Month: March 2007

Long drive in today because of an overturned multi-axel truck on 95. Long as in: I put the car in park for 30 minutes.

This is a post of unrelated and meaningless minutiae.

As I was turning on the TV last night to find Sesame Street, a Christina Aguilera video popped up in the corner of the on demand screen and Grace shouted, “Hey! That’s CandyMan!” – thoroughly terrifying. Is she watching MTV with Anastasia? No idea how that is happening. Reminds me of Whit’s early days when he watched non-stop BET with Antoinette until the wee hours. He doesn’t seem to have picked up any rhythm by osmosis, at least as far as I can tell.

In the good-save annals: Mimi was here this past Saturday. She tubbed the kids and got them ready for bed, and as we were going out I gave a diapered Whit a hug. Oops, he was wearing a swim diaper. Would have been a long and wet night.

Last night was my favorite kind of evening at home: put the kids to bed, spent about an hour on the computer and then climbed into bed with my book. At 9:00 my eyes felt heavy and I decided to just see if I could fall asleep. I passed out and woke up by myself at 6am. One of those nights of sleep where the bed was barely disturbed, still looked made. I so rarely sleep like that – divine.

Having dinner tonight with Sarah DiTroia and Julia Clarkson and I can’t wait. I NEVER see them and it’s such a treat to have a chance to visit and catch up. And tomorrow is a day of car maintenance for me. Just hoping I can squeeze in a run in between the Subaru and Volvo dealerships, Whit’s art class, and Grace’s swim class. Now that I think about it, doesn’t look very promising!

Pouring snow. It’s beautiful, and actually totally bearable to me in the same way that getting slammed at work is fine the week before vacation. Hard to believe, though, that on Wednesday evening I was walking in New York in just a shirt.

Grace announced today that she loves Fireman Sam, Peter Pan, and princesses. That seems a manageable triumvirate.

We have a new family member! Catherine Ellen Russell was born on Wednesday and came home today. Can’t wait to meet her this weekend. Grace has been drawing and writing cards for her non-stop and might be the most excited of all.

Driving home from lunch with Annie, Paige, and Brooke, Kenny Loggins’ “Whenever I Call You Friend” came on the radio and I was flooded with memories of Kendall and Charlotte and 402-403 Forbes. The snow kind of takes me back there too, since it was an icy and snowy winter and I was on crutches. I remember Kendall and Charlotte dancing around the room to Kenny singing while I lay in bed … incredible how vivid some of the most tiny memories are. Beattie really did capture it best:

“Who expects small things to survive when even the largest get lost? People forget years and remember moments.” (Snow, from Where You’ll Find Me)

VEGETABLES

The day went from zero to sixty fast. I met Steph and Elizabeth and their respective progeny at Full Moon – I wanted to see Eliz before she took off for Natches and also wanted to see the shirts she is selling. Bought matching shirts for Matt & Whit.

Then home to an evening of vegetables. The organic bin was big last week and I had a lot to deal with. So I made potato leek soup, with shallots thrown in for extra leekiness, and also creamed spinach, and pan roasted broccoli, and toast with avocado and melted cheddar on top. Pretty much more vegetables than I’ve had in a month. I think I did my part to stave off scurvy, at least for a bit.

In other news, I used the word frisson in conversation today. Top that.

Are we worried about this? I am facing my gender biases bigtime. Whit is now massively attached to his little pink baby.

I finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Man is that a weird book. But some fabulous passages:

I told myself that everyone – at least everyone fascinating – had a few scars.

He was always getting something off the ground, his act together, his hands dirty, the show on the road, someone’s goat, the message, out more, on with things, lost, laid, away with murder. He was also always taking charge, the bull by the horns, back the night, something in stride, someone to the cleaners, a rain check, an ax to something, Manhattan.

Always have everything you say exquisitely annotated, and, where possible, provide staggering Visual Aids.

“Very few people realize, there’s no point in chasing after answers to life’s important questions,” Dad said once in a Bourbon Mood. “They all have fickle, highly whimsical minds of their own. Nevertheless. If you’re patient, if you don’t rush them, when they’re ready, they’ll smash into you. And don’t be surprised if afterwards you’re speechless and there are cartoon tweety birds chirping around your head.”

In the end, a man turns into what he thinks he is, however large or small. It is the reason why certain people are prone to colds and catastrophe. And why others can dance on water.

I was without a plan, plum out of ideas, at a loss. Even within fifteen minutes of running away from home, unmooring oneself from one’s parent, one was struck by the vastness of things, the typhoon ferocity of the world, the frailty of one’s boat.

We are under an invincible blindness as to the true and real nature of things.