Monday, August 15, 2005

Up, Up, and Away . . .

So as my Aunt alluded to in the comments below, I'm making plans to fly the coop for a weekend at the end of the month. The Aunts (t is always capitalized when referring to The Aunts) are planning a canning weekend in which many things end up in sealed jars and I'm assuming, there is also much gossipping and knitting (or needle pointing if you are Connie -- and Caroline if she is coming).

The Aunts are (in order of appearance) Caroline, Constance, and Charlotte. My Dad is Richard and he comes after Caroline and before Constance. I don't know why he didn't get a C name, but he didn't. When I was growing up and in trouble, I was always CarolineConstanceCharlotteYOU!!!knockthatoff. Other people got their first, middle, and last name, but my Dad seemed to only remember his sisters names when infuriated with his eldest daughter. Unresolved issues? Hmmm. (KIDDING Dad) What's interesting is that Constance is usually Connie. But if I were in trouble at least I got HER full name.

Since I've totally slacked on canning this summer, I'm counting on us to actually get some canning done. At the same time, I'm looking forward to a nice long drive there and a nice long drive back, and a fair bit of knitting in between.

Max wants to come. I wasn't sure what to think of that at first. I'm still not sure. On the one hand I know I'm supposed to want a weekend as a grown-up with no kids. On the other hand, being a grown up with one kid -- the one who happens to be really great to travel with -- doesn't sound bad at all. And since my Grandma be there, too. Well, I just think every opportunity to get a boy and his great-grandmother together should be taken. He wants to bring Emily so she can run around, but Connie's dog would eat my dog, so I'm guessing Emily should stay home.

Today was work and school and piano lessons and then I worked at cleaning and straightening up the house. The house looks a lot better. I still have a few things I want to accomplish downstairs. I found some floor lamps for $8.50 at Target and got some of those to add light to the downstairs. I also got a cheap bookshelf that I plan to organize all the math manipulatives in. But I can't help but feel like we're making some progress here. I'm tired. I'm still moody. But things are looking up. It's a little like buds on a tree that has otherwise looked dead. You don't have to go deep to find the green anymore. It's right there full of promises of new growth.

Along those lines, the cherry trees I planted and that had seemed to be doing well -- but not growing as much as I thought they should -- have recently exploded in growth. They've shot up more than a foot and put out lots of new branches. I'm very pleased. If they survive the winter, I think they'll go on to produce copious amounts of cherries in a few years. Yum :) I think that will be us, too. We've been doing reasonably well, but I think great happiness could burst forth sometime in the next few years. We could be sitting around just minding our own business and suddenly realize how wonderful this all is.

You know, it's so incredibly freeing -- the idea that I'll never move again. Since it's not a joke, but rather something I mean quite fervently -- it has given me permission to put down roots, to not worry about the future so much, to plain old not worry so much. I don't have to worry. I know where I'll be in ten years -- and who I'll be with. Poor Chris. He's got so many cherries in his future.

3 comments:

Dy said...

Mmmmmmm. Roots. I am so happy for you!

Anonymous said...

He didn't get a C name because he was named after Uncle Richard, who never got named because he died at birth, but he would have been Richard. Would have been my Dad's brother. Caroline was after my Mom's favorite aunt. Those were the only 2 family names. They just liked Constance, and looked for a C for me.

Anonymous said...

Planning to be somewhere forever is wonderful, isn't it? I don't know that this is our forever city, but I know that we're not planning to move for a few years. The longest I've lived anywhere is 4 years, and we moved a billion times before Sandra was 5 (well, 9 really) and I am *so* done moving for a while. I no longer feel the need to FindFriendsMakeFriendsNOW. I have time.

Poppins