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someone from wasila, AK checked out the blog day before yesterday. how funny. usually i get my friends, whom i mostly can identify, an odd number of people from poland, to which i ascribe their visitations to this post, the occaisional interloper from ohio and people searching out eight bells.
in any event, i am off today, work tomorrow and then off for the holiday and the week end. i’ve got to wrap presents, make a corn timbale, find my fake white and pink christmas tree, clean, exercise, podcast, not eat everything not nailed down, play with the magpie, mail the 10 christmas cards i actually wrote that are sitting on the table next to my giant chair, and otherwise navel gaze vis a vis my wedding.
moments ago i saw my friends’ sparkly fingernails and know that i must have them for my nuptuals. bridezilla, party of one??
but i digress.
it’s cold out, but my sweetie is coming and i get to spend a christmas with my beloved. yay me! yay us! i am cooking my families traditional christmas eve dinner on christmas day:
- prime rib
- yorkshire pudding (officially known simply as “yorkie” to us)
- corn timbale (like a pudding/bread)
- STOUFFERS creamed spinach (yours won’t taste better then theirs anyway, nor will it have a slightly way-too-green color that is both vaguely scary and totally festive)
- mystery dessert to be named later (i know what i am making, but just in case trace reads this, its a surprise)
what is funny to me as an adult is realizing how much time and money went into these dinners my mom used to do. because on christmas day, she always made a pork tenderloin (not my most favorite) but thats like, 200 dollars of MEAT in 48 hours, not to mention gifts, wine, etc etc etc..
our prime rib was on special.
i may be a blogger and a podcaster now (with tens and tens of fans!!! you know who you are! 
), but i STILL get really excited to see or hear a contribution mentioned on another site or podcast – especially those with actual big time readerships (you know who you are)!!! so imagine my excitement today when i saw a pic i submitted @ cakewreck a week or so ago – got posted!!
backstory:
been reading cakewrecks for several months now (does for cakes what i has a hot dog does for goggies) thanks to meghan. i was shocked when i spotted a couple of real wrecks at the local supermarket bakery – one got posted on the site, the other is here:
this is supposed to be a purse
what was really funny to me was that when i spotted the cakes, i immediately thought of submitting a pic to the site. so i was loitering about the cake counter with my cell, trying to snap a picture without anyone noticing me do so, as i was SURE i would be offending the decorators who would immediately know that i was dissing their cake. i had to leave the grocery immediately after! i wasn’t able to get a very good pic of the one above (not meaning the grainy quality of my crappy cell phone camera, i mean that i kept taking pics that cut off the top of the cake itself).
sadly, and yet not unsuprisingly, i was at the grocery 2 days ago…. both cakes are still on display. yummy!
i’m sure on some level i knew today was martin luther king day (because everyone ELSE has a three day weekend, perhaps??) and who doesn’t know that tomorrow is the inauguration (and my brother’s birthday)…
as i was getting dressed for work, i was actually thinking how grateful i am to have had parents that did not raise me to be prejudiced. now, i say this with many caveats because, without digressing into social dissection, everyone from anywhere has prejudices and, being a white woman raised in america, well, i have been the recipient of cultural and societal advantages that, unfortunately, not every american receives. however, again, i was thinking how grateful i am to have had parents that did not express whatever negative and prejudicial thoughts and feelings about people different from my family, despite the way they might have been raised, or were they might have come from.
in the 3rd grade, my family moved to san francisco, after my mom remarried. i went to miraloma elementary school on the opposite side of mt. davidson, where we lived. when i think back on it now, i know that that school, more so than others i had attended, was the united colors of Benetton of schools. and i LOVED it. i was in a “gifted” program were we stayed after school and did all these special activities – we silk screened original stories and pictures into books that we “bound” and published for our families. we made a radio show (this predates the “grimply sand” production, FYI). we got to watch the electric company every morning IN SCHOOL!
and i remember vividly thinking at the time how much i loved that shcool because i thought it was just like sesame street, my then-to-fore only experience with a heavily integrated children’s environment.
THANK GOD I GOT TO GO TO THAT SCHOOL AND THANK YOU TO MY PARENTS AND FAMILY.
on this MLK day and eve of what i hope will be an auspicious as well as historic presidency, the great “i have a dream” speech brings real tears to my eyes…
people always ask me if i’m from california, why on earth would i move away??!! my main 2 factors are: 1) cost of living and 2) job opportunities. but at his time of the year i am reminded that there are two other reasons that i do like the midwest and am loving virginia (mostly).
lightening bugs. thunder storms.
neither in abundance in the golden state.
and now we have had a solid week of warm days, warm nights and increasing humidity. i don’t know how the lightening bug works the whole life cycle thing, but i know now is when they will begin to emerge at dusk. i love them so much! they are something that takes me back to childhood memories and happy times (as do the thunder storms). fortunately, to my knowledge, my brother was not a lightening bug killer and neither was i, although our attempts at lightening bug lanterns probably left a lot to be desired in the compassionate caring of creaturtes arena.
there is a story i tell my friends, and it is possible i have blogged it here (but i’m tooooo lazy to go lookin’ now!), but i had an experience with a lightening bug, after my mother’s death, that made me feel like she was the little lightening bug come to light my heart that was missing her so badly. it was a wonderful little happening. the picture above is a post card i sent to my mom before she passed from a john singer sargent show i went to with my step-mom in boston (HIS WORK IS GLORIOUS! THIS PIECE IS LITERALLY FLOOR TO CEILING!!), she saved the card and i have it framed at my house, but anyway…
to me i see two girls at the turn of the century, maybe just a little further in june, lighting lanterns for a party and the fireflies come out to join them.
and then it thunderstorms. no not really, i just remembered i mentioned t-storms at the beginning of my post…
also i would like to share that i am feeling very anxious as when me and mags were out taking our evening walk and beginning the lightening bug search, i noticed one of the female ducks (is that a redundant phrase? as apposed to just “drake” for male ducks?) well she was one block over and one block across from their pond hang out. i worry about her road crossing capabilities. please get home safewy, willte duckwing!
i have a lot in common with my mom. she died of lung cancer back in december 2000. i miss her so much and so often i still just think of calling her and catching up…
one of the things we have in common is the propensity to talk in our sleep. if anyone reading this has EVER talked to me late at night they know this! the title of this post refers to two incidents:
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“dragon patch” – this became code with a friend of mine, after talking late into the night, i was sort of having this dream about a denim jacket and sewing this appliqué onto it of a dragon. where do these things come from? what do they mean? i have ABSOLUTELY no idea! anywho, i am, as usual, denying that i am falling asleep, and apparently uttered the words “dragon patch”. of course, once you say something out loud, you are somewhat jarred into reality by the questioning from the other person and the key is denial denial denial. i mean, of course you can explain a nonsensical expression such as “dragon patch” easily and rationally. of course.
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my mom’s story is a family legend. my folks were sleeping, when my dad was awakened by a disturbance in the bed. my mom was apparently moving her arms, kind of like in a flapping motion. my step dad questioned her – “are you ok?”. “i’m dreaming i’m a flying squirrel”. further questioning revealed that the arm movements were the flapping motions that clearly flying squirrels make. like a chicken.
got home from work – very long day, feeling draggy and tired as hell. please – to anyone reading this – please don’t smoke 84 packs of cigarettes a day! if i could legally have taped the last 2 patients of the day and their stunning wake ups, i would. when the smell of cigarettes oozes from every pore and the depths of someones lungs….. ugh!!!!
ok, circle back now. so i am driving home and its a full moon. very lovely. it always makes me think of my mom because she sang the “i see the moon” song. so as i was walking the magnet, i thought i might do a quick post – maybe even find the song. i found this on youtube:
chris rice, i am assuming, is a christian singer? i liked this version of the little song, it reminded me of my mom and how much i miss her sometimes….
good night, moon.
UPDATE: on repeated viewings, i will say this guy has a sort of james taylor-y thing going on, but what is with the arrhythmic dancing? also, i do enjoy the nodding “children of the corn”-like audience members (“malachai!”) and the CPA cum bongo player in the background? like him!
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