Regular Tuesday with Irene

I have been getting requests to reinstate this blog feature, Regular Tuesdays with Irene. Trust me when I say that we still get together weekly. It is more difficult now with the kids out of school, and around us constantly, to be able to chat the way we like to. Yesterday, we made a solid effort to get back to basics.

First I made her sit South East Asian style on her deck in the bright hot sun. This was no easy feat as she kept attempting to change my setting. I have learned after all these years that if you sit in the lawn before noon you will get cold. No, it doesn't matter if you sit on a blanket. If you sit in a plastic lawn chair not only do you stay a bit chilled, you are also uncomfortable.

We sat on our butts on the deck, leaning against the south facing wall of her house, directly in the hot sun and for the first time in months, she looked over at me and said, "You are right. This feels great." As we sat and chatted layers of clothing were slowly stripped away until we were perched there in nothing but our bras. No, I did not photograph that.

What were the children doing all that time? When participating in slacker mom style parenting it's better to not know.

Topics Discussed

Phyllis and Tom (Vince's Dad) are at our house with us. Tom got in this morning. In the first five minutes of his being here Phyllis asked him if he had gotten his bed fixed (back in Cleveland) and so I had to ask about this bed. "Listen," he said in his perfect Tom way, "This is THE MOST fantastic bed I've ever seen. I've turned my living room into a master bedroom. The headboard of this bed reaches up to the ceiling and well, it takes up the whole wall. It is mirrors and there are lights, not bright ugly lights, but purple lavender lights going all along it. They are motion activated and it has a built in stereo system. I also put in the mirrored foot board. I love that bed so much I bought three. One for each bedroom." Vince was laying back in the recliner trying to detach from his body so he would not have to create a visual image of his dad in that bed. I was trying to enjoy the surreal humor of the scene without seeming rude. This is a difficult undertaking.

JG is moving to Arizona. She is transferring her job and getting out of here before the winter comes. Her husband will fly down to see her on his weeks off. She picked out her new apartment by herself. It has two pools, exercise room, close to work. In a sunny location! Irene and I decided we were going to have to have a 'You Go Girl' party for her. We also decided we were going to have to feed her husband when he is in town taking care of business.

The kids and I saw a black bear next to Karen's friend Angie's house on our way to Irene's today. I tried to take a good picture but when it heard the twang of the camera being turned on it ran. Can't seem to get my computer to edit the picture or you would see the little cute fella right here).

How I got the coolest video from my friend Anna who lives in Oakland. This video is all edited and pasted together and beautiful. I was mind blown because I got this video from Anna the day after I read to my friends an essay I wrote about my early womanhood and Anna made a montage of this period of my life for me (yes, photo illustrations!). Irene and I were both mind blown. Irene lived in a basement apartment on the SAME STREET as Anna when she met Matt way back in the day. Maybe a block or two away. Yes, Irene remembers the Ashram and the Muslim Bakery. After watching the video and hearing about Anna's view of her neighborhood, we also discussed Irene's life there. We were both blown away by having yet another similar life path coincidence. I am sure that Anna is reading this and is blown away herself.

Irene's response to the beginning of the video, "Ha! Of your 7 addictions at 20, you are still addicted to 4! Ha! Mayo!" I was biting into my standard salami sandwich with tons of mayo (and not that nasty soy mayo) as she said that.

How Irene and I can safely say now, with this documentation from Anna, that throughout my entire adult life, I have been surrounded by extremely good looking and intelligent people. This sentiment was punctuated by Matt coming home for lunch. Let it be noted that he was looking extremely good.

Baseball is officially over! No more racing to town for games and practices.

Suzanne birthday party recap. Freaking amazing. What a bunch of talented friends we have! Will the young Russian girls ever be the same with the new skills they have learned? Hard to say.

Things we can't blog about.

Hermit crabs do die. And stink.

Irene's nurse bought her a book called Porn for Women of a Certain Age. Her favorite page was a man at a desk with his calendar out. The caption said, "I know the fish are running, but we've been planning this trip to the garden show for months now and we just can't miss it!" Irene thought that it was as if the publisher of that book watched Vince take me to the iris fields.

Irene's trip to Fairbanks in August for Matt's mom's 70th birthday. Yes, there is also a train ride and a hocky camp involved.

How Irene enjoys digging up dandelions. Why? The Zen meditation of it.

Falcom wanted a haircut and instead of trying to find an open barber on a Monday morning, taking the chance that he would change his mind, Vince took the clippers and gave Fal a haircut. He looks great!

And then, after watching the girls swim naked in the dipping pool and the boys ride their bikes in the sun for a while, I figured we'd better get on with the obligations of our family life.

Thank you Harold, You are the best! Kumar (Just me and Irene's inside joke)