So long Santo!

More than 2 years ago, my daughter Ella was given a gift of 2 fish, she named them Santo and Donkgo (spelling here is approximate, we don't know where the names came from.) Donkgo died the first night and I expected little Santo to go the same way quickly, amazingly, he just kept going. He was with us for so long, he became the stuff of legends, we forgot how long we had had him and told people he was 4 years old.

Ella took this picture with her own camera, from her point of view, I think what it lacks in focus it makes up for in perspective and raw emotion.

I enjoyed his company when I washed the dishes, he liked it when we lit a candle near his bowl, he danced with the flicker of the candlelight.
He meant a lot to the girls, one of their first jobs was to feed Santo his fish flakes, one fed him in the morning the other in the evening.

Not to sound callous, but one thing he meant to me was not having a different sort of high maintenance pet, Santo only needed a little food here and there, his water changed once in a while, he was really pretty easy.

Yesterday, Santo left us. The years he spent with us have meant a lot to our family. I asked the girls if they wanted to say anything about him and here are their replies,

Ella -"We loved Santo, he gets to go with his brother again, we had him for so long, we had him for almost three years. He used to swim a lot around. He will be happy with his brother."

Liana - "Santo died a little, now he will swim to Heavenly Father."

Thank you Santo for giving my daughters the thrill of having a pet but not making my life any harder, we will miss you.

Facebook, or How I found my self again.

OK so it took me a long time to get bloggin, but it took me even longer to join the on line world that is Facebook. I don't want to plug a product, but I am amazed. You know the people that used to mean so much to you but you somehow lost touch with them?
They are lurking there in the shadows, and all it takes is a little search of their name.
I have in the last few weeks reconnected with friends from High school and college, corresponded with people from across the country and across the ocean.
I know that everyone is doing this, I am nothing special, but I've been thinking, "What is it that I am really getting out of this?"
In addition to reconnecting with friends, I am reconnecting with myself. (If that isn't destined for a Hallmark Card what is?)

I think it is too easy as a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom for those of you who, like me, have not yet joined the texting nation.), too easy for us to get absorbed into the lives of our children, we lose track of pieces of ourselves while we are keeping track of check-ups, diaper changes, school, dance classes, sports etc. In the recent weeks, I have remembered a bit of who I was in High School.

There were a lot of things about High School that make me glad not to be there anymore, Braces, Acne, Frizzy Hair, coke bottle glasses surrounded by 3 lbs. of pink acrylic, etc. But there were a lot of things about High School that were turning points in my life, things that make me, ... me.

There was the first time I auditioned for anything and when I failed, the techies welcomed me into the dark side of Theatre. The fellow choir members who let me tag along with them at Disneyland on our music trip to Florida. The friends who taught me not too take myself too seriously, the crushes who barely acknowledged my existence, and the foolish underclassmen who had a crush on me in my senior year, you taught me that everything in life is about perspective.

I owe my love of quality Theatre and my education, training, and eventually even my career in acting to my High School Drama teacher Mr. Collins who had enough faith in me to cast me in several roles, and to nominate me for a State theatre scholarship camp. Though I didn't make the cut of 12 students, I made #13 which was enough to convince me that with a little actual training maybe I might be good.

SO thank you Tenafly High School, thank you to my first crushes and best friends, my confidants and even to those "beautiful people" who didn't even know I existed. Now that I know how to find you on Facebook, I'll try not to lose you or the parts of me you inspired again.