dual personalities

Tag: children

September 24, 2012

Tout va bien

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? I kept remembering where I was last weekend and what I was doing. (Last Saturday I was in Brooklyn having a bagel and coffee–you know how it goes.) Sigh. My response was to get busy.

I got my hair cut, went to an estate sale, checked out one of my favorite antique malls, caught up with my far-flung family members on the phone, scrubbed a shower, opened windows to let in the wonderful fresh air, went to Target, washed the kick plate on the refrigerator, changed sheets and did laundry, trimmed the ivy in front of the house, took a couple of walks, and finished the Anne Tyler book I was re-reading.

You get the idea. I find that the best thing for when you are sad or depressed is to clean and/or organize. Even if you don’t feel better afterward, you have a clean(er) house!

The Anne Tyler book, by the way, was Earthly Possessions, an early novel written in 1977, which is not (in my opinion) one of her best. But you know, any Anne Tyler book is much better than most, so I still enjoyed it. She always supplies a few golden nuggets. Here is one of them:

“Sometimes,” he said, “I believe we’re given the same lessons to learn, over and over, exactly the same experiences, till we get them right. Things keep circling past us.”

Maybe so. Food for thought anyway.

6 Comments
September 18, 2012

I’ll take Manhattan

by chuckofish

Daughter #1 has already blogged about my visit and done a lovely job of hitting the high points of my trip to New York City.

What a pleasure to visit one’s grown-up daughter in her terra cognita!

We checked out the Upper West Side and visited ABC where I saw the rim and the set and the desk and all that mysterious stuff. Chris Cuomo smiled at me and David Muir waved.

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which I had not visited since 1978. Pretty impressive indeed. We walked through Central Park.

We went to Brooklyn…

and hit the Brooklyn Flea Market.

On Sunday morning we went to my daughter’s church, the awesome St. Bart’s on Park Avenue.

Afterwards we went to brunch with two of my daughter’s lovely college friends and my son’s best Best Man in the West Village. Then we walked to Washington Square and went to some only-in-New York stores, including The Strand which I loved and will return to some day with a list in hand. Oh yeah, and we saw Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone at the big ABC furniture store. They followed us around looking at hipster furniture, but we finally lost them in the linens department.

Every night after sitting outside for an evening cocktail we watched (in our nerdly fashion) Ghostbusters, You’ve Got Mail, and The World of Henry Orient–all New York-focused movies. We also watched Broadcast News for a little media-focused fun.

My feet will recover eventually, and I will long remember my wonderful visit with daughter #1 in NYC. And it wasn’t scary at all.

7 Comments
September 11, 2012

Happy birthday, cupcake of love

by chuckofish

Our cupcake, daughter #1, celebrates her birthday today.

From the beginning she was beautiful,

2 weeks old

opinionated,

and surrounded by really cool guys.

She was always a glamor girl.

As the oldest child, she was the trail blazer and looked up to by her younger siblings. She still is.

Have a great day, darling girl. Your country mouse mother can’t wait to visit you in the Big City later in the week!

Please Note: Lots of interesting people were also born on this day as well: Mungo Park, D.H. Lawrence, Tom Landry, Earl Holliman, Brian De Palma, Leo Kottke, Moby, Harry Connick, Jr., Ludacris. Hats off to all of them!

7 Comments
September 10, 2012

Embarrassing picture Monday

by chuckofish

Here is a picture of daughter #2 (on the right) with her friend Beth circa 1994. Even then she certainly knew how to accessorize, didn’t she?

4 Comments
August 22, 2012

Are we there yet?

by chuckofish

I’m feeling a little nostalgic today about those days of old when we loaded the kids into the wagon and headed for cooler climes and visits with family and friends.

Maybe it was the sight of daughter #2 heading off in her loaded Kia:

Ah, but for those of us on the academic calendar, the summer is virtually over. Sigh. Well, there’s always next year!

Okay now, who said: “Why aren’t we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.”

4 Comments
August 16, 2012

Happy Trails

by chuckofish

On Monday “the pod” was delivered and the packing began in earnest.

The pod was picked up on Tuesday. Bright and (very) early this morning the final packing was done.

The boy got situated riding shotgun.

And the driver took her place.

And off they went down the trail.

Vaya con Dios!

6 Comments
August 10, 2012

This and that

by chuckofish

I have a new picture of my daughters and the boy at the wedding on my desk at work. (The bell is a nice touch on my desk–it gives it just the right school-marmish tone I think, don’t you?)

I have a new picture of my sibs on a dresser.

As you can see, I like family pictures on my dresser.

Meanwhile daughter #2 prepares to move to Maryland.

She has a long way to go.

One week to go! Happy Friday!

7 Comments
August 6, 2012

Pins and needles, needles and pins. It’s a happy man that grins.

by chuckofish

The honeymooners are back home. They had a great time in South Carolina. The boy even found a cannon.

How sweet it is.

3 Comments
August 2, 2012

Everyone on stage for the Hawaiian act please

by chuckofish

My husband tells me that yesterday was the 100th birthday of the Eagle Scout Award and that I might want to blog about that.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “One hundred years ago on Aug. 1, Arthur Eldred, a 17-year-old Boy Scout from Long Island, became the first person to earn the Eagle Scout rank.” Here is the rest of the article to read at your leisure.

Well, the boy is an Eagle Scout and I have always been very proud of that.

It was a long, hard road of Boy Scout activities.

He went to multiple camps and earned multiple badges. He rose through the ranks. He demonstrated Scout spirit. He planned, developed and led a service project.

In the fall of 2004 he joined 38th President Gerald Ford, Steven Spielberg, L. Ron Hubbard and Sam Walton, earning the BSA’s highest award, becoming an Eagle Scout.

He never let me put one of those bumper stickers on my Subaru, but I wanted to. Boy did I ever.

Anyway, hats off to the Eagle Scouts of America!

8 Comments
July 25, 2012

Bells are ringing

by chuckofish

Don’t be surprised if we don’t post for a few days, as the boy and his intended are gettin’ hitched on Saturday. Lots of relations (for us anyway) are coming into town for the festivities. Hopefully we’ll have pictures to share next week! Until then, think positive thoughts and send them our way.

I will be channeling Diane Keaton (even though she was, of course, the mother of the bride in this movie, and I will be–metaphorically-speaking–wearing beige and having no opinion like any self-respecting mother-of-the-groom.)

Locheim!

3 Comments