I’ll be honest with you that summer hasn’t started off with a ringing endorsement for itself. My town seems to have moved into a cloud. We’re all drippy and even a little moldy. And we’re cranky. Sure this is a valley, but it’s New England and those two forces tend to play nicely enough together—or at least take turns.
I think that’s my way to say I do not have a lot to say that’s coherent or cheerful.
This week what I hope to be the final essay I publish for a while about lice appeared (in the New York Times—go with a bang, right?). Laziness and girls with very short hair are not topics the Internet commenter takes kindly to. It’s hair and so it’s kind of amusing, to be totally honest. The long and short (get it) of the thing is we were faced with the decision between hair and camp and out came the clippers (eventually). Well, then there’s more to the story. Anyway, if you haven’t yet read it and do, pile your comment on: I can so take it!
In the real world, I’ve been glad to make good on some of my Summer Wish List, specifically the ongoing house de-clutter project. It’s number nine. My housemate sent me a FB post someone she knew made of the link to my list, with a caption that went something like save for the turning fifty part and the kids, I think this is my list. That kind of made my day.
The three I am grateful for this week are far and near: far, Wendy Davis and all the incredible organizing that supported her breathtaking filibuster last week and far of course, the DOMA smackdown. Near, I’m caught—in part this has been highlighted by a yoga teacher’s exploration of intimacy as described by “staying with”—in a stay with moment and it’s not so easy and it’s also oddly rewarding to hang right where you need to hang, especially when your dear spouse hangs right with you.
And here are three to share:
I spent a fair bit of energy on the June 30th fiscal year deadline for Hampshire College. There was a challenge grant to pull alums in to donate. Lots did. I’ll continue to be a booster right here and say to any alumni to read this and didn’t give, please do now, toward the newly current fiscal year. The percentage of any stakeholder population’s donors counts extra. However, say you didn’t go to Hampshire but have a child—well, teen—in your life of the age to consider college. Check it out. Now. It’s a pretty amazing place.
Say you’re local to me and you have a kid and you cook and maybe your kid cooks too. CISA, as part of its 20th anniversary, has a recipe contest for kids in July. The site says kids of all ages. While I don’t think this means to channel your inner child, take kid with a grain of salt—and add salt to something interesting—and have at it.
Do you ever just feel so enamored by something or someone (cough, Wendy Davis, cough) you want at least the T-shirt? My friend Jennifer got the shoes. If you don’t want to buy anything just read about three year-old Madeleine’s visit to the State House in Texas.
