Did I mention we did manage to get to the beach, just in the nick of time for summer’s end? We took Rene to the art festival in Laguna the weekend before the festivals closed (whew! nick of time!), and then rode the trolley to Main Beach and caught a low tide so Nathan could go exploring in the tide pools.
It was a perfect summer day, right before summer ended. … I already want to go back!
Wow, can you believe it’s Aug. 23 already? Where has the summer gone?
I was moaning about this to Superman the other day — But summer’s almost over! We haven’t even had dinner at the pool yet! We haven’t gone to the art festivals! We haven’t made s’mores! We haven’t been to an outdoor concert! — but he calmed me down.
In a strange case of role reversal, HE actually thought positively before I did, but we both started to talk about all the great things we did do this summer: spending a great weekend in Palm Springs, taking an awesome road trip, having our nephew Justin over, having a few great hamburger-grill-outs on the patio, entertaining our parents with summer fare on the weekends, spending one afternoon at the beach club, spending fourth of July at our lake, taking an evening stroll around the lake. Fun stuff. And the kids — man, they’ve had fun. They got to spend time with grandparents, eat sunflower seeds all summer while watching baseball, play in the courtyard with friends until it was dark, sleep over at friends’ houses, visit with their cousin Justin, etc., etc. …
So much fun, really.
So I focused on all of the things we did do and tried to let go of the things we didn’t.
It’s a much happier way to be. 🙂
(And, really, I have a few weeks left, right? We can still get in the outdoor concert, possibly, and still get in the dinner at the pool. … And still swing another bbq with my parents. … And a few more evening walks at the lake. … and … hmmm. …)
What about you? What are the things you feel you MUST do each summer to make it really feel like summer? Roast a marshmallow over a fire? Jump into a pool? Dip your toes in the ocean? Go to the fair?
I’m putting together some of the stuff for Mrs. Cox’s 4th Grade Reunion, and running across some old newspaper clippings. This one particularly cracked me up. That’s me, on the bottom right with the pen. This is probably fall 1975. …
First, I think it’s funny that I can’t seem to let anyone else have a pen. [Must be me! Let me write! …] I’ll bet I fanagled for that position.
Then I think it’s funny that my marketing career started way back in the 4th grade. (I think we were doing some pretty fancy footwork, writing a letter on oversized paper to get Governor Brown’s attention and ask if he’d see us when we all showed up on his doorstep.)
Next, I think it’s funny (and sort of sad, really) that I’m wearing the SAME HAIRSTYLE. (You’d think I might have come up with something new in the last 35 years. At least a different part! Holy cow.)
And lastly, I’m really diggin’ the plaid wrist cuffs on my prairie blouse. There was a ruffle down the front in the same plaid. I was all about Little House on the Prairie in those days. (Height of fashion, you know. Always. Me.)
On a happier note, I’m pleased to say that I’m still close friends with the girl on the far left — that’s Dawn, my friend since forever. And the boy at the top left is my old neighbor, whom I’ve seen from time to time when we both show up at our moms’ houses on Thanksgiving Days with our respective clans of children. And the boy between them is someone who’s come to my mom’s house within the last 10 years or so for a picnic celebrating another neighbor — he’s married now with two adorable children. It’s really cool knowing kids since elementary school. … It’s sort of a feeling of “clanship,” I think.
And Mrs. Cox (top right) is now in touch! And planning this reunion. Should be interesting.
Maybe I’ll find a prarie outfit I can wear. …
So awhile back, I said I was going to write in more detail about some of my favorite houses, since I’m quite smitten with homes for some reason.
One of the really cool ones I’ve had the pleasure of entering is Bookclub Lauran’s house, which is an original Eichler home.  It’s everything “midcentury” that Superman loves and everything “outdoors-in” that I love – we might have to try to move to an Eichler neighborhood someday. (That’s going to be us, in that picture above … once I, er, lose 50 pounds and die my hair brown. …)
Joseph Eichler was a homebuilder in the 1950s and 1960s. He was not a designer, but a builder (much like William Lyon of today), but was the first of his kind, creating entire tracts of homes in a new industry called “merchant building” to meet the housing rush brought on by postwar need.
Eichler built throughout the country, but focused most of his communities in California, where he built more than 11,000 homes, both in Northern California (San Francisco, Marin County, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, etc.) and in Southern California (Orange, Thousand Oaks, and Granada Hills). Continue reading
Here are a couple of videos and pictures of the Jan. 23rd Downtown Disney “Freeze.”
Similar to the one in Grand Central Station awhile ago, about 1,000 participants were involved — all “freezing” time at the same moment, and holding their pose for five minutes (while everyone around them stared, bewildered), then “resuming” their action five minutes later. Saturday’s event at Downtown Disney was organized by the Random Acts of Theater group.
My son and his friends found out about it on Facebook — word spread quickly about the 3:00 event (later changed to 4:00), so he and several classmates decided to meet the group and join in the fun.
Here’s a YouTube video of the entire event. This video starts off showing a practice that was held in a Disney parking garage, then the actual event — out on the sidewalks of Downtown Disney — takes place at 5 minutes :12 seconds on the video. Hang in until the end if you can — at the end, it shows everyone just “resuming.” A lot of people clapped. It was really cute:
And here’s another video that I managed to get in! I’m looking like a complete dork. Nathan is in the blue shirt and comes into the frame at about 3:27, then I follow behind him at 3:29. Rene found this video on YouTube and was watching it the next day, then suddenly said, “Mom! You’re in here!” She was so excited. I’m wearing a black jacket and holding my camera and looking really goofy (er …. uh … Goofy?). We were actually looking around for Rene, who was with us, but we couldn’t find her. I wanted to find her so we could wander further down and see if we could find my son in his “pose” with all his friends. I look like I’m lost, or something. Silliness.
Anyway, then you see me wandering over to the side of the screen at about 4:48 to take a picture. Here’s the picture I took:
 These guys were really good. I loved their poses — the one couple in a “proposal” pose, and the other couple in a cute “tell me a secret” pose. They did an excellent job staying “frozen.” A lot of people came right up to their faces and took pictures of them.
After it was all over, I did run into my son and all his friends. They had a ball doing this. My son and his girlfriend did a pose where she had something in her teeth, and he was doing the “dutiful boyfriend holding the purse” pose. They recreated it for me here:
And here’s the whole gang, hanging out afterward and just looking cute:
They said they had a great time. It was good, harmless fun. And kind of an interesting look at group planning. (I mean, wow, 1,000 people?) My son’s friends said two things really stood out: how quiet it got (it really did — kind of eerie), and how people would walk right up to them and take pictures about 12 inches away, like they were really statues.
Have you ever seen one of the “freezes”? Did you see the one at Downtown Disney? If so, what did you think?
