this is unintentionally a lot of curling and a poem
as it is now april - which, honestly, february feels like a million years ago - i will be a. posting more, and b. posting poetry. starting with the dog poem, as is traditional. arf. :D
They have a daughter now. She loves us
as he and Elizabeth once loved us,
and as we still love them,
as we love all three of them now.
If there is one word a dog has the right to use
it is that one.
People pull their punches, refer to dogs' love
with words such as loyalty, obedience, or even submissiveness,
but it is love.
We take long naps in the mountain sun, now,
or try to, while the baby tugs on our ears,
covers us with leaves, grass, and dirt:
trampolines on our ribs, just to hear us grunt.
We all go for walks, each day, the five of us.
He plants trees. They both do, on special occasions:
birth-trees, birthday trees, anniversary trees -
Maple, apple, cherry, ash and lilacs;
Larch, ponderosa pine, spruce fir and cedar.
As we walk, he talks to Elizabeth about their daughter,
being thirty years old someday and seeing these trees he's
planted for her. He talks about how he'll be
sixty-five, then, and she, thirty, and how she can look at them,
knowing he planted them for her: how big they'll be, then.
He strides from tree to tree, looking up.
We will be thirty years gone, at the time of which
he speaks, casting his thoughts into the future, and sometimes,
as he walks and says these things, he forgets
to look down at us, looks only ahead and beyond.
When we sleep for good, I would like a tree.
I would like Ann to have a tree, too.
We can be side by side,
on one of the hills that we used to explore.
My tree will be bigger. I loved him more.
Ann is the one he picked first. But he came back for me.
--from The Odyssey, by Rick Bass
also, happy birthday
ephemera! still and always my battybrain. ^"^
in other news, last night was actually the last curling of the season - it was for final standings for the league and we played the same team we played last week and lost to them AGAIN. i made like one or two good shots but not like last week. because it was the last game and the end result didn't matter we also switched positions each end which meant i had to skip for one end which is nerve-wracking and i don't like it.
(for those of you who don't speak curling - and if you do you can totally skip ahead - an end is like a baseball inning, only shorter, and theoretically we play eight of them in a game. we only get two hours tho so actual eight enders almost never happen. the positions are lead, second, vice, and skip, with the skip being the person who stands at the far end of the ice and tells you where and how to throw your stone. if your skip is out then the vice has to sub for them. they have to know strategy and they have to be able to make occasionally really difficult shots. i can do neither. i had to skip once in the fall when my skip couldn't make it and couldn't find a sub and i did it under duress and did not enjoy it. i cannot stress enough how much i didn't know what i was doing.)
anyway. it was a fun game and i liked my team and we did not suck! it's always nice to be on a team that can win without the other team having to forfeit. because my league apparently had the most volunteer hours (everyone has to volunteer eight hours a season altho i don't know how many people actually do) (i did three this season) we got pizza after the game. also one of the guys on another team baked a pistachio bundt cake which was DELICIOUS OMG. light and fluffy and just pistachio-y enough. my sundays are about to be my own again but aside from the 8:30 games (haaaaate) curling was fun this half.
and on saturday i went shopping with tamalinn and friend a because tamalinn needed work clothes. we met a tiny dog in one of the stores - her name was maui and she was very happy to get to meet new people - and had lunch and doughnuts and the weather was SO NICE. friday it was FUCKEN WIMDY and today i didn't leave the house except to get the mail but there's a little tree across the street that's about to bust out in pink flowers so i think it might really be spring.
last week was spring break at the u so it was VERY QUIET and now the students are back so tomorrow should be less so. fun, excitement.
They have a daughter now. She loves us
as he and Elizabeth once loved us,
and as we still love them,
as we love all three of them now.
If there is one word a dog has the right to use
it is that one.
People pull their punches, refer to dogs' love
with words such as loyalty, obedience, or even submissiveness,
but it is love.
We take long naps in the mountain sun, now,
or try to, while the baby tugs on our ears,
covers us with leaves, grass, and dirt:
trampolines on our ribs, just to hear us grunt.
We all go for walks, each day, the five of us.
He plants trees. They both do, on special occasions:
birth-trees, birthday trees, anniversary trees -
Maple, apple, cherry, ash and lilacs;
Larch, ponderosa pine, spruce fir and cedar.
As we walk, he talks to Elizabeth about their daughter,
being thirty years old someday and seeing these trees he's
planted for her. He talks about how he'll be
sixty-five, then, and she, thirty, and how she can look at them,
knowing he planted them for her: how big they'll be, then.
He strides from tree to tree, looking up.
We will be thirty years gone, at the time of which
he speaks, casting his thoughts into the future, and sometimes,
as he walks and says these things, he forgets
to look down at us, looks only ahead and beyond.
When we sleep for good, I would like a tree.
I would like Ann to have a tree, too.
We can be side by side,
on one of the hills that we used to explore.
My tree will be bigger. I loved him more.
Ann is the one he picked first. But he came back for me.
--from The Odyssey, by Rick Bass
also, happy birthday
ephemera! still and always my battybrain. ^"^
in other news, last night was actually the last curling of the season - it was for final standings for the league and we played the same team we played last week and lost to them AGAIN. i made like one or two good shots but not like last week. because it was the last game and the end result didn't matter we also switched positions each end which meant i had to skip for one end which is nerve-wracking and i don't like it.
(for those of you who don't speak curling - and if you do you can totally skip ahead - an end is like a baseball inning, only shorter, and theoretically we play eight of them in a game. we only get two hours tho so actual eight enders almost never happen. the positions are lead, second, vice, and skip, with the skip being the person who stands at the far end of the ice and tells you where and how to throw your stone. if your skip is out then the vice has to sub for them. they have to know strategy and they have to be able to make occasionally really difficult shots. i can do neither. i had to skip once in the fall when my skip couldn't make it and couldn't find a sub and i did it under duress and did not enjoy it. i cannot stress enough how much i didn't know what i was doing.)
anyway. it was a fun game and i liked my team and we did not suck! it's always nice to be on a team that can win without the other team having to forfeit. because my league apparently had the most volunteer hours (everyone has to volunteer eight hours a season altho i don't know how many people actually do) (i did three this season) we got pizza after the game. also one of the guys on another team baked a pistachio bundt cake which was DELICIOUS OMG. light and fluffy and just pistachio-y enough. my sundays are about to be my own again but aside from the 8:30 games (haaaaate) curling was fun this half.
and on saturday i went shopping with tamalinn and friend a because tamalinn needed work clothes. we met a tiny dog in one of the stores - her name was maui and she was very happy to get to meet new people - and had lunch and doughnuts and the weather was SO NICE. friday it was FUCKEN WIMDY and today i didn't leave the house except to get the mail but there's a little tree across the street that's about to bust out in pink flowers so i think it might really be spring.
last week was spring break at the u so it was VERY QUIET and now the students are back so tomorrow should be less so. fun, excitement.