Doodles in the wild

At is back!

As we were folding dinner napkins from the wash, the puppies wanted to wander back into the kitchen, but the glass door was closed, and while Scout glared balefully, Huck decided to claw the door down.

At started narrating as though it was a nature show ("these are golden doodles native to rural Canada, seen here in a tea garden...").

And for some reason, it made me fall about laughing. (It's possible that just having At back has improved my happiness immensely.)

10,000 Words

It feels like I said everything that needed to be said multiple times with my nearest ones, and I need a break from thinking and talking about the same thing.

Early morning walk with L; Lunch buffet at Saffron today with L&T and EM and Nu and Big A; baklava from Shatila via Sultan's; and the short story volume from N.K.Jemisin for book club tomorrow.

I'm calling the day officially closed for further business.

Give me a "T"

We hitched MIL's McCobb table that Nu now uses as an art table to our regular table to make a T, and I had an eyeful of people and faces I loved to look at.   

"Look at this day, Maya!"

A text from L, so I looked at the day, and lo, the morning rain had disappeared, so we got our walk after all, and then the guests started to arrive, and I made the bean stew and set out the co-op bread, and Big A and I braved the grocery store with two carts, and then we cooked, and hung out, and took turns at the oven, and so to bed...

Here

No weekend walking club, didn't make it to The Overstory bookclub, but--I cleaned the driveway, grocery shopped, planted the indoor hyacinths (I just press them into pots with other things around the house and someday will get a SURPRISE burst of color and fragrance), chatted about all the things with all the people, and ended up with  dinner at The People's Kitchen (Big A's Boss Day pick) just as the sun was setting over the capitol.

Kind of a lovely day, actually.

Say "subaltern"

Of course, I overdid things... and of course, I cooked until I ran out time... of course we'll be eating leftovers for days... but of course these are the greatest students.

I still want to try the pumpkin halva I made up in my head for the G/F kid and the two vegetarians.








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Giving up

All those pictures of golden trees, and I got it just today. Summer is over. We're not climbing out of the 30's for the foreseeable future (two weeks on the weather app) so I brought in the tomatoes that'll never ripen and the couple of At's peppers the deer didn't eat.

L&C who dropped by for tea proceeded to have a long discussion about the movie Fried Green Tomatoes (which I haven't seen), then it turned out one of them was talking about Thelma and Louise all along. Ha. Exciting.

Not according to plan

Big A is still in Denver, so I'd cobbled together some childcare for Nu on my long teaching day. Nu would take the school bus home, walk to L's, help her plant a tree and hang out, and we'd both have dinner at L's before coming home, and collapsing in pajamas for our "sleepover" in the rumpus room with Scout and Huck.

Instead I started receiving texts on family chat from At while I was on my way home telling me that the "sprained" finger I'd asked him to have looked at ten days ago, was actually a dislocated finger, and Dr. H at our family practice couldn't get it to stay in place despite a couple of times of "popping it back" (™) because his muscles and tendons had knitted wrong in the intervening days. Big A told him to go see a colleague of his at the E.R. in Lansing, so that's where we spent the rest of the evening.

It took several tries of Lidocaine and people tugging on his finger (and At making the inevitable fart jokes) before they could get the joint positioned and splinted. It was actually pretty traumatic. There was so much numbing agent that the base of his finger started to bleed, and despite his general good humor and inability to not be a sweet smartassy jokester, it was clear that the pain was getting to be too much. Not to be outdone, I somehow lost my insurance card despite putting it back in my wallet. And Nu having somehow ingested a peanut butter chip in a cupcake earlier, vomited repeatedly--but elegantly--into a plastic bag at the E.R. All in all, we made quite an impression at Big A's work.
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Divali!

I mean I'd strung up the lights already, and Divali was the perfect time to turn them on. It felt like my own version of Kusama, was our trip just last year?

When Nu and I wished my parents in the morning, they seemed a bit sad for us that it would be just the two of us for the biggest holiday of the year (At is at college; Big A is at a conference). But I reminded them that Scout and Huck would be here too, and that seemed to help some.

As it turned out, there was a teensy Divali celebration at UU and then EM came over for dinner bearing sweets from Dusty's--it was a Michigan Divali!






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A day

 A strange day... I got touched all day long. I was remembering Nu's amazement when they discovered me wearing tights when they were a baby and how they kept running their hands down my shin bone--"so silky, mama, so silky." So Nu enacted the strange thing for old times sake. I also got a a very tender kiss and good wishes when I dropped them off at school.

The ultrasound was, of course, a lot of awkward and uncomfortable contact. Although less awkward and uncomfortable and painful than a mammo. But goopier and with more prodding. I can't win this. I was asked to make a biopsy appointment, so I did, but now I don't want to go to it. It's the week before NWSA, I have an important meeting at school the day after, it will be At's Boss Day that weekend,... etc.

I ended the day with the international potluck that CP was organizing in town, and I had my hair touched a bunch of times all day by the nurse and late dinner guests? I don't know, I give up. As I was walking in to the ultrasound building, I got all these texts--from LB, MZ, and others, and that gave me a little boost. I'm going to think about that now.

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Wednesday/Birthday

I headed to the Broad after class
for a few last-minute birthday things...

and then we celebrated Big A's 4* birthday...
We're getting up there!

This year's candles sit atop the requested cinnamon muffins
Nu learned to make in a delicious "Food Science" class.
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Heading back...

and driving really slow, so we don't run out of battery power, and I'm staying/playing in the car with Scout and Huck as the others go get dinner (Popeyes!) while Bluey the E-Tron charges.

Why do electric cars cost so much? Why aren't there more EV charging stations? Why does it feel like it's more difficult when you're trying to do the right thing?






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"And then, mama..."

"Doing an after-dinner Huckleberry"

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Thud

Last week was a rainy blur, so I don't remember which morning this was. But yes, that tree fell right into our tiny veggie plot and the putative garden... so: BOO.

It would have been more boo-hoo though if it had fallen a few feet to the right and taken out windows and skylights, so there's a bright side?

CF was going to spend the night here, but showed up early, laden with sweet gifts, but congested and wanting to get back to her own bed. I was in the process of making soup for dinner, so I packed up some for her to take.

I am sad and will miss our plans for intergenerational girls' night. And C's disappearance hacks heavily into Nu's plans to watch Derry Girls  all over again :D.
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Call this nosey

When mama's cooking and the smells are driving us wild:



But that's all I have.

I wish I had a picture of the Indian feast I made for KB and her students who were on their way to the temple for navaratri and garba.

But to see the two students from India enjoying my version of Indian food was particularly special! And KB sweetly took back a box of biryani for At--the half-Indian kid who couldn't come.
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A Moment

I don't know how, and at the end of today it seems incredible, but this was part of my morning.

Afterwards was on two different campuses, teaching, attending meetings, getting stuff for care packages. And after that was blessedly bliss--eating Subway in the rumpus room, chortling along with the last ep. of Derry Girls, and getting my poor foot (Meijer-grocery-cart-drive-by victim) rubbed down with lavender oil by Big A.



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Cocktails with Goats

That's what DD's invite promised and that's exactly what she delivered. Apparently, it was exactly what I needed at the end of a difficult first week back at work.

Daisy, Rosie, and Lily are master clowns and ace therapists.








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Labor Day/Boss Day

We had no plans for Labor Day, so armed with a hardcore DSA poster, an excellent batch of biriyani, an ironic floral/pastel mug meant for someone's grandma, and all the baby sibs, (who address him as "Nana" in the one word of Telugu they do know), we made the trip up to Alma for At's Boss Day. I love my babies. The babies will save us.

So American!

I went to a baseball game (second time) and ordered a burger at Burger King (first time) yesterday.

Am I American yet?

Or does the fact that my picture accidentally ignores the game and that I ordered an "Impossible Whopper" discredit me?




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Early Birds

Grandpa R was in town for a volleyball ref. convention and then took all of us out to sushi at 3 pm. Linner? Dunch?

It's how we do this, apparently.

#Sansu #NoLeftovers








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