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

Enjoying my coffee

This morning we were supposed to get up at 6:30am.  Levi had an All-Star baseball game in Maltby, WA and we had to be there at 8:30am, sharp.  We are always late to this kind of thing.  I feel like that big failure of a family that can't get their shit together, ever.  Kids are always fighting; Lily bossing the yojnger ones, Levi busily coming up with every clever excuse in the book and Tallulah, annoying both of them, just by being alive.  And everyone is always waiting, and thinking... "hmm, Where are the Baumgarts?"

So, I was determined to get there on time.  Ken, the head coach, is serious about the all-stars.  Frankly, so am I, and I wanted to prove it.

I admit we were a little leisurely about the morning.  I got up a bit late, the girls slept in, and Levi sat in front of the computer blankly playing video games instead of getting his own water bottle filled up.  On the other hand, the leisure could have been fueled by the fact that I felt somewhat together because the important documents were printed out and copied: Levi's copy of his passport and the medical release waiver.  But the directions...not to be found.  I couldn't even find the email I had read earlier in the week with the address and the link to the famous Maltby Cafe.

Go Senators!

I finally figured out where the game was, printed directions and slapped together five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  A little slim of the peanut butter because, of course, we were out.  Had to scrape the sides of the jar for five sandwiches.  Sweet.  Lunch is going to be great.

As we are leaving the neighborhood, we look at the clock; we have just over 40 minutes to get there.  The Google maps directions say it takes 35 minutes, but the coach said to give yourself an hour because one of the floating bridges is closed this weekend.  Things were tense.  A lot was on the line.

Then I look at the dashboard, the gas light is on.  Fuck.  I click the buttons that tell us how many miles we have left to go - 0.  We have zero miles to drive until we run out of gas, according to the Toyota Sienna.  I look at the directions - 30.5 miles to Maltby.  And we have not a minute to spare for a gas stop.

We once saw a show that claimed you could drive like 50 miles after the brain of your car said you only have zero.  The Baumgarts were going to put that to the test this morning.  Rain pouring down, miles in front of us, we drove on.  And on.

We made it!  and NINE, yes NINE minutes early!

The tournament was cancelled due to the rain.  Life's triumphs and life's disappointments all in one.

How bout that form!  wow.

Jamie and I revelled in the glory of it all, the kids rolled their eyes.  Tallulah asked for another doughnut hole.

So, we decide to get some gas and drive on over to the West Seattle Bowl.  On Saturday morning they have "Breakfast and Bowl."   It was awesome.  Something about being at a bowling diner  reminded me of the above quote from "The Big Lebowski."  But without some guy yelling about Vietnam.  We had a very reasonably priced breakfast ($46.00 for five before tip and taxes.  And that included coffee, five breakfasts, three hot chocolates and a design your own bloody mary) and three free games of bowling for each of us.

I didn't bowl very well at all.  Just breaking 100 once.  But I forget to tell ya'll, on Wednesday night, at AMF Imperial Lanes Quarter Night (also a great deal) I bowled a 150!

I am feeling a bit sick, been napping and watching movies the rest of the day.  Possibly run down after finals and taking all that effort to be on time this morning. Man, that felt good.  We were Early!

This Aggression Will Not Stand, Man

posted by Melissa
Tuesday Afternoon:  West Seattle Bowl

Tuesday and Thursday from 3p-6p West Seattle Bowl has their Happy Hour.  Bowling is $9.50/lane/hour, which is a great deal.  Much cheaper than the $3.50/per game/person at the AMF Imperial Lanes.  So, I decided that would be a cheap and fun family way to get into some bowling this month.

Everyone was in.  We just needed to load up the minivan and pick Jamie up from work in Queen Anne on the way.  No problem.

Wrong.  Turns out it was a big problem.  Jamie didn't finish work until 4:30p, and when we picked him up and realized there was no quick way from Queen Anne to West Seattle, the complaining ensued.  Levi "didn't even want to go bowling in the first place."  Lily's "life is terrible and she hates it" and this traffic filled hour long car ride led her to angrily ponder out loud "why her life is worse than everyone else's" and of course, the inevitable "it's all because you had Tallulah and ruined my life" answer to why her life sucks so bad.  No matter what happened or where we are, or even if Tallulah is just peacefully sleeping two seats away from her like she was that afternoon.  It's all Tallulah's fault, and therefore inherently mine since I brought her into this Lily-Hating-World.

We get to West Seattle, hastily pull into a parking spot and rush into the lanes.  It is now 5:30p and the league bowling starts at 6:15p.  45 delightful minutes of bowling ahead of us.  Except by this point the kids are "starving" and between my bowling and hurrying them to their turn we devour a basket of fries and some delicious nachos.  But hey, it's Happy Hour, right?  Everything is $2.00 off the menu price.

Wrong again.  Happy Hour for the food and beverage is only in the bar.  When you are bowling, everything is full price.  Even the PBR's.

Jamie won the game, Levi came in second.  Seriously, maybe Tallulah even beat me that day.  This time I am blaming it on the ball.  I think I need a 9lb ball, but the 9 pounders have thumb holes that are too small for the middle joint on my thumb.  So, I bowl with a 10lb ball.  And it is totally making me lose.

After the bowling, we drove down to White Center for pizza at Proletariat Pizza.  Jamie is looking at a job there for his new painting company and the woman said to him, "When you come look at the job, bring the family and get some pizza, you might as well get something out of driving down here."  So, I thought we were getting a free pizza pie.  Is it just me?  I totally thought that sounded like an offering.

Wrong again.  We had to pay.  And while it was a great place and the pizza was really tasty; light, flavorful sauce and airy, thin crust...I was pretty bummed when I looked at our back account the next day.  It did get me to White Center though, which I was always sorta repelled against.  And I loved it, it felt comfortable.  Again, unpretentious.  Lots of families and "normal" people.  You know, like me.  Probably all losers that think themselves winners, my people.

All those wrong turns cost us a lot of money.  Not so cool when you're husband is trying to start his own business and you are unemployed.  And I would say that it least it was fun, but really there was a lot of complaining and fighting the whole time.

But I will say that there were fun moments.  Watching the Tallulah roll her ball down the lane and hit some pins, and turning around with a big cheesy grin on her face.  Leaning on Jamie as he put his arm around me and gave my head a kiss while we watched Lily bowl.  Seeing the young owner of the pizza place look up and smile at me while making dough, carrying her baby on her back in a backpack.  Lily, delighted to inform us that she had been to this pizza place before and had a pizza piled high with arugula on top.  Levi saying thanks and giving me a hug for no reason.

Life is full of fighting and complaining, and sometimes I can be so upset by that that I miss those touching moments.  I am glad I had the sense enough, although I didn't think it at the time, to pay attention and see the moments of joy.

Speaking of fun and joy....Happy Birthday Amy!!!   See you tonight at the lanes!
-Melissa