Here are three things the wee one has said this summer that has made my heart sing with pride (and hope):

I wish it were snowing right now; what is Wal-Mart?; and to Mimi who was sitting with her, Come and see the carrots we froze for the winter.

Wedding weekend

the dancing queen 

hurry up and wait

One of my best and oldest friends got married this weekend.  I was the officiant. It was wonderful.  One of my favorite parts was the crowd dancing to Hava Nagila and hoisting my friend and her bride high in the air-made even more poignant by the vision of one of the bride's ex-husband exuberantly dancing and holding his ex-wife high in the air in total celebration.

I Stood up to Two Bullies...Why Do I Feel So Badly About It?

I was walking up the rocks from the water, toward the stairs to camp.  There were two loud and raucous boys catching crabs in the tide pools.  I heard one say  "Look at that big, fat lady".  Then more loudly and more taunting, "Look at her big butt.".  I was about 20 feet away from them.  I stopped, turned and addressed them in my most authoritative, adult voice, "Shut up."  I said.  I turned and continued toward the stairs.  The bigger one (10-ish) said "He said it,  pointing to his compatriot.  I replied, " I don't care who said it.  Don't say it all.  It's rude." I turned and came up the stairs.

I relayed the particulars of the exchange with great grammie.  She said, "Good.  They need to be spoken to."  I asked my partner if she heard any of the verbal fisticuffs.  She had not.  When she heard the particulars, she agreed with her grandmother.  I was expecting some leeway to be garnered the boys because of their age, but a 10 year old bully is on his way to being an adult one.  And, I am not a fan of the term "shut up", but in this instance it seemed fitting, because 1)  it was something a 10 year old would get and 2) it was precisely what I wanted them to do.

I hope they have thought about the incident as much as I have and I hope they change their behavior.  At the very least, I hope the older one gets the courage to call the other one out for his behavior instead of waiting for someone else to do it.

Homesick

There are certain days and times of day, even, when I am SO wistful for the place I grew up.  Today, this week actually, has been one of these times.

This is the group I wouldn't mind being in a shipwreck/airplane crash survivlist scenario with...

My 30th high school reunion was last weekend. For years, in my mind, I would recall memories of people from school or events and often think"When I see them again I will ask about that". It's like a LONG vacation and then we will all be back at school.  Occasionally, I would have dreams about being back in highs school and it was always so real to me. As the reunion approached the dreams became less pleasant-I was dreaming of getting to the event and either everybody would be so old looking I didn't recognize them or the other way around-I was the only who had changed. This was the first reunion I had known about in the thirty years since we graduated, so I felt very strongly about attending it.  Thank goodness for Face Book, as I had reconnected with several of my classmates and schoolmates.

I returned from the Friday night portion of the reunion and shared with my partner some of the events and impressions of the evening.  I didn't really think more about it while waiting for Saturday night's dinner portion of the weekend. At one point, my spouse was telling one of my classmates about my comments of the night before regarding everyone "was so nice".  She heartily concurred with this assessment upon meeting them for a few hours and went on to say that "nice' was not an adjective she would use to describe her reunion we attended two years ago.

In the past week, I have had time to reflect on the reunion.  And I am still struck with the niceness, familiarity, comfort and ease of being with these "kids".

Haute Couture

I have a confession. I love reading men's magazines. I have subscriptions to GQ and Details, but will buy Men's Health and Men's Journal frequently if I am jonesing for some input.  Originally it began as an obsession for the ads-Nautica, Hillfiger, Lauren, then stepped up to the cologne samples.  I take these out and put them strategically in my car (they are losing their efficacy though as D-O-G gets more odoriferous with age).  My next rung on the crack pipe of "style" is the grooming and " the style guy-Glenn O'Brien" pieces in these mags. (To be fair, GQ is also my go to source for political reporting) I am fascinated by the amount of history and attention to detail in these articles.  They say you become an expert at something if you read 100 books or something to that effect. I am certain I have absorbed that many GQ's alone.
The editors are always chastising men to establish and nurture a relationship with a fine tailor and to have your clothing fitted, even if you are not male model material. Ha! I thought.  Just more narcissism and pandering to the NYC crowd.  Well...I have to tell you I took a pair of white jeans to a new alteration shop near my home to be shortened. By the time she was done with me, we made the decision to shorten, taper and take in (to actual fit) the jeans to my body, of which I can VERY safely say is not model material. I walked out of there feeling like a million bucks-and I didn't even have the jeans!
Granted it did seem rather pricey when all was said and done, but the jeans cost $19 (LLBean) and with the additional fee, they will be about the price of a regular pair of higher end jeans with one notable exception -they fit ME!
I may have discovered a new obsession.

Friday Photo

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (Inspired by Soule Mama)