A Road Less Travelled

 I rarely trace back my thought processes to see how they started, but this time I did and it amused me.

 It all started with a rotten spot in a potato I was chopping. Naturally I checked the piece next to to see if that had a rotten spot too. Oddly enough, I must have sliced right where the rotten spot started so it was only in one piece.

 I cut out the spot and carried on with chopping until I realized that there was a rotten spot in the piece on the other side of the untouched piece. I examined it again. Still no sign of damage or disease. I was supposed to believe that this piece of potato had rotten spots touching it on both sides, but itself was perfectly fine? Clearly, it was a subversive cell, spreading rotten spots through the areas around it. Naturally, it couldn’t afford to draw attention to itself by showing up as a damaged area.

 Once this became clear they would have to made an example of by their superiors. (Somewhere in here I just assumed that they were the good guys, fighting to escape and/or overthrow and unjust organization.) Perhaps they would die fighting for their freedom.

 Unless of course the lieutenant ordered to get rid of them was really one of them. But could he afford to expose himself and his entire organization in a doomed attempt to rescue this one cell of sympathizers? Though, if he coldly abandoned them to death, could he really succeed in his mission, or would he just become the leader of a different kind of cruel organization?

  Ooh, what a harsh, beautifully set up crisis point. They all die, and all hope of their cause dies with them, or they abandon the ideals of their cause by abandoning their friends. The lietenant begins by saying he couldn’t afford to rescue them, but in the end he must relent, and leads the doomed charge.

 It’s so sad. But perhaps the mother telling bedtime stories to her son in the dim cave (Was there a mother telling stories to her son? Ah well, there is now.) was not, as we had assumed, in the same timeline as this doomed charge. Perhaps the legend she relays to her child is the story of this last heroic charge, and though, while we saw the lietenant’s indesicion we assumed he did not measure up to the hero in her story, in the end he became the hero and lived the story. And his story lives on in legend, feeding the hope of the people he fought for.

 I touched up a few last details of my story as I cleaned up the kitchen and put the potatos on to boil. At some point I realized that this entire story came out of two rotten spots on a potato and was unsure whether to be disturbed or amused at the way my mind works. Either way, at least I got a blog post out of it.

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 It all started with a simple haiku-related question over dinner with the Ben-Ezra’s one night. Seth said, “Look up renga”, so I did and–once I figured out how to spell it–I was off on wild crazy renga adventure. Or something like that.

 Renga is japanese poetry written by a series of people. I thought this was cool, but how would I actually find a whole group of people who wanted to get together and write a japanese poem? Hence the blog.

  I know readers of this blog who are fully qualified to contribute to renga, and expect that several more here would be interested and capable enough to write a verse or two. At the very least you can read what we have so far and leave nice comments about it. (You did want to leave nice comments, didn’t you?) If you need it, there’s more explanation on how this works here. So here you go: have at it.

The Renga Blog 

  

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Well, folks, an addition has been made to the Ben-Ezra household. No, Crystal is not pregnant. We are now dog-sitting with the option to buy.

For now her name is Angel. I didn’t name her and she knows this name so we might not change it much as I would like to. We have tried the whole dog thing twice now with very bad effects, but both those times were with puppies. Angel is a full grown who was adopted by a friend of ours after she was probably stolen. We tried to find her owners, but had no luck and as Angel was pregnant at the time Kathey ended up keeping her. All but one of Angel’s puppies have been put in good homes and now Kathey has decided she just can’t handle having three dogs in her house anymore.  Angel is either a Yorkshire terrier or an Australian terrier and is very well behaved, though not entirely housebroken. The plan is to try this dog thing for about a month and if we and she are compatible we’ll keep her. If not we’ll bear the task of finding her a good home instead of Kathey having to do it.

I had already decided I wouldn’t like this dog, but then I realized that this was not a helpful attitude to have. I’ve called her over a couple of times and she seems to like me and my level of distaste is shrinking fast. Who knows, maybe I’ll end up liking her. Weird. Well, that’s the news from Lake Woebegone.  

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Today was very trying so far. Not actually difficult, but very trying. I can feel the grumblings inside of me so instead of writing about what was wrong with my day I will once again regale y’all with what I actually remembered to be thankful for today.  

I thank God for washing machines, dryers and amusing lint traps. For little boys who bring their dirty clothes downstairs, disposable diapers, well-labeled boxes and the eggs and toast I ate for lunch. I thank God for children eating PB+J, the chocolate flavored milk I’m drinking, this time with only one child and Crystal who took the others with her to run an errand. I thank God for a phone call from Raquel, an IM from my sister and her children,  and dinner plans for tonight. That’s why I say thanks every day.   

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This is not a blog post I really want to write, but it has to be written, and I’m the one who should do it.

My courtship with Jeremy has ended. I’m not going into the reasons here, but we both saw that the courtship wasn’t progressing as we thought it should, and I decided it was time to end the courtship.

 It’s not an easy thing, but I believe it’s the right decision, and that we can still continue to be friends.

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I thank God for the rain, the curtains Crystal hung, my left-over lasagna and folding laundry. I thank God for radio alarm clocks, coffee, my quilt and warm water. I thank God for forks, my left-over lasagna, good books, Noah’s “Ta-Da!” and my special mug. For all these things, Lord, I give You thanks. Amen.

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Well, folks, Raquel and I have hereby decided that life is far too full and that we are running away to Fiji. If you need us please don’t call. There has been too much needing of recent days.

See, first there was this move. We moved in here and it was good, but we hadn’t had any time to bond with the house before we moved in. It doesn’t feel like we’re visiting somebody because I know what that feels like. I haven’t really moved into a brand new house before so I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to fell, but I’m fair certain this isn’t it. I just feel a little displaced and at home at the same time. It’s disconcerting. And then we haven’t had any “normal” days since we moved to really settle in and get acquainted so when I don’t have anything pressing to do (both minutes) I feel very displaced.

Crystal decided that a move wasn’t enough stress for her so she also planned the surprise birthday party for Seth that he specifically said he didn’t want. That was last Monday, you know, two days after we moved. Monday night Crystal started feeling ill and then she was very sick for Tuesday. Ever since then she’s been up and down. One day she’ll be fine and then the next day she’ll be worse and then she’ll be fine for a bit and then… You get the picture. Seth is sure that at least most of this is stress induced so we’ve been trying to keep her as unstressed at possible. Yeah, right.

Now, this week would have been hard with Crystal being sick, but what made it insane was that the Lansberry’s were working on our old house. They were painting and fixing it up to get it ready to put on the market. So we’ve been trying to help them out as much as we can and they’ve been trying to help us out as much as they can. But neither of us has very much to give so it’s been tricky. It feels like if one of us was in good shape we could both be in good shape, but neither of us are so neither of us are.

As if all that wasn’t enough another in our circle just had a baby. Little Fletcher is their fifth child and his mother hasn’t been getting much sleep. His mother’s mother was staying with them for this week so we could kinda put them on the back burner for now, but next week is coming up right quick and we need to make sure we catch them because there isn’t any one else who can. So either Raquel or I need to be at her house each day this next week. Right when Crystal is overstressed and Theresa is pregnant in the heat of summer.

Today was going to be sample of the craziness of the week. I say was because God obviously had other plans. It started out that some of us were going to go over to our New House to do some work for the seller. And then there was a birthday party we were going to. And then Seth had to go mow at our old house. And then someone was going to be coming to look at the Apartments so we had to be out of the house. And the realtor refused to schedule the showing for when we were going to be out of the house anyway. So I got up this morning, found out Crystal was doing worse, whipped up breakfast for me and Seth and the kids, the kids and I ate half our breakfast then toddled down to the Lansberry house to finish eating while people wandered through the Apartments Seth didn’t have a chance to clean. I actually had a good time at the Lansberry’s which didn’t surprise me because it was the Lansberry’s, but because there were ten children roaming around and I was very close to crying for most of the morning. After lunch I called Seth and found out he didn’t have a chance to go mow yet and we were not going to the birthday party or going to help the seller. I came back with the kids, put the little boys down for their naps and then took a nap myself while Seth took the older three with him to mow. Last night I thought today was going to be totally insane, but by lunchtime it had dwindled to pleasant. I think God knew what we needed better than we did.

Pleasant day aside, next week is still going to be full so if you want to get in touch with Raquel or I please send your letters to Fiji. I’m sure they’ll find us there.  

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 Yes, I know Gabrielle already told you about the move.  It was long, it was hot, I had a sore foot. I could just leave it at that and talk about how lovely it is that the Ben-Ezra’s live practically next door. But what kind of story would that make?

Prologue:
Step back in your mind to a week ago Wednesday. I was in the little town of Eureka, which is a whole story in itself–do you have any idea how hard it is to find Eureka?–but the relevant part comes when I tried to cross the street. You will be pleased to know that I did, in fact, succeed in crossing the street, but not without some injury to my toe. My toe actually swelled up and turned purple from this street crossing injury. Go ahead, try to tell me you’re not impresssed. I won’t believe you.

The Story

 The next day I periodically unloaded boxes from the Ben-Ezra van into their new house Apartments. It was very convenient–they were working just two houses down so I could bop over and unload some boxes and walk back when we were done.

 Helping that evening was slightly less convenient. Let’s face it, it was pretty much inconvenient for everyone involved. We had to move a whole lot of boxes from the downstairs to the upstairs where Crystal was waiting, hunched over in the attic/crawlspace/closet/storage area, to arrange them. My job was taking the box at the halfway point of the stairs and turning around with it on said stairs to carry it up to Crystal. The best part about this was that even if I dropped the box it probably wouldn’t have fallen because it was wedged between me and the wall. The difficult part was pulling off this maneuver without jarring my sore toe.

 The next day (Friday) is something of a blur. I remember packing up kitchen stuff, making split pea soup, and taking apart and cleaning a rabbit cage. I shoveled soup into Noah’s mouth while Gabrielle tried to trick Justice into allowing food into his mouth and my energy level fell through the floor. I also managed to kick Noah’s chair with my sore toe around this point, proving my talent extends beyond just injuring my toe but in finding creative ways to cause as much pain as possible in the course of everyday life. (Clearly just being on my feet most of the day and carrying boxes and such with an injured toe are only mediocre displays of talent–I acheived true greatness that day.) I also managed to acheive sharp pains on the other side of my foot. This was because my sore toe made me put my weight down oddly, stressing the rest of my foot.

 On the bright side, having a sore toe got me out of carrying anything heavy that night. Instead, I carried a ridiculous number of dresser drawers. I mean, really, how many dresser drawers does one family need? When all the dresser drawers had finally been carried in (along with a few insignificant odds and ends such as the dining room table…) we went back to Ben-Ezra’s house. I was not quite too tired to care that it was the last night I would sit in that particular room watching Seth and Gabrielle argue with each other.

 The next morning, after a satisfying breakfast on the floor, we once again begin loading up the van. If this whole bit about loading up the van seems repetitive to you, that’s because it was. After Gabrielle and I didn’t quite get furniture stuck on the stairs, and stuffed the van full of odds and ends while other people loaded up the trailer, I went back home and went on child duty.

 Oddly enough, nothing of great interest happened  while I was in a house with ten children except that (a) I was in air conditioning and (b) I didn’t have to carry any boxes. Eventually I switched with Gabrielle and went back over to the site of the move, but most of the rest of the day was just finishing up. The last few things to go in the house… The last few things to go in the back yard… After supper it was the last few things to put away before Sunday… The last few boxes we could manage to get out of the way… 

 Then we’d finally done all we could do that night and Gabrielle and I sat and chatted while we listened to a CD of hers that both of us like. When it late enough that we both knew we should go to bed, and couldn’t make excuses anymore, I simply left and walked down the street to go home. Because somewhere in all the craziness, this thing we call ‘moving’ happened, and the Ben-Ezra’s now live right down the street.

Epilogue

 It’s been almost a week now. The Ben-Ezras still live just down the street. Someday life will settle down enough that I’ll actually get to drop in and visit them. It wasn’t this week–Crystal got sick, and there was painting to do so we could get their old house on the market. It won’t likely be next week either. But sooner or later it has to happen. Until then Gabrielle and I will IM each other and say, “Isn’t it lovely that we live so close now?”

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Technically Sunday was our first day in the Apartments on North Orange, but it was a Sunday and Sundays don’t work like ordinary days around here so it doesn’t really count. So then I could point to yesterday as our first ordinary day in the Apartments, but Crystal was grocery shopping and we threw a surprise birthday party for Seth so it doesn’t really count either. So I guess today would be the first ordinary day in the Ben-Ezra Apartments. But Crystal came down sick with a stomach bug last night and since she was down for the count Seth stayed home today so that he could be helpful to her and so my head wouldn’t explode. But I can’t keep delaying the first ordinary day on account of ordinary life so I guess I will give y’all an outline of today and we’ll call it a day. Call it today.

I woke up late because somebody (my guess is Noah) turned my alarm clock off. When I got up I had a hard time waking up and then I couldn’t get into the bathroom to take a shower and become human because Crystal was in there taking a bath. And since I only have three walls to my name two of which consist mainly of window I have no place to get dressed and so I spent the first bit of my day wandering around wondering if I could face this day. I managed to dash into the bathroom when Crystal staggered back to bed and when I emerged I felt mostly human. I made breakfast, we ate breakfast and so the day progressed. And then I walked down to the Lansberry’s house with a laundry basket full of dirty clothes. We don’t have a washer yet (that was probably on Crystal’s to-do list for today) so I had to use the Lansberry’s. They have a front-loader. Ho boy, I took all my laundry, a bit of the kids and a pair of Seth’s jeans and stuffed them into this thing and off it went. And the clothes came out clean. It was a thing of beauty.

When I got back stuff happened, though I honestly don’t remember what it was. It can’t have been that interesting. After this stuff Seth stood at the bottom of the basement stairs and I threw boxes at him. Regrettably the boxes were empty. And when I was done throwing boxes at him we had a kitchen. And a rec room. Weird, huh. Some more stuff happened, I laid down for a bit, gave my old key to Raquel and then made dinner. Leftover burritos. Mmmmm…

After that I went to the store and got chicken noodle soup for Crystal while Seth washed dishes. I got back, made said soup and then sat down to write this post.

You know, when I say it that way I guess it was a pretty good day. It was about as ordinary as it gets around here. I did laundry, cooked food, threw things at Seth, changed a few diapers and ate burritos. Sounds pretty good to me.

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This move was a lot of fun. We spread it out over the three hottest days of the summer to date and we were somewhat short-handed. Yay.

The move was scheduled for Saturday though we actually started moving on Thursday. Seth and I took all the seats out of our van and were usually surprised at how much stuff we could fit in it. We moved all of the stuff we would put in storage until we move into our new house and then carted it upstairs and stashed it in the crawl spaces. There were several times I would pause on the steps and feel my blood pulsing too hard, too fast through my body. At these times I would get slightly worried and then I would turn around and grab the next box. Every now and then Seth would look at me and then send me inside to get some water and to put my head in the shower. It was not a fun day. Though I did get to experience my very first gyro. Koury’s on University. Very, very good. When we got a load to the Apartments we would call Raquel who would come over and help us unload. There was one load I wasn’t sure we were going to get into the house. I was tired, Seth was tired, Raquel was tired and is it here that I mention she had badly damaged her toe and we thought it might be broken? So, there I was, staring at all the junk in the van and seriously wondering who would be mad at me if we just threw it all away when this man who was walking by stopped to say hello. We said hi, hello and yes, we were moving in. And then he asked if we needed any help. I called Seth over and posed the question and Seth said yes, very much yes. So this complete stranger helped us unload a vanful of our stuff. I found out later that if he wasn’t drunk he was close, but I don’t really care. God plopped him in our laps when we really needed him and all that stuff made it inside. He may have been a drunk blessing, but he was still a blessing and I’ll say thank you.

Friday Raquel came over and helped with packing and children stuff. Seth and Crystal ran a load of garage stuff over and then got life ready for the moving we were going to do that night. Jeremy and my brother Jonathan came over and we spent Friday night moving stuff we need for now over to the Apartments. And it was during this time that I let them move my dresser with most of my clean clothes in it away from me. Ah, such is life. I went to bed and was dead to the world for far too short of a time.

And now we come to Saturday. Saturday is mostly a blur. I will give what highlights I can remember, but I spent most of the day hot, sweaty and not quite all there. Saturday was not the hottest day of the year, but it was 97 degrees in the shade. There was absolutely no cloud cover so we moved appliances and furniture under direct sunlight in 97 degree weather. James had managed to be out of town on a business trip for this so we had Jon for part of the move, Jonathan for most of the move and Jeremy for all of the move. Right when Jonathan had to leave we got a phone call from a friend of ours named Ralph asking if we still needed help and so he showed up for the last little bit right when nobody else had any energy left. I got a touch of heatstroke toward the end so I switched places with Raquel who was helping Theresa watch ten children and so I got out of the sun and tried to cool off a bit which didn’t work too well. After everything was inside we brought the children over and put them to bed and then Seth and Crystal had to run a few errand so we would have things like food for the next day. While they were gone Raquel and I tried to set up the house a little so Crystal wouldn’t go crazy and then she went home, Seth and Crystal got back and I went to bed.

Okay, here are some high points from Saturday: We had loaded the van up and while Seth, Jonathan and Jeremy took it to the Apartments Raquel and I were supposed to be moving stuff from upstairs to downstairs. We were moving a bed frame downstairs and we were doing it in a very womanly way which was we figured we could figure out how to get it down the stairs as we went. We had just gotten it stuck on the stairs when Jon showed up. We of course had wanted to be able to do this without any men being there to mock us so it was very annoying he had chosen that moment to show up. But since I couldn’t very well tell him to go away he stood in the kitchen and laughed at us for a while. And then he helped us get it unstuck and moved.

Raquel and I were getting the last little bits out of my room and we start into the fake argument mostly to hear ourselves sound like a bad marriage. I unplugged my lamp by grabbing close the plug and pulling. It’s what everybody does. Or so I thought. Raquel saw me do this and immediately started yelling. Really, she was yelling. I yelled back and soon we were in the midst of this yelling match that is completely without rancor and really was a lot of fun. I’m not sure how many people heard us or had the wherewithal to care about what we were yelling about, but I don’t really care. It was fun.

I watched Seth and Crystal do this move together and I kept thinking that they were doing this so well. Seth would be directing people to move this there and bring this downstairs and Crystal would be at the back end of the stuff getting it ready to be moved. Someone would ask Seth a question and if he didn’t know he would find Crystal, they would have a brief consultation and then he would come back with an answer. When the kids went to the Lansberry’s Crystal came to the Apartments and told people where to put what and got most of the rooms set up as the stuff was coming in. I unpacked the kitchen yesterday and Seth is working on the Rec room and there wasn’t much more to unpack than that. Crystal did most of the unpacking as the stuff came in.

I am sure I could come up with more to say, but time is fleeting and I must away. We are moved. We are here and I popped over to the Lansberry house today and loved it. I’m glad we’re here. And I’m glad the move is over.

 

 

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