Category Archives: ourlife
Miles rolled over five times today. All on his own.
Actually, he rolled over once over Christmas, with Aunt Cheryl and Randi and me watching; but this firms it up!
I Like Our Life ...
Yesterday, Rene and I took Miles on a walk the entire length of Mill Avenue; from Tempe Town Lake to the ASU Art Muesum, then back. The weather was great. A Fall day in Arizona. Sunny. Clear. A slight chill in the air. The very hint of a breeze. We walked together, talking. Dreaming up things that we would do with Miles: baby sign language, swimming courses, mother/child yoga, the cub scouts… And I was overcome with a great feeling of contentment, that, “Yes. I like our life!” I was imagining ourselves in some other city, like Washington DC for instance, the two of us out for a walk with Miles in his stroller, just like today, only bundled up in new, winter clothing and surveying the National Mall… the museums… the monuments… and us, and love.
Early this afternoon, I was listening to this audaciously funny NPR interview which talked about Sleevefacing. Rene and I had some time between getting home from work and maybe going downtown or making dinner so we tried it! Here are the photos we took:
This weekend, Rene and I packed up Rigatoni and Alfredo, and went down to Phoenix Greyhound Park for the 2008 Weiner Nationals.
There was, as you would expect, dozens of dachshunds and their owners packed into the stands.
To manage two dachshunds in such a crowded public space took teamwork. So, we enlisted my Dad…
…and family friends and canine handlers extraordinaire Zoe and Anna.
This will be the third year in a row that we have done this. Every year, Rigatoni gets a little better at racing, and we get a little better at training her. But mostly, it’s great goofy fun for dog and owner alike.
P.S. Rene also blogged about the wiener races and my Dad should be sending us some additional pictures shortly… so stay tuned.
I believe this photo was taken in 2005, right after Rene and I took my parents down to the Paper Heart gallery to show them where we were going to get married. Afterward, we all went out to Rula Bulla’s on Mill Avenue where we enjoyed several pints of Smithwick’s (’smith-icks’), my mom’s favorite beer.
Below is a voicemail I’ve saved in my phone for the past year (it was so precious). It’s of my mom singing Happy Anniversary for our second year together. She certainly celebrated all the important things in life. Thank you mom! We love you.
I’ve wanted to try absinthe for a long time. Last night, the opportunity presented itself. And, while I would have been perfectly justified in not going out, I followed Rene’s lead and met Marcos and Darlene at Digestif in Scottsdale. The maître d’ was great! He had a passion for serving and appreciating absinthe. He had the presentation down, the history, the legend, the lifting of the recent legal ban. Earlier in the evening, I had surreptitiously passed him a T-shirt denouncing Scottsdale mayor Mary Manross that a local activist had handed me in the street. He was thankful for the shirt and came by several times to chat.
While we did not have any psychedelic experiences from the drink, its affects did add to the relaxed atmosphere. A parade of classic cocktails put Darlene at ease about a meeting she’ll be having today (good luck!). The drink emboldened me to offer carreer advice to Marcos as his new “life coach”. Evidently, it did not prevent Rene from revealing my scandalous “porn name” which, if divulged widely, I may never live down.
It’s kind of tough to allow myself some levity these past few days. But Rene’s been great; leading me around our own neighborhood and uncovering new tastes and sights among the familiar.
This past Sunday, upon leaving the hospital, my mom decided that she did not want to go back into the hospital again and that she would only accept hospice care. She said that she wanted to live out the end of her life at home with her family and friends around her in comfort and dignity.
Tuesday, my dad called me at work. He didn’t talk long but said, “John, your mother wants to see you.” It’s amazing the pull that those words can have over a person. I quickly dashed off a one sentence email and shut down my computer. I said to my boss, “I’m going to see my mother,” and within five minutes from picking up the receiver, I was turning onto the on-ramp to the interstate.
An hour later, I sat down next to Mom and started talking about how I sometimes think about her mom, about my Noni. I said, “Mom, sometimes I come home and talk to Gramma and I say, ‘You would have loved to see that’ or ‘You would love what Rene did today’. And my heart gets so welled up with positive emotion!” And my mom agreed, “Yes, and you will do that with me!” And I said, “I know.” And then I sobbed, the kind of sob that’s like an unformed word and caused my father to come in from the front yard and ask if anyone had called him.
Then I said, “but, you know how you sometimes have some lingering thoughts that keep coming back with people? How you wish you spent more time or talked about this or that?” And I told Mom I had one thought that I wanted to talk with her about, and that she could tell me how she felt about it and this way I wouldn’t spend my life second guessing it. I told her, “you know… we’ve had such a great life. How we never wanted for much and how you and Dad were always so giving. But I wonder, sometimes if I could have been more giving to you.”
She said, “John, John. You have been giving in all the ways a parent could ever expect. You all have, all you kids, have given me so much. You are all good people. You work hard and you are doing things that are interesting to you. You have good spouses and partners. And you are happy. And you are supportive of your brothers and sisters. And you all get along. And that is what any parent asks of their children.”
“John, let me tell you. You could have lived in a VW camper with your music. And you didn’t. Do you know how much heartache you could have given me? And you didn’t do that. So, please don’t worry. You have been giving back to your dad and me. And we are so proud of you, we are so proud of all of you.”
I just got a call from Rene. She made it to Paris just fine. She sounded great!
On the way, in the Dulles airport, she met a nice couple. They live in Paris and have a dachsund named Ricardo (or something similar).
Once the plane touched down, Rene wasn’t in Paris an hour when she was invited over to their place where Alfredo made his first doggie friend.
Already, I can tell that this is going to be great fun for Rene, our natural Parisian!
My Playing the Accordion from Miles’ Perspective ...
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