New Computamer!

Just in time, on the first day of my summer vacation, the nice FedEx man delivered my new MacBook Pro.  Like half an hour ago!  And here I am, connected to the intermaweb and blogging.  I managed to set up my wireless router without a hitch (thanks Mr. A, for the AirPort!!), unbelievable.  And the directions for MacBook set-up were so cinchy even a cavewoman could do it.  Ha!

This is one slick computamer, and trust me, that's saying a lot coming from me, as I tend to be unimpressed by technology in general.  But, seriously, wow; this shit is spectacular!  And user friendly.  I've never used a Mac, I don't own an ipod or iphone or ianything.  And again, here I am, no problemo blogging away.

What a nice morning at home it's been.  I like my job a lot, but man, I sure like being home.  I rolled out of the rack around 9:30.  Now, don't be gettin' all judgy and thinking I'm a lazybones.  I was up 'til 2am working on a re-org of my recipe system.  I really like my system--it's good enough and works great for me.  Here's what I do:  I organize all of the recipes by category--Breakfast; Appetizers, Drinks, Dips, Nuts and Salty Snacks; Soups; Salads, Veggies, and Sides; Main Dishes; Desserts. Then I gather up all of the pieces of paper, large and small, typed and hand-written, and I organize them within their main category, i.e. all of the muffins recipes together, then I put them in plastic binder sleeves with a table of contents on the top, and then clip them into a binder.  I also have a separate sheet for cookbook references, including page number.  So when I want to make Fanny Farmer's raised waffles, I know instantly that it's on p. 556.  (Best waffle in the world, word!)  Anyway, I sorted through all of my collected recipes and weeded out the ones that I'll never use, plus added a ton from Martha's Everyday Food.  I have subscribed to that magazine since its inception, in 2003 or 2004, maybe, and kept every issue.  And even though it's little, it was time to pare down and let go, so over the last few months, I've gone through every issue and ripped out the recipes that looked promising.  I only have room to hoard one magamazine, and that's Martha Stewart Living, which I've taken since 1996.  I have every issue, organized by month--which is lovely when you're looking for some seasonal inspiration!  That is a gem of a magamazine.  Not that Everyday Food isn't, but I've got my rules to live by and limited hoarding is one of 'em.  So, back to the recipes, I added some, but dumped more so yay for me!

I sat outside in the warm morning air in my rolled up pajama bottoms because the sun was out and your legs cain't get tan through PJs.  I drank my coffee, watched the chickens and hummingbirds and talked to friends on the telemaphone.  Very, very nice; and I'm grateful for it.  Next up, mow the lawn before the kids show up at 5.  Totally doable, and perhaps there could even be time for one teeny, tiny G & T?  Why the heck not, it's summertime...and the livin' is EASY.

A Trilly Morning

It's my last day of work and I began it like a real morning person! I didn't have to come in until 8:30ish, but I woke up at the usual early time, got ready, and actually had time to sit outside, drinking my coffee and listening to the trilly birds.  My apologies to the chickens, though, who saw me and got excited, pacing in the coop and eagerly anticipating their release into the cul de sac.  Alas, girls, it is not to be until this afternoon when we get home.  But, the air was warmish, the robins were singing, a rufous sided towhee was visiting my feeder, and I was up and out experiencing the best of life. 

And now I sit here at my desk and look outside at the glorious sun shining on the rhodies in the courtyard out my window, which doesn't open (who designs a window that doesn't open--hellooo!).  I've got the Amelie soundtrack on, which certainly helps, and just listened to one of my very favorite songs ever, la vie en rose.  How I long for la vie en rose; don't we all?  You know what, I think we can have it, too.  You have to believe it's possible. I think that's the key for most things in this life, n'est pas? 

The kids are home tonight before going to their dad's for father's day weekend.  By request, I'm making tacos and we're going to use the lettuce from our garden, for crunch, as Jack says.  Jack has his last cub scout pack meeting of the year tonight where he will 'cross over' from wolf to bear.  Yay for you, Jack! 

And yay for today:  the trilly birds of morning, French songs, last day of work for 7 weeks, my new computamer is due for delivery, tacos with crunch, and a night sky that holds onto daylight until after 10 o'clock.

 Ahhhh, la vie en rose... je suis pret.

lalalalalalalaaaaaaa

The Pedigree of Honey

The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, anytime, to him
Is aristocracy.
--Emily Dickinson

Don't you just love this tiny poem?  I have had a clover sort of day and you know what, that's ok--great, actually!  Things don't have to be perfect for me to like them.  This poem isn't even perfect, since male bees (drones) don't gather nectar at all--their only job is to mate with the queen.  But who cares, 'cause this poem is GREAT! 

I had to make a website for work today, well had to if I was interested in getting $ for doing so, which I am.  And of course I put it off until about the last possible day, as it's been sort of something I was dreading:  boring.  (Blogging: fun, by the way.)  Sooo, I when I tried to actually use the school's site, I found out I couldn't because I hadn't taken the required class to have a page built for me.  Whoopsiedoodle!  But, it's ok, because then I found out I could use any old webpage building site.  My friend, EE, showed me which one to use and easy breezy, an hour or so later I was done!  Is it the BEST site ever?  Of course not.  But, you know what?  I like it, I'm sort of proud of myself for figuring it out, and it's good enough. 

So, cheers to that!  Cheers to plain old clover and random webpage sites.  Cheers to good enough sometimes being GREAT!

In the Pebbles of the Holy Streams

"...And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
     In the sun that is young once only,
          Time let me play and be
     Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
          And the sabbath rang slowly
     In the pebbles of the holy streams." 
--Dylan Thomas (from Fern Hill)

The end of the school year makes me feel this way, green and golden.  Focused on the time soon to come to rejoice in free time, reconnect with the pebbles in the holy streams--truly my idea of a religious experience.  This poem, Fern Hill, is both celebratory and mournful.  Celebratory in that it exalts the best of life, the best of feeling: 

 "Happy as the grass was green"
" I was prince of the apple towns"
"And fire green as grass"
"And nightly under the simple stars"
"The sky gathered again and the sun grew round that very day"
"On to the fields of praise"
"Happy as the heart was long"

Mournful in that it reminds us that time is fleeting, time is short:

"In the sun that is young only once"
"Time let me play and be golden in the mercy of his means"
"That time allows in all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs before the children green and golden follow him out of grace"
"In the moon that is always rising"

And the last three lines of the poem:

"Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
          Time held me green and dying
     Though I sang in my chains like the sea."

This is one of my favorite poems!  And it's speaking to me today:  Enjoy your life, ME, don't waste time.  Embrace the best parts of life and cherish them.  Love, be kind, help others, rejoice in the noise of nature and the quiet of home.  Hold each day in the palm of my hand, roll it over, look at it, rub it for luck and live it for goodness sakes. 

In 2 days, it will officially be Summer for me.  I can't wait!

"On to the happy fields of praise!"

Things Being Various

World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
the drunkenness of things being various.
--Louis MacNeice

It's sort of nuts sometimes, but thank goodness for things being various; I like it that way!  This morning I got to enjoy our 8th grade promotion ceremony and it was so various and so nice.  Highlights:

•  Looking at the faces in the audience while they listened to the kids performing--JUST like Amelie and how she likes looking back at the faces in the movie theatre.  Watching people watching something good is lovely. 
• Hearing this dear boy play piano and sing 'Let it Be' sweetly and with perfect pitch.  Add in that our principal backed him on the drums--golden. 
• Seeing the boys not wear long basketball shorts and admiring all of the girls' pretty dresses, lots of poufy skirts and flowery prints...omg, is it the 80s again? Probably not, 'cause I didn't see any metallic dresses, praise His light! 
• Also enjoyed watching the girls walk very gingerly on their wobbly high heels--sort of like watching baby horses learning to walk--adoramable. 
• Ukulele playing--please tell me this is going to catch on.  Love it.
• Girls singing songs about Sisterhood and loving yourself and the amazing song written, played and sung by a girl who will be the next Sheryl Crow.  Wow. 
• Ending the ceremony with a dirge by Alice in Chains, performed by 3 boys who live for music like that. 

 I'm proud to work at a school where things being various is the status quo.

I Hear the Lummis Drumming Through the Night

This is a line from a villanelle poem I wrote this weekend while visiting Lummi Island.  OM and I slept out under the stars on the sandy beach in sleeping bags; it was fan-TAS-tic!  The air was cool but pleasant, the sand was pretty warm from the day's sun and so comfortable, like our own custom adjustable mattress, and the stars were out.  The moonlight was bright and I watched the herons fishing by its light--I didn't know herons fished at night, but they do!  They made their low, guttural heron noises and skimmed over the water, swooping and diving.  My dad wrote a poem about a heron called Shitepoke( which is another word for heron, I believe), and in his poem they say, "GOD, GOD, GOD!"  And I can now confirm the truth of this for myself, not that I would doubt my dad on birds or poetry, or much else for that matter.  Anyhow, this show was going on and in the distance from across the water was the sound of the Lummi Indians drumming and singing. I could picture the fancydancers in my head and just laid there on the beach taking it in and drifted off to a surprisingly wonderful night's sleep amidst all of it.  Thank you Lummi Island. 

The weekend with the girls was fun, funny, relaxing, exciting, and completely rejuvenating.  I was only there for 24 hours but it felt like much longer.  Just being away from everything made time freeze for me and I had not a care in the world.  I found tons of good beach loot: beach glass, agates, shells, cool lookin' rocks; the kids will have fun sorting through it today.  We laughed and told stories and shared and teased and listened to Many Blankets deliver her sermons.  I had a notebook and captured some choice quotes.  One of my faves, from Blankets of course, was something like, "Honor is doing what we do based on our values--and those fluctuate."  Another was, "Do the best you can while you're awake."  I can't bring myself to type the dirty one she said about what we should "Tweeter someone." 

In line for the ferry on the way home, we were behind a hippie van/bus with 3 kids from Michigan.  The hippie boy in the group took out his accordion (yay!) and played a beautiful song and I videoed it on my camera, and panned over to the Sisters sitting on the side of the road talking, and the gorgeous garden with the espaliered fruit trees behind them, and the Sound beyond that, sort of like our own personal soundtrack.  It was a lovely way to wrap up a lovely, lovely weekend.  Thank you, Sisters!

I Know A Place Where Summer Strives

That's the title of an Emily Dickinson poem that's going to be my theme for le week-end.  Summer will be striving mightily this weekend on Lummi Island where my tribe is meeting up for our annual powwow.  All the usual suspects will be there:  Still Water, Whispering Wolf, Many Blankets, Lady Hawk, Kind Heart, Laughing Sparrow, Running Wild, Splashing Otter and me, Prairie Feather.  We will miss Blue Dove and *Fights with a Fist* but will send the Sister vibes their way all weekend. 

Lummi is such a great place to strive for summer.  We will walk along the shore and look for beach glass--best beach glass hunting ever.  We will talk and talk and talk--in groups of 2, 3, 4, 10, whatever.  It's just so easy to be around everyone.  No nonsense, no image management, no pretense--it's bliss.  We will eat delicious food and drink delicious beverages.  We will sit around a beach fire at night and bond.  We will most likely get in the hot tub, some will skinny dip for sure.  OM wants to have a swim in the Sound--I will support her from the beach (no cold water for me, thanks).  If weather permits, some of us will sleep outside.  We'll get up early and drink coffee on the beach wrapped in blankets.  I will try to write a poem, too.  Lummi is a place of connection and reflection, and this tribe is ready to STRIVE!