Damaged by a fallen tree in last spring’s storms, this footbridge at Lamoreax Park (my favorite dog-walking place) remains unpassable.
Monthly Archive for October, 2005
Since I’ve reached the end of my first year in a new decade without trauma or otherwise paralyzing event, I feel the need to make the ride as enjoyable as possible going forward. I’ve read more than one article lately about how you can keep your mind nimble by making the brain do things its not familiar with: learn to play a new musical instrument, do difficult puzzles, even take a different route to work. And of course everyone knows that to keep the body nimble you need to move it more than once in awhile.
Anyhow, I thought it might be fun — a good thing, even — to try doing things I’ve never done before. I mean really try something different or learn something new on a regular basis. This would involve list-making and study, of course, and then maybe lessons or classes of some kind. I might have to purchase equipment, plane tickets, new athletic shoes or add any number of expenses to the budget. All in the name of keeping my body healthy and my mind fresh.
No worries about my overdoing or overspending, however — whatever this endeavor involves, I feel certain that I could fill most of the year with the preparation for it, making the actual doing much less likely. So family and friends don’t have to worry too much about my going off to write poetry on the Left Bank or even spending the holidays shusshing down the slopes in Aspen. Budget for the most part ain’t gonna let it happen.
Still there are a few things that I ought to be able to accomplish with minimal outlay of cash. Such as:
- Learn to use more than the "auto focus" setting on Lori’s camera
- Cross country ski or snowshoe
- Eat Thai food
- Learn Spanish
- Meet a blogger acquaintance
- Go to a Redwings game
- Serve at the soup kitchen
- Paint a room
- Ride the Snow Train
- Learn euchre
- Get a pedicure
- Join a writer’s group
- Take a yoga class
That’s enough to start with. And I can always add to (or subtract from) the list. Once I get started.
Last night a bunch of us from work went to Vitale’s to have a drink or two for my birthday. Thanks to all of you who came out to toast and offer cheer; thanks to all who bought me beers. And special thanks to Dan, who set up the celebration; Glenn, who arrived first and sucked down a giant Oberon draft before I even got there (and left early, darn ya); Lori, who came even though she didn’t work that day, who took me all the way home to get another set of keys after I locked mine in the car, and who brought me that tingly ginger lotion– love it!; David, for buying me a birthday cannoli; Rhonda for coming out and putting up with a buncha people you barely know; David and Jeff for showing up uninvited — you guys rock; Pam, my cubemate for putting up with my sh*t; Tom, same thing, only for some reason I don’t feel bad dishin’ it out to ya 
; and Greg, for listening. Sonja, Tony, Vince and the rest of you — sorry you couldn’t make it (we’ll be out there again on the 6th, I think). I didn’t take any photos (camera was locked in the car with the keys). But here’s a representative cannoli.
Sassafras against a backdrop of oak
Ivy on the fence with sassafras peeking over
Trees in the yard
This the most melancholy, bittersweet time of year when the brighter the colors the more the tears come. Tears for years that have passed, time lost, lovers and loved ones long gone. An ache, a longing for, what — another time another place another circumstance? Another me.
Maybe not so ironically, the peak of this colorful-sad season is also the time of my birthday. But don’t think my sadness is some kind of midlife crisis in bloom. The season has always had this effect. The year I turned 12 , I remember one gray day standing on a hillside under some trees in the rain. Notebook in hand I was composing the week’s "theme" for English class. I expressed similar sentiments in a piece that earned a place in the end-of-year anthology of the district’s best student writing. It’s the earliest I remember understanding that I could express a whole world in writing. And that the so-called "blues" are the sweet sweet sadness that fuels the creative mind.
The Glamor Sisters
They had a lot of fun at Meg’s homecoming dance and apparently everyone approved of Meg’s date. (Sus didn’t want to go to hers; what a switch from last year when she went to four different dances and had dates for two!)
What I wrote last year about this whole Cinderella-for-a-night thing still applies … More photos at Flickr (below)
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called Homecoming 2005. Make your own badge here.
Meagan after Northview’s Senior-Junior powder puff football game. The back reads, "…Play in ours. Juniors 07"
I totally forgot the camera so she posed after the game. She sat the bench ’cause her knees are bothering her. I’m impressed she went to the practices and put in the effort, since with her fibromyalgia, strenuous activity is usually out of the question.
Of course, the seniors won, 24-14. She did get some photos from the sidelines for the yearbook. Oh, and she got the T-shirt.
For the fourth year in a row Michigan stuck it to the Spartans in the big game. For the second year running, the win came during overtime. Thankfully we didn’t have to sit through three OTs like we did last year.
Final Score : 34-31. Nobody called it.
