Friday, August 16, 2013

Weekend Edition

Sunday Bunny. #welovebunny #vscocam #afterlight

On the one hand, this summer has dragged itself out forever in a long succession of splinters and barbs.  On the other hand, I still have a lengthy to-do list before school can start, and I'm not progressing through it very quickly.  Sir O has grown out of all of his clothes and shoes and we haven't done a thing about it.

I'm still frantically stealing moments to learn Adobe illustrator and trying to help my little sister get settled in for her freshman year of college.  Between my Master's program, Sir O in 1st grade, the Captain in 2 preschools, and both the Captain and our gentleman in speech therapy I've got more open-houses, registrations, and opening socials than I can shake a stick at.

I managed to pull a muscle in my neck while sleeping two nights ago and it is not my favorite thing.

Paper mache paste and modge podge are not interchangeable. Bummer.

I think all mothers deserve some sort of peace-treaty/hostage negotiation certification by the end of summer break.  Even if I've kept Sir O up to speed academically (which is iffy), I know his social skills have regressed.  Here's hoping he won't make his teacher play 20 questions every day.

Food sensitivities are piling up around here.  Our gentleman can't have cow's milk, (nor can Bunny, via me) I'm working on decreasing out gluten intake, and we're fairly certain the boys have a dye sensitivity.  (Not sure which one, but yellow 5&6 are suspect).  I can't help feeling that before long everyone you know is going to be on a special diet of one type or another.

I accompanied Mr Renn to a dental association executive meeting on BYU campus last night.  Or rather to the dinner that was to follow the meeting.  I spent his meeting meandering around campus.  I found myself on the 5th floor of the HFAC in a hallway full of illustration department homework.  There were piles upon piles of mostly grumpy looking portraits, all done in oils and pastels, mostly on the backside of canvases, to recycle them.  On the one hand, I was resentful that there was so much grumpiness.  Made me think of the injustice of Derrida binaries.  How all these students somehow thought a forlorn looking portrait had more merit than a cheerful one.  And how I really, deeply, fundamentally disagree with them.  A portrait that captures the light inside of somebody will capture far more than a single emotion, it will tell an entire story.  And people are stories, walking around writing themselves.  I'd rather see a portrait with enough light in it to help me imagine a reasonably complex story.  And it can be a sad story, but if you don't put any light in then all I see is a temper tantrum.  Truth.  Still, hanging out with a hallway full of portraits was a nice way to engage myself for an hour.  None of the paintings were hanging from my body or running around creating entropy.  I got to sit and think and engage and it was nice.

Remember that part where all the old ladies tell me it will go by so quickly and that I'll miss it and to enjoy it?  I believe that you have to get all caught up on sleep before you start to feel quite that nostalgic.  I can see, fairly enough, how I will miss and long for this vibrant, myopic, intense time of life.  But I can also see how it could not possibly go on forever.  I can see why so many women, in the days before family planning, fell ill and died somewhere between their 10th and 20th babies.  You simply wear out if you stay in this highly-demanding phase of life forever.  Physically I feel myself die a little some days (the rough ones - the sleep deprived stressful ones where you can't even take a break to go to the bathroom).  I feel more physically fallible than I used to, and I certainly have none of the immortality of youth left.  I think middle age is calling my name.

2 comments:

Guinevere said...

Occasional reader here, via TracyM. Today I needed to read "I believe that you have to get all caught up on sleep before you start to feel quite that nostalgic." You brilliant woman. Good luck from a lurking member of your fan club in Boston!

Em said...

@Guinevere - you just made my day! Thank you so much for your kind words!

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