Ramblings

I have written a lot over the past month...just didn't publish it. Don't like ranting on the internet. Sometimes it seems so hard to express one's self in a coherent, amusing, entertaining manner. So I don't think I will try. I think I will just write.
I read with some sadness that Devon is giving up home schooling. I completely understand her decision. I don't think I would ever have had the patience or courage to attempt to teach my children a curriculum, with expectations from the school system. But Trevor and Rachael seemed so LUCKY, to be able to learn from their mother, in their own home environment, with a flexible schedule and no teacher to discourage them or judge them. But of course in the real world they will have to overcome discouragement and they will be judged. And they will be incorporated into a group and somehow learn their place. Sigh. And they will have to conform to the school calendar. I loved it when they seemed so free, outside of the constraints of society. Of course, I loved it when I seemed so free, able to take off for Reston for birthdays and illnesses and for fun. But it was also quite disconcerting, to have no connections or obligations where I lived. Having a job has given me a small sense of belonging in High Point. Still quite small....
We have paid someone to redo our New Bern condo, as our tenant moved out. We lowered our expectations from granite to laminate counters, but other than that we are getting what we wanted, tile floors, new kitchen,paint, GRANITE in the bathroom. I am a victim of HGTV. Today I went out at lunch to Steinmart to buy a comforter, towels, shower curtain, pillows etc. It is fun to decorate such a small space. We will be hauling it all down to the coast this 4th of July weekend, loading up the pickup with a bed and mattress and blinds and bringing the dogs and generally seeming like the Clampetts. I will post before and after pictures next week.
Disconcertingly, Dennis is playing a Tivo'd Nirvana concert in the den as I type. I am writing about decorating listening to the late great Kurt Cobain insisting that he doesn't have a gun. I believe he DID have a gun. They did a "no 1 song of the decade" thing on VH1 at the millenium. I was watching with Dennis and Kristen. I TOLD them it would be "Smells Like Teen Spirit" but they didn't believe me. Of course I was right, and Kris was an In Sync fan, she could not be expected to know, heh. She was one of their few 20 year old fans. She and her good friend Nicole went and camped out all night to score concert tickets, along with the twelve year olds and their moms. I guess that was better than me having to throw the Marilyn Manson cd away that Devon left in my car (you should not have left it there!)But I like most of the alternative groups of the nineties. Flannel shirts were a welcome change from the large hair groups and synthetic rhythms of the eighties. As for music today, it is well hidden from public view, the good stuff. I seek it out wherever I can, Vampire Weekend, Postal Service, whatever.Yesterday I was on an "Ink Spots" kick, remembering my parents' album with the song "To Each his Own." (Oh the rose must remain with the sun and the rain..." sung in a minor key and oh so poignant.) There is NOTHING you can't find on the internet.
I see I have digressed into music again. what can you expect from someone who slept with her transistor radio under her pillow as a preteen?
Oh, and so long to the hippy dippy weatherman, the man with too much stuff, another icon bites the dust.
Happy Independence day, everyone. Happy Canada Day!!