This’s and Thats….

The spring days stretch out in front of me and I wander happily around my house and yard doing little this’s and that’s. I hear a wee nagging voice in my head, because I know in the months ahead (usually in October) when I am in the midst of impossibly packed days and to-do lists that are a yard long—I will look back on the days I am now enjoying and WISH I had made better use of this leisurely time.

But it’s just too delicious to NOT be busy with anything.

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I went to a garage sale last week that was like a Really Great Dream. A Denver costume company was downsizing, and had donated a truckload of costumes/accessories to a local youth group fund-raiser. Area theatre folks were invited to come a day earlier than the general public, so with very few expectations and a morning to spare, I went.

At the sight of the huge hall filled with racks and tables over-flowing with piles of Really Great Stuff, my heart started pounding. When I saw things priced at garage sale prices, I got positively light-headed. I was like a kid in a candy store…(or, as someone else put it, I was like “Ms. Kari at a costume sale”.)

Within one giddy hour, I had a huge pile of treasures piled onto a nearby couch. I found felt top hats and bowlers—(the REAL ones that can’t be found for under $60 each), for $4 each. Feeling faint, I stacked up as many in black and in grey as I could carry before they were soon discovered by other gasping costumers. I gathered tux jackets, waistcoats, vintage top coats, hats, turbans, wigs, tights, boot-spats, buckles, ostrich plumed follies head pieces, gloves, cummerbunds, cravats, vests, pirate coats, neck ruffs, belts and…..well, you get the picture.

This is the kind of stuff that sends adrenalin rushing through me… as exhilarating and heart-pounding as a 4 mile walk…(can’t I just do THIS for exercise?)

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Speaking of which, I am going to take the prancing poodle for a walk in a little while. Chloe just got her haircut yesterday, and she looks quite fancy. Other dog-walkers inevitably point and smile, stop to pet her, and tell us that we look like a matching pair. I will take that for humor rather than insult and we will be on our way. And I’ve discovered that I can walk for miles and miles if I am listening to a book on tape. Don was aghast when I recently insisted on buying an old fashioned battery operated walkman tape player.

“With everything that you can download onto your i-pod, you want a TAPE player????” he exclaimed.

“I get can get hundreds of books I want to listen to on tape at the library for FREE. Back off, Mr. i-pod idolizer!”

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“Well the years spin by and now the boys are twenty….…”

It’s such a cliché, but it just doesn’t seem so long ago that I was saying “We have three 16 year old sons.” And suddenly they are all 20! TWENTY!!! Don and I find ourselves in that universal state of parental shock–and we are consciously trying to dig our heels into our life to “slow the circles down”.

Of course it doesn’t work, but we are trying to pack as many substantive moments as we can into these fleeting days and weeks.

I have been enjoying a surprise re-connection with two high school friends who were dear and important along the travels through my life. We are having a mini on-line reunion of sorts, which has been such a treat! Those days and memories are coming back to me in waves of affection–for the ways in which those times and friendships helped to form us into who we are now.

Don listens to different serious classical music everyday on his i-pod, as he delivers packages. Stravinsky, Ravel, Prokofiev, and even Korsakov are some of his recent listens. (I say “even Korsakov” because that particular composer usually makes him roll his eyes. He thinks the pieces are too “pretty or programmatic” and over-played.) But yesterday he listened to “Scheherazade” and got teary-eyed at the loveliness of it. He enjoyed thoughts of me as a little girl listening to and loving that piece. He growls that old age is making him into a softy.

The boys call us often—and they all sound wonderful. They are growing up and laughing about their newly independent lives and discoveries. Ian called Don the other day to apologize for all the milk he poured down the sink when he was young. “I can’t believe that after I finished my cereal I used to just pour all that milk away! Milk is expensive!!!” he laughed. They send pictures to Don’s cell phone of amazing icon art at the National Gallery in D.C., or of their sparkling clean stove top and counters—both images certain to make Don grin. Charlie sends me his stories to edit and calls just to chat with me. They are growing well, these boys of ours, and they bring tears of happiness to our eyes.

My mom often gets smiling tears in her eyes when she gazes at us, her now grown children and loved ones. Although I’ve always understood why, and loved her for it—I now KNOW why. It’s when the bigness of love, hope, and pride that we hold in our hearts for our children is almost too terrible, too wonderful, and too much to bear.

Later, m’dears! It’s time to kick off my sock monkey slippers* and head out the door with the patient poodle.

:)xo

Adagio

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*family—please know there is a big safety pin through the nose of the left sock monkey slipper. The right sock monkey slipper is unscathed for the moment, but it fears the future machinations of gleefully twisted minds………