End of Innocence
Lucy enjoying a S'more and the last days of summer
This summer marks the end of Lucy’s freedom. Starting this August Lucy will begin Kindergarten and then her life of commitments and obligations will commence. As adults we long for the days when we have “nothing” to do. No meals to cook, no chores to do, no places to be, no people expecting anyting of us. What happened to those days? We work our whole lives so we can retire and somehow, fleetingly, recapture the days between birth and five years old. I’ve delayed this day for as long as I could. I didn’t enroll Lucy in Preschool. She didn’t attend day care. We haven’t gotten her involved in sports, music, lessons, groups, organizations or anything that would place demands on her time. She’s been allowed to float in her freedom. She has evolved naturally as a person, experiencing life as it rose up to meet her. But now, that all changes. Now, she will learn about alarm clocks, and schedules, and due dates, and calendars and responsibilities. I know she will love school (as her mother did) and I know she will be successful. That is beside the point. The innocence and carefree nature of her childhood is coming to an end and for that I’m sad.
Ode To The Mini-Van
I spent much of my youth growing up in Detroit – the motor city – and I have always found it strange that although car companies will tell you that women are the final decision makers when buying a vehicle, they still have not figured out how to market to us. They either try to appeal to our sense of style/color or they try to tell us that it is cheap. Listen up Detroit! First of all I could care less what color my car is. Outside of avocado green or neon pink it is really not a deciding factor in buying a car. Second, although I’m interested in price (obviously) it is not the only thing that interests me. Marketing anything tech related to women is all about FUNCTION. What is it going to do FOR ME? And will it make my life easier or one more thing I’ve got to wash and feed? This brings me to my second most important Mommy tech item that I own (my iPhone remains at the #1 spot), my Honda Odyssey.
Now, in the world of mini-vans and soccer Moms the Honda Odyssey is the Cadillac of mini-vans and I must admit that I LOVE MY HONDA ODYSSEY. I was one of those women who swore up and down that I would never drive a mini-van. That I would rather have every shred of my cool persona stripped from me than be caught dead in a mini-van. As a result I drove a Ford Expedition. I actually drove two Ford Expeditions – one used, one new. I hated it. It was a big, huge, mammoth vehicle to drive. It sat so high off the ground that getting small children in and out was nothing less than a Herculean effort. I felt like my kids were so far away from me in the back seat that I really needed some sort of messaging system in order to talk to them. It guzzled gas (at one point costing me $75 to fill the tank) and It was difficult to fit into the driveway. And then, I herniated my back. The doctor was clear; “you cannot lift or carry your children. EVER.” That was it. How was I going to get my 18 month old son into his car seat in the Expedition if I couldn’t lift or carry him? While recovering at my in-laws house David surprised me by purchasing our first mini-van. I had no choice.
Since that fateful summer I have become a convert. An evangelist for the glory of the mini-van. My kids can get in and get out without my assistance. I can open all of the doors with a flick of a button. The built in mirror lets me keep an eye on them in the backseat. They are close enough to the front that I can reach behind with one hand and give them a juice box and still drive with the other hand. I can quickly dispatch the “look of terror” and espouse threats from the front and enforce order in the back. The back seats easily fold down to carry large items and when the seats are up the trunk is sunken in to ensure that your groceries don’t go flying all over the trunk (something the Expedition most definitely didn’t have). Honda understands Moms and the Odyssey is proof of that. The gas mileage is reasonable, and the engine has enough “get up and go” that even David isn’t embarrassed to drive it. It is big enough that it can tow our jetski and small enough that I don’t have to worry about it not fitting in the garage.
Whether I’ve lost my “cool” factor by succumbing to this item I don’t know and I no longer care. What I have discovered is that mini-van owners have an understanding. We look each other in the eye and give a nod that says, “it may not look cool but this is the best damn vehicle I’ve ever owned”.
A Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife
I’ve had several people ask me recently what I thought about “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. The easy answer is that I liked it. I devoured the love story and characters as if it were a rich mousse waiting on me to slowly savor each bite. Niffenegger does a fabulous job of developing these wonderful people with whom you can easily identify and who’s lives you want to know more about.
However, the quality that impressed me the most was the organization and structure of this story. Yes, I’m an English teacher and at times I cannot separate the reader from the teacher and this story was a tour de force in structure. It is mind-boggling how much forethought and planning must have gone into this story before she wrote a single word. The time traveling and often times, overlap between the two characters could have been clumsy, confusing and awkward for the reader. Instead, Niffenegger seamlessly takes her reader back and forth from present to past to future without ever losing the fluidity of the story. I applaud the monumental effort that must have been put forth to make this story work on a purely organizational level.
My only disappointment was in the ending, which felt weak and almost like an after thought. Was she intentionally leaving loose threads so a sequel could be written? Oh, I hope not. The book seemed to end suddenly with so many unanswered questions that I felt betrayed at the end. I also at times felt the main characters struck me as a bit cliche. She’s an artist, he’s a librarian, they live a bohemian lifestyle in Chicago that seems perfect for Hollywood to take and turn into a movie. For my more conservative readers, this book has some very vivid sex scenes. The multiple sexual encounters of the two main characters are described ad nauseum at times and in detail that I felt was unnecessary. Call me a prude.
Overall though I felt it was a fabulous book, that was well written and crafted. I most definitely will be seeing the film in the fall and would recommend this book as a great summer time fling.
