Tomorrow I re-open my career of overt and active activism after a 15 year hiatus.
The kids and I will get in the car tomorrow morning and drive to Baltimore, where we will meet my mom and my sister at the airport, in preparation for marching in the March for Women's Lives on Sunday, April 25th. Also coming to march with us are Aunt Amy and Uncle Jady and I'm sure lots of other folks we know will be there too, even if we don't see them in the crowds.
I am really proud of myself for doing this. I'm proud of my mom for stepping up and saying, immediately, "Yes, let's go!" I'm proud of my sisters for coming along and standing in solidarity with us (and also grateful to everyone for help with entertaining the kids). And those of you who would be marching with us if you could, I carry you with me in my heart, because I know you're with us in spirit if not in body this time around!
The last time I marched for Choice was April 16th, 1989. I was a sophomore at the College of Wooster and scraped up the last of my month's spending money to pay for a place on the bus. We rode down through the night, pulling in to RFK Memorial Stadium at just after sunrise. It was cold that day, and misty with fog, and I climbed down from the bus with sleepy eyes and stiff limbs, but so much excitement beating in my heart to be in the nation's capitol, taking a stand and feeling so lucky to be there at this very important moment. And then, on the mall, surrounded by women (and men) standing up for what we all believed -- it was incredible! We marched and chanted and held our signs and then, like a special miracle of perfect timing, we arrived at the capitol just as Judy Collins rose to the microphone to sing Amazing Grace. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life!
I look forward to that feeling again, made even more special because some of my most special people will be there too. Even better, now I am a MOM for choice, by choice, and having chosen to give birth to my kids, I will now stand up for their right to be parents or not as they decide for themselves. Because, as I explained to Mara, nobody should have to be a mommy if she doesn't want to, and every kid should be chosen and special and loved. And while I wish I could look ahead to a time women's rights to determine the fates of their own bodies will no longer be at risk, I temper my disappointment (and anger) by knowing that as long as this issue remains at stake, we will be standing up again, together.
So have a good thought for us on Sunday and watch C-Span, 'cause we'll be there!
There are weekends, this being one of them, that begin in one place and end someplace distinctly different. If you're reading this, you probably know that my weekend began at the Second Annual Hocking Valley Poetry Festival in Logan on Friday night. It was a wonderful evening, but I was tired and restless and not sure where the next two days would likely go.
Saturday began with a call for the calvary, which I heeded in unprecedented haste -- dashing to Sarah's with signs for her yard sale (which had already been going on for an hour when I got there). Signs placed, emergency over, I sat for a while and chatted in the driveway while 'shoppers' wandered up in and out, nearly every buyer haggling over Sarah's already very reasonable prices. I hate yard sales for that very reason -- why spread my belongings out for other people to reject? Why open my yard to disgruntled bargain seekers reluctant to spend 50 cents for items that cost me several dollars when new? I never make enough money to feel it's worth it. But their sale came out allright eventually -- she's ordering the new chest freezer tomorrow, I think.
When I had had about all the jerky yard sale shoppers I could stand, and Bill and the kids had returned home from their Earth Day adventures at Alley Park (where Tim had taken our kids to frolic with Grammy and Popo for the day), I went over to the studio to glaze the stuff I'd been working on at the end of class and in the weeks that followed. I'm not especially fond of the glazes they've got, and I probably made a mess by using too much spotted blue, but we'll see when things are fired next week.
It was a productive morning and by afternoon I was into yard work -- washed the garage (which was literally growing moss and algae on its northern side), reset the paving stones with topsoil and grass seed, planted some seeds in various beds and managed, somehow, to keep the kids out of the hose as I watered. Ended tired and achey, but in that friendly, feelings of accomplishment way. Kym and her kids came over, Tim went to play with Gene, I cooked dinner (well, dinners really since the kids wanted mac and cheese and Kym and I didn't). Then a quick and necessary bath for kids after Kym and her brood left and bedtime, finally at 10 p.m. (theirs, not mine, since I was blogging as you will no doubt recall).
Woke up today (Sunday) with an aching head and not an ounce of productivity remained. I just couldn't get started and once I started, didn't have the energy to finish anything. I made our bed and gathered laundry, tried to clean the bathroom, ended up lying on the sofa listening to Matthew scream his frustration over two-year-old molar pain and Mara whine about wanting to watch a video. It was a horrible afternoon, even though Tim took on most of the kid duties and even sent me out for lunch in a restaurant on my own. Bedtime was dreadful, took almost an hour to get Matthew settled down, and even Mara couldn't seem to get to sleep and she usually crashes once the pillow touches her head.
So it is surprising that I feel such a sense of contentment and well-being with the world right now. Tim left before bedtime to hang out with Gene -- which made me glad they have each other to be friends -- and I decided to hell with it and grilled the steak I'd had in mind before he left. So there I am, on the deck at 10:15, starting the fire, and while I was waiting for the coals to settle down, the chaos in my head just slowly calmed. I cooked the steak, added some salad and a baked potato I had started before I put the kids to bed, and sat there on the deck watching the coals and fire move in the half-darkness. Our next-door neighbors have a little fountain in their backyard and it tinkles all night as well as in the day, so it played its little water sounds and the fire crackled and I threw a few dried pieces of rosemary from my poor dead plant over the coals and ate my dinner basking in the fragrant smoke and night noises from my lovely neighborhood.
I'm sure the neighbors will figure I've been smoking pot, but somehow I didn't care and I read my book and watched the fire and threw on some more dried bits and let the calm seep back into my soul. Thank you, universe, for making me and the rosemary and the smoke and fire and water and food.
A weekend like that will make you wonder what tomorrow will bring...
Okay, this sucks! I had a whole entry almost finished on our fabulous poetry evening and I hadn't even read Diana's version of the story yet and then I tried to double-check her website address and lost the whole idiotic thing I'd been writing for the last half hour. Ugh.
And I am too tired to go back and reconstruct it now. Essentially Kym and Diana and I had a wonderful time sharing dinner and lots of giggles and while none of us expected the evening to be exactly what it was, we had a delightful time together and very much enjoyed the poetry of William Kloefkorn and David Lee, and if you've never heard of them, well neither had we, but their writing was often thought-provoking, sometimes inspiring, definitely amusing and some of it (as I told David Lee while he was signing Diana's book) still needs work, but more on that later.
It was actually a very surprising evening for me. While Di expected -- from her description -- a kind of Greenwich Village circa late-1960's evening, complete with beatniks in black and berets -- I figured we'd have three (inevitably freaky) local "regional poets" writing about the "hills" of southeastern Ohio and probably comparing lots of nature to weird and possibly elderly body parts. You know the type of thing -- tree branches as gnarled fingers, rolling hills as, well, rolling hills (nudge nudge wink wink)... deeply upsetting in a stereotypical sort of way...
I should have known better. This was a sparkling evening and the poets, who had been imported from Nebraska and Utah read a pretty wide variety of things. We laughed and pondered and grinned at each other some and I knitted about two and a half inches of sock, enjoying the way the fidgety part of my brain had to concentrate on the sock so the poetry-listening part of my brain could actually listen without being distracted by "hmmm, tomorrow I should wash the garage..." kind of thoughts. Also our butts fell asleep because the chairs were kinda hard and my feet didn't quite touch the floor, but that's neither here nor there in the grand scheme of the evening.
It was truly a delight to be out together, especially since we so rarely get time with Diana away from our lovely bunch of small hedonists* but it was very good for me on another level, because I've been feeling so disconnected from the world of writing. Sitting there, being "cultured" in the Logan library, I suddenly felt like the space between me and that other world was not as big as I had feared. Which is probably why I offered David Lee some feedback on one of his depression poems -- well, that and the fact that the poem just needs work (I'd say "nice poem keep the title" except I can't remember what the title was and if it's 'Depression' I would just have to scream, but I don't think that was it) but I figure if you don't really want folks to comment on your work, you probably shouldn't make such a big deal about how much you enjoyed folks telling you things needed more work last year. So there. Also, if that's what he considers a depression poem, his version of depression is distinctly different from the one I've experienced....
So I guess I'm back in the writing world again, however peripherally just now. I spent lots of today (when I wasn't singing Patty Griffin in a really loud and probably largely off-key voice) with snatches of poetry writing themselves in my head, and that felt good. I haven't done that in a really long time -- so thanks Di, for saying "let's go," and thanks Kym for saying "we should go!" and thanks Tim for saying "No, really, just GO!" because I'm glad I goed!
* Di, I thought I'd better compensate for all the unnecessary big words you were expecting and missed out on last night...
What a week this has been! Sorry I haven't gotten to the blog, all my loyal readers who are just getting on-line to see if I've added anything today, but I've been getting my ass kicked!
Lots of sharing of kid-care, which is delicious. I love that I have these awesome friends who trust me with their precious ones and who also take my delightful demons off my hands on frequent occasions. Especially loved giving Kym & Gene a big ole date and seeing them come back with sparkly eyes and holding hands and being all goopy. Goopy is very cute on these two, trust me!
Did lots of cooking this week -- cooked and cooked, fed folks and fed them again. And everybody liked my food, even the veggie versions of things, which I was really and truly just winging. You can't go too far wrong with lots of garlic though (well, unless you are feeding vampires, but that's a whole 'nother blog).
Did lots of cleaning this week -- though you would not know it to look at my house. Laundry is caught up (or was as of Thursday, probably not anymore). The rain kinda skunked my plans to finish refurbishing the picnic table, as did the presence of my son, who figured out EXACTLY what to do with the socket wrench and the hack saw after watching me for approximately 2 minutes. But I figure I'll do the table and wash the garage during our anticipated sunny weekend.
Sat with friends and knitted ((Diana, get to work on that heel flap!, Kym, we need to practice purling some more because you are fabulous for learning this fascinating new skill and I am so proud of you! Sarah, finish the yard sale so we can knit again! Meg, call me and we'll knit on the phone with our headsets on! Mom, glad you figured out the pattern you're working on! Mel, jump on the bandwagon any old time you feel like! And Amy, when are we luring you to the dark side??))
Travelled all around -- to Columbus, to Logan -- profitable trips both since I got some groceries, some truly glorious yarn (I can't say what for, because it is a secret, but email me and I'll tell you all about it), and a fab-u new haircut. Also, Mara got to swing on the tree swings at Preston & Avery's house, which she just adored and hasn't stopped talking about since then.
Got to see Max -- on his two week birthday and have been banned from cutting his fingernails, which is (I suppose) understandable. But, regardless of who cuts them, they sure do need a trim right about now, so one of his parents best get on it and soon!
And, as Mara said on the way in to ballet today: "This was a great day, I got to see three of my friends and even Emma at ballet. Wow!" (my apologies to Rosemary, Greyson and Avery, who are apparently counted as Matthew's friends, though I think she really meant three of her friend-families since she loves the little sibs as much as Will, Laney and Preston).
But now I gotta go to bed. Remind me to tell you what my lovely husband is doing in Nashville on May 7th! Hee hee!
Wow, what a lot I have accomplished in the last three days!
Here's the breakdown, though I will say more later (gotta do the newsletter):
Safety in the kids' room including
taking down the crib
taking down Mara's little bed
installing the new "big kid" double bed
installing venting window locks
hook & eye to keep the closet door locked
removal of all 'dangerous' things, including crayons
Put hooks in the kids room to pull back curtains with tie-backs
Patched the concrete on the front porch
Spray-painted all the porch furniture (2 wicker chairs and a small table), the new color is hunter green to match shutters and front door
Took all the faded dried flowers out of my grapevine wreath
Cleaned and vacuumed at a friend's house (her back is out and it's more fun with two cleaning fairies anyway)
Rescued a picnic table and benches from the trash
Got materials to repair benches & table
Bought Tim & Mara a chess set (you should see my small genius contemplate chess with her daddy!)
Various cleaning stuff around the house
Hmmm, it doesn't seem like so much when it's in a list like that....
More later. Oh, and sinus infections suck and this one just won't LEAVE!