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Taken by my father.
farewell to my grandmother
Jan. 2nd, 2012 08:48 pmHave just been told that my grandmother has passed away. She had undergone surgery for a broken hip a few days ago, and complications began to creep in, as is not surprising for a 91-year old lady. She died peacefully, with some family members with her when she went.
I remember visiting her in the tiny Missouri town along the Mississippi where our family has been since their arrival in the country from Germany several generations back. Catching fireflies in her backyard. Crawdad fishing with a string and a piece of chicken liver from a packet of butcher's white paper. Eating Oberle Dog on crackers. Making ewww faces at my dad's love of liver dumplings. Reading away the hot summer days in her cool, dim basement, on the old orange and brown sofa with the springs that stuck you if you turned the wrong way. The books all smelled musty but they were great - a wild assortment of teenage romances, science fiction, children's books - a rummage sale of reading material. We'd sometimes walk to the library, where she'd wait patiently for me to make my selections. Sometimes there'd be a double-dipped chocolate cone from the ice cream shop. It was like being in a little oasis, a bubble of summertime that seemed like it lasted forever.
She was my last living grandparent. I don't feel sad, exactly - we had inklings that this was very likely so I've had time to brace up - but I feel a little unmoored. Well, no...there's the sadness.
I remember visiting her in the tiny Missouri town along the Mississippi where our family has been since their arrival in the country from Germany several generations back. Catching fireflies in her backyard. Crawdad fishing with a string and a piece of chicken liver from a packet of butcher's white paper. Eating Oberle Dog on crackers. Making ewww faces at my dad's love of liver dumplings. Reading away the hot summer days in her cool, dim basement, on the old orange and brown sofa with the springs that stuck you if you turned the wrong way. The books all smelled musty but they were great - a wild assortment of teenage romances, science fiction, children's books - a rummage sale of reading material. We'd sometimes walk to the library, where she'd wait patiently for me to make my selections. Sometimes there'd be a double-dipped chocolate cone from the ice cream shop. It was like being in a little oasis, a bubble of summertime that seemed like it lasted forever.
She was my last living grandparent. I don't feel sad, exactly - we had inklings that this was very likely so I've had time to brace up - but I feel a little unmoored. Well, no...there's the sadness.
Wow, lookit all the booze ads
Oct. 5th, 2011 09:43 amGourmet Magazine seemed to thrive on ads for booze, boy howdy. So of course, you have to learn how to use all that good stuff...here are some drink recipes from a 1959 issue. Trader Vic's, ahoy!
The journey (image heavy)
May. 12th, 2011 01:06 pmThe trip to DC was relatively smooth - no travel delays, and good service on Delta (nicer planes than I've seen recently, too) a nice time with my family and friends, some visiting time for favorite museums, an interesting and productive work conference, and a very comfortable, fun to drive, so-ugly-it's-cute Nissan Cube as our rental car (despite my overwhelming anger at how much the rental actually cost).
The conference was hosted at the National Archives:
( around town photos )
It was a short, but very good trip.
The conference was hosted at the National Archives:
( around town photos )
It was a short, but very good trip.
Exposition
May. 8th, 2011 06:29 amHave attended my conference (by turns fascinating and also over my head), have eaten cupcakes, kebab, and lots of Chinese, have photographed many orchids and a few works of art, and am now on my way to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with my sister and Bemo, where we will meet up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
apis_mellifera, whom I haven't seen in ages. Hopefully I will also find some good crochet yarn for my catsitter.
Here, have a new family photo scan...evidence of my parents horrible mistreatment of me. I'm clearly very, very upset.
Quoth my mom, "You were such a little monkey, I guess it just seemed like the thing to do that day."
apis_mellifera, whom I haven't seen in ages. Hopefully I will also find some good crochet yarn for my catsitter.Here, have a new family photo scan...evidence of my parents horrible mistreatment of me. I'm clearly very, very upset.
Quoth my mom, "You were such a little monkey, I guess it just seemed like the thing to do that day."
hearing the news
May. 1st, 2011 11:23 pmSo apparently US forces have killed Osama Bin Laden? As somebody who was a few miles away from the Pentagon, and right smack next to the White House on 9/11, I am not made unhappy by this news. I still remember the way the blue sky looked, with the tendril of black smoke rising upwards.
I've been wanting to update, but am going through one of those phases where I have things to say but they all seem to be locked up and lacking words. Everyone around me seems to be having a hard time with things. My sister is struggling with stuff. I'm struggling with stuff. Bemo's trip to the lawyer yesterday was not very promising - if we do get his disability through, it won't be for something like a year. In the meantime, he's fretting about his medication (which is being changed out right now) bringing him up to the level where he wouldn't be considered disabled but would still be unable to work. We're both feeling a little scared right now, especially since we're doing our best to commit to paying our student loans back but are not entirely sure if we'll be able to. Hopefully my job at crunchy organic granola coop will help.
Didn't go to aikido this week. Am feeling a little conflicted about it, because it involves various things such as my own desire to go, money (should I skip this month so I don't have to pay for it), general fatigue, Bemo's mental state, and a sort of underlying general crankiness that will probably dissipate once I start going again.
Am trying to get over my knee-jerk fatalism, which doesn't manifest itself in my day-to-day life much (charge ahead, we'll make it work somehow!), but is always lurking like a black spider in the crevices of my brain.
Here, have another nostalgia-laden photo of little me. I wish I could find now some of the peace I see in the face of myself as a kid...but I know that it's all an illusion anyway. Doesn't stop me from pursuing it, though.
Didn't go to aikido this week. Am feeling a little conflicted about it, because it involves various things such as my own desire to go, money (should I skip this month so I don't have to pay for it), general fatigue, Bemo's mental state, and a sort of underlying general crankiness that will probably dissipate once I start going again.
Am trying to get over my knee-jerk fatalism, which doesn't manifest itself in my day-to-day life much (charge ahead, we'll make it work somehow!), but is always lurking like a black spider in the crevices of my brain.
Here, have another nostalgia-laden photo of little me. I wish I could find now some of the peace I see in the face of myself as a kid...but I know that it's all an illusion anyway. Doesn't stop me from pursuing it, though.
Pony riding in Baguio, Philippines
Sep. 9th, 2010 09:48 am
Thinking of the way you'd leave the humidity of Manila and finally reach the piney cool air of Baguio.
I just turned up my old sensai on Facebook. He's now a high-end chocolatier in California, of all things.
