The Ice Cream Run!!

We live in a small town. It used to be all one but in the 1800's they made a canal smack through the middle so now there is North and South. North is all residential and South is where the shops, restaurants, B&B's etc are. In order to get from N to S you have to drive over a very very tall bridge. But....in the summer you can take a 3 minute ferry ride from one side to the other. It runs mostly on the weekends. But thursday, well on thursday night they have the Ice cream run, On the S there's a fabulous Ice Cream shop that uses local ingredients and milk and cream from a diary on the outskirts of town. It delicious and delectable. And you get a discount on your scoop if you take the ferry, $1 a scoop, yes please!!

Last night we kept Jonah up past his bedtime so we could do the Ice Cream run, and let me just say it was well worth it. And not just because I got adorable pics of Jonah in a life jacket.

He was sleepy but rallied like a champ, especially after we let him have his first taste of ice cream. One lick was defiantly not enough for our little boy.

It was so good I couldn't stop for one moment to take a photo of said deliciousness!! Don't worry I'm sure we'll do it again!!

Oh and the bbq is back on. scamper scamper scamper, things need to find a place to hide while other folks come in!

Meaning to clean

So I sorta cleaned the house yesterday. Lets call it the beginnings of cleaning the house. Listen, I would love to be a great house keeper, I really would. I get my lack of skills from my parents. They believed that a house doesn't have to be super duper organized and spic and span. Playing, reading, cooking are much better uses of time than obsessively cleaning. I agree but then when we are having people over I have to scramble to declutter, put away the mound of clean clothes that are residing on the dinning room table, and pick up toys.

One set of my cousins are the crazy about cleaning their houses type. Everything in their homes is white, couches, carpet, counter tops, etc. When my mom and I would go their we would be afraid to sit down for fear of staining the chair. When you eat they sit next to you and wipe away crumbs. It borders on the ridiculous. But that's how they are happiest. It's just not for me.

I recently watched a documentary on the Shakers. (This is going to be a really simplistic explanation) They believed that you should do everything perfectly because everything you do should be to glorify God and by doing it perfectly it would glorify Him. I understand their point and all but I'm imperfect therefore everything I do is going to be imperfect. And I don't think my imperfect actions glorify God any less. So as I hurried along finding places for XYZ I kept thinking of the Shakers and their work ethic. I decided that doing my best not doing it perfectly but my best was really the greatest thing I could do.

Then Peter comes home last night and says that the party is off, to be rescheduled at a later date. Time conflicts and all. I was relieved, elated, and sat down to knit. Which is what I wanted to be doing all along.

FYI

The pity party is over folks. Nothing to see here.

I'm back on track!!!

Today Today Today

Today is one of those days.
I woke up determined to have a great day even though I have to clean the whole house and not a normal clean the house but a we're having people over for Peter's birthday on Saturday kind of clean, you know a company clean house. I have never nor will I ever claim to be a good house keeper. I don't like doing it but it must be done is my attitude. We always have clean dishes and clean clothes but there is usually a pile of dirty ones ready to take their places.
SO I set out today to do the million things on my to do list that I don't really want to do. And I decided that I was going to have a good attitude about it!!

That was this morning.
Now its the afternoon. I got a lot accomplished but.....I love my child, he's the most wonderful fabulous interesting person, however, today he is having a serious TODDLER DAY. Mom's you know what I mean. He just is being the fabulous little boy that he is with a major dose of stubborn, my way or I'll scream mixed in.

According to Jonah: why only draw on paper-why not the stairs, and crayons aren't only for drawing-eating them is super fun too, and I'm going to sit in a mud puddle while mommy puts the clothes on the line and scream like crazy and have a major fit when she wants to take off my dirty clothes before going in the house.

Nothing terrible, just normal kid stuff. I love that he's opinionated. I love that he's curious, determined, independent. I think its getting to me cause I need to be cleaning and don't want to (did I mention that?) and really would much rather play in a mud puddle with him.

Fingers crossed that a nap is going to take place!!

Knit night tonight will set me right!!!

And by the way, saw Erin yesterday who I haven't seen in 11 yrs. I don't feel old enough to have friends that I haven't seen in 11 yrs. Thanks "old friend"!!

Punk Rock is here to stay!!

Some mornings I just can't get it together. This usually happens on a Monday. I'm tired, I don't feel like anything, I just want to stay in bed under the covers for the foreseeable future. Coffee has no affect, inspirational words have no meaning. But life must take place, breakfast must be made, children have to be played with, life must take place.
In these all too frequent instances I reach in my back pocket and pull out my secret weapon......I put on a punk rock outfit.

Back in the day, as you can see from the above picture I had a more rocker edge. That blue spiky hair is still my absolute favorite way that I have ever had my hair, bar none!!!

Now when I say I put on a punk rock outfit it is a toned down more muted affair. Joan Jett and Joey Ramone would happily pass me by in Walmart (were he still alive) without ever uttering "there goes a rocker chic". but it is about as puck rock as I can get these days.

It makes me feel good. Strong. Full of life.

And in reality punk is much more about that than the clothes anyway. the movement started to die when it became about the clothes. There are many people who I think are punk rock that would never be decked out in a mohawk: the Dali Lama, Jesus, Maya Angelu, Dorothy Day, my mom. They don't care about the establishment, they don't care what is current. They do care about what is right and wrong in the world and look for ways of changing it. They focus on the collective not themselves.

I may not be the bar going, up all night partying, sleeping till 3PM, girl in her 20's but the essence of her spirit still resides inside of me. I can call on her any time and she is always there to say "fuck you negativity. I'm a rocker chic and nothing is going to get me down"!!

Friends Seminary Class of '95!

Yeah that's me in high school. Had a slight James Dean obsession...and for the record I thought I looked FABULOUS!!!!

This weekend is my 15 yr high school reunion, which makes me feel incredibly old.
(I'm not feeling grammary today)!

Ok so I feel old.

One bright spot is that I get to hang out with my best friend from high school Emily. We may not talk every day or every month for that matter but when we get together its like we are 16 again hanging out on her bedroom floor talking about the most important dramas of life.
Now with Emily I'm happy its like we're back in high school, for the rest of the folks I'll be seeing the same thing will be true but in a not so good way. That's my fear anyway.

I went to one of those alternative, progressive private schools in NY. Where every one was super cool (except me) and tried to out weird the person next to them. Angst ran ramped. It was artsy and fashion forward and ultra something that I never understood.
I was the girl who didn't go out much, wasn't in the know, and certainly wasn't followed. But while I had my "I wish I was more like....." moments I didn't have a pity party or anything like that. My school was actually perfect for me in many ways. It had this major focus on community service and I got to volunteer in some amazing places. Not many schools would let you take off the month of May your senior yr and miss finals to go volunteer in Ethiopia.
I loved it but lets not forget it was high school so I hated it too.

At our 10 yr reunion I got in trouble for talking during meeting. Ah it brought me right back.
Peter came with me, we were just dating then, but he came and immediately wished he hadn't. He commented that I reverted into a high school version of myself and ......he didn't think that we so great. I told him that the same thing happens to him when we hang out with his old friends and its just part of life.

This yr it will be me, p and the j man. I know some of us have gotten married in the last 5 yrs, some of us have kids. I look forward to seeing the changes but I'm sure I will more than anything see the sameness.

These people have seen me at my worst: the Ani/Bonnie incident, and the 8th grade trip, and at my high school best. My fashion foibles: 20 necklaces at a time (what was I thinking), my prom dress (again what was I thinking), and the times when I looked semi ok, examples of those are much harder to think of.

Great times were had even if they didn't seem great at the time: again I'm blanking on examples, but I'm sure we had some......YSOP, Ex-Ed, (feel free to fill in the blank here)

So I'm going back to high school at 33 and taking my family along for the ride. I plan on gossiping, making fun of people, and loving every minute of it even though I'll act like I hate it at the time. Just like I did when I was actually there.

Single stream recycling starts in our town tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited!! No more storing everything in our laundry room and then hauling it to the dump. Now I can just put it all out on the curb every other friday and away it goes. I love recycling. I love the idea of it, the purpose of it. I love that it allows me to not feel so badly about buying certain things due to the packaging because I know it wont end up in a landfill.

Knit night once again was perfection. women of all ages sitting around discussing the world and our lives while creating amazing needle crafts at the same time. so inspiring, so important. community community community. while we each create something individually we are creating something collectively. ladies you raise me up!!!!

Watch the doc "Beautiful Losers". You can down load it for free on Netflix. It shows one of P's favorite pieces of art in Coney Island......