Sunday, June 28, 2009

Almost forgot


Conversation with Little Big Girl as we walked to her Music, Art, Theater camp and she reminded me that they were having a show later in the day....

Spark:We have a show today at 1:00!
Me:Doh! I forgot to bring the camera!
Spark: That's o.k. You can watch me with your eyes!

Heh.

GAH!


So, I back! Finally. Actually we got back on Monday but it's been a long strange road to regularity down in these here parts.

Quick though,

before i go into how fantabulous the trip/family/desert was, I want to make three highly specific shout-outs to friends and fam:

1) Mr. Lovah-Lovah and Auntie K - It was great seeing you two yesterday and being a part of what i hope are plenty of official "We CAN'T WAIT for you to get here!" parties for the baby. We love you guys and simply cannot be more thrilled that you are actively increasing the sheer number of quality people on this planet that we will have access to!

2) Happy half birthday to the Bee twins! You kids are great. Sorry, we had to miss it but I promise we'll make it up to you in spades/sleep-over popcorn-party-fests!

3) Sister J, I hope you know that we were all put on this planet to help and support you in whatever way you need (consciously or not) so PLEASE do not hesitate to use us during your convalescence (you could also use us during your regular life to but I wanted to specifically point out that we actually like being helpful to folks who are slated to undergo massive, invasive multiple-organ transplant scenarios like yourself. p.s. Whatever you do though, stay away from the really huge Ibuprofen they might try to give you after. Those things have never been kind to anybody and the addiction recovery path just isn't worth it!)

Now then, trip was loverly! I. love. love. love my brothers and was thrilled to get to see everyone in the sun and with their people. The weather was gorgeous (not too hot actually) the accommodations were amazing and the girls were fish. (Seriously, finally tally of the pools we splashed around in ended at 6 plus one really pretty Lake wherein both my beautiful Wife and my eldest daughter had a chance to show off their boat driving skillz! Even the mom was not so bad. There was one icky point there where my dad referred to my mom as his "Ex" which i thought I'd effectively blotted out forever but clearly the trauma remains (ew!) Also, saw the beginnings of what I will henceforth refer to as the "Golf-Widow" syndrome start it's sad, lonely descent into my life as the Wife took herself off to the range to learn putting with the pros (my dad, little brother, nephew and BB-Sis-in-Law) leaving me and my mom with nothing to do but shop, drink tea in the sun and partake of some really yummy fry bread. {sigh} I wonder if Tiger's wife feels this way.....

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Vacation-ready


Me = vacation ready. Not in the sense that I'm all primed and gassed up and ready to go, more in that I'm sort of at the end of my proverbial rope/if I have to deal with. one. more. thing. I'm gonna explode ... {sigh} K. that actually just sounded alot like my mom so let me re-think that statement. I'm fine. Things are fine. I got to see Wicked this week-end which was awesome! The kidcare worked out in such a way as to allow the Little Little girl to spend the afternoon with a very good friend of hers (Red-E, we'll call her as opposed to her cousin, my niece-in-law, Brown-E who she ALSO got to see yesterday, in fact -- yay her!) I am liking very much getting to spend time with the fam. I've had a few incidents now wherein I am suddenly presented with a potential "problem" vis a vis kid care which are almost immediately sorted out for me by those wonderful angel-persons who watch over my every move/are probably a little at the ends of their proverbial ropes as well... [heh, get it. I said "proverbial"... which is funny because they're angels.... Anyone...? K. Sorry. moving on.] Case in point: the Big Girl who arrived here this morning with absolutely nothing to do has since been happily put to work laminating for/assisting her good friend/ex-afterschool counselor who just happens to be running the Specialty Camp program here at work and so is now feeling useful and interested and non-bored so that I, in turn, can work. Or yesterday when the Matriarch of the Bee clan totally stepped up to offer a supervised day of hang-outtage -- Seriously, the life is really just very nice and supportive, I'd hate for anyone out there to think otherwise. (Please don't!) Yet/Still, I'm tired. I'm so lucky that my life/seredipitious-ness is stepping into the breach created by my inability to deal but I wish I had a minute to reset. I'm tired of feeling weird and hurt and moody and tired all the time. i want to go away and play with my family (the larger one) and remember how kick-ass we as a concept are and come back refreshed and rested and happy dammit! And I want to do it NOW! {tiny voice}: Is that so wrong...??

Friday, June 12, 2009

Wait for it...!



K. so, breaking news. Me and the Big Big girl are going to start making/posting podcasts. The episodes will be driven (ha!) by the hilarity that is our bi-weekly trips home in the truck (hence the name "The Truck Show") and will cover such far reaching subjects as "Why everything is funnier said in a faux New Yawk accent combined with insane amounts of repetition", "Why organic lollipops suck! [and yes, this segment is/was packed to the brim with genius puns dreamed up entirely by the BBG]" and "How everyone at school is all talking about drugs and stuff and how crack lying on the street with smashed up sunglasses can be really scary." *I* for one, CANNOT wait to get this up and running. Look for the first few episodes to post early to mid September. Thanks for listening and keep on truckin'!

p.s. We even have a theme song!!!!

Thursday, June 04, 2009

My Girl!


Boo: Hey mom....
Me: Hm?
Boo: So, if you ever need to get home from Atlanta and you're driving and you want to use a route that goes through all state capitals -- I'm your girl. (Does that chest patting thing rappers do.)
Me: Really? you know how to do that?
Boo: Yup.
Me: Cool.
[pause]
Boo: I could also tell you how much you'll spend on food.
Me: Good to know.

Yup. Pretty much sums up why I consider myself among the luckiest humans on the planet today.

in other news, my dear friend Mizz Tail got an award last night for being awesome/helping undersupported kids reach their fullest potential. Here's the write up from the last awards dinner. The group is called All Stars and was brought to the west coast about 8 years ago by a group called The Bay Area Center for Independent Culture (BACIC). It's been active on the East coast for about 25 years. I didn't know very much about the event going in but suffice to say, I came out at the end of the evening feeling ridiculously happy that there are such amazing people in the world doing such amazing work. the kids were insanely poised and accomplished as well. Plus it was nice getting to hang out with my A-Tail! All-in-all, a fantastic experience. I'm actually gonna try to hunt them down to see if I can help out in any way. gosh. Just so much kid-centric greatness in one place. Warms the heart.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

If a valid feeling is found...


the sentence is said to represent one person who feels that way.

That sentence comes from a great essay by Nell Boeschenstein that Miss tail just forwarded to me. It's ostensibly (I think) about permission to use pieces of information supplied by people about themselves in a context those people weren't aware of. I'm pretty sure Miss T. sent it to me though because we (she and I) have been having an on-going set of conversations about what happens when virtual people meet reality people - whether or not the (practically guaranteed) dissonance between the attachments a person is capable of forming on-line versus the attachments one is capable of forming in "the real world" creates more of a barrier than a bridge to an on-going relationship which is also explored in the piece. The thing is, I read the article and thought "Awesome. This is a well reasoned, insightful, interesting story that seems pretty in line with some things i think about 'all of that stuff'" BUT then I went to the website mentioned in the article and i have to say. i was surprised/amazed by how beautiful it is. I mean, yes, it's clearly an "experiment" but it's also such an absolutely captivating rendering of a nuanced idea, I'm sort of blown away. Sentiment used to service art. Not all that different than other "great" artists dragging their subjects out of context to present them to the public as "depictions" rather than living people. Now i'm re-reading the article because i'm not sure I agree anymore with what i think the author is saying. i'm re-reading it however because i'm a big ole girl and I want to "give the author a chance" to prove that it is I who missed something in the initial reading and that we are, in fact still on-the-same-page vis a vis me thinking she's brilliant/on to something. Honestly, I don't even know this person but I'm somehow worried I'll hurt her feelings if I change my mind about her extraordinary insight! Humans are weird.