Memorial Day 2011

Wishing you all a wonderful Memorial Day. It felt good to take some time this morning to remember.

Yes Michigan!

As it turns out, Newsweek named Grand Rapids in the top 10 of “dying cities” in the U.S. The Grand Rapidians decided to make a video in protest.

I love this city. It was so much fun to watch it and recognize exactly where they were filming. And I’m glad to know I am not the only one ridiculously proud of being from West Michigan! Now I just need a Bill Steffen shirt.

Summer Manifesto

I have a beat up notebook that I use to write down random lists, planning things, and just generally dumping out my brain. It has to be beat up because if it were all pristine and pretty I would never use it for fear it would get all messy (does anyone else have that problem? maybe it’s just me).

Last year I scribbled down a few of the “goals” I had for the summer, and I felt like it helped me a lot to remember to enjoy it. For me, something about writing it down makes me so much more intentional. In honor of the dutchkid’s last day of school, I decided to write it down here for this summer. So here we go:

I will make sure we make some memories, which usually are the small unplanned things like stopping for ice cream when you really should be eating dinner, going to the park, or deciding at the last minute, “let’s go to the pool!”.

I will eat popsicles and sleep in.

I will remember when my child is driving me crazy to play with her, that it is summer and it will be time for being busy when fall gets here.

We will eat outside whenever we can, go to outdoor concerts and have picnics.

We will go to the farmer’s market, pick our own berries and stay up late to look at the stars.

I will not think to myself when this fleeting season is over, “We should have..”, “I wish we’d…” or “What did we do all summer?” I will remember that even one memory is enough, and that we savored that rare feeling of being free.

So what’s on your summer manifesto?

Forever and a day

It’s official (not that there was any doubt).

1) I have been married a very long time and 2) I am most definitely old.

Thirteen years. You would think that after all this time I would have some sage advice about relationships and love, and yeah… I don’t really. It shocks me how fast time goes and I remember our wedding day so clearly. I can remember the way the room smelled when I got up that morning in Korea, and how surreal the whole thing felt. How could it be so long ago?

He still drives me crazy, just like he did when we first got married and I distinctly recall thinking, “What the hell have I gotten myself into?!” Over the years we’ve had good times and bad, and of course suffered through the requisite deployments and other fun things the Army throws at you. And while I love him more than I could ever express here, it’s not the mushy, soulmate, I-can’t-live-without-you kind of love. It’s the sort of love that’s forged through time, trial and commitment. He has widened my horizons, challenged me to be more than I ever thought I could, and very importantly with my checkered family history, proved himself unfailingly trustworthy.

Plus he’s still cute and makes me laugh. Trust me, that’s no small thing after you’ve been married forever and a day. I wish he were here today, just so that we could celebrate in our own low key way.

Now with both hands!

And just like that, with one music history final yesterday, my semester unceremoniously came to an end. It makes me feel weirdly sad and nostalgic. I spent 4 semesters with the same small group of people and really got attached to them. We are officially finished with the theory classes offered here. A few are staying and sticking around for another year before transferring, (like me) but most are moving on. Since I am the oldest member of the group, I feel a little like a mother hen. Like a dork, I made them all stand together so I could take their picture after our last theory class on Wednesday. I’m really going to miss them.

In other news, the cast came off almost 2 weeks ago, and being able to do things like play the piano, put on the dutchkid’s tights and open jars makes me so happy. My fingers were extremely stiff and sore after being in that cast for so long, but they have recovered relatively quickly. I still don’t quite have the same flexibility in the broken finger, but the OT I saw gave me some exercises that have helped a lot. My professors have been wonderful, and while I have to make up some lessons this summer, they couldn’t have been more understanding. It was harder than I thought to be on the sidelines, though. I am actually looking forward to the opportunity to perform again, which for me is absolutely unheard of.

But for now, I am looking forward to summer itself. A lighter schedule for everyone. The dutchkid is counting the days until she is done with school. I hope that all is going well with you, and if you have the time — tell me how you’ve been!