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2012’s FAVORITE MENTAL SNAPSHOT

2012’s FAVORITE MENTAL SNAPSHOT


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I tend to forget to take pictures.  I’ve been known to show up at children’s recitals and graduations without a camera.  (Kindergarten graduation really isn’t graduation, right?)  The smartphone technology helps you feels less the lousy parent idiot, but even then, there are times when I prefer to kick back and enjoy a scene, never once thinking to record it in clouds of eternal and infinite technology.

I have some great mental snapshots from 2012.  This year those mental memories are not from exotic vacation locales, but instead, they are moments that are part and parcel of everyday life:

– quietly chopping and chatting with Dennis in the kitchen

– buying my daughter a small mocha frapuccino with whip cream at The College of Saint Rose‘s Starbucks, weekdays in her hybrid life as half high school senior, half college student

– quiet, yet laughter-punctuated, adult dinners with our good friends Sharon and Greg

– walking the dog in the woods with no cell phone interruptions

But the best mental picture I have from 2012 comes from a friend and neighbor near our camp.  It is late-summer to early-fall, evening hours before it gets dark.  She is walking her enormous yellow lab, together with her teenaged daughter.  They talk easily, something that tends to happen best with teenagers when you are side by side, and not face to face.  Her daughter holds the leash, and the final touch, the element that makes this picture the best of 2012…

This friend walks with a glass of red wine.  Not in a to go cup, not tucked into her side.  She carries a large, broad bowled wine glass, held out and away from her side.

Dog lover?  Check.

Wine lover?  Check.

Nature lover?  Check.

Warm weather lover?  Check.

What better mental picture could you ask for?

Thank you, Sandi, for reminding us how to live life.

yellow lab

 

About Claire Ziamandanis

Claire Ziamandanis is Professor of Spanish at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. Over her 20 years at the college, she has been a champion for study abroad, establishing the first affiliation for Spanish students, and then working with the Study Abroad office to open the doors to students from other majors. Claire loves travel, food, wine and Spanish but not necessarily in that order!

One comment

  1. I love the image of your friend walking with her teenager by her side, holding a glass of wine. Sometimes the best pictures are the ones we carry inside our heads. Thanks for sharing!

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