laid it down

We completely enjoyed seeing The Cowboy Junkies last evening. They played two very full sets, and Margo Timmins' voice is as great as it ever was... maybe even better. The band was solid - so much talent! It was fun having my sister come for the evening to join some friends for a nice dinner, some laughs, and then several hours of excellent music.

One of my favorite pieces of the night was their performance of Lay It Down. I didn't record it of course, but did find this YouTube performance - live - just a couple of years ago... so this is close. Enjoy: https://youtu.be/ZMJ6f1-GDdc.

waltzing flowers

Yesterday evening I drove to my home town, picking up a sister along the way, to watch two of my nieces dance in the annual Nutcracker. The dance school in my hometown does a wonderful job with this annual production, and watching my older niece each year progress through the new parts and dances is exciting. She has gone from a little bon bon, sprite, candy cane, etc. to now the roles for the older
dancers... flower, snowflake, Spanish or Chinese principal dancer, Clara's friend and Clara's cousin. This year she got her own "bow" and was presented with a bouquet at the end of the show. She did a beautiful job and I can't help but glow with happiness to see her joyfully dance so well. My other niece was adorable too... a candy cane and small Chinese dancer.

One of my earliest memories as a child was waking up in the middle of the night on Christmas and finding a very special gift under the tree. I had asked for this large ballerina doll that spun like a top when you rotated a dial under lace on the top of the doll's head. What I found instead was a smaller, finer ballerina doll, dressed in a light blue tutu (instead of the pink on the larger, chunkier doll), and with it, a 45-rpm record and small portable record player. The record had Tchaikovsky's The Waltz of the Flowers on side A and The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy on side B from The Nutcracker Suite. My parents and sister were asleep (the others not born yet) and I actually quietly put the record on the player, listened to both songs, and played with the doll, before quietly putting it all back and going back to bed (dreamily happy). I woke up and pretended to be surprised and delighted. I can't believe a five-year-old child could pull that off, but that is how I remember it. My mother says now she can't believe she didn't wake up. I do know I put that volume on less than 1 on the dial. Quiet as a mouse I probably was. Last night's Waltz of the Flowers reminded me of this memory, because the principal was in the same baby blue costume and the music was really beautiful. There was my niece as one of those waltzing flowers. It was special.

Anyway, I have a real affinity for the music of The Nutcracker. I enjoy watching the dancing each year. I did some dancing when I was younger from the time I was maybe 7 until I was about 13 before I quit to pursue other interests. I enjoyed recitals, costumes, makeup and dancing with point shoes. I think that dancing was very helpful for my brain and body during those developing years. It was worth the late night's drive back home last night to have seen the show - not only to support family members, but also for the boost it gives my right brain.

After two very late nights in a row, I am feeling tired today. (I worked the midnight breakfast on campus until 2 a.m. on Friday night then did a full day of errands and shopping yesterday before heading to The Nutcracker.) Thankfully, I don't have a lot on the agenda. I will cook a crock pot full of party food for a work party tomorrow and maybe do some wrapping. Mostly I need to try to relax today for the week ahead. I will travel tomorrow night after work for a work training out of town Tuesday. Holiday baking is on the schedule for Wed. night to drop off for a fundraiser on Thursday, and hopefully some revelry next weekend. I have a huge report due by year's end that I hope to have finished so I can take planned vacation the week between Christmas and New Year's. Time will tell on that... hoping the work days I get in the office this week will be productive and allow me to get that done.

Sorry for the rambling post. This happens when I am punchy tired. Off to more coffee, and I think, more blogging later... as it is so nice to blog on the lap top in front of the pretty tree.

meanderings by the sea

It's a small thing, but I do it every time I take vacation. The watch comes off and doesn't go back on the wrist until it's time. Today, it's time.

How lucky can a person get? We had a trip to Lake George for family reunion and northern NYS college visits at the end of June, I had a jaunt to Vermont and back in July, a week in the Adirondacks with family, and then this past week, the three of us enjoyed a generous accommodation right on the Nantucket Sound on Cape Cod for a few days, thanks to Tom's sister and her husband. I won't complain that it could have been a full week, but due to the teen's golf team schedule, it ended up being just three days plus travel time, because those three beach days were heavenly. I got back in touch with my beach self, and getting in touch with her should hold me for a while.

Tom and Matt went on a fishing charter one day, and went golfing with a friend another day. That gave me some alone time that I really relish.We met up with college friends over ice cream one evening. I imbibed the sounds of the waves, which we could hear from our unit day and night.

Each morning I woke up before the seagulls and I got to watch the many colors of the ocean for as far as the eye could see throughout the day from various vantage points. I didn't get a lot of exercise like in the Adirondacks, but we did manage a few beach walks where I took a gazillion photos. A highlight was going out to a nice dinner one evening with a gift certificate that Tom's sister had given us at Christmas. It was at a really great restaurant that won a "Best of Cape Cod" this year. 

I read a perfect vacation book that has been around since 1990, called Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. What an enjoyable read full of interesting characters. It isn't every day you get to read something with a character named Nan it is. Unfortunately, it was hard to like Nan in this story. If you've read it, you know what I mean. I guess a movie came out based on the book back in the 90s, but I never saw it. I had heard it wasn't nearly as good as the book, so I put it on my skip list. I might check in out now though just to decide for myself.

So now the vacation time I had saved accruals all year for due to the job change has been taken. I give a Sunday evening presentation to a student athlete group this evening and it's back to work tomorrow.

Today, it was time to put the watch back on. As it slides a little on my wrist, there is no tan line, and I can still hear the sounds of the waves if I try really hard.

meanderings

Hello! Wow, it has been awhile since I have sat down at the keyboard to jot down a few thoughts or share a few images. We were away the first week in August and my intention was to mostly unplug, and I mostly did. I didn't even bring my laptop, and I had very little cell phone service unless I took a walk to the end of the dock. The place where we stayed had WiFi, though, so I did play some Words With Friends and hopped onto email, Instagram and Facebook a couple of times. Last week was very busy being back at work. This is the first chance I have had to sign on here at JPP.

The week in the Adirondacks was really lovely. The weather was perfect -- low to mid 70s, virtually no rain, a cold lake to swim in, tennis, mountain climbing, good food, and the camaraderie of family. We are very lucky to be able to spend the time together. The teen enjoyed his cousins. We got dressed up one evening and went to dinner, and otherwise took turns cooking. There were between 8 and 15 of us at any given time. It was great. I got to see some beautiful birds... a loon, a cormorant, a wood thrush, a great blue heron, and others. I was able to take a few paddles in the canoe. All in all it was a really healthy, active, enjoyable week -- one that I really needed and appreciated after not taking more than two days off in about a year. A job change will do that. I took many, many photos. Here are just a few. You get the idea. 

a few from the vacation album

cartwheels turn to car wheels...

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers are gone now.

Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town...

Today was our son's 16th birthday. We are living out the lyrics to one of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs, The Circle Game (Ladies of the Canyon album). Somehow 16 is a really big year in my mind.

We enjoyed a pleasant day. I worked from home in the morning and took the afternoon off to spend with him (probably more of a gift to me than to him -- I love my time with my boy). He got to summer-time sleep late, have his choice of breakfast (I made banana-walnut pancakes), and we went shopping at a nearby (quiet) mall for some school clothes and things he has had in mind to get. We grabbed lunch out and headed home for a baseball game (he is on three teams this summer, so he seems to have at least one game every day of the week - and sometimes 2 or 3!)

Spending ordinary, relaxed time with my son gives me a happy and calm feeling. I find that he converses with me most when it is just the two of us in the car for a bit of a ride. We talked about the practice test he had taken online that morning for his driver's permit... he was surprised at some of the tricky questions when he thought it would be a piece of cake to get all the answers right without even studying the web site. (It is surprising how much 16 year olds know... they know everything!) Needless to say we spent part of that time talking about everything "driving rules" related on the ride from our town to the next and I re-learned somethings I have taken for granted on autopilot.

At the baseball game, Matt had a good hit and a good play at short, and then the three of us went out for dinner at his pick - hibachi. Tom and I never pass up a chance for some good sushi. The weather was very warm and sunny, just like on the day Matt was born and like those early infant days at home. I had fun in the early morning while he slept looking through photos of him through time and putting up a little happy birthday album on Facebook. I was overwhelmed that many of my family members and friends from different times and places in my life "liked" the photos and wished him happy birthday. I don't often post those kinds of things there, and found it so joyful to have my Facebook wall "blow up" with others celebrating my joy and his special life.

Here are just a few photos from the Facebook spread... I had put up about a dozen there, but this blog has shown progression of the child over time... so for the purpose of high drama, just three:

(First photo is 1998, second is 2003, and the third is just a few weeks ago. *Notice my Dad casually holding up his Boston cap in my Yankees household. He is a rascal, that one.)

"...the only appropriate response is "

"...gratefulness."

I have posted this before, but it does not get old. It is a TedxTalk by Louie Schwartzberg on Gratitude. This is so, so worth less than 10 minutes of your time. November is practiced by many as a month of gratefulness. I don't focus on gratefulness in November per se. I am trying to practice this every day of every month of every year. I fail most days. But some days, I remember.

[*PS I realized after I did a search on the word "gratitude" on this blog that I have not posted this video here at JPP before. I must have posted it on Facebook. So look at that. New content after all.]

there and back again

It is incredibly good to get away, and it is also good to be home! We are back from a week in the Adirondacks with my family (14 of us in all). We had a glorious week of lake and mountains and fun -- too many moments to capture adequately in a blog post, but I will try to hit a few highlights. The accommodations were perfect. We feel very at home at the place we have been going for ten or so years now.

This year, I truly unplugged from work - and mostly unplugged from the Internet with the exception of a few phone trips to Facebook and personal e-mail. We each take turns cooking meals, and we got out for two nice dinners. Mostly I appreciated things like the air, the wind, the smells of the trees and lake and mountains.

Here are a few things that made this week perfect:

- kayaking and canoeing and seeing a loon
- warm, fresh fried donuts (and Keurig coffee each day thanks to my sister who does not travel without hers)
- laughter of wacky and rowdy children ages 6 to 15
- Adirondack chairs
- swimming in the lake and sitting in the hot tub
- not wearing a watch and not using a hair dryer for seven days
- wine
- hiking a challenging climb and seeing scores of giant dragonflies at the peak
- finishing a great book (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz)
- Australian black licorice
- seeing my son happy with his cousins, and fishing and enjoying his kayak
- winning (with my sister Susan) the annual pitch tournament, beating the top seeded team of Matt and Jeremy (it is a tournament that is played over 2 evenings, full of  intricate formatting, thanks to my nephew who even managed to develop a seeding process, and Susan and I were not seeded well....)
- homemade gelato (twice)
- taking photos (on my camera and on my phone, thank you Instagram and Hipstamatic)
- sparkle-polish manicures with my little nieces - we were so fancy (one night)
- watching a beautiful bald eagle soar around and around the sky this morning before we left. Magnificent!
- appreciating my wonderful parents and seeing how happy they were with all of us together for a week
- arriving home to find that our neighbors had cared for our flowers and pool and even mowed the lawn! (Who does that anymore? Our awesome neighbors!)
- that feeling of having been there and back again . . . refreshed and happy to sleep in my own bed tonight.

[No poems -- but there are a couple percolating.]

musing on mother's day

I'm lucky. And grateful. I have had the gift of a great mother in my life, and I was given the gift of motherhood -- the greatest grace of my life.

For about ten years, Mother's Day was tough on me. It was easy to celebrate my own mother and the other great mothers out there, but I resented the fact that women who were not mothers felt like "less" or felt less valued on that day. My own sense of loss during what I now call "the infertility years" was magnified on that day. It was my own experience, and hopefully not universal anyway, but I do still hold strong that all women, all people, should be valued regardless of their identity as parent or not. That said, now experiencing the grace of parenthood myself, it is hard not to fully rejoice in a day that celebrates those connections.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of my sister-in-law's sister at a lovely winery in the north country. The temps were in the 50s and it was very windy, so plans for the outdoor wedding were moved inside. Still, it was a warm and sunny affair, and it was beautiful! Nearly all of my family was able to attend, minus one sister who had a work commitment. Here are a few snapshots.

voice of ages

We were lucky enough to catch The Chieftains last night in Ithaca. They are on a 50th Anniversary Voice of Ages tour and we picked up the CD last night too-- with an autograph. The disc is full of great guest appearances. I recommend it! They put on quite a show - complete with some steppers and a Scottish singer that was amazing. I am a huge fan of wooden flutist Matt Molloy. He was terrific, as they all were.

Here you will find a studio short from WGBH. I am keeping the fun going by listening a little this morning! It was worth driving in bad weather in a minivan full of cheerful friends to see these guys while they are still a band with original founding member Paddy Moloney.

stone quarry cottage

Tom and I enjoyed a belated anniversary get-away weekend this past weekend (our anniversary is at the end of May) . . . and we didn't go far from home. We did, however, get far enough away from the everyday routine to get some rest, read by the fire, listen to music, sleep in a little, and eat at some of our favorite restaurants. This fall it dawned on us that we hadn't gone away for a weekend in a very long time. It had been years, actually.

With baseball season stretching from April until October each year, vacations planned around our families, and work travel for Tom or for me (separately), time for just the two of us had been long neglected, with the exception of an occasional dinner or concert out. Thanks to my sister for coming and hanging out with our teenager, we were able to venture to a place I found just a half-hour from home.

I would love to share this with anyone who decides to venture to the Ithaca, NY area. The place is called Stone Quarry House, and we stayed in the stone cottage, which is perfect for a fall weekend. Ithaca is full of things to do, with great restaurants and shopping (and wineries). We ended up doing a little shopping, but mostly couldn't tear ourselves away from the cozy cabin with its gorgeous architectural design, beautiful furnishings, and great fire place. I was SO happy to find that it even had a Keurig!



 I am reading an utterly enjoyable book called Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson. We tuned in to WITH 90.1 for most of the weekend. I was able to recall that relaxing feeling of "being alone together," and I don't think Tom even got sick of me saying over and over, "I just love this cabin . . . . I am so happy!" While the cabin looked a little odd from the outside, inside, it was one big square with great stonework, woodwork, and comfortable Stickley furnishings, with even a Tempur-pedic mattress! It had windows all around it, with lovely views and great light. My favorite feature of the cabin was the fireplace.

Clearly thought went into every detail of this cottage. We found the guestbook on a table, and this is what I wrote:


folk music on the radio
crackling beauty in the fireplace
winter light, peaceful dark
companionship of your best friend
a good book, a Keurig
a bathroom door that slams
when you don't remember to
close it ever so softly

it doesn't get better than this.

Thank you, Stone Quarry Cottage.