Dogwood Girl is not here. She renewed a love affair born early, a love of Tilt-A-Whirl stomach lurches, and Van Halen Himalaya rides. She and LouLou La Loush ditched their husbands and children and ran away with the carnival. They are carnies, now. They ride the Himalaya every night. They ride like the wind.
Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Carnie Love Affair
Sunday, March 8th, 2009Where I’m From. Where I’ve Been. Where I’m At.
Saturday, March 7th, 2009I’m a little drunk. Ish.
So, i have been thinking about my neighborhood a lot today. A friend from my old neighborhood is grappling with the whole educating-a-kid-in-intown-Atlanta-schools issue. She asked my opinion on a living in my old neighborhood (EAV) vs. living in my new neighborhood (Northlake Mall/Lavista/Briarlake) vs. living in the real OTP burbs (I grew up in Roswell/Alpharetta. She is considering E. Cobb.)
I thought scads about all the different things that go into choosing what is not just best for a kid’s education, but what is best for a family. And all of that discussion confirmed for me that we made the best decision for us.
Also? It helps when my awesome neighbors call me at 3pm on Friday to bring the kids over to play in the sunshine, swing, slide, throw pine cones, and climb fig trees, while we drink beer and wine and order Mediterranean takeout.
I miss my old neighborhood. I love my new neighborhood. I wish they could meet each other, because, damn, they would get along really well together.
Easter Bunny Knockin’ On My Door
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009We had some hail damage during the recent bad weather, so we are having our roof replaced this week. The first step is to bring out one of those industrial trash bins they leave in your driveway. So, we woke up this morning at ten til seven when the thing arrived, banging around, and the truck beeping as it backed up. Of course, we had not moved our cars, so the delivery guy started banging on the door.
As Todd rushed to throw pants on, Rollie came running excitedly up the stairs and asked, “Is that the Easter Bunny knocking on the door?”
Kids. They come up with some damn funny stuff.
Snow Day!
Monday, March 2nd, 2009Okay, the snow was yesterday, but school’s out today. Which is awesome.
We played Candyland early in the day, then headed out in the snow, had a snowball fight, and built some snowmen. Our nice old neighbors gave us brownies to go with our hot chocolate, and they made over Tiller’s snowman. After lunch, we went over to our neighbors’ house and the kids played. They built the biggest snowball in the world. They “sledded” downhill using the recycling bin lid. We went inside and had pizza and listened to music and drank beer.
All in all, a lovely day. And here is a little video of the us, the kids, and Quint playing in the snow.
We Want Snow!
Sunday, March 1st, 2009We want snow! Where’s our Snow?!
That is what the kids and I are walking around the house chanting. Todd is shaking his head, nay-saying, and generally being a doubting Thomas.
That is all.
Best Husband Ever
Thursday, February 26th, 2009I love my husband. He just gets me. Look what he found for two bucks!
Best Husband EVAH!
Petulant, Bored Little Girl
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009The scene: Todd and I working on our computers in the family room. Rollie is sick and is sleeping upstairs for the afternoon. Tiller wanders around the den, obviously bored, shuffling her feet, sighing a lot. She sits next to the sleeping dog, Quint. He growls at her. She crawls over to Simon the cat, whose tail flicks in agitation, and who eyes her with a “Touch me, you little monster, and I will rearrange your face with my claws” look.
She gets up, and and goes over to a chair nearby. She sit in it. She hums. She sings a little song. She starts barking, a high pitched woof. Todd and i both shush her, as we are trying to work, and we don’t want her to wake Rollie.
“Quiet, Tiller. You will wake up your brother.”
It frightens me, sometimes, that she is such a mercurial girl.
She is a crash of lightning. She clenches both fists and pounds the seat cushion on either side of her legs. She thunders, “Well, I’m a dog! I am a dog!”
Todd and I ignore her, as we try to do whenever she pitches a fit.
She starts talking conversationally to herself, but squirming in the chair, as if her need and desire to be a dog is painful, as if she wants to tear her own skin off her body. “I want to be a dog. i am pretending to be a dog. I just want to be a dog.” More petulant now, “But maaaaammmaaaaaa! I. WANT. TO. BE. A. DOG!”
Todd and I still have her on ignore. We glance surreptitiously at one another over laptop screens, trying to conceal our laughter.
Tiller, resigned, mutters, “Well, I will just take off my socks. i will not put them back on.”
Sitting On the Edge Of My Future
Monday, February 23rd, 2009I am pretty sure that Facebook is slowly eating my blog. . . .
However, here I am. I have been scanning more old photos, and came across a great set of pics from college.
They are mostly from my college graduation. Here is the whole set on Flickr.
A few things that initially struck me about these:
I hated my hair.
We all smoked too much.
I was a stick, but i remember thinking i was fat.
Who, and i mean WHO, let me wear that ugly blue striped dress?
Girls wore a lot of long floral dresses back then.
The day of graduation is really fuzzy to me. I think Scott and I met some guy at the guy’s apartment for pre-grad festivities, which may have involved mimosas. It was nice and sunny. I have lost a great picture of me, Scott, and Katie sitting in the stadium. I loved it, and I cannot find that one. We all look very “The Future’s so Bright, We gotta Wear Shades” and i have lost it.
Some of the pictures are from post-graduation, waiting in traffic with my mom, dad, and sister. We were parked right across from Stedman (?), right near the dorms where I lived as a Freshman. (Give it up for Church!) Again, we smoked too much (except for Lisa, who never did.) I love that mom and dad look more proud of me graduating than i look. Now that i have children of my own, i can understand this.
The other pictures are from a graduation party that night at Scott and Zach’s house. I like that many of the folks in these pictures are still really good friends of mine.
The party itself is all a blur, but i know my family was there, which is strange. Honey came into town just to go to my graduation party (she had already graduated) and I love her for stuff like that. Later in the night, there were a lot of people up on the roof. Zach was my boyfriend at the time, and I made out with a completely different guy on the roof. Classy, i know. I still feel sick admitting that, but i guess maybe there is a ten year statute of limitations on cheating-on-your-boyfriend-on-his-own-roof-while-he-is-home-and-throwing-a-party-for-you situations*.
And this is me the next day:
It is me, with Honey’s boyfriend at the time, Luka, in front of my house off Milledge. I loved those red-tinted glasses i am wearing. I still have those Doc Martens and still wear them sometimes. I loved that little house. I was v. hung over in that picture, and my whole future loomed in front of me. I remember everything at that time seeming bigger than life.
It was like sitting on that front stoop on the day I moved away from Athens was just like sitting on the edge of my future.
*Please don’t hate me.
For the Love of a Monkey Pie
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009So, Todd and I listen to a lot of music in the car, and after a while, the kids will pick out songs that they really like. Remember when you were a kid, and you had a “phonograph” (at least, that’s what my family called it) and you played things over and over? For me, it was this little red and white-striped box that held a record player inside. You could fold up the box and carry the thing around. It was in our playroom forever. Even before that, my parents had a record player. It was actually a record player and an Am/FM stereo in a HUGE cabinet. You raised the lid and the stereo was inside. Awesome. It was in the living room, and one of my earliest memories is listening to one of those K-Tel compilations that had Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” on it. Played it over and over and danced in the living room. Later, in the playroom, i would play some of my albums (Macho Duck and the Jungle Book. specifically), but more often than not, I would play my parents albums (and later 8-tracks). I really remember listening to The Every Brothers Greatest Hits, Buddy Holly, and The Beach Boys a lot. On 8-track, Linda Rondstadt was a fave. Bay City Rollers. The Eagles’ Hotel California. Elvis, Elvis and more Elvis. My mom loved her some Elvis. She was even a fan club member back in the day. (Membership card here.)I remember hearing Suspicious Minds all the time! I remember the day Elvis died, too. I came inside – had been out playing, and mom was sitting in the den blaring Elvis’ Heartbreak Hotel, and sobbing with tissues in her hand. Yes, my first experience with death and grieving was Mom mourning Elvis.
Another vivid childhood memory was Saturday mornings. My dad would put on Otis Redding, or some Stax/Volt compilations and do housework. I can remember Dock of the Bay being on, and then the sound of the 60s vacuum coming on, and shrieking as I jumped up on the couch to avoid the vacuum getting me; Cecil did not watch out for toes. Other important childhood albums: Dylan’s self-titled “Bob Dylan” with my mom’s friends writing all over it: “Virgin” for my mother’s name, Virginia. A bunch of Beatles and Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, the aforementioned Stax stuff, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. Hank Williams. Hank Williams, Jr. (also my first concert), a ton of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Sure, there was some crap: Abba, for instance. But mostly it was great stuff.
Where am I going with this? Well, i think back fondly on a lot of that stuff that I heard growing up. Especially now that my kids are inundated by media, and constantly singing some Barney shit, or wanting us to buy them Diego albums or whatever. So, we still try to listen to our stuff and hope the kids like it. And most of the time, they do have favorites emerge. Every few months or so, we will make them a playlist and now both kids have their own CD player in their rooms. They will play for hours and listen to music and sing in their rooms. I think this is awesome, because then I can also play somewhere else in the house without being bothered by the little pests.
So, Todd made them a cd a few days ago. Some of the stuff they like includes The Cure, Dr. Dog, The Ramones (Tiller knows most of the words to “Blitzkrieg Bop,” which is just funny), and their current absolute favorite is The New Pornographers’ “Letter from an Occupant.” Tiller makes up her own words and her version included a lyric that instead of the “Letter from an Occupant” line, sounds something like “For the love of a Monkey Pie,” which let’s face it, probably makes as much if not more sense.
You are probably asking yourself, “Does she really let her kids listen to a band with the word ‘pornographer’ in their name?” Why, yes. Yes, she does. Because kids never ask the meaning of words, they just like to say them. Rollie gets it right, and Tiller insists on calling them the New Photographers, which makes me laugh, and pisses Rollie off, which is always funny. We gang up on him and call things by the wrong names and he throws tantrums and we laugh at him.
We don’t get out much.
Nephew Overload at Dogwood Girl
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009I know that I just posted a picture of Dash last week, but that was a situation where he had to share the spotlight with Emily the Terrible, and really, as his mother so aptly put it, “Dash is a complete publicity whore.”
Not another picture of Dogwood's Nephew!