REVISITING YOUTH

Sometimes all you need to releive the stress from your life is to remember things from when you were a child. I've done an awful lot of that the last few weeks.

There's something about a toddler ripping open Christmas gifts, then seeing other people's gifts and wanting to open those as well. Come on, we've all done it. And seeing a friend of mine's child try to do it at a Christmas party recently made me wish I had all that wonder.

My family went to the same shopping center we've been going to for as long as I can remember (Northpark for all the Texas readers). They have these raised planters that look like a huge slide to a small child. When I was that small, I used to run up the planter and slide down to the floor. We were walking through the crowded mall and my dad saw kids doing the same thing. Then reminded me that all of us kids used to do that.

Coming home always makes me feel a lot younger than I really am. Maybe it's the house I grew up in, or being around my mom and dad and sister. Maybe it's just the memories.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.

Arni

P.S. I really miss my DSL. Dial up really sucks.