Saving Daylight

You were supposed to be born on September 3rd.  A conveniently sandwiched Saturday of Labor Day Weekend festivities.  I would've been more-than-ready for September 3rd.   When I say the words "September third," they are very marked.  If you're a fan of Gilmore Girls, you may connect it with the way that Lorelai says "June THIRD" - the date of hers and Luke's wedding that did not in fact happen on June the the-IRD.  "You wanna know what day I'm not getting married?  June THIRD."  "Do NOT save the date on June THIRD."   Spoiler Alert: though much delayed, their wedding indeed took place.   Spoiler Alert: Our family's plan didn't quite make it to September 3rd.   I wanted potato chips.  They say pregnancy cravings are irrationally detailed and they're correct.  Potato chips.  We hardly ever have potato chips in the house.  But that's just what I wanted on that specific day.  My long-stretch ...

I did something today that I've always wanted to do.  I took a deliberate midday walk in the middle of my workday.  I should add that it was outside, which is what elevated it to the "never before" novelty.  I often take midday walks out of necessity but they're typically to the copy room or more urgently, the restroom.       It's the first  official  week back for teachers and today's meeting was divided up to include a lunch break so I seized the moment.  It was beautiful out, I've been feeling lethargic without my sprints up and down hallways, and I was feeling rebellious against the arbitrary lunch time suggested in the day's schedule.   But there was more.  We live on a street right across from a high school.  We can literally see and hear all things 'Friday Night Lights', 5Ks, parades, and general adolescence buzz.  Since schools shut down in March, things have obviously been...quiet.  But today, just ...

 Listening to "This Year's Love" by David Gray on repeat.  Today, or specifically tonight, brings 19 years since my Dad passed away in a tired, gray nursing home just off Franklin Road in Roanoke.  He politely waited for me to leave the room after my being there all day and into the late evening.  He passed while I was driving home, listening to this song on repeat in my car.  It was 2001 and Gray's "White Ladder" album was popular - great driving music for my trips up and down I-81 for visits before things got more serious and I parked it at Mom's for that final month.  I don't actually know with certainty that he passed while I was driving home.  Phyllis from the nurses' station called around 10:15, as I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, having eaten no real dinner yet, and asked to speak to my mom.  My mom, technically the point of contact even though they were divorced, was showering.  Phyllis tried to put off the inevitable ...

In 2019, I’ve gotten a little trendy.  With New Year’s Eve being my favorite holiday since childhood, I always get into resolutions.  But this year, I stepped it up and chose a word of the year (delight), made a “19 for 2019” list of things I want to accomplish, and wrote my own happiness project.  The happiness project is pretty involved, has categories, and stands alone as a relative guide for how I wish to approach life. The categories are things like Physical Self, Life Outlook, Communication, Productivity, and Fun-and-Play-and-Feel-Good-Stuff.  I’ve referred to it often in the past seven months and have found it to be very grounding.  Item number 9 under “Fun and Play and Feel Good Stuff” is:  make peace with NoVa or make a plan to really take steps elsewhere.   Twenty years ago, on August 5th, I drove a rickety U-Haul truck one-way from Harrisonburg, VA to Fairfax, VA.  I still remember frantically cleaning and throwing things o...

I have fallen behind.  It was inevitable.  We've been out of town more than in it.  Though I HAVE been faithfully tracking my daily delightful-grateful moments and taking endless pictures, I have not carved out ample time to write.  So I'm gonna skip some days in efforts to catch up a bit.  Just know that the omitted days were full of marked joy too.   April 17 Spring Bunny event at the Heritage Farm Museum in Loudoun County!  Luckily Arthur seems to be right in the pocket of no longer being scared of holiday characters.  There were tons of actual bunnies to pet, which made me feel a little bad...I can't imagine this was fun for the bunnies, but maybe there's more I don't know about bunny temperament toward unpredictable toddler handling.  His favorite part of the event was the duck races...plastic ducks racing down windy PVC pipes and eventually diving into the pool via the water pump that the kids could handle themselves....