Trish Knits.com

Category: Happenings

  • 14, And One to Grow On…

    Diana soaking up the sun on a happy day
    Diana soaking up the sun on a happy day
    At the risk of sounding mushy, I’m going to tell you that 14 years ago tonight, almost to the very moment of this writing, I became a mother. That moment, at the sound of her first cry, on what was a snowy night in March, was so much more than the realization of a lifelong dream. It was EVERY dream. Practically the only thing I ever wanted in my whole life. And there she was, pink-faced and perturbed that we disturbed her napping with the business of being born. The enormity of the moment thankfully didn’t hit me just then, but eventually it did… that I would be completely and utterly responsible for the well-being of someone other than myself. That not only would I have to keep her fed and warm and clean and dry, but that also I would have to teach her things, and help her find her way through this life that is becoming more and more complicated.

    Would I be up to the challenge? To help this little, wriggling girl know the difference between right and wrong, and to help her make good choices? Would I be able to share my knowledge with her without passing on the guilt of my own mistakes?

    Would I forget to be so serious all the time, and teach her how to laugh? Would I teach her that the most wonderful places in the world are the ones you conjure up in your imagination? Would I show her how to be curious without being afraid?

    Fourteen years ago, as all these things were crossing my mind, I could not imagine being here. Fourteen years on, with a daughter who now towers far above my head, but has the shyness of a child. One who is a giggling schoolgirl and an old soul all at once. We are a work in progress, she and I, and only time will tell me if I have done well. I think so, though, and so far I am very proud that of all the daughters in the world, God gave me this one. I am truly lucky.

    Happy birthday, sweet girl. I love you.

    Jumping for Joy
    Jumping for Joy

  • More!

    Snow hanging off my porch roof
    Snow hanging off my porch roof
    The teen daughter snapped this photo of our back porch roof tonight… It almost looks like a big hunk of snow was about to fall off and then it refroze, right in place. All in all we haven’t had a lot of melting going on. It’s still cold here and many, many of the streets in the area are impassable still.

    And, get this. We’re supposed to get anywhere between 5 and 15 inches of additional snow tomorrow. No, really. I’m not pulling your leg. It’s going to snow more tomorrow into Wednesday. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to the new snow as much as I was looking forward to the weekend snow. It’s starting to get a little old. I’m betting that the schools will be out for the rest of the week, and frankly I don’t know if my sanity can stand it.

    What’s supposed to be worse than the snow itself is the wind. We’re expecting fairly heavy gusts through the worst part of the storm. We were spared a major power outage the first go round, and I hope we get lucky again.

    As for me, the Federal Government is closed again tomorrow. I am glad of this because there is no way we’d be able to get all the way downtown from here. Not only that, but with the kids off it makes it harder to get work done, so I’m glad I won’t be charged with a day of leave. I’m sure that won’t be the case for the rest of the week I’m sure I’m going to have to take off. I’ve been making minor progress on my knitting, and am itching to start something new. Still I am determined to finish my hat first. And John and Diana were able to make it out to the grocery store tonight, so they got fixin’s for homemade pizza. Looks like I’m cooking pizza sauce tomorrow.

    It’s all good. I’m dreaming of Spring, but it’s good.

  • A Few Flakes

    Top of yardstick sticking up out of deep snow
    Top of yardstick sticking up out of deep snow

    Ok, so more than a few! Yes, that’s a yardstick, showing how many inches of snow we had in our yard this afternoon. The snow started with a quick shower at about 10 a.m. on Friday, and then began in earnest at right about noon. The kids got out of school early and John didn’t bother to go in since we pretty much figured he’d have to turn right around and get them anyway.

    The snow blew fast and furious through the night, in a way that I don’t think I have ever seen in my whole life. Blizzards are a rare thing in these parts! The last storm with this much snow all at once happened more than a hundred years ago. 30 to 38 inches was common all over the area. We had just under three feet, I think, and goodness knows when we’ll be able to emerge from the house again. The driveway is slowly getting done but it will be a bit more time before John can dig the vans out.

    It’s all good… we’ve got Netflix on Demand, lots of hot chocolate, and no shortage of toilet paper around here. I’m reminding myself often that this is the sort of thing I’ve been wishing for, a few days where I have no choice but to stay home and make myself enjoy it. And enjoying it I am!

    The one downer is that my wheelchair charger failed last night and so my batteries are rapidly dying. I do have a spare chair but it hurts my back in an awful way. It’ll probably be the end of the week before I can get to where the wheelchair place is, which is about an hour from here. There always has to be something…

    Here’s a gallery of photos of the snowfall around our house. Please do ignore the fact that I did not do my hair or my makeup this morning… I figured no one would be seeing me today. This’ll teach me! (As usual, click on the thumbnail to see a larger photo.)

    And here’s our video of the snowfall:

    The rest of the weekend (and probably Monday, too) will be for cleaning up and digging out. And more digging, and more digging… but that’s ok. There’s a steamy pot of chili waiting.

    Chili cooking on the stove
    Chili cooking on the stove

  • Saturday Snow Day

    A peaceful, snowy day
    A peaceful, snowy day

    It’s the middle of the night here, but since I haven’t been to bed yet, it’s still Saturday to me and so I’m writing as if it is Saturday, even though it really isn’t. But that’s our secret, ok? Please don’t tell my mom that it’s 2:11 a.m. and I haven’t been to bed yet. I’ll never hear the end of it.

    We awoke this morning to the promise of snow and a heavy gray sky. The sort of morning where the barometer in my joints was telling me that yes, it is going to snow. Guaranteed. And, we were not disappointed! The surprising thing, though, was that we got as much snow as we did, since they were only saying just a day or so ago that we could expect a scant two inches. It snowed all day and into the night, though, so I was actually surprised that we didn’t get more. In the end, I think we have about 7 inches on the ground here. But I suppose it could have been worse.

    Thankfully everyone here was content to stay inside and watch movies or play with new Legos, because it was really too cold to do much playing outside. We were amused watching our cat run from window to window at breakneck speed, we think so she could check and see if it really was snowing outside of every window. She’s nearly 18 years old now and has never really been outside, except for maybe once, about 15 years ago, when she decided she wanted to see what snow was. For the most part, our other cat, Tegan, slept all day at my feet, as usual, which was fine by me. It was a good day for napping.

    I spent several hours today finally watching Michael Jackson: This Is It and several of the video “extras” included on the Blu-Ray disc. Man, I was blown away! I had wanted desperately to see this movie in the theater when it came out, but never made it to see the movie. But, I was grateful for my flat screen TV and stereo speakers, which delivered an amazing view of the film. As I watched, I found myself becoming a bit sad, not for Michael Jackson, but for all the young people who were the dancers, and musicians, and the crew for this amazing show. I felt sad for them, for what was not to be. Then on the other hand, I was so grateful that those two cameras were on hand to document the rehearsals. I am betting that perhaps the actual concerts, if they had happened, would have been turned into a movie, and that maybe this stuff that was the movie would have been nothing more than an interesting aside.

    Instead, even with the rough footage that was shot, what I saw was a real gem. The true talent of Michael Jackson came out, with his attention to every detail and the amazing technical artistry that was planned. And the dancing! Oh my, that was really something. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, even if you’re someone who doesn’t love Michael Jackson? It’s worth it. It is a truly amazing thing to watch, in bits and pieces that we, the public, rarely ever get to see.

    I put on a pot of spaghetti sauce for dinner tonight so that the windows would get all foggy from the steam and it would feel extra warm in here on this cold day. It was good, too… and I have some leftovers for a day or so, but I’m going to cook something else tomorrow so I can steam up the house again. If the weather’s nice enough though, we may get dinner from Olive Garden as a celebration for the teen daughter, who just brought home another straight-A report card this weekend.

    Tonight I watched Sleepless in Seattle and intended to get some knitting done, but for whatever reason that didn’t happen. I think I got too wrapped up in the romance! Why is it that I love that sappy, ridiculous movie so much? Ever since seeing that movie I’ve wanted to visit Seattle something awful, which makes NO sense at all, because going there would probably send my SAD into a total meltdown. I really do hate rain, so I imagine that the real Seattle would probably not be good for me except for short visits. But, in that silly little movie, even the rain looks all cuddly. Weird.

    Ok so as you can tell by now, today was one of those days that was incredibly full of absolutely nothing. It was the sort of day I often wish for, and I guess the reason why I’ve put off going to bed this long is because I didn’t want it to end. Alas, the sleep is now overtaking my eyes, and I think I’ll sign off.

    I hope that you, too, had a peaceful day.

    Snowy Trees
    Snowy Trees

  • There Once Was a Girl from Nantucket…

    Nantucket Road, that is.

    This is the story of the place where I grew up, and the people who lived there. It was the 1970s. The neighborhood had sprung to life in the late 1940s and early 50s. In fact, my grandparents had moved to this very street when they left Washington, DC in 1951, when my mother was about to turn six years old. My grandparents still lived there, too, when my family moved into the house across the street in February of 1973. This was the house I lived in:

    My childhood house
    My Childhood Home (photo by Bill Barnett)

    I of course thought it was huge. It was bigger than most in the neighborhood, because it had an addition on the back with a larger kitchen (with brand new, state-of-the-art, avocado-colored appliances). There were three bedrooms (also a luxury in that neighborhood) and the typical single bathroom that is barely heard of in today’s American homes.

    Nantucket Road was a really cool place. Lots of other families with kids our age lived there. It was the kind of street where there was always a kickball game going on when the weather was good, the ice cream man always came because he knew there’d be plenty of takers, and neighbors would sit out on their porches until well past bedtime on a sultry summer evening, because it was cooler than being inside.

    Nantucket Road was not a quiet place. Many of us had squeaky chain link fences that announced a neighbor stopping by, the recently completed Washington Beltway was practically at the end of the block, and all in all, it was a pretty busy street when I lived there. But what I remember most is the sound of the children. The laughing, the playtime, the imaginations running wild.

    I didn’t live there long… within a few years my parents had divorced and were remarrying, and I went away from Nantucket Road in April of 1977. Still, I consider this little house the place where I grew up, the place where the people who were my childhood friends lived, and the place where most of my memories of being a child still reside. Over time, each time I went back to visit my grandparents, we would hear that someone else had moved away. Most of the kids from Nantucket Road are now people I hadn’t seen in more than 30 years.

    Until Tuesday of this week, that is.

    Enter Facebook. Someone that I don’t even know started a group for people who grew up in my part of town, called “Hollywood”, though it’s not nearly as glamorous as the name conjures up in most people’s minds. Slowly but surely, I’ve been able to reconnect with lots of friends who I thought were Long Lost. Billy lived next door to my grandparents and since he would be in town for the holidays, decided to have a Nantucket Road Reunion. I jumped at the chance to go.

    Some of the folks had kept in touch with each other all this time, while others had not, but you would never have known the difference. It was as if this group of people all came together and picked up where we left off, laughing and joking, and sharing stories that really couldn’t have been from 30 years ago, could they? No matter. It was a blast. I stayed longer than I thought I would, and truly, I wish I didn’t have to leave. Before we left each other for the evening, we posed for a group photo while our spouses kindly served as photographers:

    Nantucket Road Reunion
    Front Row: Kevin, Trish, Margarita; Middle: Bob, Bill; Back Row: Kathy, Kim, Mario, Pastor.

    We took lots of photos, and there were hugs all around. As I made my way to the door of the restaurant where we met, a blast of cold air hit my face, but my heart was warm and full. We promised to meet again, to not let another 30 years go by. I hope it’s true. And I hope everyone in the world has the kind of memories I do with friends like these.

    Below is a gallery of other photos from the evening. Click on the photos to see bigger images.

  • A Day of Beauty

    Wow… what a difference a little sun can make. The sky was a cloudless bright blue today and the weather was warm. I think I feel better today than I’ve felt all week. I hope I can somehow squeak in a couple more days like this one before Fall gets here in earnest.

    It started with a yummy dish of Shrimp Alfredo (The Lean Cuisine variety.) After weeks of eating beefaroni from a can and other less than wonderful things, it was good to eat something at least somewhat tasty for a change. Then I went off for a long-overdue haircut. The stylist was running late, but my mom and daughter and I made the most of our unplanned half hour and headed for the Merle Norman store. We went to buy some concealer and face powder for the daughter (Tuesday is school picture day), but I wound up with some eye shadow and blush for myself. How’d that happen? I rarely wear makeup.

    The haircut was great! Except when the chick did up my hair with product, it looked a bit like Kate Gosselin, which all at once scared me a little, and made me say, “Oooooh that’s cute!” But we’ll see how I do it when I have to rely on my own hair styling skills tomorrow.

    Then it was off to Hecht’s. (Oops, I mean Macy’s; old habits die hard.) The daughter needed a top or a dress or something to wear for the picture. I’ve gotten off easy for the school pictures thus far because they wear uniforms, but because she’s in 8th grade this year, she can wear what she wants. Anything, apparently, as long as it’s black. Her taste, not mine, but she did pick a cute top to go with some pants she already has, and a dress. I guess she’ll decide what to wear on Tuesday morning. So, it was a successful shopping trip.

    I then went to the makeup counters at Macy’s, intent on completing my face. At the end of the day, I had all of this:

    Eyeshadows, blush, foundation powder, and lip glosses
    Eyeshadows, blush, foundation powder, and lip glosses

    Hey, when I go after makeup, I tend to get a whole face full all at once. It’s not the cheapest way to go, but it makes me feel good to start fresh every so often.

    So, look for me tomorrow, all prettied up with cute (yet scary), Kate Gosselin hair. And I’ll be smiling. Hey, the sun’s out.

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