Turkeys Past

Today’s turkey is roasting, the pie is baked, and the cranberry sauce is chilling in the fridge. My mind wanders back to holidays past. One year, I was cooking a turkey at my mom’s house in California. It’s entirely possible that this was a Christmas turkey, but no matter. As always, I simmered the neck and giblets to make broth for the gravy. My brother came in the kitchen to help with the last-minute dinner preparations.

He thought that out of the goodness of my heart I’d cooked the giblets for his dog, Lady, who had also joined the festivities. My heart isn’t actually that good. At least it didn’t occur to me to prepare a treat for the dog. My brother dumped the broth down the sink and cut up the giblets for Lady. Boy, was I irritated!

In retrospect, the gravy was fine without giblet stock, my brother suspects I’m kinder than I actually am, and the dog was delighted. Maybe that’s what holidays are all about. 

Local Talent

I learned this morning that a country western group, Restless Road, advanced to the final four in the Groups division on X-Factor. Zach Beeken, the bass voice in Restless Road, went to high school with Jeremy. They sang together in Chorale and Men's Chorale. Jeremy used to take voice lessons from Zach Beeken's dad.

Basses rule!

Packing the Car for Boston

seems like a long way from here
seems like a big city
seems like a demanding curriculum 
seems like he's ready to go

Of Mice and Music

Today Jeremy was replacing guitar strings in the basement when a mouse ran across his guitar case and disappeared. When Jeremy came upstairs to tell me about it, I reminded him that his father is the mouse-control parent. Living in the woods as we do, discovering a mouse in the house is not uncommon. My husband catches them in Havaheart traps then releases them many miles from here, first providing a muffin for the mouse’s first meal away from home. 

Once the guitar strings were replaced and Jeremy started practicing, the mouse came out again. At first, the little creature panicked and ran straight into Jeremy’s foot. After a while, the mouse got used to the music and sat listening. The mouse did not toss a sunflower seed into the guitar case and make a request, although that might happen at any time.  

I know this isn’t a plot. There isn’t a problem. The mouse doesn’t try three times to solve it. 

But isn’t there a picture book here somewhere? 

Go ahead. Write it. Be my guest.

Chicago

We went to Chicago to watch Sam compete in the USA Taekwondo National Championships. He represented the Michigan team in World Class Sparring. He didn't advance, but simply getting to Nationals is quite an accomplishment.

  Sam (in blue) about to score a point. 

Sue, the famous T. rex in the Field Museum

With my sons in the windy city

Good News - Good Day

Jeremy was accepted to the Berklee College of Music! 

It's a good day. Please sing with me. 

"Good Day" by Chaotic Paradise: Jeremy Burton on guitar; Henk Plaggemars on vocals; Emma Pittsley on bass; Neil Deatrick on drums. 

Santa's Helper

My mother spent many years confined to a wheelchair, living alone in a house that 17 stairs leading to the front door. For most of this time, she was helped by a wonderful woman named Maud. One Christmas, Maud was concerned that her granddaughters who lived with her would find their presents before Christmas morning, so Maud asked my mom if she could hide the presents at her house. What a gift that was! My mom got to see the toys, witness the wrapping, be a co-conspirator in the Santa scheming and imagine two little girls’ joy at opening their presents on Christmas morning.

What are your favorite Christmas memories?

Helping

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world." -- Mister Rogers 

Whether the need is enormous or tiny, the majority of us want to help. 

Decades ago, shortly after my mother had a stroke, my family traveled to California to visit her. Mom was confined to a wheelchair and lived in a house with many stairs, so as an antidote to cabin fever, she asked me to take her to the grocery store. I remember crossing the parking lot while holding Jeremy in his infant car seat under one arm and pushing the wheelchair with my other hand.  Sam (age 3) helped steer the wheelchair. People actually ran across the parking lot to offer assistance. 

In times like these of horror and sadness, I have to believe that most people want to be a positive force. 

Here is a link to Kris Remenar's post about When the Moon Came Down on Milk Street by Jean Gralley. This book was inspired by Fred Rogers' quote. 

Travels with Jeremy

Tomorrow Jeremy and I leave for Boston for his first audition. Fingers crossed! We’ll come home long enough to do homework and laundry, respectively, then then head to St. Paul for audition number two. These are exciting times. 

Blog posts may be sparse for the next couple weeks. 

The Fourth Dan Test

Last Saturday, Sam tested for his fourth degree black belt in Taekwondo. My husband took nearly 700 photographs, and I've begun to sort through them.

Sam doing a form or poomse.

another kick

Master Shinn and Master Deatrick are seated at the table.

Sam lands a head kick on Justin.

Sam (in red) is sparring with Neil, the drummer in Jeremy's band.

This kick didn't score, but look at the expressions on the kids' faces.

Texas

Tomorrow, we fly to northeastern Texas to visit family. None of my current writing projects are set in a small Texas town, but I’m eager to take notes of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures – in case my characters ever have to go there.

See you next week.

Graduation

Tastes Like Home

Last summer when I accompanied my husband to a scientific meeting in Italy, one of the graduate students at our table took a bite of salmon and said, “Mmmm. Tastes like home.”

That phrase evokes strong images. For me, it is ripe strawberries. When I was little, before Southern Californian property values skyrocketed, Japanese immigrants had strawberry farms in an area known as Portuguese Bend. When my mom took us to her favorite stand, the elderly woman who worked there would pick two of her biggest strawberries and give them to my brother and me. Those fresh-picked berries, still warm from the sun, had a million times more flavor than the grocery store kind.

What tastes like home to you?

What tastes like home to your characters?  

Happy Leap Day

This picture of Sam was taken in 2008 at the Great Lakes Cup.

Mother's Day

Reflections on a Gift of Homegrown Pecans*

My brother recently moved to a large ranch in northeastern Texas. Before Thanksgiving, he sent me a bag of shelled pecans from trees on his property.

I was touched by the gift. In this era of busy lives and scattered families, it seemed almost like a reunion. Our families were separated by a thousand miles, yet we’d both be eating chocolate pecan pie. On Wednesday, between picking up the turkey, making cranberry sauce, preparing the stuffing, fetching one son from college and juggling cars with the other, I made a pie.

As a baker, this was not my finest hour. I hadn’t realized that the pecans, machine-hulled at my brother’s local feed store, still contained small fragments of shell. The pie, while tasty, was a minefield of tooth-cracking hard things. A metaphor for sibling relationships lurks somewhere in that chocolate studded sweetness. The gifts are unexpected and interesting, yet it takes some work to remove the shells.

*with apologies to Stephen Dunning

YouTuba

Jeremy has a bad cold, so yesterday I went to the high school to pick up his tuba. Visions of Jeremy practicing over the Christmas break danced in my head. The tuba case is in the repair shop, so I wrapped the tuba in an old blanket and wedged several pillows around it so it wouldn’t roll around as I drove home. Unfortunately this adventure, “Bedtime for Tuba,” was not recorded for YouTube.

Writing Advice

Lately I’ve been getting advice from Jeremy about my writing.

On revising CBL, he said, “Use foreshadowing and metaphor. If your readers are anything like my English teachers, they’ll jump off the roof and start square dancing.”

On writing a query letter, he said, “You gotta put in the shiny stuff.”

The Road Test

We showed up at the driving school with all the necessary paperwork. Then there were forms to sign. As Jeremy scrawled his name, the examiner said, “That says you won’t be alone in a car with a girl until you’re 30.” Jeremy was so nervous, he didn’t even look up.

The road test went pretty well, although I won’t dwell on that frightening left turn in front of an oncoming truck. We drove a long way on the highway, the one driving experience Jeremy has had little of. When we finally returned to the driving school, the examiner recited such a litany of “things you need to work on” that Jeremy and I both thought he failed.

But he passed.

Then the examiner said, “Mom, you did a good job.” I sat up straighter, thinking he was going to compliment my driving instruction. “You didn’t scream,” he said.

On the way home, Jeremy had to drive along a tricky stretch of roadway where two lanes suddenly become one.
Me: Let that trailer go ahead of you.
Jeremy: I just passed my driving test, so I must have some level of ability, but you’re going to baby me forever.
Me: I still baby Sam.
Jeremy: sigh

Weekly Goals

1. Improve the parents in TAoCBS. Last night while reading, I realized the dad needs to show some weakness, indecision and regret. This morning while doing sit-ups, it occurred to me that the mom doesn’t get angry enough. If these problems don’t consume all of my writing time for the week, then …

2. Start a new revision of CBL with an eye to increasing the protagonist’s plausibility. In the mean time, maintain …

3. Parental involvement in 3 music lessons, 2 band practices (1 involves tuba transport), 1 choir parent meeting, 2 trips to Ann Arbor, and 1 trip to the Tae Kwon Do studio. Return 11 pairs of band pants that I washed after Friday’s football game and mail Sam his Black Belt which he accidentally left here. Which brings me to a partridge in a pear tree …

4. Photograph something other than an insect for my Sunday nature picture. I seem to be in a bug rut, and I hope to find a different subject this week. The wetland by Pet Smart often hosts water birds. Perhaps I’ll take a detour after dropping off the band pants …