Run, Spot, Run

DREAMS COME TRUE  

Ever since I was a little girl, I've wanted to go to New York City on Thanksgiving Day to see the famous Macy's Parade. In 2001, we finally made it! We stayed at a hotel called the Novatel on Broadway. Even though Broadway is the street the parade follows for two-and-a-half miles from the Upper West Side to 34th Street, we couldn't see much from our window on the 20th floor. But, wow, we could see the balloons UP CLOSE from the hotel's seventh floor terrace! It was cold, but definitely worth it. Sometimes you have to wait a long time to make a dream come true. But if you never give up, you'll do it.

Blues Clues was one of the many dog balloons I snapped pictures of.

Snoopy floats past  after Clifford, the Big Red Dog.

Another dream of mine has been to sail on a real sailing ship, with sailors heaving on ropes and heavy canvas rigging rising into the blue sky. I've done that twice now, once on the Star Clipper and once on the Royal Clipper. On the Royal Clipper, I discovered I love the net rigged to the front spar. It allows passengers (in good weather) to climb out over the ocean and even look back at the lady masthead who leads us over the waves. It can get bumpy, and hard to walk in a straight line, but it's definitely a sailor's life for me (but without all the hard work and hard tack real sailors "enjoyed." I'll take mine with a little luxury!)

Dreams are funny things. They aren't really ambitions (I wanted to grow up to be a veterinarian when I was in elementary school. That was an ambition.). They're not simply stuff-you-want (O.K., I want a hot tub, but I don't dream about it.). Dreams are just what the Disney song says: "a wish your heart makes."

And here, in no particular order, are my current crop of dreams.

1) To go to Australia someday.

2)   To do more sailing, in the Mediterranean or in Southeast Asia

4) To write lots more dog books for kids

It's fun to make a list like this. Try it. You might discover something about yourself and your world.