1. I like to spot hawks while we're driving around. The trees haven't greened up yet, so you can see them looming in their perches, on branches that look like they shouldn't support that much weight. I also see them sitting on fence posts, or chillin' by the side of the road, having presumably just consumed a family of field mice. I think they're amazing -- so huge and imposing, but so graceful when they swoop and glide through the air.
We saw some flying a couple weeks ago, silhouetted against the sky. They looked bigger than most of the hawks I've seen, so I asked DH if he thought they might be eagles (which we also have around here). "No," he said, "those are hawks." Are you sure? I asked him. How can you tell from their silhouettes? He looked at me, his eyebrow raised, and said, "I know things about birds."
It was probably a had-to-be-there moment, but it made me laugh right out loud.
Oooookay! (Though honestly, I'm sure he does know things about birds. He knows so many random things; I don't know how he holds all that trivia in his brain.)
2. I learned something new today! My friend Jill responded to a recent musing on Facebook to tell me that verbs with no past tense (such as beware, the word I wondered about) are called defective verbs. Isn't that fun? Why didn't I know that before now?
3. I love the Weepies. Go look them up on iTunes, or wherever you get your music these days. I first heard their song "The World Spins Madly On," which just about perfectly captures the emotion of loss, but I also like "Little Bird" and "Somebody Loved" which (while still mellow singer-songwritery stuff) are cheerier.
4. I still love Joanna Newsom. I've blogged about her before, I think, and I know she's an acquired taste -- she has a very distinctive voice, and first came to my attention as an avant-garde folk harpist. How's that for a niche? LOL. But really, I think she's amazing and you should give her a try.
5. I would like to write a Bucket List, but I can never think of very much to put on it. Does that mean I've already lived a full enough life? Or simply that I lack imagination?
One thing I'd like to do is attend a live taping of Garrison Keillor's radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. I check occasionally to see if it's coming to any of the biggish cities around me (and by around, I mean within a ~3 hour drive).
I share a birthday with Garrison Keillor, you know. So we have a bond. Also, he once responded to a question of mine in his Mr. Blue column that he penned for Salon.com (does he still? I haven't been to that site in ages). I asked how one moves from small talk to Big Talk, as I'd been on plenty of first dates and blind dates and never seemed to connect with anyone well enough to get past the acquaintance stage. He told me to fire my social secretary, lol, and wondered if I weren't holding back -- perhaps my natural reserve was more like resistance. Very astute.
6. That's my brush with fame, I guess; I received dating advice from Garrison Keillor. Also I have talked with Steve Young on the phone, met Utah's Miss America, Sharlene Wells, and hung out with a few of the less famous Osmond Brothers (aka, not Donny) for an afternoon. Wit-woo. Those last ones were job-related; I used to work at the LDS Church headquarters in their Audio/Visual department. Occasionally I got to schedule famous Mormons to appear in church-produced films, etc. But none of
them helped me out with my love life. :-)
7. Sometimes I am an angry eater. I regret my actions when I feel calm again, but it's not such an easy thing to undo. If regret were as passionate an emotion as anger, I'd have enough motivation to work off the acquired pounds. Sadly, it is not.
8. DH used to have a colleague whose first name was Tommie. I believe that was the name on the birth certificate, "ie" and everything. Still. If I were a grown man named Tommie, I think I'd go by Tom.
9. I love my baby. Cuatro is so
good; I've never had a colicky or unhappy baby, but I don't remember any of them being as chill and sweet as she is. She impressed the doctor at her 2 month appointment by smiling first. The doctor said that young babies often smile in response to someone else's smile, but it's unusual for a kid her age to do it first in hopes of getting a smile in return. What an emotionally intelligent little smooch I have!
She's four and a half months old these days. She tries to sit up all the time (it looks like she's doing crunches; she ought to have abs of steel by now); she loves baths; she sticks her tongue out constantly; she sleeps through the night (ish). I want to kiss her all day long.
10. We had warm weather today after a week of cold, dreary rain. The big girls took the training wheels off their bikes for the first time, confident that they'd find their balance easily and zoom off into the sunset. It didn't work out that way. Tres rode circles around them on her tricycle while they kept falling over and calling for me: "Mom! Why are you helping Dos? You said you'd help me next!" Or the other way around. I'm only one person! I'd tell them, and remind them that I couldn't be their human training wheels; I'd hold them steady for a little while, but they would need to figure out how to do it on their own. Dos took it in stride, and, when it was time to go inside, vowed to practice another day. Uno got mad, and then got determined; when we came inside, she went straight to Wii Fit to practice her balance skills.
:-)
~RCH~
