Savor the Moment.

Another eventful year at the Townsend's house for Christmas! I thought I would share a couple of pictures with you, since images always tell a better story...

I was lucky enough to have a lot of gifts from my vendors this year - mostly in the form of chocolate, and LOTS of it. Here I am, cutting up a huge chunk of chocolate for fondue. Mmmmm!

Here's Sarah and Mom (Jan Townsend) on Christmas Eve...

Here's Christopher-Robin and I, before heading off to church. (Yes the Muslim girls make an appearance at church on JC's B-day).



Since we wrap our presents with each other on Christmas Eve, we always end up with cardboard tubes. Danielle always gets her hands on it, and a fight ensues. Christopher had his light saber handy, to ward off the evil Darth Danie.



While Chris and Danielle duel to the death (or boredom), Toby gets busy with Sarah. I MEAN, Toby gives Sarah a well deserved back rub. (That's a tradition at the Townsend house).



The ninja/Starwars trend continued into the morning, with Sarah's contribution.

Sarah soon settles down though, and find humor in the shirt I got her. (Sadly, we're both single at the moment. Hopefully we'll be shopping for boys in the next couple of days... I doubt we'll find any good ones, the quality has really gone down in the past couple of years).

So, if you want to see the full spread of images, you can check them out in my album on the left or here.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

You've heard this 'textbook' definition of a TCK before: "A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents' culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background, other TCKs."

- "Where are you from?" has more than one reasonable answer.
- You've said that you're from foreign country X, and your audience has asked you which US state X is in.
- You flew before you could walk.
- You speak two languages, but can’t spell in either.
- You feel odd being in the ethnic majority.
- You have three passports.
- You have a passport but no driver's license.
- You go into culture shock upon returning to your "home" country.
- Your life story uses the phrase "Then we moved to..." three (or four, or five...) times.
- You wince when people mispronounce foreign words.
- You don't know whether to write the date as day/month/year, month/day/year, or some variation thereof.
- The best word for something is the word you learned first, regardless of the language.
- You get confused because US money isn't colour-coded.
- You think VISA is a document that's stamped in your passport, not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
- You own personal appliances with 3 types of plugs, know the difference between 110 and 220 volts, 50 and 60 cycle current, and realize that a trasnsformer isn't always enough to make your appliances work.
- You fried a number of appliances during the learning process.
- You think the Pledge of Allegiance might possibly begin with "Four-score and seven years ago...."
- Half of your phone calls are unintelligible to those around you.
- You believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball.
- You consider a city 500 miles away "very close."
- You've read National Geographic and recognized someone.
- You cruise the Internet looking for fonts that can support foreign alphabets.
- You think in the metric system and Celsius.
- You may have learned to think in feet and miles as well, after a few years of living (and driving) in the US. (But not Fahrenheit. You will *never* learn to think in Fahrenheit).
- You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
- Your minor is a foreign language you already speak.
- When asked a question in a certain language, you've absentmindedly respond in a different one.
- You miss the subtitles when you see the latest movie.
- You've gotten out of school because of monsoons, bomb threats, and/or popular demonstrations.
- You speak with authority on the subject of airline travel.
- You have frequent flyer accounts on multiple airlines.
- You constantly want to use said frequent flyer accounts to travel to new places.
- You know how to pack.
- You have the urge to move to a new country every couple of years.
- The thought of sending your (hypothetical) kids to public school scares you, while the thought of letting them fly alone doesn't at all.
- You think that high school reunions are all but impossible.
- You have friends from 29 different countries.
- You sort your friends by continent.
- You have a time zone map next to your telephone.
- You realize what a small world it is, after all.

One of the members of my acapella group sent this to me, I thought it was FANTASTIC!

Hey folks, so most of you know I'm single again... Lots of people have been asking since there has been little mention of Andy in my blog in the last couple of months. We decided to break up awhile back and he's finally moved into a house with his best friend and cousin.

It's been hard on the both of us, but we both know it's for the better. Andy has been a major part of my life for the past two years and (hopefully) will continue to be. I can honestly say that I haven't regretted anything, and I can look back with fond memories. (Except roaming the streets of Thailand alone because he was too sick to join me - only to find out he had laringitis).

But for now, I am definitely enjoying my closest - since the space for all my crap just doubled... And I STILL can't fit everything in it! Andrew on the other hand, is realizing that he doesn't own anything. One trip and he was done, two hours and everything was put away. Wow.

This note was from my Uncle Steve, a retired firefighter. I thought I would share it with you all.

Hi Ria,
In my career as a fire fighter, I had occasion to attend a number of similar funerals for my brother fire fighters, including my best friend. Almost got to attend my own a couple of times, as guest of honor. It is a very powerful and emotional thing to be at a service attended by a thousand brothers, every one aware that, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."
I am minded though, that for every one of those high profile, line of duty fatalities, there are thousands of other funerals. Funerals of people who have lived long lives or short, who have tried to make a better world, provide for their families, help their friends and neighbors. Sometimes the funerals are well attended, sometimes there are but few mourners, but their life and their death are no more or less important. What counts is their contribution, whether known or unknown. Hopefully they, and we, will live well, do our best, and die regretted.


Season's Greetings to all of you young ladies with,
Much Love and Many Hugs,

Uncle Steve & Aunt Adrienne

Today I saw something that both moved me and made my heart sink.

Aboard my bus during the usual morning commute, I saw a cop car with his lights on speeding down the express lanes. Shoot, I thought. Someone's in trouble. Then there came another. Shoot, I thought, someone is getting arrested! And then another, and another, and another, and another, and another until there was a river of flashing blue and white lights snaking down the freeway. You could see the lights reflecting off the windows of the cars passing by, off the polished glass buildings, off the glasses of the woman a row ahead of me. It was a sight like I've never seen before.

An officer died yesterday, and his funeral procession swelled to 2000 strong. The procession I saw was only the Shoreline precinct driving down to pay their respects. I almost wept, thinking about the wife and 9-month old daughter he left behind, thinking about the public outpouring of grief and support... Thinking about how short my life is and if I'm doing my part to build a stronger and safer community. I thought about what I wanted in life, how short it is, and thought to myself, if you were to die tomorrow... Would you have any regrets?