dual personalities

Tag: family

March 31, 2014

Like most things, I am nothing*

by chuckofish

Well, the highlight of my weekend was going estate sale-ing with the boy and having a diner breakfast with him.

wrc

I didn’t find anything at the sale except a book (big surprise), but it was lots of fun nevertheless. We talked about movies we had watched recently. I told him I had just seen Trader Horn (1931)–the infamous movie filmed on location in Africa where two crew members were killed (by a crocodile and a charging rhino) and the leading lady contracted a dread disease which ended her career.

Trader_Horn_(1931_film)_poster

I think it was the first movie my mother went to see as a child. Her parents had read that there were lots of animals in it and so they took little 6 year-old Mary and her 8 year-old sister Susanne to see it. I think it scarred my mother for life! It is pretty scary–lots of animals to be sure, but they are frequently seen eating each other! Also the natives are pretty scary too. Anyway, I had never seen it and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Considering it was made 83 years ago, it holds up rather well and looks pretty good. They hadn’t even had sound in movies for that long.

The boy told me that he had recently re-watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). I thought that sounded like a great idea and so I watched it that night.

Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon-Poster

It is one of the few movies I saw at the movies with my OM that I then took my children to see a few days later. (Another one was Life is Beautiful.)

It is a sensational movie. It is beautiful, exciting, romantic, and spiritual–and includes some of the best choreographed fighting ever filmed. How many movies can you say that about?

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As I sat in church on Sunday, it occurred to me that I had not gotten very far with my Lenten movie watching, so I determined to do better this week.

After church I did a lot of work in the yard and spring-cleaned the Florida room–my back is aching today! Well, onward and upward to spring!

What did you do this weekend?

* Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat)) in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

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March 25, 2014

People talk

by chuckofish

swinging

“You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education.”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

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March 24, 2014

Home again, home again

by chuckofish

I am home from my short, easy-breezy trip back east. I was smart this time and came home on Saturday so I had Sunday to de-compress and settle back into my world once again before heading to a jam-packed day at work on Monday. (And I also got a chance to clean up the house after the OM was alone for 4 days.)

Darling daughter #2 posted yesterday about my visit and she hit all the high points. We had a super fun time in and out of the City and in the suburban sprawl around it. We did what we love to do: estate-saled, looked at art, shopped at IKEA, went out to eat with her friends, drank wine, walked and talked.

Mmmm--diner food

Mmmm–diner food

But as a mother it is mostly wonderful to see where one’s beloved child lives and spends her time. Now I can picture where she is sitting when we talk on the phone. I know how she has arranged her things.

jewelry

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dog

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Her apartment is a block away from the picture-perfect U of Maryland sorority houses and also the Episcopal Church where my flyover friend Becky lived as a child when her father was the rector there.

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I saw her office in the English Department at school.

office

I guess only a mother (or parent) can understand how important all of this is. I feel the same way after visiting daughter #1 in NYC–relieved that she has made a home for herself and that she has nice friends and that she has carried something of her flyover home to her new abode.

Sigh.

'The Open Window' by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), The Phillips Collection

‘The Open Window’ by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), The Phillips Collection

And I have a magnet to remind me of my visit.

magnet

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March 19, 2014

See ya later, alligator

by chuckofish

UMD

I am heading to Maryland today to spend a few days with daughter # 2.

I will be off the radar for awhile. But I’ll be back soon.

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March 17, 2014

Just as I am

by chuckofish

While organizing a whole mess of some old photos, I found this great one of my dual personality when she was on a dig in Jordan back in the 1980s. I think it was when she was getting a master’s in archaeology at Mizzou, before she went on to Yale, but if I am wrong she can set us straight. She was always much less timid than I, more like our mother. Being in the desert with a camel (and without a hairdryer) would not have fazed her much.

sarah and camel

Anyway, I spent my weekend per usual. I went to the book sale at the Unitarian Church, braving the Prius-filled parking lot in order to search through their treasure trove of books. Their thinking may be a little to the left of whoopee, but they are good readers.

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I went to three estate sales and got a few more books and then I came home and worked in the yard for awhile. It was a beautiful day–the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the daffodils were poking up.

Bed 1

By Sunday, the temperature had plummeted, the wind was howling and it was sleeting, but I forged on to church nevertheless. I sat with my good friend Marty. It always amuses me to remember that her son was the coolest guy in school forty years ago and wouldn’t have known me from Doris Day, but it is proof positive that all things come to those who wait, if not in a semi-skewed fashion. It is the skewed part that is the point.

God does have a sense of humor and so should we.

Write deeply upon our minds, O Lord God, the lesson of thy holy Word, that only the pure in heart can see thee. Leave us not in the bondage of any sinful inclination. May we neither deceive ourselves with the thought that we have no sin, nor acquiesce idly in aught of which our conscience accuses us. Strengthen us by thy Holy Spirit to fight the good fight of faith, and grant that no day may pass without its victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–C. J. Vaughan

Have a good Monday!

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March 11, 2014

True that

by chuckofish

wrc flowers

“I would far rather have two or three lilies of the valley gathered for me by a person I like, than the most expensive bouquet that could be bought!”

― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters

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March 10, 2014

Don’t tell me the lights are shining any place but there*

by chuckofish

Did you have a pleasant weekend?

Earlier in the week my dual personality sent me a couple of old books that were right up my alley,

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so I had those to peruse. I also picked up a pillow that I had left to be finished at the Sign of the Arrow.

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If you recall, I bought it at an estate sale. I thought it was Edinburgh Castle, but a friend told me he thought it was Strasbourg. Well, hats off to Allan’s eagle eye, because when I separated it from its tacky polyester backing and took it apart, it said “Strasbourg” on the original canvas. The ladies at the Sign of the Arrow were impressed with the design and workmanship and it turned out really well, don’t you agree?

On Sunday afternoon, the OM had the bright idea to go down to the Riverfront to see the new Stan Musial bridge.

Bridge2

Here is the OM taking a picture of the bridge in front of one of the ubiquitous “cakes” that are found throughout the city and county celebrating the 250th birthday of our flyover city.

rpc bridge

Standing four-feet-tall, each two-tier ornamental birthday cake has been decorated by local artists and marks a location of note in our region. Two hundred and fifty locations were chosen. We ran into two quite by accident on our adventures downtown.

Since we were in the vicinity, we had to go to Ted Drewes.

teddrewes

And there was a cake!

photo cake

I think these cakes are kind of silly, but if it amuses people, who am I to quibble?

Meanwhile the amaryllis is going by having put on quite show.

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Have a nice week!

“Meet Me in St. Louis” by Andrew B. Sterling

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March 5, 2014

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.*

by chuckofish

Tulips from the grocery store brighten my day.

“All the absurd little meetings, decisions, inner skirmishes that go to make up our days. It all adds up to very little, and yet it all adds up to very much. Our days are full of nonsense, and yet not, because it is precisely into the nonsense of our days that God speaks to us words of great significance – not words that are written in the stars but words that are written into the raw stuff and nonsense of our days, which are not nonsense just because God speaks into the midst of them. And the words that he says, to each of us differently, are “Be brave…be merciful…feed my lambs…press on toward the goal.”

-Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark

Lent begins today on Ash Wednesday. There is a traditional Ash Wednesday service going on somewhere near you. At our church, we have two services today, but neither time works for me. So I think I’ll go to a Noon service near work. If I do, then I will wipe my forehead off. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s pretentious Ash Wednesday worshippers.

Bonus points for the Veep. No brownie points for the Veep.

When my children were younger and lived at home, I tried to make them aware of Lent. We watched our Lenten movies and discussed them. These efforts were a hit.

Once I put a lot of bible verses in a bowl on the dining room table. Each night one of the kids would pick one and read it. We would attempt to discuss it during dinner. My family was less comfortable with these efforts on my part. They seemed hokey I guess. I’m glad I tried. Perhaps something sunk in.

Once again I will endeavor to keep a “holy Lent”–not by denying myself things like chocolate or wine but by being more intentional about keeping the Great Commandment. You know, the one about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.

Good luck to me, right?

*Psalm 51, verse ll

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February 25, 2014

We could open up this suitcase full of sparks

by chuckofish

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I used to be “with it”. But  they changed what “it” was.  Now what I’m with isn’t “it” and what’s “it” seems weird and scary to me.”

–Grampa Simpson, From “Homerpalooza” (Season 7, Episode 24)

Sadly, I can relate to Grampa Simpson. Can you? I guess this is an inevitable part of aging. Not that I was ever too “with it” to begin with…but a lot of modern pop culture seems “weird and scary” to me. Hello, Kim Kardashian. And The Batchelor. I don’t get that either.

However, as readers of this blog know, I have a soft spot in my heart for Eminem. I try to keep an open mind. Occasionally I even go to a concert.

Such was the case last Sunday night when I ventured downtown to the Sheldon Concert Hall to see Josh Ritter.

sheldon

Mostly I bought the tickets to see his opening act Gregory Alan Isakov. My Old Man bailed on me at the last minute (he had a headache) and so the boy stepped up and went with me. He was a good concert date.

It was a sold out concert. Unfortunately, a lot of the audience arrived during Gregory Alan Isakov’s performance which was annoying. And rude. And the poor guy’s band was not with him. They had to leave in Chicago, he explained, and so he was on his own for the rest of the tour. It had been “super fun and scary” since then.

I kind of love him for saying “super fun”.

GAI

Gregory  epitomizes the introverted artist who must perform. And to stand up there without his band–zut alors! But I thought he was wonderful, performing his set of seven songs from numerous albums with humor and spirit.

Before his last song, he said, “I’ll leave you with a sad one, because that’s how I roll.”

Is he my kind of guy or what!

On the flip side was Josh Ritter who bounded onto the stage full of self-confidence and raring to go.

ritter

He put on quite a show, which I enjoyed very much. His fans, who filled the theater, were enthusiastic. Two middle-aged women to our left were down-right embarrassing–swaying and giggling like teenagers. (They also made several trips to the bar, which probably explains a lot of their behavior.) Please shoot me if I ever behave like this.

We opted to leave before the encores in order to avoid the parking lot mayhem and because it was a school night after all. But I was glad I had nudged myself out of my routine.

(My thanks to the boy who took these photos on his iPhone.)

7 Comments
February 17, 2014

There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word*

by chuckofish

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How was your weekend? Did you have a nice Valentine’s Day?

I asked my valentine for a new shower head and my husband went out and bought one for me. I was pleased. He had to buy a special wrench as well (par for the course) but he installed it with a minimum of cursing.

Later in the weekend I found a box with old cards in it. Some were Valentines. This one from the Green Tiger Press

valentinecard

was sent to my one-year-old daughter #1 by her aunt, my dual personality, who was a first year doctoral student living in a dorm at Yale at the time.  She wrote a long note inside. Here is a wee bit of that note:

Well, sweetie-poops, I have to make this short because I need to mail it and then take a nap. My neighbors kept me awake last night with their talking and I had to get up really early to do my Hittite and Akkadian, so I am tired. Otherwise, I’m doing okay and working hard and eating right and learning French and thinking about you all the time!

Isn’t that a riot? It was fun to go through all the cards and read what my friends wrote back in the day when our children were tiny and we were young and lighthearted.

I saw Inside Llewyn Davis. I really liked it. I thought Oscar Isaac was excellent. I had been listening to the soundtrack all week and so I was well prepared for the music to be great. But the film is more than just the music. And I liked the marmalade cat a lot. It made me want another Cat. But I am allergic, so that won’t happen. Sigh. Of course, the movie wasn’t nominated for Best Picture and Oscar got no Oscar nod. Typical.

coencat

I went to a couple of estate sales, but didn’t get anything except a few odd books.

books

I have been reading Missouri Bittersweet by MacKinlay Kantor and it is wonderful. I had no idea Kantor, whom I have always admired as a novelist, was such a fan of my flyover state. He and his wife revisited many small towns and counties in order to write this book and there is a lot of interesting stuff about the fascinating people who have lived in this state, such as Jesse James, Mark Twain and Daniel Boone, and also the regular people who still do.  It was published in 1969.

I was the Intercessor at church Sunday morning. In the Prayers of the People we always pray for the diocese of Lui in the Sudan and some of those African names can be a challenging mouthful, but I managed to stumble over “Albert”. Sometimes my brain just freezes. But afterwards the associate rector complimented me on my reading of the names on the prayer request list. I gather I kept the pace up nicely. Well, compliments are always appreciated.

And the amaryllis finally bloomed!

amaryllis

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It seemed like it took forever and they still haven’t quite burst forth completely.  Our patience has been tested! They are indeed a welcome sight in the midst of our arctic winter–as are all our green friends which I move around the house to sunny spots.

A sunny window at home

A sunny window at home

Have a good week!

* from “A Glimpse” by Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)

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