Family
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Suzanne Vega ~ Men in a War
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2o54X61No[/youtube] Funny how things change in life, right? This song isn’t even my favorite Suzanne Vega song, and before I lost my mom last year, it never would have made me think of her. But now. Now, any time I hear it, it makes me think of that horrible adjustment period after she died. Of how confusing the world suddenly was around me. Of how, though I still had (have) so many things and people in my life that were (are) so very important to me, things would never be the same again, would never be right again. I know how it is When something is gone A piece of…
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Friday Randomness
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiNB4epGxK8[/youtube] First off, go see Ponyo. Right now. I’ll wait here. Seriously, we went to see it on Wednesday evening, and we LOVED it. So much that Maya and her friend went to see it on Thursday. And the friend said she now wants to see it again, with her mom. Such a sweet, lovely film. It’s made for perhaps a slightly younger audience than Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, but it’s so charming and delightful, I can’t think of a single age group that won’t enjoy it. That’s two awesome films in one week, and I have to say that I cannot imagine two more different films than Ponyo and District…
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40 Years Ago Today
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B882w2gC22s[/youtube] My mom wrote about the moon landing a couple of years ago, on another moon landing anniversary. I love her story about my Grandpa and his calling it “Wizard of Oz” to believe that man would ever go to the moon. And his graceful recovery for his pig-headedness, 40 years ago today. Click the link and enjoy.
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Sunday Dog Blogging
Regular readers will know that our beautiful doggie, Genevieve has been feeling poorly for awhile now. She isn’t her regular perky self, and we’ve been experimenting with different treatments to try to help her. We’ve had a ton of tests done, put her on pain meds, thyroid meds, and meds to help keep her from peeing on the floor. The thyroid seems the most likely to me, and she was on the meds for about 5 days, but we pulled her off this weekend. Why, you may ask? Well, yesterday Ted woke up to discover dog vomit at the top of the stairs. He cleaned it up, but later I…
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Fingers Crossed…
(You can click here to get a larger version and see more of what I’m talking about.) Gen’s going under the knife today, so keep your fingers crossed that she’ll come out fine, OK? If you look closely at this picture, you can see that she has a growth on her bottom eyelid. We call it her lump of coal, or sometimes, eye boo boo. It’s been there for awhile, but it has gotten progressively larger, to the point where her doctor suggested that we remove it. She said it’s unlikely that it’s harming her eye, but she’s worried that Gen will scratch at it more as it gets larger,…
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Do Unto Others…
As you would have them do unto you. If you believe that California voters went too far on November 4th when they took the right of marriage away from gays and lesbians, you can share your frustration at a local protest (click for times and locations…they are all over the country) today.  I’ve heard so much about this issue in the last week and a half. Much more than I heard before the vote. I think the passage of Prop 8 took many of us here in California by surprise. I know I didn’t really think it had a chance. Not that I think California is the most progressive place…
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Visit with Grandma
(Grandma, 1941, 18 years old) I went to Stockton on Sunday to see my Grandma and her sister, my Great-Aunt Flo.  I haven’t seen them since the service we had for my mom, in June. They both seem a bit thinner, a bit sadder, but overall stronger and better than they did when my mom first died. Still sad, still somewhat angry, but better. Kate and I went up, hoping to take them to Grandma’s favorite place, Red Lobster. (I’m not a huge fan of the RL, but there isn’t a lot else in Stockton.) But Grandma said, um, no, Kate’s work is precarious, Ted isn’t working, you cannot take…
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Christmas Curry
Richard emailed me awhile ago, and said that one thing he would like to keep of mom’s is a couple of her curry bowls. This is the set. She took a pottery class back in 1980 and 1981 at our local community college, and she made them for our Christmas curry. Isn’t the glaze pretty? Of all of the things I’m keeping of my mom’s, I think these are my favorite. They’re lovely to look at, and she made them herself, and they bring back memories of meals shared together as a family. When we lived in Alaska, my mom worked two jobs…first as a Montessori teacher, and second (because…
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Memories
A few smart people commented on this post that the hard last days with my mom were not the sum of our relationship. The suggestion was made that I might find some comfort in stopping every day for a few minutes, and remembering the good times. You know what? You people are smart. I’ve been doing this, and it’s been helping. Not a cure all, of course, but when I start remembering that last visit, I shove my brain over to other visits, other times, and it cheers me right up. I’ve shared my pain and frustration with you, so now, I’ll share some of the good times as well,…
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Quote of the Day
(image found here) “Atheism has its uses, but don’t let it get in your way.” ~Dad Context is an email conversation about missing my mom horribly, and what an ideal afterlife would be for her. Dad said she would: Be pain free Know all the answers, to EVERYTHING! Be able to walk, run, FLY Have no financial worries Have no food issues Be in Alaska, California, and someplace exotic, all at the same time Know that her children and darling Maya are OK Know that we all love her I added that in addition to knowing all of the answers, she would be able to share that wisdom with others.…
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Yesterday
Yesterday I went to Sacramento, to go through mom’s things. Thankfully, Richard and Kathy had gone through her things up in Alaska already, and only packed what they thought she would really want or need down here.  It’s so expensive to move things from Alaska, that it didn’t make sense to ship furniture and so on…so it’s just personal stuff and books. It was nice going through her things, seeing familiar items that I grew up with. I found her photo albums, which was the thing I most wanted to have. I found her kaleidoscope collection, which I also wanted. I didn’t get through everything, though, because it was HOT…
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Birthdays…
Traditionally, I am very punctual when it comes to birthdays. If you’re going to get a card or a gift from me (and not everyone does, don’t be hurt…remember, I’m poor), you’ll get it on time. For some reason, I have a weird gift for remembering birthdays, and it’s important to me that people know that I love them and was thinking of them. I would like to brag about this gift and be especially proud of it, but that’s like being proud of having green/brown eyes, or long fingers, or moles. It’s just how I’m made. I don’t have to work at it. At all. However, it seems like…
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Dinner with the Atheists
The other night, for some reason, we got to talking about saying grace at the dinner table, and how it is often just saying thank you to God for the nourishment and the family, and leaving it at that. I was reminded of a post on my mom’s blog that I came across the other day. It’s a long post, and well worth reading, but the part I remembered was about hearing grace as a child, and how different it was from just, ‘thanks for the food’: At meals with my great-grandfather, he always said grace and always blessed at least the farmer and the cook. Sometimes he would list…
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Sheila
Today is Ted’s mom’s birthday. Her name is Susheela, but back home in Guyana, she was often called ‘Sheila’. Happy Birthday Ma! This song is called “Sea Lion Woman”, and they say ‘sea lion’ a lot, but when I listen to it, it sounds like they’re saying, “Sheila”, and it sounds like a party to me. So, let’s have some Veuve Cliquout (Ma’s favorite champagne), and let’s dance to “Sea Lion Woman”, OK? 🙂
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Home Again
(photo found here) Monday morning, and the vacation was, as most vacations are, all too brief. Now there’s laundry to be done, groceries to shop for, library books to return, and prescriptions to pick up. Back to the old grind, as they say. But it was a great week. I would say that the high point of the week was Thursday. When we went kayaking on Tuesday, we mentioned to our guide that we really liked the snorkeling, and he suggested that we might enjoy the snorkeling at Shark’s Cove. So on Thursday, we rented a convertible and drove up to the North Shore of the Island, to Pupukea. Isn’t…