Author: Jana

  • 14th anniversary


    14th anniversary
    As promised, another grainy anniversary photo. This one taken at dusk in the garden behind the B&B where we stayed this weekend and on our honeymoon 14 years ago.

  • pleasure and pain

    So John and I had this absolutely crazy and lovely anniversary celebration. When we touched back to civilization this morning (meaning, when we were back into a wireless zone), I checked my email and discovered that my former editor at Irreantum died last night. This after a semi-truck spun out of control and smashed into her car a few days ago. Her teenaged daughter, perhaps paralyzed from the accident, is still in ICU. Whoa, tough news.

    Then, just after I returned home and gave my kiddoes huge squeezes and gave a prayer of thanks for their safety, I checked my email again and had a note from my friend Linda. Her doctors have given her 2 months left to live–liver failure seems imminent and she has gone off chemo so she can enjoy her last few weeks with her family.

    Last night John and I spent some time in a wild “secret garden” in the moonlight. It was scary and serene. When the paths were uneven or I was timid, John’s strong, warm arm was there to guide me. I suspect that I need to head to my own “secret garden” now. My plants are surely thirsty from my two days away, and I am feeling off-center, ungrounded. In need of a shoulder to lean on. In need of the deep peace of my garden place.

    And you would accept the seasons of your heart just as you have always accepted that seasons pass over your fields and you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
    ~Kahlil Gibran

  • supercut

    Junior high school registration was this morning. Unfortunately, late last night I realized that school pictures would also be this morning. Oops–I’d let C grow his hair out all summer long. As a result, in the past month his hair had developed a mind of its own–standing up each morning in a tangled mass and demanding mini-wheats for breakfast because that’s what the unruly hair beast likes best. I had to do something so he wouldn’t experience a lifetime of embarrassment over his 7th-grade yearbook photo! (I can just see it now–he’s won the Nobel Prize and just as he steps up to the podium to receive his award, someone flashes his jr high photo on the screen over his head and the audience recoils with laughter)
    Flashback to when C was a baby: despite the fact that he only had 4 strands of hair on his egg-shaped head, those 4 strands would invariably lie in a tangled knot on the top of his crown every morning. It’s an innate gift, I think. Hmmm…it must come from John’s side of the genepool.

    So I got up early (ok, early for summer, which meant about 8), got the clippers and took C out to the back porch for a super-fast super-cut. It took about 15 minutes and it turned out pretty well. So well, in fact, that all the long-haired girls wearing micromini skirts seemed to recognize C just fine, looking super-cool as he showed the babes the right way to spin the dial on their new combination locks.
    Note: why is it that every single girl seemed to be wearing the exact same skirt and skin-tight T-shirt?

    C got his schedule, PE uniform, and his student ID card, while I signed 57 forms and wrote out just about as many checks. C opted not to upgrade his ID to an “ASB Card” by paying for all the school dances ahead of time. When I queried him about the dances, he wrinkled up his nose, peered over his glasses and sighed deeply, imparting the wisdom of the ages in this brief statement:

    “I’ll do the pay-at-the-door option if I decide I want to go to any of the dances, Mom.”

  • I can keep a secret


    This Saturday John and I will celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary.

    As I thought about our anniversary a few months ago, I decided that we should do something really special. Fourteen years seemed a long time, long enough that it needed a pretty good celebration.

    So I’ve planned something for us and it’s still a secret from John. I’ve dropped a few little hints (e.g. “don’t forget to pack your swimsuit”), but I think he’s really quite oblivious. I’m enjoying holding him in suspense, but if the tables were turned and he was keeping our plans a surprise from me, I’d be miserable. I’m no good at waiting. I’m into instant gratification….

    The picture above is of us standing on a bridge in the heart of Paris four years ago. We had one night on the town alone (the kiddoes were with Mom at the Hotel du Levant). A good memory. Perhaps we will create a few more memories, and a few more blurry romantic pictures, on this next adventure. It won’t be Paris, but few things ever are. :)

  • Make me smile…

    –Yuki bringing by peanut-butter cookies as she picks up a big bag of our clothes that our kids have outgrown
    –My students saying to me during my office hours that “You are a way better teacher than the one we had last quarter for World History”
    –Tasting a yellow watermelon for the first time and finding that it’s crisper and sweeter than the red (and so worth the $5 we paid for it at the Farmer’s Market)
    –Watching Ellycat attack the pile of washcloths that I so neatly folded
    –Kissing each of the kiddoes on the temple and giving them a big hug on Sunday evening, after we’d returned from The Museum of Tolerance. Feeling overwhelming gratitude for yet another day of life with them

  • pray for me…

    What I found when I reached down to put my laptop into my shoulderbag this morning on my way to class–

    A note, written in bright green ink:

    For Jana,
    Pray for me–I’m an atheist, too!
    All Best,
    William Shunn

    For a split-second I stood there, gap-jawed, contemplating how & why Bill Shunn had crept into my house and placed that note on my computer. Then I quickly remembered that John told me that he’d had Bill sign a card for me when they met at WorldCon.

    Whew….For a moment there I was sure that I really _had_ listened to a few too many podcasts lately.

  • Podcast #4 is now posted. Enjoy :)

  • ridin’ on the metro-o-oh….

    Not a very impressive list. But there is quality in this list, even if there isn’t quantity :)

    Try it yourself!

  • paradise

    From my new favorite radio show:
    Yesterday was the birthday of the Argentine poet and short-story writer Jorge Luis Borges, born in Buenos Aires (1899). He said, “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”

  • Our book is ranked #158,105 in book sales. Woohoo. :)

  • sickly

    Poor John is sick today. Too sick to go to work. Life is just rough that way…

  • decluttering

    I’m gong to take this advice on decluttering from wen (IMO, the fourth item on this list is particularly pertinent):
    a. Pick up an item.
    b. Do you know what the hell it is? If not, toss it.
    c. Does it smell bad? If so, toss it.
    d. Ask yourself “Would I rather take care of this item or blog?” If the answer is blog, toss it.
    NOTE: Do not toss your husband, wife, children, all the food in your fridge, your pets or your neighbors’ pets.