10 posts tagged “family”
it's odd how much i love karaoke. i can't sing. and i'm usually very shy about that fact. except of course when there's a microphone in front of me. go figure.
apparently this has been a lifelong thing. my mom just sent this photo she just found from my childhood. it's me bowing after singing for the family. apparently i'm using baby powder or something as a microphone.
poor family. (although my mom behind me appears to be enjoying it!)
my bad week continues. yes it's tuesday by one minute. only tuesday. sigh.
non-ironically i wore this the other day:
and there's a great story behind it. my brother, peter, was bad at math growing up and apparently disorganized because he lost his math book. my mom had been struggling to help him get his math grades up and/ or find the book. in frustration, she took him shopping to, say, JC Penneys or some equivalent. and they found this ziggy shirt which shows ziggy in a disorganized room saying "i have more problems than a math book." they fell into hysterics. it was too perfect. she bought it for him, he wore it daily for years, it catalyzed peter's essence at that time in our family for everyone.
we literally reference this shirt on an ongoing basis. and when i was home in memphis my mom pulled it out when she was looking for something else and we all but died laughing. i put it on and informed my mom i was wearing it out that night to meet my brother. the plan was to non-nonchalantly walk into the restaurant he worked in wearing it. like, 'hey, what's up?" my mom was like "no! he'll think you're making fun of him! (pause) want to take his kindergarten tote bag as a purse!?"
brilliant. anyway, we decided since i am likely the only person who can still wear it (my dad would say "BARELY!") or would wear it, i should actually have it to wear as an homage to my beloved brother. so i busted it out the other day. then my life erupted into problems!!! could it be jinxed????
calm down rosie- i'm talking about my trip to memphis! i just got back today. it was fun, but not very relaxing. i actually did a lot of work and saw a lot of people, so it didn't exactly take away my fatigue with endless parties, meetings, dinners etc. and a certain freelance project continues to give me an ulcer. i think i've offended everyone i know by treo-ing throughout dinners. in short, i think silicon valley has finally made me truly insufferable.
still, let's go over my to do list and see how i did. Next to each item i'll say my percentage completion in brackets:
1. cook my mom and sister a late mother's day brunch on sunday [100%. we even had mimosas with heart-shaped ice cubes. ok a few heart shaped ice cubes. i forgot that part of the plan until about 30 minutes before]
2. go to bbq fest and eat until i explode. [60% i did go and i took THREE disposible cameras full of film in about 10 minutes. it was....amazing. more in another post when i have visual aids. but i didn't actually eat that much there nor did i explode.]
3. write 50 pages of my book. ok, 40. [100% I met my 60 page goal for the month a week early!]
4. get some serious pool time in the memphis heat [20%. it wasn't that hot and i only got in a pool for reals once. on other time i dangled my legs because i wanted it to be pool weather so badly, but it just wasn't so i fled to a nearby hot tub, teeth chattering.]
5. eat at Tops at least 100 times. [1% i only ate there once.]
6. drink at alex's [0% the opportunity never presented itself somehow!]
7. see good memphis music at the hi-tone and/or produce bad memphis music at a karaoke bar [100% the latter. oh my. i maintain there were flaws with yosimite sam's sound system because i sounded bad even for me! fun nonetheless though. i "closed out the night" with "bust-a-move" which may become a new sarahoke standard.]
8. spend q.t. with my niece and nephew, parents, sibs and sib-in-law [1,000% highlight being my brother peter and i taking ramie and bob to see shrek 3. we all got green paper shrek ear hats. bob told his mom before we left that he was glad he was seeing it with me because i'd probably buy him popcorn or something. i got us a hot dog, reeces pieces, twizzlers, raisinettes, popcorn and a diet coke. peter tacked on a pretzel. we ate it all, except one twizzler that bob polished off the next day. i'm amazed we weren't all ill.]
9. pimp geoff's new memphis zine around town [100% sold out the issues he sent me with at the first place; geoff has to mail more to the second place this week. "CAN I GET MORE QUICKLY IF I SELL OUT?" one of the shopkeeps asked. they also took some of geoff's rad posters to hang in the stores.]
10. interview some teens about how they use social networks so i can write off the trip as book research. [70% didn't talk to as many as i wanted because it was exam week. but got some good stuff nonetheless.]
long and awesome post on bbq fest to come. please forgive misspellings etc. i am EXHAUSTED...
i just got on myspace for like the first time in a year and was delighted to see this as my brother's profile pic:
this is my parents' backyard with our trampoline that brought all the kids to the yard. Peter is busy pretending the peter rabbit blanket my mom made us is a dress while i am flinging around the matching pillow and my favorite thing ever, the sear's pooh bear. i still have that pooh bear!
although my parents might argue with behavior later in life, we were the best kids! we just did stuff like this all the time. good times...
i'm in a good mood today!
i just thought i should share since i typically blog only when moody or slowly going insane. i had a great talk with my editor this morning and am super jazzed to get back into my death-march 50-pages-a-month writing pace. she had some great suggestions for a few things i'd been struggling with and i'm anxious to see how they work out on the page.* and i got to meet with a few people i always like meeting with. and geoff is no longer mad that i'm going back to phoenix this wkend because now he's going to JAPAN for a week! jerk. i want to go!
oh! i also got to talk to my brother today. i love my brother. i wish i had a photo of him to attach. geoff hogs all of our photos and only takes them in "raw" format. i know about as much about what that means as one of the cats does. all i know is it means he can't easily email me ANY of them. :(
so i'll just re-attach the image of my brother's cat dressed as his favorite character from oz:
i talked to my mom for a long time too today. ditto on the loving thing there. i think i am going to go to memphis for a week in may. i just feel a need. a need for family and bbq. and i can write there too right?
oh! and geoff promises to read oryx & crake on the plane to japan. in 12 hrs he might be able to get through the first 30 pages. ha ha ha (he reads v e r y slowly). i should sneak in my book so far....maybe he'd read that on the plane too....
speaking of cats, mr. vinnie looked SO THIN when we got home...post to come with photo if i can get him to sit in a body flattering pose....
here are some photos i just got from thanksgiving. we went to my sister-in-law's house in salt lake city. we did this formal family portrait shoot as a special treat for my mother-in-law, but i think these casual shots as we were prepping dinner are so much cuter. first, here's one of the formal ones (i was FREEZING!)
now some casual ones...don't you think they're way better?
..on starting my list for the day.
BUT- i want to answer the QOTD: what are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
so many things i could answer here. i'll pick two, no three.
two are official traditions in the lacy family. one, is that we open presents one at a time- not a crazy free-for-all. it extends the family time nicely, and everyone gets to see what everyone got. AND we go youngest to oldest (score for me since i'm the youngest of five!)
the other part is that on christmas eve we open our smallest gift as a little teaser. i LOVED that when i was little. i would pick my gift to open weeks before, holding it for several hours a day, cuddling up with it at night. it didn't even matter what it was. (once it was just a belt! um, woo hoo?) my husband and i still do it, because usually we fly into memphis on christmas day. this year, i'll be in memphis on christmas day and i bet you a million dollars my mom will let me open a gift...
the third tradition isn't really a tradition, but when i was little my mom never let me help her wrap gifts for everyone because i was so crappy at it. my sister was WAY better. it kinda gave me a complex. so now, i really work hard at wrapping gifts to prove they can look nice. i buy really nice, artsy, hip wrapping paper in patterns that will compliment each other, and while my wrapping is still a little crappy, i always make my own tags and use cute ribbon. my sister in law's gifts are REALLY cute this year! i can't describe more because she may be the one person who reads this blog and i want her to be delighted when she sees it.
anyway, last night i was camped on the floor wrapping everything and i realized how much my husband has benefitted from this tiny insecurity of mine. my back was aching and i was growing weary of wrapping it all, i looked up and he was just kicked back on the couch watching tv with the cats. "HAVE YOU HAD TO WRAP A SINGLE GIFT IN THE LAST EIGHT YEARS?!" i barked at him. "yeah, yours," he said. and like me when i was little, he does a crappy job. (ha ha- jk, honey!)
we came back from thanksgiving and i had a cold and a story to freelance for the BW. and, sadly, vinnie was limping when we got home. (don't cry hornick!) we were panicked at first, then i noticed he kept switching legs. and when we rubbed down all his paws he purred. clearly nothing was broken. having read his blogs about thanksgiving, i was pretty sure he was faking. but the nicer parent, geoff, insisted i take him to the vet immediately.
the vet, too, noticed he was switching his limp around and couldn't find any paw that hurt. she did however notice he's gained nearly a pound in the last six months. he's topping 25 now-- TOO FAT!
so now he's on a special diet. oh, and he has to have Larry King's favorite supplement glucosomine with condroiten sprinkled over his low fat food-- in case the limp is early arthritis. "what's next?" he said aghast. "prune juice??"
so if he was faking, it backfired on him badly. he was so bummed this morning he laid in his bed a full 10 minutes after i fixed his food. that NEVER happens! broke my heart :( he's feeling even less voxy.
why is it that the three days before thanksgiving are INSANE no matter what??? i thought surely this year would be different. my book isn't due until next oct. and for the first time in a long time, we're not having thanksgiving at our house. then dumb sarah agreed to freelance a story that *just happened* to be due the wed. before thanksgiving. nice move, genius.
so now i am hustling to get this done before i take off for salt lake city, where i will enjoy (cue question of the day music) my favorite thanksgiving dish!!! i think it's turkey but only if it's prepared REALLY well (read: fried). i love the challenge of making a good turkey. i like mashed potatoes. oh and this spectacular crab dip we make. everyone else in my husband's family would say the yams made with 105 sweeteners including dr. pepper, but i'm always a little worried it'll put me in an instant diebetic coma. oh- my father in law makes an outstanding fruit tart. seriously pumpkin pies just sit around in envious neglect when that thing is around.
ok now i'm under pressure AND hungry :(
i'll kick back with my latte and answer the question of the day: favorite girl scout cookie. Samoas-- hands down. although they have some weird name on the west coast right? seriously, all other cookies are just posers. i believe my siblings would concur. one time when i was like nine and over-zealously signed up for girl scout cookies my parents could ill-afford on their teacher salaries, the samoas went in like 10 seconds.
