All Your Little Kids Go 'round Like You Hear their Stomachs Growlin'

Ryan's Generation Next Lifestyle Solution Services -

"Your Generation NeXt so Expect the #BesXt!"

TV Commercial voice speaking......

"You are the next generation, the generation that grew up Post 9/11 and who is coming of age in the "Great Recession."  You have a lot of challenges but one challenge you don't need to fret about is life.  This is what makes Ryan the best solution for YOU!"
#AllAboutYou

No Time for Breakfast?
*  You have a busy day of school, after school prom meetings, dance class, and maybe even some homework.  You need fuel for the day and a quick Pop Tart won't do it.  Here at Ryan's solutions we will provide daily breakfast services such as warm creamy whole grain Oatmeal textured with Maple Syrup and Vanilla, peeled Fuji Apples (because God forbid you have to tolerate simple Red Delicious), and Shannon's special libation - blended Berry Smoothie.  Some days of the week you will even enjoy fresh cracked scrambled eggs, Turkey Bacon, and toast with local berried jams and preservatives.  And per Shannon's audits all will be Organic, cage and hormone free, cleaned and washed, and prepared observing all state and local sanitation guidelines.

We'll do the heavy lifting!  :)

Oops, forgot lunch and homework?
*  We understand you are now in puberty, you will forget a lot of "stuff!"  That is why we have partnered with Grammy's Errand Services to provide quick and easy delivery of forgotten homework and lunches on a moments notice.  Grammy's Errands will even drop off clothes for those embarrassing moments when "stuff" happens to you!  No matter what the emergency Grammy's Errands is here for YOU!

*  Oh and btw, what's in that lunch from home?  Well that would be a Nutella Sandwich on whole wheat, Soft Yellow Banana, Yogurt, and a fresh baked muffin; all freshly packed in that Swaggy new age cold storage system Shannon picked up from last month's conference in LA.

Trouble Getting to School, Dance, or Tennis Lessons?
*  Uber has nothing on us!  At Ryan's Lifestyle Solutions we are proud to offer our fine fleet of Kia Sedona's for all your transportational needs and with a full assortment of XM radio stations but locked into Disney Channel for your enjoyment.  Our fleet of Sedona's offers flexible seating for up to 7 in case you want to drag a friend along.  We have more than ample storage for all your needs.  Don't want to drag that Cotton Candy Frappacino in from Starbucks?  Of course not, just shove it into our convenient chair back pouches along with last week's McDonald's Kids Meal prize and half a serving of fries.  Spilled your drink!  No worries.  Ryan's Lifestyle Solutions Research Subsidiary is exploring new adhesive polymer technologies.  We are close to finding the stickiest solution on Earth by combining Chick-fil-A lemonade spillage, melted Milky Way bars, Gummy Bears, and Milk Duds.  You can help us break down the barriers to adhesive technology!

Need Clean Laundry?
*  Shannon has trained Ryan to be the best laundry service in town, we even include fabric softener in all of our loads and Shannon loves to iron.  We will provide weekly changes of bed linen and will provide wool sheets in winter.  We only ask that you make up your bed sometimes.  Well, if you complain enough and Ryan has to get to work early you may get away with that as well; but let's try to work on that.  A turn down service at day's end with Sleepy Time tea is available when desired!

Need Cash Fast?
*  Ryan's Banking sector loves to provide that needed cash flow.  Need a no money down, no-interest loan with flexible payment options for that eye-brow tweese at Ulta?  Look to us, we've forgotten about more loans than we have probably spent on ourselves ten times over.

*  Need help with that really big expense like that ritzy equestrian camp!?  Ryan's Lifestyle Solutions has also partnered with famed Venture Capitalist - Grandpa Beaumont.  Back in the day Grandpa Beaumont barely had enough money to provide bread and water for little Ryan and Ryan was expected to earn enough money if he wanted to buy a polo shirt.  But now, thanks to social security, double dipping into two retirement plans, and a ritzy side consulting job Grampa Beaumont's Venture Capital Services has all the cash flow Generation Next needs to evolve towards Social Actualization!

Need Relationship Advice?
*  Yes, that certain boy didn't ask you out and ick that other certain boy did.  Sara didn't talk to you today but texted everyone else and shared a photo on Instagram with Teagan even though Teagan was so hateful to you yesterday because you didn't include her on Snap Chat even though you just forgot and she isn't remembering the time that you included her as a "best bff" on Pinterest and OMG little sis was hogging the ipad last night so you weren't able to Face Time Dylan so he ended up Snap Chatting with Alexia and now they are going out to the dance next Friday....... YESH!

Ooops...., better talk to Shannon, she operates the IT/Psychoanalysis branch of Beaumont Services.  Ryan still struggles with Facebook and becomes Aspergers'esque when it comes to talking BOYS!

But I'll make it all up for you honey by grilling my famous Peri Peri Chicken, popping popcorn, and fixing some awesome pancakes tomorrow morning for your sleepover pals!

It's all in a days work for Ryan....

But anyhoo.....

Happy April Fools Day!  :)

#RyansFavHoliday

Me I've Got to Find the River

"I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp.  We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all.  Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't.  You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft." (Huck Finn)

I guess any boy growing up in the South is drawn to Huck Finn.  Certainly given my many experiences in and around and up and down the Mississippi, it's easy to understand why I have such an affinity and understanding of the novel.  I feel like Huck, the rascal that seems to be so embedded in the action and yet can't help but to just want to sit outside, analyze, and understand the world and why people do things and why things happen in such a way.  In my world it's important to be civilized and in the know.  And yet so often I feel the desire, like Huck, to avoid all that "'sivilizing." In all that thinking I always come back to the desire for peace and tranquility and the desire to just be; be in the moment.  And no other place is better for being in the moment than on the river.

Here in the Greater DC area we similarly have a wonderful, navigable river.  She was named Patowmeck "something brought" by the Algonquian natives of the area.  The area above Great Falls was referred to as Cohongarooton ("honking geese") by those same natives.  Much like the Mississippi, the great Potomac River has breathed life to the area.  In colonial times and during the era of our "Young Republic," farmers from the great Shenandoah Valley (America's breadbasket at the time) shipped their goods up the Shenandoah and then down the Potomac to the population centers further down the river.  As the Mississippi traverses America from it's north in Minnesota to it's deep south where it meets the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, the Potomac runs from America's colonial frontier where it's headwaters are formed in what is now West Virginia and runs between Virginia and Maryland and empties into the Chesapeake Bay.  The two rivers thusly travel not only ground but the history of this country.

I love the Potomac, I love running along it's adjacent paths on a calm spring afternoon.  When I am with her I think of the history that has transpired along it's path.

I also think about how it's path has traversed through my history.

Just the other day I looked up to the sunny sky and felt the warmth of that sun reaching around the tree branches and breathed in the fresh air.  I realized the river gave symbolism to my life similar to how that Mississippi River affected Huck's life.

You see Sandee loves the river as well, perhaps even more than I.  It has provided a story board for our lives in those few moments we get to share together.

For Huck and Jim the Mississippi River is their symbolic freedom.  Throughout the novel their time upon the river is tranquil and gives them that peaceful time that allows for slow reverent thought.  In that time they learn to respect and trust one another.  Huck evolves and comes to see Jim as a friend and vital partner in life.  But whenever Huck and Jim leave the sanctity of the river they get into trouble.  Off of the river they meet people like the Duke and the Dauphine who are selfish and have no interest in helping or understanding others.  Upon the river Huck and Jim can think and feel they way they wish, away from it's currents they are affected by the troubling currents of society's unfortunate mores.

For me life stops when I'm on the river with Sandee.  Conversation is as slow and easy as the gentle currents we float upon.  The air we breath when we walk along it's course is clean and unfettered from that which we breath in our "real" life.  The river is a safe haven for us to be "in the moment" or rather "out of the moment" that that "sivilized" society is living just around the bend and over them yonder hills!  On the river our "odyssey" is not to get somewhere but rather to not get anywhere in particular other than to continue the journey together.

In the end I find the ending of Huck Finn somewhat anti-climatic.  For all of the pursuit of freedom the ending is unresolved for Huck and he may still get "sivilized."  For Jim, he had his freedom all along.  It was outside parties (Tom Sawyer) that failed to reveal this for their own enjoyments.  In the end the beauty and meaning of the novel is not a beginning or an ending but the journey.

It's funny, now that I think about it my favorite times of a vacation or big event are always the time leading up to and during that first night when the experiences lay ahead of me.  For it's the journey that is the fun part, it's the journey that yields the reverence not the denouement.

Sometimes now I fear that I am rapidly approaching the denouement of this part of my life and I just look back and smile at the journey just as I did the other day running along my Potowmeck and feeling like Huck navigating his way to Jackson's Island at the onset of the story.


"And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind." (Huck Finn)