Nearest Distant Shore

In My Life

I have a love/hate relationship with so-called "memes," sometimes finding them fun, oftimes finding them stupid.  I also find that for me they're a good way to prime the pump on days where the well feels dry.  This one I got from Courtney, who was directly above me in Michele's comment game this morning.

10 years ago I was:  Reeling from the effects of my divorce.  Even though we had been separated for 3 years before it was final, the actual divorce itself knocked me right back to the early days of my separation, and it was not a fun summer.

Five years ago I was:  Enjoying the summer with the  world's greatest toddler.

One year ago I was:  Getting Liam ready for kindergarten and working like a maniac trying to build my little business.

Yesterday I was:  Right here at this desk, finishing a trial transcript.

Today I am:  Watching cartoons with Liam before dropping him off to swim, doing a little shopping and a little work.  Tonight is his last t-ball game (thanks be to God) and we're going to have a cherry limeade after.

Tomorrow I will:  Go to the farmer's market for corn and peaches, hit the seafood market for whatever looks good, then go to the beach with Liam late in the afternoon as my reward for working so hard these past two weeks.

5 snacks I like:  potato chips, peanuts, popcorn, cherry popsicles, ice cream sandwiches

5 songs I know all the words to:  Good lord.  This could be the world's longest list, so here are five I used to sing to Liam when he was wee: I Will (the song I sang to him on the night that he was born), Sweet Baby James, Moonshadow (end.less.ly.  he loved that song), Yellow Submarine (guaranteed to soothe him), I'll Fly Away (all good southern mamas have to sing at least one gospel song to their babies)

5 things I'd do with 100 million:  See that my family was taken care of, build my house on the beach, donate a huge chunk to JDRF and smaller chunks to other causes near and dear to my heart.

5 locations I'd like to run away to:  almost any tropical island, the Outer Banks, the northern coast of California, Ireland, Australia.

5 bad habits I have: procrastination, laziness, short-temperedness, potty mouth, complete inability to suffer fools

5 things I enjoy doing:  hanging out with my kid, reading, listening to music (live and recorded), going to the beach, going to the theatre

5 things I would never wear:  bikini (sob), thong, pants with anything written across the seat, low-rise jeans, white shoes between Labor Day and Easter

5 TV shows I enjoy:  Law and Order in any form, Gilmore Girls, West Wing, CMT Crossroads, NCIS

5 movies I like:  The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Dr. Zhivago, The Red Shoes, Imitation of Life

5 biggest joys:  Being Liam's mama, my family and friends, the Atlantic ocean, music, books

5 people to tag:  Anyone want to play?

You Say Nosy; I Say Interested

I've been thinking a lot about blogs and blogging lately; what makes people put themselves out for the whole wide web to see (and often criticize), and the new notions of friends and family being forged across that web; the small thrill that comes with finding a new blog that makes me want to read all their archived posts immediately, following every imbedded link and then starting on their blogroll; what particular qualities make someone's site appealing to me, which is rarely as easy to pinpoint as what makes it not appealing.

I've gone through spells when I read lots of blogs devoted to politics, though after the election I was burned out and now only read one or two with any regularity.  I love reading parenting blogs-it's a great reality check when things get crazy.  I spend some time reading blogs written by people living with diabetes, either their own or their child's, which are a huge help when things get ugly with Liam's diabetes.  Some blogs have become favorites because the writer lives a life that's totally different from mine, and I learn things I might not learn in my everyday life.

My random forays into politics aside, I've always preferred personal journals rather than issues-oriented blogs.  I find the small details of how people manage (or mismanage) their lives to be a source of endless fascination.  To be sure, it's a little like an anthropology experiment in some cases, but almost always interesting in some way, even if just to wave red flags at me as a warning against specific behaviors (including exhaustively detailing them online).

Lately I find myself especially drawn to small, quiet, beautifully written journals, rich in the details of everyday life, with just enough personal information make the writer real to me, but none of the distressing oversharing that seems to run rampant in every corner of life in this millenium.  Not surprisingly, my best source for finding those blogs has been the blogrolls at some of the sites I like most.  I recently mentioned Beth of the late lamented Switched at Birth.  Beth called her blogroll the Starfish Group, which I always thought was beautiful imagery, and it has a cool story behind it, too. 

I found several of my current favorites through Beth's starfish group, including  Fragments from Floyd (where I found Pratie Place and Loose Leaf Notes) and the beautiful Pomegrantes and Paper, who led me to ever so humble, who just tonight led me to this amazing post at the intriguingly named Stay of Execution (I'm thinking those archives are going to be fun).

The ever-entertaining Michele has a great blogroll, and her Comment Game has taken me to some cool places I might not have found on my own (and this week, she picked me!!! ).   And I've learned that a lot of my fellow Tarheels are bloggers, too, by visiting sites linked at NC Blogs.  Not all of them are to my taste, of course, as I'm sure my little corner is not to everyone's, but it's so much fun when I find one that is.

I love these glimpses into other people's lives; it feeds my inner Gladys Kravitz without all that unseemly peeping into windows. 

How did you find your favorites?

Tarheel Tavern #18

There were lots of submissions for this week's Tarheel Tavern and Carolina photoblogger Mandie did an awesome job putting it together.  Stop in and see what North Carolina bloggers have to show and tell this week.

In Somnia

Overheard last night around 10:00:

Sweetie:  What's the matter, pal, can't sleep?

Liam:  Yeah.  Guess I'm somnia.

Sweetie:  You mean insomnia?

Liam:  Yep, I'm in it, all right.

Silly Saturday Fun

This is from True Jersey Girl:

A is for Age: 46
B is for Booze: In summer mostly beer, but I love margaritas and Bombay Sapphire and tonics occasionally, too, and red wine in cool weather.
C is for Career: I don't have a career; I have a job-I do legal transcription.
D is for Dad's name: Daddy, of course
E is for Essential Item to bring to a Party: If I could remember the last time I went to a party, I'd be happy to answer this question.
F is for Favorite Songs at the Moment: This week I'm listening to lots of Jimmy Buffett, so within that it would be Southern Cross and his duets with Martina McBride, Trip Around the Sun and Alan Jackson, It's 5:00 Somewhere.
G is for Goof-off thing to do: Hit the beach
H is for Hometown: Wilmington, NC
I is for Instrument you play: The stereo
J is for Jam or Jelly you like: grape jelly for PB&Js, homemade-by-me peach preserves for biscuits
K is for Kids: Liam, age six
L is for Living arrangement: little square house with Liam and his daddy
M is for Mom's name: Mama
N is for Names of best friends: Tracy, Joyce, Ginger, Deb at home, the Harpies online
O is for overnight hospital stays: three; for removal of an ovarian cyst, after giving birth to Liam, once when I was having chest pains
P is for Phobias: heights
Q is for Quote you like: The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.
R is for Relationship that lasted longest: Michael, from 1979 to 1995
S is for Siblings: two sisters, one brother, all younger
T is for Texas, ever been?: spring/summer of 1978, or as I refer to it, My Season in Hell
U is for Unique trait: My complete lack of unique traits
V is for Vegetable you love: Silver Queen corn; I could eat half-a-bushel at a sitting, I think.
W is for Worst traits: Lots, but I'll say procrastination, a tendency to laziness, a not-inconsiderable temper and complete lack of tolerance for stupidity.
X is for Xrays you've had: only teeth, I believe
Y is for Yummy food you make: brownies, cakes, peach cobbler
Z is for Zodiac sign: Capricorn

Friday iTunes Random Ten

1. Is It Worth It-Allison Moorer
2. Superhero-Ani deFranco
3. Those Words We Said-Kim Richey
4. Two More Bottles of Wine-Emmylou Harris
5. Flamenco Sketches-Miles Davis
6. Turnin' Off a Memory-Merle Haggard
7. Twisted Vines-Marti Jones
8. Do Your Duty-Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women
9. Why Walk When You Can Fly-Mary Chapin Carpenter
10. Every Day-Buddy Holly

The song I like most this week is Two More Bottles of Wine.  I adore Emmylou singing almost anything, and Emmylou singing a Delbert McClinton song is about as good as it gets.

The song I like least this week is Superhero, mostly because I'm not much of an Ani fan (this song came via my sister).  I like this about as well as any of her stuff, though.

What are you listening to this last weekend of June?

Goodnight, Moon

First let me say a huge THANK YOU to Michele, who sent lots of cool people to see me today.  That was a great surprise to wake up to this morning.  I hope some of them might even come back on their own.

If you want to see something awesome tonight, go out and check out the rising moon.  According to this story from NASA (courtesy Anonymoses), tonight's full moon will be the lowest hanging full moon in many...well, moons (sorry, couldn't resist), coming as it does on the day after the solstice.  Moonrise over the Cape Fear is at 9:35 EDT*, so I'm headed out to sit in the backyard with a cool adult beverage.  Blame it on the moon. 

*Moonrise time for your area can be found at the Old Farmer's Almanac.

Beach Boy

You gotta love a kid who stops his headlong rush to the beach long enough to make a silly face, who insists that a Batman utility belt goes with everything, even a purple t-ball shirt, who searches the whole beach for the prettiest shells just for me, who still looks cute even when his mama can't compose a shot that doesn't include that other dude.

Summer rocks, doesn't it?

Summertime

Today is the summer solstice, technically the beginning of summer, although the reality of life in a tourist town is that summer makes its first tentative appearance around Easter and swings into high gear with Memorial Day weekend. 

The past two weeks have been more like mid-July than early June, with the daily forecast consisting of the Three Hs-hazy, hot and humid.  Sometime over the weekend something wonderful blew in, and now we're experiencing June in all her glory-crystal blue cloudless skies, moderate temperatures, low humidity, light breezes.  Yesterday we turned off the air conditioner and last night slept under light blankets with all the windows open to receive the blessing of fresh air. 

Most of my young life was spent with no air conditioning, and I still prefer to have the house open to catch the breezes (although I do defer to Sweetie on this, since he has to work out in the weather all day).  I like lying under a ceiling fan with good book, a moisture-beaded glass of something cold by my side.  I find that the languor of hot summer days suits me just fine.

Tonight is Liam's next-to-last t-ball game (praise be), and afterward he and I will take a ride and go walk on the beach and collect some new shells, stroll the pier and eat ice cream, then watch the sunset before taking the long way home down River Road.  It's our favorite way to greet the summer.

How are you celebrating summer?

Live From Planet Liam

From the bedtime conversation at my house tonight:

I was born on this planet, but before that I was born on my planet, then when I got bigger I came here.  I was born, like, 1800 years ago.  That's even before you were born, Mama.

People here are just humans.  People from my planet are Referees.  Referees aren't warm-blooded like you humans; we're cold-blooded.  And if we get our arm or leg cut off, we just grow another one.  That happens a lot because we like to fight and kill bad guys and stuff. 

On my planet, Arsis and his family and his friends were the only ones I was friends with.  I was kind of afraid when I came to this planet that I wouldn't have any friends, but now I have tons.  I'm not like them, though, because I'm a Referee.

On my planet, it's not like here.  I had a lot of cool stuff to play with, but not much video games.  I didn't even know who Sonic was til I got here!

I like it on this planet, but I miss my planet.  I can't ever go back there, though.  I know too much stuff now and I have to stay here.

How's life on Planet You?