The Pull of Summer

I’m feeling springy! Summer’s just around the corner. I can see my discipline standing up to walk out the door. Other people are grading their last finals. Other people are eagerly awaiting their kids’ last day of school. I am trying to make myself believe that it’s important to read more Shakespeare in what I’m dangerously beginning to think of as my “free time” or “spare time.” I’m even tempted to lift my weeknight TV/movie ban to watch the new season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” but I’m not sure if our converter box will pick up Fox, and I think maybe I’m better off not knowing.

On good days, studying is a lifeline to a world outside of hurrying my son to the potty, changing diapers, preparing five meals/snacks a day, folding laundry, doing dishes, and wondering why the vacuum is still sitting out and the paper scraps and styrofoam crumbs are still on the living room floor. I’ll admit, that outside world is populated with long dead people and people who never existed in the first place, but it’s a world of larger ideas that I’ve traveled in before. It reminds me that this daily world I’m living with isn’t without the big ideas, it’s just harder for me to see them through the cobwebs on the windows.

On bad days, studying keeps me from feeling a connection to the larger culture--I don’t know what happened on Lost, I haven’t watched American Idol in years, I’ve missed the last few hundred great new books, and I get my news from listening to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” while I do dishes. My cocktail conversation, if I ever went to cocktail parties, would be limited to balance bikes and images of motherhood in 430 year old books.

But then my daughter walks up, says “I want some mama milk,” and I melt. I pick up my Shakespeare book and settle in to nurse.

5 Things

Facebook is going a little crazy with the "5 things" posts. And the things I really want to post about aren't in the celebrity listing, so I thought I'd post some here.

5 Favorite Kids Musicians/Albums

-The Nields, we're especially fond of their HooteNanny music class curriculum

-Elizabeth Mitchell, "You are My Little Bird," and "Catch the Moon" with Lisa Loeb

-Orange Sherbet and Hot Buttered Rum, "Campfire Songs"

-Ginger Hendrix, "Macaroni Boy Eats at Chez Shooby Do"

-my husband

5 best smart English words

-liminal

-valences

-mores

-NB (for nota bene)

-bifurcated (as in "bifurcated plot")

5 words I find in my literary reading that are out of current usage (more or less)

-bokin' (as in "bokin' rainbows," what one might do after a heavy night of imbibing; it's actually a auld Scots term)

-inveigle (a 17th century favorite)

-troth (has elements of "truth" and "trust")

-rankle (from the a word meaning "to fester")

-soote (see Surrey's sonnet "The Soote Season")

5 musical things I wish I had done (and might still do, given the opportunity)

-joined the band JimmyFish in college when asked

-learned to play an instrument well enough to perform with it

-finished my BA in music, but in choral conduction instead of vocal performance

-paid more attention in ear training and music theory classes (and actually retained more information than just how to identify the "Foxy Lady" chord when I hear it)

-made an album

5 flowers I love to see growing

-tulips

-California poppies

-night-smelling jasmine

-hydrangeas

-camellias

5 most wise mentors

-Mary Ann, who taught me that nothing can be done perfectly, but that it's important to still strive toward it.

-Isabel, who gave up her kid-free Saturday mornings to hang out with a goofy high schooler, and told me that you shouldn't expect your spouse to change, but you shouldn't expect him not to change either.

-Mary, who included me in her busy household, and taught me that intense study and community are amazing things indeed.

-Bill and Joyce, who counseled us that in marriage, many, many things can be repaired on long walks.

-my parents, who pray for me and who have always known when to let me figure things out for myself.

5 things I appreciate about my mom now that I'm a mom (NB: This list is not exhaustive)

-giving up years of good sleep to care for me and my brothers

-teaching us to make all the good things she cooked: whole wheat bread, granola, fruit leather, balanced meals

-needing to take time off on our vacations to just lay by the river and read

-teaching through example how important it is to help others in whatever ways we can

-never making me feel shame