what's been on my mind lately
my youngest dtr and her b-f (and their baby) just got evicted from their place and moved in with his family. i don't hear from her much, but i think about her all the time. i was paying for their cellphone until i got a bill that was twice what i make in a week, after i'd changed the rate plan three times to increase the number of free minutes, and i had it turned off. fun is fun, but there are limits. i think she might have anticipated this; she told me beforehand that i "didn't need to pay for it." i'm hoping her oldest sister will tell her that i didn't pull the plug because i was mad at her. she'll be 19 next week.
the big one and i have been talking more lately after not talking at all for a long, long while. she has a dtr, my oldest grandchild, who lives with her dad; a son who lives with her and her b-f now; and she's pregnant with a third child who's due in the spring. she told me she started playing gtr again recently and taught herself how to sing and play. she says it's her stress reliever. i told her that was the only time i played for seven or eight yrs when she was little: singing to her and her sisters.
the middle one and her b-f just moved into a new place near tcu, which i finally got to see yesterday. she said she's going to stay at tcc an extra semester taking science courses that don't apply to her current degree plan so she can go to this conference in salzburg next yr. she figures she'll major in english and minor in a science before she gets her teaching certificate "so i can teach anything." i told her that in pre-industrial times, everybody used to get the same education whether they were going to be a scientist or a poet, and that having a generalist skillset can make it easier to respond to changes in the economy. her b-f's b-day is this thursday; we're gonna try and have dinner together that night.
she has a better memory for stories than anybody i've ever met. yesterday i watched a movie with her, the plot of which she'd already described to me in detail: the notebook, which is about an elderly man who reads his wife, an alzheimer's sufferer, a story that she wrote about their life in the hope that it will help her to remember. my dtr also let me borrow a book, the plot of which she'd already _half_ described to me in detail (she hadn't finished it yet at that point): the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon, which is about an autistic teenager who sets out to solve the mystery when his neighbor's dog is killed; the author does a good job of adopting his protagonist's p.o.v., which isn't exactly new to litterchur (i remember reading flowers for algernon in high school) but still unusual.
my sweetie and i are planning a trip to new jersey to see my folks while she's on fall break next month. my dad's in a nursing home now, and my mom's getting used to living alone. i don't think either of them has wrapped their mind yet around the idea that he's probably not going to get well enough to come home again, but at least he's basically comfortable in his surroundings and all of his needs are being taken care of, and my big sis says our mom is starting to seem more like herself.
the other night my sweetie 'n' i watched a coupla dvd's my sister-in-law from illinois sent of old family vids. i was happy because i finally got to see their mom, who passed away a coupla yrs ago before i had a chance to meet her. and i got to see some vid of my sweetie before i knew her. that was nice, too.
and we watched the buena vista social club, wim wender's film about the superannuated cuban son musos ry cooder helped rediscover a decade or so ago. their music is so full of life and beauty and sadness and joy, and their faces tell the stories of their lives as much as their music does. something funny: the first song on the album (compay segundo's "chan chan") reminds me of the way sleeplab used to sound when they were still "the guys that jam in jesse's studio." i think they might have been an influence on bindle, too; katboy tells me that he and tony diaz and sir steffin were part of a group of folks who rented a bus to go see the b.v.s.c. when they played in santa fe back then.
six yrs ago today i was having coffee at work (still worked at radioshack downtown back then, on the 13th floor of tower one) when somebody said that a plane had hit the world trade center in nyc. i was thinking a cessna and we went on with our conversation when somebody said it was an airliner. somebody turned on a tv in the quality control lab and we watched the second airliner strike the other tower. i tried for what seemed like hours to reach my friend who lives in lower manhattan; when i finally got through, he said he and his wife had just watched one of the towers collapse from the roof of their bldg and they were going out to donate blood. (i spoke to him the other day; they're moving to london in a few wks.) i remember my coworker saying "this is the one thing i'd hoped wouldn't happen during my lifetime."
one of my old music buds who's a major in the army reserves got called up for afghanistan; thankfully he's home now. two of my middle dtr's friends have served in iraq; one of them is there now. six kids from their high school who went in the army together were all in the same i.e.d. explosion; two lost limbs and the others have closed head injuries. when he graduates from tcu, her b-f is going to be an army nurse. she resisted the idea for awhile until he told her that he wants to make sure more of the kids who are there come back. i don't like it, but i have to respect that.
the big one and i have been talking more lately after not talking at all for a long, long while. she has a dtr, my oldest grandchild, who lives with her dad; a son who lives with her and her b-f now; and she's pregnant with a third child who's due in the spring. she told me she started playing gtr again recently and taught herself how to sing and play. she says it's her stress reliever. i told her that was the only time i played for seven or eight yrs when she was little: singing to her and her sisters.
the middle one and her b-f just moved into a new place near tcu, which i finally got to see yesterday. she said she's going to stay at tcc an extra semester taking science courses that don't apply to her current degree plan so she can go to this conference in salzburg next yr. she figures she'll major in english and minor in a science before she gets her teaching certificate "so i can teach anything." i told her that in pre-industrial times, everybody used to get the same education whether they were going to be a scientist or a poet, and that having a generalist skillset can make it easier to respond to changes in the economy. her b-f's b-day is this thursday; we're gonna try and have dinner together that night.
she has a better memory for stories than anybody i've ever met. yesterday i watched a movie with her, the plot of which she'd already described to me in detail: the notebook, which is about an elderly man who reads his wife, an alzheimer's sufferer, a story that she wrote about their life in the hope that it will help her to remember. my dtr also let me borrow a book, the plot of which she'd already _half_ described to me in detail (she hadn't finished it yet at that point): the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon, which is about an autistic teenager who sets out to solve the mystery when his neighbor's dog is killed; the author does a good job of adopting his protagonist's p.o.v., which isn't exactly new to litterchur (i remember reading flowers for algernon in high school) but still unusual.
my sweetie and i are planning a trip to new jersey to see my folks while she's on fall break next month. my dad's in a nursing home now, and my mom's getting used to living alone. i don't think either of them has wrapped their mind yet around the idea that he's probably not going to get well enough to come home again, but at least he's basically comfortable in his surroundings and all of his needs are being taken care of, and my big sis says our mom is starting to seem more like herself.
the other night my sweetie 'n' i watched a coupla dvd's my sister-in-law from illinois sent of old family vids. i was happy because i finally got to see their mom, who passed away a coupla yrs ago before i had a chance to meet her. and i got to see some vid of my sweetie before i knew her. that was nice, too.
and we watched the buena vista social club, wim wender's film about the superannuated cuban son musos ry cooder helped rediscover a decade or so ago. their music is so full of life and beauty and sadness and joy, and their faces tell the stories of their lives as much as their music does. something funny: the first song on the album (compay segundo's "chan chan") reminds me of the way sleeplab used to sound when they were still "the guys that jam in jesse's studio." i think they might have been an influence on bindle, too; katboy tells me that he and tony diaz and sir steffin were part of a group of folks who rented a bus to go see the b.v.s.c. when they played in santa fe back then.
six yrs ago today i was having coffee at work (still worked at radioshack downtown back then, on the 13th floor of tower one) when somebody said that a plane had hit the world trade center in nyc. i was thinking a cessna and we went on with our conversation when somebody said it was an airliner. somebody turned on a tv in the quality control lab and we watched the second airliner strike the other tower. i tried for what seemed like hours to reach my friend who lives in lower manhattan; when i finally got through, he said he and his wife had just watched one of the towers collapse from the roof of their bldg and they were going out to donate blood. (i spoke to him the other day; they're moving to london in a few wks.) i remember my coworker saying "this is the one thing i'd hoped wouldn't happen during my lifetime."
one of my old music buds who's a major in the army reserves got called up for afghanistan; thankfully he's home now. two of my middle dtr's friends have served in iraq; one of them is there now. six kids from their high school who went in the army together were all in the same i.e.d. explosion; two lost limbs and the others have closed head injuries. when he graduates from tcu, her b-f is going to be an army nurse. she resisted the idea for awhile until he told her that he wants to make sure more of the kids who are there come back. i don't like it, but i have to respect that.
posted by stashdauber at 5:09 AM
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