dual personalities

This week, Katie has had a pretty wild physical leap. She is really going for it all the time. When she crawls, she seems to have this accelerator button that can send her off a triple speed across the floor. When she cruises, she’ll let go and pivot to a new piece of furniture fearlessly. And she has even done a bit of push-walking, opening the gate to her pen.

Plus, she’s just bigger. It occurred to me that in addition to growing a bit, she might just be standing up tall. We used to comment on her great posture as a sitter, and now I notice how straight she keeps her back when standing. Much better than her mommy, really!

This observation called to mind the classic from our days at summer camp, William H. Danforth’s I Dare You!, which has inspiring and quotable lines such as

I am on a voyage of discovery. I search for those of you who will go on a great adventure. I am looking for you, one of the audacious few, who will face life courageously, ready to strike at the heart of anything that is keeping you from your best; you intrepid ones behind whom the world moves forward.

…but which also talks about liver twists and other minor references that can really bond 23-year-old camp counselors.

Anyway, my point is that Katie is, so far, one of the audacious few, who is really facing life as a one-year-old courageously.

She also has a top tooth coming in, which is dampening her smile-tall spirits a bit. (Not that you can tell from these pictures.) Poor baby! Good thing Motrin exists, and frozen washcloths, and mommy or daddy shoulders on which to lean. But you can’t keep Katie down for too long, really.

*from Danforth’s scheme of four-fold living

I was inspired by my mother’s blog post (and a suggestion from my brother) to do a Bob Dylan lyrics quiz. Of course, it isn’t quite the same as movie quotes, but maybe it will inspire you to dig out the old Bob Dylan records/YouTube.

Bob is the best. Confounding the media for decades. A master of the rhyming dictionary. But you can also totally tell that the Holy Spirit is at work in him. Anyway, take a gander at these quotes and see which you can identify (most of them have spoiler alerts). I could obviously have a post that goes on and on and on…but I’ll resist the temptation slash save it for another day.

All the people we used to know

They’re an illusion to me now

Some are mathematicians

Some are carpenter’s wives

Don’t know how it all got started

I don’t what they do with their lives

But me, I’m still on the road

Heading for another joint

We always did feel the same

We just saw it from a different point of view

Tangled up in blue

Ahh princess on a steeple and all the pretty people

They’re all drinking, thinking that they’ve got it made

Exchanging all precious gifts

But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe

You used to be so amused

At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used

Go to him he calls you, you can’t refuse

When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose

You’re invisible now, you’ve got no secrets to conceal

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea

Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other time it’s only me

I am hanging in the balance of a finished plan

Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Well, I try my best to be just like I am

But everybody wants you to be just like them

They say, “Sing while you slave” and I just get bored

Keep a clean nose

Watch the plain clothes

You don’t need a weather man

To know which way the wind blows

You may be a construction worker working on a home

You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome

You might own guns and you might even own tanks

You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes

You’re gonna have to serve somebody

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted

Can’t help but wonder what’s happenin’ to my companions

Are they lost or are they found?

Have they counted the cost it’ll take to bring down

All their earthly principles they’re gonna have to abandon?

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind

Down the foggy ruins of time

Far past the frozen leaves

The haunted frightened trees

Out to the windy beach

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky

With one hand waving free

Silhouetted by the sea

Circled by the circus sands

With all memory and fate

Driven deep beneath the waves

Let me forget about today until tomorrow

So long honey babe

Where I’m bound, I can’t tell

Goodbye is too good a word, babe

So I just say fare thee well

I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind

You could have done better but I don’t mind

You just kinda wasted my precious time

But don’t think twice, it’s all right

We continue to trudge through the workweek one day at a time. I am in the midst of hiring and onboarding faculty and issuing contracts for next year — just after wrapping up our budget. It is thrilling not at all what I am trained to do. But in two weeks, Katie will be one year old, and I am getting very excited for this milestone. I only have 8 more business days to endure until my vacation time, when my mom will join me to celebrate.

Until then, we will make the most of the sunny weather and the “almost-summer” vibe that is percolating. This means…

Ice cream cones…

Shortalls…

yes, responsible sun protection…

and patio happy hours.

Another weekend approaches, and we are ready!!

*are you singing, “We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave” to yourself yet?

Well, happy Wednesday. The Legislative session is over and the Capitol has returned to its sleepy state. Life has a very school’s out for the summer vibe. The two dudes at the top of the office food chain both independently scheduled the exact same vacation that begins today. So, let’s just say, I am not complaining.

Of course, I have plenty of big projects that need starting/wrapping up–so hopefully I can get some serious work done in the ensuing quiet (God willing) days.

I spent today working on some talking points that I thought were for an event speaking to a Boy Scout Troop. I put in some extra effort on them because I thought I could re-purpose them other future events with kids. When I sent them to the bossman, I was informed that the audience was, in fact, not a a group of children, but a group of adults attending a fundraiser for said scout troop. [insert face palm emoji]. A co-worker was like, “what if he hadn’t read them and got up in front of adults with remarks for a group of kids!”

At least the bossman liked my joke about green shorts.

Anyway, in other news, my mother reminded me that I forgot to mention last week that when Lottie came over she excitedly handed me this donut pillow. After spotting it at Target, she apparently told her mother, “Aunt Mary likes donuts!!” I was touched.

And I think it looks just perfect next to my Jonathan Adler pagoda pillow, don’t you?