Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
I Promised Myself I Wouldn't Have a Hard Time With This...
...but I'm thinking that maybe these changes are gonna be really hard. (For me.)
Traditional Sunday Meme (on Tuesday)
I found this over at... damn, where DID I find it? I swore, when I copied it and held on to it, that I'd remember. I don't. If this is yours, please take credit -- and accept my apologies.
You’re feeling: Cold. No, wait. Hot. Oh damn. Cold.
To your left: An insurance EOB (I just met my deductible!), a phone hand-set, my reading glasses case, freshwater cucumber hand lotion, a 512 MB flash drive.
On your mind: Work, Aleks' and Kat's graduation, the mess in the bedroom, the need for a wine rack after Saturday's wine tasting, and where we'll store the couch that's waiting for us at the store's warehouse between now and when Peter and Danelle take our existing couch to WAZZU with them.
Last meal: Today was "clean out the fridge"day, which included the following leftovers: pasta, sauce, orange chicken, potato salad, cole slaw, and vegetable soup. I always also try to include some "new" stuff on these days: pierogie, a big green salad. It feels great to have cleaned out the fridge -- until the new stuff ends up there as old stuff (for the next "clean out the fridge" day).
You sometimes find it hard to: I asked Tom for input on this one. His answer (and I share it with you only because I trust you): "Use logic appropriately." Whatever that means. Makes no sense to me!
The weather: June-uary! Windy, cold, cloudy, rainy. I'd rather not talk about it. (Added later: OK, let's talk about it: the Internet is out due to a windstorm, and Aleks has a MASSIVE AP project due tomorrow -- the last project of his high school career -- and all the documents are stored online!
Something you have a collection of: Extra buttons from clothes I've bought, scrapbooking stuff, elastic hair ties, Alaska Airline miles
A smell that cheers you up: Plumeria
A smell that can ruin your mood: Urine in a stairwell
How long since you last shaved: Legs: two days. Arms: at least four days. (See "weather," above.)
The current state of your hair: Up and out of the way. It's almost always down during the day, but when I get home I immediately put my hair up.
The largest item on your desk/workspace (not computer): Alive: cat. Not alive: Brass "lawyer's lamp" with green hood and brass pull-chain.
Your skill with chopsticks: I'd starve.
Which section you head for first in a bookstore: Travel, romance, bargain, craft ("He first saw her at the Moroccan village artisan fair...")
Something you’re craving: Sunshine, hearing German, Baskin-Robbins Swiss Orange Chip ice cream
Your general thoughts on the presidential race: I have high hopes that Obama will win. If he doesn't, I am seriously worried aboutmy mental state, the state of the country, and the state of the world.
How many times have you been hospitalized this year: None -- but I'll be having surgery this Friday, when the "mole holes" that are just now healing will be obliterated again in an effort to ward off more"abnormal cells.".
Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: There's a bench in front of the village church in Ruhpolding, Bavaria, Germany. I have spent some happy and peaceful moments there.
You’ve always secretly thought you’d be a good: Midwife.
Something that freaks you out a little: The fact that Tom and I JUST met, got married and had kids... and somehow many, many years have passed in the blink of an eye. IS life truly so short?
Something you’ve eaten too much of lately: Food.
You have never: been able to draw well.
You never want to: be completely alone.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
A Day of Wine Tasting in Woodinville
For our 25th anniversary, Elisabeth gave us a day of wine tasting among the 38 wineries in Woodinville, followed by dinner and a hot air balloon ride. All of it was scheduled to take place today, but because of Seattle's unseasonably crappy weather lately (it's rained every single day in June so far!), the balloon ride part of the day was postponed.
Good thing, too. Because by evening I was -- well... not in any condition to be lifted hundreds of feet in the air in a little basket under a flame that pops on and off erratically.
Unfortunately, Aleks and Kat couldn't come with us because they're under-age, but Elisabeth invited Peter (Danelle doesn't turn 21 till August) to come with us. We left the house in the early afternoon...
... and headed right to JM Cellars, where Elisabeth greeted Tim, the assistant wine maker. She's done this wine tasting thing before with her friends, and being the friendly and outgoing sort, she knew quite a few of the wine makers we visited!
Tim gave us sample after sample of his favorite wines -- cabernets, malbecs, and a bunch of wines I'd never heard of. The tool he used to sneak the wine out of the barrels is called a "thief." Cute, eh?
If you don't like the wine or you feel a buzz coming on just a bit too early in the day, you're invited to pour your wine down this drain!
Tim doted on us for about an hour, climbing among the barrels to make sure we had a little taste of everything. Then he provided a little heat to one barrel in particular as he explained to us how wine is made.
It became obvious, after our visit to JM Cellars, that we needed some lunch or we'd be down for a nap (and who knows where?!) by 3 PM. So we made a pit stop here:
After lunch, it was off to the "warehouse district" of Woodinville, where numerous wineries are housed completely inconspicuously in an industrial park!
We've lived in this town for 13 years and, until Elisabeth told us about wineries in Woodinville (most of which, granted, have been here far less than 13 years), we had no clue they even existed! And when they're behind rolling metal doors in places like this, that's not hard to believe!
Our favorite winery here was Arlington Road, where wine maker Derrick provided delicious wines and hilarious entertainment.
We even had a chance to "do a pour." (That's a lie, actually. Derrick just wanted to take our picture!)
Good thing Elisabeth was our designated driver, because around this time I became quite convinced that I wouldn't be driving anywhere for the rest of the day! Around this time, we also headed to a different industrial park where even more wineries are located, and we settled on a taste at the Woodhouse family winery...
...where we even got a tour of the "back room" and the bottling facility. Or rather, the bottling machine.
We bought a fabulous mulbec (no relation to Molbak's Nursery, our town's other claim to fame!) and a fruity dessert muscat here.
Next stop: Chateau Ste Michelle, Woodinville's best known winery (which is directly across the street from Redhook, our famous brewery)...
and home to some fabulous summer concerts.
We did a bit of wine tasting here, but also walked the beautiful grounds which, we decided, would be perfect for a summer wedding. (Summer. Not winter, like today!)
We ended the day with a wonderful dinner at The Keg -- and no, we didn't have any wine at all with our dinner!
And now, if you'll excuse me, it's really time for a ......
Friday, June 06, 2008
Blogging, Friendship, and the Internet
Once upon a time, not so very long ago (July of '06, to be exact), I started this blog. Within just a few days of my first post, I discovered Jen's blog, called Heisse Sheisse ("hot shit" in German). Jen, a Bay Area girl (like me) who'd married a German boy (like I almost had) and moved to Germany, immediately drew me in with her wit, her honesty and her (shall we say) unique perspective on life. I felt an immediate kinship with Jen, prompted by the Germany connection and the Bay Area connection and the blogging connection and -- well, she just seemed like someone I'd love to meet someday.
And meet, we did! Boy, did we ever! In September, 2007 Jen and ten of my favorite German/American bloggers came together in Frankfurt, Germany on the last day of my month-long trip to Germany with Tom and Elisabeth (though Tom had flown home a week previous). Although I knew that online friendships could run deep, it wasn't until that day that I realized just how real, how genuine and how deep those friendships could be. We partied long into the night and when the wee hours of the morning arrived, we knew we had to say goodbye. I'd grown close to people like Jen and Geoffrey before my trip, but spending time with them in Germany just made me feel closer to them, and flying home the next day was difficult.
Blogging Buddies at the Blogger Meet-Up in Frankfurt, GermanyJen and I stayed in touch, though our lives got busy and each of us blogged less frequently. Still, I looked forward to chatting with her again on Skype because, with Jen, so much of her appeal is in her energy and her feisty spirit. It comes through on her blog -- but it REALLY comes through in person!
I hadn't talked to or heard from Jen in months when, at 1:30 in the morning on the night of our anniversary, while we were still celebrating with the kids and no one had even thought to get to bed (and it was a school/work night!), I got e-mail from her. Jen, who had been trying hard to get pregnant for a long time wrote me to tell me... that she was pregnant!
Jen and SparkyBut wait. What was this?
"What in god’s name am I doing having a kid?"
The she freaked out (her words) a little and added, "Is this freak-out normal, Carol? It happened just like I wanted it too and now I’m so not ready. Any advice because I could sure use it. I know you are super busy with work so get back to me when you can." I read her letter to Elisabeth, who loves her as much as I do, and we both knew we had to reach her. I wrote her back immediately, knowing that chances were good that she was still online since it was 10:30 AM in Germany, saying "Let's talk. Skype!"
Jen and ElisabethWithin three minutes Jen and I were on the phone. (Or rather, on the Internet headphones.) I have no idea what I said to her because I just said what was in my heart, but it had something to do with my own frequent hormonally-driven freak-outs when I was pregnant, and with the very normal fear of the unknown, and the very typical fear of parenting, and with the absolute confidence that she and Sparky would be amazingly wonderful parents. Jen went all "what have I done?" on me, and I went all "this is normal, I promise!" on her.
I wished I could give Jen a hug, wished we could spend the day together sipping coffee, going for a long walk, or hell -- shopping till dropping... wished it wasn't 2 AM on a work night. But it was and our conversation lasted nowhere near long enough. I miss Jen and if she and Sparky lived in Seattle, they'd totally be part of our family!
A few days later I got another e-mail from Jen. The subject line was "I'm better," which made me feel good. But a few lines into the e-mail, I saw the words "I miscarried." It brought tears to my eyes. Then Jen thanked me for chatting with her, saying "I get all veklempt when I think about it and if you were here, I’d squeeze your arm." Just like Jen.
I didn't give it a second thought, really. I was happy to talk with Jen and calm her fears and wrap my Internet arms around her.
And then I read Jen's blog entry today. And I realized that we really don't know when or how or how much we impact people around us. About our late night conversation Jen said, "Carol talked me off that ledge. I really honestly do not know what I would have done without Carol. I had no idea that those could be normal feelings. I didn’t even think about hormones. She helped me get perspective. And look at her kids. How do I make sure I have kids like that..."
I had no idea. And that made me wonder how often we say or do things that have an impact on people that's far more significant than we realize -- both good and bad. Did I say something off-the-cuff last week that offended someone? Did I offend someone yesterday by not doing or saying something?
If a stranger can ruin my day by flipping me off on the freeway or make my day by paying me a compliment, then how big an impact can we have on people we know? Huge. It's both humbling and empowering to realize that.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
This Could Have Been My Daughter!
E-mail from Tom to me:
I don't have Elisabeth's current e-mail address, but she should be aware of this next time she visits Bloomington.
http://www.theindychannel.com
(She lived there two summers ago as she trained for her current job.)
E-mail from me to Elisabeth:
Elisabeth, this is your mother speaking...
E-mail from Elisabeth to me:
Holy shit. That seriously could have been me. I jumped off that EXACT cliff at that EXACT spot... Won't do it again, I promise...
And a chat, too:
me: Read your e-mail!
Elisabeth: just did. read yours.
me: Freaky.
Is that where you jumped?
OK, promise...
Elisabeth: exactly the same cliff i jumped off of
"rooftop"
me: Shit...
Elisabeth: that's the quarry we swam at ALL THE TIME
how'd you find that?
me: I have a feeling it'll be closed off -- as it should be.
Dad found it.
Gotta go. Love ya!
Elisabeth: love you too
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