Stay Gold, Pony Boy

Lily bowling, while I retry the first line to "If" over 20 times.

posted by Melissa
Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Sometimes you can make plans for a camping trip (one night away at Lake Wenatchee), get everything ready and be really on top of your game.  That's what I did yesterday.  I went shopping; got those ginormous marshmallows to make s'mores with, lots of food, and a box of wine.  I came home and prepared a delicious salad, potatoes with garlic and marjoram for roasting, asparagus, sandwiches for lunch.  Before sitting down to enjoy The Dead Poet's Society, we even completely packed the van so we could just get up and go.

Well, we woke up to a chilly breeze and pouring down rain.  Not a surprise in Seattle, in July.  But what was surprising was that when I stumbled out from bed barely awake to check the weather over on the other side of the Cascades, the hourly forecast was filled with thunderstorms and rain.  Every hour, except for the ones when we would be sleeping.  Camping in the rain, with my three kids...yea, does not sound like fun to me.

We were all terribly disappointed, but in a "making the most out of life" effort, we all came up with ways to have fun anyway.  Camp in the living room, grill out and roast marshmallows over the grill, boys day out- Harry Potter movie, girls day out - get our nails done.  But first, go out to Breakfast and Bowl.

Tallulah walked out and only heard the part about us not going.  She was beside herself with tears streaming and her face covered in her hand.

"I wanna go camping." was her hardly audible lament.

"Tallulah, we are going to camp in the living room tonight, even put up the tent!" I said, hoping to perk her up.

"No, I want to go camping."  Again.  More tears.

"Pumpkin, we can even roast the marshmallows in the grill and make s'mores."  I tried again.

"Oh, OK!"  And she was off with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders.

Turns out it was all about the marshmallows for TJ.  I should have known.

As luck would have it, our dear friends, the Riley's, made it to our breakfast and bowling morning.  It really hit me when we walked up to the lanes, I have missed bowling these past two weeks.  We had a really great time and some poetry was shared aloud too.  I recited "Résumé" and Mr. Riley recited the poem above, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.

It wasn't as I had imagined from some scholarly effort, he knew it from the great movie, "The Outsiders."  Remember that one?  So many great actors in it, all so young.  Can you remember them all? Without Googling it?  I think I might just watch it tonight, in honor of Mr. Riley's great memory and poetry month.

Stay Gold, Pony Boy.
Melissa

A Bird from the Hand

original Sharpie drawing by Melissa

A list of things I am learning today:

• That evidently different people's computers give them different Google results.  When I stated the other day that if you search "good luck with that" on Google we come up third on the list, I thought that would be the case across the board, on everyone's computer, or chosen browser.  Not the case.  I have been told we don't even come up on the first page on other people search, in the same search engine.  What is up with that?
• When you sit around the house most of the day with a sick kid, there isn't as much exciting stuff to write about...which leads to more of a list, rather than paragraphs and whole thoughts that actually work together.
• For the last five hours I have been looking forward to a reality TV show.  Does that make me pathetic?  Or oddly patriotic?
• I saw a commercial for Miracle Whip.  Are you kidding me?  Miracle Whip is like mayonnaise's ugly stepchild.  (what kind of awful euphemism is that??? but I still used it.)  I hate Miracle Whip, and if it was my stepchild, I wouldn't even feign liking it.
• Uranus (insert juvenile laughter) is in Libra in the 8th house in my chart, and Saturn in Libra is transiting at the same degree.  An enthusiastic and talented astrologer I know texted me to say "you better get ready cause you are going to  have some changes, decisions will be made and things will be uprooted."  Super exciting, and I know I am growing because I  used to get all wrapped up in the fire and brimstone of it all...and now I am excited to see what grows where something I don't need anymore is uprooted.  I am more interested in the phoenix rising from the ashes than the fire that creates the ash.
• I love this blog.  I got out a book from the library today about blogs and I loved reading that too, and I don't like many books.  I went from being embarrassed to tell anyone that I had a blog, like I was jumping on some lame bandwagon that was already overflowing with the dredges of humanity.  To handing our cards to everyone, still blushing a little, but ready to own it more and more.
• I forgot how much I like to draw, and I was thinking back to painting month...the very first blog month for me as I was standing in front of my Peacock Feather painting in my hallway...I decided to do a little drawing.  Ravens or crows have been on my mind lately, they seem to be everywhere.  Watching, eyeing me up, sensing my internal nervous thought that one will dive down and peck me on my head...which makes me think that it will happen even more cause they can sense that shit.  I often think of their wings, the shape and the way their feathers must feel...stiff and yet, soft.  Mind you, I would never touch one of their wings, cause either they would never be that close to me alive and if they were dead then that would be gross and some voice inside tells me, ashamedly, that I would get some disease.  I also am fond of the Moon, always.  The picture above is what I was up to for the last hour.              
• I am leaning more toward the nursing today.

• Getting into the numbers part of a business plan is still the hardest, and I don't know if that will ever change.
• Always, Always, Always save your stuff as you go...or you'll lose it.  

Sincerely,

Melissa

Trapper Keeper dreamin'

This just in!  I have a new binder for the blog!

Last night, just before we started our shared viewing of Star Wars: episode 1, Amy ran upstairs to get something.  She came back in holding two black binders, each with the same calendar cover and the title:  2011 - Good Luck with That!  Not only was I super excited because I always get excited when Amy shows interest in the blog, but I totally felt like I was back in middle school or high school when you get your new binder for the year.  I remember that so fondly, and the hope and comfort it would bring.  I hugged my new binder right up close to my heart...and I knew this was for real.

Today I have spent hours working on various aspects for the blog.  And I love every minute of it.  I could spend hours on it; researching ways to get it more visible on the web, finding resources for whatever it is we are working on...like the business plan, meeting with Amy.  Today at our meeting she had this whole power point template filled in with graphs and examples of the blog pages.  It looked awesome.  and here's is where I will share our business plan...turns our it is going to be the blog!  We had thought we were going to start a soup delivery service, all on bicycles and with pretzels too.  And while I love to cook and I also love pretzels, there was no mayonnaise involved...no just kidding, it turned out all at the same time that both Amy and I were feeling weighted down by the idea.  We were excited about writing a business plan, but if we were going to spend hours a day and work super hard for something, well, turns out soup just didn't get us jazzed enough to keep us going.  But the blog...now that keeps us going.  So, we are making a business plan, a living document that tracks our progress and defines our goals as we discover what they are.

Even little things, when it comes to internet progress, feel like getting to the top of a mountain pass.  I often feel like I have no idea where I am heading, but like a mountain goat...just keep my feet sure and steady, and take it one step at a time.  Very capricorn.  Here is what I accomplished: