Signs. Signs. Everywhere are Signs.
Posted: July 31, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
Posted in a restaurant. This way to the men’s room, the ladies’ room, and the exit door if you want to skip out on your bill. But hurry!
The camera.
Posted: July 26, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »
I don’t know this faceless woman. I just liked the composition of this photo. All the colors, the patterns. Top that with my curiosity that she and her crew needed this much stuff for a day at the beach.
I love my new Olympus camera. It is the replacement for my 3 month old Nikon. Admittedly, I loved the little Nikon. But it broke. I didn’t drop it, but something terrible happened to it.
3 days
after
the
warranty
expired.
But no fear. American Express refunded every penny. Can you believe it? It was amazing! And from what I learned with my months with the point and shoot Nikon, I figured out what features I really cared about. And this new little Olympus Stylus has them all.
(End commercial message here. seriously, I am not affiliated with Olympus, Nikon, or that woman on the beach. No one, sadly, has paid me to do anything. But I would entertain offers of a beach house, if you know anyone offering. I love the beach!)
Just dance.
Posted: July 21, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
Starting in the 1930′s O’Connor was a dancer and actor, and acted with Bing Crosby in Sing, You Sinners. I hear he was very funny. In 1942 O’Connor joined Universal Pictures’ troupe of talented teenagers. He received gradually larger roles in four of the studio’s Gloria Jean musicals, and achieved stardom at 17 with Mister Big (1943), co-starring Gloria Jean and comic dancer Peggy Ryan. O’Connor and Ryan’s energetic routines invited comparisons with M-G-M’s pairing of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. (from wikipedia)
He served in the army, starred as Francis (remember the mule?) and sadly got sick from the mule and didn’t get to be in White Christmas. I am not kidding. Later, his big break, Singin’ in the Rain would earn him a Golden Globe award. He did some TV (Colgate Hour) and hosted the oscars and did the film Ragtime. Donald O’Connor’s last feature film was the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy Out to Sea, in which he played a dance host on a cruise ship. O’Connor was still making public appearances well into 2003. He died that year.
Why am I telling you this?
Well.
Every once in a while, Andrew and I will make a reference to someone so famous that OF COURSE the kids have heard of him – say, David Cassidy (the new show is starting this week) or even Farrah Fawcett or Punky Brewster or (and I swear this happened the other day) Elizabeth Taylor.
I mean, can you imagine not knowing who Elizabeth Taylor is?
Well, that’s how my grandparents felt about Donald O’Connor. So when they saw him in an elevator on August 12, 1985 and starstruck asked for his autograph for me, they were over the moon.
And I had no idea who he was. But I thought it was really sweet.
And I’ve kept it among my prize possessions ever since.
Clean house.
Posted: July 19, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »The boys are back from camp. If you ever sent kids to sleepaway camp, you know what that means. Laundry.
Some of the grossest laundry ever.
Honestly, I know that some of those items will never make it back to the boys’ rooms – I have a big trash bag just ready for the rejects. You know, the socks with the holes or black soles. The t-shirts with orange soda batik (not purposefully), the jeans with the seat torn – well, you get the picture.
I don’t mind a bit. I’m just glad they’re home.
Except.
The house has been spotless for 2 weeks. I’ve organized, rearranged, and more. And now – not even 5 hours after the house is repopulated, it has lost its sparkle.
So what?
It’s all worth it. But I do like a neat house. But, really, it’s worth it.
I was so busy, I almost didn’t realize that I missed them so much. I didn’t realize how quiet it was. Well, not anymore!
Now, I hear Max’s giggle coming from downstairs. I hear Reed’s music through his earbuds and hear him typing, too.
I hear a full, happy house.
It’s not spotless. But it’s perfect.
Why I drive to practice and make our weekends challenging.
Posted: July 1, 2009 Filed under: kids, sports, the boys 3 Comments »No mom signs the kid up for team sports because she gets excited about the extra driving, the complicated scheduling, or the chopped -up weekends. Trust me. This is a fact.
And it’s true for me, too.
When our sons were little, I dreaded the day they’d want to play sports, if truth be told. The rap about soccer moms and families whose lives revolve around sports really turned me off.
But.
I am absolutely convinced that my guys have grown. Learned teamwork. Become more confident. And that they’re well on their way to becoming men.
Max plays flag football in spring and fall and basketball in the winter. Reed plays basketball in the winter (and trombone all year, but that’s another story for another day).
Last basketball season, the boys were ‘drafted’ onto teams where they didn’t know even one other player. Shocking, because there must be 20 boys in each age group from our schools that play in the league. But things happen, right?
I was bummed out. The practices were far away. The boys had to make new relationships. The coaches were unknown to us.
The boys, while thinking it’d be nice to have a friend or two on the team already, were not really all that concerned. In fact, when they heard me talking to Andrew about lack of carpools and camaraderie, they said they absolutely did not want me to try to change them to a team with their peers. They were F.I.N.E.
And that started the best season for both boys that we’ve ever had. They made friends. They had amazingly stupendous, encouraging coaches. Together, this great group of kids led by compassionate and talented men, became teams. Really good, strong, cohesive teams.
When it was time to sign up last week for next winter’s league, I asked the boys if they wanted me to put any requests on the form. For specific kids? Coaches?
And the immediate response was “No, Mom. We’re good.” And I realized that my guys were going to be just fine in this world. They could walk into a situation and make it work for them. They had inner strength and motivation. And, not to be corny, they are team players.
And I’m really proud.
I get all sorts of alerts for moms to blog or tweet about different things. I don’t consider myself a mommy blogger, but clearly I am a mom and a blogger. And so when I saw that Liberty Mutual (not my insurance company – or at least I don’t think so, but Andrew would know for sure. Yikes. That’s terrible, isn’t it?) was sponsoring a program that supports volunteer youth sports coaches and parents who help our children succeed both on and off the field, gives community grants (in a time when communities are seeing cutbacks in funding for sure!) , and is maintaining a site with some terrific resources, and they were hoping that some bloggers would give them some ink, I decided wtf, I’d do it. ResponsibleSports.com. It’s nice. And I don’t say that lightly.
And I think it’s really important.
