Life of Wry

I’ve probably bragged blogged about this before… but today is kind of neat for me because today I gave my thirtieth pint of blood.

Can I get an exclamation point?

This is the kind of email that makes it all worth it:

You’d think the donut would be the selling point….. but in fact, it’s the email above that motivates me. And besides, there are no donuts. I keep meaning to talk to the management about this sorry situation. Raisins, yes. Goldfish, yes. Cranberry juice, yes. Packaged cookies, yes. DONUTS?? No.

I mean.

I’ve never had the nerve to ask someone to take my picture while nestled into the blood-giving lounge chair. But I found this image in the Googles and it’s pretty close. I chose this image because: she’s blond, she’s all happy, she gripping a red rubber item (just like we do at the Davis Vitalant), AND, she’s wearing blue jeans and a white shirt (which is exactly what I was wearing today!).

Or is that a pretty purple pop of perkiness?

As seen on University Ave…

Peter gave a presentation today to his lab colleagues at U Mich. It’s an update on the research (and write-up thereof) he is coordinating with a team from UC San Diego (of all places!).

He called today and when we asked about it, he shared the presentation with us via Zoom.

It’s not that Peter is a bad explainer…. It’s just that no part of this is ever going to make sense to me, no matter how clearly he explains it. That said… I could listen to him trying to explain it to me all day and all night long.

Anyway. I love him and love that he’s so into it. I’m just incredibly happy for P these days, as he loves his work, and is in love with M, We heard about a meaningful weekend they’d just had in Indiana with M’s family honoring her dad who’d passed away last Christmas. We also heard about their summer travel plans (including Europe!), a week of which will include hiking with us in Yosemite. These are the good things that are going on.. and make a mama happy

But there are other things, too.

~~

As a placemark: I’d like to write about this morning, but … again … I’m feeling overwhelmed and not really ready to put things into words. I attended what was to be the preliminary hearing for the stabbing murders that occurred in Davis almost a month ago now. The hearing was suspended as the defendant’s lawyer asked for time to conduct a psych evaluation, stating that his client is not fit to stand trial. It turned into a ten minute procedural exercise. But being in the courtroom with the guy who murdered David and a UCD student Karim (and severely injured another woman), AND the families and friends of all three victims, plus the family of the murderer, was surreal. Following, I agreed to talk to the press who were there (Bee, KCRA, CapRadio). Those accounts showed up this afternoon in their respective places, though I haven’t been able to actually read/hear all of them.

Oh, and our good friend Sam was the presiding judge.

So.. I do want to write about it. Just not now.

It’s easier to focus on Peter’s math.

There is something huge — really huge — that I haven’t been able to write about yet.

Today, I got a chance to spend nearly three hours talking with David’s sister. I’ve been needing that connection to begin the process of grieving. I need time now to process our conversation. A lot happened in Davis while I was gone — two people killed, another critically hurt, a town in a state of trauma and likely forever scarred. I need to think about all that. I need to feel. The space and time to do that has not yet been available.

~~

I like this tree. It’s a eucalyptus. It’s solid, gigantic, and pure muscle. It is reaching way, way up and almost disappearing into the vastness of the blue sky and the intensity of the hot sun. I find it comforting.

Vilken dag! Himlen är alldeles blå och fåglarna sjunger! **

** This is a snippet from a Swedish dialog… learned in the summer of 1976 when taking Swedish classes in Malung (central Sweden) in preparation for a year of Swedish-language college courses.

Translation: What a day! The sky is totally blue and the birds are singing!

These words did not come up in my anatomy and physiology courses.. but they have endured in my (ever shrinking) Swedish lexicon!

~~

These photos were taken about an hour ago in Central Park on an absolutely beautiful 75-degree morning at the Farmer’s Market.

I was sitting at Cloud Forest today — so incredibly lovely to sit on their cool shady patio on a warm day — and along came a mama duck and, I wanna say, twelve little ducklings.

(There were a few more around the corner.) They were a long way from Putah Creek… I hope they made their way safely back.

The scene reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books.. Madeline. Madeline is one of twelve young girls in a boarding school (orphanage?) led around by a nun.

In an old house in Paris
That was covered in vines
Lived twelve little girls
In two straight lines.

Jim’s latest invention is a Pecan Dandy: graham crackers, a layer of roasted pecans and a bunch of dandies (the brand of marshmallows we’ve been addicted to for the last few years). Put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Dangerous, but delicious. I’m planning to wean myself off of these. Soon.

So, I got back late Monday night, and on Tuesday early afternoon we welcomed a house guest! The timing was a wee challenging, but it’s just how it worked out with Kath’s schedule. And, in fact, it was just fine. It gave me an incentive to make quick work of unpacking, laundering, mailing, settling far faster than I would have otherwise. And, she was here for less than 24 hours.. a blur, but a good blur. We had time for a long walk, a nice lunch out, a nice dinner in, a nice breakfast in.. and then she was gone.

A couple pics of my old track buddy…

In our heyday, which spanned our high school years (but hit peak prowess in our last two years) we were the fastest two on our track team. She started the 440 relay, I anchored it. We were sprinting rivals (friendly) on our team, trading off between first and second in the 100 and 220. I had the slight edge on speed, but she had a quicker start. In our junior year, our high school relay team placed 3rd in the state in two sprint relays (the 440 and 880 medley). In our senior year, we placed 5th in both, if I recall. We were invited to run in a couple of exhibition races, one at the LA Forum (Sunkist Invitational) and one other whose name I’m forgetting (unbelievably!) in the mid-70s because we were so fast. Participating in these meets and hobnobbing with the world’s highest level Olympic track athletes was def one of the highlights of my athletic career. Over those years, our sprinting team worked out a LOT together (6:00am workouts plus afternoon workouts), traveled a lot, competed in hundreds of races, won most, and bonded deeply.

I think one of the funnest parts of our track history was the time we competed against one another in college… she ran for Chico and I ran for UC Davis and we faced off at the Woody Wilson meet on Picnic Day in 1979 (maybe 1978). I have a vivid memory of our relay teams lining up at the starting line, before being sent off to our zones and feeling so ecstatic to be competing together after 4 or 5 years.. even if on different teams. Not remembering the outcome, funnily. But, how cool was that?

I’m proud of us.

First day back after a month of travel!! (Got back late last night.)

Came home to a yard so thick in growth, I couldn’t even make my way around the path in the back yard. Put in an emergency call to Mary H, who’ll be here on Friday.

In the meantime…

I didn’t even know we planted this, but I believe it’s golden columbine and is just gorgeous in the front yard:

And.. after a couple years, the strawberries have hit their stride! I couldn’t believe how many we have in our now-quite-large strawberry patch!

We had a quick breakfast at the Periodic Table — so enjoyable — then made a quick stop at Aunt Bonnie’s to say goodbye (I sure hate leaving.. must return!), and we were on our way. Had a lovely two hour drive — mostly along I-80 — through farms and hills…

(we saw a LOT of these…)

…. and got to Davenport with time to go to a Men’s Warehouse to see about getting Matt some warmer clothes! (We were both amused at how crowded the Men’s Warehouse was on a Sunday morning!) He was not prepared for the variable temps we encountered in this midwest Spring! We texted back and forth with Linda and coordinated our 11:30 arrival at the Machine Shed just perfectly. The Machine Shed is quintessential midwest fare… I had a chicken pot pie, the others all had some variation of pork, and fun family conversations were had.

[A note here: Reg is my first cousin once removed. That is, he and my dad are first cousins, both being children of one of the Short sisters; Reg is the son of the youngest sister Hattie Zoe, and dad was the son of Mary.. the third eldest daughter. Linda, of course, is Reg’s wife. They actually live in Bettendorf, which is considered one of the four cities in this quad-city area… Davenport and Bettendorf on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, and Moline and Rock Island on the Illinois side.]

After lunch and photos, we followed Reg and Linda to a Fleet and Farm to get even more clothes for Matt. We hope that’ll get him through Chicago… where we expected temps to be in the 30s and 40s.

We said goodbye to Reg and Linda and took off on our 2 1/2 drive to Chicago. Once over the Mississippi, we were in Ilinois.

We filled the car on Cicero, then drove into Chicago in broody weather!

Our first glimpse of Lake Michigan…

And.. then checked into our hotel on Ontario, the EMC2, just east of Michigan Ave in the River North section of downtown. This was a great hotel, well located and stylin’.

We actually had a bit of downtime.. (something that will be rare on this trip!). It was nice to have some time and space to myself for a little while! Sure Matt felt the same (though, I will add that the time spent together has been exceedingly enjoyable!)

We Ubered over to the West Loop to a restaurant called Avec to meet Logan — Lisa’s younger son. I’d met him last Fall, but it was truly wonderful to spend an entire evening with him. Avec is a fantastic restaurant, too. It was a super fun time.

Ubered back to the EMC2 and it was a wrap on another great day.