Torturer.

_________________

Ok, I'm going now!! Yeesh. LOL!

Seriously, in like 5 min. they'll be up. hehehe

_________________

I just opened this part of the forum....and I am so happy I did!

Congratulations, Jaime!
I was laughing while reading your answers....I have the same paranoia about answering doors while I am home alone! Not so much about the lightbulb thing....

It's always amazing when I read about someone, and she reminds me of some parts of myself: keeping to myself, working a couple of jobs through college to get myself through (which resulted in missing out on that part of growing up), liking guys who are unattainable (they do not even know I existed), reading books to entertain myself growing up because there's no one around to hang out with, neat freak, and clutter-hater!

I am so happy for you! You are the first TM I met at The Host signing, and I am honored!

And there is nothing wrong with your hair. Actually, your hair looked awesome for a rainy day like last Friday!

Lovely kids, by the way

_________________
thanksemaleth

Thanks for sharing the pics......thought it was so funny that everything seemed so Twilight-related

Mother's Day/Twilight Zone

Love your new haircut!

_________________
...and the lion fell in love with the lamb

bluembrownlee --5 minutes, nothing! It took SEVEN. But I've PM'd you my order requests so I'm feeling much better now. Sadly, there is nothing that can be done to revive the canoe paddles. (Sorry folks, private joke).

RedVelvet --I was your first? I'm so honored! I feel like I was probably your last, too, the way I monopolized you

Maria --Thank you! I was in serious TW withdrawals up until the Healy pulled into port in Juneau, after which I had sufficient distraction in the form of my son Bryson. I still stayed up all night in the hotel finishing The Host, though. I read most of it in transit from California to Alaska (a long, loooong day because of layovers and such), and completed it before we boarded Healy. As soon as I finished it, I started reading it again, in my "rack" (bunk) at night with the little curtains pulled around and the reading lamp on. Incidentally, have I mentioned that there is no co-ed cohabitation on a military vessel? I shared a room with a girlfriend of one of the crew members, Brian shared his with the twin brother of a crew member. I guess it's a good thing this wasn't our anniversary cruise....

And oh, yeah, the hair. I'm actually not too unhappy with how it looks in the San Diego Host Signing pictures, even though I didn't do the spiky Alice thing (too rainy that day, not worth the effort). I mean, it's not my dream 'do but I'm living with it. It still takes way too long to style in the mornings, though, because practically every strand has to be placed precisely and lacquered into place. I wasn't exaggerating when I said the first cutter whacked big chunks out where they should never have been allowed to go missing. Like right at my temples!!! GRRRRRRR. I already have a widow's peak and double cowlicks, it's not like I can spare it there, you know? Okay, okay, okay I have to breathe deeply and visualize a verdant mountain stream, bluebirds in the trees, fishies flashing silvery in the water...okay, it's passing, the rage and despair, it's almost gone, getting better, okay. Yes. Calm again. Oh, I'm so tired now. Where's Remus Lupin with the chocolate when you need him?

_________________

*snort* Canoe paddles, hehehehe. You are too funny!!!

And I PM'd you back - whew! I think my wrists are falling off. You might need to revive them as well. LOL!

_________________

Jaime-It was such a pleasure to read your interview. I have always admired you from reading your posts, and I knew after meeting you last Friday night at the book signing that you were an intriguing and special person. But now I feel more than ever that I want to get to know you better, as it seems we have much in common (although, trust me, your hair looks wayyyyyyy better than mine!). I am so happy that we live close, and I am looking forward to that cup of tea!

It is obvious that you deserve every nice thing that people have written about you here! Thank you for helping to make TM's the wonderful place that it is!

_________________
"So, Edward, you like mountain lions. Well, how do you feel about cougars, hmmm?"