this photo was so ugly, it needed its own post
We watched scary (The Conjuring) and ridiculous (This is The End) movies all night long. We passed out hippie candy/snacks and ate a decent amount on our own. We scared the little kids with our strobe light/sound effect machine. We wore these ugly Halloween masks. We will be equal parts laughing and repulsed by this photo for years.
It was a fun night, My favorite day of the year.
^^me + dad in germany^^
Today showed up without much fanfare — crammed in between daily life, busy work schedules, being sick, and a trip we are leaving for tomorrow. Of course I always think of October as the month that my dad died, but the actual day itself startled me. I didn’t go to sleep or wake up thinking about it — it was only as I was going about my normal routine did it occur to me, “oh yeah, today is the 15th of October.”
I don’t know what this means — whether my dad’s absence is so much a part of my life now, that the loss is no longer so startling. Or if it signals a scarier truth — that I’m starting to forget — or maybe not place too much meaning into the significance of one day.
There’s no guideline for this sort of thing, no book that tells you how you should feel seven years after your dad passed away. The sad times and happy times and frustrating times and funny times and all the things I ever loved about Dad — those are always there, every day, not just today.
Last year’s post here
// Sunday / Morning kisses by the kitties / Reading in bed / Sly plays classical music — really loud. / I open the screen door to the deck (sorry neighbors) / We let the kitties outside. / It’s cool outside. Fall is here. / Sly cooks bacon, bought at Union Market yesterday afternoon. We don’t each much bacon (on account that I am obsessed with pigs) but this is special bacon bought from Harvey’s. / We make B.L.T’s with eggs (B.L.E.Ts as we call them). / We run out of mayo. Sly makes some more…from scratch. It’s amazing to watch mayo being made. I’m spellbound (and a dork). / P.S. These are the best BLETs we have ever had. / I sneak Max the tiniest bit of our special bacon. He thanks me by rubbing his head in my hand over and over. I tell Max to go outside and play, and he does. / There are tons of tiny birds in the mangy tree that grows beside our upper deck. I hate and love that ugly tree. Hate it because it looks like a weed with branches. Love it because it makes us feel as if we live in a tree house. / I make the coffee. This is usually my job. Sly does all the rest. / We pull out all our produce from our CSA and plan menus around them. / I have never seen some of these veggies before. WTF is a ‘Cucuzza?“/ I edit photos./ We get ready and go shopping for the week. / Costco sucks on Sundays / Sly preps the honey lavender marinade for the chicken tonight. (recipe below) / I edit more photos / We sort of tidy up a bit and I get really OCD so I stop / I wear sweatshirts and leggings and slippers all day / We eat dinner on the “family bed” which is what we call our corner of blankets and pillows piled in the living room. We built it many weeks ago to have a “slumber party” and have yet to put away. We are so bohemian. / We watch the latest SNL, and cuddle with the kitties. Then we head to our real bed and read until we fall asleep. / Insignificant moments. A typical Sunday. These are the are ones I want to remember most.//
Recipe below
Before we decided on Shenandoah for Labor Day weekend, Sly and I spent countless hours googling various rustic cabins in West Virginia, North Carolina, and in the Great Smokies. We must have exhausted ourselves because after all that research I finally admitted to Sly that I just wanted to go some place outdoorsy, but not too far, and have a relaxing weekend. As much as I like ‘roughing it’ sometimes I just want something easy — a place with clean sheets and a private bathroom. So Shenandoah it was. Bad news: everything was booked online — it being the last weekend of the Summer, and us deciding we wanted to stay there so last-minute. Good news: we have always had luck calling the reservation desk for last-minute reservations. And sure enough, they had quite a few rooms still available at both of their lodges.
We chose Big Meadows Lodge. Continue Reading
