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It's been a rough couple months in our friend circle. Most is not really my news to share, but most of my non-work time that isn't absorbed by ARR has been absorbed by providing absorbent shoulders, plying with alcohol and chocolate, making shiva calls, arranging memorial donations, circulating resumes, helping pack and move. This on top of the end-of-school festivities, on top of one of the biggest marketing campaigns of the year, on top of a website launch that's been two years in the making. It's...not left a lot of time for writing or really much else. (To be clear - I'm really happy that I'm in a position to be able to be a rock for a number of other people. First, because it's because I'm immensely privileged and very much aware of that and grateful for my good fortune. And second, because it means at least there's something I can do. I cannot fix their lives, but I can help smooth some of the paths to them getting their own lives back together.)
We're...fine. Better than fine, really. I'm having a great year, and so is ARR, and I feel a little survivor-guilty about that, but it's not like I did anything to cause the various griefs. Some things that have been good:
- Joined a postcard-ing get-out-the-vote party before the primaries. We made so many postcards.
- Got the summer plants in, which included (with the help of my gracious parents) replacing all the soil in the front of the bed in the front of the house. I'm hoping part of why stuff has been growing so poorly there was the accumulated dog pee and road salt, and maybe some fresh uncontaminated dirt would help. So far, so good, although someone did already break part of one of the begonias. (The back of one of the back ones. Did a dog jump in there? Who knows.)
- Chuckro had an exciting birthday weekend, including a 10,000 Maniacs concert, a lovely party, and crab claws the size of ARR's arm.
- Reunions went smashingly well, despite the P-rade being a total disaster. They cancelled it part of the way through because of lightning, only it took awhile for everyone to get the memo. So Chuckro's class marched, out of order, for two thirds of the route before we got driven in by torrential downpour. So people got to see the capes he had custom made instead of their official theme, which was "Jogging." ("Jogging"??? Last major reunion, their theme was "Golf." We've been joking his twentieth is going to be "Lawn Care.") Everyone else had a miserable half an hour crammed into hallways with other wet miserable people. We retreated to the soft play area set up for the 15th's kids, which was quiet and uncrowded and full of playmates and toys. ARR had a marvelous time. The fireworks managed to NOT get hit by lightning this time, so we even got a full display. (I think they rushed the lady who gives the speech through for fear of more lightning, so the stupid speech was mercifully short this year.) We basically got everything we wanted out of the weekend.
- Things that are deeply distressing in a not-actually-deeply-distressing kind of way. My theme for my 10th was "Ten-Tucky Derby" which was mediocre at best, but was a disaster of an execution involving overly large but see-through jockey pants. I was talking to our class president - his idea had been "Pirates of Ten-Zance" which would have involved pirate hats and inflatable swords and other great ideas, and he'd been overruled. I clearly have to put out a hit on our vice president before our 15th.
- Today was an entirely different adventure. We're launching a new video capture product soon at work, and we needed a $0 marketing stunt. It's supposed to be really easy to use...so I arranged for the marketing team to bring in our kids to prove "it's so easy our kids can use it." ARR was SO EXCITED. He gave an awesome presentation about dinosaurs. The whole day went really, really well, actually. I just hope the footage looks good when we're done editing it.
We're...fine. Better than fine, really. I'm having a great year, and so is ARR, and I feel a little survivor-guilty about that, but it's not like I did anything to cause the various griefs. Some things that have been good:
- Joined a postcard-ing get-out-the-vote party before the primaries. We made so many postcards.
- Got the summer plants in, which included (with the help of my gracious parents) replacing all the soil in the front of the bed in the front of the house. I'm hoping part of why stuff has been growing so poorly there was the accumulated dog pee and road salt, and maybe some fresh uncontaminated dirt would help. So far, so good, although someone did already break part of one of the begonias. (The back of one of the back ones. Did a dog jump in there? Who knows.)
- Chuckro had an exciting birthday weekend, including a 10,000 Maniacs concert, a lovely party, and crab claws the size of ARR's arm.
- Reunions went smashingly well, despite the P-rade being a total disaster. They cancelled it part of the way through because of lightning, only it took awhile for everyone to get the memo. So Chuckro's class marched, out of order, for two thirds of the route before we got driven in by torrential downpour. So people got to see the capes he had custom made instead of their official theme, which was "Jogging." ("Jogging"??? Last major reunion, their theme was "Golf." We've been joking his twentieth is going to be "Lawn Care.") Everyone else had a miserable half an hour crammed into hallways with other wet miserable people. We retreated to the soft play area set up for the 15th's kids, which was quiet and uncrowded and full of playmates and toys. ARR had a marvelous time. The fireworks managed to NOT get hit by lightning this time, so we even got a full display. (I think they rushed the lady who gives the speech through for fear of more lightning, so the stupid speech was mercifully short this year.) We basically got everything we wanted out of the weekend.
- Things that are deeply distressing in a not-actually-deeply-distressing kind of way. My theme for my 10th was "Ten-Tucky Derby" which was mediocre at best, but was a disaster of an execution involving overly large but see-through jockey pants. I was talking to our class president - his idea had been "Pirates of Ten-Zance" which would have involved pirate hats and inflatable swords and other great ideas, and he'd been overruled. I clearly have to put out a hit on our vice president before our 15th.
- Today was an entirely different adventure. We're launching a new video capture product soon at work, and we needed a $0 marketing stunt. It's supposed to be really easy to use...so I arranged for the marketing team to bring in our kids to prove "it's so easy our kids can use it." ARR was SO EXCITED. He gave an awesome presentation about dinosaurs. The whole day went really, really well, actually. I just hope the footage looks good when we're done editing it.
