Handbags, best friends, and orange chicken

(Hey, I did warn you that this would be...err..tangential, didn't I?)

Yesterday, my best friend and I went out and did girl stuff. She lives three hours away and has four kids and a night job to boot, so it was something of a miracle that she made it down at all. But she did. And we had a blast. We hit our local metaphysical supply store (hey, where else are you going to get both altar statues and incense?), our local Coach outlet (bwahaahahahah!) and brought orange chicken home for dinner from our favorite Chinese place. (Or in other words, we fulfilled our evolutionary destiny as hunters and gatherers by shopping. And we helped the economy too...you can't beat that. :-P)

Alwyn (not her real name) and I have been friends since we were *mumble, mumble* teenagers and when we were out yesterday, it struck me how nice it was to have known someone that long---before I was a mother, before I was a wife...back to when we were both teenagers working at the Ren Faire. We've grown and changed, of course, and there have been times when we've been thoroughly annoyed with and by each other, but after nearly 20 years, we're still friends. I've known that she'll be there for me no matter what, and she knows the same. She helped keep me sane when I was on bedrest and was there when I had my daughter. And somehow, even though it's been nearly a year since we've talked to each other, we can just pick up after we left off...like we were never apart at all.

Anne Rivers Siddons in her novel Colony wrote of another friendship that the character's spouse was her heart, but the friend was her soul. I can't think of a better way to say it. :)

Ding, dong, the Blog Roll's Back :)

Yes, the (in)famous blog roll from Ehell is back. The topic this week is a Christmas memory, so...here goes. :-)

On Christmas, 2006, DH and I had a two week old baby in the NICU. What I remember most when I think about it is how very small she was and how scared DH and I were. We knew she'd probably be premature (I still can't decide if I would have been happier not knowing that particular detail) but knowing it and seeing it are two different things. Everything is in miniature--hands, feet, toes, fingers. Her feet were just the length of my thumb. Her skin was so thin, thin enough that I could see the red light of the oxygen monitor as it pulsed against her foot.

I remember noticing the fine hairs of her eyebrows and the angel kisses on her forehead and the small birthmark on the back of her neck that was just like my father's. I remember how we learned to tune out the noises of the NICU--the monitors, the chatter, the faint whirr of breastpumps, just to be able to concentrate on our own child....and how we learned to read our daughter's monitors and speak NICUese. But most of all, I remember wanting her so badly to come home.

Here comes the sun :)

With apologies to George Harrison, of course. :)

Last night, my hubby, the wee one, and I went to our first ever Solstice celebration at our local Unitarian Universalist church. It was quite the experience---wassail, carols, poetry readings, dance, song and most of all, a sense of community recreating the magic of the longest night of the year.

I'm not quite sure what the wee one thought about it; it was getting close to her bedtime when the ceremony started and I think she wanted to stay up to watch it, but was also overtired and close to meltdown, so DH and I played "pass the baby" more than a few times. We got through it, though, and I bet next year, she'll really get a kick out of it.

There were some mysteries last night too...and of all nights, when the sun doesn't come for hours upon hours, I think that's appropriate. There was an old woman there (the crone? Who knows?) who sat upon a throne while people came up and talked quietly to her, and she to them. I don't think she was a priestess---though she certainly could have been. Maybe she was just known for being wise. I don't know. But as she sat upon her throne, surrounded by Christmas lights and the Green Man and poinsettias, I got a dim sense of what it must have been like for those ancient people on the longest night of the year.

To all my reader(s)...whatever your beliefs, I wish you peace and happiness this holiday season. Blessed be.

Oh, boy, is it ever a Monday...

Just a little Monday misery I thought I'd share:

1) It's raining. Not usually an issue (it's the only weather we ever get) but it's freezing rain and that makes the freeways not so much fun.

2) My pentacle pendant has disappeared. I think---because it's so tiny---it probably bounced somewhere in the bathroom...so it's more on vacation instead of really lost. And if it is lost, I know where to find another, but I just don't want to. I liked that particular pendant. Le sigh.

3) Our Christmas tree is up (yay) but our ornaments and lights aren't...because they're buried somewhere in a bin which---with our luck---is way the heck in the back of the second bedroom (aka, our storage room.) And frankly, I'm not sure it's worth moving everything out and putting everything back in just to find one storage bin. But it sure would be nice to have them on the tree.

And yes, I know that none of these things is really all that bad, considering. I still have a job, DH is pretty healthy (knock wood) and the wee one is, well, a typical toddler, just getting in touch with her inner drama queen. But man, I hate Mondays sometimes....:)

Happy Birthday to my Wee One

The wee one turned two on Saturday (gulp) and we had the usual festivities---lunch with her grandfather (my FIL,) cake and presents. (Though I'm not entirely sure she understood why she was getting gifts, but she sure seemed to enjoy them.) And then Sunday, we took her out to the Wild Animal Park, where she was enchanted by birds (well, not all of the birds, but most of them,) giraffes, lionesses and zebras.

And once again, I was struck by how ordinary all of this was. She's a normal two-year-old, all mood swings and smiles and tears, and I'm so very, very grateful that she is so normal. She's also picking up words at a faster pace---dinosaur (um, wonder where she got that from? :-P) and carrying on whole conversations on her play phone. (Mostly consisting of "Hi, hello, what," and "bye-bye." At least she's polite...)

So, happy birthday, Wee One. Your father and I love you very much and bless the day you came into our lives.