WHO’s afraid of the big bad wolf?

I feel like Gab’s last post, the most recent post on this blog, deserved the honored position at top of the site, so every time I think of writing, I decide I’d rather leave it there at the top instead.

But a lot of life keeps happening. And this is our place to chronicle it together.

Two lives have happened since the last post – Tessa’s lil Frances Bernadette was born in September and my lil Magdalena Lazaro Ramona was born on December’s Friday the 13th.

I’m sitting at a coffee table in Starbucks on Friday the 13th of March. There’s a lot going on right now, to oversimplify it. The Coronavirus scare is shutting down schools left and right, and if professors’ educated guesses prove accurate, we will be spending our last two months of law school studying remotely from home. No more classes IRL. No IRL finals. Possibly no IRL graduation. Maybe it’s a good thing I haven’t gotten to renting my cap and gown yet.

The whole world is scrambling to make similar decisions (to clarify: the world is not picking gown sizes). Margaret’s at home too, as SC4 and PHN closed. How will the world come back to normal after this? I don’t expect that “things just won’t be the same on the other side,” but I do imagine that the coming-down-from-the-quarantine high will be – at minimum – interesting to watch. People will have been forced to spend time with their families for a few weeks. Detach from their routines and step away from their well-worn tracks. Come together. I just hope that people take this opportunity to return to a more human level of stillness, togetherness, and empathy without losing it in paroxysms of fear and anxiety.

Because fear and anxiety are bad for the immune system, and you’re gonna wanna keep that immune system firing on all cylinders. And that’s the real pandemic – fear.

And because life is too short not to chill out and love better.

Happy chaos, bon chance!

Phil

P.S. the title is supposed to be punny because WHO is the World Health Organization and they’re. losing. it. right now. Duh.

Here With Me

I have no value to add to your day today.

I have only a distant “Hello,” and a half-cup of lukewarm coffee.

I have been out for a coffee-study date with Pa this morning. We sit in Panera off Airport Pulling near Aldi, watching slow, old foggies toddle through with their newspapers and dyed-blonde soccer moms’ breakfast dates in full swing. It’s a peaceful cacophony, pleasantly muted, for the moment, by the Killers playing “Here With Me” in my ears. I thought I’d take a moment to add words to this site because I didn’t think the internet had enough pointless content, and because I miss you all so dearly.  More the latter than the former.

I just filled my head with semi-useless information on the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) and its doctrine on Risk of Loss and gap-fillers’ “reasonable price based on commercially reasonable standards.” I just put the books away to throw half an hour into fighting off DCF (i.e. Child Protective Services) for a family who just had some crack judge sign off on removing their child from their home solely because they refused to open the door when DCF knocked. In case you were wondering how big The State is, it’s THAT big. Thankfully, it looks like the law is not on their side, and my research will force another judge to overturn the crack judge’s order.  We live to die another day.

How are y’all doing?

Anna, tell us about not going back to teaching next year? What does the future look like for you?

Gab, you’re soooo cloooose to paying off your intrepid ex-Prius! How close exactly? How exciting. Money sucks, amirite?

Tig, where even are you? Miss you babe. You owe me some diary-reading. 😉

Mary, brooo, it’s time for our next brew-date. Momentum? Chess or Scrabble?

Irene, girl, we got your box the other day, and it hasn’t been opened yet. The kids have been using it as a little seat because it comes just to the height of their knees, a fact which brings them endless joy. What do you do to keep yourself busy these days?

Margaret, our not-so-little Margaret. *sigh* Not sure if you’re real or a mirage. A very pretty mirage, though. I hope high school doesn’t chew you up too hard. There’s a whole world that comes after. Don’t be a stranger.

Also: All, when does dietbet end? I don’t want to lose because I lost track of time? Someone text it to me. Perhaps by the time someone does, I’ll have found my phone.

All my love to my babes across the U.S.. ❤

To everything, turn, turn, turn

Disclaimer: feelings.

 

The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of anticipation and let-down, caffeine and sleepless nights, abundant joy and quiet pain. Where family is involved, the combination of bitter and sweet is constant.

A fast-paced roadtrip to see Ian’s family held at least three entirely sleepless nights in a week and a half. Driving through nine states – and then nine states again – with three children three and under was, surprisingly, the simplest part of that week and a half. Visiting our Little Ones’ (it says “one” but it refers to more than one, so) paternal grandparents, and then two sets of great-grandparents and one tiny little “PraBabcia,” plus uncles and aunts and cousins and brothers and sisters-in-law, for all that the experience is “worth,” always ends up more exhausting than edifying. The experience, at least at this time, is certainly more a benefit for the people being visited than the Visitors, since the kiddos won’t remember it anyway. The trip ended in last-minute hotel rooms escaping family feuds, and strained and empty good-byes. Alas. Alack.

We returned home for the real trip to begin. SISTERS. EVERYWHERE. FIVE. WHOLE. SISTERS. in ONE STATE. One city. One room! on occasion. Bitter and sweet. With the beauty of every minute spent together, the knowledge of another ten thousand apart secretly and heavily abides.

I know that I’m pretty stoic. If I have feelings, people don’t know about them. They know what I *think*, and very, very rarely what I feel. But I do. I ache. I think that our upbringing and our turbulent history of being torn involuntarily away from each other leaves me with an aching pit in my soul that I must ignore and throw distractions over to keep moving. Out of the pit comes a thirst for time together, for love and reciprocity, for experiences we never got to have, for a family that lives so strongly in mind, but not at all in reality. I feel like. I feel like as we have all grown older we have all become so judgmental and critical of each other, and that we throw up protective or warding walls because, while we are all relatively tough and impervious to Outsiders, we are not so amongst ourselves. Things cut so deeply when they come from mouths you love so, so much. I think that the criticism might come from a genuine desire for all things to be Better than they are, for sisters to grow and become what we think is good. But there’s more to it than that. There is always more to it than that. With this in mind, I think we could be more open and receptive to each other when we come across things we don’t understand, or maybe don’t agree with.  Maybe it’s just me.  Am I alone in noticing this?

That’s possible, perhaps probable. As the first sister married and the first with kid(s), I am naturally isolated from you all. I guess I really feel that isolation sometimes, and it feels like what happened to William Wallace in the end of Braveheart.

Anyway. Onward.

The beauty and goodness of seeing you all, and especially of being together for those blessed, fleeting hours, filled my soul with unutterable warmth and joy that I will save in my heart for as long as I can. To those dear sisters who could not be with us, I hold you in my heart as well. There will be a next time.

We’ve got miles to go before we sleep, and miles to go before we sleep.

Playing Ketchup

By Antigone Marie

Not really sure about the norms for this blog collab yet, so I’ll just write linearly, beginning with the present. I’m drinking Earl Grey and listening to waltz for Misha, the end. Just kiddingg but yeah, I actually am and I recommend it. For those who don’t know I’m house and dog sitting for a friend’s family while they are abroad. It’ll be 3 weeks total and I’m paid nicely. there are two dogs and they’re both pretty old. When this gig is up, I’ll be back at McDonald’s for the rest of the summer. At the end of August I move into College for Creative Studies, a fancy art school in downtown Detroit. I’ll be living in the dorms and my current major is fine arts – so I’ll be drawing and painting and stuff. Of course I’ll be working there too, gotta make those bill$. Before anyone dies of shock or raises their hand, asking, “Antigone, weren’t you majoring in art history?? TIG, what happened?” Yes that’s still the plan, after this year at CCS I plan to transfer to NYU, majoring in art history and minoring in French. I already have a roommate lined up for both CCS and NYU actually LOL I didn’t realize until writing that. Let me know if you have any questions.

Other than my plans, all I’ve got to say are some of my current obsessions? faves? I don’t know. I’m reading Much Ado About Nothing right now, it’s spectacular (Phil??) and nearly word-for-word with the movie we grew up watching. Per Mary’s instruction, I started watching La Forete, a French Netflix original that’s surprisingly good and I also recommend. Lots of recommendations, I’m pretty shove-y. Umm, what else? I’ve been eating a lot of eggs. Anyway that’s me, at least for now. We need to figure out Christmas plans because I miss you all and love you and want to see you and I hope this blog works out and yeah, call me 🙂 xoxo #runonsentence

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton