Friday, July 23, 2010

the post without a name



josh is out playing poker this evening, so once the boys were in bed and i had finished the dishes i told myself rather sternly not to just collapse on the couch with the remote control in my hand, nor to sit in front of the computer attempting to "catch up" on blog reading (which, by the way, i never find myself able to do), but rather to do something a little bit nicer for myself. and i could think of nothing nicer at that moment then to go out into the backyard and weed my flower bed. it was just lovely. i sat on a tiny child's plastic chair and got a lot weeded before the sun went down (i tell you, having the summer sun set before 8:00 pm is something i just love about living here) and then i came inside with muddy hands and feet. i stepped into the bathtub to quickly hose my feet off and as i was doing so, was horrified by the state of my heels. i probably haven't had a pedicure in about a year, and i certainly haven't been diligent in using a pumice stone, so my heels looked extremely disgusting and cracked and dirty and i was suddenly really embarrassed of them, even though nobody else was looking at them at that very moment. so i filled the bathtub up with enough steaming hot water to cover my feet and added a few drops of lavender essential oil, then sat on the edge of the tub with my feet submerged and a fresh-from-the-library-book open in my lap.

the book is called "the last time i saw you" by elizabeth berg. it is a novel about a 40th high school reunion and normally the subject matter wouldn't appeal to me, but i've made it a point to read every one of elizabeth berg's books and i have liked them all very much. well, all except for one called "talk before sleep" which was about a couple in the middle of a divorce and i found it rather depressing. anyhow, i finished the first chapter before scrubbing my heels to death, and as i scrubbed i thought about the character in the chapter i had just read and how i don't think i like her very much. and then i wondered if elizabeth berg was anything like that first character. because i don't know about you, but if i ever wrote a novel i don't know how i would be able to do it without writing somewhat autobiographically. the thought that one of my favorite authors may be a person that i wouldn't like very much in real life disturbed me enough so that once i was done scrubbing my heels and drying them off, i opened the back cover to reveal the latest photo of the author. and when i saw her smiling at me, she looked almost familiar somehow.



i have seen plenty of photos of elizabeth berg on the backs of book jackets before, but something about the tilt of her head and the squint of her eyes made it seem as if i had met her before. it was only after i had applied lotion to my now smooth feet, and slipped on a pair of soft as a cloud socks that i logged onto blogger and my profile came across the screen and then i figured it out:



(i will, by the way, consider myself very lucky if i look even remotely like her when i am in my 50's.)

now it is 9:00 and already i feel sleep calling to me. when i look over at my bed, i yawn unintentionally. that is what happens when both of your boys find 6:00 in the morning the perfect time to wake up. not that i mind anymore. i used to mind a whole lot, if you can remember my posts agonizing over the fact that nothing we tried would help tristan sleep past 5:30 am. once i came to accept the fact that he is an early bird and there is nothing we can do to change that, things got a lot easier. (oh yeah, and once he became old enough to stay downstairs on his own with a banana and a sippy cup of milk and "curious george" on the tv, things got even easier). samuel has just fallen into the pattern of waking around the same time as tristan because we put them both to bed early. most days they are in bed at 6:30 in the evening. its really the best thing ever. when i hear other moms talk about how their kids sleep in till 10:00 in the morning it sounds wonderful at first, but then i realize that those kids probably don't go to bed until 9:00 or 10:00 at night and my envy stops right there. having 3 hours of childless time with my husband every single night is just heavenly and worth getting up at 6:00 am for.

now, this post is long enough, right? any longer and people may scroll down and decide not to even begin reading such a lengthy post. the thing is, this post doesn't really have a specific subject. so what do i title it? seriously, ending and titling my posts are the 2 things i despise the most about blogging.

so, bye.


4 comments:

lil said...

That was VERY fun to read, Heidi!! It just gives us a picture of you, and the way you think!! And you know what, it makes me say, "I like you!" And those two pictures were the punch line! Awesome!!

rachel joy said...

cute post, Heidi.

interesting - do you give your post a title after you've written it? I always title it first. Then at the end if it doesn't fit what I've written, I change the title. :)

Anneliese said...

Loved this post - even without a name. Nor sure why... just the way you write about life.
The photo of the gardener is cute too!

L&D said...

Hee hee. The picture comparison had me smiling. I'll have to pick up one of her books. Curious to see which one you'd recommend I'd like the best.