Kiss My Knits!

I have no idea why these geese decided our yard was a good grazing spot. We don’t usually get visits from waterfowl.

I do, however, know why Mom stopped by. She had a little something for me.

When our power went out last week due to a power pole falling onto a truck right in front of our driveway, we hightailed it to my mother’s house so Em could get her homework done and we could have all the comforts of modern electrified life. I brought my leftover lunch from work with me so I could eat it for dinner and not have to open the refrigerator door to store it.

My mom brought the container back to me with my name written on it in permanent marker. She did ask before marking it.

I love this. I may be the only person at work whose mommy has labeled her lunchbox with her name. You can bet I’ll smile when I use it. Thanks, Mom.

Last night I had nightmares all night. In one, my mother had been unjustly convicted of stealing fine art and sentenced to three years in prison in New Zealand. I think my brain picked New Zealand because that’s as far away from here as you can get and still stay on the planet, although I was staying in New Zealand to work on her release. I had done a documentary on this particular prison, so I knew it wasn’t as bad as it could be, because I could still send her books. Turns out she was going to a different one that didn’t allow books. Talk about torture! I was hatching elaborate schemes to send magazines (which were allowed) and somehow smuggle in short stories disguised as feature articles. It was all very disturbing.

I guess all this means that I love my mom and would hate be separated from her. I think she’ll get an extra big hug when I see her today.

Happy Mother’s Day!

(Please stay away from New Zealand.)

ETA: My mother the comedian just called.

Me: Hello?
Her: Now, they’re only giving me one phone call…

Heh.

I stayed up way too late last night finishing up a project, which I hoped to have ready this morning. It’s 90% done, but it needs a finishing touch and probably won’t be ready until tonight, so I would have been better off going to bed early. Oh well.

However, Em did stay asleep all night. Before going to bed, she asked if we could change her pillowcase. One of the thing she’d said a few nights ago while awake in the middle of the night was that her pillow was uncomfortable. But that was one of a litany of things that were wrong, and I figured it was just one more on the list of things to say when upset. The fact that she said it last night before going to bed told me that yes, her pillow probably was uncomfortable. Fortunately, we have a spare. I set her up with two pillows last night and said she could switch them to see which she liked best, or could have them both on her bed. She went with that. So now she’s added another pillow to her nest of dolls and blankets. But hey – she stayed asleep all night. I’m not complaining. Besides, I also had an ungodly amount of stuff on my bed as a child, so I have no room to talk.

In spite of being up late and being very tired this morning, I geared up to run before dropping Em off, then went straight to Little Sugar Creek Greenway and ran. I’m running faithfully again now that the weather is good. I lost the couple of pounds I picked up over the winter, so I’m back to where I was when I started slacking off due to cold weather. Anything else from here on is forward progress.

It was misting slightly when I started. I like running in the mist, but it always leaves me wishing I had little windshield wipers on my glasses. A bonus of going at 7:15 in the morning in the mist is that aside from a couple of dog walkers, nobody else was out. I have to admit that I feel a little superior when that happens. “Ha! You super-fit exercise maniacs who glide effortlessly past me don’t have the huevos to come out in the morning rain, eh? Come back when you’re serious!”

The mornings are good on the Greenway. I saw a rabbit, some ducks, and a hawk which was being chased by a little songbird. On the down side, because of the deluge a few days ago, the waters are still receding and the entire stream area smelled like wet dog. Small price to pay.

My mother is coming over soon. We’re going to see Star Trek at a local IMAX theater together. And because she loves me and wants me to be healthy and happy, I know that she will be okay with my decision to go running instead of cleaning the shambles that is my house. Let’s hear it for Trekkie families with their priorities straight. Live long and prosper, y’all!

My mother the writer and editor asks me to pass this along:

“I am seeking to interview a driver who went through the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles medical review program, or who referred an older relative to the program, maybe an elderly parent whose driving they were concerned about.

This is for an article in an AARP publication on how the medical review program works.”

If this describes you or you know someone in this situation, please comment or e-mail me at heather at jaynehat dot com. Thank you!

For those of you wondering how the costume went, I was all set to stitch up a bedraggled costume out of an adult-sized bridesmaid dress. Luckily, Mom saved me from having to do that, and probably also saved me from bursting a blood vessel from stress, by finding a store-bought costume big enough to fit Em. Thanks, Mom! The pretty princess is all set to go tonight!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

ETA: Halloween night update! Before trick-or-treating, we went up to her school’s “Family Fun Night.” I’d say three out of every five girls were dressed as princesses. She got a little candy, did “ghost bowling” (ghost outlines taped to empty milk jugs knocked down with a plastic ball) and bounced on a giant bouncy castle with attached inflatable slide.

As we were getting ready to leave, her best friends from her class came in. They were also dressed as princesses. They exclaimed, “EMILY! YOU LOOK SO PRETTY!!” and they rushed up to hug her. Man, that was gratifying. They were going into the cafeteria, so we encouraged Em to go in too. It worked out well. They all got cotton candy and sat together for a little while, but not too long, since Em was keen to trick-or-treat.

We went to about eight houses – a record for Em. She was doing her level best not to break into a run going up the sidewalk. She ate some candy and then we watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. Now Em’s completely worn out. She just this minute went to bed, and I predict she’ll be asleep within five minutes.

“Halloween was so exciting! I hope I can do all these things again next year for Halloween!”

When I was 16, Akira Kurosawa’s movie Ran came out. Being an artsy girl, I naturally wanted to see it with the artsy boy I was dating. We both loved film. However, we were both also teenagers, so when we actually met at the theater to see it… we wound up going elsewhere and necking (just necking!) in a parked car. I don’t remember if it was his idea or my idea. I really did want to see the movie, but hormones will be hormones.

When I got home that night, my mother was awake but in bed. As I got ready to go to sleep, she called through the wall separating our bedrooms that she had had to leave in the middle when she saw it (that’s reasonable, it runs almost three hours) and she wanted to know if the old man died.

Frozen like a deer in headlights, I said something like, “Uh, I really don’t remember. I think so?”

This was clearly a bogus response. The old man was the central character in the film, and if I’d seen it, there’s no possible way I wouldn’t have remembered. To this day, I don’t know if it was an innocent question or if she was suspicious and asked to see if she could catch me out. (Mom reads my blog, so if she even remembers this, maybe she’ll tell me.) A very unpleasant conversation through the bedroom wall followed, with my mother justifiably angry that I’d lied and me feeling miserable and apologetic. I was a pretty good kid, overall, so parental disapproval was very upsetting. Damn you, hormones!

Anyway. I saw other Kurosawa films, but never did get around to actually seeing Ran before it left theaters. I always wanted to, because I really like Kurosawa and because at some point it seemed ridiculous that I still hadn’t seen it after all that turmoil.

So now I’ve seen it. And I’m glad I did. Two thumbs up. And I get to mark it off of my “things to do before I die” list so it won’t bother me anymore. So today, that’s definitely one in the “win” column!