My friend sent me this new quote which of course then tied into my whole night:

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Weathering the storm and learning to dance in the rain.....can you really dance to that?

As I sat sipping probably one of the best martini's I've ever had at the St. Paul Hotel waiting for my friend to arrive, we had theater tickets, I witnessed a couple who had clearly weathered some storms. This man walked in with the most enormous bouquet of roses I had ever seen. I mean ENORMOUS! Like the size of my body...huge!!! He was probably in his mid to late 60's and he presented them to this woman who I assume was his wife. He sort of came up behind her and presented them to her as if she had just won the Miss American pageant. You could tell she was completely surprised by this...I like to think it was completely out of character for him to do this. He said to her when he gave them to her he's thankful to have her by his side as they go through life and how much they have gone through and will continue to go through together. He ended by saying he was nothing without her. I swear to God I almost ran over there and hugged them....but I was afraid I'd spill my martini.

Talk about weathering a storm! I think that's what people don't do anymore...weather storms. We have become such a disposable society that the minute something gets hard we quit, we just stop trying. It's not like there won't be something else there again....right? People don't seem to work through the hard times....they seem to bail pretty quickly. Do we all need dance lessons?

I'm as guilty of this as the next person. I think about quitting something every day...life is hard. It's about finding that person or group of people that make you feel like you can make it...that you can weather the storm, dance in the rain with....it isn't necessarily about being with just ONE person. You couldn't possibly get all you need from just one person.

My parents never weathered any storms....well not together anyway. It seemed that they lived pretty separate lives...well my dad did anyway....he never seemed to really want the things my mom did....he seemed to want what he thought he was suppose to have and that never really made him happy. Maybe he is smarter that I give him credit for...maybe he forced himself to live a life he thought he was suppose to and in the end he ended up very unhappy and ultimately all alone.....maybe if he had dared to live the life he wanted things would be different...but then would I even be here? Too much to think about on more than a surface level....at least today.

The bar is pretty dang impressive in the St. Paul Hotel.....if you have never been there you should take me there sometime...I mean you should go there sometime.....it's just beautiful. There is a wall there filled with pictures of all these people who have contributed something to St. Paul....or just the hotel...not sure but I kinda felt a little inadequate...here I was....Joe average sipping my cocktail, staring out the window at Rice Park surrounded by all these amazing pictures of people. The founder of the first school in St. Paul, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, Architect of the Minnesota State Capital. How did they get their picture up on the wall?

What would my picture say - Wanted more than she had? Loved life and was a joy to be around?

What footprint will I leave and is it too late to even make one?