Mexico

In 2009, I visited Mexico twice - Cabo San Lucas and Huatulco - and discovered how wonderful a country it truly is. I plan on traveling there several times this year, looking forward to experiencing the culture of Guadalajara, the quiet of Yelapa, and the friends in Huatulco.

Those two trips exceeded my expectations on many levels - the weather was virtually perfect, the resorts quiet and luxurious, the restaurant options outstanding. There were many discoveries - stunning spas, great drives through Baja, terrific shopping, truly incredible Mexican wines, wonderful people.

Autumn is a gym rat - and a fierce, tough and focused one. My daughter is an athlete - that is a cool reality to embrace. She has recently been moved up to train with the head coach (2009's Top Gymnastics Coach in Alberta), and is mixed in with several older girls just starting to compete. I am continuously in awe of what my "little" girl can accomplish, and so excited to see what she learns next.

I have recently embarked on a New Year's resolution of reading at least 50 books this year ... I have never kept track of my reading habits, despite a probable need to get an idea how much it costs me annually! I think it will be an interesting experiment, more for what it uncovers of the variety of books I read as it does the volume. I will keep track of the reading list here, updating it as it goes along.

January

1. Matt Taibbi, The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics and Religion
2. Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle
3. Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
4. Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
5. Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Other
6. Alexandra Horowitz, Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know
7. Will Ferguson, Happiness
8. Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food (reading)
9. William Stolzenburg, Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators (reading)
10. Roberto Bolano, 2666 (reading)
11. John Gray, Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (reading)

February

It is moments like these that make being a "sports-parent" worthwhile. Autumn's gymnastics club was invited, along with three other local clubs, to present a demo at this year's Canadian National Gymnastics competition, held at the Olympic Oval. Our club, Stampede City Gymnastics, had 5 girls competing this year at Nationals - the most of any gym club in Alberta! Simply to sit in the audience and watch our girl on the floor at such an event, where the best female gymnasts in the entire country had just completed the finals for Floor, was sheer joy. I don't think we have any illusions that Autumn will be a national-level athlete...but she could be! She LOVES gymnastics, and is so tough, strong and dedicated. She is blessed with a truly great coach who specializes in training female gymnasts to compete at a high level. I will try and keep this blog updated with Autumn's progress!

Music

Anyone who knows me knows I am addicted to music. I always have songs in my head, my hands and/or feet are always tapping out rhythms, unheard to anyone but me. I don't know where this came from, but my love of music has been with me for as long as I can remember. Of course, memory and music have a very strong connection, and I am acutely aware of having lived my life in the presence of music.

My parents were not particularly musical, although my father's music has stayed with me, as have memories of drives to North Carolina or Virginia Beach with the 1970's AM-radio mix of America, Bread, Al Stewart and honky-tonk Elton John. I think that sort of paternal musical transmission - memories of vinyl records, one of the first familial collections you were able to access and discover, as well as the annual summer car-ride soundtrack - is fairly common, and to this day I feel deeply connected to the music my dad liked. It was not an eclectic collection, and by any standards it mostly represented what a guy my dad's age in the Seventies was supposed to listen to - Cat Stevens, Gordon Lightfoot, Gerry Rafferty, Jim Croce, Burton Cummings, Herb Alpert, The Band, Jimmy Buffet, The Eagles, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel. There were also the staples of "mom n' dad" collections, some I liked and some I ignored - Nana Mouskouri, Roger Whitaker, The Sound of Music, Abba, Elvis' Blue Christmas, Charley Pride, Joan Baez, Anne Murry, CCR.

I imagine all of these albums have a lot to do with my love of the singer-songwriter. He also had some stuff which may have paved the way for some of my more eclectic musical tastes - the "Numbers" album by Cat Stevens, which was way out there for my straight-edged dad and may have been a mistaken purchase (no Peace Train on this one!) but was akin to a magical find for me with it's imagery, jazz-influences and orchestral scope; he also really liked Charles Aznavour, who remains one of my favorites.

All this is to say that our musical landscape begins somewhere - in the home - and evolves over time. I loved my dad's music as a kid, and of course discarded it when I had the purchasing power to build my own collection. "Peace Train" gave way to "Ramble On", "Songs the Minstrel Sang" to "Hey Joe", and "Baker Street" made way for "Tumbling Dice". My musical education continued, from Hendrix, the Stones and Zeppelin to The Clash, Black Flag and Ska, from The Cure, The Chameleons and The Smiths...and so on. Forty-one years in and I am as engaged by music as I ever have been...my cd collection is large, my musical attention span both far-reaching and ever searching. It is no surprise that I want to transfer this musical obsession to my daughter!

Music has always been a part of our house and daily lives, and Autumn has been exposed since an early age to music of all kinds. I think many parents dumb down the soundtracks of their lives when their kids are young, as if children can only appreciate the Barney soundtrack, Disney tunes and plinking lullaby cd's. Why not expose your kids to Mahler, Bob Dylan, The Waterboys, Charles Aznavour, Metallica? Knowing how important music has been to my life, and how the songs of my youth have stayed with me, I have tried to ensure Autumn has lots of musical memories and a good grounding in good music. I am quietly thrilled when she really takes to one of my ever-changing stack of car cd's - her favourites right now include The Hidden Cameras, Danielson, Born Ruffians, and Seabear. She also really digs Disney songs, The Sound of Music soundtrack, and High School Musical. Tara has a pretty different musical palette, and exposes Autumn to mainstream radio, classic rock and some country. Autumn has also started piano lessons, and is really quite taken with both learning how to read music and the act of playing music. She is quite good, learns quickly and has a good ear for melody, tonality and time. I hope music is a constant companion in her life, and that she looks back at the musical education she received from her parents with thanks. She will certainly inherit a large cd collection one day!