reluctant tweeter

I first met Julie back behind the school.  No, we weren't sneaking cigarettes or anything.  We were back there waiting for our kids to emerge among the manic mass streaming from the school after the afternoon bell.  She has a daughter who graduated with Chaco and another that is one year older than Meego.  She was also a familiar face at various volunteer events at the school, but I mainly got to know her at the back fence.

Since we've both evolved from elementary school mom status, I haven't really kept in touch with her, but she was an easy friend.  Always smiling and cheerful, easy to talk with about anything, but not big on superficial small talk (which I hate).

On Saturday, Magnum and I were out taking China for a beauty walk.  I looked up ahead on the sidewalk and saw Julie with her familiar pooch.  She was talking with the man who lived in the corner house while her dog Jake and the guy's dog Harvey did some socializing.

As we approached, I hailed her and we stopped to chat a bit.  During this, I sensed that something was "different" about Julie.  I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something seemed changed.  She looked the same, for the most part, other than her hair was shorter and curlier than our days at the back fence.

I just got this sense that she wanted to have a more real conversation with me, but we just shared some pleasantries, introduced Magnum, Jake, Harvey, China...  I wanted to catch up more with her too, but we had Magnum, the neighbor, the dogs, so the "good to see you's" signaled the end and we all moved on.

The short encounter preoccupied me somewhat for the rest of the day.  What was it?  Something in her eyes told me she'd been through some "stuff" since I last spoke with her.




Yesterday, I decided to look her up.  I couldn't find her on f_book, but her last name is rather unique and I wasn't sure I was spelling it correctly.  So I googled to see if anything came from that and something did.  A blog, in fact.





The title of the blog was the name of the street she lives on, so I thought it was a neighborhood blog for the neighbors to keep up with each other between block parties or such.  But I clicked the link and found that it was a blog "to update family and friends on our journey through Julie's breast cancer".

SHOOT!! (or something like that)

I read a few entries to get the gist of the situation.  The diagnosis was nearly two years ago now.  She's been through the surgery, the reconstruction, the chemo, the medications, the side effects...  So I was really wanting to get back in touch with her after our short casual chat on Saturday.




I found her on twitter.  I do have a twitter account that I never use.  Years ago, my boss wanted all us tutors to get an account so he could easily send out workshop info and such.  He ended up not caring for it, and I never got around to deleting my account.  I just never used it.





Until now.
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Silver Liningness Sunday

First of all, I'd like to mention that I'm grateful that June is back.  Not the month of June - that's on its way - but June the crossing guard Matriarch.  She took a nasty break to her foot about 3 months or so ago, but is back working the streets!  Still a bit gimpy, but coming along nicely and warmly welcomed back.

Wolfgang's track season ended this week at the State track meet.  He and the rest of the 4x800 team managed to secure a spot.  They didn't win it all, but made a decent showing and had fun getting there.   And I can't end the season without, once again, poking a bit of fun at Magnum's photography efforts.  But let me just say that it's all in fun.  Good action photos are extremely difficult to get, as things happen so fast.

So here we have the tremendously exciting baton exchange between Wolfgang and Reid... about a second BEFORE it happened.  Note that Magnum was using a different camera than his iPhone, so he'd not been recalibrated to the other camera.

In other year-end news Meego had his last school band concert for the year.  I'm grateful that his band clothes managed to just fit for one last concert.

I've mentioned that Chaco finished up his first year of college and is now out of the dorm and back in the mess home.  His summer job prospects are still just that - prospects.  Anyone want to rent him?

In movie news, Magnum and I watched Cabin in the Woods.  I'd never heard of this movie, but it showed up in my Netfli* recommendations.  We're fans of Joss Whedon, so I put it in the queue.  It's pretty clever, I'll say that, and we both liked it.  Definitely NOT for the squeamish, however!

It feels good to be finishing up another school year and prepping for summer.  Both Chaco and Wolfgang are done, Meego's got one more week as do I and the hideous vest.

I'll share another of Magnum' track meet shots.  I think it begs for a caption if I didn't know what was going on.

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Liquid

I thought I was going to miss another Illustration Friday, where this week's prompt is "liquid", because of a schedule that was booked "solid".  Wouldn't that be a "gas"?

Okay, sorry...

Wolfgang is at freshman orientation today, and I was half-planning to go with him.  After consulting with various expert sources (namely Chaco and Wolfgang), it didn't seem necessary.  The thing goes on ALL  DAY, and maybe 15 minutes of the parental portion would be helpful for us.  So it was that or paint these ducks.

I never had a rubber duck as a kid and was rather jealous of Ernie on Sesame Street.  But then, I had green humanoid Gumby and his talking red pony sidekick Pokey to bathe with.

My non-conformist waters run deep.  Or maybe I just watched too much TV.
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evacuated!

"There.  Right there!  TAKE  IT... TAKE  IT!!"  He gestured, pointing maniacally as I steered.

I pinched the vehicle perfectly into the squeeze, secured it, and we were off.  Mayhem surrounded us as we dove into the nearest building.  We made our way up the stairwell among a cacophony of popping, scraping, ripping noises.

As we climbed the endless stairway, I took in the sights.  Discarded food, clothing, and what could only be described as shrapnel.  What was that odor?  I decided I didn't want to know as I chastised myself for forgetting the gas masks.  We would have to work quickly to get out in one piece.

When we finally made it to the top, we emerged into a tight hallway of more noises, smells, and indeterminate matter.  Moving quickly, we passed several small openings off of the main pathway.  I glanced in a few of these chambers and saw various stages of disarray.  I saw human forms in slumped positions, barely moving.

We entered a room at the end of the hall.  I vaguely remembered being there before.  Before the collapse.

We began grabbing anything we could carry.  Anything that looked familiar and useful.  Once our arms were full, we headed back out into the fray, pushing our way back to the stairwell.  More popping sounds, more ripping, more scraping.  A blur of bodies moved against us, issuing intermittent incoherent screams.  And the smells, oh the smells.

We carefully but swiftly moved back down the littered, contaminated stairwell.  I tried not to breathe... I tried...

How many trips did we make in total?  I can't remember.  The heat, the adrenaline, the chaos made the entire episode blend into one.  We were halfway down the stairwell on our last trip.

"The burn!  THE  BURN!!"  I shouted to him.  "My left arm!  It  BURNS!!"

He urged me to just keep going, be tough.  His load was heavier.  But then, he wasn't a 48-year-old woman, I reminded him.  The banter helped me make it all the way to the now stuffed vehicle.   I checked my watch. The pilaging had taken us just about an hour.  Now for the getaway!

Traffic back to the compound was thankfully light.  I backed into the docking bay where some of the others came out to help retrieve the goods and secure them into the hideout.  I pulled on the hideous vest and dashed to the crosswalk just in time, to keep up the suburban housewife deception.

Within a relatively short period, the Command Center was up and functioning.

Operation CHC (Chaco Home from College) accomplished.  

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free candy! (and puppies!)

The weather's been so nice, I'm thinking I might make the big jump and change out the tires on the van.  Well, no, not by mySELF.  But take it to the guys at the shop and have them change her shoes.  OFF with the snowboots!

We got our rockin' van back around 2005, I think it was.  She is a full-size Econoline 150 V8 beautiful big girl.  I wanted it for road trips and camping trips.  Plus, I figured if things go all zombie apocalypse, we could always live in it while fighting off the herds.  Not so with the Subaru.

And since we are feral tent campers, she could serve as an emergency shelter in the case of nasty weather or nasty bears.



A couple of years ago, after having the tires swapped out, we lost one of the hubcaps during a camping trip.  I rather like the "tough" look it gives to that one tire.  No bear would mess with that van in the woods!

But I don't like the asymmetry.    I want to just remove the other three hubcaps.

Chaco and Wolfgang say doing so would give it the "pedophile van" look.  Might as well paint "FREE  CANDY" on the side.

Flickr.com

Oh come on.  Our van isn't even red, it's purple (or whatever the heck color it is).  

So it remains with one missing hubcap because no one wants to spring for a full set just to replace one.  And my inner emo is lobbying for all black rims.  

The snow tires are about to come off.  Should the remaining three hubcaps "mysteriously" pop off?  Free candy and puppies for whoever's with me.

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Mother's Day and beyond

Thirteen years ago today, Meego was born.  It so happens that May 14th was Mother's Day in the year 2000, so it seemed an appropriate day for a good birthing.  If nothing else, I think those of us in the maternity ward that day got some extra freebies that aren't common to just any-old-day birthings.

So while I don't want a fuss on Mother's Day - a request to which everyone too readily complies - we do have a bit of hootenanny for Meego's birthday.

Since we were out track meeting for most of Saturday, we plotted birthday recognition for Sunday, which coincided with Mother's Day.

It was a pretty low-maintenance plan really.  The weather was great (finally!), so Meego wanted to hang out at the local zoo for a while, mainly to check out the latest inhabitants of the reptile house.  Then we'd go out for a nice meal.   Easier said than done!  We swung by the university to pick Chaco up, and we were off.

The condensed version is that the zoo was a total zoo.  So we decided on plan B:  head over to the neighbor falls.  The neighbor falls were crawling with people too.  I suspect, like us, many were zoo rejects.  We made plan C:  head over to the next set of falls.

There, we finally had some nice breathing room.  The place was noticeably more crowded than usual.  You'd think it was a family oriented holiday on the first decent weekend of the spring or something!

But there was plenty of room for all of us, and besides, trail people are typically nice anyway.  We just got on the main trail and decided we'd hike until we collapsed... then turn around.  I took my glasses off so as to not get freaked out by the crazy rock climbers.  

So even though it was plan C, it turned out to be a nice day of family recreating. Meego's first choice of restaurant was uber Mother's Day crowded, so we had a plan B for that too.  We were all famished from the hike, so it really didn't matter as long as there was marginally edible food.

By the time we got home, I suspected my parents had already gone to bed, so I didn't call my mom on Mother's Day.  I called her yesterday on Not Mother's Day.

Me:  Hi Mom
Mom:  Hi.  You didn't call me yesterday

Me:  I know, we were out all day and when we got back, it was past your bedtime.      
Mom:  Oh.  

Me:  Anything new?
Mom:  No, not really.  Guano called.  Hagrid called.  You didn't call.

Me:  I know, I didn't want to get you out of bed.
Mom:  Oh.

<        more guilt tripping, more me trying to change the subject         >

We had a nice little chat after the guilt was satisfactorily applied.

Mom:  Okay, thanks for calling. *do I detect a hint of sarcasm?*
Me:  Yep, okay, I should go.  I have to disgrace the family name by being a lowly crossing guard now.

Mom:  Okay, call again.
Me:  I will.  I'll call in a coupla days.  Have the barbs ready!
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Silver Liningness Sunday

What were we watching??

First of all, although I'm not a fan of Hallmark Holidays, I must begin with a heartfelt Happy Mother's Day to all my mom friends!  And that especially goes to my own Dear Mom!


In this photo, we are sitting much too close to the small black-and-white-and-remoteless TV.  But no worries as I clearly had the protection of Mom, reinforced by that of brother Guano and his alter ego.  This photo was chosen to protect everyone's true identity...




This was a good and busy week.  I've already mentioned the wrap up of track seasons for both Wolfgang and Meego.  Wolfgang has the state meet coming up.  Meego had fun getting his feet wet in this, his first track team experience.  The middle school had three meets altogether.  Five were scheduled, but two were sacrificed to the snow gods.

I'm also wrapping up with the last of my school year tutees, trying to make a graceful transition from tutor to student and figuring out my schedule for the summer.  I think it will all be fun and worth it.  I think.  This morning, I got a tutoring inquiry from someone named Zeus wanting help preparing for his SAT.  Is that his real name, I wonder?  I think it could be quite rewarding to help the Supreme Ruler of Mount Olympus with his SAT.

Chaco has been gracing us with his presence lately, schlepping a few things home as his freshman year is winding down, finals fun this coming week.  I'm glad that he is enjoying college.  I let him smuggle some cookies back with him.

Yesterday, I ran into a friend of mine I haven't seen in a while.  She tells me she's going to be a mom again, with kid number 4 on the way, and that's nice because she's one of the good ones. Yay, moms!
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