Off In the Distance

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I've been away for a while. I refuse to allow this blog to fizzle. We have been rippin'-n-runnin' lately, and we have had some Internet issues. The combination has put a damper on posting. I hope to do better this week. Please, please, please do not give up on visiting this blog.

While we're on the topic of visitation. I notice that I get a number of visitors each day, but I don't know who you are. I have very few followers. Let me know who you are by joining.

Thanks!

Mother-Son Q&A

I first watched this NPR Story Corps animation a couple of years ago. I find myself revisiting this video every couple of months or so. I love this! I am excited for the day when I can have full conversations with Grayson.

What Endears Me

I wish I had my camera on me at all times. Grayson and Lu have some of the funniest moments together. I love watching them communicate. So many giggles and sequels. I love how much they love each other. Grayson can put a smile on Lu's face like no one else. I pray that they will continue to grow together as close siblings. I really hope they will be good friends.

The other night Grayson tried to show Lu how to brush her non-existent teeth.

Friday Favorites: Rock

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This week John brought home School House Rock from the library. Grayson was entranced by the music. I became engrossed as well. The musical style is so indicative of the 70s. All of the songs were very patriotic. I felt like I was indoctrinating Grayson with American pride. I laughed at the many song lyrics that would likely make folks in the Tea Party cringe. I wonder what the tone of School House Rock would be if the songs were rewritten now? What music style would be used?

Here are some of  the songs that have been playing on repeat in my head all week.

Most confusing part of this clip: why whenever they sing, "In the pursuit of happiness" does a man chase a woman across the screen?

The formality of Elias Howe makes me smile.

Rock it out this weekend!

Can it Continue?

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We are an Arrested Development household. We have watched every episode multiple times. It was definitely a show that ended before its time. When the reunion season and subsequent film were announced I was skeptical - I can't think of a tv reunion that has gone well or a successful tv show-turned-movie that has been good - but I am eager to see what the writers come up with. Will the comedy be the same? Arrested Development was unique in its comedy style. Hopefully it can hold on to its original voice and not gravitate to the comedy style that dominates shows right now.

Yesterday it was announced that all season 4 episodes will be released at once on Netflix. I think we may need to reinstate our Netflix account for a week. Here is a humorous ad for those who are anxiously awaiting season 4.

Side note: I am fascinated how our interpretation of comedy and how comedic writing changes over the years. If I had no financial obligations, I would study this trend more. Here is a clever example of how tv shows and how we respond to humor have changed (Thanks to Morgan for contributing this clip. She is a major contributor to this blog. She is so Internet hip). I am so happy the laugh track has been removed from tv shows. There are a few shows that currently use the track. I can't handle it.

Person of Intrigue: Fred Birchmore

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This week Athens lost a very dynamic man. To be honest, I did not know of Fred Birchmore prior to this week. I think I may have spoken to him at the YMCA, but at the time he seemed to me to just be a friendly gentleman who was taken with Grayson's zest for life. Monday morning I heard a brief report of Mr. Birchmore's death on NPR. The announcement highlighted Mr. Birchmore's cycling expeditions, athletic abilities, civic duties, and his famous walk down the steps of the Washington Monument on his hands. I was initially intrigued by the fact that Mr. Birchmore was a regular citizen who lived a life so unique that it was mentioned on NPR and posted in the lobby of the YMCA. Then I learned about his hand walk down the steps of the Washington Monument and I was captivated.

Here is one of the most interesting obituaries. I was reminded that not everyone gets the chance to grow old, but everyone who is old had the opportunity to be young. Mr. Birchmore seemed to live always like he was young. Life to the full.

When Are You a Celebrity?

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The other day when I took Grayson swimming a woman told me about a man who often brings his young sons to the pool.The woman commented, "Those boys are so talented in the water! Their dad has them on YouTube - they are that talented." My response was, "Oh, wow. YouTube! They must be good." Once the words rolled out of my mouth I wondered why I was impressed by their YouTube presence. Now, I don't doubt the boys' athletic ability, but I doubt the credibility of YouTube as a measure of their success. Anyone and everyone is on YouTube. This guy is on YouTube, and he has received over 1.5 millions viewers. Why?

Do you consider YouTube to be a legit measure of making it big?

For more "vintage" media posters....

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Bump in the Night

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Some insight into my soul: I very much believe in the spiritual world around us. I believe in angels. I believe in spirits. I believe in demons. The spiritual world is addressed in the Bible as being very true and seems like a very busy place. That being said, I don't know what to make of any of it. I don't understand how the spiritual realm works. What I do know is that I am not crazy about having spiritual encounters. Yes, I believe there are angels surrounding us. Do I want to see them, hear them, feel them? Nope. Any mention of spiritual encounters in the Bible usually involves great fear. I would rather live in my very present and visible world.

There's a glitch to my dream of living in the simply in the tangible world, though. I would not have say I have a sixth sense, but I am sensitive to feelings around me.I get uncomfortable easily. I often wonder what else is going on around me. I am sure I got a few eye rolls just now. Whatever, I own it. 


Six months ago my grandmother died. The week she died we went to Savannah. My parents offered that we stay in her room, where she died. My parents are very familiar with having relatives die in their home, so offering my grandmother's room as a guest room did not seem out of the ordinary. This was my first experience with knowing for certainty that someone - and not just anyone, someone I loved - died in my parents' house. I was not eager to sleep in my grandmother's bed. The sheets had been changed, but still... We ended up sleeping in the office on an air mattress. A couple of weeks ago we visited my parents again. My grandmother's mattress was replaced shortly after our last visit. For some reason the new mattress made everything seem different, even though nothing else in the room had changed. That weekend I slept where my grandmother died.

I felt surprisingly at ease in my grandmother's room. Until the middle of the night. I was wide awake in the middle of the night because Lucy was sleeping uneasy. The house was still. When Lu was asleep the room was very still. Lu would fall asleep for a few minutes and then get startled awake. It because tiring cycle. It was an uncharacteristic cycle for Lu - the girl likes to sleep. Sometime during the cycle, as I was lying in bed I got a strong whiff of my grandmother's perfume, like someone just walked past the bed. I am fully aware that tiredness, grief, stress, you name it, can conjure up strange experiences. I was tired, and I was missing my grandmother, but I was not missing her so much that I was imagining a breeze of her perfume. The feeling and smell of my grandmother walking next to the bed happened three times. Part of me thought it was endearing if she was trying to engage with Lucy. That was a small part of me. A majority of me wondered why my grandmother would be hanging out in her room, and how long she would stay.

Do you believe in the spiritual realm?  Any stories of your own?

Caught in Time

There are countless YouTube videos of babies laughing. It's a popular thing. What makes it so popular is that baby and toddler laughter is nothing short of endearing. Grayson and Lu are growing in their sibling bond. They have a relationship with each other that is unlike any of the other relationships they have. I love watching it grow. Yesterday they had an inside joke. The joke may have been that Grayson slobbered all over Lu's left eye, but I am wondering why she would think that was so funny? Whatever it was, really got both Grayson and Lu tickled. I sat in the middle of the concert of laughter and loved every second of it. 

Every now and then John and I toss around the idea of going back to the basics and turning in our iPhones. If not for my phone I would not have been able to capture this moment. So, for now, I am going to keep my phone in hand, just to be prepared. 

Bad Day Remedy

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The other day my friend sent me this very entertaining post. My friend is in the final days of her pregnancy, so it is likely that this post did justice for her spirits. I showed this post to John after a particularly challenging day and it was effective. I am suspicious of anyone who can look through the entire list and not chuckle at least a little.

What is your favorite step to get you through a bad day? The visuals of #8 get me every time.

Summer Forecast

Water, especially swimming in the water, plays a large role in my family. I don't remember not knowing how to swim. I swam in my first swim meet when I was 2-years-old. A majority of my childhood memories involve swimming and spending time in the water. It has been special to get Grayson and Lu in the water. It's a family affair. My mom and sister-in-law have been the first to dunk both Grayson and Lu. I am grateful that both kids love being in the water. Our recent swim time made me very excited for this summer.

This past weekend was Lu's first time to the beach and in the pool. I miss living by the beach. Hopefully the beach will not be too foreign to the kids as they get older.

Speak Freely

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I love speech. I love dialect. I love word choice. I am so intrigued by people who spice up their language. Not spice up as in being crass, but spice up as in stylizing their language. I don't think language gets enough credit for its ability to characterize someone. Of course, there are the Paula Deens of the world who build their entire persona around their language (and pounds of butter, but that is another story). There are the stereotypical Bostonians who use the word wicked to describe everything. And there are the speech offenders who move down South and immediately pick up a Southern accent as though they were directly related to General Robert E. Lee. We all know an offender or two, and we have all had to suffer at one time or another through their attempt to assimilate to a culture that is not their own. It's painful.

Stereotypical speech and dialect is not what intrigues me most, although I do find some aspects of stereotypes entertaining and fascinating. What I love most is individualized speech. My grandmother had a very specific cadence I loved. Her conversations carried so much power just with her pauses and exclamations. For some reason I get really tickled when someone naturally starts to whisper to emphasize a point. Ironically, whispering gets attention.

Lately, I have been surrounded by word choices that stop me in my tracks. I am often around some folks who are notorious for using million dollar words. Whenever these folks pepper the conversation with superfluously large or obscure words I lose focus and I begin to wonder about the motivation. Are they trying to prove something? Are they doing a 365 day word challenge? Were they ingrained with wild vocab as a child so much that they are unaware of their word choices? My guess is that heavy talkers (my new label for folks who use Scrabble genius words) take me for a dim light because at the first drop of a large word I look puzzled. Sometimes I feel the urge to explain my bewilderment by asking their motivation for their word choice, but that would take the fun out of my assumptions.

The other day I was chatting with a woman who was trying to explain why she and her ex-husband decided on the erratic custody schedule they had for their children. The woman had a smooth and dreamy voice. She explained that their original idea for custody had good intentions for the children and was something very beautiful. I immediately fell in love with describing a theory or motivation as beautiful. How peaceful. This woman managed to describe an ugly custody battle as a work of art! Imagine the possibilities.

Later that evening I told John about the woman's use of beautiful. I confessed that I want to try to use beautiful to describe more than visual appearance. That confession made me realize that I may easily fall into the same category as the offenders who arrive in the South for a weekend and suddenly call everyone "Y'all!" I realized that I fall into the same speech category as Mitt Romney.

Do you have any favorite word choices? Dialects? Speech patterns?

Really? The Story is the same in 3-D?

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Last week John had Spring Break, so I decided to take a Spring Break too. Early in the week we visited my family in Savannah, then we headed back to Athens to work on the house. Our house seems like a never-ending project, but we are making progress, and it is rewarding, in a weird way that I never thought owning a house could be.

I had plans to join my friends in Atlanta for a girls' night on Friday.Our schedule has been especially hairy lately, and it seems that the busyness is taking a toll on the kids, and it is definitely taking a toll on me. When Thursday night rolled around I was beat. I was so sad to bow out of a much-needed girls' night. I had been looking forward to seeing my friends and watching Titanic in 3-D for months! I have not seen a 3-D move since the early 90s. I need to get on the bandwagon sometime.

As a consolation for missing Titanic, my dear friend Olivia sent me this hilarious article. Heads up, there is some language, but the content is generally hysterical. 

Are you going to see Titanic again? I say "again" because I am assuming that everyone (except my husband) has seen Titanic.