Getting ready for the trip

Yes, I am posting a day earlier than usual, because we are supposed to leave on our spring break trip tomorrow. Only one problem: we don't have a car! Rocket Boy needs some body work done on the Highlander, our big car that we take on trips. He got a call from the garage last week and they said the part had come in, so he should bring in the car and they'd fix it up right away. He got his dad's old Montero running, so he'd have a way to get to work, and then we dropped the Highlander off at the shop. 

Thursday the mechanic called and said the part doesn't fit, so they'll have to reorder. Rocket Boy explained that we were leaving Sunday and needed the car back. No problem, they'll put the car back together and we can pick it up Saturday. Today, around 11:30, we were waiting for them to call. I said to RB, "You should call them. Don't they close at 12?" So he called. They'd forgotten all about us. "When are you leaving on your trip?" the receptionist asked. "TOMORROW!" "Oh...." Supposedly now they're putting the car back together. It's 1:04 pm. 

...

OK, we're back and we have the car! So one disaster is averted. We have a car. We have a lot of cash, more than we'll need, I'm sure. I like to have $100 per day, just in case something goes wrong with our credit cards. So I currently have $838 in bills stashed away (enough for the 7 days of the trip plus one extra), plus 15 quarters, 8 dimes, 5 nickels, and 20 pennies. I did have 42 pennies, but I decided that was silly, so I put 22 of them in my penny glass. If I come back home with a lot of cash I'll use some of it to pay the cat sitters (12 visits x $15 = $180), and the rest I'll spend gradually. Lots of places around here like it when you pay in cash, so it'll all get used eventually.

I have physical maps for the trip. I went to AAA and got a Central Sates & Provinces map, an Arkansas & Oklahoma map, a Kentucky & Tennessee map, an Illinois & Indiana map, and a Kansas & Missouri map. Plus we have lots of Colorado maps. Just in case the GPS stops working! 

We have reservations for six nights in hotels and I have all the confirmation numbers written down. Sunday night we are staying at the Northwest Inn in Woodward, Oklahoma. Monday night we are staying at the Best Western Winners Circle in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Tuesday night we are staying at the Relax Inn & Suites in Kuttawa, Kentucky. Wednesday night we are staying at the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Evansville, Indiana. Thursday night we are staying at the Best Western Plus Columbia Inn in Columbia, Missouri. Friday night we are staying at the Sleep Inn & Suites in Hays, Kansas. And Saturday night we should be home! 

***

This was birthday week, of course, and we made it through that, although it wasn't easy. My sisters sent cards and generous checks -- the last checks, since in our family we cut off presents at age 18. Our next door neighbor gave them $15 each and Rocket Boy and I gave them $20 each (we figured the average was close to $18). And of course I transferred their social security money to them. And that was it. I didn't have any other presents for them. Nothing to unwrap, no gift bags to open. Truly the worst I have ever done with birthdays. How is it possible that I do not know what to get them? I'm their mother, I should know! But I don't.

On Friday a package arrived for Teen B. He orders things for himself from time to time, so I just handed him the box, no questions asked. Later I found the wrappings in the trash. He bought himself a new phone! I looked at his bank account online and it cost over $700! But he has (or had) almost $15,000 (the social security money plus all the birthday and Christmas money he's saved all these years), so heck, why not?

I bought these two terrible cakes from King Soopers for the birthday (I tried one of the fancier places I had thought of, but they didn't have anything, so I just gave up and went to KS). Both cakes were on sale, presumably because they were old, one for $7.50 and one for $5.40. COULD I have been any chintzier? I don't think so. I wrote "Happy 18th" on the white cake with an old tube of black icing that I found in the cupboard. (Couldn't I have bought a new tube of icing? Apparently not.) Soon after this picture was taken, the black icing began to run (probably from the heat of 18 candles plus one to grow on), and formed a black blob in the middle of the cake. When we cut the cake, the blackness dripped onto its innards, making it look moldy. Neither boy would then touch it. Rocket Boy and I each had a piece, while we watched the NewsHour. It wasn't very good.

We ate out both Sunday and Monday nights, since we couldn't eat out Saturday night (because of the musical) and of course Monday was the birthday. Sunday night Teen A chose BJ's, which is always fine, and Monday night Teen B chose the Teahouse, so that was fun. I had a delicious Mediterranean salad. Rocket Boy told the waitress it was the twins' birthday, so she said, "Dessert's on me!" but in the end, nothing on the dessert menu appealed to them, so we just went home and had (or didn't have) the nasty King Soopers cake.

Both boys went to school as usual on their birthday and the day after, and every day this week. They're so good. Teen B had to stay until 6 pm both Monday and Tuesday, to participate in what they call the post-musical "strike," which means taking down the set and cleaning up the stage, the workshop, etc. So he was really tired on his birthday. But no complaining. My good boys.

On Wednesday I saw my doctor for my yearly physical. I had gained about six pounds since I saw her in September, but she didn't comment on that. She was very impressed by my A1c (down to 6.1) and didn't get mad at me when I told her I'd been eating mainly candy since December and not exercising very much. (Actually, looking at my notebook, I see that I went for 12 walks in February, which isn't too bad. March hasn't been so great, though. Too much wind.) My triglycerides were slightly elevated, which she attributed to my "candy diet." I told her what I'd been upset about, to cause the candy eating and lack of exercise (the diagnosis) and she was sympathetic. She did say, "Most people seem to have a little autism in them." She also encouraged me to consider therapy, or family therapy. 

I had expected her to give me some cognitive or mobility tests, which I thought began when you turn 65, but she didn't. She had a nurse-practitioner in training with her, and maybe that was part of the problem. I didn't mind. I think I'm cognitively OK, more or less, and more or less mobile.

Well, maybe this is enough of a blog post. I really should go pack my suitcase! The one issue that I haven't mentioned is that I'm sick, apparently. I have a mild sore throat, have had it since Wednesday. Teen A had the same thing last week, and after about 5 days it went away. So maybe mine will go away in a day or two. I'm just taking painkillers at night to sleep and otherwise not worrying about it. But it would be nice if I didn't have it. However, I probably won't be doing any of the driving, so I can sit in the back seat and read and maybe even nap.

Wish us luck on this epic journey! 

March madness

OMG, Daylight Saving Time! I forgot all about it, even though it always starts right before or right after the twins' birthday, so I really shouldn't. I thought DJT was going to get rid of this, along with pennies! Why can't he do anything right? Actually, I guess one proposal is to keep us on DST permanently, so next fall they might cancel God's Time, as my grandparents called it. I'd rather get rid of Daylight Saving Time and just stay on regular time. But I'll probably be outvoted.

It's March, so we had some snow this week, finally (March is traditionally our snowiest month). It snowed pretty much all day on Friday. The temperature never got much below freezing, in fact, it was above freezing most of the day -- 33 or 34 degrees, mostly. So the snow was very wet and it didn't stick to the roads at all. Still, we ended up with some accumulation on the lawn. I just tried to find the official total and it said 3.3 inches. I think it was more than that, but it's hard to say. It's basically all gone now, though. Melted into the earth -- which could really use it.

Well, it's Sunday, so the musical is over. There were dress rehearsals on Monday (I brought a dreadful vegan casserole to the dinner) and Tuesday, Wednesday they performed for a bunch of middle schoolers in the morning, and then the real performances were Thursday, Friday, and two on Saturday. I spent a great deal of time driving Teen B back and forth to the school. I went to the Thursday performance alone, sat in the balcony, watched Teen B play but couldn't hear the dialogue very well. Rocket Boy and I went to the Saturday night performance together, sat about five rows from the front, and could hear everything. 

Teen B needed a white buttondown shirt and black dress pants, and he told me this on, I think, Tuesday. So that night we went shopping at Target and actually found exactly what we needed. I washed the pants and shirt on Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Friday night, and I'll wash them again tomorrow (but he doesn't need to wear them again until their next concert, which is probably in late April).

It was great -- as always, they did a wonderful job. But I must say, I didn't like the musical itself (Chicago) very much. It's "satirical," which means nasty. There were no appealing characters, no one you could sympathize with except perhaps the Hungarian woman whom no one could understand and so she got hanged. Almost everyone wore black. All but one of the girls were in skimpy, revealing outfits the entire time, even when they were playing reporters. I think of musicals as happy plays with happy endings. I *guess* this has a happy ending, with Velma and Roxie out of jail and performing in vaudeville, but since Velma and Roxie are both nasty people, why should I care if they succeed? And this is the longest-running American musical in Broadway history, according to Wikipedia. Why?

When the performance ended on Saturday night, the choir director came out and thanked various people who helped (including me, for bringing food). Then she asked all the seniors involved in the musical to form a line at the front of the stage. Teen B climbed out of the orchestra pit along with everyone else and went to the end of the line. They were each given a (real) red rose. Teen B stood there, awkwardly, holding his rose, and I burst into tears. I'm so glad he was able to participate, last year and this year. I think I'm going to miss high school more than the twins will. 

But we have college to think about. Teen B has now gotten into all three of the schools he applied to, so he needs to decide which one to attend and we need to put down that deposit. We should put down Teen A's deposit too. After spring break, I'll think about that. I need to find out how to get money out of their college savings accounts to pay for all this. 

***

We've got one more week until spring break and I'm busily planning our ridiculous trip. I went to Barnes & Noble and got a Lonely Planet travel book called American South, which reminded me that we are, in fact, going to be touring the south. Oklahoma isn't included in the book -- I couldn't find a travel book that mentioned Oklahoma, lol. But the other states -- Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky -- they're in there. They're called the Upper South.

It's going to be weird to be going through the South when we're so furious at Trump for everything (and of course that's where his supporters live). I suppose we'll have to watch Fox News in every hotel breakfast room. I wonder what they'll have to say about the war in the Middle East. 

For a few years now, for each spring break trip (and some others), I've made a little booklet on the computer, one page for each day of the trip, with all the information I know -- hotel reservations with address, phone, and confirmation numbers, suggestions of where to eat lunch and dinner, our activities for the day, and highway numbers. I print this out and staple it together and keep it in my purse, so even if our phones don't work, we'll have hard copies of the plans. I also plan to go to AAA this week and get some physical maps. We're going to be in some out of the way places, don't want to have to depend on the internet.

I've been working on this for a few days now, have four days planned, four hotel reservations made. Three more days to go (two more hotels). I try to do one each day. I think this is going to be a frustrating trip. We'll be driving so much, there'll be hardly any time to relax and enjoy ourselves. But, you know, Teen A really likes to drive, so he'll get us to all the places we need to go.

We're going to drive through Okeene, Oklahoma, where my great-grandparents (father's mother's parents) acquired a farm back in the late 1800s. I don't know how to find the farm, but I have directions to the cemetery where they're buried (I've been there once), so I'm going to try to take us there.

Then, on another day, we're going to drive past the little town of Eddyville, Kentucky, in fact, we're going to stay in a hotel very near there. And I realized that some of my ancestors lived there, too. It was longer ago, and I don't have very good information about them, but I found the grave of a sister of my great-great-grandfather (mother's father's father's father) in the old Eddyville Cemetery, Riverview. So I'm going to try to go there and look at the grave. We may not have time -- we'll be on our way to Mammoth Cave, and we have cave tour reservations for 2:30 that afternoon. We'll just see how quickly we can get moving that morning.

Of course, Daylight Saving Time. Not to mention, we'll be on Central Time. So nobody is going to want to get up early. Sigh. Maybe I could take the car and go look by myself, before everyone else gets up!

***

Well, I should stop here, because it's already 5 pm (stupid new time) and Teen B and I haven't spent any time on his homework. But first I'm going to go for a walk. I haven't walked for several days, and I see my doctor on Wednesday. I'd like to be able to tell her I've been exercising regularly. I am really happy about my bloodwork results. My good cholesterol, the HDL, went up to 56, which is higher than I think it's ever been. They like it to be at least 60, but I'm usually in the 40s, so 56 is great.

And my A1c is down to 6.1, despite basically living on candy the last three months. I was SURE it would go up, not down. I almost can't believe this result. I'm on a lower dose of Mounjaro, I've gained back some of the weight, I've been eating candy like it's going out of style, and my A1c went down (not very much -- it was 6.2 in September, but it was 6.4 last March). I'm happy about that. 

Next week I won't post on Sunday, because that's the day we leave. I'll try to write a short post on Saturday, and then a longer post the following Sunday, when we're home again. 

Post-note: I forgot to mention the twins' 18th birthday! Which is tomorrow! I am so unprepared for this birthday, it is beyond belief. We ate out tonight and will eat out tomorrow -- each boy got to choose one of the nights. Teen A chose BJ's for tonight and Teen B wants to go to the Teahouse tomorrow.  

Tomorrow morning I will go to the bank and transfer all their social security money to their savings accounts, so that will be done (other than a few more payments that may come to me). And then I'll buy some birthday cards and maybe decorations and get a cake from somewhere. I haven't even figured out the cake yet! What is wrong with me? OK, I just looked up where to buy a cake in Boulder and I found three places that sell specialty cakes and might have some available if I just show up tomorrow morning (because OF COURSE I forgot to order anything ahead of time). And of course there's always King Soopers, but it would be nice to get something a little fancier for their 18th. And really I should get a cake for each boy. I'll see what I can find.

OMG. I am such a failure as a mother. No, I know I'm not really, but I am a birthday failure, that is for darned sure. OK, we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck. 

Thank goodness it's March

This is not my usual attitude toward the beginning of March, but last month was so hard that I'm looking for a new start, and March will have to be it. 

I usually don't like March because (a) the twins' birthday, which is hard for me, (b) my father was born and died in March, (c) I'm often still frantically trying to finish the taxes, and (d) crummy weather. This year the taxes are done and the weather shows no signs of doing much of anything. I still have to live through the anniversaries of my father's birth and death, so there's that. 

And then there's the twins' birthday, which has me baffled this year. The main thing I know I have to do on the 9th is turn over their social security accounts to them. Teen B has $12,845 in his and Teen A has $10,909 (I've taken money out of his to buy him a computer, and to pay for the car accident, court costs, a speeding ticket, a parking ticket, etc., and both of them have been getting a $20/week allowance out of it, so this is what's left after that). That means giving them money as presents is going to feel sort of ridiculous. But what else? I've thought of giving them silly presents, like Lego sets, but I don't know. Spending money on stuff they won't use, just to be sweet and funny... not sure I'm into that. Their birthday is a Monday, which is dumb. I suppose we might celebrate it on Sunday. I could make a couple of cakes. I just don't know what to do. I don't suppose it matters a lot.

I'm actually really ready for them to grow up and move on. Part of the misery over Teen B's diagnosis is the thought that he won't do that. But I think I'm starting to come around. What's been very stressful for a long time is thinking about him growing up and then running into a sort of brick wall in my mind because I can't imagine him doing [whatever]. Now I'm starting to think, OK, he's probably not going to do that, or at least not right away, so don't worry about it. We'll take things slowly.

Teen A, on the other hand, is racing away into adult life as fast as he can go, and that makes me feel better about Teen B (i.e., at least one of them is going to grow up). It also, of course, makes me worry, because when you're going really fast there's a greater chance that you'll crash, perhaps literally. On bad days I imagine Teen A getting into a terrible car crash and ending up paralyzed, in a wheelchair, at home forever more with me looking after him.

Why do people have children? Such a bother. Of course, they say fewer and fewer people ARE having them. You can kind of see why.

***

We had a fire yesterday, up in the hills above Chautauqua. Teen A and I were driving downtown to pick up the pants for his suit which had come in at Men's Wearhouse, when he said to me, "There's a fire." "Where?" I looked around. "Right there, mom," he said, gesturing to his left. And there was a huge plume of smoke. Great. I opened the "Watch Duty" app on my phone and sure enough, the Bluebell Fire. 

It turned out not to be a big deal, no neighborhoods had to be evacuated, and they got the whole thing put out by the end of the day. But I thought it was sweet: the people who DID have to be evacuated were the hikers on the trails above Chautauqua. According to the fire chief (I watched his press conference), there were "hundreds of people on the trails." It was a nice sunny day, of course everyone was out hiking. I had thought about doing that too. The rangers had to go running up all the trails and get everyone down. According to the fire chief, people were very cooperative. Oh, Boulder.

Of course, the fire may have been arson, or possibly someone throwing down a smoldering cigarette or something like that. We won't know for a while, I guess. 

We got Teen A's pants (Men's Wearhouse had lost them, but eventually they turned up), so now his suit is ready. We just need a pink tie (his girlfriend's dress is pink). I looked at pink ties on the Macy's website and texted him some possible ones later. He showed them to his girlfriend and she approved them, but she said don't buy anything, I might get a different dress. That amused me. TWO prom dresses? I guess for a once in a lifetime thing like prom, you might want to go all out. As long as Teen A doesn't want to get a different suit.

For dinner, we (well, Rocket Boy) decided it would be fun to drive up north on I-25 to Johnson's Corner and go to the Black Bear Diner (the chain that has taken over the old Johnson's Corner restaurant that we used to go to in the old days, on our way to Wyoming). It's 40 miles from here, but Teen A was happy to drive. We first ate at a Black Bear Diner three years ago on our spring break trip to Arizona and we had such a good experience there that we always want to go again, even though the food is really not that good. 

It was fun, although Teen B complained quite a bit. Rocket Boy reminded him that we will be doing a lot of driving on our spring break trip in a few weeks, so this was practice. Hmm. I really need to get busy planning that trip. I haven't even asked the cat sitters if they'll be available. Should do that today.

Teen B thinks he doesn't want to take this trip we're (sort of) planning. "Where are we going again?" he asked me. "Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky!" I said, trying to make it sound exciting. "KenTUCKy! Why do we have to go to Kentucky?" he asked in horror. "We're also going to Oklahoma and Arkansas," I told him, trying to take the emphasis off Kentucky. "And we're going to stop off in St. Louis on the way back, see Manny, go to Fitz's." "But KenTUCKy!" he went on, unable to leave that alone. "You can stay home, you know," I told him. "You'll be 18, it's legal. You can take care of the cats." He gave me a look.

I don't know about this trip. It does sound a little ridiculous. But it might be the last, or one of the last, family trips we ever take together, so we might as well do it.

***

So, the week ahead looks very complicated, mainly because of the musical. Tomorrow, Monday, I have to make a vegan entree and deliver it to the school by 3:45 pm. I had several bad dreams about that last night, lol. I'll also have to come up with something for dinner, for me and Rocket Boy and possibly Teen A (he's sometimes home for dinner, sometimes not). And then pick up Teen B around 8:30.

Tuesday is another rehearsal day, so Teen B will be home very late again. I'll probably get fish for me and Rocket Boy for dinner.

Wednesday is late start except that Teen B has to be at school early, so it's not late start for him. I'll take him and then go on to Boulder Medical Center and get blood work done (for my appointment the next week). Then Teen A has a haircut at 11, but he can drive himself, I'll just give him the money. It'll be a normal dinner, with everyone home. I might make Brenda's sticky tofu.

Thursday is the first night of the play, which means that I'll have to get Teen B to the school by 6 pm, which means I'll need to feed him (and myself) around 5 pm. But feed us what? Then I'll attend the play at 7 and come home around 10 pm with Teen B... and feed Rocket Boy? I think he can feed himself, lol, or maybe whatever Teen B and I eat at 5 pm will have leftovers.

Friday will be a repeat of Thursday, except that Rocket Boy will bring Lenten Fish Fry dinners from some Catholic church, so I'll just have to feed Teen B at 5 pm and RB and I can eat later.

Saturday I'll have to get Teen B to the school by 1 pm (I think), pick him up again around 4:30, have a quick dinner of some sort, take him back at 6 pm, we'll watch the musical from 7 to 10, come home, and collapse. We'll eat out on Sunday instead of Saturday. And I suppose it should be a birthday-ish dinner, since their birthday is that Monday. OMG.

I'm getting stressed thinking about this, but at the same time it should be really fun, because the musical is fun and exciting. All I need to do is not get upset about things, do my best to smooth over any rough edges, make life easy for everyone else. Hmm.

I've been so depressed the last few weeks, even after getting the taxes done early, even after finally getting those stupid social security forms in last week. I honestly spent most of the month in bed. After getting the kids to school and the cats fed and breakfast eaten and the laundry started each day, I would climb back into bed and read. This is how I managed to read 13 books in 28 days, some of them long and difficult (some of them were mysteries, though). I also ate a lot of chocolate. Well, that's what I do in February, even on this drug.

Later I would get up and make whatever I had to make for the school dinners. Brownies on Monday (I actually made them on Sunday), fruit salad on Tuesday (that turned out well), and raspberry lemon bars on Wednesday. And put away the laundry. And make dinner for us. I did what I had to do. I remember my mother, when she was depressed, spending the day in bed, but she always got up and made dinner. 

I did not go for any walks all last week. My last walk was on February 22nd, last Sunday.

I try to be good to myself when I'm depressed. I know it doesn't help to yell at myself. I try to be kind. Wouldn't you like to go for a walk today? I say, rather than, "Come on, you lazy bum, get out of bed and go get some exercise!" But I didn't want to go for a walk (even though walking might have made me feel better), so I didn't go.

This week, despite the craziness, I am going to try to find time for walks. But if I don't, that's OK too. Just keep going, keep trying.

Oh, and now we apparently are at war. I can't even process that, it's so weird. There was a protest today about that, downtown. We didn't go. After the musical, after the birthday, after the spring break trip, I'll think about what's going on in the world. Unless the world comes to me first, which could happen. We'll see. 

Reading post: February

It's the end of the month, so it's time for a reading post. In February I focused on books, mostly fiction, by and about Black writers (because February is Black History Month). I had a very long list and I did the best I could with it. I think mainly I was depressed, and there were days when I barely got out of bed. I just read, all these interesting books.

Books I said I'd like to read

The Walls of Jericho by Rudolph Fisher (1928). In August 2020 I read Fisher's The Conjure-Man Dies, the first detective story written by a Black person about Black people, and I LOVED it. This month I read Fisher's first novel, which isn't a mystery, unfortunately. It isn't much of a novel, either, very little plot, but he was just finding his feet as a writer, I think, and it's still worth reading. Lots of funny situations, lots of interesting cultural information about Harlem in the 1920s. 

This book was published the same year as Claude McKay's Home to Harlem, which I read in 2020, and which is, I think, the better book. I'm still so sorry that Rudolph Fisher died young (age 37) and only had time to write two books.

Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely (2014).  After I read The Conjure-Man Dies, I made a note that I wanted to read more mysteries by Black authors. 

I have added to my to-read list the other seven Chester Himes novels... the ten additional books in the Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley... and the 13 additional books by Eleanor Taylor Bland... I'd also like to explore works by Barbara Neely, Gar Anthony Haywood, and Grace F. Edwards...

Out of this list, the only thing I went on to read was Eleanor Taylor Bland's series, so this month I read Barbara Neely's first book and it was so fun. Blanche works as a cook/maid for rich white people in North Carolina who neglect to pay her, thus causing her to bounce a few checks. Running away from the sheriff, she ends up working for another rich white family who have a lot of secrets, including murder. Blanche solves the murder and gets out alive. This is the first of four books, the rest of which I will now read.

Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed (1972). In August 2021 I read a profile of Reed in The New Yorker and noted,

His most famous book, Mumbo Jumbo, has been vaguely on my "to-read" list for years, and after reading this profile I'm more interested, because I learned that it is "a detective novel set in Jazz Age Harlem."  

It isn't really a detective novel, I found to my disappointment. But it's set during the Harlem Renaissance and mentions lots of writers of that time period, so that's fun. It's a pretty crazy book, very hard to follow. There's a virus spreading across the country, a pandemic called Jes Grew (I got the "Topsy" reference!) which seems to make people dance and be happy. A shadowy group called the Wallflower Order wants to stamp it out, stamp out Black culture and history, and make everything white and bland and boring. There's a long section at the end that basically rewrites ancient history from a Black perspective. The whole book was nuts. But I'm glad I finally read it.

If I Should Die by Grace F. Edwards (1997). Another from my list of Black mystery writers I said I'd "like to explore." I had to request this from Prospector (from the University of Denver library), because the Boulder library has nothing. It's the first of four books featuring Mali Anderson (named after the African country), former police officer and now sociology grad student.

I have to say, it's not a very good mystery. It was pretty obvious who the murderers were, and there were a lot of loose ends not tied up properly. But Edwards writes well. She just hadn't figured out how to write a mystery when she wrote this book. I might try the next book in the series, just to see if she gets better at it. What I did like about the book was its sympathetic portrayal of life in Harlem in the 1990s.

Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd (2003). Not fiction, but a biography of a famous Black writer from the Harlem Renaissance era. After I read Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God in 2020, I said

If I were feeling up to snuff, I would have read some of her anthropological work, and either a biography or her autobiography. 

Later on I did read her anthropological Mules and Men, and this month I tackled the biography. And I almost didn't finish it. It's 438 pages of text plus notes, and the text is small and closely spaced. Boyd basically includes every known detail of Hurston's life and it just gets oppressive. I thought we'd never get out of the 1930s. But I stuck with it, and I'll be darned. All that text, all that detail, and all of a sudden I felt like I knew Hurston and understood her. And liked her, whereas before I hadn't, quite. Not sure I really recommend this book unless you are a huge Hurston fan, but if you are, then you should read it.

The Trees by Percival Everett (2021). My third book by Everett and my favorite so far. When I read James in 2024 I said I'd like to read more by Everett. When I read Erasure this past November I noted that I didn't enjoy it, and said,

But I was impressed by Everett (who also wrote James) and would read more by him. 

So, I tried another one of his books -- and hit the jackpot. The Trees is SOOO good. It's structured as a murder mystery, although it's actually about the history of lynching in America. It begins in Money, Mississippi, the site of the Emmett Till lynching in 1955, where the two redneck sons of the two men who murdered Till are themselves found murdered, and lying next to each of them is the corpse of a small Black man who resembles Till, which later vanishes. And that's just the beginning. It doesn't seem like a book about lynching could be funny, but this one is. Eventually I started wondering how Everett was going to wrap it up, and he may have wondered that too. It's a little unclear! But still, very good book, fun book. I'll read more of Everett for sure.

Women of the Harlem Renaissance by Cheryl A. Wall (1995). Not sure this belongs in this list, because I think I just found it when I was looking for books about Zora Neale Hurston. Anyway, it's a scholarly book about Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen, and Hurston, as well as some more minor writers of the Harlem Renaissance, so it feels like it fits here. It's a pretty readable book, despite being scholarly. I haven't read Fauset, so I was glad to read about her novels and conclude, as I had thought, that they're probably not worth reading. Also interesting to read about Larsen, whose Quicksilver I have read, and I am planning to read Passing next month. And of course Hurston, a slightly different view of her. A good, quick read.

 

Books from the New Yorker's "Briefly Noted" reviews

Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family by Rachel Jamison Webster. A genealogy book! And so interesting. The author, a white woman, learned through DNA testing that her father's father's mother's family was actually part Black. In fact, they were descended from a sister of Benjamin Banneker (the Black astronomer and mathematician who published an almanac in the late 1700s and helped lay out Washington, DC for Thomas Jefferson). She connected with other descendants who had been researching their family tree for a long time, and eventually wrote this book. 

The book itself is good but a bit frustrating. I didn't enjoy the chapters where she imagines the lives of Banneker and his parents and grandparents. It was impossible to know what she was making up and what was based on fact, because those chapters were written as little stories. But I did enjoy the chapters about the research and about Webster's interactions with her newfound Black cousins, who made the book possible. She spends a lot of time thinking about whether it is really appropriate for her to write this book, as a white woman who is descended from the branch of the family who decided to "pass," leaving their Black cousins behind to deal with racism in America. She never quite answers the question, although in some ways the book is her answer. But in some ways the book is the question. Very thought-provoking.

 

Other reading

Snow: A Scientific and Cultural Exploration by Giles Whittell (2018). In this year of no snow, I found this book on the "Staff Picks" shelf at the library. Whittell, an English journalist, explores many aspects of snow: the science (why no two snowflakes are the same), the linguistics of snow, big snows in history, the ski industry, Bigfoot, snow in art, how climate change is affecting snow (soon it'll all be gone), etc. I mean, it was a little dull (I used it to help me fall asleep), but I still liked it. One fun thing: Whittell tells the story of Rick Sylvester who did the ski jump in the movie The Spy Who Loved Me, so I got that from the library and we watched it. Pretty dumb movie, but that ski jump was awesome!

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disaster by Jacob Soboroff (2026). From snow to fire. I saw an interview with the author on the PBS NewsHour a while back and put a hold on his book at the library. Most of the book is a detailed diary of the first few days of the fires of January 2025, which Soboroff reported on. It's agonizing to relive, but I also really wished Soboroff had gotten a little more distance from it before writing this. He grew up in Pacific Palisades, where one of the two worst fires was, and he keeps talking about his lost childhood, but saying the same things over and over. The epilogue is interesting, focusing on what Trump is doing to make it harder to fight fires, deal with climate change, etc.

Ausome Parenting: The Guide to Endless Love, Emotional Support, and Acceptance for Your Autistic Child by Natalie Loveson (2024). I got this from the library and oh, it's so awful (or should that be "auful"?). I can see how parents of a newly-diagnosed toddler might get something out of it, but I got almost nothing. It's self-published, so there are lots of grammar and format mistakes that should have been caught by an editor. Also, the author is so perky! Like, this experience is going to be GREAT! And then she gives a lot of breathing exercises (presumably to be used when things aren't GREAT). Not recommended.

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida, translated from the Japanese by KA Yoshida and David Mitchell (2007). This was more interesting, although I guess it is controversial. Supposedly it was written by a nonverbal boy with autism, using an "alphabet grid," but some people think his mother really wrote it for him. I have no way of knowing how much of it Naoki actually wrote, but it presented a lot of ideas about autism that were new to me, and I found it easy to read and very interesting.

A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym (1958). Oh, yes, February is when we read Barbara Pym! I almost didn't manage it this year, too busy with all these other books. This is not my favorite Pym, wouldn't choose it as comfort reading normally. But I read Less Than Angels last February, so it was time for this one. And really, it's very good, it's just that it's not as cozy as some of hers. The main character, Wilmet, is a little hard to like, but when she gets badly hurt toward the end of the book, it's still painful. But there are lots of cozy bits, and it all ends well, so I didn't mind reading it again. Still, not the happiest book and I wanted something happy. Next year!

February drags on

So we continue with February, the month of pink things and chocolate. This wasn't a good week for me, I must say. Oh, nothing bad happened. In fact, it was kind of dull. The first few days were part of the Presidents Day holiday, and then the kids went to school Wednesday through Friday. No one is sick. There were no appointments. 

Mostly it was a bad week because I'm in sort of a fragile state right now and things set me off. So. 

I don't feel bad today. Last night we ate at the restaurant at the golf course, and I had a delicious salmon dish (blackened salmon with mango salsa, sauteed spinach, lemon white wine sauce, and jasmine rice) which later made me feel like throwing up. But I managed not to! And today I feel pretty good, perhaps because I had such a good dinner. Also: got a good night's sleep, have already done some homework with both kids, laundry is in the dryer/hanging up, dishwasher is running, brownies are in the oven, we've done our Starbucks run, and I'm writing this blog post. 

I do still have to clean the litter boxes. But there's always something like that lurking in the wings.

Yesterday, Teen B, Rocket Boy and I went to Costco. I hadn't gone in maybe a year and a half, let my membership lapse a year ago and all that. But they're always happy to have you back. I really wanted to get a special lantern, as recommended by both our nextdoor neighbor and someone in my book group, to have in the event of a power failure. But we couldn't find it. Someone said it was probably seasonal. I thought, February is still power failure time (actually, every month is power failure time). But it wasn't there.

Still, they had all sorts of other things I needed. Brownie mix, for the brownies I am making right now (that have to be delivered to the school tomorrow). A giant tub of sour cream, a giant tub of guacamole, and two large bags of shredded Mexican cheese, all of which I have to bring to the school on Friday. I will have to go to the regular grocery store to buy the ingredients for fruit salad (Tuesday) and lemon bars (Wednesday), but that's OK.

I also bought a big jar of jelly beans (Easter is coming), a three-pack of Poopourri, a lifetime supply of Sensodyne toothpaste (four tubes), and a big package of tissue boxes (Teen A goes through tissues like water), and Rocket Boy got two big boxes of granola bars. And we got a lot of vitamins. And RB chose a fancy tuxedo cake that we did not need. Maybe there were other things too, I don't remember. But the total, OMG. Almost $350. Later, when we spent almost $150 at the restaurant, RB announced that we had spent $500 that day! Not quite, I said. But yeah, just about.

And today I found the lantern on the Costco website (for $30) and ordered it. If you add that to yesterday's purchases, plus what we spent at Starbucks today, yep, it's over $500. Money just doesn't make any sense anymore. Fortunately, we have plenty of it.

After Rocket Boy's job ends, whenever that is, and we have to depend on Social Security and distributions from our retirement accounts, we'll try to spend less at Costco. But for now, I figure might as well spend the money and enjoy it. This reminds me of what my parents used to call themselves: "The last of the big-time spenders." They really weren't -- they were fairly frugal. But my father bought himself new books and records, and we always had nice clothes, and they ate out once a week, and many of my friends' parents didn't spend money so freely. So, whatever. 

When we're spending vast sums of money on not much, like yesterday, I always think about what it was like ten years ago, when the twins were in elementary school and we were living on my part-time teaching and going on and off reduced-cost lunch. It would have been so nice to have more money back then. 

Right now it seems sort of unimportant. I guess it's good to be able to buy the twins things they need for school this year, like their "senior jerseys," and the "graduation swag" that I really didn't need to buy. And Teen A's suit for prom. That was fun to shop for.

Next year, when they're in college (maybe, maybe), we'll start spending their college funds. That will be interesting. I don't even know how to access that money. But we will learn. 

So, the week ahead. A lot of food preparation for the dinners at the school, but less so at home. Teen B doesn't have to go to practice tomorrow, and he's requested tacos for dinner, so I'll make those. Tuesday through Friday, he'll eat at school, so Rocket Boy and I (and Teen A, but he only eats with us now and then) can have something Teen B doesn't like. Maybe we'll have fish a couple of times, or, I know, potatoes! Teen B has a weird aversion to potatoes, so I never get to make potato dishes. I should do something with potatoes this week.

Other than that, I think it will be a quiet week. I do have to go to the Social Security office in Louisville, just to drop off the forms, so I'll call on Monday and make an appointment. But that's about it. Hope it ends up being as quiet as it looks right now.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's over, of course, but it feels like Valentine's weekend is ongoing. Tomorrow is President's Day and my niece's birthday, and Tuesday is just an extra vacation day for the kids (Rocket Boy will go back to work), when we can catch up on homework. But it's also Lunar New Year and the first day of Ramadan, and then Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, none of which we really celebrate, but I like to acknowledge them anyway. 

This should be a pretty easy week, I hope. Just three days of school. Rocket Boy made his famous mac & cheese last night for dinner, and there's plenty left over, so we'll also have that on Monday. Tonight we're going to eat out somewhere. So I don't have to cook until Tuesday, and I already know what I'm having, a lemon tofu dish over rice (nice for Lunar New Year). Then I'll just have to figure out Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Sigh. Sometimes I think about ALL the cooking I'm going to have to do, in what's left of my life, and it is rather horrifying.

On the other hand, after Rocket Boy cooked last night, the kitchen was an absolute shambles. I think he used almost every large pot we own (all of which have to be washed by hand). I worked and worked to do the dishes this morning. When I cook, it's not quite so horrible afterwards (usually).

The week after this one is "Tech Week" rehearsals for the musical, so I have signed up to bring something each night (since Teen B won't be eating with us). Brownies, lemon bars, fruit salad, a vegan casserole, and then on Friday for Taco Bar Night just some add-ons (guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheese). Last year I signed up to bring 10 baked potatoes on Baked Potato Night, and then I got sick and it was a disaster. So I'm bringing simpler things this time, except for that vegan casserole, which worries me. But it'll probably be fine.

***

This past week was pretty intense. On Monday night we went to our last parent-teacher conferences ever, which brought a tear to my eye (well, kind of). Both Teen A's math and physics teachers said he's doing better this term than last (when he got D's in both classes). Paying attention, asking questions in class, that kind of thing. Hmm. 

Teen B's math teacher insisted that he was doing great. Teen B thinks he's failing, keeps asking if he can drop the class. I think the truth is somewhere in between. 

We told two of Teen B's teachers about the autism diagnosis, one of whom had helped by filling out questionnaires. (We didn't tell the oblivious math teacher. No point.) I still haven't figured out who else to tell. His counselor? Probably. His doctor? Probably. Maybe I'll work on that this week.

While we were talking to Teen A's "Interpersonal Relationships" teacher, the teacher sitting next to her overheard us mention that Teen A wants to study aviation science at Metro (maybe). This other teacher had gone to Metro, said it was a great school, and also mentioned that his daughter was trying to become a pilot, but she was having trouble passing her FAA Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) test, which you have to do before you're allowed to "solo," because she has ADHD and at one time took medication for it. You have to be able to prove that you don't need medication to function. The medical examiner found out she has ADHD because she's been on an IEP and it mentions ADHD on the form. Of course, Teen A has also had an IEP and a 504, and both mention ADHD as a reason. He only took medication VERY briefly, back in 2018 -- we didn't even finish one bottle of it (I still have it). But according to the teacher, it can be hard to prove that you stopped taking a med. We may have to provide years of medical records.

We did not know about any of this, so it was good to hear about, though worrying. The teacher also said that the dyslexia diagnosis may be an issue. I had wondered about that. We'll just have to see.

Tuesday night was the Synergy Concert, which I love. All the different musical groups at the high school perform together in various combinations. I really liked one piece the choirs did, called "Golden Field," and also a jazz piece called "Walking by Flashlight." The younger band and orchestra played Prokofiev's "Montagues and Capulets" from "Romeo and Juliet," which I love, although Teen B told me they did a terrible job of it compared to when HE played it, two years ago (sitting up in the balcony, I didn't notice). And then they finished with the advanced band and orchestra and all the choirs doing some of the "Polovtsian Dances" by Borodin, which was a favorite of my mother's and which I love love love. 

After this, how many more performances do we get to attend? The musical in early March, and then the spring play at the other high school in April, and then the final band, orchestra, and choir concerts in late April/early May, and then graduation in mid-May. And then it's over.

I will try to go to everything.

My book group met on Thursday, finally, after much rescheduling. We read The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, which I liked but did not love. The member who listened to the audiobook loved it, and she played some of it for us so we could hear. There was a different voice for each different character who wrote a letter, and I could see how that made it better. 

Next month we are going to read Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. I suggested Hamnet once before, but one member strongly nixed it because it sounded sad. This time I had it on a list with five other books and she picked it out and voted for it strongly. I'm happy -- it sounds like a good book. I am #71 out of 75 on the waiting list at the library for it, but we don't meet until March 24th, so there's a good chance I'll get it in time. And if not, I'll buy it, no big deal. I bought The Correspondent, but I don't really want to keep it, so I gave it to the member who listened to it, to give to her partner, and I told her he can pass it on to someone else.

Finally we got to Valentine's Day. It was a sweet day. Everybody slept late, which was nice. We worked on the TAXES, which I have been stressing over, and we actually finished them! All I have to do now is get Rocket Boy to sign a form, and then I'll scan it, and then I'll just wait for our tax preparer to "open the portal" so I can upload everything. Our taxes seem terribly complicated this year, but at least we don't have to file in MISSOURI.

Rocket Boy and I exchanged cards. We are always amused by how our choices seem to dovetail. This year we both got cards that said that the other person was our "better half." I'm not sure Rocket Boy really is my better half -- I think we work together pretty well, and I do not leave my towel on the floor as my card implied -- but because we both said the other was our better half, it seemed fair.

Rocket Boy mailed my card to Loveland, so it could be stamped there, which I thought was so sweet. I'm not sure I'm capable of being moved by things like this, the way I would have been moved if he'd done it 20 years ago. But I still thought it was sweet. I'm going to save the envelope.

I was more moved by the fact that he agreed to cook dinner. We did a Trader Joe's run to get the cheeses and such beforehand, and the whole store was full of flowers. He asked me if I would like some -- which I think might be the first time he has ever offered to buy me flowers, he doesn't like cut flowers, thinks it's like somebody killed the flowers -- but I said no. I appreciated the offer, thought it was very sweet of him, but I think I'm just a little too sad these days to get joy from flowers.

The house is filled with sweets, still. Candy, cookies, one last doughnut, half a pie that we bought at the bake sale after the concert on Tuesday. It's funny -- earlier in the week I made a batch of sugar cookie dough, except I ran out of flour, so I added things like dry milk powder and flaxseed meal to get it to solidify. It looked really strange. I put it in the fridge, planning to bake heart-shaped cookies later in the week after I bought some flour that I could use to help roll them out. And I never did. The cookie dough is still in the fridge, in a bowl, and when Rocket Boy goes back to work on Tuesday, I'm going to transfer it to the compost bin (along with the really old frosting left over from Christmas and the weird "Thai pesto" that I made to go with a weird soup that I made last week that no one liked). 

It's OK. We had all these other sweets and some other year I can make heart-shaped cookies. It's just that this is the last year of high school and it seemed like I should make them. But I didn't. 

Coming to terms

This was a hard week, but I'm coming around. Last Sunday I wrote about how we'd learned that Teen B has autism and how bad I felt about that (for so many reasons). I spent much of Monday crying, some of Tuesday, a little of Wednesday. But I'm feeling better now. This is why:

1.  So many things are making sense now, as I look back. Of course he's always been autistic. It was masked by Teen A, whose dyslexic/ADHD behavior kind of drowned out Teen B's autistic behavior, but it was there.
2. Clearly, things got worse/changed when he hit adolescence. For years now we've been blaming his brother, Teen A, for being mean to him and somehow changing him from the sweet little boy he was into the difficult teenager he is now. Yes, Teen A was mean to him, but I don't think that had anything to do with the change. It's a known fact that adolescence can make autism more obvious. People with autism can also "regress." I think some of that is what happened. It wasn't anybody's fault.
3. Knowing he's autistic means I don't have to get upset when he acts weird. It's just the autism. Every Sunday when we go to Starbucks I wonder, why can't he order for himself, why does he have to whisper his order to me so that I can repeat it to the counter person? But knowing that he has autism I can just let that go. He (thinks he) wants to go to CU next year, and I look around at all the CU students in Starbucks and think, really? He's going to fit in here? Now I know that he probably won't, because of the autism, but he won't be the only autistic kid, and maybe there will be a place for him. I don't know.
4. I've joined a subReddit called "Autism_Parenting" which is incredibly depressing because most of the parents have level 3 kids. But it reminds me that I'm lucky I only have a level 1/2 kid. Plus, it's a community. I've joined a community. Not a community I ever wanted to join, but still. Here I am and it's nice to have "people."
5. Regardless of the autism, I still love him a lot and I've always loved him. In fact, I feel even more loving towards him than I did before, because now I know the weird behavior is just autism. 

Last night I tried to remember odd behavior from his childhood. Did he do X or did Kid/Baby A do X? Or both? Like the time that we went to Marina and Gabor's in SLO and one or both of the kids wouldn't stop opening and closing the sliding glass door. But I can't find anything about that in my old blog (I'll keep looking), so I can't remember who was responsible. Definitely it was Teen B (Baby B, Kid B) who loved elevators, who couldn't get enough of them, wanting to go up and down over and over.

In March 2010, right before their second birthday, we went to Joshua Tree and they were incredibly bad in the hotel.

Within minutes of our arrival, Baby A discovered the phone and pressed the button to call the front desk. A moment later he did it again. So we put that phone in the closet and unplugged the other one... Our room had a little kitchen attached to it, and the second night we were there, the boys decided to bang the cupboard doors open and shut over and over. Then the phone in the closet rang: it was the front desk: someone had complained about the noise! At 8pm! This morning RB let them ride in the elevator (just for fun -- we were on the 1st floor) and Baby A pushed the emergency phone button which calls the fire department. 

Normal two-year-old behavior? Or the joys of ADHD in one twin and autism in the other? I think on that trip we were definitely blaming Baby A for most of the trouble. Baby B was just going along with it.

A few months later we went to the California Living Museum in Bakersfield, and Baby B ran away from me, twice. Once, another family returned him, but the second time... 

Baby B's path went over a tiny bridge above a stream, and instead of crossing it, he sat down on it, and then suddenly lowered himself into the water! RB and I both screamed and ran to snatch him out. He was soaked and filthy -- the water was muddy. And I hadn't brought any extra shoes and socks. I led him over to a grassy picnic area, pulling him on his leash instead of carrying him so I wouldn't get muddy, but I felt terrible because he was crying all the way.

Normal two-year-old behavior or autism? No way to know. It could be normal. Two-year-olds do a lot of goofy things.

Here's a time we tried to go to the Exotic Feline Breeding Compound's Feline Conservation Center in Rosamond, when they were almost five. Both kids were bad and wouldn't follow the rules.

Baby B continues to yell at me about how he wants to go on the rock, and then starts kicking the fence around the cats' cage, hard. Everyone is staring at us and the cats are getting more and more agitated.  I give up, pick him up, and carry him out of the park, still screaming. 

It took forever to calm them down enough to get in the car, and Baby B screamed pretty much all the rest of the way to Palmdale. He kept saying "I wanted to see more CATS!!!" It was horrible... In Palmdale, Rocket Boy and Baby A shopped at Kohl's, while I stayed with Baby B, who was too freaked out to leave the car. 

Normal five-year-old behavior? Or an autism meltdown? You tell me.

I also remember all the times he threw fits (after we moved back to Boulder) because something about his routine changed, or something happened that he wasn't expecting. It all makes sense now. I mean, it made sense then, but after Children's Hospital told us he didn't have autism (when he was 8), it didn't make sense, for a long time. Now it makes sense again.

Now I have to figure out what to do next. Do I tell his counselor? Do I tell his teachers? Do I contact the Special Education department? This would be a lot simpler if the parent support group that I used to be in was still running. I guess I could still email the person who ran it (she's retired now, but still keeps in touch) and ask her what she would do if she were me.

***

Well, other than ASD, the week was pretty quiet. My book group rescheduled to this week, so there weren't any weird nights. However, I didn't feel at all like cooking, so it was kind of hit or miss. Rocket Boy brought takeout one night. I forget what we did the other nights.  

One fun thing: on Friday night, Teen A and I went suit shopping (for him to wear to Prom). We went first to Macy's, and they had some nice things, but there was not a soul in the department, no one to measure him, no one to help. So we left and went to the Men's Wearhouse in Boulder. I'd read that their suits are of lesser quality, but not so bad if you aim for the high end. We told the helpful man there that we wanted a dark gray suit, and he showed us a beautiful Calvin Klein suit, charcoal gray with tiny white stripes blended in. He said it was a sharkskin pattern. I'm not quite sure about that, because I thought sharkskin was shiny and this suit was not shiny. Anyway, it looked so good on Teen A, that after we saw that, there was no reason to look further. They didn't have the pants in his size, so we ordered those. We came home with the jacket and a white shirt, we'll get the pants later, and we still have to think about a tie (maybe with pink in it, to match his girlfriend's dress). He wants to wear it with his black sneakers. Fine.  

Today, our big achievement has been to put the Christmas boxes in the basement. It's only February 8th. But Christmas is GONE from our house (except for a few stray items -- there are always a few stray items).

This coming week is terribly complicated. Conferences Monday night, Teen B's concert on Tuesday night, and my book group on Thursday. I have no idea what to cook this week. Oh, and the power's supposed to be turned off at some time tomorrow, anywhere between 8 and 5 pm. Maybe I will spend the day in bed, reading.

I'm trying to get back into walking, after a couple of weeks of being really lazy and sluggish. Yesterday I was out walking and I thought -- there is nothing to look at! Nothing growing, hardly any birds. Normally in February, there's ice and snow covering things, but now it's all exposed and bare -- and there's nothing. Well, I told myself, the earth is resting. Don't worry about it. Think quiet thoughts. I tried.