Jedis at Last

We had tickets to see The Last Jedi the minute they were announced. Actually, a notification that it had been added to the family calendar crawled across my phone screen while I was in class. *

But as it turned out, one of Big A's co-workers had a family emergency and needed to switch shifts with him, so we elected not to go on Friday. The kids are amazing that way--sweetly flexible about changes in plans because the life of an E.R. doc (and their family) is about celebrating Thanksgiving / Christmas / New Year / Birthdays whenever they're off--using the date on the calendar as a recommendation rather than as a deadline. Big A suggested we go without him on Friday and go again on Sunday with him, but At was all, "We can't go without Dad, he started Star Wars." (Compliment rather than accusation, I believe.)

There were moments where I teared up (Chewie telling Luke about Han, Gen. Leia being wished that the force *always* be with her), but the movie was just too dang long.
                                   At: It felt like there was an Act 4
                                   Nu: And an Act 5 and an Act 6...

                         We want to watch The Force Awakens again.

But we managed a family pic before the movies.

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* Let me take this moment to mention how much I dislike having to take my phone into the classroom so I can dual-verify login to the class computer!!!!!


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Fittingly

I had planned to put Kristen Roupenian's Cat Person and Carmen Machado's The Husband Stitch on the reading list for Women's Lit next term as they each blew up online this year...

Today, I made plans to collaborate teaching them with a bunch a strangers (fellow teachers) on an FB group.

The internet is kinda awesome.

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Reading

Today is a sabotaged page
brutish
dusty
untrustworthy

on the edges of my brain
the hot animal knees
me, tears me,
sees me in tears

on the undercurrent of loss
in the flooding and
leaking
and catching

I can untie words heavy as air
as ephemeral; I am
a lookout, I am
eaten by the sea


(Note: I'm reading Truddi Chase's When Rabbit Howls and took on a new CASA case yesterday)
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Two by Two

Two times I fell today

• down the stairs with the stick vacuum
• while arguing about the Keaton kid story in the Chipotle parking lot

Two songs I've avoided since At went to college

• Human by the Killers (long history)
• The song from the end of Boyhood (for the obvious reasons)

Two things I looked forward to all day

• Dinner with the MacCurdy women

• Bringing the boy home

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Snow Days

Yesterday's snow came with a surprise--when I finally left work and got into the car to come home, I realized that some angel had cleared my windshield for me.  If I wasn't such a wimp with the weather, I'd try to pay that forward.

Today, I got a leisurely day at home and got to work out, clean the house, and wash my hair with no hard deadlines. And although that doesn't sound particularly hedonistic, it felt luxurious.

It was Big A's work holiday party today. But when the morning news predicted 8-10 inches of snow, I decided we weren't going to drive in it. Big A wanted to keep the babysitter so we could do a date-night, but I really didn't want our high-school babysitter to be driving in all this snow either.

I made the saffron shrimp linguini for dinner though, so I think everyone's mollified.

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Inflection

I know my footprints make

achy commas in the snow

Icy shibboleths of everywhere 

I've been, when breath catches.

I keep finding these reminders--

the plainsong of my wandering

as though to say: now just pause

'cos--no one's ever here that long.

So commas--broken signs of all

kinds: earned, separate, or set off--

Of course I've known forever how

I am guilty of love--never list me alone.

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'Yas

Not a day goes by that I don't think of cousin PD and the other 'Yas. It could be because something reminded me to think of our house as a home rather than as a real-estate investment; or I bought myself flowers when no one else did; or I'm driving in the snow and remembering her telling me about black ice, and to go slow on NJ hills; or because I got a mouthful of something spicy that reminded me of the rasam-buvva that she hand-fed me when I was too pregnant/nauseated to feed myself; or I'm yearning for times while we watched the kids play and could conduct sotto voce discussions of family, nation, or culture for hours.

When she texted me that she was going to be close by visiting her elementary schoolmates for the weekend to celebrate turning 50 in a few months, AND that she could spend a night with us... I squealed and then called her so she could hear me.

It was everything I imagined.

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