Twenty-six years old, with three children, in five years…
I thought the laundry would never end.
It didn’t, but it sure has slowed down.
The part that did end was the moment-to-moment delights of walking alongside three of the most amazing people I know as they found their way up, out, and into the world.
I wish I hadn’t focused so much on the laundry.
I think that’s why the prospect of being a grandmother is so exciting.
I won’t be the one facing the daily mountains of tiny socks and t-shirts…
I know how fleeting is the time of read-alouds, sing-a-long bath times, and turning stones over on the beach…
And this time, I know enough to slow things down and soak in as much as I can of enjoying my own precious children as they raise theirs.
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Over the years, we’ve become fond of pretty much any ice cold adult beverage ending in “ini.” In fact, we’ve been known to make up our own for special occasions.
Every four years, we have “electorinis.” A pre-Mountain Winery evening nosh is often served with “concertinis,” and then there’s the ever popular Friday-night-while-grilling-burgers “balconinis.” So when Sean extended an invitation to join the gang at Ant’s Eye View to celebrate the opening of their Silicon Valley operation with “heavy appetizers” and “antinis,” he had our attention.
We got to meet the rest of the AEV colony and many of their very cool friends and colleagues.
But best of all, we had permission to hang out on the floor and shoot from an angle not normally approved or understood.
And they’re absolutely right: the view from the ground up is fascinating.
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The conversation went something like this:
My brilliant friend, Nancy Ganz: “Kathy, you are so smart.”
Me (stunned): “Huh? Why on earth do you say that?” (Compared to Nancy, I couldn’t think my way out of a paper bag.)
Nancy: “Because in a group conversation, you always have something relevant or witty to chime in with.”
Me: “Nancy, are you kidding? Okay, so I can ping-pong a fairly rapid babble, but you! Every time you open your mouth, perfect pearls of wisdom come flowing out, and when you’re done, you can actually stop.”
Nancy: “Yes, but until I have a thought completely formed in my head, I can’t seem to get anything out. People think I’m shy in groups. I’m not shy… I’m just slow! By the time I have something ready to say, they’ve already switched topics and moved on.”
Me: “Wow. I, on the other hand, rarely know what I think about anything until I’ve heard myself talk about it. People think I’m gregarious, but I just have an external thought-processing loop. You have an internal one.”
Nancy: “Maybe neither one of us is all that smart. Maybe we’re just on the extreme opposite ends of the spectrum of how people think.”
I thought that was pretty clever of her.
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When you’re really excited about something, you can’t help but share.
Rick loves to paint and draw cartoons, so he often wants to “share” exciting new developments in the painting and drawing world, even if it’s a simple meander through art supply land at 11:48 p.m… on a school night.
Honestly, open this Utrecht link and see if you aren’t strangely excited, too.
At this point in a day, I, on the other hand, am almost always giddy with the prospect of shutting out as much light as possible while still allowing for a good, brisk circulation of cool night air, and bidding farewell to yet another wonderful day.
Sleep, baby. I’m talking sluuuuhm-ber.
A little secret, just between us kids? Falling asleep to the voice of the one you love looking forward to the amazing possibilities of tomorrow at 60% off?
Priceless.
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This is one of those things that people feel a remarkable freedom to ask within the first five minutes of getting acquainted. You are supposed to know, and there’s no equivocating allowed. It’s like being asked whether you’re Republican or Democrat: as an adult, you are assumed to have already picked a team. To blush and mumble “I don’t know,” or “I forget,” is cause for sideways glances and a quick re-shuffling of the cocktail party conversation groupings.
It doesn’t look good.
I verbalize the big picture.
Leaps of logic are fun play toys, yet I absolutely, positively, and in every conceivable way on this and every other planet STINK at filling out online forms. It’s the lurking ambiguity in the questions that undoes me. There are just too many possible ways to interpret the intention of what’s being asked.
It always ends in Rick rescuing me with gentle reassurance that it will all be okay, and no… drooping mascara, a runny nose and hiccups don’t make me look fat.
Even the “which way does your hemispheric boat float?” quizzes don’t help me. They involve questions such as:
Do you have a place for everything and keep everything in its place? Yes or no?
See, they don’t provide the only answer which works for me: eventually.
Can you tell approximately how much time passed without a watch? Yes or no?
I can hardly tell how much time has passed WITH a watch. One state line and a shift in daylight savings time, and I’m left faking it for six months until my clocks are all miraculously correct again.
Speaking in strictly relative terms, is it easier for you to understand algebra or geometry?
Let me tell you, speaking in strictly relative terms, it’s easier for me to understand who my aunts and uncles are than who my second-cousin, once removed, might be. Besides, I don’t do math: too much ambiguity in the questions.
Besides, why do we have to pick? Don’t we need the whole magilla engaged, most of the time? It’s like asking, “When driving at 75 mph, do you keep your eyes open or your hands on the steering wheel?”
I took the quiz and scored 12 “righties” and 6 “lefties.” So the next time someone asks, I”m going with “I’m a mildly loquacious liberal independent ‘big thinker’ with an aversion to being pinned down by online forms and boorish conversation partners.”
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The exhaustion, annoyance, and odd sense of guilt produced by spending five weeks with your nose running non-stop…
… and the constant sniffing is so disgusting that your mutinous head has been trying to blow itself off your own shoulders in record-breaking sneezing fits……
… while simultaneously coping with a cough that sounds like a seal straining to pass a lung at three minute intervals,…
… or being the healthy one who has to listen to it all?
