On the day of my ex-husband's 44th year anniversary, I thought I would share some humor from our early life together.
I like coffee, okay truth be told I am totally addicted to coffee, I learned how to drink with my grandpa-who always drank it black, saying 'if you had to add milk and sugar, then you didn't really like coffee'. And being his girl I emulated him in every way possible right down to my coffee, until I met my ex-husband.
We were at his family's house for a big family dinner where he announced our engagement. After dinner we all had coffee and my ex-husband brought me a cup. Setting it down in front of me, I grimaced.
'I don't drink milk in my coffee, I said I wanted it black.' I admonished.
'I heard what you said but I know what you want.' he replied and kissed me on the cheek.
The whole table erupted in laughter as I looked incredulously at him and his brother piped up with, 'welcome to the family!'.
It remains a running joke in the family to this day!
Fast forward a few weeks when we were cooking dinner at my place. The kitchen counter tops were rather low by most standards and while I was working at the stove I had set him to chopping vegetables for lasagna. He was using a very sharp knife and kind of slashing at them perilously close to his crotch. So I looked over and teased him about not cutting himself.
He clearly misheard me, looked down and said, 'It is ok, I am wearing steel toed boots'.
I burst out laughing and replied, 'That endowed are we?!' to a baffled look on his face, to which I explained what I said. He smiled sheepishly, pulled me into an embrace ... and we decided dinner could wait for a little while. :)
Not too long after that incident we were yet again in the kitchen fixing dinner, when the garbage disposal decided to go on the fritz. My roommates and I had been putting off calling the plumber, and since I was the grand-daughter of a plumber I kept using my meager skills to keep it alive. But this time it was beyond what I knew how to do. For some reason it was taking in too much air to push things down the drain.
'We need to somehow block the air that it is taking in', I said, as the disposal gurgled and sputtered.
So we tried dish towels, a plastic grocery bag, saran wrap. Nothing was working.
'I have an idea', he says and sprints out of the kitchen and runs upstairs.
I tilt my head after him having no clue what he could be thinking of...then he returns...with - a condom!!!
'You have to be kidding!' I say laughing at him.
'No.' he says, 'It is worth a try.'
'Oh good Lord, Grandpa would roll over in his grave to see what we are doing.' I laugh and am somewhat horrified at the same time.
So there we are unwrapping the thing and putting it over the air intake, holding it on, when my roommate walks in!!
'What the hell are you two doing?' she asks, appalled.
He looks up, smiles a darling mischievous smile and says, 'What? It was a new one!'
Ahhhh - I fall over laughing, she threw her hands up and fled the kitchen.
Want to know the best part, it worked!!
And the last one for today and yes it is another kitchen story, as they say - all the best parties end up in the kitchen. :)
We were three months into our married life and it was a fine saturday morning, we were having hunger pangs and went to the kitchen to hunt up some food. As I am poking around the refrigerator nothing is looking very appealing until I open the freezer. There all wrapped up is the top layer of our wedding cake, which truth be told I don’t even remember having at our wedding except that the pictures showed we had at least one bite. The tradition is that you wait a year and have it on your anniversary. Quick question here, who wants a year old cake?!
A point that I made to my ex and I guess I was persuasive enough that he gave in, in true Bill Cosby fashion, chocolate cake for breakfast? Sure, it has eggs, milk, flour.
So we unwrap the cake, which was a lovely confection of chocolate cake underneath and
coated in thick, cold, butter cream icing.
So we popped a bottle of champagne, we always kept one in the fridge since we always had something to celebrate at the time, and cut into the cake, being moon-eyed and giddily romantic...at first. Until he took a big swipe of icing and put it on my nose ... so I did the same back and one thing lead to another and we had a massive cake fight totally destroying the kitchen and ourselves. Who knew such a little bit of cake could make such a mess!! The kitchen floor was like an ice skating rink from the melted and smeared frosting, we had cake all over us, so what did we do?
Sat down in the middle of the kitchen laughing and breathless, and toasted with our champagne to a delicious cake, that we still only managed to get one bite of.
So in closing, happy birthday 'peter pan' and thank you for all the funny memories, today I will toast you with a cup of coffee, with milk in it - of course.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
uncomfortable topic
So ... let's discuss an uncomfortable topic ...
Bedbugs! Ewww!
And apparently my apartment has them, they are dreadful parasitic creatures who feast on humans - ugh! soo...I called the apartment management company - told them the problem, please send someone.
'Oh yes, right away!'
What did I hear back? Crickets!!
While I was waiting for them to get back to me, I spent more than a few dollars on a myriad of bug sprays 'guaranteed' to fix the problem, none of which worked by the way, just in case anyone else has this same issue-don't waste your money go STRAIGHT to an exterminator. My apartment was so fumigated I couldn't breath, my room smelled like a Deet infested trip to the swamp, and still ... was getting bittten. So I called the apartment management again a few days later.
Same response, voice full of concern, 'Oh yes, right away!'
What did I hear this time? Less than crickets!!!
The following week, chomped on, bites everywhere, totally grossed out and awake until 4 in the morning because there is NO sleeping like that, I curled up on a towel on the bathroom floor. At this point - tired - stiff from the floor - and missing more blood than had I donated to the red cross, I asked a friend to stay with them while I fought with my apartment complex. Blissfully they said yes, I showered twice - sprayed all my clothes with rubbing alcohol, which thankfully kills the little bastards, and fled!!
Ahhh - sleep! Zzzzzzzzzz
Called the apartment management again 3 days later, spoke to a manager, got slightly irate (but not nearly enough, as it would seem)
'Oh, that is terrible-let me check the service records, I promise I will call you back today!'
'Okay, thank you, I am sorry to vent at you but this is disgusting and I am being bitten and can not sleep there!'
'I totally understand' she says 'I promise I will get back to you today!' I gave her my number. (even though it is on file)
What did I hear? Yep, you guessed it - Crickets!!!! Are you f*cking kidding me!!!
F*ck this, I think, and started calling every 20 seconds once they had open hours - got the same person from the day before...I was more than irate now! Excuse for not calling me back...wait for it...
'I lost your number.'
Are you serious?!? I live there!!! It is on file!
My patience teetering on the brink of disaster I asked if anything had been scheduled, thankfully the reply was yes, the following week and they would send me a letter on how to prep for the exterminators.
'Ok, that is good.' I reply, 'because I can not sleep there and it has taken you over a week and a half to respond.'
So, I breath a small sigh of relief at least soon it will be taken care of - my friend will let me stay a few more days while this wraps up and the apartment company will send me a letter for how to prepare. Hooray, progress!
Sleep, Zzzzzzzzz
The preparation 'letter' was a 6 page list of essentially, take your entire house apart, remove every item of fabric, launder it, dry clean it, (or if that isn't an option - get rid of it!) then bag it and don't bring it back in until ... the 2nd treatment! (Excuse me, WHAT 2nd treatment!! apartment management sort of missed telling me about that part) Quick question everyone, where do you keep a house full of laundry for 3 weeks without a house?!? Then put everything else in your house in a plastic bag - put the mattresses against the walls, pull all other furniture 2 feet away from the walls, and leave it like this until after the 2nd round. Now to add a little scope here, currently I am working from my home so to say this presents a challenge would be a radical understatement...
Along with the preparation 'letter' was a scathing and pushy note from management stating that if I did not comply with all the preparation steps I would be subject to legal penalty, just a few points here:
1. why aren't you subject to legal penalty for totally ignoring my requests for so long?
2. are you going to compensate me because your negligence has made me have to essentially move out of my apartment for 3 weeks? (Answer to that one, because YES I asked. 'We did something as soon as we could, we don't compensate for these types of problems.') and we fought back and forth for five minutes on that one...I lost! (steamed)
3. given that this is so serious an issue that you can bring legal action against me, why are you not having other apartments inspected because I am pretty darn sure this is not coming from my apartment given all the other repeat bug problems since...oh I don't know THE DAY I MOVED IN and the roach jumped out of the medicine cabinet at me! (my son thought that was hilarious!) Nothing ever got done about that issue either, but at least I was able to buy things that worked.
**pause in the action here for a small mental break down as i comprehend the sh*t load amount of work this is, how on earth am I going to work like this and to add insult to injury, the washer and dryer in my apartment unit was never functional for more than a random day every 2 months and there is A LOT of laundry! and a small fortune in dry cleaning!!**
F*CK !!!
But still it has to be done, so pull it together, get some help, it will be ok...
Breath. good start!!!
Work for the day and then back to my friends to sleep because it is going to be a long few days / weeks.
Zzzzzzzzzz
So early Saturday morning, my son and I and my friend meet up at the apartment to get started. I cross my fingers and say a prayer the washer and dryer are working and take down the first load, but being some what skeptical took something that would not crush me if it got ruined. Yeah, they were both available and appear to be functional, a good start, in goes load one. An hour later I go down to check, soooo NOT working! The items are soaking wet and soap filled like it never rinsed...(insert a long string of swear words here, at least my son was upstairs)...ok, fine! I will just wring them out and dry them and have to rewash them elsewhere.
Ever try wringing out a quilt - it takes awhile!
Into the dryer...yep, how did you guess??...it didn't work either!!! So, dripping wet clothes go into a plastic bag and a seething livid me calls the management office. As expected - nada. At least I know not to waste any more time trying to do any laundry here. My friend offered their place and my son's grandparents offered their help - problem addressed, not easily but doable. Back to packing and vacuuming and cleaning and sadly, throwing out things that could not be kept. Over the course of several days it all got done.
Now that I have conveyed the seriousness of the situation, and heartily vented about the stress of it - I feel it is important to share the humorous elements. Always good to find the humor, even when couched with a dose of frustration.
I took a break on the balcony to have a coke and calm down after the call to the management office about the washer/dryer situation, and it struck me as I walked back in that if I just had the stamina to leave it like this for a few more months - moving would be a whole lot easier!!! Completely made me chuckle at the irony of all the work only to unpack it eventually and repack it all to leave.
Then as my son, my friend and I were emptying out my closet and had bags for 'wash'-'dry clean'-'trash', I grabbed my underwear drawer and started to dump the contents into the bag my son was holding...and right in front of him a six pack of condoms flops out!! I had totally forgotten they were there!! He didn't say a word about it - neither did I, just quickly said 'excuse me' took the drawer to the kitchen buried the condoms in the trash can, seriously cracked up silently to myself, walked back in the room and in a voice a little too bright and cheery began asking him questions about school. (La,la,la...) Complete parenting fail number 345! Well done mom. *sigh* Best part, they were expired!! (sorry dad if you read this one - but safe is good right? snicker)
It is worth remembering for the future how much you learn about someone when you help clean out their closet, I guess that is where the saying comes from eh? So we continue, chatting and discussing things until we get to...yeah, ok, I have knee pads...my friend lost it right there, considering the previous few minutes - while I stammer to explain in front of my son that they were from my combat class in college. They really are, really!! :)
But so far the most classic part is that each night after working there and stirring everything up, when I have returned to my friend's place being totally paranoid not to introduce these awful creatures into anyone else's life, I go straight to the laundry room, they bring me clothes and I strip everything off and change. It occurred to me in hindsight on one of these occasions...you know, I probably should have made sure there were not cameras before I removed all my clothes, that would not be an attractive you-tube moment!!
So dear readers even though this blog has been a lot of ranting, with moments of hysteria, and pieces of humor, I am left with this...in one of my darker hours-trying to be self employed and run my business-and being somewhat homeless living out of my purse and a plastic bag of clothes. I am deeply grateful to the friends who have helped and opened their homes and given a hand. So appreciative and adoring of my son for his pitching in so willingly, his understanding, patience, and love. Indebted to family who have given support without question. And seriously - and I know this sounds silly and trivial all things considered - glad that my christopher bear (my teddy bear since I can remember, and the only thing i have had my whole life) sustained only minor injury in the washing machine. :)
In the realm of things, I am blessed and lucky, life goes on and ... yes, I am definitely moving as soon as possible!! :)
Bedbugs! Ewww!
And apparently my apartment has them, they are dreadful parasitic creatures who feast on humans - ugh! soo...I called the apartment management company - told them the problem, please send someone.
'Oh yes, right away!'
What did I hear back? Crickets!!
While I was waiting for them to get back to me, I spent more than a few dollars on a myriad of bug sprays 'guaranteed' to fix the problem, none of which worked by the way, just in case anyone else has this same issue-don't waste your money go STRAIGHT to an exterminator. My apartment was so fumigated I couldn't breath, my room smelled like a Deet infested trip to the swamp, and still ... was getting bittten. So I called the apartment management again a few days later.
Same response, voice full of concern, 'Oh yes, right away!'
What did I hear this time? Less than crickets!!!
The following week, chomped on, bites everywhere, totally grossed out and awake until 4 in the morning because there is NO sleeping like that, I curled up on a towel on the bathroom floor. At this point - tired - stiff from the floor - and missing more blood than had I donated to the red cross, I asked a friend to stay with them while I fought with my apartment complex. Blissfully they said yes, I showered twice - sprayed all my clothes with rubbing alcohol, which thankfully kills the little bastards, and fled!!
Ahhh - sleep! Zzzzzzzzzz
Called the apartment management again 3 days later, spoke to a manager, got slightly irate (but not nearly enough, as it would seem)
'Oh, that is terrible-let me check the service records, I promise I will call you back today!'
'Okay, thank you, I am sorry to vent at you but this is disgusting and I am being bitten and can not sleep there!'
'I totally understand' she says 'I promise I will get back to you today!' I gave her my number. (even though it is on file)
What did I hear? Yep, you guessed it - Crickets!!!! Are you f*cking kidding me!!!
F*ck this, I think, and started calling every 20 seconds once they had open hours - got the same person from the day before...I was more than irate now! Excuse for not calling me back...wait for it...
'I lost your number.'
Are you serious?!? I live there!!! It is on file!
My patience teetering on the brink of disaster I asked if anything had been scheduled, thankfully the reply was yes, the following week and they would send me a letter on how to prep for the exterminators.
'Ok, that is good.' I reply, 'because I can not sleep there and it has taken you over a week and a half to respond.'
So, I breath a small sigh of relief at least soon it will be taken care of - my friend will let me stay a few more days while this wraps up and the apartment company will send me a letter for how to prepare. Hooray, progress!
Sleep, Zzzzzzzzz
The preparation 'letter' was a 6 page list of essentially, take your entire house apart, remove every item of fabric, launder it, dry clean it, (or if that isn't an option - get rid of it!) then bag it and don't bring it back in until ... the 2nd treatment! (Excuse me, WHAT 2nd treatment!! apartment management sort of missed telling me about that part) Quick question everyone, where do you keep a house full of laundry for 3 weeks without a house?!? Then put everything else in your house in a plastic bag - put the mattresses against the walls, pull all other furniture 2 feet away from the walls, and leave it like this until after the 2nd round. Now to add a little scope here, currently I am working from my home so to say this presents a challenge would be a radical understatement...
Along with the preparation 'letter' was a scathing and pushy note from management stating that if I did not comply with all the preparation steps I would be subject to legal penalty, just a few points here:
1. why aren't you subject to legal penalty for totally ignoring my requests for so long?
2. are you going to compensate me because your negligence has made me have to essentially move out of my apartment for 3 weeks? (Answer to that one, because YES I asked. 'We did something as soon as we could, we don't compensate for these types of problems.') and we fought back and forth for five minutes on that one...I lost! (steamed)
3. given that this is so serious an issue that you can bring legal action against me, why are you not having other apartments inspected because I am pretty darn sure this is not coming from my apartment given all the other repeat bug problems since...oh I don't know THE DAY I MOVED IN and the roach jumped out of the medicine cabinet at me! (my son thought that was hilarious!) Nothing ever got done about that issue either, but at least I was able to buy things that worked.
**pause in the action here for a small mental break down as i comprehend the sh*t load amount of work this is, how on earth am I going to work like this and to add insult to injury, the washer and dryer in my apartment unit was never functional for more than a random day every 2 months and there is A LOT of laundry! and a small fortune in dry cleaning!!**
F*CK !!!
But still it has to be done, so pull it together, get some help, it will be ok...
Breath. good start!!!
Work for the day and then back to my friends to sleep because it is going to be a long few days / weeks.
Zzzzzzzzzz
So early Saturday morning, my son and I and my friend meet up at the apartment to get started. I cross my fingers and say a prayer the washer and dryer are working and take down the first load, but being some what skeptical took something that would not crush me if it got ruined. Yeah, they were both available and appear to be functional, a good start, in goes load one. An hour later I go down to check, soooo NOT working! The items are soaking wet and soap filled like it never rinsed...(insert a long string of swear words here, at least my son was upstairs)...ok, fine! I will just wring them out and dry them and have to rewash them elsewhere.
Ever try wringing out a quilt - it takes awhile!
Into the dryer...yep, how did you guess??...it didn't work either!!! So, dripping wet clothes go into a plastic bag and a seething livid me calls the management office. As expected - nada. At least I know not to waste any more time trying to do any laundry here. My friend offered their place and my son's grandparents offered their help - problem addressed, not easily but doable. Back to packing and vacuuming and cleaning and sadly, throwing out things that could not be kept. Over the course of several days it all got done.
Now that I have conveyed the seriousness of the situation, and heartily vented about the stress of it - I feel it is important to share the humorous elements. Always good to find the humor, even when couched with a dose of frustration.
I took a break on the balcony to have a coke and calm down after the call to the management office about the washer/dryer situation, and it struck me as I walked back in that if I just had the stamina to leave it like this for a few more months - moving would be a whole lot easier!!! Completely made me chuckle at the irony of all the work only to unpack it eventually and repack it all to leave.
Then as my son, my friend and I were emptying out my closet and had bags for 'wash'-'dry clean'-'trash', I grabbed my underwear drawer and started to dump the contents into the bag my son was holding...and right in front of him a six pack of condoms flops out!! I had totally forgotten they were there!! He didn't say a word about it - neither did I, just quickly said 'excuse me' took the drawer to the kitchen buried the condoms in the trash can, seriously cracked up silently to myself, walked back in the room and in a voice a little too bright and cheery began asking him questions about school. (La,la,la...) Complete parenting fail number 345! Well done mom. *sigh* Best part, they were expired!! (sorry dad if you read this one - but safe is good right? snicker)
It is worth remembering for the future how much you learn about someone when you help clean out their closet, I guess that is where the saying comes from eh? So we continue, chatting and discussing things until we get to...yeah, ok, I have knee pads...my friend lost it right there, considering the previous few minutes - while I stammer to explain in front of my son that they were from my combat class in college. They really are, really!! :)
But so far the most classic part is that each night after working there and stirring everything up, when I have returned to my friend's place being totally paranoid not to introduce these awful creatures into anyone else's life, I go straight to the laundry room, they bring me clothes and I strip everything off and change. It occurred to me in hindsight on one of these occasions...you know, I probably should have made sure there were not cameras before I removed all my clothes, that would not be an attractive you-tube moment!!
So dear readers even though this blog has been a lot of ranting, with moments of hysteria, and pieces of humor, I am left with this...in one of my darker hours-trying to be self employed and run my business-and being somewhat homeless living out of my purse and a plastic bag of clothes. I am deeply grateful to the friends who have helped and opened their homes and given a hand. So appreciative and adoring of my son for his pitching in so willingly, his understanding, patience, and love. Indebted to family who have given support without question. And seriously - and I know this sounds silly and trivial all things considered - glad that my christopher bear (my teddy bear since I can remember, and the only thing i have had my whole life) sustained only minor injury in the washing machine. :)
In the realm of things, I am blessed and lucky, life goes on and ... yes, I am definitely moving as soon as possible!! :)
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
12 days
So as my son flys off to South Africa, and for the first time in our lives we will be forced to not have any contact for 12 days, I am compelled to take a little trip down memory lane...
To before he was born and I would sing to him all the time while feeling his soft heart beat against my spine, John Denver, the Mammas and the Pappas, and this one is for Ally - even the Carpenters: "Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near..."
Then the day he finally arrived all pink and squirming and I had NO CLUE what to do! I had never been around newborns and was terrified I would break him. Just trying to change his diaper was like wrestling an octopus!! Definitely NOT in the parenting books I had read.
The day that I was feeding him while talking on the phone with a friend, and accidentally dropped the phone...on his head! He was not happy - no more trying to multi-task for me!!
The time when he was one and I was sitting with him on the floor and I started ripping up some papers and the sound made him giggle in the sweetest way, so I kept doing it until he feel over in peels of giggles and got the hick-ups.
When he was two and half and my father was coming to see him for the second time in his life, and Duke decided to strip off all of his clothes and run around the house naked laughing gleefully, his blond curls bouncing, as I chased him, just as my father was ringing the doorbell.
Teaching him math while using a bean bag frog for hopscotch...learning can be fun!
The simple moments where I just look at him and for the only time in my life see my eyes looking back at me. :)
Playing football out in the yard when he was six and already up to my shoulder, and he was charging towards me, suddenly realizing he had too much momentum shouting "Ahhhh, I can't stop!!" "Ahhhh, nooo..." as he plowed right into me. Thud! Crash!! We ended up in a pile laughing hysterically.
Then taking him shopping when he was nine and Oh So Conservative a little boy, his store of choice for all of his clothes was Brooks Brothers, for polo shirts, and dress pants, and ties. (yikes-awesome, but yikes) Then we would go shopping for me at the, as he called it then - beat nick hippie shops, where I would hear - "That's kinda too tight and too short isn't it mom."
"Perfect!" I say, "I will take this one." (and grin at him) to my son's exasperated head shakes.
Coming out of his first year of guitar lessons, saying "I hate this thing, I will never be any good at it!" - to my response of "Just stick with it for one more year, if you still hate you can quite." ... fast forward to this year, where he and his school mates - during a guitar concert, decided to rip off their shirts half way through the show and play "Eye of the Tiger" bare chested to a screaming crowd. Needless to say HE doesn't hate it anymore ... I might regret it though!! (So much for Brooks Brothers!)
Taking him to the park to play tennis, take walks, and swing for hours, and watching him be so proud of himself when he could finally cross the monkey bars on his own :)
The first time we flew a kite and it taking us roughly 300 tries to get the crazy thing to fly and then when it did it all but lifted him off the ground and scared the foo out of him.
Our trip to Ireland, where we drove around Dublin for 6 hours attempting to find our hotel and driving the wrong way up a one way street, with him laughing and screaming...to stop at the Guarda station and beg for directions. The only thing that softened the Guarda enough to given in ... the look on Duke's face of - Dear God, please help us! Hahaha!
In Scotland, when we went to the "Oh, soooo cheesy" Lochness Monster museum and then walked around Inverness in the freezing winter cold looking at holiday lights and across a suspension bridge that moved with every step. He loved that part, me ... not so much! On our walk back to the hotel my jeans actually froze to my legs...Brrr!
Then there are some of my favorite times, like the other night, where we just walk - talk - and daydream, and of course save earthworms. Those are the times we are the closest and he is the most open, such a slice of heaven in those moments.
And lastly, just to circle back to the beginning, to us having dinner on his birthday a few weeks ago and I was telling him how wonderful I thought it was that he was a musician because I used to sing to him all the time before he was born. "You did?" he says.
"Yep, for hours."
"What did you sing?"
"Folk songs mostly, John Denver, the Mammas and the Pappas."
"Was one of the songs, Leaving on a jet plane??"
"Yeh, I sang that one a lot, it is one of my favorites. Why?"
"Because, I heard it the other day at the end of a movie...and I knew all the words, but didn't know why." then he just looked across the table at me his smile beaming.
Life just doesn't get any better than that!!
So, safe travels sweet son and a speedy return - I can't wait to make more memories :)
To before he was born and I would sing to him all the time while feeling his soft heart beat against my spine, John Denver, the Mammas and the Pappas, and this one is for Ally - even the Carpenters: "Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near..."
Then the day he finally arrived all pink and squirming and I had NO CLUE what to do! I had never been around newborns and was terrified I would break him. Just trying to change his diaper was like wrestling an octopus!! Definitely NOT in the parenting books I had read.
The day that I was feeding him while talking on the phone with a friend, and accidentally dropped the phone...on his head! He was not happy - no more trying to multi-task for me!!
The time when he was one and I was sitting with him on the floor and I started ripping up some papers and the sound made him giggle in the sweetest way, so I kept doing it until he feel over in peels of giggles and got the hick-ups.
When he was two and half and my father was coming to see him for the second time in his life, and Duke decided to strip off all of his clothes and run around the house naked laughing gleefully, his blond curls bouncing, as I chased him, just as my father was ringing the doorbell.
Teaching him math while using a bean bag frog for hopscotch...learning can be fun!
The simple moments where I just look at him and for the only time in my life see my eyes looking back at me. :)
Playing football out in the yard when he was six and already up to my shoulder, and he was charging towards me, suddenly realizing he had too much momentum shouting "Ahhhh, I can't stop!!" "Ahhhh, nooo..." as he plowed right into me. Thud! Crash!! We ended up in a pile laughing hysterically.
Then taking him shopping when he was nine and Oh So Conservative a little boy, his store of choice for all of his clothes was Brooks Brothers, for polo shirts, and dress pants, and ties. (yikes-awesome, but yikes) Then we would go shopping for me at the, as he called it then - beat nick hippie shops, where I would hear - "That's kinda too tight and too short isn't it mom."
"Perfect!" I say, "I will take this one." (and grin at him) to my son's exasperated head shakes.
Coming out of his first year of guitar lessons, saying "I hate this thing, I will never be any good at it!" - to my response of "Just stick with it for one more year, if you still hate you can quite." ... fast forward to this year, where he and his school mates - during a guitar concert, decided to rip off their shirts half way through the show and play "Eye of the Tiger" bare chested to a screaming crowd. Needless to say HE doesn't hate it anymore ... I might regret it though!! (So much for Brooks Brothers!)
Taking him to the park to play tennis, take walks, and swing for hours, and watching him be so proud of himself when he could finally cross the monkey bars on his own :)
The first time we flew a kite and it taking us roughly 300 tries to get the crazy thing to fly and then when it did it all but lifted him off the ground and scared the foo out of him.
Our trip to Ireland, where we drove around Dublin for 6 hours attempting to find our hotel and driving the wrong way up a one way street, with him laughing and screaming...to stop at the Guarda station and beg for directions. The only thing that softened the Guarda enough to given in ... the look on Duke's face of - Dear God, please help us! Hahaha!
In Scotland, when we went to the "Oh, soooo cheesy" Lochness Monster museum and then walked around Inverness in the freezing winter cold looking at holiday lights and across a suspension bridge that moved with every step. He loved that part, me ... not so much! On our walk back to the hotel my jeans actually froze to my legs...Brrr!
Then there are some of my favorite times, like the other night, where we just walk - talk - and daydream, and of course save earthworms. Those are the times we are the closest and he is the most open, such a slice of heaven in those moments.
And lastly, just to circle back to the beginning, to us having dinner on his birthday a few weeks ago and I was telling him how wonderful I thought it was that he was a musician because I used to sing to him all the time before he was born. "You did?" he says.
"Yep, for hours."
"What did you sing?"
"Folk songs mostly, John Denver, the Mammas and the Pappas."
"Was one of the songs, Leaving on a jet plane??"
"Yeh, I sang that one a lot, it is one of my favorites. Why?"
"Because, I heard it the other day at the end of a movie...and I knew all the words, but didn't know why." then he just looked across the table at me his smile beaming.
Life just doesn't get any better than that!!
So, safe travels sweet son and a speedy return - I can't wait to make more memories :)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
faster - faster
The pace of life seems to be ever increasing and the faster things get, the faster we demand they get. I wonder if we do ourselves a dis-service by wanting everything to happen at the speed of 4G. I am as guilty as anyone, of course, because I am not a patient person, I often find myself irritated by having to stand in line at the bank, wait at a red light, or twiddle my thumbs while my 8 year old computer boots up (yes, my phone has 16 times the memory of my computer, sad but true!). I think that this impatience is largely due to having grown up in a - what I will call - 'a microwave culture'. Almost anything you want you can have within seconds...
Let us compare the progression of some simple everyday things our grandparents did versus our timeline...
sending a letter to Nebraska - 4 days
sending an email to Nebraska in 1995 - 1 hour 20 min
sending a txt message to Nebraska today - 3 sec
not getting a response from Nebraska within 5 sec ... Arghh ... Torture
brewing a cup of coffee in 1940 - 20 min
brewing a cup of coffee in 1995 - 8 min
brewing a cup of K-cup coffee today - 25 sec
having to wait an extra 20 sec for the water heat ... Agony
finding information about your blind date in 1940 - the next 20 years
finding information about your blind date in 1995 - 3 days for a background check
finding information about your blind date now - 5 sec on FB, from your iPhone, while hiding in the bathroom
escaping your blind date ... about 2 hours of small talk - 'oh look at the time!' - and a secret text to your friend (while you were hiding in the bathroom) that they NEED to call and tell you your house is on fire!
flying to Paris in 1940 - 22.5 hours
flying to Paris in 1995 - 8 hours
flying to Paris today - 26 hours
getting through security ... 18 of those 26 hours - yeah thanks for that TSA
buying a book in 1940 - 5 days (walk to the bookstore, order the book, get it shipped from NY, walk back home - wait - walk back to the bookstore, pick up the book, walk back home)
buying a book in 1995 - 4 hours (and 65 cups of coffee)
buying a book today - what's a book??
getting back to where you were in your iBooks app after a reboot ... Eternity
making popcorn in 1940 - 10 min
making popcorn in 1995 - 5 min
making popcorn today - 2.2 min
getting the smell of burnt popcorn out of the office microwave ... Never
So as much as we expect things to happen quicker and quicker our children will be worse!
Will they even want to take the time to go outside and play? - oh wait, that is what the Wii Fit is for.
Well, how about have a talk with a friend? - talk, 'whtevr 4'
Surely they will at least have a healthy meal? - gatorade gel pack baby!!
*Sigh*
Maybe a little slower isn't so bad after all :)
Let us compare the progression of some simple everyday things our grandparents did versus our timeline...
sending a letter to Nebraska - 4 days
sending an email to Nebraska in 1995 - 1 hour 20 min
sending a txt message to Nebraska today - 3 sec
not getting a response from Nebraska within 5 sec ... Arghh ... Torture
brewing a cup of coffee in 1940 - 20 min
brewing a cup of coffee in 1995 - 8 min
brewing a cup of K-cup coffee today - 25 sec
having to wait an extra 20 sec for the water heat ... Agony
finding information about your blind date in 1940 - the next 20 years
finding information about your blind date in 1995 - 3 days for a background check
finding information about your blind date now - 5 sec on FB, from your iPhone, while hiding in the bathroom
escaping your blind date ... about 2 hours of small talk - 'oh look at the time!' - and a secret text to your friend (while you were hiding in the bathroom) that they NEED to call and tell you your house is on fire!
flying to Paris in 1940 - 22.5 hours
flying to Paris in 1995 - 8 hours
flying to Paris today - 26 hours
getting through security ... 18 of those 26 hours - yeah thanks for that TSA
buying a book in 1940 - 5 days (walk to the bookstore, order the book, get it shipped from NY, walk back home - wait - walk back to the bookstore, pick up the book, walk back home)
buying a book in 1995 - 4 hours (and 65 cups of coffee)
buying a book today - what's a book??
getting back to where you were in your iBooks app after a reboot ... Eternity
making popcorn in 1940 - 10 min
making popcorn in 1995 - 5 min
making popcorn today - 2.2 min
getting the smell of burnt popcorn out of the office microwave ... Never
So as much as we expect things to happen quicker and quicker our children will be worse!
Will they even want to take the time to go outside and play? - oh wait, that is what the Wii Fit is for.
Well, how about have a talk with a friend? - talk, 'whtevr 4'
Surely they will at least have a healthy meal? - gatorade gel pack baby!!
*Sigh*
Maybe a little slower isn't so bad after all :)
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