Weekend Wrap Up November 16, 2008

As for me, I see a light at the end of a very long tunnel. Nine days after they turned them in, I finally have finished grading the English portion of my students’ scrapbook projects. I’m working on a post of the highlights.

I’d like to recommend a stopover at What Kate Did Next. She’s a writer, a mom, a wife to a pilot, and she lives in London. How cool is all that? Her posts are thoughtful, creative, and usually multimedia. Her post this weekend combined a music video of Crowded House, a trailer from the movie The Notebook, a series of photographs featuring men in tears (by artist Sam Taylor Wood) and it is all linked thematically to creating emotion for characters when writing fiction. Yeah. Great blog to visit before writing as it is always inspiring.

My sister, Shaunna, did a Veteran’s Day post that wove in the story of our maternal grandmother, a model and flapper in the 20’s. Has my all time favorite picture of our grandma. You will have a hard time believing she was a grandma from the picture of her in her twenties.

Don’t Worry it’s Only a Movie featured the Keith Olbermann video that is a must see. I’d post about how I feel about Proposition 8 passing, but Keith says it better.

Kristan Hoffman is announcing a contest she will be having later this week to celebrate her birthday. Another young woman going at writing full time, I especially like her posts featuring studies she reads on famous authors and their writing ways. Make sure to wish her a happy birthday this week.

The following video is for those who wondered what “bombing hills” was.


Notice the motorcycle helmets...

And for those who wonder how I survive my son’s activities, the following is a video clip I swiped from my daughter’s Facebook page. The closest she comes to danger is a dance number at the edge of the stage. One of her favorite things in the world is when I will sit and watch an old musical with her. This clip can’t help but put a smile on your face.


My daughter is like a modern day Julie Andrews. She lives for this stuff

I think the Universe has a wicked sense of humor.

Friday Foto

The Sports Enthusiast Part Two, in Pictures...

(for the part one text version, click here)

Summer '07



Still Summer '07

This last one is last month at Waimea.

For more Friday Foto, head on over to Candid Carrie's.

They Call Me Tree

I waited to blog about this until the boy was home and safe. My 16 year old son, who likes to surf, skate, ride dirt bikes, and jump off cliffs or rocks into deep pools of water, gives me a lot of grey hairs.

So, when he was packing up to go to his friend’s house on Monday afternoon because Tuesday was a holiday, I couldn’t help but notice the odd assortment of gear he was taking. Skateboard, check. Backpack, check. Helmet, huh?

Why are you taking your motorcycle helmet and not your skateboard helmet?

It provides better protection.

Next, he grabs his protective gear (gloves, pants) for dirt biking.

Where and what are you skateboarding?

We’re into bombing hills these days.

There are many times I have to remind myself to let things go. To be happy that my son, who had many difficulties in elementary school with motivation and self-discipline, now has a 3.7 GPA. That I have not had to check that he did his work since 7th grade. I should be happy that he has taken extra classes and is ahead on his credits. That he does a lot of chores around the house.

Still, there are only so many ways to survive your heat skipping a beat and your stomach doing a triple backwards flip.

Every once in awhile I think, why oh why after nine years of baseball, soccer, basketball, and football; after hours of driving to practices and hanging out in parks and potlucks – after all the time and energy, where was that corner he slipped around when I wasn’t looking and decided extreme individual sports was his thing??

One day, while I was fighting anxiety while I watched him body surf waves that would keep me from even a quick dippity do da, I heard a voice. At first it was faint. I tried to ignore it. With each crashing wave it got a little louder. Ah. There it was again. My father’s voice. Suddenly, a full blown flashback in Technicolor and surround-sound invaded my consciousness.

I’m 16 years old and lying in the back seat of our family car. My foot is elevated on the front seat and it’s swollen at least three times its normal size. My dad is driving me to the emergency room because while riding my horse in the arena, my horse slipped in the mud and fell in one swoop on his side. It happened so fast I wasn’t able to bail and my foot got caught in the stirrup. When my horse fell, the stirrup twisted with my foot inside, smashing it against the ground with the full weight of my horse on top, breaking three of my metatarsal bones.

The tricky thing was, I was told…no actually, it was more like forbidden, to ride that day. It had been raining for several days straight, the arena was muddy and my dad told me that although the sun had been out for a few hours, it was still too wet and slippery. I could go up and groom my horse, but no riding.

So the whole way to the hospital he yelled at me. Something like,

You god damned hard head. What the hell is the matter with you? If I had a nickel for every minute I had to spend in an emergency room with you, I’d be a rich man.

He also swatted at me and the side of my head at stoplights on the way to the hospital.

Those other trips he was referring to include:

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  Getting a nail slammed into the bottom of my foot when my best friend and I , at eleven, jumped off her barn roof holding sheets like parachutes and landed in her dad’s strawberry fields. The winds were whipping it up that day and it was actually kind of working, I mean we never broke any bones. Just bad luck that a board with a nail was under the plants.
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  Running barefoot down the pier and slicing the pad of my foot on another nail that was sticking half way up.
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  When my girlfriend in high school who had a jeep and used to always take us four wheeling rolled her jeep down a hill – about 15 times.

These are times I was hurt and do not include the rock and tree climbing I did when we lived at the beach.

The apple has fallen. Kerplunk. Karma’s a bitch. And my dad is up there, laughing his ass off at me. And hopefully keeping an eye on his grandson.

Wordless Wednesday #7

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Not driftwood after all...

And yes, just sleeping.

For more Wordless Wednesday, click here.

And the Winner is.......

But first, the weekly wrap up.

Some stuff this week on the internet:

In the mood for something fun, light, and the cutest thing since, I don’t even fucking know? I mean a video that makes BC look like old school run of the mill? Abstraction has a video post of a little French toddler, Capucine, telling her mom a story into a video camera. You ain’t heard nothing if you haven’t heard a little French cutie pie say hippo and crocodile in French. My daughter and I watched it twice last night, and that was after I called her in after watching it once myself.

Another of Abstraction’s posts is a great idea for Christmas. “Christmas is coming, and instead of giving your money to Target or Wal-Mart, 100% of your contribution will go directly to helping sweet Indian children receive a quality education! This whole art benefit will be on an official George Foundation website in the next month or so...but I am giving you a sneak peak of the amazing art that will be a part of this benefit, just in case you're an early shopper...” D’Arcy (Abstraction) is spreading the message for her friend Emily.

Thistle has an interesting post on guns, and since she’s Canadian, both the post and the comment thread explore thoughtfully a variety of perspectives on this issue.

A new blog for me, Whiskey in my Sippy Cup (and really, how can anyone not check out a blog with this title) has an excellent post on the backlash of Prop 8 making it through.

Salon has an excellent article about George W. Bush’s 8 year effect on the environment, along with some scientists’ ideas for Obama to try and turn the tables.

Last, and certainly the most entertaining for me personally, was my migraine med induced idea of a contest. First of all, I’d like to thank all who sent me well wishes. That is the second time internet positive vibes worked like magic. Because after suffering for 3 and ½ days, by yesterday afternoon I was feeling OK. Not OK enough to risk sipping a martuni. But OK enough to go out to an impromptu late lunch with my daughter. We invited a close friend to come along as she had called earlier and said if I felt better and was up to anything to let her know. How odd that my close and dear friend (“P”) that was spending the late afternoon with my daughter and I would be the one who got the most votes to be me. Which is quite the compliment, because she is gracious, fun, funny, and a great friend. We had a lovely lunch at The Pineapple room in Macy’s, followed with browsing through Ala Moana. Nordstrom’s opened a few months ago and I’ve never been, so we strolled down there and tried on expensive clothes just for the fun of it. Plus Daughter and P said I just had to experience the dressing rooms. We ended the day in Sephora, trying lotions and creams and asking the poor sales girl which cream would get rid of our wrinkles and sun spots.

So, thanks all for having some fun with me on my 51st birthday. Look like there is no need for a tumble. Liz is the only one who guessed correctly. I’m the one sitting with a baby in my lap (not son – baby is son of the other blonde I was mistaken for). That baby is now a 9th grader and like a younger brother to my 16 year old. They ride dirt bikes on the weekends together on the North Shore. The cutie in the pink dress is Daughter. Since all of my friends had boys, she is the spoiled girl that gets to hang with mom and the aunties.

Wicked Weekend Birthday Bonanza

Today, November 8th, 2008, I am 51 years old. It’s my birthday. What am I doing today? Hopefully, next to nothing. I have chronic migraine issues and have had since I was 12 years old. I have many triggers, depending on my body’s fluctuating chemistry – but among the triggers are stress, lack of sleep, MSG (big one here), chocolate (bummers), alcohol (double bummers), nitrates, and hormone fluctuations. The biggest trigger is neck problems. Back in the day, when I used to tell the doctors (and I’ve been to dozens over the decades) that most of my migraines are preceded by horrible neck pain, the doctors scoffed at me and told me how all the studies have shown that these two things are unrelated. Fast forward thirty odd years and when they did a bone scan to see if my breast cancer had metastasized, low and behold, turns out I have major arthritis and compacted discs in my neck. My physical therapist, who is amazing, tells me that many of the migraine patients he has have neck triggers. Hmm. Go figure.

So, anywhos, I have been suffering with a neck ache from hell and a migraine that, apparently, is immune to Imitrix since Wednesday. I went to work every day on meds since the students were finishing up a big project and I couldn’t imagine leaving my team colleagues with a sub.

Today the headache is gone, but my neck is sore. So I plan on napping and relaxing and not going out at all. When my daughter gets home from work she is going to make us some lunch and we are going to hang out and do nothing, except maybe pedicures and movie watching.

To mix things up a bit and take an old bag’s idea of a walk on the wild side, I thought I’d try a contest AND, OMG, post a picture of myself. I am Pseudo because I want to write freely and not have to worry about what admin and parents would think. But so far, no one from Hawaii reads this blog. And so far I haven’t written anything that I think is too bombastic and controversial. And OK, it’s not much of a picture because it is not recent, so I’m not being all that out there.

So here goes. This picture was taken 11 years ago when I went to Maui with a group of friends. These friends are all women I met the first year I moved to Hawaii as we all worked together and in this picture we had been friends for 15 years already; as of today they are all still my closest and dearest friends and we have now known each other 26 years. There’s a couple more in our gang who did not make the trip that year. I have to say that I don’t look a lot like I did 11 years ago, so I am playing it somewhat safe. I am 11 years older, 15 pounds heavier, and my hair (growing out from the bald chemo state) is shorter, thicker, and curlier.
Here’s the game. Guess which one is me. All those who guess correctly will be put in a tumble and the winner will get to select a hardback from this selection from my library. The post comes down Sunday 8 PM Hawaii time and I’ll announce the winner.

And in case anyone who knows me does read this blog, please don’t out me with my real name. And now I'm off for my first birthday nap.

Friday Foto

Every camping trip involves walks on the beach at night, accompanied by crab catching and then the infamous crab race. The race lasts about 15 seconds.

For more Friday Foto Fun, head on over to Candid Carrie's.