2017 Christmas #3

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Boss Day swag (is Princely)

My family knows me well...

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Grandparents are so brave

they'll even take naughty puppies to the bank

(Parents aren't doing so well:

Hurry home, Huck!)

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Five Years Ago in Yellow Springs...

Best graffito ever.

(Facebook reminded me.)

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Warmth

Sometimes it is the surprise present 

an old, dear friend slipped 

into our luggage as we said goodbye 

(a present I didn't find until weeks later 

because I left for the conference 

the very day we got home)

that is the sweetest

and warmest.

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Second Christmas

In YS, and the only picture I got all weekend was of the grandparents' goodbye...

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The End

They'll be home from YS soon
And then night comes
or falls--depends
on whom you ask


Time to wrap babies and burritos
while birds dip their wings
in sunsets
and vanish

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Blast from the Past

Yesterday's prom photo extravaganza

made us moms reminisce 

Their playdates and sleepovers,

 their silly sing alongs...

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Testing

Their sister
is at retreat/
long camp
(rehab)

Then when
they took tests
to see if they too
were dependent

they found only
two options:
dependent OR
very dependent

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Wishing I were there...

Friends and old neighbors shutting it down in honor of John Crawford.

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A Dimple in Time

In the middle of August 

four years ago, I uploaded 

this picture of Nu to FB.

It was whimsically captioned:

 "One day, the child made a wish--

and then summer started."

My sister's school friend

(newly friended) found it 

today, liked it. Others did too.

I looked through that 

entire album at work

and missed my babies.

She was just two then 

she's headed for Grade 2

this August. Soon.

So small and squishy, right? 

But I remember thinking then

that she'd become a big kid.

Ok, yes.

Time is fleeting,

but it's also so ridiculous.

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Surprise Portrait

This showed up in my message folder...

There usually aren't (m)any pictures of us

Another thing I really like is how we're  

flanked by a portrait of Big A as a kid…


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All I remember from Christmas...

YSO

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(I need a) Smile

At blogged about this a long time ago.

He titled it Paul Simon Enjoys Subs:

(In case you can't read it, it says:

"The words of the prophets are written on the Subway (sic) walls."

So meta.)

O.K. Camp

A couple of weeks ago, the kids were finally at the eco-camps they'd been talking about for about two months. It was kind of a big deal/special year since it was going to be the last year At (14) could go before he aged out and the first time Nu (5) would be old enough to go.

They had a nice beginning to the week, bumping into each other in the cafe, being assigned as buddies (completely randomly, per Nu ;), and then midweek this happened.

On Thursday, deputies, law enforcement officers and a K-9 unit from several area agencies searched the park, the Glen Helen Education Center on State Route 343 and neighboring areas, sheriff’s Maj. Eric Spicer said. The 1,000-acre nature preserve is an entity of the college, located adjacent to the campus.The gunman was spotted near the Outdoor Education Center at Glen Helen at about 11:30 a.m. According to a witness there, the man approached a dorm and when a counselor asked him to leave, the man displayed a gun.“He more or less implied and made a menacing statement to them,” Spicer said. 

It turns out now that the college-aged counsellor had made the whole thing up. And everyone's angry because it was horrifying and also what a waste of tax-payer resource$, etc, etc.

I'm mostly okay with it. Because unlike the nightmares I've had since Newtown, this one case--this one very special case involving my very own children--seemed to have ended well: there was a gunman around the kids; no one got hurt. If we can't prevent men with guns showing up at kids' schools and camps, this should be the way it always ends.

Or the gunmen can be totally imaginary--I'm okay with that too; I could sleep through that.

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There (and Back Again)

Tired, waiting at the door
yet another rehearsal.
Deportations.
Surrenders--
blur

On folded legs and wheels
we've accumulated maps
for wrongs, words,
and soon--
an edge

I learn to suspect horizons
and they harbor storms
their pennant winds
find us, rush us
clean

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Stranger

(Kids at school, Big A sleeping off a night shift, My TTR class done) I took a hike.

At minute 1:24, I saw two figures--one of whom had a strange, lopping, unsteady gait. I began prickling with wariness... Till they got closer and I could see it was a nice woman with a headband, walking her horse.

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Half Empty

We've emptied and packed half the house... the pile of paperwork keeps growing...

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Dayton Dragons

Found out that they play baseball (not basketball); headed back to the car for some pizza and heat while the other Ohioans in the family pranced around on the lawn in 46-degree weather.

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Visitors:

First these two crept in

And then there was even more sunshine

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