Category Archives: getting older

and in a flash I am back in 2001

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Oh to be 12 years younger! The things I would (and most definitely would not) do. But one can not go back in time…can they?

My darling husband early this morning ran in Dell Osso’s 2nd Annual Mud Run on the Farm. Yes, the same mud run I ran last year. He trained a little with his Krav Maga class that he takes twice a week but I won’t lie to you, I was genuinely concerned about how he would do…considering how heavily he STILL smokes (even when he often finds himself gasping for air after a coughing fit) and considering how high his cholesterol is and that study released this past week linking male patterned baldness to a higher risk of heart disease.I had a dream/nightmare last night that he collapsed while running and then I woke up…HATE when that happens! So this morning, as he headed off to run in the mud and Jodie and I headed off to another dance competition I couldn’t help but be worried.

What can I say, I sometimes often worry for nothing. It’s my nature, it’s who I am, it is a result of decades of bad things happening and my worst fears realized. But, thankfully, Bill did great completing the run and obstacles in the mud in just under an hour.

Way to go, honey!!!

So now I could exhale, relax and enjoy watching Jodie and Hazel dance. Then the phone rings…

Actually it was FaceTime…

Up pops my daughter Zoë. She’s crying. Her face is bruised and bleeding and she is crying. It seems that she was in an accident on her way to work. She crashed her skateboard.

WHAT?!

Yeah, she likes to get from point A to point B on a skateboard and yeah, without a helmet…

Mom, please…

But yes, she crashed her skateboard and hit her head, scraped up her face, chipped a tooth and broke her nose…broke her nose for now the 4th time.

OH dear glob! And people think I’m joking when I declare that she has an exhausted guardian angel who probably cringes every single time she leaves the house.

Every.

Single.

Time.

She is so lucky.

So damn lucky.

And I am perhaps another 20 years older thanks to her latest misadventure.

I might have aged greatly but this picture she sent to me while in the ER in LA took me back 12 years…and not in a good way.

I swear hours later I am just starting to breathe a little bit easier. Thank goodness for a late night run and some wine. My darling husband rocked the mud run today. My dancing daughter, Jodie and my tiny dancing grand daughter, Hazel, both are off to a great start with this weekend’s dance competition earning high awards and my daughter Zoë is home safe in LA under the watchful eye of her boyfriend…and a guardian angel who likely could use a good stiff drink right about now.

wait! what?!

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It’s Spring Break here under the Big Top. At least for Daniel and Jodie it’s Spring Break here under the Big Top. So with her own money Jodie decided (and asked) if she could spend the break visiting her sister Zoë down in LA and touring the campus of AMDA.

My baby girl is growing up!

No, Amtrak! She is not THAT grownup.

Don’t you go and get any ideas in your little head, Missy! I don’t care if you are as tall as me and Amtrak lists you as an adult passenger, you are still my baby girl. Don’t believe me. Just ask your sister.

Have fun my baby girls!

for the last time…PLEASE dear glob let it be for the last time!!!

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That feathery blink of the eyelash before puberty right around age 11, for the last time I am going through it. Any parent of teens and young adults knows EXACTLY what I am speaking of. I semi-lovingly refer to it as the scummy stage.

Apologies to my four beautiful, teen-aged and young adult daughters, but it is because of you I have named this phase thusly…with love, of course with love.
The hair…oh the hair…that ratty ponytail…”YES, I brushed my hair…cutting hair…YES, I WASHED MY HAIR!!
Certain fashion choices…a certain green sweatshirt…those stinky shoes…NO! You can not wear THAT!
The heavy, dramatic sighs…eye rolls…way too many eye rolls…gestures…stomping of feet and slamming of doors…

Oh sweet pre-pubescent hormonal surges! How I almost constantly remind myself that you are so temporary and this is still my sweet, beautiful child who is vexing me so…and perhaps grossing me out with questionable hygiene.

Yes, my beautiful child whom I love more than life itself, you MUST take a shower more than twice a week and you do have to use soap and shampoo and conditioner…and today, because it is picture day at school, you must let your Mom try to blow dry and style your hair. Sure you’ll roll your eyes and run your fingers through your hair when Mom is done but humor me, please.

And please, oh please take off THAT sweatshirt when you get your picture taken!

let the joyous news spread throughout the land

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Birthday week will now begin!

But that isn’t why I found the special plate before me this morning for breakfast.

No, my darling husband had decided that I needed to fuel up before my audition adventure up in Sacramento. Oh, and it IS the start of birthday week palooza.

I won’t lie, it has been a rough weekend for me. It’s mostly my own doing that brought it all on but the overwhelming stress and worry became just too much on Friday. Thank goodness for friends and a darling husband and hugs and 3 mile runs and long soaks in the hot tub and good food and wine…

and silly hipster babies…

and nutella-stained, freckle face smiles…

and the opportunity to share my words auditioning for Listen To Your Mother Sacramento. What a nurturing, encouraging experience that was! Thank you Margaret and Nichole for the opportunity!

 

 

enough with the bright futures! stop growing up!

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Look at those bright, happy smiling faces! Looking at them Timbuk 3′s song “The Future’s So Bright” starts playing in the personal soundtrack of my mind.

What?

You don’t have a personal musical soundtrack always playing in your mind?

What’s wrong with you?

Oh, never mind.

Back to looking at these kids. Some I have known for a few years now. A couple of them I have known since before they were even born. Now I find myself bearing witness to them growing up much too quickly from little kids…real little kids…babies even…into these confident, happy, smart people who (sooner than I will be ready for) will be ready to take on and likely rule the world.

I don’t think I am ready for that just yet. Not that I would doubt that they would rule the world benevolently and brilliantly. I’m just not ready for these kids to grow up.

Stop it!

And while you are at it, take off those damn shades!

I swear this is not the cold meds talking.