7ToF: I found the simple life, ain't so simple

1. At the food bank this week, I was bagging some donated restaurant food across the table from another volunteer, an amiable homeschool kid who is 14-ish. Van Halen's "Runnin' with the Devil" came on the radio, and since I'm not exactly overflowing with topics of conversation with 14-year-old boys, I told him the story of how Michael Anthony, the bass player for Van Halen, used to play the opening notes of the song with his tongue. The kid was suitably impressed, and added, "I've heard this song about a billion times. My grandparents are so into this stuff."

*pause*

his grandparents? OH, THE PAIN. THE PAIN.

2. Remember my gush from last week about events celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death? Well, it turns out I have to hope they release the Royal Shakespeare version of Much Ado on DVD, because I can't go. There's yet another end-of-the-year event at MadMax's school, and I'm not missing any of them. I may be a Shakespeare fangirl, but I'm not missing a single bit of the end of my youngest kid's senior year. #emptynestlooms (also #emptynestbeckons, but I can feel both, you know)

3. But one thing I can do, probably as you read this, is drive down to Missoula to see the First Folio that is traveling the country this year, on loan from the Folger Library. The First Folio is the reason we have copies of Shakespeare's plays-- back in the day, plays were meant to be performed, not read, and printed copies of them were rare. A few years after his death, a couple of Shakespeare's acting buddies decided someone should pull the bard's works together, hence the First Folio. 750 copies were printed, of which 230-ish survive, and one of them is in Missoula right now. I'm driving down to see it and attend a couple of events.

4. The history of the first folio is surprisingly interesting (well, to me, anyway). I'm reading The Millionaire and the Bard, which is the story of how Henry Folger, of Folger Shakespeare Library fame, became obsessed with the First Folio, and thus amassed the greatest collection of Shakespeare stuff anywhere. Good read.

5. For years I have planted window baskets with masses of trailing wave petunias and bacopa. Some years, they've been spectacularly gorgeous. But I'm not doing them this year. I might not plant any flowers at all. Part of my ongoing midlife crisis, I guess. I just can't quite bring myself to care. Dean is predicting I will change my mind when it gets to be flower weather. (around here you plant them in May and hope there's not a late frost. flower weather doesn't actually start until June.)

6. There's no way to get into our house without going up a bunch of stairs, and since we have several friends and family with mobility issues, this has been a problem. So Dean put in a wheelchair accessible path. It's a pretty amazing piece of work. It might be a bit of a wild ride in a wheelchair, but do-able. Little did we know the first person to make use of it would be MadMax with his post-surgery crutches. Which, I am pleased to announce, he no longer needs.

7. (WW update) Although I am still going to weight watcher meetings (much to my surprise, they are pretty fun and interesting), I seem to be taking a break from weight loss. I've weighed exactly the same for three weeks now, and since the WW scale measures to a tenth of a pound, that's kind of odd. Even though I'm only a little more than halfway to my goal, still I've lost fifteen pounds, which is more than I thought I would ever lose. I never imagined I could actually do this. So part of me is done. I mean, FIFTEEN POUNDS. That is amazing. I'm still figuring out whether this is a midterm slump, or if I'm going to quit. The good news is: now I know how to maintain my weight. To the tenth of a pound.

I've talked to so many friends in crisis this week. I hope we can all find a bit of calm in the midst of the crazy this weekend.