Tuesday, October 23, 2007

What We've Been Doing Since The Leaves Fell Off The Trees

Why, yes, it is unusual for me to go two weeks without blogging. Thank you for noticing. You may blame it all on Richard Ford. Well, start there, anyway.

Perhaps you've heard of Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist Richard Ford? I hadn't until he came to speak in Boise. Nor had I read any of his books, which include his big winner Independence Day. But I read an interview with him in our local paper, and he beguiled me with his attitude toward writing. His closing comments in the interview guaranteed that I would be purchasing a ticket to hear him say more things that I desperately wanted to be true:

"Read. Be a reader, and if reading moves you, then there's no reason for you to think that you shouldn't try to write something that could move someone."

The man in person did not disappoint. Instead, he was so witty and sincere and fascinating, that it became paralyzing to even attempt to write about his talk. Most striking was his emphasis on redemption, and his feeling that one should have sympathy for one's characters; that writing itself is a sympathetic act. It is brave to write in this unfashionably affirming way.

So, overwhelmed by Richard Ford, I did not blog.

The next day we found out that Shaun's job will be outsourced (probably to Bangalore) in the spring or summer. That was big news. I went into "let me hunker down and absorb this" mode. Suddenly the future is wide open, but it's too early to for me to do much, if anything, about it.

Next we decided that it would be wise to put our house on the market. The house I love. The house we've lived in for less than a year. This was a prudent thing to do. Didn't keep me from shedding a few tears over it.

Somehow it slipped my mind that putting our house on the market meant we needed to show it to people. And have photos taken of it. We hadn't even moved in all the way yet. The timing was not good. Shaun's folks were coming. It was Willem's birthday. Willem was having hernia repair surgery. I became stressed and crabby. Un-fun times around here for me and my longsuffering loved ones.

But good did come. Willem turned two! He has a surfeit of charm. And questions. My ears, they are tired.


Better yet, his hernia repair surgery went well today, and he is on the mend. The hospital is only about five minutes away, and very nice. They have a really amazing area for the kids to play in before they go in for surgery. Good thing, because things were running late and we waited there for two hours. Before they take one's child away to put him under, they give him a little something to take away all of life's cares. It's a bit unsettling to watch the "silly sauce" kick in, but it's extremely entertaining.




Willem was a champ, the staff were all great, and we are thankful for all the prayers and concern of our friends and family.

The rest of the week holds house cleaning, house cleaning, and more house cleaning. We will have an open house this coming Saturday. After that things should be as in shape as they ever will be, and perHAPS I will be able to get back to keeping this blog up to date. On the bright side, at least you'll be able to check out our listing and finally see pictures of what our house looks like.


5 comments:

Nancy Joy said...

Oh - I'm so sorry to hear all the sad news. But - glad to hear that Willem made it through the surgery. The pics are so cute - I'm saving them to show Mom.

Lots of Love -

Nancy

Gretchen said...

Goodness gracious! You have plenty of good reasons to not update your blog although I was happily surprised to see that you did update. =0)
Willem is so cute. I'm glad the surgery went well. I'll look forward to hearing about your upcoming changes.

Gypmar said...

Thanks, all. Gretchen, I have to admit that having lots of good reasons not to blog doesn't make me feel less out of sorts about not being able to do it :) Thanks for reading! I'm a sporadic comment writer myself, but I always check in on you and your adorable red-head. (I'm still upset that I didn't get one of those!)

amandahamilton said...

You are truly a wonderful woman and have all the license in the world to be overwhelmed by the last few weeks...and then you post a well written blog entry the DAY the surgery is over!! Phah to you!! (Right, "phah", I'm not sure what it means...something like: you remain awesome despite life's inevitable hardships...)

Megan McMillan said...

Aw, Gyps, so sorry to hear about the move -- I know you guys love Boise and your wonderful house is wonderful and moving is hard and job changes are hard. You've got such a lovely spirit of adventure though, and seem to have distilled that spirits to the boys in your life too. Hope we get to visit you wherever you end up -- and wherever you end up, you're pretty darn good at making it home : )