Life’s a Party: Part 2 [RANT]

One of the many roles I take on as a mom is party planner. My youngest decided to make her arrival at the beginning of May, so sometimes her birthday falls on Mother’s Day. Not this year, but I already had a commitment on the Saturday closest to her birthday, so I got to plan multiple celebrations.

Technically, her first party was at Nana’s. This preceded me falling down the well of microfilm of obsession and was planned by Nana. My duties for event centered around releasing new friends from packaging as fast as presents could be unwrapped and consolidating Christmas, Easter, and birthday gifts, so we left behind as little as possible. We succeeded to the point that no meltdowns resulted.  I think I was also expected to eat a quarter of a sheet cake in a twenty-four hour period, but I did not accept that challenge.

So the first celebration that required my attention was a treat to be shared with friends. Some parents send in little gift bags, but I am a major slacker and skipped that stress. I decided to send in Tastycake Krimpets. The kids love them. We are close to Philadelphia. Perfect, right?

Nope. As I walked my daughter home from the bus stop, which happens to be on a busy road with cars zipping by and revving their engines as they blow past buses with their stop sign out, she informed me that I didn’t send in enough treats. I strained to hear her explanation until it finally made sense.

I sent in twenty-four cakes for a class of eighteen. They happened to be twin packs, which I have sent in before. It just means the teacher has to separate them and give each child one krimpet not a two pack. But there was a sub. And the sub didn’t do math. And the sub told my daughter to start passing out packages of cakes. Luckily, it sounds like the first graders figured it out and shared, but I still got whined at all the way home. And I am a mama who doesn’t like my child to be upset or disappointed if I can help it. There are enough disappointments in life that I can do nothing about.

Part of the reason I didn’t load all the kids up on sugar is that this was my daughter’s actual birthday. I knew that she would be having cake at home with just the family. We did place a video call so her aunt and nana could watch her open gifts. She seemed excited about all of my carefully selected offerings. Dad got credit. Nana commented on how much stuff we bought her though it was significantly less than the birthday gifts she got at her first event. Then we sang and let her have her tiny cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes that I made look like Hello Kitty. Then, she played with her toys and insisted that all of them needed to join the hoard already overflowing her bed. Happy Baby! Happy Mama! Goal Achieved.

Now, I needed to focus on her actual party with friends not just people who share her genetics. At this point, none of the seventeen kids from her class had responded to the invitations I sent in. Thankfully, I bravely invited some other friends, so I knew at least four other kids could make it. This meant squeezing them into our house, the three usable rooms between me not wanting to tidy the upstairs and the basement still needing remediation from a flood in December.

I spent the next week monitoring the weather and tidying and re-tidying my house because rain and the threat of rain made it impossible to prep or plan for an outdoor party. Saturday ended up being a sunny day, but our backyard was still wet and overgrown, so we squeezed into the house. I dubbed it a success. Confetti cake was enjoyed. Gifts were opened and appreciated Even the adults seemed to have fun.

Of course, my tasks didn’t end there. I needed to tidy again. And someday, I need to find more room for all of the goodies Thing 2 got before Thing 1 has a birthday. 

And why didn’t I post? I got asked to give a talk at church last Sunday, so I got sidetracked by that. (Would you like me to post that for your perusal?)

Then Memorial Day wanted celebrated. I joined friends from church for breakfast in the park. I made some apple cider donuts. Boiling down the cider to make it more concentrated took more time than shaping the donuts.

We also had friends over for dinner, so I decided to make four desserts. I get excited when other people who eat a variety of foods show up. One of the desserts was brownies, so everyone could be happy. I made a yummy blueberry cobbler and save a couple of donut holes for sharing. I also made lemon strawberry pie, which didn’t set well, but I had ice cream because it goes with every dessert I chose, so it became a topping.

I may still be cleaning up from that  event by eating the few stray brownies.

So life is a party and I am the planner.

And it is not a small task.

Life’s A Party: Part 1 [RANT]

I hinted at the tale of my nerdy obsession with microfilm, so I shall try update interested readers on that particular endeavor.

First, you need to know that my church is about twenty minutes from my house on a good day. Second, you need to know that I kept finding construction workers turning a short street into a one way road. This also blocked my view of people turning the corner. So the real excitement involved getting there.

Third, a lot of people are afraid or disinterested in microfilm. Some of them seem to think they will instantly age or be attacked by spies if they think about this form of data storage for very long. Some people still want to access information this way. Not everything has made its way to the internet yet. And this nerd would argue that this is the ultimate backup. 

Anyway, since the scanner connects to a computer, I sought help from the church’s tech support team. I explained the scanner works but to get better quality images, it needs to be able to communicate with an ancient computer which was fabricated around 2016. We quickly discovered that it wasn’t connecting to the computer. She suggested an adapter cord. I placed an order on Amazon, and it arrived the next day.

I rushed down to connect with the new cord. This led me to two realizations. First, whoever got my beloved scanner working before hadn’t seated the card correctly in the tower. Probably because it came from an even older computer. When I disconnected the scanner, the card tried to come with it. I have trouble wearing watches because even a good one stops working after two weeks of contact with my magnetic personality, so I make it a general rule not to muck around with hardware. But we had a work around involving converting it to USB, so the computer was safe from my tinkering. 

Then my second realization hit. It had the wrong port to connect to the machine. So I took some pictures to guarantee success and started terrifying local nerds, geeks, and wannabes with my SCSI (usually pronounced scussy) needs. I feel nerdy hearts jumping with joy out there.

In two stores and one tech shop, however, I saw eyes widen with fear and confusion cloud friendly faces. I can just imagine the thoughts filling their minds.

“This woman wants what?”

“Does she know what she is asking?”

“Microfilm? No!”

Of course, that didn’t deter me. I rambled to a few friends, scoured the internet, and checked in with my geek guru. The common consensus came back as “what you want does not exist” and “no one uses microfilm anymore.”

But a friend of mine relayed my quest to her geeky husband and he volunteered to come reseat the SCSI card for me. So back we journeyed to the nice peaceful church. He attached the card more securely. I kept my magnetism out of the way. Then I waited for my tech support call, only to find out that our wires got crossed and she wasn’t available that day.

Back in the holding pattern, I began obsessing over the kind of party most people can get into: one involving cake. I will tell that story in my next post as I am hoping to post this one today. It is already four days late, and I need to stop slacking.

When tech support and I reconnected, we realized that getting drivers for my dear microfilm scanner required jumping through more hoops than us old souls had energy for. The scanner works to read microfilm, but our dear patrons will have to take a picture of its lovely screen to document their findings. So it was a wild journey, but it didn’t have quite the conclusion I wanted.

Still a good excuse to have a piece of pie in celebration though, right?

The Day Approaches [RANT]

Many years ago, in a small town known as Grafton, West Virginia, a little girl loved her mother very much. As she grew into womanhood, her love for her mother deepened. People celebrated Columbus for discovering America and  Saint Patrick for driving the snakes out of Ireland. Why wasn’t there a day to celebrate mom’s?

Thanks to Anna Jarvis, the second Sunday in May offers us reflection on the everyday superheroes who go by such names as Mom, Mama, Mother, Maman, Madre, and to some confused youth: Bruh. 

Even mothers who seem unworthy of the name find their children thinking of them on this of all days. I have seen a daughter excited to spend all her meager savings for a mother who couldn’t bother to see her kids when their residences were less than a half mile apart. I’ve seen a mother insult her adult child, only to have said child come running the moment she was needed.

There is a bond between mother’s and their children. It grows stronger when the mother cares for and nurtures her young. So we should celebrate mothers and the millions of little ways they say, “I love you?”

Has your mother ever:

Kissed your injured knee

Or held your hand when you were nervous

Or hummed or sung you to sleep

Has she ever made you breakfast

Or remembered your favorite treat

Or baked you a cake

Or told you about where you came from 

Or cleaned up after you

Or offered you advice

Or listened when you went on endlessly about your favorite thing

Or made sure you had at least one present under the tree

Do you know that she probably:

Prayed for you every day

Worried about the world you are born into 

Gave up something she wanted for something you wanted

Felt like she could never do enough for you

We are lucky to have mothers. And, of course, the wise ones know that they are lucky to have children. And we are lucky to have our aunties and friends and peers who help to nurture us in our own way.

So even if you can’t make it to a little church in a little town, make time to be grateful that one woman chose to give you life and that she or another woman raised you and cared for you. And if you weren’t fortunate enough to have the that second part, my heart goes out to you.

Poetry Month: Final Weeks [POETRY]

I finished poetry month strong, but somehow I didn’t post until today. I blame an obsession with a microfilm reader but the saga of that might be next Friday’s post, so I will leave you hanging.

What will my Friday posts contain in May and beyond? I think I’ve proven that I can’t post a novel as I write it. I actually started working on one and then a different idea latched onto my brain. Then I bounced back. I am still considering whether or not actual clones would help me do everything I need and want to do, but I fear a “Multiplicty” situation.

Day 19

Pen Persona

Pick me up

It’s been too long

Before you sup

Jot a song

Make a list

Write a note

Clenched in fist

On me, you dote

But you forget 

You just met

This device

Devil’s vice

Grips your soul

As I roll

Back once more

To obscure

Day 20

The Wrestle With Rest

Weary legs beg for cease

Worn heart warns of decease

If a moment of rest unfound

Brings the stress to abound

Yet here I stand on my way to rest

But I can’t until one final test

Is accomplished and feet will rise 

As lids cover weary eyes

So close to where I am still

But another task defies my will

And once more mom muddles through

No rest until nothing remains to do

Day 21

My Day

Seize it, grab it, call it mine

Buck up girl, straighten that spine

Every day was truly made for you

You decide to win, what you will do

Drop that baggage, let it go

Toss back your hair, let it show

Ignore them and the lies they say

Show the world this is your day

Day 22

Tell or Don’t 

Tell me all the secrets hidden

Or keep them close, unbidden

Tell me all the truths you know

Or stifle them so they won’t grow

Tell me what you think of me

Or nod along, confess not what you see

Tell me where you think your going

Or distract me with what we’re not doing

Tell me again what is the plan

Or tell me not for I’m no man

Day 23

Book ‘em

Well loved, well read

Lose your head

In the worst of times

Or solve crimes

Indomitable sleuth

Will find the truth 

Before you take a splash

Or remembered a dash

Of seasoning to flavor

A dish you can savor

Before diving back in

To see if whale will win

Or be defeated by man

Shelf after shelf, a plan

To turn each page

Read every word before last age

Day 24

Witching Hour

Her witching hour strikes at random

She sneaks about in her fandom

Catching glimpses of silly kids 

Who break their bones and flip their lids

Then she races from place to place

Soon shocked to see a groggy face

Begging her to return to bed

And place her pillow under weary head

She’s no witch yet at some unknown hour

She’ll give in to sneaky need for power

Day 25

Remembered

Pink shorts, flowers on long blue sleeves

Teardrops falling as all hope leaves

Chicken backwash in cocoa cup

Drink one more to stay up

This night will haunt a whole life 

More so for the would be wife

But three daughters will mourn still

A father who imbued in them skill

And patience to do the work right

And leave them wishing that this night

Had been a dream, waking to see

That worst nightmare isn’t reality

Day 26

Never Done

Start with waking

Then start shaking

Dust from your feet

Clean on repeat 

Help them dress

Build your stress

Make food to devour

Get them out this hour

As they learn

Try not to burn

Your breakfast, you dance

Hoping for a chance

To rest but that

Isn’t where you’re at

As tasks pile up

For after you sup

Day 27

New Plan

The old plan has failed

And all hope has sailed

That you can excel

But that is as well

Because revaluation

And weeks of tabulation 

Have brought you here

To a plan more dear

That will lift you above 

To that which you love

So you can become you

And live life anew

Day 28

Red Rims

Glasses return to hide eyes

That wear sorrow to disguise

Yet one needn’t hide the red

No one is looking for their pain

Some days they could be dead

For all the notice they obtain 

Eventually the tears can’t flow

And we can’t hide, all will know

That one was unworthy, other wept

As they struggled and vows kept

So open your eyes, comfort the red

Before you have lost, before it is said

Day 29

Near

Near the beginning, so new 

The very thought of you

Sends shudders up my spine

And hope that you are mine

You could look me in the eyes 

And ply me with lies

But now your truth slips in

You just wanted to win

And now, if you can’t begin anew

I might need to release you

Are we near the end

Have I lost you, friend

Can you remember respect

And not wanting to reject

Every word from my mouth

When did you turn south

While I headed northwest

This isn’t us, isn’t for the best

So apply yourself to this

Or you’ll have me to miss

Day 30

Weary Once More

Rest never came

Behind closed eyes

Now we wait again

Will we sleep

Or toil until

Oft weary muscles

Drop over-worked bones

To a solid floor

While fluttering thoughts

Fill an aching head

For some weariness 

Is the way of the world 

And a bonus:

Pensive

Deep in my nature

I am only only here to write

What you want to say