Sunrise Snip

"Deep breath of beauty" as the kids and I used to say as we met sunrise over the Maple River on the trip north to school in Alma. First day of the winter term started today, so the memory of those once little voices buoyed me across the day.

Late in the day, a super short visit from At. He said he'd be in town for "Brendan" and I thought it was some pal, because he has a few called "Brannon" or "Brennan" or "Brendan." It turned out that Brandon Betz, the DSA progressive At had campaigned for last year was getting sworn in to office. Heh. 

It was so lovely to see At. It was so lovely of him to just know that we (Nu and Scout and me esp.) would be glad to see him even though he'd officially gone back to college just 36 or so hours ago. 

"Empty Hearts"

 

That's it, that's the update.

I made it out in this, so I'm calling today a success.

(A book club meeting for Juli Zeh's Empty Hearts--

I liked it, but I have SO MANY questions!!)

Regina Vater "For a Time of War"

SS and I went to the The Edge of Things: Dissident Art Under Repressive Regimes exhibit at the Broad while she was here to drop off L. Nu and I had seen it before--with KM and L... but that was months ago, and everything was new to me again.

I really needed At to see it before it vanishes on Sunday, and we managed to sneak in for a bit yesterday, marveling at how long we've have been fighting this fight.

Nope

Yesterday felt like a giant nope (on cue X in the sky), but clearly I had also a long-ass walk with Big A under blue skies.

Perhaps I should blame The Rise of Skywalker, which we finally saw with LJ who's spending a couple of nights here. The cumulative post- movie review from the back seat: "It's like death has no consequence." Stop resurrecting! 

Full

 

At was my hiking companion yesterday and we were surprised to see the Red Cedar was close to flooding--guess all that snow and melt adds up. It's usually an hour to the MSU stadium and back, but it took us an hour and half (because of my back/too many political discussions/icy paths).

We managed to hit most of the new year habit agenda yesterday--the kids exercised (under duress of screen bans), made a healthy family dinner (snuck in some black-eyed peas!), did a post-dinner walk with the puppies (up to Hagadorn), spent lots of quiet time together reading (even if on screens), and got to bed before midnight...

But... I've been meaning to eat an apple a day for the last many years now... and... 

Happy New Year / Hello from the Future!

Really. Doesn't "2020" sound like a completely random and flagrantly fake date in some sci-fi piece?

"Borderline"

 Long ago friend, now mainly FB friend, JV gave me Madonna's "Borderline" as a theme song for 2020 so I'm adding it to my current playlist so I can be fabulous every time it comes on. I mean--it won't take over Post Malone's "Circles," which is on my running playlist like 15 times to up its chances of showing up. But Madonna's song was more instrumental than JV could know. I think I was really consumed by its depiction of modeling and certainly had it playing in my head during my early photoshoots.


Back to today in 2019, where I took an awful photo at my visa interview in Grand Rapids, but at least I didn't make such a huge fuss about it like my loveys are doing here. I'd asked for a picture of them at breakfast, and here's the best of what I got 😍.

Things are still in a bit of flux with work, with health, with... things... But perhaps that's the nature of life?

I'm closing out 2019 with gratefulness and hope and love. 💓