Packing for a trip

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Maybe this on, or maybe not,
 decisions, decisions...

Okay. I am packing for a trip that has come up unexpectedly.  Which while lovely has created, in my mind and no where else, dilemmas to overcome.. The questions begin:

1. Which suitcase?  The larger one is nicer, but is a pain to put in the over head compartment. Do I want to pay $25 to the airline or use a smaller suitcase? This takes way more time then I actually have on hand to spend. 

2. What is casual in a hotel that is $$$$ dollars a night?  I have a feeling it is NOT my usual "casual" that I wear day in and day out. That leads to an even greater waste of time as I waffle back and forth between my limited "casual " wardrobe.

3. I have suddenly decide that I must complete, oh say, a hundred tasks that have been waiting months, maybe even years to be completed, before I can leave on a jet plane. Sigh.

4. Do I have anything interesting to read? More interior conflicts arise. Should I read one of the million and one choices I have at my fingertips or do I need to go and find a new book for this occasion. Or should I take six or seven, in case, I am in the mood for something other then the one I most likely will have the time to read. (This question stems from the one time I ran out of reading material on a trip, which has left me scared for life.) 

The inside of my very messy knitting bag.

5. Which handbag should I take? Or should I take a handbag, Do I need to take two handbags?

6. Knitting, I am sure I will have time to knit, how much yarn should I take, what size needles should bring? DO I have the pattern, or what am I going to knit anyway? Maybe I won't have time to knit. (The clock is ticking as I waffle yet some more.)


SO you can see, so many questions and so little time, which is really the best way anyway. For one way or another, I will be on a plane tomorrow, my suitcase will be packed, I will or will not have what I need (or want) and in the end, I will still live.

 Life is good, sometimes, I just get waylaid.

Careful Consideration

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My view of Lake Michigan. 

Today,
I wait for words,
to
whisper to me,
wisdom.

While laundry whirls,
I wait,
wondering,
will it wander
past me?

Careful consideration,
allows allies avenues of
entry into my thoughts,
while wisdom
waits in the wings.

Woodpeckers - no kind thoughts

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This is where I would like to work peacefully,
 with out a woodpecker driving me nuts. 

There is a woodpecker that is single-handedly attempting to make me go crazy. What is that movie, you know the one, where the main character is being sabotage to think she is loosing her marbles? That is how I have felt this whole week.

As I sit in my office each morning to accomplish all of the tasks at hand, a lone woodpecker joins me, only it is on the outside while I am in the inside of the house. It is like living in the middle of a rehearsal of the percussion section of the orchestra. Or when I was a kid, and my older brother practiced the snare drum, I can hear my mother now, "must you do that now? Find somewhere else, would you, how about the garage?"

The bird works it's way across the siding like there is no tomorrow. While I, intermittently throw open the window closest to where it is machine gunning the house, and yell things like: "Would you please stop?!" or "Knock it off!" or "Go away!". Until that is, my eighty-seven year old widowed neighbor, who I might add is very hard of hearing, comes over and asks,, "were you calling me?" Embarrassingly,  I try to explain that I am just yelling at a woodpecker, to which she relies, "What did you say?".

It even drives Clementine nuts.
Well, maybe she already is...but we love her just the same. 

Other times, I resort to getting up from my desk, running outside and waving my arms at the blasted bird, who only turns and looks at me,  and then,  VERY leisurely,  hops to the tree next to the house, looking at me like:  Boy, is she crazy. Which I am heading towards,  very rapidly.

My husband's response to the bird is less civilized. Fortunately, we do not have any C-4, which I might have wrong, but I think is some sort of explosive. Before we begin to look like Wiley Coyote,  and the Road Runner, I remind him that the bird would not be there if there were not some sort of insect in the siding. Which makes him even happier.

So, today, I am waiting for the man to come and give me
quote on cement siding to replace the cedar siding we currently have. ARGH! We have been in this house twenty-eight years and the on going discussion has been: paint again or change out the siding. The price tag will provide the answer.

 As I write this, I have visions of little woodpeckers with bent beaks, (if we were to go with the cement siding option) thinking to themselves, "Holy Cats! I had better find a new victim."

Weekend Wedding

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The bride's bouquet, I made for her.

This last week end, my husband and I attended a wedding together. While we knew the groom longest, his new wife had become, over the few years they had been seeing one another, a very dear friend too. It was a second marriage for both of them, and while neither were in the bloom of youth, they were certainly in the bloom of love on this, their wedding day.

It was a small affair, maybe only seventy or so people, versus the large extravaganzas we have grown to expect with our children's friend's wedding. Each detail was them. From the invitation sent, (Yippie Skippy! we are getting married) to food served, and wedding cake, (I do love wedding cake) which was in the French style versus the American frosting upon frosting delicacy.

Flowers that I made for the reception. 

As my husband and I sat in the cozy chapel, it barely sat all of the guests, seeing so very intimately the bride and groom as they made their vows, I felt the very room breath in and out from the people around me as we watched with emotion. Some were young, on the threshold of life, some towards the end of their days, and others making a break with the life they were currently engaged, in for paths new to them.  All in all, very moving and very thought provoking.

My husband and I will celebrate thirty-five years of marriage later this month. Hearing the words very similar to the ones we promised each other all of those years ago, I felt my breath shorten, and tears sting  my eyes. I was overcome, thinking how easy it is to discount and disregard these very lofty promises of: kindness, fidelity, and honesty with one another, till death do you part.  I felt a renewed love for my spouse, while at the same time acknowledging, we have often failed in our attempts to love each other. That being said, we both have kept attempting to do so.

One of the corsages I also made.

After we moved on to the reception, and eventually back home for the night, I silently remembered these two newly married people in my prayers, knowing this endeavor called marriage, needs many prayers, much patience, and  the ability to suffer long and still be kind.