It was just a picture on Instagram of two dogs asleep on a sofa in a cozy, warmly lit room tagged: "good to be home." My now married son was back from his honeymoon, back in the Pacific Northwest... back home?
But home is here. Oh sure he lives there and works there, but home is here. Where we hide Easter baskets in obvious places and the boys run and look for them pretending they're hard to find. It's here where we light a fire on Christmas morning and dad has his sausage-and-egg casserole all made and ready to put in the oven for brunch. Where I used to read to them at night and get up every morning - thousands of mornings - hurrying breakfasts into tummys, books into backpacks and two little boys out the door before the school bell rang. Home is here. This is home.
How did it happen that in a blink of an eye home is now somewhere else and mom is no longer #1? I'm lucky to be #3, if you count the dogs. Someone said, "Just wait. You'll keep dropping. Wait'll the grandkids come." Now I know how my mother must have felt all those years when I was so busy with husband, children, dogs and home. She, too, kept losing her place in my life.
The fab foursome were over playing bridge the other day when we saw a bustle of activity next door. New neighbors had moved in and the little boys were running in from school and scurrying off to football practice. I so well remember those days. An old lady used to live in that house and she told me once that she loved looking out her window watching me with my boys. She was in a wheelchair and we kept the shrubbery low so she could see all the goings on. She said, "It reminds me of when I was a young mother raising my two sons." That was 22 years ago and now I'm the old lady at the window.
I wonder if her heart broke each time she dared to look out?
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Time to Write a Blog Post
Someone asked me the other day when Betty was going back to work on the blog and I realized how long it had been. But with a year like this - one wedding and a funeral, two houses for sale and a house to build - I didn't know if I was coming or going half the time. I felt like the baker in the old Dunkin' Donuts commercial, "Time to make the donuts. Doh! I made the donuts."
In one day, for instance, I had to choose flowers for the rehearsal dinner, negotiate the price of my mom's house with the buyers, and pick out a roof for our new house. Another day I had to take six bags of my precious mother's clothes to Goodwill, sprinkle holy water on our lot before they poured the foundation (just as a precaution) and wrap eleven groomsmen gifts. I was so confused I almost sprinkled holy water on the bags and dropped the gifts off at Goodwill.
As it was, I did go to a dress fitting without the dress and almost mailed a letter with no address on it (I had put a stamp on it, though). Not to mention the load of laundry I did with no clothes in the machine. When I went to transfer the clothes to the dryer, the machine was empty. Apparently I washed a load of water. I even added BIZ.
Needless to say, in this busy and confusing time I've played very little bridge. Naturally my game has suffered. My normal deft and precision playing has waned a bit. But the worst of it is my partner was getting a little too happy with another. "Barb and I came in first last week." "Barb and I came in first again last week." "Barb and I came in first again once again last week." And on and on. It was getting redundant. Was this it? Was our long and prosperous partnership... ok, let me rephrase that... was our long partnership going to end on top of everything else? Would I need to start looking for someone new?
Alas, no. Cindy and I are back together and we played last Friday. It was a wonderfully strange day - pouring down rain while the sun was shining - and silver-point week no less. Well, I'm happy to say, it was just like riding a bike. I didn't forget a thing. I played four or five 1NT hands and went down each and every time. It was great! We barely made the board. Fantastic! Just like old times.
We didn't win any silver, but at least for the time being my life is somewhat back in order. I'm much less absent-minded these days. Unlike the man on Friday who drove a convertible to the Bridge Center and left the top down in the rain. What was he thinking???
Squish. Squish.
In one day, for instance, I had to choose flowers for the rehearsal dinner, negotiate the price of my mom's house with the buyers, and pick out a roof for our new house. Another day I had to take six bags of my precious mother's clothes to Goodwill, sprinkle holy water on our lot before they poured the foundation (just as a precaution) and wrap eleven groomsmen gifts. I was so confused I almost sprinkled holy water on the bags and dropped the gifts off at Goodwill.
As it was, I did go to a dress fitting without the dress and almost mailed a letter with no address on it (I had put a stamp on it, though). Not to mention the load of laundry I did with no clothes in the machine. When I went to transfer the clothes to the dryer, the machine was empty. Apparently I washed a load of water. I even added BIZ.
Needless to say, in this busy and confusing time I've played very little bridge. Naturally my game has suffered. My normal deft and precision playing has waned a bit. But the worst of it is my partner was getting a little too happy with another. "Barb and I came in first last week." "Barb and I came in first again last week." "Barb and I came in first again once again last week." And on and on. It was getting redundant. Was this it? Was our long and prosperous partnership... ok, let me rephrase that... was our long partnership going to end on top of everything else? Would I need to start looking for someone new?
Alas, no. Cindy and I are back together and we played last Friday. It was a wonderfully strange day - pouring down rain while the sun was shining - and silver-point week no less. Well, I'm happy to say, it was just like riding a bike. I didn't forget a thing. I played four or five 1NT hands and went down each and every time. It was great! We barely made the board. Fantastic! Just like old times.
We didn't win any silver, but at least for the time being my life is somewhat back in order. I'm much less absent-minded these days. Unlike the man on Friday who drove a convertible to the Bridge Center and left the top down in the rain. What was he thinking???
Squish. Squish.
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