Odds and Ends
Yesterday, I drove over to my dad's place in Indiana and spent the afternoon with him as well as four of my five siblings and their spouses. Not long after I arrived, one of my brothers pointed to a family photo and asked me how old I was at the time it was taken. That photo is my all-time favorite of me. It shows my mom leaning against a tree with us six kids lined up beside her. I am at the end of the line, with about two feet separating me from the rest of my siblings. I'm standing kind of silly, and my face shows nothing but happiness. To me, that image says volumes about me and how I've always felt a little outside my family.
Anyways, back to the question of my age there. I told my brother I thought I was four in that photo. He just nodded. Long story short: there had been a discussion about our little brother and how old he was in that same photo. The brother who had asked me my age insisted our little brother was only one year old in the photo. Everyone else was saying no way, he had to be at least two or three. If I was four in the photo, our little brother would have been two. So that discussion went on for a while.
After a delicious lunch and a bit more hanging out, everyone began leaving. I stayed to chat for a little while longer then headed over to see an old friend from high school. She was in to visit her dad for the week, so I took the opportunity to catch up with her. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf -- taking the time to do things instead of saying, "Oh, I'll do it next time." There may not be a next time, so it's got to be now. When I drove away, even though it was dark and the roads were icy and I had a two and half hour drive home, I felt really happy for having taken the time to see her and learn about what she's been up to. My two and half hour drive turned into three and a half hours because of having to wait at the train tracks in one of the small towns along the way. I checked Google maps to see if there was a way around, but there wasn't unless I was willing to drive icy, unfamiliar roads. I wasn't. So I sat and listened to music for an hour.
This morning, I awoke, turned to look at the clock and saw that it was off. All of the power was off. Angel Baby came downstairs and said he and Lovely Beautiful Daughter had heard a loud ringing noise outside just before the everything shut down. I figured the negative temps had taken a toll on a transformer and it blew. I called in the outage, built a fire, and sat back to enjoy the morning. The house cooled off to the mid 50's, but the area in front of the fireplace stayed nice and warm. Around 11 o'clock, the power came back on. Ado and I snuggled on the couch then and took a nap together.
Now I'm looking around the house and thinking it's time to put all the Christmas decorations away. I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to greet 2018 and see what the year brings. At the beginning of 2017 I said it was going to be my year of persistence. I persisted through the separation from my husband and in the process found a new beginning, one that saw so much love and support from my kids. I persisted with the writing and sending my work out for consideration, and I received my first poem publication. And I persisted in being much kinder to myself, which found me looking at a photo of me just the other day and thinking, hmmmm, you look really pretty instead of the usual hmmmm, not a good photo of you yet again.
So, with just a few days of 2017 remaining, I'm going to keep moving forward. I'm ready to put my mantra together for 2018, and I'm ready to put it into action.
Anyways, back to the question of my age there. I told my brother I thought I was four in that photo. He just nodded. Long story short: there had been a discussion about our little brother and how old he was in that same photo. The brother who had asked me my age insisted our little brother was only one year old in the photo. Everyone else was saying no way, he had to be at least two or three. If I was four in the photo, our little brother would have been two. So that discussion went on for a while.
After a delicious lunch and a bit more hanging out, everyone began leaving. I stayed to chat for a little while longer then headed over to see an old friend from high school. She was in to visit her dad for the week, so I took the opportunity to catch up with her. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf -- taking the time to do things instead of saying, "Oh, I'll do it next time." There may not be a next time, so it's got to be now. When I drove away, even though it was dark and the roads were icy and I had a two and half hour drive home, I felt really happy for having taken the time to see her and learn about what she's been up to. My two and half hour drive turned into three and a half hours because of having to wait at the train tracks in one of the small towns along the way. I checked Google maps to see if there was a way around, but there wasn't unless I was willing to drive icy, unfamiliar roads. I wasn't. So I sat and listened to music for an hour.
This morning, I awoke, turned to look at the clock and saw that it was off. All of the power was off. Angel Baby came downstairs and said he and Lovely Beautiful Daughter had heard a loud ringing noise outside just before the everything shut down. I figured the negative temps had taken a toll on a transformer and it blew. I called in the outage, built a fire, and sat back to enjoy the morning. The house cooled off to the mid 50's, but the area in front of the fireplace stayed nice and warm. Around 11 o'clock, the power came back on. Ado and I snuggled on the couch then and took a nap together.
Now I'm looking around the house and thinking it's time to put all the Christmas decorations away. I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to greet 2018 and see what the year brings. At the beginning of 2017 I said it was going to be my year of persistence. I persisted through the separation from my husband and in the process found a new beginning, one that saw so much love and support from my kids. I persisted with the writing and sending my work out for consideration, and I received my first poem publication. And I persisted in being much kinder to myself, which found me looking at a photo of me just the other day and thinking, hmmmm, you look really pretty instead of the usual hmmmm, not a good photo of you yet again.
So, with just a few days of 2017 remaining, I'm going to keep moving forward. I'm ready to put my mantra together for 2018, and I'm ready to put it into action.
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