Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Summertime...

Today was our summer child care provider's last day.  Sarah has been wonderful, reliable, kind and fun.  She and the kiddos spent a lot of time at the beach and playground and played a lot of board games. This morning, before I left for work, there was a lot of very sweet sounding giggling going on.  We'll miss Sarah, but she'll still be in the area for a while, so this shouldn't be a permanent goodbye.  Harper keeps asking me if she can babysit again, for an evening here and there, and I keep telling her "yes" and then she asks me again and I tell her "yes" again.  She wants to make sure.

In other news, our cousin Nell (Eleanor Altie Stoddard) is spending the week with us.   She's been a true delight to have around.  Nell is my Uncle Tommy's only child.  Tommy is, as you may recall, my Champ's son and my mom's baby brother.  So Nell and I are first cousins.  Anyway, last night the kids put on an excellent play.  It was a play about a play.  Very postmodern.  If I do say so, I think all 3 of them are very talented actors.  Here's Nell and Pat, fully in character.




















These kids are the three youngest descendants of Champ and they are really quite the posse.  Harper and Nell have been as close as two people can be for all of Nell's life.  I have some cute pictures of them sleeping nose to nose when they were littler.  They LOVE to be together.  Harper would rather be with Nell than just about anyone.  But Nell is a couple years younger than Harper and this week I've noticed Nell and Patrick really connecting.  I'm happy about that.  Harper is enough older than the two 9 year olds that she's starting to see them as littler kids.  Because it's true that she's becoming pretty mature and grown up.  I don't think it affects her adoration of Nellie, but the dynamic has definitely changed, as I'm sure it will change again.  I like to think about how the three of them have each other and will always be close.  Very beautiful.  Champ would be proud.

I want to share a couple other tidbits with my readership (hi Mom!).  When I picked up my CSA vegetables today, Maryellen, our favorite farmer, mentioned the blog and that reminded me that I've been meaning to mention Old Shaw Farm.  We've been part of their CSA for several years now and it's absolutely one of my favorite things about summer.  The vegetables are beyond delicious, beautiful to look at, and plentiful.  And the Griffin family are delightful folks.  I first met Maryellen through work because, besides being an organic vegetable farmer, she is an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid, helping people who need legal advocacy and can't afford it. Pretty cool, huh? Today, Maryellen and Peter's daughter, Waverly (4) gave me a picture she'd drawn.  You don't get that kind of attention buying veggies at the Price Chopper or even the Coop!

The last thing I want to share is how exciting things have been for me at work lately.  This week and next week I am working with Pati Hernandez in a daily theater workshop for women.  I worked with Pati quite a few years ago and ever since we've been trying to make this project happen again.  Pati is amazing and someone I greatly admire, so I'm feeling really lucky about this opportunity to learn more from her.  The other work-related thing that's going on is that our sister program that serves the region just north of us is closing August 15th.  I won't go in to the reasons why, but the result is that I'm very involved with coordinating short term and interim services (and will also work on longer-term planning) for that county and a half.  I started my work with the battered women's movement in that community (working for the closing program) and as I left our initial planning meeting in Newport today, it felt like a full-circle kind of homecoming to be involved with the work up there again.  The community is very supportive and I saw some old friends/allies. Now that the community has expressed support for the plan, I'm going to be hiring and mentoring new advocates to serve the region.  A pretty big project, but one that somehow has me feeling serenely competent.  

Whew, all this running, working and blog writing has me happily exhausted!  And the summer air smells sweet tonight.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

It's The Eyebrows!



Auntie Sally pointed out today that in these pictures Harper actually looks just like her dad!  People always say she looks like me, which I love because she is beautiful.  But when you draw heavy eyebrows on her for a play...wow! Doesn't she look like Neil here?  Pretty neat.  But, as Sally says, "looking just like Harper (no offense to either parent) is the most beautiful way of all for her to look."

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A Thing of Beauty

I passed this guy riding his bike on my way to work this morning. Except he was wearing a yellow jersey and a backpack. I was lucky enough to see him as he was climbing a small hill; his specialty. Seriously, he looked like his body was doing what it was made to do. Not walk, not drive a car, not run or dance or skip, but ride a road bike (well, there's one other thing his body was made to do, but I won't write about it here). He was going fast and had perfect form and flow. Incredibly sexy. He averages over 20 mph on his commute. Pretty cool, huh?

I'm glad Neil can ride to work and back, especially these days as he is really unhappy with his job. I hate it when he's unhappy. He's such an easy-going, happy-go-lucky kind of guy and such a kind and good man, he doesn't deserve to ever be unhappy. If anyone wants to hire him for a new job, let us know. You'd be awfully lucky to have him. His only major requirement is that he be able to commute to work on his bike.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Notes from The Mikado and Other Busyness


Harper is finishing up a run in The Mikado this weekend. Here's a small clip from opening night. She's a Townsperson. Harper loves to be at the theater. Last week, when Patrick was in his show, Harper went early every night to usher. Tonight was really hot and, as you can see, the kids wear some pretty heavy costumes, but the girl came home happy and cheerful as always after a night on stage. And the play was excellent.  Good actors, projecting and singing with lots of gusto and talent.  And the set and costumes were beautiful, thanks to some parent volunteers who have a lot of talent.




Sadly, Peter and Maria left today. Peter and Maria fall under the category of "other wackos". They are family for us. It's funny how some people you only see a couple times a year, but then when you do get to spend a chunk of time with them, you end up missing them all the more. It's like the time together reminds you how much you love having them around. The days that I worked last week and came home to find them here, Maria cooking dinner and Peter calling family meetings or performing his "signature move", I felt like a puppy who is happy to see her companion people at the end of a work day. I wagged my tail. I wished we lived closer so we could see each other more regularly. In other good-company news, my mom and Wayne came back up this weekend for the show. They saw both kids' shows twice each and drove 200 mile each way to see them. What dedicated grandparents! And Grammie Robin came this weekend, too. So we were lucky.

On Thursday evening Pat's birth family, including some cousins he had never met before, came over for an early hot dog supper. Patrick was pretty pleased to have some boy cousins to run around with for a change. The baby (in big Pat's lap) is Pat's brother Matthew, who is 2 months old and doing great. The little girl is Patrick's sister, Kylie, who looks just like Manny did when he was little. It was nice to see everyone, albeit a tad bit hectic since Harper's opening night was also on Thursday.



So, after Peter and Maria left this morning (Neil was gone to yet another organized cycling event, the Mt. Ascutney Hill Climb), I decided it would be a good idea to get my long run in, since tomorrow I have an engagement at 11:00 am, meaning I'd have to get up early on a Sunday, run for a long time, and hurry home to get ready for the bridal shower. This turned out to be a really bad idea. Remember hearing about the Chicago Marathon last October? They actually called it off, but too late into it and it was a disaster. That day in Chicago reached a high of 88 degrees with 86% humidity; not good for running. Today, here, the humidity was about 90% and it was 83 degrees. But Chicago is flat, and I run a very hilly route, so even though I ran 10 miles less than a marathon today, when you factor in the hills, I feel like I ran the Chicago Marathon. I ended up doing a lot of walking, as I'm sure people did in Chicago that day, and my 17 miles ended up being 16.5. I bring my phone with me on long runs and I almost called for a ride a couple of times, but I didn't want to wimp out. I had to take a nap before going to sell refreshments at Harper's play. And I haven't felt much like eating, which is really f-ed up for me because I'm a big eater. But it's done and I feel fine now and tomorrow I can sleep in!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Body Movin'

Seems like time to write something about running, since I spend a lot of time thinking about it, doing it, planning for it and recovering from it.

As I've said elsewhere on this blog, I'm training for my fourth marathon, Montreal, which is September 14th. Montreal was also my first marathon, two years ago.  I guess that's where I first caught the bug.  Running into the Olympic Stadium was a thrill.  Starting on the majestic Jacque Cartier Bridge with more than a thousand other marathoners gave me chills. I have since run the Vermont City Marathon, in Burlington, twice. I was seriously considering running Montreal last year when, just as I was about to start training, this happened and I was laid up for a bit: 







So much for me and bikes.  I'll leave that to my husband who eats, sleeps and breathes cycling. As I write this he is watching the Tour de France.  He loves the Tour.  He says he'd even get on an airplane to be able to ride up some of those mountains.  

Anyway, back to me. Right now I am training harder than ever before and feeling pretty great. It makes me really happy to run 10 or 11 miles before work because it's an accomplishment. I'm especially happy when I can also be productive the rest of the day and not feel exhausted, which is generally how it's been.  In fact, I think I have more energy and pep on the days I do longer runs. I can't imagine a better way to start the day.

Every morning when I run I notice something different. Often it's the way the air smells or the quality of the light, which changes all the time.  Darling Hill is always beautiful, no matter what the season or the weather.  Today I was running on a bridge over the Passumpsic river and I looked down and saw a family of ducks! I've seen moose a couple of times and often see deer. There is an older man in a green pick up truck who drives by me every morning and waves. This has been going on for years. I feel like we're friends and if I ever notice him too late to wave back, I feel bad. Lately there is another runner on my route; a man about my age or a bit younger. He has a nice, friendly smile.  I see him once or twice a week. Often we pass each other going in opposite directions and then he turns around and passes me. He's pretty fast, but I don't think he runs long distaces. Today I passed a runner in Lyndonville. That made me feel fast!
Lately I see lots of black-eyed susans, which are my favorite flower, and that really delights me.  I often plan my long runs to include scenic routes, which isn't hard given where I live. There is a road about 2 miles long called Sugar Maple Lane that only has 2 houses on it and looks down into a green and lush valley. It's spectacular, as is the Kirby Ridge Road. I feel extremely blessed to get to run in these spots, despite all the hills.

I love to run on the trails, but for longer runs, I stick to the roads. When I road run, I usually listen to music. Lately some of my favorite running songs that really pump me up and get me going are Bubble Toes by Jack Johnson, Heartbreaker by the Rolling Stones, Sexual Healing (I have 3 versions; Marvin Gaye, Ben Harper and Soul Asylum. I like them all),  I'll Take You There, by the Staple Singers (ah, Mavis!), The Boogie that Be and Smells like Funk by Black Eyed Peas, any Led Zeppelin, and Body Movin' by The Beastie Boys. Body Movin' always makes me think of my young friend, Baxter, who introduced me to that song a few years ago. It's Baxter's favorite song for a dance party and once it comes on the stereo, you better watch out! Bax can really bust a move. My all time favorite running song (and maybe even all time favorite song) is As by Stevie Wonder. My favorite part is when he growls out these lines:

We all know sometimes life's hates and troubles

Can make you wish you were born in another time and place

But you can bet your life times that and twice its double

That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed

so make sure when you say you're in it but not of it

You're not helping to make this earth a place sometimes called Hell

Change your words into truths and then change that truth into love

And maybe our children's grandchildren And their great-great grandchildren will tell...

Sometimes when I'm running I just HAVE to dance. When that happens, I'm pretty sure anyone who sees me suspects I'm having some kind of spasmatic attack. And if it happens at the end of that Stevie Wonder song, it will surely involve jazz hands. But I don't really care if I look silly, because I'm running and I'm happy and on top of the world.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Girl and Me

I'm feeling a little out of sorts today, so I'm posting these pictures to cheer myself up. I love this girl.




Sunday, July 13, 2008

Maria, Peter and Jeff Thatcher

Patrick is playing Jeff Thatcher in the Vermont Children's Theater production of Tom Sawyer. This afternoon is the final show. Here he is last night in his big scene, the opening act of the play. If you hang in there long enough, you'll see Tom Sawyer forget his lines and Patrick try to help him out and lots of awkwardness. The kid playing Tom had been sick the night before. And on opening night he also forgot his lines. You had to feel bad for the poor kid. If you know Pat and the way he remembers songs after hearing them just once, you know that HE didn't have any trouble with lines. He did a great job in his play and we're all really proud of him. He had a lot of fun, too.



The other highlight of our weekend is that our dear friends, Maria and Peter, are visiting from Pennsylvania. They arrived Friday night and I think they are staying indefinitely. Seriously, I can't seem to get out of them how long they're staying. But I hope it's a long time. (An aside: Everyone in my house has been sleeping in this weekend so that yesterday I got up, ran, came home and showered and everyone was still asleep! Now I'm writing this and everyone but Pat is still asleep! Nice to have these quiet mornings.) Neil and I met Peter and Maria when we were in grad school at the University of Wyoming in 1993. They were a year ahead of us in school, so we only had one year there together, but they lived with us that last summer they were in Laramie. Well, mostly they lived with Neil because I was in Cody doing an internship for two months that summer. Anyway, since we all moved back east, we see each other a couple of times a year, usually for New Year's Eve and a visit in the summer. It's always a treat getting to spend time with them and they are a couple of the funniest people we know. They are also both really smart and thoughtful and especially kind to the children. And Maria is a fabulous cook. And they like to do the kinds of things we like to do; hike, bike, go for walks, eat, make crude jokes and drink lots of seltzer. Here we are on our favorite hike up Wheeler mountain.




Neil wasn't with us because he was doing a fundraising century ride for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center with our friend Fritz. In case you didn't know, a century is a HUNDRED MILE bike ride. My husband is amazing, isn't he?




Peter was Nature Man on our hike and whenever we were uncertain of the way, Peter sniffed a rock and led us out of danger. To be Nature Man you have to stick ferns and other greenery in your hat. Towards the end of the hike, Nature Man realized he was getting old and needed to retire, so he handed over the reigns to Patrick, who is now Nature Man. Peter also made up a song we all really enjoyed to the tune of Neil Young's "Love is a Rose". One line goes like this: Boogers in your nose but you better not pick them...
















When we returned from our hike at about 2:00, my mom had made bread and two pies and organized Harper's bureau drawers and done some other cleaning. She also had the music cranked up pretty loud. Then Mom helped me make dinner. I don't think the woman sat down all day. She's amazing. Here are the strawberry/rhubarb pies she made. Yes, they were as yummy as they look and there is still almost a whole pie left. Hmmmm....I think it's time for breakfast!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Jazz, Poutine and Things Pat Said

We've just returned from Montreal Jazz Festival. It was a pretty perfect weekend. The weather was beautiful, the crowds were colorful and we got to hang out with our feet in the fountain like we did two years ago at Jazz Fest. Then, however, the fountain was blue, instead of red.













Even Dad took off his shoes to enjoy the fountain.
And here's one of the cool stilt characters we saw.














Another thing we did in Montreal this weekend was eat poutine. Poutine is a THE regional dish of Quebec. It is french fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds. There are seemingly limitless additional toppings you can order with your poutine. Here I am enjoying poutine saucisse, which is poutine with cut up hot dogs on it. Montreal is an interesting mix of high class, urban sophistication and over-the-top tackiness, so I ordered this to see just how tacky things could get. It was awesome.
















Neil enjoying his Poutine Poulet.









On Saturday night, Neil and I got to go out for a late night dinner date. Before we left, Patrick decided he was going to get a slice of pizza for supper. I suggested that I could give him some money and he could walk down the street by himself and get the slice of pizza and come back and I would buzz him back into the building. We were discussing this on the deck and he said to his sister, very seriously, "Harper, do you think I can handle that?" They decided he could and he was proud as can be of his accomplishment. Here he is coming back down the street and then into the apartment. He did it again for lunch on Sunday, but the one pizza place was closed so he had to go to another which involved crossing a major street. We made a deal that he'd wait for the walk light even if other people were jay walking. Also, I apparently didn't give him quite enough money the second time, but he said the pizza guy was really nice and gave him the slice for the money he had. Next time we're going to rub dirt on his face and send him out with NO money!






























While we were talking about our date, Patrick predicted that Neil and I would probably kiss for a long time, like in the movies, fall in love and get married. That's pretty much what happened, but we didn't take any pictures.

Sunday morning we went for a family walk in Parc Mont Royal and enjoyed the views from the top. On our way, we walked by some tennis courts where a woman was approaching the courts. Pat said, "Is that big woman going to play tennis?" Then, in the park, this guy with long, wild, gray hair dressed all in black came out of the woods and Pat said, "Look! It's jungle man!" The whole outing was basically Patrick busting out with all the things he noticed and cracking us up.

Here we are at the top of Mont Royal where we played the fun family game "If Mommy and Daddy Got Divorced, Who Would You Choose to Live With?" After some discussion, Harper chose Grammy Cindy and Poppa Wayne and Patrick agreed. Pretty wise kids we have. (My auntie Sally taught us that a little Lenny Bruce humor is good for child rearing).
















And this is apparently a picture of Neil and me taken for the purpose of announcing our engagement. Really, who are these cheeseballs?!














And just in case you thought all the grafitti in Montreal is in French, I took this picture:








Friday, July 4, 2008

Grammy Robin is Extraordinary



When I was 4 years old, my parents split up. (Mom, stop reading now. Or stop feeling guilty now. I know it's only been 33 years, so it might be too soon to say, but really, I think I'm going to turn out alright, despite the divorce. I love you Momma!) Anyway, after my folks split, my dad and I lived in the same town as my gram. She was a phys. ed. teacher and I spent a lot of time at her house, after school and overnight, and sometimes went to school with her. But the most important and greatest part was that beginning when I was five years old I spent every summer with Gram at our family's Camp on Lake Ossipee in Freedom, New Hampshire.
Here's a picture of me with my gram on the dock at Camp a few years before I started spending my summers with her. It's true, I was a funny looking baby.



During the week it was usually just Gram, my Aunt Raetha (who is 9 years older than me and the youngest of her generation) and me. The whole extended family, including one or both of my parents, would come on the weekends. I think that I'm very lucky to have had all those summers with my gram. I could certainly write volumes about our long summer days, waking up each morning to find Gram in her housecoat with her coffee watching the Today Show, learning to swim and dive, picking wild blueberries, going to ceramics class, begging to ride on motor boats with Rae and her teenage friends, hanging the laundry, playing with my best summertime friend, Ann Kelly, skinny dipping on hot nights, eating camp spaghetti and Welsh Rabbit and, especially, the way the air smelled like pine and ferns in the heat of the day and the particular way a single boat would sound when it created waves at dusk. None of that tells you about the kind of woman my gram is and the influence she has had on me.

Gram (aka Robin or Priscilla, though her birth name was Joanne Priscilla Chick), has five children, Cindy (my mom), Sally, Tommy, Scott and Raetha. And she has 10 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. But really, anyone who has ever spent time with my gram knows that her family is much bigger than this, because she has an open and accepting heart, loyalty that knows no bounds and a home that always serves as a shelter for anyone who needs her warmth and kindness. With these superhero qualities, she has set a tone for the Stoddard family where guests quickly become family. And Camp, built by her dad when she was just a girl and where Gram retired to over 20 years ago, is something of a sacred place: a kind of temple for unconditional love, a safe harbor for fugitives, a place to lay it all down, go bra-less and not wash your hair. A place where you know the people love you no matter what and even if you act like a complete asshole (and boy, some of us sure have acted like assholes over the years and yelled and screamed at each other something fierce). And a place where everyone admires, reveres and deeply respects the beautiful matriarch of the Stoddard Tribe. My gram will be 86 years old next month. These days, I often notice and admire her easy going, laid back attitude and her appreciation for just being around and able to enjoy her family. She doesn't take anything for granted, she's active and very social and an incredible roll model for growing older. She's my hero.


Thursday, July 3, 2008

More Pictures from Spearhead

Thanks to Sandy, I have some more pics from last Friday's Spearhead show. The ones of us are from before the show (and therefore before the dancing and sweating).






















My Dad and Harper waiting for things to happen.


















Henekis (and Alan to the left of the photo). Isn't she cute? That's Pat's head, in between.


















Carolyn and me in the beer tent talking to Chip. Chip is an investigator for our local public defender. He's a cool guy.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

"...and you wore your summer dress."



Today I went to the used book store downstairs from my office.  For 2 dollars I bought a 2 disc Elton John retrospective.  Having the song Levon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMub1_CdOrQ on disc is one of those little things in daily life that makes you really happy.


And here's another poem that I love.

Picnic by the Inland Sea
by D. Nurkse


We understood we were hurtling into space
at eighteen miles per second, clouds of atoms
charged and polarized, each alone
in the abyss, and you wore your summer dress.
The light under the poplar was mottled
but the shade of the pines was feathered.
We were bundles of self-cancelling voices—
flight and response, punishment and reward,
hostile adoration, panic and certainty—
from long before the Bronze Age,
yet we made our own promises
by suppressed coughs or sneezes
and sat a little apart
but sometimes our eyes brushed.
We sipped Montepulciano from a paper cup
until the bottom darkened
but still it was not evening,
still the world was ending,
already we resented the breeze
for choosing and marking us,
still a song too short to sing
moved two famished sparrows
like pawns from branch to branch.

Marathoning--A Record of My Times

  • NEW HAMPSHIRE MARATHON, October 3, 2015. 4 hrs. 56 minutes, 8 seconds.
  • MONTREAL "ROCK 'N' ROLL MARATHON, September 22, 2013. 4 hrs. 20 minutes, 41 seconds.
  • VERMONT CITY MARATHON, May 2012. 4 hrs. 20 minutes, 8 seconds.
  • MOUNT DESERT ISLAND MARATHON (Maine), October 2011, 4 hrs. 45 minutes, 14 seconds
  • SUGARLOAF MARATHON (Maine), May 2010. 4 hrs. 18 minutes, 35 seconds
  • MONTREAL MARATHON, September 2008. 4 hrs. 19 minutes, 33 seconds
  • VERMONT CITY MARATHON, May 2008. 4 hrs. 11 minutes, 58 seconds
  • VERMONT CITY MARATHON, May 2007. 4 hrs. 19 minutes, 42 seconds
  • MONTREAL MARATHON, September 2006. 4hrs, 30 minutes, 2 seconds

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