1. I think I'm feeling better. Thank you so much to everyone who checked in on me with your emails and calls and comments. I love you all. 2. I think this week has been particularly exciting in the garden. There's corn on the corn! My favorite hydrangeas are in full flush and the beans are popping out. Neel harvested our first strawberry yesterday, and he was we were giddy with delight. 3. I think Neel was probably right to look nervous when I said that my plan for our revamped living room was coming together: part southern, part funky, part mid-century modern & part romantic. 4. I think I'd like to dress up more, just look a little more with it, I suppose. Harder to do in the summer, but I plan to try. 5. I think I've decided on a photography plan for this summer. We're having a Summer Planning Meeting this weekend, and my photography project will be part of it. I have lots of plans.
So I may be absent from this space a bit longer, I'm afraid. I'm a little under the weather, both emotionally and physically. (Callum went first, then Neel, and now I'm the one feeling sniffly.) I have a load of work ahead of me with deadlines looming, and now we think Callum may have broken a toe this weekend, so I foresee juggling some doctor's appointments in the mix. And wouldn't you know, all the dentil moulding in our house will need two coats. All I want to do is curl up on the sofa and watch HGTV. (There's still that corner of my mind that is totally focused on re-doing my living room, you know.) I'm not even sure I'll get my photos edited and printed for class this week. And next week's assignment (self-portraits), well, I can't even think about that right now.
So bear with me, please. I'll be back around in a bit. And yes, I know I've used that photo before (sue me!). Seemed appropriate with all I'm juggling right now though!
1. I think Neel needs to drink more water. 2. I think I must have needed a blogging break this week. 3. I think, no matter how old I am, there are times that I will never feel grown up. And not in a good way. 4. I think that while it's been a glorious spring, I wish my heart weren't so tender. 5. I think the best part of Callum's environmental project (aside from the fact that it's over...he's spent the last two months picking up trash at the Elizabeth River) was on the last day when (as he put it) "some random guy" thanked him for what he was doing.
1. I think Screen-Free week has been great. Barely noticable even. But of course, I didn't sign the pledge. 2. I think I want a photography project to get me through the summer since I won't be in a class. Any thoughts? 3. I think one of my favorite moments in my married/motherhood life came this week when Neel (who was in the backyard) did something that made me laugh and laugh from my vantage point on the family room sofa. Callum, who was sitting next to me said, "You really love him, don't you?" Yes, I think I do. 4. I think I'm having trouble finding just the right shade of purple eyeshadow. 5. I think that sometimes the most exciting opportunities are the ones you don't take. In the past few weeks I've been skirting around a job offer that's been skirting around me. It would mean going back to work I did prior to this past year when I've been freelancing from home. Meaningful work for a great organization. Steady reliable income (that's nice!). And yet, the more the more I thought about it and the more Neel and I talked about it, we realized that I would be giving up more than gaining if I took this job. If I do take this job, a lot of the work I am doing now and hope to do in the future would probably be curtailed. I have, in the past year, stepped onto a path that feels like the right path for me. The work feels right, the schedule feels right. I feel right. I own my life. And still, I am not as far down that path as I want to be, so not taking this job feels a bit like a leap of faith. I'm trusting the universe that what feels right really is right. So far, things look good. In this case, I think "no" really means "yes."
We had our first harvest from Neel's garden for dinner this week. Nearly everything is growing, the potatoes and tomatoes especially. The corn is as high as a beagle's eye.
Carmelized onion and chicken quesadillas. Never mind that he brought basil when I asked for cilantro, it was wonderful to flavor our food with herbs from the garden.
It's screen-free week around these parts which means that Callum signed a pledge at school to be screen free for seven days. It's not that much of a stretch for us, really, but I have to hop on here and write a quick post before he sees me and gets mad and calls me a cheater. I tried to tell him this was work, but I'm not sure he was buying it.
This is just about the second shot I took with my tripod. Not the greatest, but it highlights a part of the living room I'm planning on redecorating (for $500 apparently). Bye-bye chair. There are paint chips on the coffee table as I type, awaiting a decision. Just for one wall, though. And Neel's promised to do the trim. Score!
So this will be fast in case the kid gets up, and I woke up with a headache anyway. I'm waiting for Neel to get up and make us coffee. Plus I have a big project that I'm trying to get off my desk and to my editor for work so I can get all my other projects off my desk and to my editor too. She'll be thrilled! I'll be thrilled. And I have to go to the grocery store. There's no worse chore than going to the grocery store when you're in a food rut. What are you up to today?
We had a great weekend around here. Starting with Mexican food in the backyard on Friday night (I still owe the cornbread recipe to some folks), and then Field Day at Callum's school on Saturday. Field Day is A.Big.Deal. at Callum's school. It was our first real Field Day (although we'd been invited last year as a new family) so we kept asking around, "How long has Field Day been going on?" Pretty much as long as anyone could remember, really. Someone placed it back as far as the fifties, and that made sense. There's a raffle at the end, and just before the last item was raffled off the headmaster spoke and asked what we'd been asking all day. "Who knows how long Field Day has been going on?" (I had to wonder if he asks that question every year, why more people couldn't be definitive in their answers.) How's this? Since 1891. That's a long time. The Lower School alone sold over 20,000 raffle tickets, and apparently there's a tradition at the end of the day where everyone throws their tickets up in the air. It was quite beautiful, actually. I tried to take a picture with my phone, but my camera on that thing moves as slowly as I do some days. It's getting old. Aren't we all.
And my Mother's Day was quite lovely, thank you. We went out for a delicious brunch, and Neel and Callum got me a tripod for my camera (that picture of our bannister was one of the first shots I took using it.). We ran some errands, and I took some pictures for my class assignment this week (You'll see those on Thursday, probably.) It started out cloudy and then the sun came out. A great day, really.
Lately, through all the work I've been doing and big decisions I've been making and pictures I've been taking, there is a corner of my mind where all I can think about is redecorating my living room. Deep stuff, here people. I may have mentioned before that it's been a rough winter around these parts. Every so often panic would set in, and I'd fear we'd have to leave this house and sweet life we've built for ourselves here (job issues are the worst). For the most part, I'm pretty good at trusting that things will be okay, but those moments were few and far between in the dark days of winter this year. Now that we're coming into the light of spring and things are looking up, I'm ready to redecorate! It's almost like Neel and I have had a recommittment ceremony to the house. His work in the back yard is paying off in spades. We love how the kitchen turned out. It's a good place to be, this house. And I'm ready to turn my attention to the living room. It feels heavy and dark and thrown together to me, so while I'm not sure exactly what I want it to be yet, I do know what I don't want it to be.
Summer is around the corner and change is in the air.
1. I think this has been, in some ways...a lot of ways, a pretty awesome week! 2. I think I love being in a photography class. I'm not going to be able to take any this summer, and I'm already worried. It'll be okay. My teacher turned me onto an amazing food photographer (her name is Helene DuJardin) last week, and I'm rushing out to buy her book (if only it were in stock). I figure what with learning Lightroom (still) and all the stuff we'll be doing in class, I won't be able to start being inspired by her until at least June. Okay, let's face it. I'm inspired now, but I won't really be doing anything about it until June. So maybe that'll be my summer project. 3. I think it was as much a big week as it was a good week around here. Neel got some well-deserved good news. I figured some important things out. Some Rilke kinds of things out. ("You must change your life." Extra credit to whomever guesses the reference.) I'm not quite ready to talk about them yet, but I will. 4. I think I'm finally ready to talk about the show, so I'll blog about it next week. Took me long enough, huh? One thing I learned is that I'm not the greatest at embracing the moment. I need to get better about that. 5. I think it feels like everyone I'm taking pictures with (I know, I know back to the photography) knows what they like to take pictures of. Has a niche. I'm not sure I do. I like to take pictures of people, and I like to take pictures of things. I don't totally love taking landscape shots, or wildlife, but other than that, I'm pretty happy going click, click, click at pretty much anything. I told Neel I really want to stretch myself in this class (as if I didn't get enough of that last time!), but I'm still not sure I'll be any closer to figuring some of this stuff out.
This is Glen McClure. Go ahead, click on the link. I know you're curious. He's a local photographer, and I kinda lovelovelove his stuff. He offered a Master Class at the Contemporary Art Center last weekend, and let me tell you, I was all over that puppy. It was great.
He had come to speak to our last class, and this class started with a little bit of a recap (which meant looking at more beautiful photographs) and then we talked about lighting and portraiture and had lunch, and I just soaked up as much as I could.
zooming out...
zooming in...
Way, way back in my first class, I got really interested in studio lighting and portraiture. We did some sessions in the class, and I really enjoyed them. I wanted the lights and the back drop, the whole smash. I wanted a studio with a big ornate antique sofa in front of a back drop, and everyone who came in would get their picture taken on that sofa.
Something happened to make that interest fade for me....I got more connected to natural light and lifestyle photography, I guess. Well, this class with Glenn reignited my interest in portraiture. I got so jazzed when I saw what we could do with light and how things changed when we changed our camera settings. Couple that with being back in a regular class at the CAC, and it's so exciting to be taking pictures again.
What a great day. I'm back, baby! Now I need that sofa.
Even as Neel and I took turns dozing on the sofa last night while we waited for President Obama to come and confirm what we already knew, I was thinking, "Should I turn on the computer and take down Monday's blog post? Is a post about rum drinks too frivilous on such a momentous day?" I decided to keep the post up (it was nearly midnight after all), and besides, it gave me plenty of time to think about what I want to say.
I don't know what I want to say.
There isn't a good word. Happy? Not exactly. But sort of. Relieved? Well yes, but I also worry about retaliation. Grateful? Closer, but grateful for what exactly? I've been chewing on it all day, and I still don't know exactly how to frame what I want to say.
Here's the thing. I don't believe that killing is the answer. I can't celebrate a death; I can't hoot-holler from the rooftops. I think that volence and death only begets more violence and death. But here's the other thing. That man? All he was about was violence and death. I think I surprised Neel a little when I said, "Yes." as President Obama first spoke those words, "...the United States has conducted an operation that has killed Osama bin Laden." I surprised myself. It's not what I'm about. I didn't think I was quite that black and white. But, as I said to Neel, what would we have done with him? Where would we have put him? What would a "trial" have done to us? No, it's better this way. How much worse for the world to have watched Hitler go to trial?
I don't believe in killing. Violence and death only begets more violence and death. Callum, who wrote that note on our chalkboard before leaving the house this morning, told me how they handled it at school today. His teacher had the kids get out their composition books and she had them write down the date they were born. Then today's date. Underneath they wrote, "Today I learned that Osama bin Laden was killed. I was 2 years old on September 11, 2001." They went on to describe how they found out. Callum then told me that she said to the kids (oh, how I wish 5th grade would last forever!), "I know that in the Christian faith you're not supposed to rejoice in a death, but I'm rejoicing in this one."
That's right where I am too, this tiny space of conflict. I don't believe in killing, but oh, how can I not rejoice that that particular piece of evil is gone from our earth.
1. I think I got some of the best birthday cards ever this year. I have learned to be ruthless (for the most part) when it comes to cards (all in a seeming futile attempt to declutter my life), but this year I had nothing but keepers. 2. I think I would give anything for a week where I had nothing to do but take care of things around the house and in my life. An organization stay-cation. I would clear out cupboards and the refrigerator, chip away at our attic and the guest room closet...that kind of thing. I don't foresee the time on the horizon anytime soon, but that's what I want. 3. I think my mom will have something to say about that last comment. 4. I think I'm wrestling with some stuff right now. Not bad stuff, just figuring out kinds of stuff. In some ways it's exciting because I think it means that I must be on the right path...just that I have things to figure out. It's all good, I suppose, but my mind is full. 5.I think next week I'll have to tell you the story of the robins who are building a nest outside the window where I write these posts. It sort of reminds me of Billy Joel's Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. I want to tell you about Neel's garden too. That peony doesn't look real, does it?
Okay, I am making progress on this Lightroom business, but it's having to happen in baby steps, you guys. Mostly because of work and life and all that other stuff. (Like more work and life and weather headaches and worry about my friends and family in the deep southeast.) But I need to keep on keepin' on because a new photo class starts today (YAY!) and an all-day photo workshop on Saturday that focuses on portraiture (OH, YAY!), and an external flash (YIKES, but YAY!) that I got for my birthday, and well , things are (as you know) already backed up.
Hold me in the light, because clearly, I need help.
She died yesterday. This is Phoebe Snow. I won't write an obitutary here. Plenty of news sources have done that, recounting (vocab word this week!) her poetic and poignant career and life, both too short. All I can do is talk about what she meant to me. This was my life growing up. Music was always on in our house. Neel and I could really step up in that regard. (We do better now that we have Sonos [a topic for another post], but we could always do even better.) Phoebe Snow, Al Jarreau, Manhattan Transfer. There were plenty others, jazz greats and more, but for me, those were the big three. Before I bought my own first album (Thriller), this was the soundtrack of my life. Not too shabby.
But Phoebe Snow. I loved the others and still do, but Phoebe Snow. Something about that voice and those lyrics drew me in, even as a scruffy, trapped-in-her-own-head little kid. Never Letting Go, Second Childhood, Rock Away, these were the albums we listened to. During the summers, when I was home alone (yeah, we did that back then), I would stack four albums on my parent's turntable and have her songs as the background of all sorts of games - sometimes it was "hotel," sometimes "house." The best was "hardware store." My dad, who is a sculptor had a basement studio with all sorts of wonderful tools and necessary bits like screws and nails. Because music was as essential to his work as breath to life, he rigged speakers from our turntable down to the basement (pre-wireless!). While my parents were at work during the day, the cool basement became my hardware-store home (Treller Hardware, named after the return address I saw on a Publisher's Clearing House Envelope). The piped-in music? What works best for any hardware store? Phoebe Snow of course! I played those albums over and over. Wore the holes in the LPs so thin that sometimes the next record in the stack wouldn't fall. I'd have to interrupt my sale with an important customer to run upstairs and flip the albums.
In my child-mind, I think she was mixed up with a family friend of ours. My first grown-up friend. Both women represented creativity and a kind of soft, soulful comfort. Still, I've listened to her enough as I've aged that her music doesn't take me straight back the way certain songs or smells can. I'm glad. It's like she's imprinted in my very skin. She's in my heart's memory instead.
Here's what's criminal. I only have one of her albums in my iTunes library. I knew I had at least one other CD so I went to grab that and import it this morning. Jewel case: empty. Looks like I might be pilfering one of Callum's iTunes gift cards. (I'll replace it so quickly he'll never know!) What's even worse is that my two favorite albums aren't even on CD. I've found them both on an mp3 download site, but I'm enough of a Mac girl for that to make me a little nervous! I'm also hoping that my dad still has the old LPs. If so, I have a friend who can import them into iTunes for me. I like the idea of that scratchy record sound.
If you don't know her story, you'll read that when you click on the link. She was amazing. It's selfish of me to wish she'd produced more when she gave up music to do what she did.
So I'll leave you with her most famous song. "Poetry Man." Brings tears to my eyes to hear it. Someone said you can't play it loud enough. They're right.
May you be filled with lovingkindness, Phobe Snow. May you be well. May you be peaceful and at ease. May you be happy
Callum had his first orthodontist appointment yesterday. Neel and I both needed braces, so I suppose it was inevitable. We've been somewhat reisistant, not because we don't want Callum to have a great smile, but more due to the stories we've heard about kids getting braces in 4th grade and then again in ninth. Why rush perfection? (Or, perhaps more importantly, who wants to pay for it before they have to?)
We'd heard great things about the guy we ended up going to, most notably, when we were on our way there, we ran into the dad of Callum's BFF who said, "Jimmy's been twice, but the doc said he wasn't ready yet." Now that's what I like to hear. It may very well be that Callum is ready, but knowing that this guy is willing to wait if you could wait made us a lot more comfortable.
Everybody was so nice, even when I forgot to fill out the whole back side of the medical history form, and they got such a kick out of the fact that poor Violet needs braces. (She really does. We told her we made an appointment while we were there, and I hope she forgets.) And everyone talked to Callum, not just us, which was great too. Callum's main problem is that his bite is off a bit; he has to bite an apple or a carrot on the side of his mouth, not the front, and that's getting aggravating.
When the doctor came in, he was just charming and put us all right at ease. He leaned Callum back in the chair and poked his fingers in our boy's mouth and started calling out numbers. Callum said later, "I speak English, but clearly that guy does not. Left lower Cs; left lower Es; right upper C..."
When he said, "Oh! This is interesting." Neel and I both thought, that sounds expensive. And later when he said about the same part of Callum's mouth, "okay, that's a class C," we both thought that sounds really expensive.
Turns out, it might be okay. Callum has a cross bite and needs things spread out a bit in there. That will help the bite. He has some baby teeth that just don't want to come out either, but the alingment might end up being okay. We'll have to wait and see. Neel and I came away feeling pretty pleased, and Callum came away worried that he might not get braces. Turns out that braces are cool these days. For me, I hope no braces, and it's not just about the money. I love that boy's smile.
1. I think I am very much looking forward to my (very different) birthday this year. 2. I think that it is imperative that I take a day this weekend to get my crap together regarding my photo backlog. It's holding me back from taking pictures and from posting here on the blog and that's not good. 3. I think rekindled friendships and richly blooming friendships are sustaining me right now. 4. I think Neel is probably the better field trip parent of the two of us. 5. I think I've said this before, but 41 is going to be great. Nothing but blue skies ahead.
In Callum's most recent project for school, his science class had to participate in an Egg Drop. It was part of their motion and energy studies. Students had to create a vessel in which to drop an egg from roughly a two-storey height. Of course the egg should not crack on impact. The vessel could not contain typical packing materials such as bubble wrap or packing peanuts, and it had to be smaller than an average shoe box.
Callum spent a lot of time thinking about drag and padding and tried several different containers. While cloth was his original choice to protect the egg, one afternoon we were leaving Michael's and he wondered if Easter grass might not be a better choice. (There was a bit of a concern that Easter grass could be considered "typical" packing material since the Easter Bunny does use it to protect his eggs...)
Using a clamshell that had held strawberries (with vents to create drag), his first attempt was with cloth padding. Splat.
Next try: Easter grass. Success! At least at our house it was successful.
We tried it again off a neighbor's play structure with less impressive results (splat, again) and determined that how you dropped the vessel was as important as the vessel itself.
So lid up, Callum dropped his container from the highest point we could find at home and then again, yesterday at school from the top of the bleachers. Success again! (And let me tell you, these kids were really creative. Only four eggs cracked [out of 40], and possibly my favorite container was by one of Callum's buds: bread! It worked! And then he ate the bread.)
For a reward all the kids got to take their eggs into the woods and chuck them at a tree. Now that's what I call science.
I need to take a day to be preoccupied about some stuff, not to mention catch up after the weekend. I'll be back soon, hopefully tomorrow, with an update from the garden and The Great Egg Drop.
