five (really) good things and six other things
2) since coming home from visiting the midwest, i have put myself on a schedule. it is really working and helping me focus and feel less overwhelmed. i have been devoting the late afternoon and evenings to working in the little room...cutting out simple selma totes and maude bags and another new line of bags...designing and then creating a new apron that is the prototype for a new design i will be sharing soon. i feel more centered with a schedule and knowing that i can shift it as needed is helpful.
3) as i work in the little room, i have been listening to sarah vowell (and friends) read assassination vacation. oh my goodness, she is so funny. i love this book and the way she looks at the world and draws such incredible parallels between the past and today. i want to be her friend.
4) the sun is shining today and i can hear the birds chirping as i work. the robins and chickadees are today's soundtrack.
5) water with a slice of lemon. this is a really good, really refreshing thing for me lately.
a few weeks back, annie (whose class i will be taking at artfest in two weeks!) tagged me to share six little known odd things about myself...hmmm...this somehow morphed into a list of little known facts about me as a kid...here you go:
1) when i was little, my dad had a secretary named joyce. but, i thought joyce was the name of her profession. as in assistants to attorneys are called "joyces." i think that was because when i would see her at my dad's office, i was told to call her "mrs. [insert last name here]," but when my dad talked about her to my mom, he called her joyce. i remember the moment i suddenly figured out it was her name. i was dumbfounded. i never told anyone about my confusion until i was in my 20s.
2) i never took a nap during naptime when i was three and in preschool. everyday we would lay down on our cots and mrs. lewis would dim the lights and put on a record of some sort. everyone would sleep. i would try to braid my hair or count the lights on the ceiling or try to talk myself into being brave enough to ride the swing the next time we went outside to play. (i have mentioned mrs. lewis once before on this blog. she was the first person outside my family to teach me about love. she's retiring this year after 34 years. i adore her.)
3) i recall that when i was first learning how to read and spell, i would ask my mom what signs said as we were driving (so i learned how to spell "detour" early on). i also always wanted to know what street we were on. a main street near our home was miami street. it would drive me crazy that my mom insisted that the street was hers, and i would repeatedly explain that "it isn't yourami it is myami."
4) when i was about four, i had a dream that the lead singer of sha na na was breaking into our house, specifically to steal the new video camera from our basement. in the dream, i heard a noise and went to investigate and started to go down the stairs (sitting as i went from one stair to the next). i got to about the fourth step down and saw him going into the basement. i was holding my pink blanket and was suddenly frozen with fear. i woke up terrified and still remember it as though i had the dream yesterday.
5) the house i lived in from the age of about two until ten is my favorite house ever. if i had enough money to build a new home for me and jonny, i would build a home almost exactly like that one. i guess the people who live in it now have completely remodeled (not to mention they painted the bricks of the colonial-styled home white). i never want to go inside to see the remodel as i want to remember that house exactly as it was in my mind. i loved that house on garland circle so much and sobbed when my parents said we were moving.
6) when i was in grade school and my parents were out for dinner and we had a babysitter, i used to pretend that the back of the couch was the parallel bars. i would lean back against the couch and lift my legs in the air like nadia did in the print on my wall. my parents would have not liked me treating the furniture that way so i never, ever did it when they were home. last my brother knew that couch was still out there having survived time in my mom's basement then matt's house then a friend's house when matt moved to portland and now a friend of that friend has it. i bet that couch has seen more than i would ever want to know...but once, it was part of a little girl's "gymnastic routine."
i would love it if you would share your five really good things...or an odd unknown fact about your childhood.
go ahead...
please...
five (really) good things, lists
Reader Comments (12)
1. black tea
2. the sound of my girl practicing violin this afternoon
3. jelly beans
4. dark chocolate
5. a new iPod
Beautiful new banner and post... Loved your "Joyce" story. Made me think of my friend's boy, who overheard (at the age of 1-1/2-ish) his parents talking about my husband, and they said something like "our friend Rob", and the little guy took it literally, kind of like "Uncle Rob", and it was several years until he realised that Friend Rob was not necessarily his name, but by that time it had stuck, with his 2 younger siblings as well... I love how kids hear things and make their own stories/explanations for things.
* it rained...poured all day today and i felt so utterly joyful it wasn't more snow.
* morning pages and my first week of the artist's way
* nag champa burning
* on the verge of a four day weekend
* you, beautiful you.
love, love, love the new banner!!!
happy spring, my friend.
xoxoxoxo
My middle name is Ann, and I also have an Aunt Ann. So growing up I thought my name was Jennifer "Aunt Ann" McGuiggan. My husband's middle name is Chester, and as a kid he thought the furniture "chest-of-drawers" was named for him: "Chester drawers."
(Oh, and I want to be Sarah Vowell's friend too!)
I like your list of childhood things.
I also never napped at naptime.
adore the new banner : )
1. daffodils in bright yellow sunlight
2. the smell of nag champa
3. the flickr of my candles
4. sunlight coming through crisp white curtains
5. one more work day until four days of freedom
tee hee ~ i just noticed that kirsten michelle and i are both enjoying the nag champa smell, lol
weird childhood fact: i read a lot, no surprise there but i used the words i read all the time, archaic old fashioned words that caused my friends to laugh and wonder at my vocabulary. i often pronounced them completely wrong because i had no frame of reference. much to my husband's delight, i still pronounce most of them wrong because even though i know the correct way, old habits die hard ;-) i like to think its part of my charm, lol
fun list and the new banner is sweet! joyce's is hilarious. i am telling that one to my heather the lawyer.,
1. napping...i will be the one in deep rem, with the drool on my face.
2. my attic studio, full of unpacked boxes
3. thinking of a trip to ikea
4. my tibet incense swirling
5. last nites corona and belly laughs
6. you!
peace.
Very nice banner! Odd childhood fact: I grew up just up the hill from my grandparents' dairy farm. I knew it was truly spring when the manure pile outside the barn started to thaw, and I could smell it from my house. Not the most pleasant smell, but it does hold fond memories for me.
Thank you for reminding me about ShaNaNa -- I haven't thought about them since I was a kid. Totally made my evening.
haha I love these lists!! How absolutely charming!!
Sometimes I wish I had started journaling at the age of two, because for whatever reason, I have very few childhood memories. I think I just haven't learned quite how to access them....
But your naptime story made me recall how I used to be in love with this boy named Daniel (yes, I was in love at the age of three) and would dictate stories to my mom about us while we were at our pool club. The stories would always be about me and Daniel having to go off into the woods to find dinosaurs and usually ended with us finding rainbows instead. I should ask my mom if she still has these....
Thanks for jogging the memory :). And thanks, as always, for the smiles and joy! xoxox
um....
when i was kid
i got a toilet seat
stuck on my head...
and my mom had to take me
to the store
across the street
with the toilet seat
stuck on my head
to call my dad
at work to
come home
and save me.
gulp.
have i just admitted that?
The svhedule sounds soooooo good. I can't wait to see all you have made. Maybe I won't get too I just realized. hee hee. Proud of you.
Thank goodness my 3 yr old still naps. LOL.
You are too cute and beautiful for words.
Love you