Just a Courtesy

I wanted to let you few, you blessed few, regular readers know that I might not be posting for a while. Everything's o.k. I'm in simplify mode, probably much overdue from a misspent Lent, and I will see you around the cyber place. If you're a relative or friend-in-person, you know I have a phone that works. There's also an email available if you click on my profile. Thank you.

Anniversary

Tomorrow will be fourteen years since I began work for my employer. It's hard to believe. In another 14 year chunk of my life, I did high school, college, law school, and my short stint in the Army, including my first year of marriage.

What do I have to show for this 14 years? A big thick handful of pay stubs [336 of 'em if they hadn't turned to electronic record keeping a couple years ago] and a mountain of reviewed documents. Most importantly, I have a sense of gratitude for a decent job with good benefits that allow my family excellent medical care and flexible hours.

Feline-y-esque?

We were tweeting about the 'loop' we were in...one thought it was an Endless Loop. I said I'm in the Curiosity Loop. It killed the cat, ya know? Then Annie sent this --rare!-- funny New Yorker cartoon:
Thanks, Ms. Gottlieb!

Pun o' the Day

Did you hear about the hot-headed composer who ventured West in a Conestoga wagon?










He had a score to settle.

DVD Review: Life After Tomorrow

I just watched "Life After Tomorrow" on NetFlix Instant View. It's a brief [72 minutes] documentary about the little girls from various shows and tours of Annie who, as grown women, share their memories and sometimes quite sad stories of making it big as a little kid and the feelings they had of outgrowing their fame. Ultra famous Annie, Sarah Jessica Parker, does an extensive interview and comes off as remarkably well adjusted. Another personal fave of mine, Martha Byrne, who I came to know as Lily Walsh on As the World Turns, does a nice interview, too. There are many, many, many others and their post-show biz struggles are poignant.

I think this film should be required viewing if you have any plans of putting your daughter in show business or on the pageant circuit.

I am an Anniephile. Dad must've belonged to some record club because I remember hearing Broadway Cast albums of many shows. Dad would play them on Sunday mornings after 7 a.m. Mass when he would cook breakfast for Mom and the rest of us. I wore out the grooves of my Annie album. We bought the piano music to "Tomorrow" and I played it always. I knew the words to every song. The National Tour came to Milwaukee when I was a junior or senior in high school. I bought tickets and dragged my boyfriend to the show. We made a day of it, riding with his folks there and back and having three meals on the road that day. I was in heaven. I bought the t-shirt and wore it until it became a gym shirt and then I wore it for gymnastics practices. I know there's a picture in a high school yearbook where I'm wearing it. That musical touched me. About 10 years ago, the show was coming to Winston-Salem and I won the easiest trivia question possible about Daddy Warbucks [first name 'Oliver'--duh!] and took my man to see it. I was way up in the balcony on the edge of my seat, enraptured. I still knew every word to every song, even though I had only seen the show the one previous time in the late 70s.

And then there's this.

It was a little sad for me to see this film and tarnish some of my golden memories. I highly recommend this pic, but only for people who loved the musical.

Superstitious Silence

I've been tweeting up a storm and this little piece of cyberspace has gotten a little quiet. There are things to report but they all seem so mundane and unexceptional. Part of the reason I even began this blog was to mark the mundane for my children. There were moments of high drama and sadness and a commemoration of the NICU battlefield. But we're just being lately.

We are doing this thing called Catholic homeschooling and I don't say much about it because we're still doing it. I cannot report a finished product or great fruit because I'm still planting, pruning and praying. I don't want to 'jinx' it. It's humbling and satisfying. It torments me and uplifts me. It calls me to be so much more than I expected. It is a cross I took on before I knew I would need some kind Veronica to wipe my face and some conscripted Simon to help me carry it.

One new thing we took on in January is a homeschool cooperative. It meets on Mondays and is a place for several Catholic homeschooling families to gather to create for our kids an opportunity to be among other seriously weird and radically square kids...kids who call me 'Mrs. Adams' and 'Ma'am,' kids who are still innocent, kids who are just kids who happen to be Catholic. Academically, they took on some subjects that are more fun in a group: Science, Geography and Latin. We pray a Rosary at the beginning of the school morning and pause at lunch for The Angelus. We play and pray and it is good.

And the journey continues.

What's Your NPR Name?

In the Twitter playground today, Mary Katherine Ham pointed out this old blog post, which asks "What's your NPR name?" and gives you the how-to of generating your very own NPR name. Mine?

Rauth Vaduz.

So I tweeted that. And behold, my Twitter pals played along. So thanks to the intrepid NPR reporters: Darrcy Oranjestad, Sijmon Cordes, Brucer la Bufadora, Rognald Windsor, and Randwy Bourton-on-the-Hill.

Seven

A New Heroine

You know, for all those who have been de-listed.

What to Say When a Trooper Pulls You Over

It's not a sausage link, but Bacon is still in the family.

Eighty

Today my thoughts turned to my father. It was his birthday. He would have been 80 had he not stopped celebrating earthly birthdays 3 years ago. I have nothing but happy thoughts when I think of him. It's a nice reminder of a very good man.

Premature Evacuation

Vacation starts tomorrow. But I'm into vacation mode too soon! it seems.

There still is the little matter of packing left to do.

grrrrrrr.

NICU Wall Art

A while ago, I allowed my girls to be photographed for an art project at their old NICU. This weekend, their nurse posted her pictures of the finished prints and her musings on the wall of fame that now graces her workplace.

Thanks, Sara. You are an amazing nurse and you have enriched our lives by being so good at what you do.

The Happiest Days are When Babies are Born

This blogosphere thing is the darndest place. In my first year of blogging, I was found by Kevin, because of a pun I wrote and he commented. Shortly thereafter, he and Maria were married and I added her blog to the blogroll. A couple deployments, a new job and a move to DC later and they created a new joint blog. They had their first child yesterday. Welcome to the world, Mia!

She's a beauty and known only to me via blog.

Daughter of Retweet Theatre.

The first line is my most recent Tweet. I bow to the master of Retweet theatre: James Lileks.

The Big Fiscal Plunge

Via a tweet from Freeman Hunt:

Althouse & Meade

The intra-blog love story I've been following in real time, Althouse and Meade, went public in a big way this weekend with a feature story in the New York Times. From personal experience, I knew that Althouse was a teacher. Until the Times article, however, I didn't know Meade's occupation. So, after learning he's a 'garden designer and estate caretaker', this image sprang to mind.

Congratulations Mrs. Krabappel and Groundskeeper Willie! May you have a long run and a good life in Springfield.