Category Archives: Faces

The Leadership Summit, eventually

This morning Scarlett and I were sitting at the dining room table where she was eating a typical breakfast of spaghetti and meatballs and I was drinking a cup of tea.

“I didn’t blog yesterday,” I told her, as if admitting something scandalous.

She seemed unperturbed, busy aiming an entire handful of grated parmesan cheese directly into her mouth.

“Please stop doing that,” I said, and then had a flashback to my own childhood and visits to see my Aunt Theresa and Uncle John. Theresa was my grandmother’s sister and everything about her and Uncle John seemed very old and very Italian. Their couch was covered in plastic. The fruit on their coffee table was wax. When we arrived in the morning, they were always eating cold spaghetti, and Uncle John would pinch our cheeks so hard they stayed pink for the remainder of the visit.

Scarlett continued eating her spaghetti, oblivious to my distraction.

“What do you think I should blog about?” I asked her.

“Well,” she said thoughtfully, “You could definitely blog about Otto throwing up and how Jack almost dropped my tooth fairy in the throw up.” Read More>

Good Things

I take lots of notes on my phone to remind me of the things that I’m planning to write about. But sometimes I think I overestimate my ability to understand my own shorthand. For example, I have a note for today that just says Relativity. That’s what the blog is supposed to be about, but I have no idea what it means or even if it’s actually the word that I wrote and not just some autocorrection.

Relativity.

Yep, just checking. I have nothing to say on that topic.

Some good things have happened lately, so maybe I should write about those things. I finished a New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle without cheating. I made it through the entire morning of no school without yelling at Scarlett or Otto. Wait, nope. I did yell at Otto, because he was eating all the plants in the backyard. He deserved it, so that doesn’t count.

And I won an award, which happened a little while ago, but I realize I haven’t really acknowledged it yet. It’s a leadership award from ALS TDI, the main organization that my family and I support since we feel that they share our sense of urgency around developing treatments and a cure for ALS. Read More>

House of Denial

Football season has started, which is a big deal in our house. Well, it’s a big deal for Rob. I can get on board for watching football, but I like it like a friend, whereas my husband wants to form a polygamist union: me, him, and the Indianapolis Colts.

When we first moved in together, I learned how truly important sports are in Rob’s life. March Madness, the Tour de France, college football, pro football, really anything where extremely skilled people were competing for greatness. Rob played football in high school, baseball in college, and now spends his free time (what little there is of it) cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge, pedaling up and down roads so steep that it makes me nervous just to drive on them. He can get into any sport pretty feverishly.

But football is his one true love, and over the years I’ve become versed enough in pro football that we can watch the games together without me asking too many remedial questions. I still focus on things he probably doesn’t even notice, like which Colquitt brother is cute, and which one looks more like a hockey player who’s been in one too many fights. My commentary on that very topic during tonight’s game went ignored by Rob, but I have no problem talking to myself. Read More>