i heart omaha

since i left my camera in omaha & have no way of sharing my photo documented haaj to omaha, here's a picture that ja's cousin jon took. i really like it. it has been a fog, returning to this city. the train between chicago & omaha (then to denver & ending in california) has many, many heavy metal fans traveling between middle america & the golden state. lots of "dude, dimebag darrell, god rest his soul" & "i've got to take a valium so i can get some rest." hard to paint the picture because you already know it so well. daph & ali picked me up at the train station & when my head hit the pillow at the glen arlo penthouse, i was asleep before i knew it until 7:15am! i can't remember the last time i slept so well. and to have the view out the window be so familiar. when everything is new in your life, it is heaven to have a tiny slice of what you've known.

See Caron: TONIGHT!

Come to Chipotle on 72nd & Dodge to join Caron for some large burritos. Maybe a movie? 7:00, tonight.

New site!

We uploaded my new website last night. We still have a few little things to add/subtract/adjust (so check back again.) But, I'm so excited I couldn't wait to tell you guys about it. Kyle coded the entire thing-- using no web software like Dreamweaver or the like. He's amazing. Daphne took the b/w pix. Anyway, check it out. (Click on my link listed on this blog.) Feedback welcome.

Enjoy, Enjoy

For all of you traveling over the long weekend, or for those of you who are just going to enjoy the day off of work at home -- have a wonderful weekend. It appears to be raining right now but I'm hopeful for loads of sunshine.

John and I are putting on the finishing touches at 5024 Lafayette. It is marvelous.

P.S. Caronia -- thanks for the 8 day countdown at the top of the blog. :-)

top 100

i was reading the new PASTE magazine on the back cement slab, watching holiday traffic pick up this afternoon. "THE 100 BEST LIVING SONGWRITERS". and thought: geez, how did i find some of these musicians?!

i remember asking my dad, in 4th or 5th grade, "is it bad to listen to songs on the radio?" and his answer was fairly simple: "for the most part, the songs on the radio are about love." he never said yes or no.

sara introduced me to the most influential music at the most prime time in my life thus far. i credit sara with introducing me to: silver jews, will oldham, conor oberst (via our creative writing class), lucinda williams, the mountain goats, & townes van zandt.

if you have musical props to give, now's the time.

adventures in san sebastian

we're on the northern coast of spain, in basque country, and it's beautiful. our hotel overlooks the ocean, as you can see from the picture.

today on the beach, em (my sister, travelling with us) and i were approached several times by a sketchy guy who was pretty aggressive. maybe he was asking for money, maybe he wanted something else, anyway, things got really weird when he knelt down on the sand in front of me (i was sitting on the sand) and was so pushy and rude in my face that i yelled, "go away," "leave us alone," and when that didn't work, "fuck off!" he got really mad, and returned the expression multiple times, but he left.
i felt upset for a while afterward. a cafe con leche took the edge off. it was really weird. ANYway. welcome to spain.

otherwise, its been a wonderful time. we went to the guggenheim museum in bilbao yesterday, and it was really beautiful. they have killer coffee in the restaurant. best of the trip. i'd go back just for that. there was a wonderful exhibit of russian art, some of which has never been out of russia until now. lots of modern art. here's the link for you art buffs.
http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/ingles/home.htm

can't wait to see you all in omaha when we get back june 3. let's take up permanent residence at the cork and bottle.

ricky gervais video

watch this. it's so funny. on itunes video podcast. FREE. so funny.

memory quits

it seems memory quits at the most important parts.

from friday through monday night, violet was a non-sleeper. an equal parts evening: for every 10 minutes of rest, we heard 10 minutes of crying, whining, loud gnawing on her pacifier, etc.
new teeth + a gooey nose + general head cold discomfort = sad baby, tired mommy, tired daddy.

but then tuesday night!! o the bliss of this glorious thought! our dear sweet child #2 traveled to lala land for 11 hours. we were excited when the alarm rang at 5:20am. we were giddy throughout the entire day. it seemed that nothing could spoil the day. jason retired from work early. annabelle was a sweet little darling at bed time, telling me stories from her childhood, such as: when i was a little girl, i was a carebear, and i lived in the ocean. know what else is in the ocean? grandma margie's head. she took it off & threw it in the ocean & then she could see.

why then, as i had experienced such fatiguing sleep deprivation, did i so easily forget the way a bad night's sleep can make you feel like crap? and why then did i go & drink two cups of coffee & a soda with my dinner & am now still awake at 1:45am detoxifying??? the soda did go particularly well with the sub i had for dinner.

and do i need to recall the not-so-distant-past bouts with insomnia?? ah, elasticity.

eating out

it's dangerous to interact with people after spending an entire day with little children, having very little conversation with another adult, & being used to using language as a means to guide a little someone while giving little thought to conotation.

i blame this story on my lack of adult interaction, my desire to overcome the enemy* with the antidote, & a very juvenile sense of humor which was, at the time, enhanced by little sleep & physical exhaustion from a long run.

we had decided to get take-out. chatham is perfect for us: subway a stone's throw from mcdonald's. so, i got my sub & went over to mcdonald's for jason's order.

me: and i'd like a nine piece chicken nugget please.
her: we have a ten piece chicken nugget meal.
THINKING: one more is too many.....
me: what size are your other nuggets?

then i start laughing. i drive up & pay. i am smiling so big it hurts. what size are you nuggets?! did i really say that? does she not think this is funny? this is hiliarious! she has to get a sense of humor. she's in high school. this should be funny to her?! i debated whether or not to explain why i was laughing. instead i laughed all the way home & told the story to jason instead. he laughed. of course he laughed!

*enemy: crabby, unfriendly way of the central & southern illinois-ean. we shall overcome!

if my lips ever left my mouth

it is raining, hailing, & lightning. the girls are napping & i've been working on a postcard. the coffee is brewing. this is the perfect wednesday afternoon.

i didn't read many books when i was a little kid. i wanted to be with my friends, running around outside or inside, doing stuff with other people. i remember wishing that i was a bookworm or that i could be disciplined enough to sit down & read for fun. but there were so many people. and so many places to visit.

i started laughing as i was reading "a tree grows in brooklyn" this afternoon. francie & her best friend-- the library. ah. the chatham public library is my only friend here. and i was laughing because i have read more books since we moved to illinois than i've read in the past 3 or 4 years.

and at least today i'm disconnected with mark twain's comments: "Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.”

at least today.

dumb fun at crate & barrel

em-dash

you remember emily from the first whocares breakfast. ali's college pal. she let me stay at her house, make fun of her dog, sleep in her writing room, & drink her buttermilk yogurt delight.

sunday funnies

watch out where you sit...

you never know when your husband will sneak up behind you and snap a photo of your bum.

the french can surprise you

yes, it IS a toilette seat. and a sort of diorama all in one. dolphins leaping, sea flora, bits of sand and shells, all encased in a clear plastic toilette seat. it's in our bathroom. what a thrill, every time.
this place is full of the unique and surprising.
we miss you.

going, going, gone

my mother's day present is this: what i always want in a present. something that doesn't clutter, that isn't a trinket, that gives more than it takes to get.

after violet eats her birthday cupcake, i'm throwing my backpacking the forester & heading to st. louis for some time away. for some time loitering in urban outfitters, anthropologie, or vintage vinyl. time to savor each bite. time to run in the park. time to yuk it up with a friend of a friend =a friend, right?!

i was laughing today about this little kid song, "the more we get together, the happier we'll be". i love that we here at WHOCARES share friends so willingly. i'll be back before church on sunday, refreshed & ready. gracias to jason. gracias to god!

happy birthday, violet

happy 1st birthday, violet.

three bottom teeth.
a serious death grip.
a voice loud enough to be used as a tornado siren.
the most contagious laugh.
best blue eyes.

glad i'm not in labor right now.

Home Depot

This is in dedication to all the home depots of the world - thank you for taking me in, supplying me with goods at (a kind of) low cost, and being a second home (in the truest sense of the word).

This is really just an excuse to say hello to all of you. Our home improvement project has turned into a home over-haul experiment. It appears to be progressing. For those of you who have come by, thank you so much. Your company has been enjoyed thoroughly and I look forward to providing you with a place to sit next time you come (or at least sometime in the near future).

Hope you're all enjoying the swing towards summer weather that we've been experiencing.

ransack pillowcase

yesterday was the best day i've had in weeks.

we went to the library story time & did "ring around the rosies". there were a lot of moms & kids there. the sun came out after nine days of cloud cover & rain. we had dinner at o'charley's, where kids eat free all the time! went to the grocery store & on our way out we saw the one lady that we know in chatham!! ran a long way on the nature trail behind our place at sunset & saw a family of deer. found the old pillowcase & closed the evening off well.

OCMS Concert

Hey all,
come check out the rhapsodies by Loeffler tomorrow over your lunch hour. It starts at 12:15 at Trinity Cathedral - a beautiful church! It is free and you can bring your lunch!

Don't worry if you're out of town and can't make it - we will be performing the piece again on Sunday, July 2nd at 3 pm at the same place.


The Music: The Two Rhapsodies originally took the form of vocal settings for two poems by Maurice Rollinat and Loeffler published the poems as introductions to the instrumental piece. Music lovers will still find it instructive to acquaint themselves with the poems, so here they are (as translated by Philip Hale).

L'Etang (The Pool)

Full of old fish, blind-stricken long ago, the pool, under a near sky rumbling dull thunder, bars between centuries-old rushes the splashing horror of its gloom.

Over yonder, goblins light up more than one marsh that is black, sinister, unbearable; but the pool is revealed in this lonely place only by the croaking of consumptive frogs.

Now the moon, piercing at this very moment, seems to look here at herself fantastically; as though, one might say, to see her spectral face, her flat nose, the strange vacuity of teeth – a death's-head lighted from within, about to peer into a dull mirror.


La Cornemuse (The Bagpipe)

His bagpipe groaned in the woods as the wind that belleth; and never has stag at bay, nor willow, nor oar, wept as that voice wept.

Those sounds of flute and hautboy seemed like the death-rattle of a woman. Oh! His bagpipe, near the crossroads of the crucifix!

He is dead. But under cold skies, as soon as night weaves her mesh, down deep in my soul, there in the nook of old fears, I always hear his bagpipe groaning as of yore.

three, all ready?

happy 3rd birthday, annabelle!

and to you, my dear friends, who've helped me from going crazy these past years. transition can be hard...thank god for pals.

pruning season

in the last couple months, i have seen the treetops from my third-floor room turn from barren brown spikes to blossomed cotton candy, to lime-colored sprigs and now to thick dark lushness. my heart longs to experience this transition from winter to spring in the same tempo with those three trees in my courtyard. i thought i was keeping up for a while there, but just when i thought i was on their same trajectory, i look around and here my heart is, in that weary-of-winter pre-spring state that is common to nebraskans in february and march. there continues to be a pruning and tearing way and a breaking down within my heart and in my work, too.

pruning season in central california, on the almond farm was always in late winter. i think that's where i'm stuck for the moment, though i hope for and expect spring to come as it so faithfully does.

i remember 'stacking brush' as a kid--the limbs that had been pruned away had to be piled into rows for dad and the front-fork of the tractor to sweep away to the burn pile. for tractorwork, dad always wore a blue hardhat - an improvised use for the same hat he wore in his construction days when i was a toddler. it was the color of sesame street's grover (round like grover's head, too). he wore that slick surfaced hat to protect his eyes and head from low-hanging branches, having been swiped and nearly dragged off the tractor enough times to know better. i could see that blue hat sweeping across the perfectly straight diagnal rows from where my sister, amelia, and i were making our way down our own row on foot, ten or twenty rows ahead of him. you had to keep working at a good pace or he'd catch up with you.

stacking brush was the WORST. first of all, the wet, foggy cold wasn't low in temperature, but it was the kind of chill that seeps to your bones. the prinkly twigs would grab at your pant legs and sweathshirt, and ponytail if you let them. the branches were awkward, some so heavy they had to be dragged by their heavier limbed side. if you pulled them backwards, you would fight a needless battle. the branches would bend, snap back, resist your muscle. they'd even retort with a punch in the back. if you were facing the wrong way you'd get a slap on the cheek or worse, they'd knock your (okay, MY) enormously thick glasses askew.

i always made the biggest, most rash bargains with amelia in pruning season. jacob-style, i'd promise to do all her unpaid saturday housework if she would work an extra couple hours of well-paid outside work for me. anything to get out of the orchard and into the warmth of the wood burning stove at home.

this is the 'spring' i am feeling these days. not the newness of rain-washed leaves, but more like looking back on rows of stacked-up brush and still, looking forward at endless tangles of unstacked almond branches. my wet hand stinging in its workglove. and dad with his flag of a blue hardhat gaining headway on us. but no little farmer-in-the-making sister here, with whom i can make a foolish trade. and the smell of the dead wood going up in smoke on a burn day, rising up like a prayer.

mother's day

happy mother's day to all you mamas out there!

before sunset

annabelle was watching "before sunset" with me while we were in florida. i took this photo to pay tribute to one of our first postings with pictures, which was a still from that movie.

that afternoon was the first time annabelled asked me:
A: what is she doing?
C: she's smoking.
A: what's smoking?

C: ........well.....

2120 W. Laura Street ... come by!

we went (renae and i, to Peoria)
we saw
i bought.

it's gorgeous inside, charming, great yard with a swingset so Annabelle and Violet and future Easleys can play, and it is a beautiful gift from the LORD!
it was the last house we looked at, even after seeing one that has now been called "second best." we walked in at 1:23pm yesterday. it had been on the market 2 days. we walked out at 1:48, were at the realtor's office by 2pm, had the papers signed for my offer by 2:30. the seller's agent picked them up at 2:45 and i recieved the word that my offer had been accepted with no changes at 6:45 pm.

and there's a lilac bush in the front.
renae prayed for that.

package

my whole day centers around mail delivery, it seems. we usually take a walk in the morning on the trail behind our house & drop letters in the postbox on our way out. and we usually past the neighborhood mailman on our way back from our walk. by then it's 10 & violet sleeps. only 3 1/2 hours til mail delivery & afternoon naps! while number 2 is napping we paint with watercolors or play with clay or number one watches a show. when vi wakes up, we are getting closer, closer, closer! there are many "how i exhaust my children so they'll take an extra long nap in the afternoon" tricks. by 1:30 or 2, it's time for snoozing & time for the mail. as soon as they're quiet upstairs, i open the door & run to the mail center (a mere 30 ft. away).

and yesterday, friends, was a dream. i was rich in packages. four pkgs waiting: one right outside our door, three jammed into our mailbox! thank you thank you thank you!

HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY!!

happy birthday daphne. you're one of a kind. hope this year is as great for you as knowing me has been. ha ha.

chop chop

everybody needs a summer cut, right?

who cares, but it might be a record

Most babies lose their umbilical cord stump about 2-3 weeks after they are born. Finn lost his at 7 weeks 5 days. I was seriously beginning to wonder if it would ever come off.

hookah-up, parte dos

IF YOU WANT TO COME TO THE WHOCARES BOOK CLUB HOOKAH-UP, YOU MUST READ "a tree grows in brooklyn", or at least buy it & ready some of it. once you start, you won't want to stop.

here's the deal on attending the hookah-up:
you've got to comment on here if you want to attend or are thinking about attending. along with your comment, please leave the weekend dates that you have available in late july/august. we will talk book (or we won't), we will eat good food & have lots of laughs, we will conjure the spirit of betty smith (actually, we won't do that).

RSVP by monday may 8th (that's tomorrow).

get on out: book club hookup, part 2

calling all readers, road-trippers, and caron-missers! we had cooked up a little plan for a summer weekend get-together in iowa city, which is exactly halfway between caron and kate (springfield) and us (omaha). AND there's free lodging there (our apartment, which will be otherwise abandoned for the summer). AND there's good restaurants, green trees, free music, hot coffee, and a general air of midwestern coolness.
based on your comments, june was looking likely. what about leaving early evening on a friday, returning early evening on a sunday?

Last stand on 48th Ave.

Anyone in the market for a cute little house? We're selling our property that has the renown of being 'the house across the street from where Caron used to live.'

A question for Corrie...

How is Paul doing?

Maybe it is just me...

or the fact that I suffered post-partum depression and benefited greatly from some prescription meds, but who LIKES this guy anymore?

stop by

it will be a weekend of gardening, i hope.
as we wait for the floors to be re-finished, my plan is to concentrate on getting some new plants into the ground and into window boxes.
with the exception of a few small errands that are likely to pop up, i'll be around the new place for most of the weekend (I get a half day on Friday to just play at home -- yea!). feel free to stop by at anytime -- you can call ahead or just show up. if the place seems empty, we're likely off to a hardware store for a short bit.
in the meantime, i'm going to start actively searching for my french press and a few mugs.
stop on by. i'd love to see ya.
and if you'd like, bring some gardening gloves and a few helpful tips. :-)

oh yeah, and the address is 5024 lafayette, on the corner. about 13 blocks down the street from daphne.

book club hook-up

get out your calendar. look at the weekends. decide when you may be able to meet for the book club. majority rules.

cafe

sometimes all it takes is something new
to wipe the thursday morning blues away.
this coffee is good.

brewed some this morning. watched the sunrise.

another duluthian day...

Starry clumps of moss in a clear blue sky
and Buckingham Creek running full blast after three days
of rain. A brief respite
from the monotony of practice.

I stop at Amazing Grace for an
almond coconut biscotti and coffee-
All at a good price of course.
Sipping my decaf I watch the
metal fish on the lift bridge turn upside down,
letting one last charter boat in
to its moorings.

A ship ties fast, ropes creaking against
the iron dock bollards.
Fog rolls in over the lake.
And a fat bassoon plays 'Lord blow the
moon out please'.

Rehearsal starts in a few minutes.
It's time for Verdi's Requiem and the fires of hell.
The violin section mimick the devil,
ready to carry you down to the depths.
The choir has an otherwordly sound
as if calling from the deep.
But then maybe they are just tired-
I can't really tell.
Maybe I shouldn't have ordered decaf.

G-string

i was in charge of choosing a hotel for the evening when we were traveling back to illinois from florida. first, let me tell you: i secretly thought such a long roadtrip would kill us, traveling so far with two kids under the age of 3. to my surprise, i felt a sense of accomplishment when we were driving back after two weeks of fun at the beach. we weren't dead. we'd had a good time. there were a lot of great memories from that road trip. riding an emotional high as we approached nashville (10 hours in one day!!), i flipped through this discount book we found at a rest stop. RAMADA: GUITAR-SHAPED POOL. how could i resist? how could anyone resist? i won't tell you about the room because that would ruin my story...but the pool! you should have been there.

a who cares cookbook

so cheryl had a great idea, which she shared with me last night over a delicious veggie enchilada casserole of her own creation -- and homemade salsa.

we should self publish a who cares cookbook!

admit it, we're all fabulous cooks. we could all contribute recipes. cheryl would do the calligraphy. food photos are my specialty! alicia would do the graphics, darcy and darby the food reviews. ali would critique the food reviews, caron would write some songs about food. who else??? come on everybody, chip in your talent and ideas...we shoudl do it.

may-day

this is the first regular day of our new life. we woke up at a sane hour in the morning. jason went running on the trail out our back door. i watched the morning show, gave violet a bottle, made a sack lunch for jason, & put the coffee on. the whole family was together for breakfast. it was strange & nice. this is the first time i've been alone with the girls in 4 weeks.

vi went down for a nap at 8. we got the watercolors out. we got the clay out. we had a morning snack at 9. annabelle made a fort under the kitchen [card] table. i did the dishes. normal stuff. routine type stuff. it was wonderful!

hope your morning is going just as well. happy may day.