End of the school year in Falls Church, Virginia

My daughter, Day Leary,  an English teacher at Falls Church High School, gave her students one last homework assignment for the year:

HW: Writing assignment #4 due May 28 -- NOTICE THIS: I AM POSTPONING THIS ASSIGNMENT FOR A LONG WHILE.  YOU HAVE ENOUGH ON YOUR PLATE FROM ALL YOUR OTHER CLASSES AND IN PREPARING FOR SOLs.  TRY TO GET CAUGHT UP WITH ANYTHING YOU ARE MISSING AND THEN GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY… YES, YOU HEARD ME… PLAY.  Call that friend you don’t mind acting silly around and go swing on a swing or go riding around on that skateboard you used to love to ride.  If it’s raining… even better!  Go outside and spin around with your face looking up and your mouth wide open and catch as many raindrops as you can.  This isn’t a free pass for the entire afternoon.  It isn’t a pass for all your classes.  It is just a moment to breathe and feel human and happy.  Now… go do it!

Among the many responses she got from parents was this:

Hi Day,

I live in the community and have friends whose kids are FCHS students. One of the parents... posted one of your homework messages that told the kids to go out and enjoy life. It was wildly popular--other people “liked” it and said that even though their kids are little, they are going to request you as their teacher when they get to high school!  Mary said that her daughter thinks you are absolutely awesome J

Kathy

Day and Tom and the boys at my house Christmas

Riding Jack

Tonight I went out to the rodeo field to watch Veronica do some roping practice and got to see Elena riding Jack, the new pony. 

I have never seen a child of two riding a pony, and she takes those reins like a pro, like it's in her blood to ride.

Nathan--who completed first grade today--is a tad less enthusiastic, but he told me, "Jack is very important to me." 

Us and The Bean

This incredible sculpture reflects the city from this view--a picture I found on the web.  As you walk under it, you look up and see masses of people taking selfies and pictures of each other, reflected against the polished surfaces.  It's fascinating to see one's own little self mirrored in this piece, sometimes distorted like in those crazy mirrors at the fair, sometimes not distorted.

    

Here we are, posing inside and underneath The Bean.

Reflections

One of my all-time favorite subjects for photography is reflections: houses, barns, children reflected in water.  Here we are at the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park--where two tall fountains face each other, each with a changing face on the front.

At regular intervals, water comes out of the mouth--so that kids call it the fountain "where people spit at each other."

On Tuesday, the weather was beautiful and hundreds of children were playing in the space between the two fountains.

My only regret:

In trying to pack lightly, I didn't take a real camera--only my iPhone.

I could have sat there all day and captured children playing and dancing on the surface between the two fountains!  Next time I'll leave out some clothes and pack a real camera!

Just home from Chicago

Linda, Janet (mother of the bride) and Charlotte

The weather was postcard perfect for five days! After the newlyweds left for Bali, we three explored the city and had a wonderful vacation.

After a brunch on Sunday, Steve gave us a tour of the city, including Ragdale.  After taking Steve to the airport, we three took a boat ride at Navy Pier at sunset, walked the Magnificent Mile, and had drinks on the 96th floor of the Hancock Building.

On Monday, we rode a train and walked through the beautiful Botanic Garden, walked on the shore of Lake Michigan, and ate scrumptious pancakes.

My tree-hugging friends

Chicago Botanic Gardens

We saw the houses where Janet and Steve used to live and met their extended family and Chicago friends.  Of all the great meals, my favorite was dinner in a kitschy little neighborhood cafe called The Lucky Platter in Evanston--where we enjoyed Caribbean pumpkin soup so much we tried to talk the chef into giving us the recipe.   

Charlotte's photo of the Chicago River taken on a Sunday night walk on the Magnificent Mile

The city reflected in The Bean in Millennium Park

Elizabeth Gilbert on TED.com

Another Ted Talk by the author of Eat, Pray, Love
Elizabeth Gilbert: Success, failure and the drive to keep creating

Sent from TED app for iOS
http://itunes.com/apps/tedconferences/ted

Remember Pie?

I watched a movie some time ago--I think it was called Sweet Land--and the scene that I remember most is this:

Two women, speaking different languages, sit down at a table in a farmhouse and eat a whole pie together.  What a delightful concept--especially in these days of gluten and sugar avoidance!

Carlene remembered her mother and grandmother making eating pie when their men were working on the farm--and I love imagining my Mimi and her Cana devouring an entire pie with relish together!

Pie is a wonderful concoction of fruits and creamy chocolates and buttery crusts.  You might as well apply them directly to the hips and be done with it if you choose to partake regularly, I guess, but maybe an inch would be worth the pleasure.  

In Home Ec in high school, we learned to make lemon chiffon pies in graham cracker crusts and that pie is still one of my favorites.  If I had a double-boiler, I might make one right now.

Back in the day when we were young and fervent macrobiotics and sugar-avoiders, I remember my friend Mary Locke saying she wanted to bring out a chocolate pie and I said I wasn't eating sugar.  I have regretted that refusal for 30 plus years because she makes one mean pie, or did back in the day.

I think we should have Pie Day at least once a month and invite a friend over to eat it with us.  And I think we might all be inspired to do that if we watch the movie, Waitress, or the movie, Sweet Land.

When I get back from Chicago, I'm making a pie!

A poem I love-- by Fleur Adcock

Weathering

Literally thin-skinned, I suppose, my face
catches the wind off the snow-line and flushes
with a flush that will never wholly settle. Well:
that was a metropolitan vanity,
wanting to look young for ever, to pass.

I was never a pre-Raphaelite beauty,
nor anything but pretty enough to satisfy
men who need to be seen with passable women.
But now that I am in love with a place
which doesn't care how I look, or if I'm happy,

happy is how I look, and that's all.
My hair will turn grey in any case,
my nails chip and flake, my waist thicken,
and the years work all their usual changes.
If my face is to be weather-beaten as well

that's little enough lost, a fair bargain
for a year among lakes and fells, when simply
to look out of my window at the high pass
makes me indifferent to mirrors and to what
my soul may wear over its new complexion.

A good traveler...

Thanks for this, Nellie!