I don’t know about being descendent from Cain, but I certainly don’t do well in the mornings. ‘By contrast, Ian is a bushy-tailed camp counselor with eyes wide as the rising sun is bright, ready for a full day of sing-a-longs when all you want to do is crawl to the bottom of your sleeping […]
We visited Kansas City two weeks ago. Crown Center has a children’s exhibit called ‘What Do You Want to Be?‘, running through the end of April. It’s a city built to kid-scale, where children can pretend to be doctors, teachers, astronauts, fire-fighters, surfers, mechanics, hair stylists, construction workers…seriously, the list goes on. Ian took his […]
We were blessed to have clear skies last week for Ian’s first lunar eclipse. He called it a ‘mooner eclipse’, which was close enough. He had catechism that night, and made sure to remind everyone he saw that the eclipse was happening, and not to miss it. Celestial events always seem to happen in the […]
Ian has named his (latest) favorite stuffed animal ‘Johnny’, which reminded me of this little slice of Disney nostalgia. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is performed by the Andrews Sisters, whom I now adore but didn’t know existed then. A few things you won’t find in cartoons anymore: winos, blackjacks, and police […]
Words that have never been used to describe our furnishings: Noguchi floating flat-front lacquered Shantung molded-wood 18th-century pendant silk Even as a guy whose bathroom register is held in place by duct tape (seriously), I just have to assume that the same must be said for most people, let alone most parents. Yet, as The […]
Lament By Edna St. Vincent Millay Listen, children: Your father is dead. From his old coats I’ll make you little jackets; I’ll make you little trousers From his old pants. There’ll be in his pockets Things he used to put there, Keys and pennies Covered with tobacco; Dan shall have the pennies To save in […]
Rough patch with Ian this morning. Like driving in Iowa, a rough patch with Ian can quickly turn into a ten-car pile-up. I’d tagged Kelly so I could finish dressing, and also not kill my son. He persisted, escalated, crossed lines. I took a pair of pants from the closet, and heard Kelly’s strained voice, […]
Father’s Old Blue Cardigan By Anne Carson Now it hangs on the back of the kitchen chair where I always sit, as it did on the back of the kitchen chair where he always sat. I put it on whenever I come in, as he did, stamping the snow from his boots. I put it […]
Our neighborhood is afflicted with an epidemic of inoperative doorbells. Friends and family are forced to huddle in the comfort of their drivers’ seats, parked in front of our neighbors’ homes, their car horns their only means of communication. An imperfect means, too, because car horns are meant to be heard through windshields, at most, […]
Doors in our home have been mysteriously closing. Bathroom doors. Which isn’t all that strange, I suppose: if you’d want any doors to be closed in your home, I imagine bathroom doors would follow a close second to the front. Except that no one’s using these bathrooms while the doors are closed. I knock and […]