Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.
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| Like The Queen Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content. |
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2 Comments:
Glad for the rain to stop for you.
hahaha i dont know wut im doin here
By Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Sunday, August 15, 2004 Whew! Sometimes you just get so lucky. Yesterday was my turn. Reunion weekend is one of those landmark days in my year. It's an old and long standing event - 151st year this year - and it's something I have always really loved. Back when we were poor young newlyweds and our table consisted of only the cheapest and most essential meals, the lavish display of goodies was big attraction. As a bride it was both terrifying and thrilling to be swirled around with so many people who were yours - with whom you were associated, connected, bonded. For an ENFP Pod-Person, it was one of the few times I could really enmesh myself with a group. As a mother of One Of The Sons I had assured position, and as a happy and good friend of my mother in law, I had status. Living on the river also made us one of the secondary hosts - one of the households where lingering guests could come for the weekend, for the second stage of dining, visiting and playing. There have been as many as 30 folk here for the evening fun. A few years ago, as the previous generation grew tired of organizational responsibility, BH and I took over the behind-the-scenes activity of this reunion and of course, we brought our own style to the production. One of the first things I did was to pay someone to set up and take down the furniture - and to haul off the trash. I'm not going to be some family slave who has to come early and stay late - and later and latest. We also began gathering family information because A) I’m a librarian and B) after so many years, the generations are so far apart they may begin to wonder what the connection is. Why go to some event full of people you don’t know - don’t even know why they have your address? BH and I have always loved this grand party and would hate to see it fade away. We’re full of plans and thoughts about how to make it, not only fun, but viable. One idea is to put together a web site for diaries, photos, and reminiscences. The work involved though, is enormous and while we’ve made a good start, there are years when other things suck up all the energy needed to follow up on the good starts. For sure, this year was one of them. Among many serious family issues, BH is involved in a very mean divorce and two close relatives decided to push the Mean-0-Meter deep into the red zone. These two women are not only of the previous generation, but are ambitious enough to want to be important within the gathering. Both BH and I have been dreading this event since January because of them, and it was such a reward for doing our dooty, that it not only turned out well, but we actually had fun. And when everything was all over, she and I collapsed in each other’s arms, laughing and hugging and beaming and bursting into a final giggle when I whispered to her that I'd tasted Mean-0-Meter Aunt #1's grapes and they were sooooo sour! How fitting. Really, sometimes there is perfect ironic justice in life and you get to see it. The emotional undercurrents of this year's reunion were such that little things like tropical storms rather slid off my consciousness. We got rain, but we've been getting so durn much rain this year, it ended up being just ... more rain. We didn't get any winds above 20 mph. In fact, the storm was not really in issue, for which I am deeply thankful. It was too cold to swim, but that only made it more fun for the girls to snuggle on my bed and talk - first 3, then 4, then 6. Intrepid sportsgirls and guys went for some cross country practice, snoozy cuddly ones peeled off for naps. Brainy boys played unknown computer games with no instructions and, believe it or not, people continued to grazed on leftovers. A second meal was comprised of leftover reunion fare and hamburgers, smacked into shape by the two youngest girls; 5 and 8 respectively, and proud as punch to be the cooks. And while I was out in the kitchen with them, I suddenly realized that, true to my PodPersoness - I built that kitchen the way I did; small, enclosed, but central, with three doorways in and out of it - so that I could step back and listen to whatever social stew I'd stirred up in the rest of my house. I could just be there; happy, knowing, listening, feeling all the love and camaraderie; the interest and hunger, the chatter and the talk and the display. I'm an auditory person, not a visual. The stuff I take in through my ears is the stuff that goes the deepest and stays the longest. This was evident from the very git go. Mama tells of when I was a newborn, sick as a dog, allergic to milk, coming home from the hospital swollen with skin rash. Evidently I came into the world wailing and didn't stop for days and days - screamed till I lost my voice and continued to do so silently after that. Mama says in the car I was inconsolable till Daddy spoke when, immediately, I was comforted and for the first time I stopped screaming. Truth is, I can still feel the utter security I felt when Daddy would sing to me, just by remembering what it was like - that it was so. So - last night was a symphony of fun and joy and coziness - and believe me, it don't get much better than that. And the forecast for today - No Rain. Thank God. posted by Bess | 8:20 AM |
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