Falling For You

These kids in my family are weird. When we got out to Chicago for our big visit last month, the weather was lovely, sunny and clear and just a touch of that familiar autumnal chill, so the Grown Ups had this fabulous idea: let's rake all the leaves in my sister's yard into a big pile and jump in it! Fun, right?

So we raked and piled and organized as much as possible -- trying to get three kids to gather leaves into a single pile in the center of the yard where there is good light is about as simple as trying to explain the infield fly rule to Martians who only speak Swahili -- and made our fun little pile of fun. We figured that the most complicated part of this entire process would be trying to determine who would get to jump in first. Ladies first? Age before beauty?

Except THESE LOONBALL CHILDREN OF OURS did not want to jump in the leaves. We had to negotiate and cajole and bribe and practically threaten them to put the rakes down and stop doing work and GO PLAY, DARN IT. We eventually got them (2/3 of them, anyway) to roll around in the leaves, and thrown them, and stuff. Lollipops might have been involved. (Joey was unconvinced, regardless.)

Shae finally "saved the day" by burying herself in a pile and popping out and yelling "BOO!" at everybody. Except, um, she was in the wrong pile. Instead of the nice pile we made in the yard, she went and hid in the big pile in the front of the house, right on the street, in the pile that was waiting for the industrial leaf sucker. Le sigh.

Nine Things I Was Thankful For On Thanksgiving

1. Turkey hats.

2. Babies in turkey hats.

3. The last of the summer flowers.

4. Painted concrete ducks.

5. Uncle Quack's piano.

6. Joyful noises.

7. The young and the young at heart.

8. Titanic.

9. EVERYTHING.

Catching Fire

So. There was a bonfire on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, just like there is every year.

This year's was slightly sad, at least at the beginning, because it rained for like an entire week beforehand, so all the wood and all the ground and everything were wet and muddy and basically difficult to set on fire.

But we had a good time anyway, even if we only stuck around for like 10 minutes and barely managed to get any good pictures at all.

The operative word in that last sentence being "barely."

Because the ones we got? Pretty alright, if you ask me.

Wordless Wednesday: Wishies For A Happy Thanksgiving

Bonus Link

Bonfire 2010

We went to the "banfire" last night. Because OF COURSE WE DID. What self-respecting Rover wouldn't? It's the night before the Turkey Day Game, people. It's a TRADITION, practically a RELIGION in my hometown.

Shae already knows how to do the bonfire stroll, and she did a pretty good job of showing Joey the ropes. But as always it was very, very hot and very, very crowded, so we didn't stay long.

Just long enough. We were there long enough to know that our class's bonfires were the best ones ever. Except that my sister's bonfire (Class of '96) and my husband's bonfire (Class of '93) had NOTHING on the bonfire thrown by my class. Yo, I'ma let them finish, but the EAHS Class of 1992 had the best bonfire of all time.


OF ALL TIME.

=====

Whatever you're doing today, be good, be safe, and be careful. xoxo.

The Dude

For the next couple of days, I will be in my Happy Place. Well, not under the dryer at the salon, getting my hair done -- my Other Happy Place. With my daughter and my nephew (and all those other crazy people we are related to). But mostly with my daughter and my nephew. They're the important ones.

I'm glad they're in town this week -- Thanksgiving isn't the same when your whole family isn't together. And we're planning on a LOT of togetherness, starting tomorrow, when we take a day trip into the Great Big City filled with all the Dinky-Doos.

There will be shenanigans afoot, believe me. SHENANIGANS! And it's going to be AWESOME.

Music Soothes The Savage Beast

I made myself a "Thanksgiving" iTunes playlist that we've -- Shae and I, mostly, but sometimes G too -- have been listening to in the car. The "air quotes" are intentional because not all these songs make a hell of a lot of sense, in terms of being actual holiday songs, but then again, there are not a whole lot of actual Thanksgiving songs anyway. You would think a celebration of early American communism would inspire some sort of hymn or carol or something. Perhaps a Soviet-sounding sea shanty. Something.

While I'm out getting my hair cut, I thought I'd share my playlist with you. Here is (about 60% of) the official "rockle-riffic thanksgiving playlist." Notes are after the link:

As you might have suspected, a bunch of these are mostly songs that contain the words "Thank You" or some variation thereof in the title. I mean, really, "How 'bout getting off of these antibiotics?" is not the sort of lyric that might inspire overwhelming outpourings of emotion and gratitude. But then again, I am currently taking antibiotics for the Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Plague, and I have to say that getting off these antibiotics is something to be thankful for. Biaxin will seriously mess up your digestive tract if you don't take it according to the pharmacist's directions. Yogurt, people. Trust me on this one.

Every one of these songs makes me thing about something specific that I am thankful for. Maybe they'll mean something to you, too; then again, maybe they won't. If you have songs that really make you think about Thanksgiving and what you are thankful for, let me know, because I am always up for expanding my MP3 collection.

Some of the best songs on the playlist got left off this iMix, though -- I can't really explain why iTunes didn't include them, but whatever. Here are the other 40% or so of the titles:

• "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" by Al Green & Annie Lennox
• "In My Life" by The Beatles (and I totally know that the Beatles are on iTunes now, so I don't WTF the deal is here, but WHATEVER, uppity hipster Apple people!)
• "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley
• "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" (duet version) by Bon Jovi & Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland
• "Lovesong" by The Cure (I am thankful for Robert Smith and black kohl eye pencils, full stop)
• "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper
• "Sweet Potato Pie" by James Taylor & Ray Charles
• "Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book
• "My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson
• "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" by Marvin Gaye
• "His Eye is On the Sparrow" by Marvin Gaye (shut up, I like gospel music sometimes)
• "You Are My Sunshine" by Ray Charles
• "Thank You (for Lettin' Me Be Mice Elf)" by Sly & the Family Stone

Not that you asked, right now Shae's favorite song on this whole list is "Everybody Eats When They Come to My House" and my favorite is "Sweet Potato Pie" which is especially strange because I don't even LIKE sweet potato pie. But James Taylor and Ray Charles sound surprisingly awesome together, so I recommend that you check out that song.

Street Survivors

Because "The One Where I Run Around Acting Like I Am Shooting A Lynyrd Skynyrd Album Cover" is too long, and also maybe more than a little bit obvious.

For the past 103 years, my high school has played football on Thaksgiving morning against the high school just across the river, our counterpart in new Jersey.

The night before is The Bonfire, which is at the end of a week of activities which are significantly primarily to seniors: the Sleep-Out, the Pep Rally, the ritual of dressing like lumberjacks and getting splinters from unload pallets off trucks.

We didn't take Shae to the bonfire last year -- I can't remember why, but I'm sure it made sense at the time. She didn't lose a step any way: she handled the stroll perfectly. Like a pageant queen, waving and flouncing and working the crowd. Queen of the Bonfire, already.

She already wants to know when we can go to the next bonfire.

A Week of Thanks: Day 7

This year, I am especially thankful for HER.

I do not delude myself: a lot of stars and planets and miracles both major and minor had to line up in order for everything to work out the way it did. A whole lot. Our adoption was easier than most, but it was not without its perils. Probably the most dangerous of these were our own personal issues, our heavy baggage, the bullshit we dragged with us back and forth to Allentown and back -- no, to hell and back -- to get through this. More than once we talked about calling the whole thing off. Not because we didn't want it, but because we wanted it so much that we couldn't bear it if anything went wrong.

It didn't, of course, and there are a lot of people we need to thank for that. Shae deserves most of the credit, because she is just so supremely awesome -- and I know that's a cheap and almost tacky word these days, "awesome," but it sure does describe this kid, doesn't it? Every day I am filled with awe at how amazing she is. How much like me, and like her Daddy. How much like her grandparents, all of them, how much like this entire family our little girl is. When we decided to adopt, we knew we didn't want to "select" a child from those available, but instead we decided to wait until the right child found us. Boy, howdy, it's astonishing how that happened, isn't it? Awesome, even.

Still and all, we would not have gotten through the past year and a half without the phenomenal support of all our family and friends. We are especially grateful to the folks at Catholic Charities at the Diocese of Allentown, who gave us a chance when there were other agencies who might not have, and who kept us fighting for what we knew we wanted from the day we got The Call. More still, we need to acknowledge our old family friend and lawyer Lisa, who handled things for us in court, and my cousin Jessie, who suggested we give this foster-adopt thing a try in the first place. To all of you: THANK YOU. For everything.

But mostly, we are thankful for our beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, awesome Shae. Whom we loved before we even knew her, and who we will always love, always and forever. Amen.

A Week of Thanks: Day 6 (Wordless Wednesday Edition)

A Week of Thanks: Day 5

This one is probably going to be the most trite and unoriginal "thanks" of the bunch, but as is my wont, I just don't care. I'm thankful for my family, and I'm thankful that I have the kind of family that I can be thankful for. Sure, we've got our share of dysfunction, but do you honestly know a family that doesn't? Because I sure as hell don't.

Everybody's got their something -- and that works both ways. My family's got a history of diabetes, mental illness, Phillies fandom, and pigheadedness. But they also always have room enough at the table, love enough to share, and stories enough to tell. We are all a part of each other, in ways both mortifying and nourishing, but isn't that what families are all about? That which multiplies our joy and divides our grief?

A Week of Thanks: Day 4

Let's tell it like it is: we don't live in the best neighborhood. It has its particular advantages and disadvantages, like any neighborhood does. I joke about living in the "ghetto," but it's not entirely unlike a lot of streets in a lot of towns in a lot of places all over the place. They won't be making TV shows about this place, is what I am saying.

We don't live in the best house on the block, but we don't live in the worst house on the block, either. Do I wish things were different? Yes. Is there anyone who doesn't? I wish we had the time and the money and the skills to make some repairs, do some redecorating, arrange for some improvements. But you know what? It's ours, we have a nice life here, a beautiful garden, a happy family.

Could I be any more cliché? Probably. But be it ever so humble, I'm thankful for our home.

A Week of Thanks: Day 3

I whined earlier about the weird little Rosie-the-Riveter story I am living in my head, of how we're going to muddle through in these Difficult Economic Times® and it's going to be all up to Miss Mama to keep this family together and how as God is my witness we shall never go hungry again, and ... wait, did I just shift paradigms without a clutch again?

Anyway: when things were better (or, more pecisely, easier), we bought a lot of STUFF, and some of that stuff included a DVD player and a nice flat-screen TV and a pretty comprehensive collection of Disney movies, things that maybe we didn't need at the time, but that we saved up for because we wanted them, and anyway the point of all of this is that I am thankful that because we have these things, we are able to enjoy Sunday Movie Night with our daughter.

(This week's selection? Cinderella. Oh, shut up. Don't you judge me. It's important to get into the enemy's head, or how else are you supposed to RISE UP AND SLAY THEM?)

A Week of Thanks: Day 2

Even though I am kind of convinced that this bout of strep is a tool of the male patriarchy trying to keep me down ... I am thankful for a loving and patient husband who's been taking care of my ass for the last two days.

A Week of Thanks: Day 1

If I hadn't come down with the plague I was going to be all cute about this, but right now I am too tired and too crashed out to make any jokes, so let me say this: I am very, very thankful for my medical plan. People bitch because the prices are going up next year, and everybody wants something for nothing, and yadda yadda, but I have to say that $250 or so a month to make sure that I can call My Anonymous Mother on the phone at 8:00 and end up with a doctor's appointment the same day? Priceless to me. And know that the same applies to G and Shae? Even more invaluable.

And that I only had to pay $40 on my prescription for Levaquin? Don't even get me started -- retail on those bad boys is over $160!

So. Anyway. I'm thankful for my health insurance and prescription plan, and I'm thankful that I live in a time and a place where Congress is trying to fight for these same benefits for other people.

Thanksgiving

A very short list of the things I am most thankful for today:

1. Everything
2. ???
3. Profit!

=====

Seriously, though, I am thankful. I am able to do this -- not just this blog, but this whole life -- because of certain things, certain choices, certain opportunities, certain people that I have had that many others didn't.

I have a wonderful family -- even the batshit crazy ones -- who have supported me in everything -- even the batshit crazy stuff. We may drive each other crazy often and even hate each other sometimes, but it's really because we love each other so very much.

We have our jobs, our cars, our house, our stuff. We have all of what we need and most of what we want, enough even that we can share with others who have less. Maybe we can't give everybody everything, but we can at least make sure they always have tomato soup.

So, whatever else, I am grateful.

=====

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-- e. e. cummings