Today started out with a big old dose of downer. I woke from a very vivid dream in which my parents were still married (they separated when I was 26ish) and my mom had left my dad. I was still living at home in my dream, and I wanted to go with her. Normally I would have, but for some reason she'd left me, too. My dad was really worried about finances and where the money was going. I was just sad. I went to school, which was a combination of high school and college. It was my high school, but there were bedrooms there like dorm rooms. I went into a couple but none were mine. I couldn't remember what my classes were or where they were. It was nearly noon and I was very late and very sad about my mom leaving. I wandered into one room, and there was
Anyway, it got better. I couldn't talk about my dream when I woke up because it was too near the surface, but Travis managed to make me feel better anyway. We got up and went fishing early. Chloe caught her first rainbow trout on her first cast, and was pretty much done fishing after that. :-) How could it get better, I guess. I caught two fish yesterday afternoon, but this morning no one else caught anything the whole time we were out there. It was still nice to be with my family, though.
Other highlights of the day included a nap, a dinner lovingly grilled by my beloved, and a long, contentious game of Sorry that Ethan finally won. We don't play board games with all of us very often, so it was extra cool as far as Ethan and Chloe were concerned. They love doing things with their dad. I played some City of Villains with Travis and some City of Heroes by myself (but sitting next to T. who was playing his own CoH game). I made coconut cream pie for dessert and we ate it in the backyard watching the fireworks while the dog ran around the yard like a maniac repeatedly finding, chasing, and then losing walnuts that he kept pulling off the walnut tree. I think he thinks it's a dog ball tree. The sound track for the fireworks is interspersed with presidential quotes, and I used to plug my ears during some of them, (cough, GWB, cough) but this year, there were segments from Obama's "Yes We Can" speech. Hurrah! I don't know if GWB's quotes were in there still. I heard Reagan and JFK, but not him. Also, Ray Charles' "America the Beautiful" which is one of my favorites.
Everyone's in bed now, and I'm going there too.
- Location:basement
- Mood:
tired - Music:neighborhood idiocy
This is for my beloved, who knows the proper response to "Well I don't wanna rule the world."
Ok, I'm done.
- Music:Blackhappy-Mambo Jambo
This is one of my all time favorite Pacific Northwest bands of the early 90s, the amazing Blackhappy. Unfortunately we were unable to go to Greenstock that year, but someone did, and they kindly posted it on YouTube.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the one and only Blackhappy! They started out as a Christian Rock group, but then they got "Horns! Horns! Horns!" and also a broader range of music that still said something but was fun as all heck. If my recent (five minutes ago) research is correct, their lead singer is now a Lutheran Minister.
- Mood:
nostalgic - Music:Blackhappy-Garlic
Ethan's was "thank you!"
Chloe's was "Uh-oh."
So he wouldn't miss out on two days of special, we celebrated his birthday yesterday so we could celebrate Father's Day today. The birthday man enjoyed Fazzari's pizza take out and homemade Wacky cake with peanut butter frosting. For those of you not in the know, "Wacky Cake" is an eggless cake made by combining flour, sugar, cocoa and leavening, then adding oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water. It's supposed to be mixed right in the pan with the wet ingredients poured into wells made in the dry ingredients. I mix them in a bowl, though, because the pan method makes it hard to get any lumps out. Anyway, it's really just a holder for the peanut butter frosting. I was so glad SOMEone wanted me to make their birthday cake. Lately E. and C. just want ice cream cakes from Baskin Robbins. :-)
I bought three silly birthday balloons and tied them to T.'s chair, because I wanted him to feel special. :-) No really. His presents weren't very varied; four cds, but music is one of his favorite things, so I didn't feel bad about that.
Anyway, Happy, Happy Birthday to my beloved. I think you are more handsome now than when we met, and I KNOW I am more crazy in love with you than ever. (No, not just crazy, thank you.)
Happy Father's day to you as well. We hope you liked your Father's Day present.
- Mood:
celebratory
I have to say that my boy greatly impressed me today. Though I wanted to beat him for bounding into my bedroom at 6 a.m. singing happy birthday to himself, he was a tremendous help cleaning the house and did everything I asked cheerfully and without any whining. All voluntary, too--he approached me repeatedly asking what else needed doing. .It was awesome. Then when MissThing heard me thanking her brother over and over, she asked what she could do to help, and then pitched in beautifully. I told them that if they're willing to help me like that every morning, we'll have tons of time for fun all summer.
- Mood:
grateful
- Mood:
full of tacos and watermelon
- Mood:mansized
Happy Anniversary to my Sweetlove who was crazy enough to marry me 17 years ago today. I was going to write a bunch of mushy stuff about how much I love him and how glad I am that we're married, and how lucky we are that we have so far managed to keep it together and got 2 fabu children in the bargain. But he knows all that.
Go us!
Last night I told Ethan and Chloe the short version of how we met, and how Travis remembered me from the Young Writers Scholarship Competition banquet we'd both attended the previous spring. (Our good friend
- Mood:
good
Children sent to school on time: check!
With order for tickets for summer movie series? Check!
Coffee consumed: (the first I bought this week, go me!) check!
Groceries shopped: check!
Friend talked to on phone: check!
Food put away and lunch consumed: check!
Dog played with: check!
Dead fishie disposed of (poor fishies, they're all so old for fish, some over 3 years): check!
Sister and adorable nephew talked to, also on phone (we counted together-1,2, 5!, and he said 'I love you, Jewieee." I cry.): check!
Husband seduced upon arriving home from work early: check!
30plus minutes of exercise on WiiFit completed (every day this week!): check!
Daughter and son hugged and kissed before son went to friends house: check!
Very enjoyable shower with new nice smelling shampoo taken: check!
Decent dinner of marmalade chicken over rice cooked and consumed: check!
Son picked up: check!
Community Theatre production of Miss Saigon attended: check! (Chloe's teacher played keyboard in the orchestra! Can't wait to tell Chloe.)
Cried at end, even though I've seen Mdme. Butterfly twice and knew how it ended: check.!
Camaraderie with friend I attended play with enjoyed: check!
Kissed children asleep in their beds: check!
Moderate amount of chocolate consumed: check!
Lame journal entry about what was actually a pretty good day for a Thursday written: check!
P.S. Miss Saigon was very good. The helicopter scene was heartbreaking, and very realistic, what with the searchlight shining repeatedly directly into my eyes! I've seen the woman who played Kim in several high school productions, and she was about a zillion times better in this. She could always really sing, but wow has she grown as a performer since she graduated 2 years ago.
- Mood:
awake
The magazine? Newsweek.
The coverboy? Barack Obama
I swear, I bought it for the articles!!
- Mood:
amused
I beg to differ. :-)
- Mood:
annoyed
But on the other side, I am somebody's daughter. A wonderful and so very missed somebody's daughter. I hate shopping for mother's day cards for Travis' mom--ok, I don't hate giving her a card, I even sent her a special one just from me this year. I love her very much and am so happy to have her in my life. She's been nothing but good to me and our children. Even HER mother has been nothing but gracious and kind to us. I lucked out big time in the in-law department all around.
It's just that I used to have so much fun picking out cards for my mom. Half the time she'd get two: a funny one, and one that was guaranteed to make us both cry. I have to sift through a lot of cards to find one for my MIL that suits the relationship she has with Travis and/or is good to be from all of us. In the meantime I have to read a zillion cards I'd like to send my mom. It's not that I can't tell her I love her, or imagine giving these cards to her. I could/can do all that. But I just miss her physical person very much. No one knew me so well and loved me unconditionally anyway. No one else told me I was pretty EVERY time she saw me, and meant it. So on that side, with the dead mom, Mother's Day sorta sucks.
Sadly, I know a few of you who understand this. Motherhood is a glorious and wonderful thing. I am lucky to have the children I have, and to have had the mother I had.
So Happy Mother's day to my fellow mothers, and fathers who have to nurture like mothers. Happy Mother's Day to our mothers as well, wherever they are.
I was doing a quick before bed channel scan tonight and found that Ani Difranco was featured on PBS's The Artists Den. Travis and I were just talking about her, how we (ok, I love her, T. might not use that word) love her, but her newer stuff doesn't thrill us as much as some of her older work.
Still, I thought, I'll record this and maybe watch it later. So I hit the record button. . .and then immediately became completely sucked in. Because you know what? I love her voice, and her honesty, and her smile, and her drummer, Allison, who has dimples that remind me of my oldest friend, Cody. She played a lot of songs that I really like, but I kept hoping to hear my favorite. She has one song that I want for a theme song. It best be played at my funeral. It really reminds me of my mom, and her legacy, and what I want to be when I grow up. What is that, you ask? Well, friends o' mine, what I want to be when I grow up. . .Is a Joyful Girl. She didn't play it tonight, but she did play it back in 1999 in this video I found on You Tube.
And you know what else? She totally wrote this song for her MOM!! How cool is that?
( Lyrics here )
- Location:das basement
- Mood:
joyful (I'm practicing) - Music:Ani DiFranco--Joyful Girl
Because I just sucked down that g.d. Famous Teenybopper Vampire Book like it was some sort of delicious angst milkshake. Thank you, Ms. Meyer, may I have another? Travis' co-worker is lending them to me two at a time. I'm going to wait a few
- Mood:
guilty
I just made an enormous bowl of potato salad (because there's no point in making it if you don't make an enormous bowl) to take to dinner at my in-law's house. Everytime I make potato salad, I think of my mom. It's her recipe, and my grandmother's. The first time I made it myself I called my mom for the recipe, and being the non-planner that I was/am, I found myself with nothing to write on. I found a piece of looseleaf paper by the phone and tore off the part that had no writing on it. My mom told me what to do, in order, and making accomodations as we went along, like an onion became half an onion because she knows I don't like onion very much. 6 hard cooked eggs, but 8 if you're going to use some to make a flower design with sweet pickle stems. 3 sweet pickles, or six mini ones. A squirt of mustard. . ok, let's say a quarter cup. I kept the piece of paper, and I have it still. I refuse to copy the recipe onto a card, because every time I pull it out and admire the pickle juice stain, I can hear my mom's voice in my ear, spilling her potato salad secrets.
Which brings me to this poem. It's not REALLY about potato salad, and my mom gave me no such warnings, and I am not obligated to take potato salad anywhere. But I still love the poem, and it reminds me of my mom, too. So here it is:
The Day I Married. . .
The day I married, my mother
had one piece of wedding advice:
"Don't make good potato salad," she told me
"it's too hard to make
and you'll have to take something
every time you get invited somewhere.
Just cook up beans, people eat them too."
My mother was good at potato salad
and part of the memories of my childhood
have to do with endless batches made
for family get-togethers, church picnics,
Civitan suppers, Democratic party fund raisers,
whatever event called for potato salad.
I'd peel the hardboiled eggs.
My mother would pack her big red plastic picnic bowl
high with yellow potato salad (she used mustard)
and it would sit proud on endless tables
and come home empty.
What my mother might and could have said
is to choose carefully what you get good at
cause you'll spend the rest of your life
doing it. But I didn't hear that.
I was young and anxious to please
and I know her potato salad secrets.
And the thousand other duties
given to daughters by mothers
and sometimes I envy those women
who get by with pots of beans.
Jo Carson
- Mood:
grateful - Music:John Lennon-- Jealous Guy
Yes, I could fake my way through it, but I want my recipe, dammit!!!
Ok. done complaining.
