Arkansas

Is just the state "Kansas" with an "ar" in front of it. Did you ever think about that? Does it blow your mind? Do people ever mispronounce it by saying it phonetically--ending it with having it sound like "sass?" And why am I spending any amount of time thinking about Arkansas?

I ran 9 miles this morning and my body is TIRED. All over. Physically and emotionally. I tend to think a lot while I run, even WITH the music. That whole "Arkansas" thing came to me while I was running. Why? How does our brain work? I wonder about Callum's brain all the time (I WILL wonder about Maira's eventually, but right now it has but two functions). What causes Callum to do the funny rhymes he does....what motivates him to remember things from weeks or months ago? How do we make connections, and how do things pop in our heads.

Nannie does yoga each week now, and in a way I miss doing it as much as I used to when I lived in NH. Amanda and I would go three times a week to Dover Yoga Studio before all the rich liberal hippies moved in and jacked the membership price up. During "chavassanah" (I have no IDEA if I am spelling this right) we would all lie down on our mats, wear lavender scented eye pillows, and just focus on the NOW, letting thoughts come as they would. Mostly I would fall asleep. But sometimes I would wander aimlessly to things that made me nervous--images of zebras, stallions, dumptrucks, and slingshots would permeate through my head. The brain is a weird thing.

But Amanda and I got to snowshoe together today, and that made by brain happy. I really missed my dad and sister coming up. And, sandwiched between a storm yesterday--and another one tomorrow--we needed to get out of the house and get outside. We had 'breakfast for dinner' at Lynne and George's, and then Callum and Maira played nice while Amanda and I snuck off down the tote roads to the snowmobile trail for about a half hour of shoeing. We saw three snowmobiles, and got to smell that amazing two stroke oil smell. Seriously....I love it. And then we headed back. It is SO beautiful out there. I have NO IDEA why people who get to LIVE THERE never take advantage of it (hint hint....okay....go back to your Art Bell now....haha)