Friday, September 21, 2012

Elegance

Today is our 21st wedding anniversary. We are celebrating with friends at a football game, hardly an elegant affairs.

I've been thinking about elegance lately. My friend Yuko commented that a mutual friend found a very elegant man to marry. Elegant (from Maryland), unlike the men around here (he knows how to dance).

I once confessed to her that dinner at my house was like eating with a pack of werewolves from The Twilight series. Picture Jacob and his brothers, sparring and howling.

Yesterday I visited a local village and its elegant library. It was housed in a former university building. I relaxed for a minute, maybe two, by its enormous mahogany fireplace.

I used to be more comfortable with elegance. When my grandparents were alive we frequented country clubs and art museums. Elegance is now a rarity and I find that I tend to equate it with wealth as opposed to refinement.

But it is also poetry, classical music and art...and manners.

Should I be exposing the boys to the more elegant side of life more often? How can I infuse more elegance into our home?

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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

That One Thing

I promised myself that I would STAY PUT today. I am staying home, not only because my car is broken down and in the shop, but because I want to practice better self discipline.

I want to finish the laundry and dishes instead of leaving the job half done.

I'm pulling the sweaters and boots out of storage. I hope to do some filing.

But there's no milk for my morning coffee. One teen drank it all while I ran the other to morning gym.

I require two cups of coffee every morning. And now I'm terribly tempted to run to town, go to campus, return bottles, etc.

So instead I'm drinking some very expensive Japanese tea that my good friend brought from Tokyo.

It has a strange flavor, reminiscent if seaweed.

I'm hoping it delivers the caffeine punch she claimed, to keep me going through my fifth laundry load and third dish strainer in this, the 10 o'clock hour.

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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Balance

I often think about balance...eating a balanced diet, resting some between work days, and giving compliments as much as or more than I give instructions.

The summer months were off balance with regard to being on my feet. I now have a terrible time sitting still unless I'm asleep.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the lifestyle at the nursing home. Elderly folks, mostly women, sit for days on end. They stare at the same faces, listening to the same stories and tired old jokes.

This week my good friend Yuko, who lives in Tokyo, visited. Unlike her last few visits when I was overscheduled and overtired, we found time to eat out, scrapbook, and stroll. I learned about her best childhood friend and we talked about health care proxies.

It was a good balance.

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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Ordinary Heroes

If you haven't read read the story of What She Did Last Week...you should. It will brighten your day.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Stories

This summer I became good friends with a young Mexican woman named Ruby. She came through a student work program and she landed in my restaurant, cooking and washing dishes in our hot kitchen all summer long.

She gave up a year of university to come, as the program ended long after the start of the Mexican "Fall semester."

She really came to find her father, who, for the last thirteen years has worked two jobs in San Francisco, a jewelry store by day and a restaurant by night. He sent money back to the family in Mexico but he himself could not travel. As an undocumented worker he would lose his source of income and even, perhaps his life, if he were to try to re-enter the U.S.

I wondered what she would find when she got to San Francisco? What if he had a second family there?

She always spoke of him with nothing but fondness. Over the thirteen years he had faithfully called home.

Ruby posted pictures this morning of Alcatraz, cable cars, Pier 39 and sea lions. And pictures of her dad.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

We Don't Do Funerals

On Sunday we attended a baptism service at a church with a very different "spirit" than our own. Even the children mentioned that they felt drained of joy afterward. I left yearning for a good funeral. See, we "don't do funerals" in our neck of the woods. Instead, we celebrate life and home-goings with singing, clapping, and happy tears. Last night we celebrated the life of our old friend Wes. He was 92 when he passed away peacefully at the local VA Hospital. He was a father, grandfather, retired mill worker, a serviceman and and poet (see photo). It was a beautiful, spirit-filled service. Miss Rosie sand beautifully as did the choir. The piano and the congregation's voices filled the sanctuary and the seats bounced. I left with the feeling that I'd "been to the well." A beautiful song by Brad Paisley, on this the anniversary of 9/11

Friday, September 7, 2012

17.5 Hours

I feel completely out of sync these days with the march of time. The regular season at the amusement park is over, the international students have gone back to school, and my four boys each entered a new grade level.

Summer sped by. We are already in week three of the Fall semester and my Japanese friend Yuko will visit next weekend ( wasn't she just here?!)

I started a new job on Tuesday at a claims processing firm. I suspected that it would be a.challenge to learn to sit all day in an office again but I didn't anticipate how much I would hate the physical environment and the attitudes of my coworkers. It took just 17.5 hours on the job for me to know, with absolute certainty, that the job was not a good fit.

I explained to the supervisor as I was leaving."I don't wish to waste your time, or mine."

Now it is time to job hunt again and catch up on some of the mommy chores that have gone half done for awhile.

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