Color me sated

I just color coded my Google calendar (through December) and found the experience unexpectedly and extraordinarily satisfying.

My 9 calendars in 1:

Me - light red

Chores - tangerine

Company - pink

Cap - dark blue

Errands - sea green (anyone remember that old school Crayola color?)

Family Activity - purple

Kids stuff - grassy green

Cap and me time - dark red

Special days (birthdays and the like) - lavender

Lotus

The lotus has been on my mind.  Not so much as a thought, but as inspiration/aspiration.  

(And remembered as reanimated respiration, revitalized and renewed.)

What is inspiring you lately?

P.S.  My body continues to slog through the mud of female plumbing issues.  I am trying to rest and being wakeful to the experience without feeling guilty about my utter lack of energy.

Mr. Pond's new video

There's a new video for a song off of Dark Leaves, matt pond PA's latest cd.  The song is called Remains and the video can be seen here (for I don't know how long).  I love it.  Enjoy.

"If you remain in me, I will remain in you."

Chair

We got this chair, one of four, in Arlington...or maybe Waltham.  Back when we lived in Cambridge.  Before the kids were born.  I think it was called a coffee house chair.  A coffee house chair was a good match for us.  We like to have people over to talk.  Though it's more likely to be over tea than coffee.

These days the chairs are at our big table where more than anything, they are used by children who are drawing, cutting, writing, talking, envisioning, imagining.  Sometimes they are used by us and our friends when we host common meal.  Sometimes they are used when we are celebrating a birthday or a holiday, with a crowd.  Sometimes they are used by Cap or me when we have paper work that requires spreading out.  Sometimes they are used by friends and family playing board games.  Or putting together 1000 piece puzzles.

One of the chairs, they inevitably get rotated when I vacuum, is always stationed at the desk.  Where my behind is so often planted as I write and read and share and communicate.  I am sitting on one now.

Somethin' 'bout the way

...he reads.  There's something about him in this state that captivates me.

Shrug

I've been released from the particularly long PMS storm and am now bobbing in the Sea of Meh.  The tension has released.  My body went from feeling like a wet noodle last night to a leaden mass this morning.  My mind?  Dull, dull, dull.

Outside, it rains again.

We have a new family activity.  We're watching The Great Food Truck Race on Food Network and enjoyed an episode last night.

Next time I see my mom, I am picking up her two old PC laptops.  One will be for me and one for the kids.  The newer of the two, which I am claiming, was having technical issues around internet connectivity.  I'm hoping to get that cleared up.

Finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  It was entertaining and a fast read.  Jamie brought me the second book in the trilogy to borrow, so I think I'm going to dive right into it.  I am enjoying learning about a culture and country I don't know much about (Sweden).  A word of warning, the book gets into some grisly and graphic territory (a theme that threads through the novel is violence against women in Sweden).

Hope your day is better than 'meh'.  But, if it isn't, remember, this too shall pass.

Morning feet

Putting away dishes and making us breakfast, my son's total comfyness with life caught my eye and I snapped a few shots.

On to the mumble:

• Cap worked on my shoulders and neck last night...they had gotten bad (and he reassured me that he would be careful not to use his thumb)...I can feel them tightening back up this morning.  I do feel like I have a newish lease on life thanks to those elbows.  Thank you, my dear.

• The apartment feels like a sealed climate controlled vacuum again.  Disgustingly muggy out.

• Meal plan done, food shopping not done.

• House work tasks piling up.  It's not drudgery if I don't think of it that way.  Right?

• Yesterday's thinking of getting an iPad (with Cap's blessing, yo) seeming less of a good idea this morning.

• I think I missed the Emmy's...which I usually do...but I kinda wanted to watch them this year.  Oh well.

• Watched last week's POV with Sag yesterday afternoon after Jamie left.  He was drawing, I was folding laundry, Gem was at Daniel's and Cap was writing in the next room.  It was a collection of short documentaries on varied and interesting topics.

• Feeling good (on a dimly lit level with the general cacophony in my mind at the moment) about being somewhat more organized and in flow: our drivers licenses are renewed, our car inspected, our registration renewed, our car insurance paid for (now we hope and pray the car stays healthy), the kids are signed up for a 2D animation art class at the museum art school, and I have this week mostly clear of social commitments in order to tackle the tasks that are piling up.

Two more days

For about five days now the fish I am minding till Monday (or the Universe help me, Tuesday) has spent most of its time in this corner of its world stock still.  (In this shot he is not as 'flat' as he usually looks because he was aware of my presence and fluttering his fins some.)

It's been creeping me out, and truthfully, it's been a little stressful.  Sometimes I imagine his water is not as clean as I think it is and that he is starving for oxygen.  Other times I think he's found his local opium den.

If someone gets close or feeds him, he will swim about vigorously (one person's vigorous being another person's frantic...), so that's something.  But, before you know it, he's back, very still, in his spot.

I joked, soon after Apollo's arrival, that I hoped he wouldn't die on my watch.  I have realized in the two months since, that this is no joke for me.  I can't wait for Apollo's mistress to take him back.  And then, no more fish sitting for me, ever again.

Please, little fish...whose age I don't really know, whose gender I don't really know, whose state of being I don't really know...just stay alive for two more days and then release me from my own personal pet sitting angst!

Mid-morning

Cap and I were at the DMV just after 8am.  Luckily, the kids snoozed at home under Jamie's loving eye.  I brought my camera, but was not too inspired as we stood in line and waited and waited.

Ninety minutes later we had our renewed licenses in hand, the car was emission tested, and we took advantage of our godmother-in-residence.  A leisurely breakfast at one of my favorite local eateries. 

Bliss.

Kizuna

...a Japanese word/term which means connection fused through shared time and experience.

Hum

Hearing every hum.  The fan as I came to because my stomach was aching dully.  The insects as they play their summer drone.  (Happy to have windows open again.)  The fish tank mechanism which keeps the water moving and somewhat fresh as organic matter builds up again.  The cars swooshing by with more frequency as the clocks round eight.  Infinity sideways.

My last two appointments with Dr. V. have been canceled.  I'm attempting to bumble along.

I was gobsmacked yesterday out of the blue with a recurring concern: the privacy of my children with all the blogging that I do.  Specifically, the pics.  I'm thinking on what I want to do, I feel a change is coming.

Began reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo yesterday.  And found myself bopping over to the computer at the end of each chapter to google various Swedish and/or Eurocentric words.  This tickled me.  I'm enjoying the book so far and find it interesting that I thought the main character was a teenager.  She's not!

Feeling like a pupa.  A pupa within a pupa.  There's plenty of hum within.  Hormonal, viral, organic, toxic.  A mix gutty, as opposed to, heady.  This kind of heavy internal churning takes and slows energy, yet, of course, time marches on.  The people and events on my calendar/in my physical space keep me tethered to the here and now.  How I feel is paradoxical: grateful for the connection despite a longing to be left alone.

Summer nights

I remember playing chess with the boy across the street as the day's light filtered in through the window screen rapidly fading.

Will they remember playing Lego games with the Red Sox broadcast as their background music?

The hushed voices punctuated by sparks of animation: the same.  The heads hovering together over a board in concentration: the same.  The camaraderie of children connected before bouncing off into separate adulthoods: the same.

Cousin time

Their Massachusetts cousins slept over the other night.  They were making a pit stop, the last leg of a road trip.  The reconnection was seamless.  (Look at how smiley Gem is revisiting the Playmobil!)

Peace kites

We met up with family and friends on Saturday to fly Sayoko's peace kites.  For those who don't know the story: Sayoko comes to New York City every summer to fly and share her kites.  She makes them, at home in Japan, during the fall/winter/spring.  Her kites are simply constructed and soar in the reliable dance of wind currents at Liberty State Park.

Click to embiggen any of the pictures.  If anyone has any advice on how to deal with the spots on my lens, they would be welcome!  They really show up when I take long distance shots or the zoom lens.  (I have an approximately 5 year old Sony Cybershot digital point and shoot.)