christine arrived yesterday evening, i went to pick her up at the springfield airport and when i got there i wondered if her plane might arrive early and thought “i can check the screen.”
THIS IS SPRINGFIELD. THERE IS NO SCREEN.
it’s a very tiny little airport. there was a person behind the united desk, so i could have asked, but by the time i thought of that, they’d wandered off.
when i parked, i had wondered if i could park right in front of the building. i hadn’t picked anybody up at the airport for a very long time, but i had a vague memory that when i’ve flown in, the family was able to park right across the street. i just parked in the lot (free, and right on the other side of the street), and noticed that there were some parking spaces in front of the building.
while i waited for the plane, there was an announcement – you could drop off and pick up passengers right in front of the building, but you couldn’t park there – but you could park in the spaces right across the street, for 15 minutes. it seemed funny to me that you can’t park right in front but you can park a few feet away across the street.
but kevin debriefed me about the situation – if somebody wanted to blow up the airport and they parked right in front of the building, they could do a lot of damage, but if they were across the street, not as much.
i guess my question now is why i felt the need to write that preamble before what i actually want to write about. perhaps it’s to try to remember how to type, since it’s currently 3:56 a.m.
for one thing, i watched the LIVE LOON CAM for a couple of minutes. it’s very cool at night and i could see the loon sleeping. but as i watched i realized that i could see a bright eye – the loon was awake. clearly, she also has trouble sleeping.
then i read larry’s blog – larry, the protector of the loon. he wrote about how he’d been gone all day and apologized for not answering loon questions that people had in the chat room. IS THIS ALL LARRY DOES? but then he reported that at about ten last night, he saw a beady eye at the side of the platform and it was a MUSKRAT! and the muskrat, who he called mr. muskrat, and he’s clearly shown up before, CLIMBED UP ON THE PLATFORM. very exciting. the loon (why has she no name?) swiveled her neck all the way around, stared him down, and let out a couple of loon cries. this scared off mr. muskrat.
clearly there’s stuff going on on the loon cam besides just sitting around on the nest. but i feel that i’d have to devote most of my time to watching, and i guess i do have a couple other things to do.
now here’s the alarming thing, at 4:03 a.m. – i’d been thinking about what we’d do while christine is here on her very short visit. she’d been here for the wedding, and she’d seen the presidential museum, but i thought that maybe she might like to see something else in springfield. maybe. and i had it in my head that that’s the ONLY TIME she’d been here. i think also back there, deep in that part of my mind that gets more and more fuzzy with each passing breath, i knew she’d been here another time because she came to see me in the play “noises off.”
but still, i was somehow focused on the fact that she’d been here only once.
i hadn’t talked to anybody about this, because there was no reason to, but then when we were driving home i mentioned something about it to christine. her eyes kind of bugged out and she said ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I’VE BEEN HERE MULTIPLE TIMES. MULTIPLE TIMES.
Really?
MANY MANY TIMES, GRACE. I CAME FOR TWO OF YOUR “GRACETALK” PERFORMANCES.
hmm, oh yeah, i do remember you being here for one of them…where did you stay?
AT YOUR PARENTS’ HOUSE, WHEN YOU WERE LIVING WITH THEM.
oh…yeah…which bedroom did you sleep in?
THE TWO BEDROOMS AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS ON THE RIGHT – I’VE SLEPT IN BOTH OF THEM. BEEN HERE LOTS OF TIMES.
oh.
it went on and on like that for a while and i have to say it was pretty dismaying, this complete and utter lack of a memory that i seem to have more and more, although i can’t really write about the extent of it because of course I CAN’T REMEMBER how bad it is.
she stayed at mom and dad’s, she even stayed at our old house on longwood, she was also here a long time ago when we both lived in LA and her marriage was falling apart and she was depressed and we went to the fair and i have a picture of everybody smiling even though i was very sick that day and she was very depressed and aunt sandy and amy were also in the picture, and i don’t think either of them was in such a good mood either. but they were all smiling in the photo like they were having the time of their lives. mom was there, too, and as far as i know she was genuinely smiling because she was happy, but who knows.
what’s to be done with me? i guess if i just have somebody around to remember things for me, i’ll be kind of ok, for a while, anyway. i told kevin that he’ll have to remind me that i’m grace, and we’re married, and he can show me some of the videos of stuff we’ve done…
WAIT, I SUDDENLY HAVE A GREAT IDEA. i can set up a LIVE GRACE CAM, and i can make copies of the live video and keep them so i can remember what went on in my life someday (probably early next week) and that can jog my memory over and over.
also, i guess this website is a good way of remembering, except for all the stuff going on in my head that doesn’t get written about. but then again, maybe a lot of that stuff isn’t the most cheery stuff to remember anyway and i’m better off forgetting.
i do wish i was sleeping right now. winnie has joined me here on the couch and he’s sleeping nicely. the loon is still lying on her nest.
christine is going to south africa in june to see the soccer world cup (are there any other kinds of world cup, i wonder?). this will involve many many many hours of flying on a plane. she was pretty tired from the four hours of flying from denver to here, so we’d a bit concerned about her completely losing her mind during the 28 or 36 or one hundred and three hour flight she’ll have to south africa.
and if she does lose her mind for good, who will help me remember things from a while ago? i can’t recall that i have other friends who i’ve had since i was a lot younger. but, oh yeah, there is MY FAMILY, who has been around quite a while.
rampant. senility.
right now i’d like to take a video of how sparkling clean everything is, plus i could show you winnie sleeping happily on the couch. but then i’d have to turn on a lot of lights and maybe drag in a few lights from some other room to get enough light in here, and i know all that noise would make winnie wake up and run away. plus i’m kind of tired…
tomorrow christine and i might make something for dinner because she BROUGHT RECIPES with her. this is very deserving of all caps because i remember when christine NEVER COOKED ANYTHING. she made chocolate chip cookies occasionally only to eat the dough. but now she cooks, A LOT, apparently.
i had thought we’d go have a horseshoe because she’s never had one but then we talked about that and maybe she did have one sometime. because she isn’t obsessed with food like me, she can’t remember something important like a horseshoe.
plus of course whatever she makes would have to be better for you than a horseshoe. in case you’re not from around here, a horseshoe is a sandwich consisting of a piece of bread, topped with meat of some kind, fries, and a rich cheese sauce. mmm, good for you.
we are definitely going to go for a RUN/WALK tomorrow. this, too, also meriting all caps. CHRISTINE NEVER EVER EXERCISED. in LA she got some crazy membership to some big gym – she pays one hundred bucks a year…FOR LIFE. at the time this seemed slightly ludicrous to me because i knew she wouldn’t stick with it for more than a few times, much less for life.
but she got a personal trainer…how long ago? can’t remember…a few months ago? yes, i think that’s right…and this has caused her to keep at the exercising. QUITE astounding. quite. plus he’s getting her to do all kinds of weights, like walking lunges carrying FIFTY POUNDS of weight, and sometimes stopping and twisting the giant weights. i couldn’t do walking lunges and carry 50 pound weights, and i’ve been lifting weights for…um…a good long time. more than a year. more than two years.
note to self: must challenge myself more, weight-lifting wise. but seriously, my arms hurt just thinking about lifting 50 pounds.
can we please go to bed now? it’s 4:32 and i’m sure the sun will start coming up. at some point.
ok ok ok already,
crazy old hillbillly grace.