Alabaster Mom

My baby flew to DC on Wednesday. I picked her up early from the summer program she's been attending, and drove her to the airport (about two hours away). We were on a pretty tight schedule because I knew I was going to hit traffic. As soon as we got out of the building when I picked her up, she started to complain that she needed to pee, she was thirsty, blah blah blah. I turned to tell her that she should have thought about that before and then I fell down the steps. I am such a graceful lass. We did hit traffic but we got to the airport on time and even had a little time to spare. So, we hung out at Chili's (in the Southwest terminal) for a bit. Eventually, it was time for me to put her on the plane. A super handsome flight attendant came out to escort her (all the cute ones are gay, right?). He seemed like he could manage to keep an eye on a ten-year-old while serving lukewarm Sprite to the masses. For unaccompanied minors, most airlines require that the person delivering...

First, I have to tell you a story that I should be too embarrassed to share. A couple weeks ago, I went to see my optometrist. I was wearing my regular bi-focal contacts. However, I had been wearing them for two weeks longer than I was supposed to. They were getting a wee bit uncomfortable. I was out of lenses and figured I'd just suck it up until my appointment rolled around. After my exam, Dr. K gave me a new pair of lenses to try.  He confirmed what I had already expected, which is that my near vision had gone to hell in a handbasket. He said the lenses would take about ten minutes to settle. Ten minutes later, he did a quick check of my eyeballs and decided that I probably needed a slightly stronger power. So, he told me to do the following (when I got home):  take the lens out of my left eye and throw it away. Take the lens from my right eye and move it to my left eye. He then handed me a new lens for my right eye. I also had my old contact lenses in a lens case in my pur...

Let me just get this out of the way. I am vain. I admit it freely. On rainy days, I've been known to tell people, "I am far too prissy to be outside on a day like this." I'm intensely self-conscious, which I attribute to growing up with Vitiligo.  I don't hate all the parts of my body, but I've always had a profound dislike of my upper arms. You'd think I'd be willing to lift weights every day or something in order to loathe them a bit less, but apparently the hatred alone isn't motivating enough. When I got married, I made sure my wedding gown had full sleeves. And I wasn't even fat, really. My wedding dress was a size 8, I think. When I was younger, I remember seeing older women in sleeveless shirts in the summertime and mostly thinking, "Now, that is someone who values comfort over anything else."  I wasn't trying to be judgmental. I just thought, "Well, you'll never see me with my arms flapping around when I'm ...

My daughter and I did a 10K on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. It was a huge event - nearly 17,000 people. When I signed up, I listed us as "walkers" vs. "runners" since it was necessary to choose one or the other. I figured it would be better to sign up as a walker and then to run than to sign up as a runner and then to walk. They split the participants into five "corrals," with walkers being in the last corral. This event was a lot larger than the 5K we did last month. It took 1/2 hour before we even made it to the start line. By then, the elite runners had already run the 10K and were crossing the finish line as we were crossing the start line. I live in the Midwest so a bunch of fleet-footed Kenyans is not a sight I see every day! Anyway, we ended up running for only intermittent spurts. Being surrounded by thousands of walkers made it hard to get enough open space to run. Next year I may sign up as a runner and then claim a spot in the last runners...

Earlier this week, I stopped at Target on my lunch break. It's in a strip mall that includes a grocery store, a Chinese restaurant, and a few other shops. As I was walking towards Target, a woman walking towards me said, "Can you just smell that chicken? Mmmm!" I actually could smell it, but I just thought it smelled like, you know, murder. I just smiled and nodded. There were probably 50 people in various parts of that parking lot at that very moment, so it was just her bad luck that she chose me for her chicken celebration remarks. And for the record, I'm not sure where the smell was coming from. Maybe the Chinese restaurant. As of today, I've been vegan for one year (following 25 years of being vegetarian). I sometimes hear people use the term "strict vegan." It's hard to be super strict - you'll drive yourself crazy. For example, there is a particular type of vegan granola bar that I like. However, the label says they were manufactured in ...

My church lost its matriarch today. It's hard to know how to say good-bye to a woman who was in her 90s. She was ready to go, I know that. But still, it hurts. She told me more than once, "I'm tired, Claudia." She was annoyed and frustrated by the whole thing, this business of aging - she had things to do, after all. When you met Bette for the first time, if you dismissed her as a doddering old lady who spent her days baking cookies and comparing local coupons to get the best price on ground beef, you would have been profoundly mistaken. Bette was extremely intelligent, politically aware, and very forward-thinking for a woman of her generation. She was mostly deaf and wore a cochlear implant, but she didn't miss much. She kept up with current events and cared deeply about social justice issues. It was only a few years ago that I remember hearing her speak passionately and eloquently about the United Nations. She was on Facebook, believe it or not. About two ye...

I really have no point with this blog post other than to tell you how excited I am about the upcoming summer. May was straight-up insane. The kid's birthday, our anniversary, my first 5K, and lots of visitors. It was all good stuff, but it was a bit hectic. The last day of school is on Wednesday.  My daughter will be a big, bad fifth grader in the fall. It's hard to believe my baby only has one more year of elementary school before she moves on to middle school. I guess she'll be at the top of the heap next year, though. I'm picturing her ruling the school with an iron fist and walking the hallways like she's some kind of royalty. I'm aging myself here, but remember how George Jefferson strutted on that show "The Jeffersons"?  That's what I'm picturing. I feel like she's had a good school year. She seemed to connect well with her teacher. Her teacher is vegan so I bought her a vegan cookbook as a thank you for putting up with my kid all...