Archives for April 2008

About ten years ago…

Ryan and I were taking Savannah to visit some family members. She was about six weeks old. We were in Ryan’s truck and Savannah was in her car seat between us. We were stopped at a traffic light and both of us were staring at her in that lovestruck way that new parents are apt to do. Without looking away from her, I said “I’m ready for another one.” I looked up and Ryan broke into the biggest grin I have ever seen. Our next baby came about in the usual way, but I will always believe that Kaylee’s conception was in that smile. When you have two babies in one year, most people assume that one or the both of them were ‘accidents’. Not so for us but I was surprised that it happened so quickly.

My pregnancy was uneventful. My ob-gyn was very impressed that I gained only 15 pounds. The fact that I had never lost the weight from my first pregnancy didn’t seem to bother anyone but me. When I was 2 weeks overdue, the doc decided to induce me. I was really scared because Savannah’s birth had been so traumatic for us both. I was anticipating a replay.

I arrived early on the morning of April 27. The nurses got the induction underway and I spent a few mildly uncomfortable hours as the contractions began. I was making pretty steady progress until after the epidural when I dilated from 4 to 9 centimeters in about 30 minutes. My mom and Ryan were with me and they were both a little surprised that I wasn’t screaming in agony or begging one of them to kill me. The truth is, I felt absolutely nothing. The only issue I had was a constant fear that I was about to feel something. It never happened. I pushed for maybe a half hour and I watched Kaylee be born as if I were a spectator.

The nurses did whatever it is that they do to newborn babies, wrapped Kaylee in a pink blanket, handed her to me and wheeled us into a private room. Less than an hour after I had delivered, I was in a room with my baby. It was, without a doubt, my best birth experience of all three of my girls.

If Truman said “The buck stops here,” then Bush’s mantra must be “Who wants this buck?”

– dday

The Magician’s Assistant

Parsifal is dead. That is the end of the story.

Let me give you a little piece of advice. If you open a book and the first sentence reads anything like that, just settle in for a heaping helping because you have found yourself a delicious book. This book was like the perfect piece of cake. It satisfied me completely and left me wanting more all at the same time. This is the kind of book that I really need to own because there were so many great sentences. I’m a big fan of the great sentence. I have to underline them. It’s a sickness really…

Unfortunately, this book came from the library so I’m just gonna record the great ones here.

“I love my children, ” she said. “No one will tell you otherwise, but just between the two of us I have to say I admire you for not having any. The ways they break your heart, Jesus, and it never stops. I mean it, it simply does not stop.”

“But there was never a man she wanted to run to when she saw him, a man in whose neck she longed to bury her face and recount every detail of her day. There was never a man she felt could make every difference simply by holding her to his chest and saying her name.”

“She had been mothering people in one way or another for forty-six years. Her energy for the project had faded.”

“Dot didn’t smoke, but pushed far enough, most anyone will have a cigarette.”

It’s a great story that feels really original. Anyone who reads with any regularity can tell you that,after a while, original stories feel few and far between. I wanted to give a brief description of the plot but when I typed it out, it seemed really ridiculous. Just trust me here…read it.

“Stupidity carried beyond a certain point becomes a public menace.”

– Ezra Pound