montage

he asked for Tiramisu cupcakes (which we made together)

& didn't even complain

when all we had were pink candles

(he was just excited we actually had fourteen of them).

 my parents helped us find a fantastic microscope

(gently-used...thank you, NCSU engineering student!)

 & Joseph has already found the perfect location

for his new home gym.

 late-night slide perusals

and spontaneous chin-ups

will be fueled by this next gift

(from his older brother,

who only drinks water) ~

contemplating the fire of fourteen candles

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

open your card first.

my baby is turning fourteen in two days.  he will, on that day, wake up fourteen, as he was born at an even earlier hour of the morning than his older brother (who greeted the dawn).  he has already guessed every single one of his presents.  which is not too hard when you are the kind of kid who makes a very specific list of what you want.  i hold out hope that, one day, he will be surprised.  but, regardless, he is very happy!

 my parents came to celebrate, practice chopstick-use,

and slip tofu onto their grandsons' plates.

actually, my dad and i ordered the exact same thing - walnut shrimp with melon - and smiled at each others' refined (sugar) taste.  only the chopsticks slowed me down (though not by much).  mom was the tofu-gifter, the boys ate their broccoli, and my dad entertained us with stories of 'stolen' hubcabs & steamed seaweed (you had to be there).

given that we are now in the sun sign Libra, the days have (naturally) turned temperate, balanced, and harmonious (because we Libras are all that).  so we decided to continue our birthday ramble (we walked to the restaurant from our house).

almost fourteen-year olds still jump off fountains.

 on the other side from where the restaurant is,

lies my favorite city park.

 the birthday boy suggested he take a photo of the rest of us

on the little bridge.

 so he did.

then i, completely unpredictably, started taking photos

of flowers.

 (can't decide which image i like better, so i put in both.)

Joseph wrestled the camera back from me to (gasp!) take photos of people.

Study on Grandpa

Grandpa's shoes

it's hard to tell when someone is taking your photo with these silent digital cameras!

i think i was wondering what he was doing.  apparently, taking a picture.

 then i got the camera back.

& resumed my study of muck.

 and beauty.

at last, we circled back around to home.

& Joseph opened some presents!

but he read his card first, of course.

Samuel & an Unbirthday gift

 (the Unbirthday is a tradition of my childhood

whereby the child whose birthday it is not

does not feel excluded from the celebration

of the child whose birthday it is.)

almost fourteen-year olds like to sit on the bouncy chair.

things forgotten

sometimes i have a few photos i really like but that seem adrift, disconnected, solitary in their message.  however, if i let them settle with me for a little while, i usually can find the thread.  (or, perhaps, this is my literary excuse for simply sharing some pretty pictures.)  in any case.

maybe forgetting is, sometimes, better than holding a memory.

because, then, there is the chance

(the possibility)

that you will, at some ordinary moment,

unforget.

mostly, i unforget the every day.

like the fact that we have blue

(blueblueblueblueblue)

morning glories on the back fence.

blue!

&, sometimes, i'm the lucky finders-keepers of a left-behind feather.  not forgotten, i suppose, but unimportant to the bird & discarded near the feeder for me to discover after an exuberant re-filling of the seed (with extra flung in a wide arc for the ground feeders).

just in time for me to unforget (again) that we have blueBLUEblue morning glories against the back fence.

they are, to me, hypnotic in their blueness.  a blue zen.

& the white-hot center so bright a white

i have to look away before i am blinded.

the zinnias, hold-outs from the rabbit wars, continue blooming, blissfully unaware or unconcerned that i am eyeing the dirt plot for winter crops.  (silly me. how soon we forget!)

one at a time, they grace the kitchen window - plunked down in an empty can of Izze.  they are durable, these zinnia, with thick, upright stems which look deceptively fuzzy but are actually coarse and prickly if your fingers stray against the grain.

mostly, i forget to end chores before things go bad.  or, as i prefer to think of it, optimism gets in my way.  i put a pot of water on the stove to make tea, forgetting that pots of water boil very quickly whenever you stop watching them to finish just one more thing.  i hang laundry out to dry, collecting all but one last not-quite-dry item (just a few more minutes in the wind) before the rain sweeps in.

mainly, i'm constantly running to pots that are boiling over.

but the laundry makes a better picture.

it's a band life.

i, myself, was an orchestra geek (hello, cello).  but i have two trumpeters in the house, and tonight was the first night they would actually play together (three years apart means no overlapping in middle school & only one year of overlap in high school).  it's enough to make any mother giddy.

i was hoping they would actually get to sit in the same section (think of the photo opportunities!)...but the eldest informed me that the high schoolers voted against this scenario.  so, the bright-eyed eighth-graders sat to themselves and the uber-professional, band-uniformed high schoolers kept their distance.

a beautiful night for watching some marching bands (& football, if that's what you're into)

Grimsley band enters the stadium!

Kiser 8th-graders amble in.

the band stands virtually the entire game,

frequently swaying back-and-forth to the drum line rhythm. 

here, some 8th-graders give it a try.

towards the end of the half-time show,

the gong player became very inspired.

(which Samuel found highly amusing.)

the A&T Marching Band

wrapped up the evening &

was PHENOMENAL!

 

Grimsley lost the football game

but did score two touchdowns & a field goal.

i know football when i see it.

(mainly) The Runner

the moon was still in the sky when i took Samuel over to the high school.  apparently that's where it is at quarter past six in the morning.  the top forty (twenty girls + twenty boys) cross-country runners chugged their way east in the activity bus while i made the most of an early rise ~ coffee...and chores (is that the worm they're referring to?  if so, well, i got it!).

moonset

 ~ periodic recordings at the break of day ~

pre-dawn

dawn

good morning!

at a slightly more reasonable hour (although still not reasonable enough for the other teenager), we two parents also headed east.  & arrived with five minutes to spare, finding Samuel & team about to run their race!

Samuel, far right

 &...they're OFF!

i did take a photo of Samuel coming up the last hill to the finish, but i'll go with this one.

Samuel & friend post-race

cool-down at the tent

my parents came to help cheer on the runners (especially one of them)

after much hydrating, they all jogged off on a cool-down run

Samuel, far left

still smiling!

with The Runner

guess this huge complex of soccer fields used to be a farm

The Runner requested a stop at Neomonde before heading home.  okay...if you insist.

guess what that tree is way behind me with the reddish, circular fruit?

 a Pomegranate!