clickmom

catbird

There is a nest in this big bush/tree I have next to my patio.  It's the first time for a nest there, so I was pretty excited.  I peeked into it a couple of days ago and saw nothing but today I noticed someone flying out of it (a robin I thought) and I peeked again and there are a couple of eggs there!  They look like robin eggs, but just to double check I did a little internet research and happened to find out that the sweet little bird from the other day was a gray catbird.  How can you not love a bird named catbird?  That would be like naming my personal offspring  sharkhuman, or naming your pet koi raccoonfish,  or naming your pet deer vehicledeer, because really, does a deer have a worse enemy than a vehicle?  Don't think so.

I don't know what kind of power that little gray catbird had on me, but I can't get it out of my mind.  I buried it, and then I noticed that something dug a little hole right over where the gray catbird found (or rather where I assigned)  it's eternal resting place and I panicked, but then I noticed lots of little holes, and just figured that some squirrels are looking for their winter stash.  If I was Sally Mann I'd dig up my small critter graveyard in 18 months and photograph the bones.  Something to think about!  I smile just imagining what the next owners are going to think if they ever decide to overhaul the landscaping.  Bwah ha ha ha!!!

My photo friend Mae (who I love love love because she is the best road kill spotter and reporter ever!)  Shot me a text this afternoon that she had made a bird spotting.  I immediately jumped into the truck and headed over to find a PIGEON!  I was so excited.  And not only was it a pigeon, but it was a pigeon with bands on it's legs.  Now I'm going to have to make some phone calls in the morning and find out what to do about a pigeon that possibly belongs to someone.  Poor guy has a broken neck and a head injury.  I'm hoping he's a New Yorker too so we can have that in common.

Evan had an interesting reaction to me announcing my intentions to apply to Y@le grad school.  He pretty much said "Who is going to take care of me?" but not in a worried way, more in a "You have a job to do and you should be doing it, now go make me a sandwich" way and that makes me want to go to any school (but especially Y@le because Y@le is the best!) just to make him more self reliant and less of a pig.  It's amazing to me how much the kid takes after his father.  (Just Kidding!) (kinda) (maybe) 

Anyways .....  No news from the three time visiting house hunter yet. The realtor thinks that he is going to make a bid.  He came back today for the third time and brought his father with him.  Apparently his father is his realtor, which is interesting since his father did not accompany him on the first two visits.  The house hunter told my realtor that he thought the house is over priced.  Don't they always say that though?  I hate this price negotiating game like you can't believe.  The problem is that there is no comp for my house.  Everyone else with a house like mine sells to a builder and then there is a tear down and a brand new house.  We did a major renovation.  Our house is as big as the new houses, it just has a 50 something year old basement.  But I'll tell ya something, around here every other time a builder rebuilds he changes the grading of the lot and the basements end up with water in them, so if the guy is smart, he will choose the proven leak free basement that was built in a time when quality mattered as opposed to the cheap crap they are slapping up these days.   Think I'm all hot bothered about this? Oh yes I am.

 

dream plans

Yesterday I woke up to an email from wildmom that gave meaning to common dreams.

I often dream that I discover not only an unused room but an entire wing to my apartment (I can't help it, I still dream that I live in an apartment, city girl syndrome I guess) that is better in every way to the wing we are currently occupying.  In my newly discovered apartment wing there is always an industrial kitchen.  The other rooms are always more interesting and well planned out and have so much character than any rooms I currently occupy.  Here is the explanation for dream finding an unused room in your house:

DREAM: You are walking through your house when you notice a door you haven’t seen before. You open it to find a room you had completely forgotten about.

MEANING: Homes in dreams symbolise ourselves and different rooms are aspects of our character. The unnoticed door indicates you have a chance to step into an exciting new possibility. The size of the room reflects the size of the chance.  (I'm gonna be so freaking famous if that is true!!)

ACTION: You might think you know your achievements and limitations, but you have talents you have yet to discover. (I'm trying!!)  Be open to even the most unexpected opportunities.  (Will do!) 

I'm taking this dream interpretation very seriously and even considering going for a masters degree in fine arts.

Two people in two days told me you are practically guaranteed gallery success as a fine art photographer if you have a masters from Y@le University.  (Sorry about coding that, don't want the google hits)   Interestingly enough I always thought I'd go to school forever.  I kind of love school, though going to school with a bunch of 20 year olds will certainly be a different reality as a mature woman in her (late) 40's.  I can handle it.  My step sis did it as a mature woman in her late 50's.  Though I did notice that she referred to her classmates with pet names like "boy wonder."  I'll be fine.  Now I just have to get in.  The next time I can apply is next January.    Can you imagine how much road kill under my belt I'll have by next January?  I wonder if I' be on to other things by next January......

While walking bear bait yesterday I spotted a plain gray bird by the curb not far my house.  I didn't have any spare bags, so I noted the house number and went on my way.  I thought I'd pass on the little gray bird because it was all gray and because it was so little.  But then yesterday afternoon a sparrow hopped in through my open patio door and flew around the house, up to bedroom, pooped on my bed, and then made it back out the windows I opened for him.  I took that to mean one or two things.  Either those birds are on to me and the sparrow was sent to threaten me or the sparrow came on in to ask why I wasn't memorializing his gray cousin.  

I started thinking about birds again.  That is why when I had a minute I zipped over, found the gray bird and took him home to photograph when I was supposed to be cooking dinner.  Needless to say dinner was more than fashionably late last night.  I got some very rewarding shots.  I felt bad that I almost dismissed the sweet little gray bird because I thought he was plain.  He was beautiful.

he was a friendly looking guy

Yesterday I made a friend of mine promise to bury a Saint Joseph statue in front of my house.  I hear they can help with home sales.  We had another open house today, and I am so weary with the whole cleaning up my house for people who aren't really interested routine that I had low expectations for today too.  The husband took Evan and Josh, and Matt came along with Peanut, bear bait and me to an art themed event.  I drove by my house an hour into the open house to discreetly drop Matt off so he could grab his own car when I saw a friendly looking guy walking out of the house.  Posing as someone thinking about checking out the house I asked the guy if was worth it to get out of the car and check the house out.  The guy started to tell me how much he loved the house!  Then he peeked into my truck, saw Peanut and said "Oh, Hi Peanut!"  and I had to admit to the guy that I am the homeowner.  He told me again how much he loved house.   I heard from the realtor that he came back three other times during the open house, each time bringing another family member with him.  

Please let this guy make us an offer worth accepting so we can be done with this torture of selling a house!!!  Please let someone else be interested too, so they can have a bidding war!!!  But I'll settle for one interested home buyer who thinks our asking price is reasonable.

Did I tell you that some asshole wrote up a contract and issued a check and asked our realtor to present it to us?  They offered about 75% of our asking price.  I told the realtor to tell the asshole we wouldn't even allow her into the house to present us with their offer and to tell the asshole's realtor that she wouldn't be wasting our time with any other assholes.  75%.  What an idiot. The worst thing is that they came back twice and I cleaned up twice for them!  I hate cleaning.

Please let the friendly looking guy buy my house! I liked the dude.

flattered twice! and more

Yesterday I went to the Motor Vehicles Commission to take the exam for my motorcycle permit.  I'm required to have a motorcycle permit (and then a license) to drive the scooter the husband got me last fall.  Everyone (family, friends, and the MVC people too!) seemed so surprised that I passed the test.  But then I realized that the other people taking their tests had done so so many times that they had favorite computers to take their tests on.  Also, I noticed that I kept hearing the examiner saying "You can try again on June 17th" over and over and over.  Go me!

It was prom night for Matt last night.  I stood around outside the prom venue and tried to shoot as many of the kids coming in as I could.  (Favor to the editor- she wanted to get a gallery up as soon after the prom began as possible) It was especially heart wrenching for me, since I've known many of these kids since kindergarten.  I could barely believe the little cuties had turned into men and women.  And if you've seen a senior prom lately you will know what I mean.  Holy freaking cow.  I greeted as many kids by name as I could and tried to say something nice to them.  Especially the ones that showed up dateless.  I was impressed with how many kids came stag.  I went stag to my own prom back in 1982, and that was because I was clueless.  I really didn't know everyone else would be there with a date.  I managed to find my secret (to this day) crush and hang out with the group he came with.  I had a great time.  I was happy. 

Then I went to a charity auction that my photo friend Joanie invited me to.  Joanie is one of the people it pains me to be leaving when I move.  The more I know her the more I am drawn to her.  We think so much alike we can finish each other's sentences.  It was a beautiful little cause.  I bid on a photo of backlit geese crossing a field and won it.  It's bittersweet.

I woke up in the middle of the night because my haunted by grandma television seemed to be up to it's old tricks and was flashing light streaks like cuh-razy.  I reached down, felt the reassuring presence of the fire extinguisher I keep near my bed ever since grandma decided to possess my bedroom television and then I realized that there was something funky going on with the power.  My clock radio was flashing 12:00, so I figured the television was maybe exhibiting some kind of unhappiness about the electrical surge.  I turned it off using the remote.  I slept with one eye open. 

Then I woke up for real, and that was around 7, the power was out for real.  Normally I thrill to a power outage, but last night I had not down loaded some new photos (a rat and a raccoon) and I was going to do that first thing in the morning.  Eighty seven failed attempts at turning on the lights later, I realized I could download the photos onto the lap top instead of the desk top and see them after all.   I'm more excited than ever about what I am doing here.

My photo friend Joanie suggested I look into some of Sally Mann's dog bones work and in the process I came across an entire documentary about Sally including more recent work which involved her photographing corpses in a forensic corpse studying forest and now I think I must meet Sally Mann because she and I think alike too, except she is famous and would probably be leery of an over zealous stalker not professional photographer like me.  Or would she?  I am thinking that maybe, just maybe when I finish working on my series, I might just send Sally some of my prints.  That is totally something peanut would do.  I am trying to learn from peanut's example of getting out there and reaching for what you want.  Peanut would stalk Sally until they ended up best friends.  Peanut has that ability.

I ran out to do my usual Saturday morning chores, and in the process stopped at the bucks for a hot caffeinated treat.  While waiting on the long line the lady in front of me started to chat with me about her ancient -held together with packing tape- strange sounding - but still functioning cell phone.  She said her kids wanted her to get a smart phone, but she loved her phone which had managed to survive being run over by a car twice.  (Don't let this chick babysit your kids)   I told her Matt had a phone like that and didn't want a smart phone until he (thought, it was actually buried in the playroom) lost his phone and we pressured him into getting something with a key board.  Now Matt is a texting wizard and modernizing his phone has done wonders for his social life, which I added was a good thing since he is 18 and needed to get onto the texting bandwagon,  Then I chatted about something else, and when the pause came that was her time to say something back to me she said "I'm still on the part where you have an 18 year old."  in the disbelief that I am old enough to have an 18 year old way.  Which I was THRILLED to hear.  Naturally, I came home and told that story to Evan and the husband.  Evan, not being one to lavish on the praise ever, asked if I had put my hair back and shown her my gray hairs before she said that.  I choose to ignore Evan. And hope he goes gray while still in college.

If you eat a salad with hard boiled eggs and balsamic vinaigrette dressing that you don't completely finish or remember to toss the cardboard takeout container of and leave it in the car the next day you will be convinced that one of your subjects left death juice somewhere in your car because it will smell exactly like that.  You have been warned.  Not a good feeling, or smell.

And BTW, Mitzy, thank you so much for the vapo rub tip!  It's been working for me.  (except I didn't have any in the car when the salad was still a presence)

When Matt came home from his all night prom adventure this morning he told me that kids were coming up to him at the prom and telling him how nice his mother is.  I could just cry typing that.  You have no idea.  I know I shouldn't care but I do.  I'm very Sally Field in that way.

I had a friend when I was in grade school whose mother was so mean I was afraid of her.  My friend didn't like her mother so much either, so we tried to always play at my apartment, but the parents insisted we play equally at each other's apartments.  Playing at her apartment was half fun and half carnival ride, waiting for her mother to pop up and scare the shit out of me.  I vowed when I was 8 years old that the friends of my own future kids would like me.  Check!

I had a friend in high school who used to obsess about stuff.  One of the things she worried about was not finding a Mr. Right and never having kids.  We made a pact that if we turned 30 (ancient to us back then) and didn't have any Mr. Right in sight that we'd become single mothers.  And this was way before Murphy Brown did it!    So funny.

When Matt and his friends got out of their limo last night I just had to give Matt a kiss.  I love him so much.  I can still remember the total head to toe life altering shock I experienced in the hospital holding Matt, loving him so completely with every fiber of my being,  and realizing that I'd do anything for this scrawny little pink chicken legged kid. I'd run through fire, fight off a tiger or lift a car off of him.  I can't believe he grew up without my permission.  I grabbed my baby and a photographer for another on line paper captured it.

 

Stuff in the road

Things I jumped out of the car to fetch with high hopes of road kill novelty.

1. A twisted brown towel that I could have sworn was a cat

2. A vacuum cleaner brush attachment that looked like a possible baby porcupine

3. A workman's glove. (in my defense it was brown)

Stuff I have slowed down to check out: rocks, branches, yellowed newspapers, more workmens gloves (it's like a glove invasion out here), clumps of leaves, plastic cups , articles of clothing, and perhaps the foolingest of all, brown paper bags.

a three subject day

This morning while walking bear bait I came upon a little broken robin's egg with a not viable baby robin still in the broken open egg.  Luckily I had an extra poop bag with me so I bagged the teeny little egg and brought it home to photograph. Later in the day the stretcher called me to tell me he had just driven past a deer.  So,  I headed out to the deer, and when I found it I was shocked to see that it had a great big belly.  I'm sure it was pregnant.  Double sad.  I was photographing  poor dead mama deer when a woman walked by on her way home from her job at the supermarket.  She was fishing for her cell phone, and said she just needed to check the time.  I told her what time it was because I didn't realize she was really calling the police!  Lordy lord!!  The checkout girl walked away and the police showed up about 2 minutes later.

The cop was nice, luckily I was taking a long shot when he drove up on me and I was about 8 feet away from mama deer.  He asked me what I was doing, which seemed kind of obvious sine I was looking through my gigantic camera, with a gigantic lens  on the front of it, but you know, cops .......  (biting my tongue)  The cop told me how mama deer had been hit by a car the day before and had 2 broken legs and a broken back when he arrived on the scene.  He said he had put two bullets in her.  I had noticed the two wounds on her head and asked if those were the bullets.  Then even though I wanted to ask him something freaky, I just said it was the humane thing to do because I didn't feel like picking a fight with a cop.  Also, it was the humane thing to do, but I'm sure the cop enjoyed it more than most.

Then I had a false alarm and went speeding down to where one of my photo friends texted me there was a rabbit, but the text was 2 hours old and by the time I got there it was completely flattened.  Since it was on the yellow line of the street I think people are smooshing it on purpose.  Is that even possible?  Who doesn't go around road kill?  I can't even think of people running something over on purpose.  

Since the rabbit was a bust, I went for a drive through some animal protected lands, which have a road through them, in hopes of finding another subject.  No luck in the preserve, but once out of it I did pick up a small dark bird that at first glance seemed totally plain, but once I looked closely at it it had some exquisite highlights on it's broken twisted wings.  One eye was all  popped out like a cartoon.  It was kind of cool.

So, I'm heading to bed soon, with three subjects under my belt for the day and I am pretty psyched about it. Three subjects is satisfying.   My fingers are crossed for some larger subjects.  I'm hoping for  a not flattened rabbit and a less beat up ground hog.  I had a ground hog one day (thanks wildmom!) but it had been too roughed up by traffic.

Typed with one finger on my iphone

I'm really kind of lost here without my lap top. I didn't realize it was my primary or perhaps sole vehicle for procrastination and also the key to my ability to zone out/ shut down/clear my mind etc.... at the end of a day. I actually feel way more in touch with the lap top out of the house. I might have to lay down some rules for myself once it is back.

I had a husband foot scare this week. Now the husband is on two antibiotics at once and a stronger topical antibiotic cream. No one seems to get my desire to throw everything they have at him. I don't usually panic and I'm the only one who feels this way but what I really want is for him to have a PICC line with intravenous antibiotics. Mark my word people. This foot is not giving up easily. It will more than likely come to that. I'd rather see it sooner than later. I feel like we are wasting time. But unfortunately I forgot to go med school so I have to rely on other peoples less intuitive decision making abilities.

God I'm in love with my kids these days. There was an award ceremony at the high school and Matt hot an award for drama. Josh and I were screaming away in the audience. So proud. Also Evan and I are having a nice posh club bonding. He's been going too. I've even got him working with the stretcher and he loves the boxing class too! I have a gym buddy! So awesome.

Please be an outie

I left my lap top at the apple store to be repaired yesterday. I reach for it on the average every 90 seconds or so. Posting from my old non connected iPhone right now. Yup. You read it right. Even though I was forced to jump ship to verizon for the better coverage I still cling to the iPhone for everything not a phone call. I will happily reiphone myself with verizon once they work out their 4G kinks. Come on verizon! Catch up to the competition !

Here is an iPhone view of yesterday's subject. I'm hoping that is one hell of an outie belly button.