Sunday, August 15, 2010

Day Eighty Eight

Today my oldest son is twenty four.  I found out today that one of my brothers in law shares the same birthday.  It feels odd that I didn't know this before.  Of course, the possibility exists that I did know this but had forgotten.  However, when speaking to my sister she was completely surprised that this is Isak's birthday and that he shared a birthday with her husband.  Dang; I swear we're like little old ladies sometimes.  Actually, I'll be fifty on my next birthday and I don't feel old at all.  I remember sitting with my grandmother one time and she kept pulling up the skin on the back of her hand and letting it go.  She did this over and over and I asked her what she was doing.  She said, "Sometimes I look in the mirror at my face or look at part of my body like this and I realize I really am aging. Without my body reminding me I'd forget because inside (and here she took the tip of her index finger and tapped it on the tip of my nose to emphasize each of the following words) I'm just like you."  I have always taken such comfort from that exchange.  It is fun to age and take forward all the experiences I've had and the memories I've made and mostly the capacity to imagine which seems to get better and better all the time.  


Took forever to gather the five items tonight as I opened a cabinet filled with school pictures, reports with pennies glued all over them, drawings of the Truckee River, paper plates painted with tempura paint, magazines, owners manuals - you name it.  I sorted and sorted and recycled and tossed.


These things I let go of:


1.  Two stencil kits, unopened; one is grape clusters and one is leaves
2.  Three booklets with quilt patterns and templates
3.  Three flute books (Mike, I kept my duet book.....could we possibly?)
4.  A staple puller
5.  A brown jacket




5 comments:

  1. I had almost exactly the same conversation with my Grandmother, and I always think of her when I suddenly realize that I'm more than half a century old. It always amazes me! How did I get so old?? But now I'm coming into the 3rd part of my life, after childhood & "adult"hood (tho I still seem to be waiting to grow up!). It's a liberating feeling to have survived this long & accumulated such a vast amount of knowledge, experiences & friends. Can't wait to retire & be fully in my Golden Years!!!

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  2. Hi Kim,
    If the plans for the Vardo (which are awesome) give you enough floor space to lay down a twin sized air mattress, that might do for guest accommodations.
    Mary F.

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  3. Mary, I know what you mean about the "grown up" thing. I remember turning 40 and thinking, "Am I a grown up NOW?" And then again each birthday after that. I think what I've come to believe is that being a "grown up" ties in to what our grandmothers were telling us about aging; our bodies age but our spirits are forever young. Experienced, wiser, better informed; we become those things as we age but I don't think we get old inside. I guess we just need to define what being a grown up means!

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  4. Mary F.,
    That depends on whether or not I use an RV booth for my work table. It has the added advantage of being extra sleeping and has storage under the bench seats but I don't like the "look" of them within the context of the gypsy theme. I think that without the booth I'll use a table and chairs for workspace and those can be moved. I even saw a cool design for a table top that stores under the bed and just slides out and I like that a lot. If I go that route then there just might be enough space for a twin air mattress. If not, the suggestion yesterday to just have a nice bedroll setup that I can stretch out would work nicely (and never get a leak!).

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  5. Kimbo -- Michael's flute is packed away as are his musical days, more's the pity. Maybe your (lengthy) visit during the Tour will get him going again.

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