First Times

Here's another first to add to a long list of firsts: First Blog.  It sure took me long enough!  I've been blogging everyday all along in my mind for years.  I am so excited about what this blog will eventually look like and where it will take me.

Some of my more memorable firsts:

My first pony when I was eleven.  I even went on a hunger strike to get a pony but I really love food so it only lasted about half a day.  I did get a beautiful Welsh paint pony with one blue eye and one brown eye.  I was so timid and worried about doing things wrong that I had a hard time getting him to do what I wanted.  He aggravated me, but I loved him.  Funny, it was really my weakness that was making me unable to get what I wanted, but I had no way of knowing it at the time.

My first baby:  I spent so much time reading and getting ready for him.  I sewed him a whole layette by myself. I took Bradley classes, I went to a LaLeche League meeting. I thought I was prepared. When he arrived, I had no idea what to do with him.  Once after I'd fed him, changed him and done everything I could think of, he was still crying.  I actually shook him and said to him, "I don't know what you want!" That terrified me.  I was so afraid I was going to be a terrible mother.  I called a lady from my childbirth classes and asked her if we could go to lunch.  I also started counseling sessions and it changed all our lives for the better.

The first time I went to the Baths in Sare Ein, a small town in Ardebil in Iran.  It's located high on this gorgeous rolling plateau, cool even in summer.  Most of Iran is located on a huge fault line so there are tons of earthquakes, but also lots of hot mineral springs.  In Sare Ein they've built a big pool over a hot sulfur spring.  There's a wall around it, but it's open to the sky.  The first time we went there, I walked down a long dark hall, pulled aside a curtain and there in the steam were all ages of women, soaking, scrubbing, singing, dancing, all in various levels of undress.  The most modest wore swimsuits, and the bravest wore nothing.  It was cold in the air, goosebump cold, then the water was scalding.  Afterwards the street vendors sold an amazing stew made with yogurt and chickpeas and flavored with garlic.  We goobled the stew, lightheaded from the Baths, and it was the most wonderful thing.

There are a thousand other firsts in my mind, but for now this is enough.  Yes, at last! My own blog.