Hello and welcome to a mid-May Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is May 18th. The grass has finally greened and my Lily of the Valley is poking its fingers out of the dry dirt, reaching for a promise of warmer days.
A big thank you to our Monday Poet-in-Residence, Jack Pine Savage, for covering for me last Saturday. Our family lost a dear friend unexpectedly and I knew she'd be level headed and clear eyed about the whole death and dying thing, while I'd be a rambling, blubbering, nonsensical mess. She completely hit the mark. Please take a moment to read her profound poem, Deeper Order, which she shared on last Saturday's post.
I'm a pretty happy person. But, as I told my mom, who suggested I be positive for the kids' sake when we'd just gotten the news, "I'm just going to be sad for awhile."
But I do understand her counsel. The daily spin of the washing machine of life still turns and chugs, agitates and fills with water, suds foaming, then chugs some more, empties and spins again. Maybe a terrible analogy which makes no sense, but what I mean to say is despite life-changing moments there is still laundry to be done.
With the unexpected news, came a change of plans and I headed to the Twin Cities on Friday to attend to matters surrounding our friend's passing.
To complicate matters more - because that's life, you know - months ago I bought tickets to attend Wordplay, a.k.a. "Minnesota's Largest Celebration of Readers, Writers, & Great Books" with my cousin in Minneapolis. We'd been looking forward to fanning on favorite authors - Hello! Stephen King! - In light of tragedy, could I still go? Would it be fair to my friend's memory to do something fun or would it be a gesture of too easily casting away the value of a friend now gone?
I did decide to go to Wordplay (only on Saturday, though) and had an absolute blast. It was like the literary version of attending a Rolling Stones concert. In addition to seeing the likes of "The King of Darkness, " I saw David Treuer speak as well as Amy Tan and Mary Karr. Dave Barry was there and my (not so) secret author crush Daniel Jose Older. The lineup was an all-star cast of national and local favorites. In the crowds, I networked with two freelance editors - one of whom also loves to knit. I bought a lot of books. I took a photo of a banh mi food truck because I happen to have a Vietnamese food truck in my current work-in-progress. I got to meet author, Nickolas Butler, who will be my instructor at a writer's retreat in Wisconsin in July. A lady spilled my bottle of water on my newly purchased books and guest what folks? She was from Wannaska.
When I returned home, getting back into the routine and busyness of our household felt like jumping onto a train traveling 55mph going west. But jump I did and now our friend's passing, already feels like a brief stop along the way.
Chug, chug, chug - the train (not the washing machine) keeps moving forward. The news; the call. Time stops. Tears fill and flow. One sleeps badly. Puffy eyes. Time to make breakfast; get kids out the door. Emails to be answered, only pertinent tasks have to be done. (Forget about working on the novel.) Toddler home from preschool - lunch time, dinner time, nap time - older kids home and after school activities.
And this week our family had lots of celebration. Kids in band concerts and recitals. The Second Oldest got a new personal record in pole vaulting - 9ft. 6 inches! I made the very first reservations for info sessions and campus tours for the upcoming and highly anticipated #CollegeRoadtrip. Hubby and kids set up the trampoline last weekend and we've been bouncing on it every day since. The First Grader came home excited, a permission slip in hand to visit Norris Camp on Monday. The Toddler graduated from preschool and the WAKWIR got a new tooth. (See below.)
Returning to my desk, I wondered all week what I was going to write about for the Wannaskan Almanac. Should I address the sadness in my heart or resume my usual cheery tone? Is it too superficial to move ahead with book recommendations and thoughts about the "On this Day" historical highlights? Or should I tell people that the one positive to come from copious amounts of crying is that my eyes have acclimated? That I can be balling my eyes out and five minutes after all the teary evidence is wiped away my eyes look absolutely normal? Or how about when people extend the usual greeting, "How are you?" and I say, "I'm good," and actually mean it? Then feel guilty about feeling okay? Does the Doug's Supermarket cashier really have the interest or the time to go there anyway?
To try to wrap my head around all of this, I keep coming up with very bad, B-rated movie type analogies to express the mix of emotions of sadness wrapped in gratitude, wrapped in regret, but also joy, disappointment, and wisdom, sorrow, grief, relief, happiness, memories and future plans - like a big club sandwich of the present dolloped with some Mother's Day mayo (which was last Sunday.) You see? I can't stop doing it.
"No one's the perfect package," a friend said last week. We're all dinged up in our own ways. Your family knows it and, if you live in a place as small as Wannaska, your community knows it.
So, today, I guess I'm just going to be honest and eat my club sandwich of life - including the pickles which I hate and the banana peppers because my husband made the sandwich and he likes them and I know he was trying to be nice - and take a moment to reflect on my bad analogies. And chew.
2009 - The Sri Lankan Civil War ends
The 25-year conflict between the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers had claimed up to 100,000 lives. It ended with the Tigers' defeat.
1980 - Mount St. Helens erupts
The eruption killed 57 people. A large part of the previously cone-shaped volcano was replaced by a massive crater; its summit is now some 1300 feet (400 meters) lower than before the eruption.
1927 - 45 people die in the United States' worst school massacre
In the Bath school disaster, a disgruntled school board member set off several bombs at the Bath Consolidated School and other locations in Michigan.
1848 - The first German National Assembly gathers in Frankfurt
The assembly constituted the first freely elected parliament of Germany. It produced a constitution that provided the basis for today's constitution of Germany (Grundgesetz).
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is appointed Emperor of the French
Even today, the French leader, a native of Corsica, is widely known for his successful military campaigns - and his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
1920 - Pope John Paul II
1912 - Perry Como, American singer, actor
1897 - Frank Capra, Italian/American director, producer, screenwriter
1895 - Augusto CĂ©sar Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader
1868 - Nicholas II of Russia
A big thank you to our Monday Poet-in-Residence, Jack Pine Savage, for covering for me last Saturday. Our family lost a dear friend unexpectedly and I knew she'd be level headed and clear eyed about the whole death and dying thing, while I'd be a rambling, blubbering, nonsensical mess. She completely hit the mark. Please take a moment to read her profound poem, Deeper Order, which she shared on last Saturday's post.
I'm a pretty happy person. But, as I told my mom, who suggested I be positive for the kids' sake when we'd just gotten the news, "I'm just going to be sad for awhile."
But I do understand her counsel. The daily spin of the washing machine of life still turns and chugs, agitates and fills with water, suds foaming, then chugs some more, empties and spins again. Maybe a terrible analogy which makes no sense, but what I mean to say is despite life-changing moments there is still laundry to be done.
With the unexpected news, came a change of plans and I headed to the Twin Cities on Friday to attend to matters surrounding our friend's passing.
To complicate matters more - because that's life, you know - months ago I bought tickets to attend Wordplay, a.k.a. "Minnesota's Largest Celebration of Readers, Writers, & Great Books" with my cousin in Minneapolis. We'd been looking forward to fanning on favorite authors - Hello! Stephen King! - In light of tragedy, could I still go? Would it be fair to my friend's memory to do something fun or would it be a gesture of too easily casting away the value of a friend now gone?
I did decide to go to Wordplay (only on Saturday, though) and had an absolute blast. It was like the literary version of attending a Rolling Stones concert. In addition to seeing the likes of "The King of Darkness, " I saw David Treuer speak as well as Amy Tan and Mary Karr. Dave Barry was there and my (not so) secret author crush Daniel Jose Older. The lineup was an all-star cast of national and local favorites. In the crowds, I networked with two freelance editors - one of whom also loves to knit. I bought a lot of books. I took a photo of a banh mi food truck because I happen to have a Vietnamese food truck in my current work-in-progress. I got to meet author, Nickolas Butler, who will be my instructor at a writer's retreat in Wisconsin in July. A lady spilled my bottle of water on my newly purchased books and guest what folks? She was from Wannaska.
When I returned home, getting back into the routine and busyness of our household felt like jumping onto a train traveling 55mph going west. But jump I did and now our friend's passing, already feels like a brief stop along the way.
Chug, chug, chug - the train (not the washing machine) keeps moving forward. The news; the call. Time stops. Tears fill and flow. One sleeps badly. Puffy eyes. Time to make breakfast; get kids out the door. Emails to be answered, only pertinent tasks have to be done. (Forget about working on the novel.) Toddler home from preschool - lunch time, dinner time, nap time - older kids home and after school activities.
And this week our family had lots of celebration. Kids in band concerts and recitals. The Second Oldest got a new personal record in pole vaulting - 9ft. 6 inches! I made the very first reservations for info sessions and campus tours for the upcoming and highly anticipated #CollegeRoadtrip. Hubby and kids set up the trampoline last weekend and we've been bouncing on it every day since. The First Grader came home excited, a permission slip in hand to visit Norris Camp on Monday. The Toddler graduated from preschool and the WAKWIR got a new tooth. (See below.)
Returning to my desk, I wondered all week what I was going to write about for the Wannaskan Almanac. Should I address the sadness in my heart or resume my usual cheery tone? Is it too superficial to move ahead with book recommendations and thoughts about the "On this Day" historical highlights? Or should I tell people that the one positive to come from copious amounts of crying is that my eyes have acclimated? That I can be balling my eyes out and five minutes after all the teary evidence is wiped away my eyes look absolutely normal? Or how about when people extend the usual greeting, "How are you?" and I say, "I'm good," and actually mean it? Then feel guilty about feeling okay? Does the Doug's Supermarket cashier really have the interest or the time to go there anyway?
To try to wrap my head around all of this, I keep coming up with very bad, B-rated movie type analogies to express the mix of emotions of sadness wrapped in gratitude, wrapped in regret, but also joy, disappointment, and wisdom, sorrow, grief, relief, happiness, memories and future plans - like a big club sandwich of the present dolloped with some Mother's Day mayo (which was last Sunday.) You see? I can't stop doing it.
So, today, I guess I'm just going to be honest and eat my club sandwich of life - including the pickles which I hate and the banana peppers because my husband made the sandwich and he likes them and I know he was trying to be nice - and take a moment to reflect on my bad analogies. And chew.
Kids' Corner
So, my lovely readers, last Saturday I was happily eating away at my radish on a late night just like tonight, I felt a weird sensation in my mouth. I tried to ignore it because, you know, lazy me, I just wanted to finish my radish. So I took a bite and I realized that I didn’t have a front tooth. I, again was like my normal self, found my lost tooth, and put it in a jar. Then I started to yell with a very bad lisp that I lost my tooth. So, my Dad told me not to finish the radish because it would break my tooth more if I did. But you know me,I just ate the radish anyway. Anyway, after that, I called my mom telling her that I lost my fake tooth. The call wasn’t that bad, my mom only freaked out and asked me if I was alright. I said I was alright and she told me that on Monday she would schedule an appointment right away. So, later on Tuesday I had a Track meet where some of my friends made up a song: “Don’t eat radishes alone, or you’ll break your teeth!” So on Thursday, after my Homeroom, I rode to the dentist and I was horrified because, it’s the dentist. They do all this stuff to your teeth which is very annoying and I don’t like it. So somehow, they built a tooth that I think is better than my old fake tooth. So...yeah, that’s all I have for now, I‘m going to the Czech Republic and I’m just now sitting here Friday night at 11:00 listening to Bohemian Rhapsody. So, that was my latest epic dangerous adventure I encountered. Happy Reading!-David.
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
2009 - The Sri Lankan Civil War ends
The 25-year conflict between the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers had claimed up to 100,000 lives. It ended with the Tigers' defeat.
1980 - Mount St. Helens erupts
The eruption killed 57 people. A large part of the previously cone-shaped volcano was replaced by a massive crater; its summit is now some 1300 feet (400 meters) lower than before the eruption.
1927 - 45 people die in the United States' worst school massacre
In the Bath school disaster, a disgruntled school board member set off several bombs at the Bath Consolidated School and other locations in Michigan.
1848 - The first German National Assembly gathers in Frankfurt
The assembly constituted the first freely elected parliament of Germany. It produced a constitution that provided the basis for today's constitution of Germany (Grundgesetz).
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is appointed Emperor of the French
Even today, the French leader, a native of Corsica, is widely known for his successful military campaigns - and his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
1912 - Perry Como, American singer, actor
1897 - Frank Capra, Italian/American director, producer, screenwriter
1895 - Augusto CĂ©sar Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader
1868 - Nicholas II of Russia
Remembering You
2004 - Elvin Jones, American drummer
1955 - Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator, activist
1911 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer
1909 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish pianist, composer
1799 - Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright
Hug your people and make it a great Saturday!
Kim
1955 - Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator, activist
1911 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer
1909 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish pianist, composer
1799 - Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright
Hug your people and make it a great Saturday!
Kim
You know, a sandwich like that, is best eaten turned on its side, with its middle tossed together like a salad, and the toast eaten separately. It's all the same, plus you don't lose half of it as it pooches out on the way to your mouth and the napkin in your lap,--where ultimately, the juice and other heavy elements quickly seep through the thin paper shield and stains your pants in a inopportune place on your person, on your first date with someone you want to impress with your food stuff choices.
ReplyDelete"Darn it all, anyway!!" (You inwardly say, 'SHIT.' For stupid!)
LOL. So true.
Delete