Another day of catching up on the last year with fam, and so many I hadn't seen in years. S Auntie and I always end up reminiscing about when she babysat us and I always remember the pencil eraser she had that was shaped like a bulldog.
Meanwhile back at home, Nu loved the Boss Day presents I packed for them before we left.
But here we are, about to take off, it's beautiful, and... I'm so excited.
Not to be outdone, Nu (a.k.a The Chicken Daddy) titled a group picture of their growing chickies--"dogs."
We got our picnic after all...
Nu and I got At to smile by asking about Mark Fisher 🤣...
Big A went in to work early (extended Fourth schedule) and the human kids went to the DSA Pride potluck (rescheduled due to rain last weekend), so I hung out with the puppy kids, ate leftovers, and read all evening.
Accidental celebration protest, I guess? The more American history one learns, the harder it is to celebrate.
One of this year's WGS guest speakers (KH) mentioned how they were doing social work because as a WGS student they'd been inspired by AC's presentation as a guest speaker--I loved that so much and enjoyed passing it on to AC.
This last year has been tough.
[Pic: Robin with cherries]
[Pic: An indoors kind of day; the kids have to delink settler colonialism and Catan for me every time.]
Rain again today; lots of it! But we snuck some other stuff in there as well.
Met up with DD and TD who are visiting Lansing after 15 months for a walk outside and a catch up.
Pride Parade was rained out, but the kids and I went to Salus Center's open house and my gay babies got some merch to supplement the stuff they got at our in-home pre-Pride party yesterday.
I made "leftover rice" for dinner (rice from Indian takeout; bean and corn salsa + tomato, cilantro, and onion salsa from our pre-Pride-party's "rainbow nachos;" veggie sausage, seasoned potatoes, frozen veggies, a pinch of garam masala, and a couple of teaspoons of ghee... voila).
Then the weather alert system started going off on the radio and our phones, and tornado sirens started up too, so we all trooped into the basement (Scout and Huck anxious, Big A needing to sleep before work) for an hour and half of weather-mandated family time 😅😂.
[Pic: We found this highly apropos duo of national flags outside Salus! My parents were so delighted by this photo 😇.]
But they don't want to name any chicks yet because they "don't want to get too attached." That's too much reality for me.
The all-day and all-week rain has been unreal and disappointing. I'm nothing if not stubborn, however, so I've been sitting in the swing reading, drinking lemonades, and eating cherries anyway.
The kids and I called my dad last night (already Fathers' Day in India) while my sister was making him a "full English breakfast." Everyone was super excited and happy and talking over each other and couldn't hear very well. My dad legit couldn't hear us, I suspect 😞.
At and Nu took Big A brunch in bed and got him a couple of cans of the beer he likes and a very VSCO beer cozy. They said all they knew walking into the store was that the kind Big A likes had fish on the logo... they nailed it.
Pic: My one fancy nursery planter splurge didn't make it too long before it was colonized by a family of house sparrows in the most beautiful, mossy nest I've ever seen. But now the baby birds have flown and I am going to see if I can rejuvenate the planter.
* I'm going to punctuate it this way and not this.
Had a welcome breakthrough on a work project and managed to meet a proposal deadline one whole day ahead of deadline.
Took a nap. Woke up because of a horrifying moment in a post-apocalyptic-style dream (someone had tumbled down some stairs because I bumped them and when I went to check on them, I was captured and they started pulling on my clothes... also, my dad was supposed to help me keep watch, but he fell asleep and didn't hear me when I was shouting for help).
I'd planned a "Summer Celebration" to celebrate the end of Nu's 8th grade year.... it literally got rained on after we set the picnic table.
Ah well, watermelon tastes almost as good indoors too.
I made a summer soup for dinner in the InstantPot (stove's still not working), but left everyone to their own devices and put myself to bed with a bar of chocolate.
Tidying up a box full of old greeting cards and mementoes, I came upon this (fairly humdrum) rock. I'm guessing one of the kids gave it to me. I honestly have no idea which kid or when or why.
I checked with them to see if they remembered, but they don't, so I'm releasing this one into the wild, wide world.
I miss my tiny kids and their sincere, impromptu prezzies. 🥰
I saw the most amazing early morning skies over the Maple River as I headed to work today, and had a feeling it would be the harbinger of a ...
