“Watching the world go by
When you're with your love
Life is a beautiful tune”
Dean Martin, Watching the World Go By
TIME: 3:44 PM
PLACE: Living room
SUBJECT: Oreo and Jack
DQ took this photo of Oreo and Jack looking out the front door. I don’t know what they were looking at, but apparently, it was interesting.
“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”
Frida Kahlo (born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón, Mexican painter, 1907–1954)
TIME: 6 PM-ish
PLACE: Inside the Jeep
SUBJECT: DramaQueen
(taken by DQ with her cell phone)
Teens (and many adults) these days have mastered the art of taking a self-portrait. I know my oldest daughter has. I haven’t. She likes this one because it shows her newly colored & trimmed hair.
"I didn't train all that time just to come here and get it over with as fast as I can."
John “The Penguin” Bingham (American marathon runner & author, b1948)
TIME: 9:02 AM
PLACE: Downtown
SUBJECT: Me – running
(photo taken by my Dad)
The big 5k run was this morning. And I did it. My stats were: 39:37 finish, #540 out of 782 participants, #256 of 448 females and #26 of 41 in my age group (Females 40-44). My goal was to finish in under 40 minutes, so I’m happy. I took 3 Aleve when I got home, am planning on taking some ibuprofen before I go to bed and praying that I am able to move tomorrow.
*~*~*
Other notes: MB finished in 24:58 and was 5th out of the 31 in his age group. #77 of the 334 males and 105th out of the total 782 runners. Way to go MB! SD ran the 1K and finished strong. Proud of her too! Finally, I may or may not have manipulated this photo – I’ll let you guess as to what I may or may not have done to it.
“To an adolescent, there is nothing in the world more embarrassing than a parent.”
Dave Barry (American Writer and Humorist best known for his weekly newspaper column. b.1947)
TIME: 8:14 PM
PLACE: Target parking lot
SUBJECT: Me
(photo by DramaQueen)
Well, the first day of work went ok. It was all paperwork, going over company policies and some training on the system in the afternoon. My boss took me to lunch, which was nice. Tomorrow, more training, and I might get to start on some actual work.
~*~*~
We needed various items from the store, so after supper, DQ and I went to Target. I decided to embarrass her by riding the cart down the parking lot to our car. At first she was all “Moooom! Stop that!” Then she decided that she would take a picture and post it to Facebook to embarrass me. As if. I really don’t care if her friends think I’m goofy.
Forrest Gump: Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running!
Forrest Gump, Paramount Pictures, 1994.
TIME: 4:57 PM
PLACE: Junior High
SUBJECT: MonkeyBoy running
(first half of the 800-meter)
(picture taken by HandsomeHusband)
MB had his first track meet this afternoon. He ran the 800-meter event. He did ok for his first meet, coming in 6th (or was it 5th?) out of a field of about 40 runners.
[Opening narration] Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive.
Oscar Goldman: Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.
The Six Million Dollar Man. Perf. Richard Anderson. 1974. Television.
(How could I not find good Bionic Woman quotes? It’s sexism I tell ya.)
TIME: around 2:00 PM
PLACE: Surgery Center
SUBJECT: My wrist
Pretty! The nerve block in my arm is starting to wear off…time for my “dolls” – hooray for modern pharmaceuticals!
“There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents ... and only one for birthday presents, you know.”
Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832-1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Humpty Dumpty, Through the Looking-Glass, ch. VI, Macmillan (1872).
TIME: 6:34 PM
PLACE: Downtown
SUBJECT: View from the courtyard
(photo taken by HandsomeHusband)
The HandsomeHusband and I went out to dinner for my birthday. We ate at a Mexican restaurant downtown, then stopped by another bar/restaurant for a soothing adult beverage. A friend of mine from high school owns this particular establishment – he is a year older, was a football player and a jock, sat in front of me in accounting class, and on many Mondays, he would turn around in his desk, smile charmingly and say “I had a game this weekend and don’t know how to do the homework, can you show me how?” I always did. We still joke about how much he owes me for saving helping him out back then. I just say that drinks on the house are always an acceptable form of payment for his indebtedness to me.
(photo taken by HandsomeHusband)
Goldmember: Would you like a shmoke und a pancake?
Austin Powers: A what?
Goldmember: A shmoke und a pancake. You know, a flapjack und a shigarette? No? Shigar und a waffle? No? Pipe und a crepe? No? Bong und a blintz? No? Well, then there ish no pleashing you.
Austin Powers: That's not right...
Myers, Mike, perf. Austin Powers in Goldmember. Dir. Jay Roach. 2002. New Line Cinema.
Dory: Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down you wanna know what you've gotta do?
Marlin: No I don't wanna know.
Dory: [singing] Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim.
Marlin: Dory, no singing.
Dory: [continuing] Ha, ha, ha, ha, ho. I love to swim. When you want to swim you want to swim.
Marlin: Now I'm stuck with that song... Now it's in my head.
Dory: Sorry.DeGeneres, Ellen, and Brooks, Albert, perf. Finding Nemo. Dir. Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich. 2003. Pixar.
TIME: 9:55 AM
PLACE: St. Augustine’s gym
SUBJECT: DramaQueen (photo taken by HH)
Already it is the last Sunday before Christmas…gah! We had a family session at Sunday School this morning. DramaQueen was a Grumpy Gus the entire time…then she got even more grumpy when I won Christmas Word Bingo and she didn’t. My “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!” chant apparently annoyed/embarrassed her even further. *Giggle* It’s so much fun to pester your children in public.
“Our daughters are the most precious of our treasures, the dearest possessions of our homes and the objects of our most watchful love.”
Margaret E. Sangster (American poet, author, and editor of Harper’s Bazaar. 1838-1912)
TIME: 5:51 PM
PLACE: Roller skating rink
SUBJECT: StellaDella, DramaQueen and Me
(photos taken by HH)
My brother John’s father-in-law celebrated his 70th birthday at the roller rink. Admission was a new pair of shoes which are going to go to the Shoes For Orphan Souls ministry. My sister Cathy and her two kids and my Dad also attended and skated. Dad, Cathy and I each hit the floor at least once. Dad said that the wooden floor was a much harder landing than the frozen pond he used to ice skate on years ago. I narrowly avoided a face plant myself. I’m thinking I’m going to pop a few Tylenol before I go to bed tonight. Even though I do that, I bet I’m gonna be be sore tomorrow.
*StellaDella and me actually skating”
“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.”
George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans] (1819-1880), British novelist. Middlemarch, bk. 2, ch. 20 (1872).
TIME: 6:51 PM
PLACE: Kitchen
SUBJECT: Squirrel
MonkeyBoy found a baby squirrel in our yard this afternoon. We had a storm earlier this morning and the little guy probably fell out of the tree during the high winds we had. He was pretty done for when MB found him. I thought we should just leave him where he was, but I was outvoted. The next thing I knew, a box and HandsomeHusband’s old undergarments were employed as a bed; the heating pad was taken out and HH was googling to find out what to feed the rodent. I left the group to their devices and went on a bike ride (if I didn’t go tonight, I wouldn’t be able to go until Sunday). While I was gone, HH fed him a sugar/salt/water mixture while MB snapped photos. When I returned, I was sent out to purchase some puppy milk replacement. They named him “Alex” (and it is a him – HH also has to press on the squirrel’s boy parts to get him to urinate). *Sigh* It doesn’t look like he has broken anything, but we don’t know if he has any internal injuries. We’ll see if he makes it through the night, then take it from there.
“Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.”
Eskimo Proverb
TIME: April 1, 1995
PLACE: C--- C--- Church
SUBJECT: Mom and me
Five years ago you left us. There has not been a day in the past five years that I have not thought of you and wished I could hug you one more time. I cherish all my memories of you and keep them close to me in my heart.
“There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.”
Bombeck, Erma. I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression. New York. Doubleday & Co. 1973.
TIME: 7:48 AM
PLACE: The living room
SUBJECT: Christmas tree
(photo taken by HH)
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Here at the Sujomi household, we opened presents, HH made a tasty breakfast (and cleaned up!), Grandpa came by to see what Santa brought the kids and we spent the rest of the day playing with new toys and just being lazy. A perfect Christmas day in my opinion. Tomorrow, DQ and I are leaving the house “bright and squirrely” to meet my sister, sister-in-law and niece and hit the after Christmas sales. DQ will be armed with her new phone in case we are separated by the masses. She can’t wait.
Without health, there is no point. To anything.
Everett Mámor
TIME: 3:58 PM
PLACE: The study
SUBJECT: My bandage (picture taken by HH)
I was a good mom, finally. The county had seasonal influenza vaccinations available and so I took the kids to get their flu shots. I picked them up from school at 2:30pm. They were excited to leave school a half hour early. That excitement lasted about 5 minutes until I told them where they were going. MonkeyBoy volunteered to go first and he took his shot like it was nothing. DramaQueen followed suit, I got mine, then it was StellaDella’s turn. She was a little more vocal about the initial stick, but she recovered quickly.
On another note, a couple of weeks ago, HandsomeHusband purchased SD 4 additional goldfish to keep Dorothy company. This evening, we had a tragedy…we found a “floater” in the goldfish aquarium. The deceased was one of the new guys. SD did NOT take it well. RIP my gold friend, RIP.
“The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The loss of her
Departed leaves.
The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds are flown.
And yet the world,
Nevertheless,
Displays a certain
Loveliness—
The beauty of
The bone. Tall God
Must see our souls
This way, and nod.
Give thanks: we do,
Each in his place
Around the table
During grace.”
Updike, John. "November". A Child’s Calendar. Holiday House.
TIME: 8:25 AM
PLACE:
SUBJECT: Road
MB went out with HH this morning for breakfast and picture taking. This is one of the photos he snapped and I immediately thought of this poem. “A Child’s Calendar” is a book of poetry by John Updike that I have read over and over again to the kids. It has one poem for each month of the year. The November poem is my favorite verse from the book. I think MB’s photo illustrates it beautifully. This picture also inspires me to imagine what could be around the bend. Just think of the possibilities.
When our relatives are at home, we have to think of all their good points or it would be impossible to endure them.
George Bernard Shaw (Irish, playwright, critic, political activist, 1856-1950)
TIME: 6:12 PM
PLACE: The Dining Room
SUBJECT: DramaQueen and her cousin The Bean
First off, I’d like to know just who took my extra hour today…I really could have used it as we had DQ’s family party this evening and even with that extra hour, I still didn’t feel I had enough time to get everything accomplished! I didn’t even get to take a photo today, so this one is lifted from HH’s camera. Anyway, the “Bean” is my sister’s second child and also the youngest grandchild in the family. She will be 4 years old at the end of December and my lord is she a pistol. Already I’m feeling sorry for the man she marries. She is bossy, stubborn, opinionated and T-r-o-u-b-l-e (note the capital “T”). I just love her! She was born in December of 2005, so unfortunately, Mom never got to meet her. But I’m sure that she is up there laughing at how the Bean gives my sister so much grief.
“If you don't believe in ghosts, you've never been to a family reunion.”
Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant (English, author and syndicated cartoonist living in Santa Barbara, California. b1933)
TIME: 6:19 PM
PLACE: Mascoutah, IL
SUBJECT: The extended family
The big family reunion was held today and it went quite well. I finished the slideshow Thursday evening and HandsomeHusband got me all fixed up with a projector, screen and sound equipment to play the show from my laptop. He even set everything up last night while I was at the concert so it was ready for today. He also helped co-ordinate the picture taking of the different family groups. The photo above is of all the families together. (I am on the far left in the back row, you can just see my face peeking out). Each group was identified by a particular color…my grandmother’s family all wore navy blue shirts. Green, white and orange were worn by three other lines. However, we were all outnumbered by the “Purple People” as we called them: my Aunt Marie’s family. Marie is my Grandaunt and the youngest and last surviving sibling of my grandmother’s family. I was able to obtain a copy of a video of my grandmother’s oldest sister – who passed away at the age of 97 (almost 98!) in 2003 - being interviewed about her early life. Love it! Now we are all supposed to meet again at the same place in late February to make ravioli. We use a recipe from my grandmother that makes 5,000 at a time. It is definitely a recipe that it helps to have many cooks in order to get it done!
“I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being.”
Anatole France (Jacques Anatole François Thibault, French poet, journalist, and novelist, 1844-1924), The Garden of Epicurus, 1894
TIME: 2:50 PM
PLACE: The study
SUBJECT: My thumbs
Today you get to see one of my flaws, my thumbs. HandsomeHusband took this photo for me. As you can see, my left thumb is not as long and has a visibly shorter nail bed than my right thumb. It was first pointed out to me during grade school. My class was working on a project that involved tracing our hands when a classmate pointed out to me that my thumbs were different. I still remember the hot feeling of embarrassment over my flaw. Even now, when I get manicures, I always apologize for the shape of my thumb and I still have the habit of hiding it, tucking my thumb under my palm so that no one sees it.
"You can say any fool thing to a dog, and the dog will give you this look that says, `My God, you're RIGHT! I NEVER would've thought of that!'"
David “Dave” Barry (American, Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnist, b1947)
TIME: 6:48 PM
PLACE: The study
SUBJECT: Oreo
Ugly grey skies today. Mid-afternoon I walked around the trail twice at Longacre Park – 3 miles. I even had my camera and was planning on taking some photos while I was there. I might have too if my batteries weren’t dead. Sigh. I then tried to take a picture of the dog, but she was moving too much for me. HH got out his camera and took one shot of her. Isn’t she a goofy dog? He took pity on me and is generously letting me use it as my photo for today. Thanks babe!
