reconnecting

Posted on August 18, 2011 by burpobanter

I’m writing this post from the beautiful coastal town of Yachats, Oregon. I absolutely love the Oregon coast, and I adore Yachats. It’s a tiny little town that is full of sheer beauty: one of those places that somehow makes you appreciate just being alive.

I’ve been here twice before: the first time when Jeff and I came alone a couple of years ago to celebrate our anniversary and the second time just this past March when we (meaning, all four of us) rented a house here for the weekend to get away for the first weekend that our house was up for sale.

This time, I’m here with my mom. It’s been a very long time since just the two of us have spent any time together and some circumstances told us it was time to reconnect. So, I took a couple of days off work and we met here in Yachats, staying at the Fireside Motel. It’s not the fanciest place I’ve ever stayed by far, but you know what? It’s pretty awesome in its own right. The room is a bit on the retro side, quite large (king bed, thank you very much) and has a fireplace and a balcony with an oceanfront view that is more often found in the kind of place that costs a heck of a lot more than some $100ish a night. No wonder this place gets great reviews on Trip Advisor!

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caution: yawning can be dangerous to your health

Posted on August 15, 2011 by burpobanter

When I woke up this morning, I immediately thought about this same Monday morning one year ago today. Not that I often remember what my Monday mornings are like one year later – but this particular one was memorable. It went something like this:

I got up around 6 a.m. and found my way downstairs for that all-important first cup of coffee. Caffeine in hand, I could already hear Elena (nine months old at the time) stirring in her room – at which point I probably spent the next few minutes pretending I didn’t hear a thing except the hum of Matt’s voice on the television informing me of the latest political scandal, crisis, war report or weather-related tragedy. (Or wait, maybe that was last week? Or last month? So hard to tell the difference.) And hey, I never said I was trying for Mother of the Year.

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changes, they are a comin’

Posted on August 14, 2011 by burpobanter

I think there are at least a few people in this world who adapt to change better than I do. Wait, scratch that. I’m sorry to say that I have no idea what the world’s population is off the top of my head, but let’s just say that if it’s 609 zillion people – there are probably 603 zillion of them who accept change better than I do. Now, that’s not to say that I’m inflexible, but I do like to stay the course, if possible. For instance, whenever we go to Muchas Gracias for dinner, I always get a cheese enchilada and chicken taco. Why? Because it’s a sure (read: safe) bet.

Believe it or not, the same goes when it comes to matters involving parenting. Stability: good. Change: often not quite as good. When Ian came along, we lived in the Washington, D.C. area where you are more likely to see a politician acting like a mature adult than you are to get a spot for your baby at a daycare. It’s commonly known there that if you have any hope of getting your child into a “decent” daycare – meaning they at least feed them at some point during the day – you had better start going on tours and getting on wait lists before you get pregnant. Wait until conceive and you’ve already missed the boat. That’s all to say that it can be a beyond-stressful process to locate a place where you a) feel comfortable leaving your child and b) can actually get a spot to park them.

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the house with nobody in it

Posted on August 8, 2011 by burpobanter

My cousin, Dave, mentioned something on Facebook this weekend about looking up childhood homes using Google Street View and seeing them as they are today. I had never thought about doing this before, but I was all over it. The first thing I realized was that there were about five different homes I could look up, but the one I wanted to see first wasn’t even technically my home: it was my Grandma Ruth’s house. Of course, it wasn’t always just my Grandma Ruth’s house. It was also the house where my dad and two uncles grew up with Grandma and my Grandpa Glenn, who suddenly passed away when both he and I were relatively very young.

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the post you never saw

Posted on August 7, 2011 by burpobanter

When Jeff and I first got together – which will be coming up on 12 years the first part of 2012 – he was most certainly the “night owl” between the two of us. I don’t think I ever went to bed later than 10:00 p.m., whereas he could stay up much later than that. Over time, especially after we had Ian (I think), his bedtime started trending earlier and earlier while mine remained roughly stable. That is, until the past couple of years or so when we’ve had this complete role reversal.

Most nights, around 10:00 p.m., it goes something like this: Jeff approaches me as I’m on the couch, usually with HGTV on by that time, laptop in, well, my lap, and he informs me that he’s off to bed. I reply, with confidence: