Northern Noise

I'm sitting here at the house on the beach.  I love the fact that I can come here and be totally relaxed and feel totally at home. My mom is all I have left.  My father has passed, all my grandparents are dead, there's just her.  Her dream for as long as I can remember was to live on the Oregon Coast when she retired.  The fact that I got to be part of helping her get here is really important to me. And I feel invested in this place.  When she first moved in I convinced her to buy these "low profile" stools from Fred Meyers, and now they're where all the boys sit when they're here.  My sister and I got her pictures hung, all the Rie Munoz she'd been saving since Kenai.  Last summer we found her a small hutch for the silver and such from my Gram, and my sister and I created a family picture wall.  Bob got her a good LED flashlight so she doesn't surprise any raccoons when she's walking sweetie at night.  I know my way around (pretty much) and ha

Okay, I admit it.  I made my son go to Art Camp.  For 4 whole days.  (Well, actually 3 1/2 because I left town and his dad let him skip.)  I'm a bad mom. My son has never shown a particular affinity for arts and crafts.  He's always hated drawing, cutting, and coloring.  But I've read Mindset , and I know that it's good for brains to try new things and new ways of thinking.  He's never really tried anything like art camp, and it was only four days, so how bad could it be? Apparently the answer is bad.  Really bad. The first day I picked him up and he refused to speak to me for an hour.  When he did speak he said, "I'm not saying you're moronic, but this idea for me to take art camp sure was."  Didn't make me too happy. He sees no point to 3D sculpture.  At least the bird sculptures made sense to him.  And the art teachers are "crazy" and it's only girls and little kids. And they go on walks that are either too short or &q

I'm feeling the urge to change.  Change what? Not sure yet, but change something.  Change my hair, change my clothes, change my job, change my house, change my attitude, change my reading habits, change my eating habits, change my plan, change ????? What do you do when your primal self is calling out for a change but reality says that many of the big things in life are 1) pretty good already, and 2) needed for a responsible family life??

I'm thinking about my gramps today.  I wish Montana wasn't so far away so I could swing by and clean up his grave and give some flowers. I always knew my gramps was in the army.  My grandparents would fly up to Kenai on standby on military flights, and Gramps would go to the PX in Anchorage and buy steaks, etc. to bring down for a cookout each summer.  I would also hear stories about the army, and how whenever Gramps got called home for an emergency, he'd bring a lieutenant with him.  I knew my mom went to high school at Dugway Proving Grounds, and that my Gramps was a hospital administrator at Bassett Army Hospital in Fairbanks. One summer after I had started teaching, I went down to Helena to stay with my grandparents for a few weeks and do some chores around the house for them.  While I was there, two World War 2 planes were scheduled to fly into town.  Gramps asked if I would go with him, so we went to the airport to see them and then to Perkins for lunch.  While I

The words of Ed Abbey sometimes are where I find my sanity and my salvation. Today's words of wisdom.... 1)  "Too much proximity to folly tends to make it seem normal..." 2)  "Hierarchical institutions are like giant bulldozers--obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls." 3) "One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast... a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your br

When I was a kid, there were certain things that seemed like symbols of being "normal."  My family didn't necessarily have a lot of money, nor did we have the fanciest house.  I remember going to my Grammie's and she had a formal living room, fancy silver on the buffet in the dining room,  matching fancy dishes as well as everyday dishes.  Don't get me wrong, we lived just fine, but in my mind we did not hold with lots of the trappings of finery. Two Christmases ago I mentioned to Bob that I loved Christmas villages, and that in my mind a Christmas village was a symbol of..... what exactly I can't describe.  Gentility? Manners? Civility? Class?  I think it was just part of my picture of the Norman Rockwell holiday scene.  Bob got me the start of village, and I've been getting pieces ever since.  For Mother's Day, I got Downton Abbey; how cool is that?  I absolutely love my Christmas village and setting it up last year with Jed was truly about perfect

When I grow up I want to have read so many important books that I can offer wise quotes at any moment.  When I grow up, I will have overcome my fear of spiders.  And sock monkeys.  When I grow up I will do the dishes each night before I go to bed and wake up to a clean kitchen each morning.  When I grow up I won't eat the frosting and leave the cake.  When I grow up I will calmly take life's challenges in stride, and not react by getting pissed at the world.  When I grow up I'll stop blaming Bob for the fact his son talks constantly, all the time, every waking moment.  When I grow up I'll forgive the people who have done me and my loved ones wrong (but I won't forget).  When I grow up I'll quit spending so much time stalking folks on Facebook, and Twitter.  When I grow up, I'll stop answering hard questions by performing an interpretive dance. Wait, no I won't.  Interpretive dance is always an appropriate response to a question.

Over the weekend we hit 70 and sunshine was on the swing.  Today it snowed.  ugh.

It's a good thing there was no Facebook while I was in college for the first time. Or smart phones. Or XBox video games.  Back in the day when I wanted to procrastinate finishing a paper I had to do errands, or complete some chores around the house.  But now, I can turn on the computer to finish a paper and instead enter the world of Pinterest and great ideas for creating storage in small kitchens.  Or I can read the news- from anywhere in the world - and find out who wore it best in the world of movie stars yesterday. And all the while my paper is open in another window, so I can convince myself (if I stretch it a little) that I'm actually just "thinking about what to write."   In this case I'm thinking about writing my blog instead of answering questions about my philosophy of school leadership.  Oh wait, a quiz about what car I should drive.....