Independence Day

It feels like Seattle weather here: a bit overcast and pleasantly cool. We went to the town celebration this afternoon--a homegrown, folksy time with cotton candy, three-legged races, a kids' obstacle course, hot air balloon rides courtesy of a local realty, the town band playing marches and ragtime. My camera took the afternoon off, poor thing deserved a break.

Also, earlier:
pancake and sausage breakfast
too many cherries (but they're so good!)
a Twilight Zone marathon

And now:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
napping to prepare for the late night fireworks
making potato salad for dinner tonight

I wanted to pause and be grateful for family (it's been great having my parents here), kids holding balloons, oompa tubas, lawns, sparklers (sadly illegal here in MA), and especially for the freedom to speak out/believe/worship/choose your own direction/vote/travel and for those brave souls who sacrificed to secure these things.

Have a great one, friends.

p.s. It's hard to believe that it was a year ago we put Lauren on the plane to Ireland (and we moved into this house). Where does the time go, anyway?

The wondrous land of blog

Andrea, me, Liz, Brittany

{photo via Andrea, by the way}

Maddy: What are you getting ready for?

Me: I'm going out to eat with some friends tonight.

Maddy: Who? (A little too skeptically. Hey, M, I have friends!)

Me: Ummm. Andrea. And Liz. And Brittany.

Maddy: Have I ever met them?

Me: Well, no. Technically I haven't either. We met by reading each others' blogs. We found out Andrea is visiting here and the rest of us live around New England.

Maddy: (after a beat) I thought we weren't supposed to arrange to see people we meet online. And not give out our information. Are you sure this is safe? (Maddy girl's got my back.)

Me: That's true, you definitely shouldn't. But these are really more like penpals. We know each other pretty well. {or, I'm thinking to myself, at least kind of well. Or barely.}

Maddy: (looks doubtful) Okay. When will you be home?

* * *

We had a great evening together, the four of us. Amazing how you can sit down and already know so much about the lives of people you've never met. And how quickly you start talking, laughing, sharing, and getting real. I loved every minute of it. Liz even made laminated cards commemorating the First Annual New England Blog Party (get your reservations in early for next year!)

So here's another counterbalance to last week's blog crisis. This land of blog can be also be affirming, connecting, uplifting, and sometimes a lifeline. I've reconnected with longlost friends. Distant (on the family tree) family members have become good friends (hi Jenny). And I've made new blog friends (you know who you are...if you're reading this, I mean you) and penpal friends (hi Jessica and Lindsay in England--we got your envelope today!).

Do you know the Emily Dickinson poem that goes "this is my letter to the world/that never answered back"? Well, this is mine.

I think Emily would totally be a blogger, by the way.

Quandary

Lauren adores being in the theater. She was in two productions in middle school (including the lead in Twelfth Night...oh the Shakespearean lines to memorize!) and several in elementary school. This year she accepted a twice-a-week babysitting job for some neighbors, preventing her from trying out. She missed it so much (and the school play this year is going to perform at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh so she very sadly missed that, too) that she vowed to try out next year.

This week the high school announced what the musical will be next year, a highly anticipated bit of information among the music & drama set. There were swirling rumors...

Would it be West Side Story????
{that would be my pick! how fun!}.....

Or Les Miz?
Several people were sure that was what it would be....

Or maybe Oklahoma!
A good, old fashioned choice with great music.
But no...the school has chosen....

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Miss Saigon.
Huh?

Now, I am no prude.
I love musicals and even think Miss Saigon was pretty good.
It has some beautiful music.
But I do think there are more...
shall we say appropriate?...
selections for a high school theater group.
{And keep in mind that usually the whole community
turns out, including children}

Or maybe
nothing says High School/early teen years
like Vietnam War-era prostitution?

So do I refuse to let her try out?

p.s. These were the musicals at my high school
when I was growing up:

Annie
The Sound of Music
Carousel
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Shenandoah
Carnival

What were yours?

Alternate reality no. 1*

I live in the English countryside in a farmhouse. I have an old fashioned bike (with a basket on the front) that I ride into the nearby village on nice days. I have several animals (dog, cat, cow, chickens) but the details are hazy so I must not take care of all the grueling chores--just enjoy them and pet them and leave the milking and mucking to a helper named...Fergus (hey--it's my alternate reality!). I have a huge scrubbed pine table in my kitchen and a red Aga stove and a dutch door to the garden that is painted blue. I am a writer and artist but not struggling--I do just fine, thank you very much. I live alone but have hilarious and lovely friends throughout the village who stop by (popping their heads through the top of the dutch door of course!) sometimes for a chat. My social world is small but, very Austen-like, it is filled with characters and relationship intrigue so it feels plenty full.

I have time to notice details: the slant of a beam of light, the slow progress of a flower's blooming season, the sound of different times of the day. I have time to listen and do it well. I have a wicked sense of humor and act in the local Gilbert and Sullivan productions. I read a lot. I sleep in if I want.

Basically, I guess I am Beatrix Potter of the 21st century. Kind of corny, I know.

How this shows up in my actual reality: I just bought a red cruiser bike with a basket.

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*I am content with my life. Really, I am. I helped to create the life we are living here in Boston, made many of the decisions that placed me here with G. and three kids, doing what we do, where we do it. I love it. But that doesn't stop me from wondering what if..., along the lines of the movie Sliding Doors (remember that great short haircut Gwyneth had? I tried to copy it but it didn't turn out the same). Let's just say there are parallel possibilities in my head...different ways I would try out living if I had the chance, questions about where the road would have led if I made different decisions here and there. Maybe I'll let them loose now and then by describing them here. But let me just make clear that I am happy with the one I have...did I already say that?

Sometimes you've gotta go with the red shoes

When Maddy saw these shoes a few months ago, she knew she had to have them, that her personal style sensibility rested solely on owning those shoes.
"Please can I get them? They're so....sophisticated Dorothy."

Today was the first day (of several) of the statewide testing for 6th graders, called the MCAS here in Massachusetts. It includes multiple choice and essay questions in many different subjects. Maddy, my dear daughter, is a worrier. Statewide tests are fertile fodder (hmmm...can fodder be fertile? it's nice and alliterative) for her worrisome ways. She made all sorts of plans: extra sleep, the right breakfast, you get the picture. Of course I asked about it the minute she came home...

How was the test today?
Great! I wore my sophisticated Dorothy shoes and they pulled me through.
Really?
Yep, every time I looked at them, I just thought there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

I completely understand.
What are your red shoes equivalent?