Back in Chicago

For the #MLA, this time without the kids...

A lovely reunion with Ra and then with Ro; made me feel like a grad student at Oxford all over again.

Later, I was explaining the difference between Ra and other advisors I've had to someone at a gathering and termed it being the recipient of "both brilliance and a kind of affection" and happened to look up to catch Ra's eye. Whereupon, she smiled and said, "you can use the l-word, you know."  All the happy feelings.

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Guess What We Did on Jan 3rd?

Finally got everyone in one place to take a "holiday" family picture! It's a holiday miracle!






Though Big A is a bit Ghost Dad in this one...














So here's Take #2











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The Future is Now

Took the kids to yoga today

almost every bite at breakfast
is all please and bargaining
every footstep up to class
echoes with reluctance
every pose is desolate
as exit wounds
                                            I'm holding, steadying, angling
                                            them in my side vision--where
                                            they're right there--by the door
                                            so my practice speckles with
                                            chuckles overfilling and now
                                            spilling from my lungs

We're nicer on the way back
loosened and relaxed--me
from yoga, them because
they're done, by the time
we're home again, it's all
already a memory
                                          And I think there will be other classes
                                          warmed by them, memories of them--
                                          keeping unspoiled from year to year;
                                          the quiet, slow wonder of a stone
                                          released and now flying lightly
                                          borne forever over the water


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Took the kids to yoga because the health chart was a desert (Friday, Dec 28th).

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NYE: 4/6

It's just Nu and Scout and Huck and me tonight (Big A is at work and At is out partying).

The plan is to snack, watch girlie movies, and cuddle until midnight.

Mission accomplished, we're taking our barely sleepy selves to bed to read till we fall asleep.

Earlier that night...

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Station

Her eyes grow cloudy
soon there will be rain
her thoughts steal past
like slow, noisy trains

No, that's really not me
No reason it would be--
Her heart mourns parting
mine's torn from certainty


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Umm Om

Made it to an early yoga class in the socks PJ gave me in Philly when we organized the SALA conference two years ago.



I'm not there yet, but... my. socks. were. a. hit.





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