Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, but I swear the light stuck around noticeably longer this week. Pink streaks hung in the sky before fading to gray. I really think so.
We're getting back into the groove of school around here. Claire seems suddenly older to me, now a firmly established Kindergartner rather than a brand new Kindergartner. She still has the chubby cheeks and adorable small body. But I can visualize a little better where she's heading. Sometimes, when she turns her head a certain way, I see a vague flash of her as an adult.
Same with Max. Who vacillates between treating Claire like she's an idiot and wanting to curl up with her on the couch because she's "precious"--his word.
***
The girl who took my blood today, who sucked it through a needle and into tubes, had bruises on her neck. Several finger-shaped purple splotches. I could barely make small talk with her, I was staring so hard at her throat. I wanted to ask what happened. I didn't, of course. I only nodded when she asked if I was having a good day and shrugged when she asked if I was related to the famous bridge builder in Oregon with the same last name as mine.
She went on to describe the bridges and their fascinating (to her) histories.
I barely heard what she said.
***
I'm turning into an iPhone lunatic. Truthfully, I'm embarrassed to even have one. I sort of took pride in my crappy pay-as-you-go Samsung. But then J. ordered me a 3G? 4G? last week and it turns out I ADORE it. The apps! The slidey little icons! The texts that volley like cartoon speech balloons! It's fun.
My favorites are the photography apps, of course. It won't turn me away from my DSLR, though. No siree. That's my first love. I'm just still marveling at the novelty of this sleek, small device that can seemingly do it all. (Cook dinners? Settle arguments? I'm waiting for those apps.)
***
I'm going to be a girl scout troop leader! You heard me. I never in a million years imagined myself doing it, but 1. I just can't say no to my friend Heather. Seriously. She's irresistible. 2. I was a brownie/girl scout from first grade to fifth and loved it.
Except the year we moved to Mt. Pleasant, MI (which seemed a huge metropolis to me at the time) and was placed with a heavy smoking troop leader. She lived in the same apartment complex we did and had a newborn baby boy. Who caught pneumonia every other week.
I remember getting off the bus, excited about Brownies, when the troop leader would pull up in her beater car next to a gaggle of us and announce that Brownies were canceled. She had to take her baby to the doctor. Even then, at seven, I thought, it's because you won't stop smoking around him, you addict. I felt sorry for the baby. And myself.
I'll be different though. I'll show up. I'll do crafty things. Girl power and all that.
***
Here's a hipstamatic photo of a freak snowstorm we had in Seattle this past week. I knew it was coming, but I chose to have dinner with a friend on Queen Anne hill that night (which is the last place you want to be in Seattle during snow). I sat with my back to the window and by the time I turned around, the streets were blanketed.
I knew I needed to get home, but couldn't help stopping to snap a few pictures.
I'm picturing trying to get back down off of QAH and across the bridge in a snowstorm. It's not a pretty picture, so I'm glad you made it home safely!
And you're right about the light. Monday was the first day when we gained daylight in the morning AND the evening. For the previous few weeks, we only gained in the evening. I have definitely noticed the difference by today.
Posted by: kcinnova | January 14, 2011 at 12:56 PM
I too was disdainful of phone technology until my own husband brought home an iPhone. Like you, I'm smitten. It's the perfect time-killer for those five-minute intervals when I'm waiting for my son's kung fu class to end. And I'm digging the camera. I'm a film shooter, but that tiny lens is a lot of fun.
Also, the iPhone makes phone calls.
Posted by: glasseye | January 15, 2011 at 08:11 AM
i switched from my iphone to a only-for-emergency-phone-calls cell last year and still feel sad nostalgia for my tiny little apple computer. the iphone is super sweet. i never realized how i loved its easy-as-pie-user-design until i starting toting around my Nokia that looks like i've been shopping a cell phone store from 1998. see how much i love it? i haven't even used it in a year and i sound like some consumerreports geek commenter.
i found you on betsy lerner's blog a couple weeks ago and have been reading you ever since. just wanted to say hey.
Posted by: amyg | January 15, 2011 at 02:25 PM
I want an iPhone! Not for the phone, mind you, but for everything else! My crappy little Samsung got run over by a car a month ago and refuses to die, so I'm stuck.
And the Girl Scout leader thing? Nobody thinks they'll ever do it, but we do! Even us former-hippie, never-been-a-girl-scout-ourselves types.
You will be the coolest one ever.
Posted by: Cactus Petunia | January 18, 2011 at 03:38 PM