I returned home late last night from a whirlwind three days in Washington DC (aka my most favorite city in the US.) Although I could go into great detail about my trip, it can all be summed up by my visit to the National Zoo, where I spent more than an hour viewing Kibibi, the newest gorilla family member to the zoo. The best part was there were only a few of us there, so we had the Ape house all to ourselves. It is simply amazing to watch mammals, who we are so closely related, interact--especially with a wee one. Mum was very protective of Kibibi and Kibibi, being 10 months old, was active and curious and playful. It was the highlight of my trip. Even though I loved watching Obama's helicopter fly right overhead as I was walking near the White House, and even though I loved spending time at the Lincoln and FDR memorials, and even though I loved walking through some of my favorite DC neighborhoods, nothing, and I mean nothing, comes close to that hour with the gorillas and orangutans.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Mono
I was starting to wonder if I had mono, but realized today that my lethargy and low-grade yuck was most likely due to the sun not having made much of an appearance for more than a week. That wonderful orb in the sky is greatly missed when not around. Of course, it could have been a total coincidence that the day I started to feel back to normal is also the day that it was balmy, sunny and warm. Who knows, but I am sure happy to have my energy back. There have been so many people out with H1N1, in addition to the normal colds, that trying to stay healthy seems like a Herculean event. I’ve seen more than a few people walking around with full-blown gas masks. Not exactly a fashion statement, but if that keeps the nasty germs away, then hey, more power to you.
Jim and I finally got on a run today, which also helped. We haven’t run in a week, and that also throws the system out of whack. We have been so consistent with our training schedule the past month as we are planning to run a half-marathon next month, and taking a week off at this point isn’t really a good idea. Although it felt good to be back in motion today, I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow. Maybe I’ll be a stiff zombie for Halloween. Or not. Really, it has been so many years since I’ve dressed up, why start now, other than it’s a great excuse to wear big hair and trashy clothes. I keep trying to talk Jim into dressing up as Amy Winehouse. They are really opposite sex versions of the other. If Jim put on a wig and loads of eye makeup he could totally pull it off. Conversely, if Amy Winehouse were to shave her head and take off her eye-liner, then she could easily pass for Jim. I’m afraid that we’ll miss our opportunity for that get-up, unfortunately. By the time we actually get around to remember to have Jim dress as Amy, she’ll be a forgotten singer and people would think that Jim was just a really bad cross-dresser.
As for Quinn & Logan, they are going to be vampires, yet again. I think this is the sixth or seventh year in a row that they’ll don the same cape and plastic teeth. Quinn did surprise us all by saying he wanted to dress as Dobby, the character from Harry Potter, but no preparation actually went into that idea, and so we’ll go by our costume stand-by. While there is still fun to be had with dressing up, it really just boils down to scoring loads of candy. This year, they’ve invited a few friends over for pizza and then prowling the streets. They were briefly concerned that trick-or-treating as a large group yields less candy per house and so they decided to break up into two groups. It must be the hunter-gatherer in us that makes trick-or-treating such fun. I think I’ll put together a photo collage of all their years of being vampires and we can play “guess the year.”
Happy All-Hallows-Eve y Dia de la Muerta.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Made it
This last week was a particularly rough one. I'm not sure if it was the change in barometric pressure, or planetary alignments, but just making it to Saturday morning felt like a victory. I slept in until 9 and Jim is still sleeping. That should give you some idea of the need to recover on all levels. The boys are with their friend Rachel this weekend in Victoria, BC and so Jim and I are especially enjoying the QUIET.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Bad Omen, Dude
Today is Jim’s and my 13th wedding anniversary. Yes, lucky number 13. I know there are some that think that the number 13 is unlucky and that maybe we should just let this year slip quietly by and not bring attention to the fact that we have now been married for 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 years! But I’d like to point out to the universe that the “bad omen” that was predicted by a car mechanic on the way to our wedding, never materialized. My 13 years of marriage can be perfectly summarized in the series of events that led up to our wedding day:
October 4th, 1996
As we were driving up to Marrowstone Island, where we were to be married at my grandparents’ home, our car experienced some mechanical difficulties. We were just outside of Vancouver, WA on I-5, it was pouring down rain, Jim’s mum and sister were driving up with us, and we had that evening’s dinner of lasagna in the back. After pulling off for gas the car decided that it had had enough, thank you very much, and just quit. Jim called around for some tow-trucks and after 30 or so minutes some local-yokel towed us back to the outskirts of Vancouver to a repair shop. I was not yet panicking. I had my future in-laws with me and I didn’t know them AT ALL. I figured I would keep calm and that it would all work out. I guess I never really considered that we wouldn’t make it to my grandparents that night, it never seemed like an option. I went to a nearby burger joint with Helen & Mary Ann and we ate greasy food, marveled at the downpour and got to know each other a little more. Meanwhile, Jim was at the auto shop and the part we needed was not in stock. When Jim explained that not getting the car repaired until the following Monday morning was acceptable because, ahem, we were on our way to our WEDDING, which was to be held the NEXT DAY and we had dinner for all our wedding guests who were arriving THAT NIGHT in the back of the car. The mechanic responded by saying, “Bad omen, dude.” And so it could have been. But it wasn’t. Not in the least. Some calls were made, the part was found and within 2 hours we were back on the freeway. Thinking we had avoided a major uh-oh we were feeling pretty great by the time we arrived at my grandparents. What else could go wrong? As Jim handed a lasagna pan to my grandmother for her to heat, it was dropped in the exchange and lasagna ended up on the kitchen floor. My grandmother, bless her heart, didn’t miss a beat and exclaimed, “I just cleaned the floor, put the lasagna back in the pan and throw it in the oven.” And so we did. It just felt like a big exclamation point after the “bad omen, dude.” We laughed and laughed and ate heartily that night.
We had planned on starting our wedding ceremony at 11am the next day, but postponed that time, because my sister fell ill (not lasagna related) that night and ended up in the emergency room. After being pumped full of fluids she was released later that morning and so we lazed around with our 15 wedding guests and told them we’d have the ceremony at some point that day. That gave me and Jim time to finish writing out our wedding vows and go over the ceremony with the official who was to marry us. He was also the local tavern owner and he said if we got married in the tavern it would be free, otherwise he charged $40 to come to my grandparents, but he wore a tuxedo…Cool. We gave him the $40 and told him to come by around 1 pm. The ceremony itself was lovely and such a perfect reflection of Jim and me. We read poetry, shared our dreams, lit candles and avowed our love and commitment to one another. My grandparents filled the house with dahlia bouquets, the sun came out, the Olympic mountains loomed large in the background, and the resident bald eagle made a pass overhead. After the ceremony we all walked down the street to the Ecologic Place where we enjoyed great food, wine, and stories.
And thus goes the past 13 years with Jim. It has been a wild ride with lots of ups, downs and loopy-loops, but every time that car comes to a stop we yell, “More!” and off we go again. We are so balanced, the two of us. He is the exclamation to my comma; the arc to my line; the fire to my water; the spontaneity to my predictability; the color to my grey; the numbers to my letters and every day I think, “Dude. You’re the best omen that ever happened.” Happy anniversary my sweet!
October 4th, 1996
As we were driving up to Marrowstone Island, where we were to be married at my grandparents’ home, our car experienced some mechanical difficulties. We were just outside of Vancouver, WA on I-5, it was pouring down rain, Jim’s mum and sister were driving up with us, and we had that evening’s dinner of lasagna in the back. After pulling off for gas the car decided that it had had enough, thank you very much, and just quit. Jim called around for some tow-trucks and after 30 or so minutes some local-yokel towed us back to the outskirts of Vancouver to a repair shop. I was not yet panicking. I had my future in-laws with me and I didn’t know them AT ALL. I figured I would keep calm and that it would all work out. I guess I never really considered that we wouldn’t make it to my grandparents that night, it never seemed like an option. I went to a nearby burger joint with Helen & Mary Ann and we ate greasy food, marveled at the downpour and got to know each other a little more. Meanwhile, Jim was at the auto shop and the part we needed was not in stock. When Jim explained that not getting the car repaired until the following Monday morning was acceptable because, ahem, we were on our way to our WEDDING, which was to be held the NEXT DAY and we had dinner for all our wedding guests who were arriving THAT NIGHT in the back of the car. The mechanic responded by saying, “Bad omen, dude.” And so it could have been. But it wasn’t. Not in the least. Some calls were made, the part was found and within 2 hours we were back on the freeway. Thinking we had avoided a major uh-oh we were feeling pretty great by the time we arrived at my grandparents. What else could go wrong? As Jim handed a lasagna pan to my grandmother for her to heat, it was dropped in the exchange and lasagna ended up on the kitchen floor. My grandmother, bless her heart, didn’t miss a beat and exclaimed, “I just cleaned the floor, put the lasagna back in the pan and throw it in the oven.” And so we did. It just felt like a big exclamation point after the “bad omen, dude.” We laughed and laughed and ate heartily that night.
We had planned on starting our wedding ceremony at 11am the next day, but postponed that time, because my sister fell ill (not lasagna related) that night and ended up in the emergency room. After being pumped full of fluids she was released later that morning and so we lazed around with our 15 wedding guests and told them we’d have the ceremony at some point that day. That gave me and Jim time to finish writing out our wedding vows and go over the ceremony with the official who was to marry us. He was also the local tavern owner and he said if we got married in the tavern it would be free, otherwise he charged $40 to come to my grandparents, but he wore a tuxedo…Cool. We gave him the $40 and told him to come by around 1 pm. The ceremony itself was lovely and such a perfect reflection of Jim and me. We read poetry, shared our dreams, lit candles and avowed our love and commitment to one another. My grandparents filled the house with dahlia bouquets, the sun came out, the Olympic mountains loomed large in the background, and the resident bald eagle made a pass overhead. After the ceremony we all walked down the street to the Ecologic Place where we enjoyed great food, wine, and stories.
And thus goes the past 13 years with Jim. It has been a wild ride with lots of ups, downs and loopy-loops, but every time that car comes to a stop we yell, “More!” and off we go again. We are so balanced, the two of us. He is the exclamation to my comma; the arc to my line; the fire to my water; the spontaneity to my predictability; the color to my grey; the numbers to my letters and every day I think, “Dude. You’re the best omen that ever happened.” Happy anniversary my sweet!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Home
The jacket made it home. I'm going to think positively and visualize that jacket and all our other clothing items, sunglasses, backpacks, etc. making it home daily...
Found it, then almost lost it
Last night was an open house at the boys' school. It was a night to spend 10 minutes with each teacher and learn about what the classes are like, etc. I walked away feeling somewhat depressed at how our children are educated in this country. There are up to 40 kids in each class and the teachers range from burnt-out to excellent. This warrants a much longer, well-thought out post, but I will save that for later.
As I wrote yesterday, Quinn lost his jacket after ONE day. He had no recollection of where it might be, but Jim and I had a hunch that it was left at school. Sure enough. We checked the lost and found while at the open house and there was Quinn's jacket, safe and sound. (Thank you to whomever turned it in.)
We brought the jacket home. Quinn was happy. Quinn wore his jacket to school today. Quinn left his jacket behind in his first class. I couldn't believe it.
I was there helping clean and the child walks right out of the classroom and leaves his jacket at his desk. Whaaaaat! Fortunately for him he realized it before I made a total scene, which if you know anything about middle-schoolers, they fear embarrassment more than anything. As of now, the jacket is still in his possession. Let's just hope it makes it home today.
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