Leaping Around

I feel the need to write something. It's Leap Day and one should always seize this extra day. But I'm not really feeling creative. So, I'm taking the easy way out. Bullet points. 

• My mom turned 90 last week. To celebrate, all the siblings and the grandchildren got together and spent the weekend together. It was great. And all this week, I've been missing my family and wishing we could have had one more day. Which is much better than feeling it would have been better if it had been shorter.

• Also in February, my youngest child turned 21. Which means that all of my children are now officially grown up. Doesn't mean I've stopped telling them to be careful or to call me when they get home. That will never stop while I'm drawing breath.

• Want to increase the visits to your blog? Include the word 'lust' somewhere. I recently wrote a bit about how I cannot wait for my first grandchild to arrive and entitled it 'Granny Lust.' I am still getting hits on that particular entry. Who knew? I am a bit sorry for all the people in Russia, China and a few assorted third world countries who ended up on my blog thinking they were going to see/read something vaguely pornographic, but then again, I may shamelessly use that trick to increase readership at some point in the future. Maybe I'll write about how I lust after various china patterns. 

What can I say. I have no shame.

• Speaking of shameless, here's a shameless plug for my little sister's stores in Rockport, Texas: The Bay Window and The Bay Window Home. If you are anywhere in the vicinity, you really should stop by and do a little or a lot of shopping. Julia has just redone both spaces and while we were there last weekend for Mom's birthday, we helped Julia and her staff unpack some of her recent purchases for the store. It's great stuff and you really should go and buy as much of it as you can carry away before someone else beats you to it. I myself brought home a couple of little art pieces that are now hanging in my studio. Every time I look at them, I smile. I also brought home a fabulous pair of white pants, a pair of earrings, and a darling pair of crocheted baby bootie/sandals for the new grandbaby.

• Congratulations to my friend Tricia, creator of the blog, Emotions with Jon Hamm, for her recent mention in Esquire magazine in an article about Mr. Hamm.

• In the last month, I've redone my daughter Sara's room as an official guest room. Said project involved lots of paint – both on the walls and on assorted bits of furniture, and sewing pillow covers for Euro pillows. Before and after photos will appear here at some point. Probably with the word 'lust' somewhere to increase readership.

• I've also been teaching my daughter-in-law Sarah how to sew. The projects we've been working on are curtains for the baby's nursery and a crib skirt. Curtains are done. Crib skirt should be finished this weekend. 

• Last night I officially finished restoring the 40" Macomber loom I was given a couple of years ago. I am awaiting delivery on a bench to go with this loom and am also planning my first project for it. I can't wait to start weaving. Photos will also appear at some point of the restored loom.

Life

Life is happening a lot to me lately. At home. At work. Within my family. Some of it is absolutely wonderful. Some of it is extremely stressful. And it is coming all at once.

But that's okay. That's life. Sometimes it goes smoothly and sometimes it doesn't.

The next few months are going to be an adventure for me. There is great joy ahead and a great battle to be fought and won. (Make no mistake, we will win that battle.) I will be in major nurture mode for several reasons. But that is okay. One of the things I do best is to nurture others. I can do this. I can make a difference. And we will face it all with love. With laughter. With courage.

Because there is no other way to live.

Granny Lust

In one of my favorite series of books, (The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, specifically Drums of Autumn), one of the characters describes a condition known as 'granny lust,' which evidently is the desire for grandchildren of one's own. I truly never thought I'd have to deal with that problem until this morning. 

As I may have mentioned, I am about to become a grandmother. Said grandchild is due to arrive in approximately 8 weeks, give or take a few, and while I was getting ready to go to work today, it hit me all of a sudden, that this little girl we've been talking about and planning for will very shortly be here with us. I'll be able to hold her, love her (actually I love her already), tell her scurrilous stories about her father, sing lullabyes to her, and read to her. It hit me quite hard. It was a physical longing to hold my grandchild.

But I had no clue at that point just how strong the longing for her was. Until mid-morning, when I walked down to our coffee bar to make a cup of tea. And standing there was a prospective parent who was holding a tiny baby girl. I oooed and aaahed over her, found out baby girl was just 7 weeks old. And all the while I was carrying on a conversation with this unsuspecting mom, I was restraining myself from grabbing that poor baby so I could hold it. 

Scary. Very, very scary. 

So, if you have a baby, do me a favor. Hand her over, let me get my fix and then I'll hand her back and all will be well and I'll be able to wait until little Lucille is safely here. Cause even if it's not quite time for Lucille to be born, Mumsie is evidently more than ready.

Taking Their Ball Home

Today, much to my surprise, I'm going to write about football. College football to be precise. Now, normally I avoid watching football games like the plague. I truly have no interest in football. I went to my fair share of football games when I was in junior high and high school, but in my defense, that was because I lived in small town Texas and there was literally nothing else to do on Friday nights in the fall. Plus, I was in the band and it was kind of a requirement that the band be there to march out on the field at halftime and play music. No getting out of it.

In college, though I moved away from the whole football thing. I did attend a couple of football games w/ boyfriends: a few at A&M where I absolutely refused to stand for the games (if you're going to put seats in a stadium, then as far as I'm concerned you should use them), and then a few UT games w/ the guy I eventually married. He still loves watching football. But me? I have no interest.

What I do have an interest in is tradition. Despite the fact that I'm a graduate of the University of Texas and my long-ago refusal to stand at those A&M games I attended my freshman year of college, I have great respect for the traditions at A&M. And the biggest of those traditions died last night with the final UT-A&M football game on Thanksgiving Day. Killed by the ultimate lovers of tradition: Texas A&M.

Years of observing Texas A&M fans has shown me that Aggies are never really comfortable in their skins. For some reason, they have trouble believing that theirs is truly a great university. Maybe it's the way they proclaim their greatness too loudly and too often. There is a defensiveness in the way they do it that makes one look at them and wonder about whether they say it so often to convince themselves. But this time their inferiority complex and tendency to whine (and yes, they do have a general tendency to whine) went too far. Upset over UT's Longhorn Network (and the potential income from said network to UT), the Aggies decided they didn't want to play anymore. So they jumped ship and switched conferences starting next year.

I have no doubt that this move will go down as the biggest Aggie joke in history. How the Aggies, in pursuit of money and a self-perceived lack of respect, killed one of the most cherished bits of its history, a 118 year old friendship/rivalry with UT. I am fairly sure that my Uncle Sam, who attended A&M back in the 1930s, is rolling over in his grave. And the biggest worry the Aggies have right now is not the fact that they didn't saw varsity's horns off last night. It's that they've cut off their nose to spite their face.

Note: One more thing A&M. Y'all might want to look into a new fight song given that the one you've had all this time is focused almost solely on your now non-existent rivalry w/ UT. Seems to me that you've sung "Goodby to Texas University" for the last time.