Friday, January 30, 2009

Friday Report

My mother is a hoot. She is 72-years-old and more active than most 20-year-olds I know. She belongs to three book clubs, one lunch club, serves on about a hundred church committees, and recently completed a four-year course called EFM (Education for Ministry) to become a lay minister in the Episcopal Church, a course in which she engaged in such light reading as the complete works of Augustine and the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. She takes classes on digital photography. She uses Skype, she Twitters, she has a Facebook page.

She has also gotten to the point in her life where she says whatever she feels like. This can be a little embarrassing if you go out to lunch with her and she gets candid with the wait staff, but for the most part it's refreshing and often quite hilarious.

Yesterday I called to tell her I made Andrew (see previous post) unfriend her on Facebook. She was relieved. "I was getting tense whenever I logged on," she admitted. We chatted about this and that, and then I mentioned that my new book had gotten a good review that she could find online.

"I have that book," she said, "But I just can't get interested in reading it." Pause. "I guess I shouldn't say that, should I?"

She went on to list all the books of mine she loves and has read over and over. What's interesting to me is that the two books of mine she's not crazy about ("I'm just not interested in the lives of girls in their early teens") are a) two of my favorite books that I've written; and b) two of my most autobiographical.

My theory is that she doesn't want to relive the pain of my early teen years. I had all sorts of drama with my friends, and one girl I knew was particularly mean to me. My mother knew what was going on, but was helpless to do anything about it. And now she doesn't want to read about it. Who can blame her?

***

My boys are going up to the mountains this weekend, and I'm staying home to paint Will's room. The painting part will be easy. The hard part will be the four or five hours it takes to peel off all the stickers from the walls, deconstruct the mucus mosaics, and wipe off the lovely crayon mural created in the midst of a long-ago hissy fit. It is possible by the time the walls are prepped I will be too old, my spirit too broken, to actually lift a paint brush.


***

I hope everyone has a great weekend. To all my friends Down Under--stay cool! To my friends in the UK, take heart! Spring is coming! To all my friends in the U.S., if you don't feel like watching the Super Bowl, come to my boy-free house on Sunday. We'll drink white wine and talk about ballet. It will be fabulous, dahlings.

8 comments:

Nanny said...

Hurry, hurry get that room prepped and painted! Don't be like me who left the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling in my daughter's room and now too sentimental to take them down, EVER!

Susan said...

It probably was a good idea to "unfriend" Andrew despite my previous post. If your gut instinct was to create some distance, it was the right thing! Good for you. Celebrate the clarity your found!

Your mom sounds lovely and interesting. May we all grow to be so sure of ourselves and live such enriched lives. Most importantly, she seems to make you smile. Now, that's a mom worth having.

Susan said...

Yes, I'll timidly admit that I'm "Danielle's Susan" Not that I'm timid about my friendship with Danielle, but uneasy about how that makes you feel about my postings.

Yes, there are plenty of "those" to fill our social calendars. I have a few of mine own, trust me, so I don't need you to send Andrew my way. please, a very timid, pretty please.

Susan said...

Yes, I'll timidly admit that I'm "Danielle's Susan" Not that I'm timid about my friendship with Danielle, but uneasy about how that makes you feel about my postings.

Yes, there are plenty of "those" to fill our social calendars. I have a few of mine own, trust me, so I don't need you to send Andrew my way. please, a very timid, pretty please.

Susan said...

ok-now I'm posting things twice. I think maybe I should slink back into obscurity and annonymously read your postings that so delight me. It was my New Year's resolution to learn how to post on these blog things. Resolutions are generally a bad idea. It only takes the 30th of January to remind one of that simple fact.

Tracy said...

Your mother sounds like someone I'd love to spend time with.

Miss Mischief's reading pile being what it is, she's just started on the books of yours, that you sent over. She loves them and is working her way through the little stack. You've made a little girl very very happy!!!!

I also had to check ~ your books are in our public libraries. How cool!

Left-Handed Housewife said...

Susan, I'm glad you're here and commenting! I feel fine about your posting--I knew that you read the blog, so feel free to respond.

I won't send Andrew your way. Maybe everyone has an Andrew. Maybe we could start a club for our Andrews, and they could call each other and every once in awhile we would bring them cookies.

My mom is lovely and interesting, I'm pleased to affirm. And don't worry about double-posting. I do that a lot--I tend to double-click without reserve.

Tracy, Hurrah that Little Miss likes my books!And I'm so happy my books are in your library! Now all you need to do is get your school to fly me over for a visit, and then we can finally sit down together for a cup of tea and a nice chat. Somehow I think we'd have lots to say!

Left-Handed Housewife said...

Nanny, that's a hoot about the stars! I promise to get rid of all the Star Wars stickers before they accumulate sentimental value!