trumpets!

Ok. So proud of myself today.

I got the chapter done this morning. Twenty days late, and Big A eyes glazed over when I summarized it on our walk yesterday, and the editor hasn't seen or approved it. But at this moment, I think it's a good first draft. 

And then in the afternoon, I single-handedly shopped, cooked, and (six hours later) served a fancy four-course Indian meal for the UU fundraiser. I think this is my fourth year of doing this "Evening in India" thing, so I have the menu, prep, and production down to an exact science. I like to pretend I'm running a restaurant--do other grown ups do this too? 😂 A couple of guests remarked that they were so happy to get in this year because they'd tried to bid on my offering for a couple of years but the bids went up so quickly. I said something self-deprecating, but I preened a little bit on the inside when I heard that. 

 Pic: Trumpet vine flowers to go with all the self-trumpeting. 

homes, borders, flags

Super excited about leaving for India in ten days... Excited to see everyone and visit every place and eat everything... A bit anxious about giving a talk at my old undergraduate college... but super excited to be home, in the old country. 

In my own anticipation of crossing borders, the hype about the new Indiana Jones and the Oppenheimer movies are beginning to bother me.  Did they really make a full-length movie about Oppenheimer's tortured genius without representing a single Japanese person? 

Anyway--walking, (window) shopping, and snacking my way through downtown East Lansing with JG today, Stephanie Syjuco's "Rogue States" at The Broad Museum really spoke to me. It's an installation of flags of fictional nation states from movies (incl. "Hatay" from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). A "convention of collective anxiety" about nations that are positioned as "terrorist, backward, resistant, or unstable."

Pic: My second time with Stephanie Syjuco's "Rogue States" this year. The first time was with EM. 

a forgotten summer list

Between the travel and deadlines, I totally forgot to make a summer list this year...

But summer things are still happening anyway. At a breakneck pace these days.

We're entertaining for the next three days (three very different things), have houseguests the weekend after, and then it's off to India... eep.

And as Nu said dolefully: when we come back from India, summer vacation will almost be over. I wanted to redirect and say we ought to enjoy the moment and that we have a whole month left, but NGL--I lowkey feel the way Nu does too.

Pic: Big A, Huck, and Max roasting veggie dogs.

lingering

what is the correct tense for promise

for the butterflies you tried to catch

like the meaning in unknown words 

when you learn loving less is useless

what might we say or sing or pray

aligning the trembling fall of leaves

--if you're still listening, do you hear

content rustling in the fleeing day... 

Pic: A bud vase with wildflowers to take upstairs to Nu.

Max-imum love

Max is a delight. As At says, he's completely unselfconscious and a "goofy-ass" puppy. Max is pure puppyness: He sits down and then unintentionally ends up rolling over; he trips over himself; he sploots; I once saw him pay attention to a deer jump over the fence and then for a while he picked up his feet and leapt like a deer himself; when I sweep up a mess, he moves his head like he's watching a scintillating tennis match.

Nu hasn't laughed quite like this... in years. Nu hasn't been adored quite like this... in years. Max wakes Huckie up to play whenever he wants to, he cuddles up to Huckie because he wants to, when it's dinner time Huckie eats at least partly out of competition. Max is so good at animating poor grieving Huckie. Scout would have loved Max.

Big A and I both tear up when we talk about Scout--that doesn't look like it will change any time soon (never). I expected that. I didn't expect that we'd have reasons to laugh quite so much despite it all. I'm surprised at how much my heart can still grow.

 Pic: Nu and Max playing 'Pat-a-cake'

pushing luck

I found FOUR four-leaved clovers while walking with Max and Huck this evening. 

(At least I think they're clover? They might well be shamrock or oxalis or some other weed.)

(Anyway, they were in a patch with other mostly three-leaved things, so I'm counting these lucky.)

I got lots of respect for this feat from At (who came to dinner today) and Nu. It reminded me of a long ago moment in 2008... 

I'm keeping one for myself; the other three are for some people I know who need a good shot of good luck too.

Pic: four-leaved clover haul on the kitchen counter.

summer fullness

Still frozen in the same place on the writing project--convinced that I'll be satisfied if I work on it for just another 24 hours. Perhaps it's time to send it off to the editor and let them tell me what I need to fix?  Perhaps it needs to live in someone else's brain for a while.

In the afternoon, I took myself off to HS's annual garden party, which, as always, was a treat. An unexpected treat was the live jazz band that set up in the dining room and was absolutely fantastic. 

The last time H.S. had their garden party was in the year before the pandemic... it was impossible not to reflect on how much has changed since the last time and simultaneously feel that familiar sense of return about so much else.   

I feel so replete with flowers, friends, music... and food. So full of food: The whole afternoon repast at HS's, then dumplings and stir-fry at home, and then a second dinner as Nu wanted a pizza snack but only if I would share it with them.

Pic: A partial view of HS's beautiful garden. Someday I will have a beautiful garden too and deer won't eat it.