violetismycolor

the inevitable Prince William sighting...

Okay, so Adam has been at St. Andrew's for 2 weeks and he finally saw HIM...here is the record (from Adam, himself):

I apparently saw Prince William. I didn't know what he looked
like, but I was walking down the street and one of my friend points
out, "There's Prince William!" I kind of frantically look around and
don't see him, and then he walks right by me and my friends all call
me a dumbass. End of story. Now I kind of know what he looks like.
Also, the person who lives across from me said he met Prince William
at a party and, while extremely sloshed, my friend told him that he
had herpes (I don't think he does). Apparently Prince William is very
understanding when drunk.

Also of note was the snobbishness of some of the folks he has met there:

I've recently come to realize how, well, posh this place is. I
apologize for using the British term, but I don't really know how else
to describe it. I've known a lot of really wealthy people, but they
don't come close to the people here. They WEAR their wealth. You can
just tell that a lot these people are upper-class. Yesterday,
for instance, we were walking back from town and a girl we were
walking with made the comment that she would never be able to date
someone from a bad neighborhood (different word, but that's the best
translation I can give). Now this offended us because of the four
guys there, two were from those neighborhoods and I lived in Salem for
two years (when I asked what the word she used meant, one of the
people said, "a place like Salem" (they were from America, so they
know what it's like)). Then when we started making fun of her for
being so posh, she got mad at US.

There are other great quotes from people, too. For instance, we were
going up to someone's house that looked like any student house in Salem.
A girl we were with said, "This looks like a place a WORKING person would live.
It's hideous."
(Another quote from this girl: "I just love getting people fired.
It's like my hobby.")...It's not really so bad that they say these
offensive things, it's more that they don't REALIZE that they're being
offensive. I'm not exactly poorly off myself, but I feel so out of
place sometimes.

The good news for his parents is that Adam apparently has learned the proper non-snobby values that we have tried to instill in him.

new fall theme...

I was inspired (by Loobylu and others) to change my logo up-top to be something more in the theme of the cooling weather of the fall. What do I love to do in the fall? Heading over to the skating rink at Oaks Park here in Portland, and skating around, mostly in circles...

When I was a little girl on the dairy farm, we had a long driveway. When I was about 5, it was converted from a gravel drive to a cement one. My folks bought us all roller skates (the expandable kind that you put over your shoes) and we would skate the evenings away, to our heart's content. I became quite good at turning and skating backward and I must admit, I thought that I was pretty darn skilled. I could do *some* things that the ice skaters could do. I am sure that my parents watched, very amused, but hiding their smirks from ME.

By the way, I WANT a cute little coat, matching hat, and muffler to go skating in, too...

Anyway, happy Fall, everyone!

and then there's Bonnie...

Bonnie is writing a little in her blog (which she even lets ME read...). Here are some snippits (don't you love that word, 'snippits'?) from her latest entry:

Why is this hell week for everyone? What is it with the end of September and professors going, "Hmm, I think the students don't have enough work. They have too much free time. Tests, I say! Tests! And papers! And more reading! Hahahaha...that shows THEM!"

Everyone in my psych class is stressing out. The prof has said that the average grade on tests is, like, a C. Uh...not good. And our entire grade is based on four tests. And there are about a billion vocab words--plus main ideas, important concepts, etc. *headdesk*

On the bright side, there's a really cute boy who is in the East Hall psych study group (about four to five of us who get together and study). It's the little things.

Unfortunately, Bonnie called tonight and says she has the flu. Poor baby...

ah, those crazy Scots...

So, here are some choice clips from Adam's newest newsletter (sent to all his friends, as well as his parents):

I've also joined the Ultimate Frisbee team here to get some excercise. It's pretty funny watching them practice because you know almost immediately who the Americans are (they're the decent ones). When *I* am above average in Ultimate, that's saying something.

When we had our dorm meeting, the hall supervisor told us to smile and say hello to everyone we see. That way we're not only friendly, if someone is in the dorm for a nefarious purpose, it can scare them off. That's right, guys. Here in Scotland they fight crime with the POWER OF SMILES. Dorm life is weird, if only for the massive amount of alcohol in the building.

I've started unconsciously picking up british slang and inflections in what I say. I'm such a conformist. For what it's worth, I've also already impressed some Americanisms in my British friends. Take that, Britain! But these small things are what makes it weird to live here.

Things here are very similar to America, but there's so many minor differences that just throw you off. The most important difference, however, is their lack of pretzels. I went into the grocery store and asked where their pretzels were. The person working there looked at me like I was mad and said (as if stating the most obvious thing), "We only have those during the holiday time..." wtf, mate? Only during the holidays? I'm not sure what I'll be able to do without pretzels... Speaking of holidays, apparently on Halloween here if people don't get their "treat" they really do do tricks, and it's things like POPPING PEOPLE'S TIRES. Brits are mean.

So, there you are...a little look at life in Scotland, through the eyes of an American. Interesting...

new phone, new fun...

Yay, got a new phone today...one of those cool ones with a camera and color and lots of fun ring tones. This is the picture that I took of myself and am using as my phone 'wallpaper'.

I spent hours just reinstalling my phone book and doing that whole voice-activated phone book thing. What a total techno-nerd I am. All my friends think that it is just hilarious that I know all about all that stuff, whether it is phones or cameras or computers. They wonder why I find it so interesting. Don't know, just a nerd, I guess.

The actual reason that I got this new phone is that my husband's Sprint service is terrible; he can't get it to work in our house, even. I was on Verizon, so he switched over. He got one of those new Palm-Treo's (with the phone, pda, etc. all together). And we wanted to be on a family plan so that my daughter-in-college could call us whenever she wanted. All phone calls between Verizon subscribers don't count against your minutes and all the long distance is free. She is getting a phone just like mine. I have to put hers in the mail to her on Monday. She will be so excited to finally get it.

Speaking of college-daughters, Bonnie sent us an email this morning that basically said: I have this thing that is a hang-nail, I think. It has been red and puffy and sore, and I have been ignoring it. But this morning when I woke up it was green! What should I do?

What the hell? Of course, we sent off an email apiece (both John and I) saying, 'Get thee to thy doctor, immediately'. And for good measure, I called her, too...just to strongly reiterate the message. Of course, now she knows that it is good and infected and she is on antibiotics. Don't think she will let something like that drag out again, but having a mom around that always reacts fast to such things can be helpful in staying safe and healthy. Why oh why do we have to let them grow up and go to college?

Hint: I do know the answer to that, but it makes me feel so much safer to be in control.

Love that Joan...

Yay, the premeire of my favorite show was on tonight. I just love Joan of Arcadia.

What do I love about it? I love that it makes Joan's relationship with God so personal. I love how she is allowed to have her doubts and her anger and her curiosity and there is no one telling her that she has to see her faith in a pre-determined way. I wish that I could run into God here and there and have him say funny, pithy things to me.

I love that it makes me think. It challenges me.

Now, remember, I grew up in a Catholic family. They didn't get really weird till I went to college (though I did do the whole Catholic schools, uniforms, nuns thing...) I even have a brother who is a priest.

There is no room in my family to deviate one iota from the Catholic dogma or the Pope's decrees. There is no room for questioning anything at all. I have been known to say that I don't believe in hell. I cannot believe the outrage that this comment can inspire. So, I am the family black sheep. They see me as some sort of less-than-acceptable, un-blessed Doubting Thomas.

This has been painful for me at times. I have come to accept that they have the right to hold whatever beliefs that they want, about God and about me. I have come to a point of peace about it. But it has been tough. Everyone wants their family to love and accept them and when that doesn't happen, it sucks. But there it is. Life. Rearing its less-than-beautiful head.

designing woman...

Have you seen Loobylu's beautiful Christmas card designs?They are so cute. I plan on ordering some, even though I have sent cards on Valentine's Day to my 'list' for the past 3 years. So, what will I do with the Loobylu cards? Probably send them around locally to the folks that I don't send the whole holiday letter thing to.

I started sending cards on Valentine's Day because:

1. I was totally overwhelmed at Christmas and didn't actually get around to writing my yearly newsletter till February.
2. I noticed that I tended to forget what Christmas cards I got; there were just so many of them.
3. People actually emailed me after receiving my February cards, saying that they loved getting something on Valentine's Day.

I think it is a pretty nifty tradition. AND it helps to cut down on all the stuff I have to do by Dec. 25th.

beeyouteeful pictures...

I picked up some slides today. They were pictures that I had taken way back when John and I went to southern Oregon for some twosome time at Tu' Tu' Tun Lodge (a Christmas gift from my lovely mom-in-law). They were so beautiful (thanks in part to the Velvia slide film) that they made me smile very, very hard.

That was the good part of the day.

Remember that yesterday I had to deal with garbage with Microsoft. Today, I had to call Apple about a few problems I have been having with my iPod. Let me just say that if what I went through is an example of the great service that I keep hearing about from you Apple people, then the world is in a pretty sad state. What should have taken about 15 minutes turned into an hour and a half ordeal.

I was going to try this great new chicken recipe but spent so much time on the phone (on hold and not) that I couldn't do the preparation that I was supposed to. Okay, we had a good dinner anyway, using the chicken, the green beans, and I had to make pasta instead of roasted potatoes BUT it was very, very frustrating. Can't you tell by the run-on sentences and whining?

So, tonight I will lose myself in senseless violence by watching the season premieres of Law and Order and the new CSI-New York. I would prefer comedy but there isn't any available. And I refuse to get caught up in the craziness of the new The Bachelor. Puh-leeze...

I have to do WHAT to it?

I bought myself this exercise ball...you know, the kind that you use to balance on, to use as a prop when crunching weights, etc. I went to blow the thing up this morning and found that they expected me to use this little flimsy plastic 'thing' (is the only way I can describe it) that one is expected to pump up and down in an effort to force air into the ball. First of all, it takes friggin' forever. I would pump about 100 pumps and then read 2 or 3 paragraphs from Vanity Fair, then pump 100 more. I would say it took about 2000 pumps to fill this thing up. The plastic 'pump' handle wasn't very well made and would sort of double over itself, bending wildly from side to side. I swear, you could NOT use this thing to pump up this ball more than once.

The good news: I got such a good workout from just filling the thing with air that I felt okay about excusing myself from actually USING the ball to do any other meaningful sort of exercise.

Okay, so now tomorrow I have to figure out how to sit on this thing without falling on my %!*#.

why I hate Microsoft...

Had to replace my old wireless mouse/keyboard when mine mysteriously and suddenly stopped working. Okay, it was 5 years old...ancient in the land of computers. I bought a new one that was Microsoft brand. Now the 0ld one was of the Logitech persuasion. Microsoft had snookered me into buying theirs by virtue of the $10-less-than-Logitech asking price. Bought it, took it home, then spent the ENTIRE day trying to get it to work.

Spent a lot of time talking to some guy in India who tried to talk me through a bunch of stuff that I already knew, but it took me a while to understand this since I couldn't make out half of what he was saying. He told me that it was Bluetooth technology and so shouldn't even need a new driver. Didn't work. The driver wouldn't install anyway, not even the one that he made me download from the website. He finally told me that I would have to call Logitech's customer service since part of their software must be still on my computer and complicating things. I insisted that I had carefully scrubbed every last little bit of old software off. I really did!

I finally got fed up and returned the damned thing, bought the Logitech model, and voila... it worked immediately.

What a total waste of my day.

On a brighter note, we spent last night out with my mom-in-law, celebrating her 91st birthday. Her day was absolutely MADE by the hostess at our restaurant who came by the table and told her that no one in the kitchen (who had all come out and had a look at her) could believe that she was 91. They all thought she looked much younger than that. She was thrilled. I wonder if I will still care about my looks if I ever get that old...

the prodigal son finally e-mails...

Yes, the boy DID arrive in Scotland, days ago. He says that he had no e-mail access (his friend, Seth, had his computer stolen almost the moment he got to the University of Edinburgh, where Adam spent Saturday night) and that the phone allowed no calling out at all, not even collect calls. He finally got to U. St. Andrew's yesterday, but again no phone calls out or e-mail. He finally signed up for his computer access this morning and quickly wrote an email. A touching personal note? Heck, no. A 2 page letter to his 'list', which thank God includes his parents.

Some highlights of his first days:

I arrived at St. Andrews the next day extremely tired. I had my first
real Scottish meal and I had - you guessed it - Haggis. Yes, they
served haggis in the cafeteria. It was honestly something of a
disappointment. It's been so built up, I expected a lot out of it.
It's just food. It tastes okay, kind of like sausage, I guess. The
scary thing was that I had to have the Scots sitting at the table with
me identify most of the food (I hadn't realized our meals were so
different). I also had black pudding which has - yummmm - pig blood
in it. It too tastes like sausage.

I went around doing the basic opening things during most of the day,
and also took a nap. After dinner, our dorm had a party where they
served free alcohol. I spent most of the time trying to imagine this
happening in the States. I felt sick as hell (note: he got a cold on the trip), though, so I just had
some punch. Everyone else went off to a disco about 10ish and I went
to bed.

Okay, folks, so that is it...he's safe and we can all stop worrying. I think...

oh where, oh where has my little Adam gone???

Have you seen this young man? He is 5'9" tall, 145 lbs, has curly, dark brown hair, brown eyes, an American accent, toting 1 heavy suitcase, 1 backpack, 1 Vietnam era duffle bag, and 1 guitar case. He was last seen at the Portland Airport and is supposed to be in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is also SUPPOSED to have called or emailed his parents to let them know that he has arrived safely.

Has he? NO.

Almost ready to call Interpol or whoever else will track down errant 20-year-old sons.

figuring out how people get here...

Okay, so I have some things to admit.

Number One: I am writing this blog without the knowledge of most people who personally know me. Yes, I am writing incognito. I haven't told my husband or kids (I would feel constrained to NOT say certain things...well, maybe...would certainly be yelled at for posting pictures that I think are lovely, but that my kids ((i.e. my daughter)) would find objectionable), my family-of-birth (some may recall some earlier entries where I may be less than enthusiastic about some of my interactions with family members that consider me cursed by the devil), my friends (whom I love dearly and would never say anything bad about but who might not want their names uttered on the internet), or to my husband's relatives (whose relations can sometimes be strained by complicated inter-family hoo-ha).

Number Two: I am insatiably curious about those who ARE reading my blog. I have been know to look at my statistics page (didn't know that I had one, huh?) to see where people are coming from. When I see that someone googled something and came up with my page, I am very intrigued. A recent one was the search combination of 'Horatio Hornblower' and 'Grand Poobah'. Wow...there were 3 possible sites to go to and someone chose mine. I have also been googled (during the convention) for 'Chris Heinz' and 'hunky', I believe it was.

Well, recently, a friend came upon my website by googling HIMSELF. (You know who you are.) I don't usually put full names in my site, but apparently I did this time.

So, what now? Do I come clean to my family? Do I casually tell them, 'Oh yah, I have this blog. Oh, and it has over 80 entries in it already.' Won't they be miffed that I never told them? Probably. Will they ravenously read it, looking for any entries about them? Probably.

Will I tell them? No. I think not.

I really write this blog for several reasons.

It is a place for me to work out some of my feelings about things. Sometimes I surprise even myself with the things that come out. And that's good. It stops me from packing all that crap deep down inside. It makes me less crazy (is this possible?).

I like being part of an online community. My favorite bloggers (Pomegranatesandpaper, Rubber-Sol, bluepoppy, vaguely specific, etc.) are becoming people I feel I actually know and care about. We are all creative types trying to express ourselves in this weirdly semi-public way.

I am working out my writing 'voice' or style. I love experimenting with the way it goes down on paper (or computer, you know what I mean). I try to keep plenty of white space in there, so it's not too intimidating to read and it's easy to skim. I like to see the way it looks on the screen. I want to add photos and illustrations every few entries, to keep it interesting looking.

It has become some insane habit. The days that I am away from my computer and can't blog, I get very uncomfortable and tense. Apparently, I need to write and I need to get all this junk out.

So, those of you who follow my blog, I thank you. I appreciate every comment. I love it that you can empathize with my life the way that I empathize with yours. I appreciate every page hit. It makes me feel just a little less alone in the world.

and so off he goes...

The whole gang went out last night for a last hurrah for Adam. He got to choose the restaurant, though Grandma was insisting on buying. He chose our favorite sushi restaurant, Sin Ju. Everything is great about this place: the location (in the Pearl District across from Jamison Square Park), the food, the ambiance, the private tatami rooms, etc.

John was worried that his mom would have trouble finding something suitable for her salt-free diet (isn't there soy or teriyaki sauce in everything?). But Mom had Shabu Shabu, and loved it. It was a very joyful time. Bonnie loves this place, too... In fact, this was her 'last dinner' place also.

Spent quite a bit of time, later, trying to figure out how to get money to the U.K. to pay Adam's tuition and room. All kinds of options were discussed like wire-transfer, cashier's check, etc. I look online and what do I find? We can pay it all by credit card. Which I do. Easy as pie.

Why hadn't Adam found this option? It was easy enough to see on the website. Who knows? Anyway, DONE...don't want to think about it again.

Bonnie called this morning and she got to talk to John and Adam, as well as me. She and Adam had a great conversation, laughing and joking. Then, off to the airport for us. No problems so far. He's on his way and we are back to our routines. I WILL miss that boy, though.

Have my dinner out tonight with my coffee girls. Celebrating Irene and Sandy's birthdays, though we hardly need an excuse to go out and have fun together. I always have an easy time of picking out my gift since it is ALWAYS a 9-piece box of yummy Moonstruck chocolates.

Well, off to the Post Office to send Adam's DVD's and sheetmusic to Scotland via the M-Bag (media mail). Cheap and slow, but there you go. It will get there.

24 hours and counting...

Adam leaves tomorrow. For Scotland. For school. For ever?

No, he's back at Christmas and then next summer. Almost as much as Bonnie will be, but it just feels like it's worse. Bonnie is 3000 miles away and Adam will be 6000 miles away, just about as hard to get to one as to the other. But it doesn't feel that way.

Is this just a mom thing? I am already starting to get that feeling of dread in my tummy. That feeling that says, 'Look out. Here comes a flood of icky emotion, and it's going to be all over you like Hurricane Ivan on Florida.'

What's a momma to do? I guess this is the hard, letting-go part that I knew was coming but I didn't want to face...

am I cool or what???

I went on one of my daily walks today and wandered into the card store where my son, Ross, spends alot of his time. This is a card store in the terms of Magic Cards...kids also play computer games there, and Dungeons and Dragons. This is what my son and his friends do, often, after school.

Anyway, I wandered in to check in with Ross. I was plugged in to my iPod and one of his friends asked about it, then told Ross that "your mom has my vote as the coolest mom ever".

Wow. That's all I have to do to be the coolest? I am now going to wear my iPod everywhere...

This morning, Adam, Mom-in-law, and I all went to the Original Pancake House for mega-calories of enjoyment. We ran into my ex-pastor, Charlie Brown (yes, that really IS his name), and he ended up eating with us. He is going to be asst. pastoring at the American Church in Paris, just blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. He told Adam that he just has to come visit him in Paris, and that he might visit Adam at St Andrews. What a hoot.

I want to go to Paris, too...

and now for something to chuckle about...

Very, very funny website:

www.monkeehub.com

Just watching the site load is fun, but then there are the animations.

The three to watch are:

Microsoft Pants
How to buy a computer
Net Parents

These made me laugh out loud, one of my very favorite things to do.

Try it, you'll like it, too.

how did she get so smart?

Bonnie has sent me her first French Lit paper. She was fretting big time over this one. She called and lamented her inability to express herself well in this language. AND she was writing an analysis of a POEM, of all things. A poem by a poet who not only used strange metaphors, but the verses themselves were in the shape of the objects that the verses described. How could she do this?

Well, I lamented along with her. How hard. How very complicated.

Then she sent me her paper. My French isn't all that great but I could understand it well enough. And it was fascinating. I knew that she was pretty good at doing literary analysis, but I didn't know she was this good...and to do it in another language.

It makes me feel pretty pathetic actually.

pudding...

Okay, so my word of the day is pudding.

Why?

Someone (whose blog I read) wrote that all they were doing was eating pudding all day. That was it. I was hooked. I have not been able to NOT think about pudding all night. There you have it. Pudding.

Now you are infected, too.

Adam is spending much of the evening in his room. He needed lots of sleep. He wanted to eat something 'not too greasy' for dinner. He didn't even drink milk with his meal. He drank water. He said he hadn't eaten anything all day. I certainly hope that he never does anything so stupid again. He will, at least, not do THIS stupid thing again.

I called my sister, Joan, cuz this is little Vic's birthday, or at least would have been. It is ironic that Adam did this thing on Vic's birthday. Hope the irony isn't lost on him. It isn't lost on me.

Joan is doing well. There were tons of friends that were over all day long, making sure that she and big Vic were feeling okay. I am so glad that she has so many good friends. I am so sorry that she has to be going through this. And pretty soon, Oct 4th will come around and she will have to relive the day her son died. How hard can life get?

Ross still likes his STRUT class (building computers) better than any other class. But he has only had class for two days. Who knows? He may grow to love English yet. I won't hold my breath, though.

I met with my client today. More work on my horizon. I am even hoping that the Wilsonville Historical Society will want to hire me to fix up all their archives of photos. Cross your fingers.

Wow, nothing else to say...

but pudding...

didn't we do stupid things when we were young, too???

Okay, so I felt like I was off the worry-hook when the doctor's office called to say that Adam's blood work was normal. Big sigh of relief.

So, what happened while I was no longer worrying about my beloved eldest child? Apparently, on the fun-beach-weekend-with-friends, he was busy celebrating one of said-friend's 21st birthday. And there was drinking (yah, I was in college once, too). And Adam ended up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. And, oh yeah, the 21st-birthday-kid...he was taken to jail for buying alcohol for a minor.

And when did I find this out? Did one of his friends think they should call his parents? NO.

I got back from meeting with my current photo client, and Adam is asleep, and his dad has gone out somewhere...Adam wanders down after his nap and I unsuspectingly ask him why he came home so early. Were they bored? No...and he lays down the word on his recent unconcious state.

Wow.

What can you say? I told him that I was glad there was no permanent damage. I told him that I hoped he and all his friends had learned some huge lesson. I told him stories about a couple of my own incidents of stupidity and drinking when I was in college. I told him that we all made mistakes and that it is always tough.

The worst thing is that today is the birthday of my nephew who died last October, in a drunken driving accident (he and the young man who was driving were both drunk) and I still have to call my sister and make sure she is handling today all right. I am so glad these kids were not driving. I did ask Adam if the kid that drove him to the hospital was sober. He assures me that whoever it was, was sober...but how does he know? He was unconcious!!!

He was horribly embarassed about what happened, but I am proud of him that he told us, honestly and without trying to make it seem less than it was or without hiding anything.

He is going to Scotland on Friday, to go to college there, and I know that the Brit college kids are big drinkers. He is better off to know how dangerous and stupid it is to drink like this. He assures me has has learned, and I believe him.

Raising kids is hard and scary work!