Desert Magnolia

I've lost count of those moments in my life when I realize I am simply not cool, at least I'm not as cool as the people I'm hanging around at the moment when I come to the not cool conclusion. When I think back on my life, I recall feeling pretty cool most of the time. Really. But in reality, I may have been deluding myself. Which is my prerogative, I suppose, and a delusion under which many of us labor. Moments in which am acutely aware of being uncool: Late night gathering in Son's dorm room with his peers, who brought wine and snacks and wholly modern perspectives and their passionate arguments and wow....these kids are dialed in and ready to change the world and I both envy and admire them. The future, if they have their way, is safe indeed. Shopping with Daughter, whose sense of style is classic and elegant, yet in spite of that timeless quality and our similar views of clothes, she must dissuade me from repeating fashion faux pas after fashion faux pas......

Our resident gardening god, formerly known to you all as 'hubby', has requested that I refer to him in a more complimentary way, as the term 'hubby' to him implies fat and bald and cranky and mostly boring. Which he's none of. Obviously he doesn't read my blog or he would have lodged his complaint much much earlier in the game. Like two years ago in the game. Ahem. So let it be known that the man formerly known as 'hubby' will now be known as the gardening god, or GG. So when you see that, you're hearing about my spouse and our local gardening god. Now that we've gotten that little bit of business handled, we can move on. And may I just say, no offense was ever intended as the term 'hubby' was always used in the most respectful of ways, so let's just be sure that's on the record. Anyway, enough of that. JL, as I mentioned, is in town and she came over for dinner last night. And we did all of the things I'd pred...

..and marathon croquet match. That's how my offspring spent their Saturday evening. Wearing ridiculously glamorous clothes (hers were white, with a lovely hat to match; his were ridiculously film noir ala Woody Allen glam), sipping ridiculously glamorous beverages and rubbing elbows with impossibly glamorous others. They spent the day shopping vintage stores in Manhattan, found very cool outfits, then took a train north to the pahty. They had a ball. They looked...amazing. The Western sibs that took New Yahk by storm? In the West, we (empty) nested. And spent time with old friends. The friends we knew before we were a married couple. The friends whose wedding we attended, and the first we invited to ours. The friends who were there when I came down with what we thought was bronchitis, but turned out to be early mommyitis. Special friends. Old friends. Good friends. The kind that have known us forever, and we them, and we're closer than ever. Which is saying something ...

Matt Damon just keeps up the good work, doesn't he? I mean Good Will Hunting, The Bourne series, True Grit, Invictus, 30 Rock, The Oceans series, Stuck on You, etc....seriously, he's funny and serious and buff and wry and mostly awe.some. The Adjustment Bureau was cool in a way I hadn't anticipated. In fact I had a completely wrong idea about what the movie was about...but that turned out to be ok. It's not the first time my preconception about a movie was totally wrong, and in this case the outcome was just fine. I give it a 7 on my scale. Mostly because it managed to deliver without becoming trite, and it made me laugh and contemplate love and being human and our intended purpose, and so on. So that's worth something in my book. Granted, romances of this genre can be a little repetitive, but this one was sweet in a gentle and self-deprecating way. I love the idea of humanity being governed by a Plan, since we're clearly unable to manage our own affai...

So sisinlaw and fam are away at a dance competition, and we're watching their house. Which means we're swimming in their pool. Because they have no plants or animals. But they have a pool. Last night we headed over after work, sunscreen, towels, suits, picnic dinner, beer and wine (with plastic cups of course-glass by a pool is dangerous, after all), and the expectation that we'd enjoy a couple of  hours of sun, swimming, relaxation. But on our way over we noticed a darkening sky to the west, then to the east. Which made us comment that if those two cloud formations hooked up we'd be in trouble. They hooked up. And there was a scary, swirly cloud happening that actually triggered tornado sirens across the city. We ended up with a 45-minute gully washer that finally cleansed the air and cooled the very hot, very dry earth. The good news is hubby had just put on his life jacket, but we hadn't yet dropped the kayak into the pool so we could practice wet evacs. ...

This summer has been a whirlwind of travel. For my girl. There was a trip to San Diego three days after she got home for the summer. Then there was a 7 day trip to Florida with Grandma and her cousin to celebrate cousin's ascendance from middle to high school. Then there was the National Park Tour and Soccer Trip of 2011. And then it was over. After a party to celebrate her and her brother being in the same house for two days. Because that's what you do, right? You celebrate. And after packing like crazy and preparing like crazy and doctor visits and soul searching and late nights on the patio discussing the future and extreme summer workouts and time spent with high school friends and such. And now she's back at school. Two soccer camps, preseason training, then school. And we're hanging out with our son, who is truly one of the most amazing people I've ever met, and we're enjoying a few days before he heads off to the Big Apple, then the Middle...

We have weird weather around here, and one of the things it likes to do is rain while the sun is shining. Which it did this morning while I was out on the trail. So, I'm lubed up in SPF45, wearing a hat and sunglasses and am getting rained on. It was awe.some. Cool and the smell of the rain on the desert plants was spicy and sweet and delicious. And I saw a double rainbow. My double rainbow looked a lot like this one that I found on CBSNews.com A.mazing. Which we all know is an omen of many good things to come. Happy Monday everyone!

Have you ever been out on a 'net surf and clicked on an article that hooked you and then read that article and then had an epiphany? If you haven't, you should try it sometime. If you have, you already know where this is headed. Before you mock me, you should know I deliberately avoid adding WebMD to my bookmarks and I don't consider myself a hypochondriac, I'm just trying to be aware of what my body is up to. It's my responsibility, right? See, friends are too nice to point out to you on a regular basis that you're batshit crazy or completely neurotic or NOT all that funny (even though you insist on laughing at your own jokes which your Hubby, who is really funny in a dry humor/wry wit kind of way, likes to point out). Where was I? Oh, so my recent foray into 'net article Hell makes me think there's better than a 50% chance that I'm ADHD. I think. But I'm not sure how many of those symptoms I have to say, 'Oh yeah, I definitely d...

Today is so the morning after. After a great weekend of fam, friends, working out, enjoying the backyard, getting back in touch with the elements, nesting, etc. There was swimming. There was sunning. There was laughing and BBQ's and more episodes of Breaking Bad. And now, it's back to the office for me, and beginning the countdown to Son coming home for a few days before he heads back across the big blue to the Middle East. And to Daughter heading back to Providence for soccer and then another school year. I'm trying to breathe deeply and embrace every silly moment we have. Because those moments, they are quickly evaporating and soon will be all gone for months and months. And months. It may be Tuesday, but honestly, it feels like a Monday with a little low barometric emotional pressure happening. Today it's July lunch with the Grannies day, though, which will certainly jolly me out of my baby funk and put things into perspective, right? Right? Sigh.