Soup Town JJ: 2010

Friday, December 17, 2010

COMMUNICATION

It was nearly 11 PM before I went in Ed’s room;

Noting that it was cold I reached for his flannel shirt.

It was then I saw his dress pants on the floor.

Flash.

What day is it?

“Did you miss mutual tonight?”

“Yes,” he answered upsetily.

It was the Christmas party.

I recalled than when he came down to dinner

He hung around, wandering aimlessly.

Why didn’t I notice he was ready for mutual?

Why didn’t a light flash then?

He didn’t say anything.

I felt so badly.

He has so little to do.

So few places to go.

Minimum contact with people.

He looks forward to mutual once a week.

“Ed, you’ve got to talk.

We forget.

You can’t expect us to read your mind.”

Amy suggested that he only goes to mutual

When he tells us he wants to go.

It’s his responsibility to remember;

Not ours.

He never forgets but we do

And if he doesn’t say anything

He can’t go.

That’s the new rule.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

SELF-DISCOVERY

Ed & I were playing Pictionary.

My words were “Color Blind.”

First I drew a guy with his eyes closed,

Thinking he might get "blind" from that.

No.

Then I drew glasses and penciled them in,

adding a (white) cane.

“Me?” Ed guessed.

I was taken aback.
I didn't know I could draw that good.

When I pointed to the cane,

He finally said “blind”.

A black and white color wheel got “color”
and the puzzle was solved!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

RECOMPENSE

Early this morning

I thought I was awake,

But I must have been asleep

For I woke up in heaven.

When I opened my eyes.

Both Mama and Daddy were

Hovering over me.

“I’m an only child!”

I realized.

Reward for dying first.

(Middle-Child Syndrome)

Jeanette & Seven Siblings below


Lucy, DeLoy, Lynn James, Shirley; F: Jeanette holding Carol Lee, Jerry.	Orderville 1942

Lynn, Jeanette, Mama, Shirley, Lucy, Jerry. F: Verla, DeLoy, Carol Lee 1956


By age: Mama, Shirley, Lucy, Lynn, DeLoy, Jeanette, Jerry, Carol Lee, Verla 1956

DeLoy, Jeanette, Jerry, Lucy, Lynn; F: Shirley, Verla, Mama, Carol Lee 1960

Lucy, Shirley, Jerry, Carol, Jeanette. F: DeLoy, Mama, Verla, Lynn 1969

Shirley, Jeanette. F: Verla, DeLoy, Jerry, Lynn, Carol 2005 Nephi

Friday, November 26, 2010

THE MOVE

Amy moved.

After a year,

Her dad hooked up cable

To the television

In the basement.

Following a quick bite to eat,

She disappears now

Trailed closely by two cats . . .

To exercise, stretch,

Facebook, blog, watch TV
by the warm glowing fireplace.

I already miss her.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

GOLDILOCKS

I feel like Goldilocks.

The first time I made granola,

It was too rich.

The next time I made it,

It was too hard.

(I didn’t read the recipe carefully

and put the fruit in before I put it in the oven.

Then I turned the oven off when it was done

but didn’t take it out right away.)

But the third time,

I made granola,

adding more oats and cinnamon,

It was just right!

And we gobbled it up.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

SNOWBIRD 3

TRADITION
or
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

September 25, 2010

The house,

when we returned

after being at Snowbird for a week,

looked very much like

I remember DeRay’s mother’s house.

Crud around the faucet and behind the sink;

Cluttered and sticky counters,

floor, table;

dirty chrome,

things out of place.

When Amy and I got home around 5,

he was bottling and freezing peaches,

which is commendable;

but guess who cleaned up the mess,

put the peaches in the freezer,

took the bottles off the stove,

labeled and stored them?

Guess who unpacked the ice chest,

boxes and suitcases from yesterday,

including Ed’s toothbrush?

Guess who took the trash out,

picked up,

cleaned off the counters and table,

wiped up the crumbs.

put things back in place,

wiped up the floor,

shook the rugs?

And when finished,

behold,

it looked more like my mother’s house.

PS: I love him dearly.

And he has a secret job

And pays all the bills

And does all the grocery and

Internet shopping

And fixes everything

And handles and generally solves

all our problems;

Researches.

Has brilliant ideas.

And does all the taxes

Insurance

Estate Planning

Vacations

Trips

Helps with all the canning

And freezing;

Makes all the bread.

Plans, plants, maintains garden.

Harvests and rototills.

Makes kefir.

and other things and attributes too numerous to mention.

Monday, November 22, 2010

CONJECTURE

Maybe I’m just suspicious

But what would you think?

Our Relief Society is way too organized

And way too perfectionistic

To call someone just two weeks before

The Christmas social to ask them

To participate.

My goodness, when they asked me

To demonstrate something from the garden

On “Bon Appetit” night

They asked me three months ahead

Checking with me regularly to make sure

I’m meeting their expectations.

The Christmas Social is the highlight of the year.

Just this morning, Kathi called to ask

If I would do my “little thing”,

“I like to call it a Christmas card,”

she chuckled.

It started out years ago as my annual

Despised Christmas letter.

It has evolved until last year,

I entitled it a sermon.

Perhaps they didn’t like it,

Down-sizing it to my “little thing.”

“Shanel (our neighbor on the committee)

said you might not be here,”

Kathi continued.

Ed had told her

That we are going on a cruise.

“When is the social?”

“December 8^th.”

“We’ll be gone.”

I wonder if when they ascertained

That we definitely would

be gone,

They concluded

“What will it cost to ask her

Since she won’t be here?”

What would you think?

Smart

On their part.

It worked.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Mama

Amy H, Esplin, Orderville Post Master for over 20 years.

I dreamed about Mama the other night. I haven’t dreamed about her for a long time and this was so real. Ed had been sick that day and somehow I always think Mama is going to come for him. I thought I felt her presence. Maybe that’s why she was on my mind. In my dream, I first saw Mama in a yoga class. I was surprised she was there. I didn’t know she did yoga. “Oh, yes,” she assured me, “I even take an evening class.” We needed to pick up mats and find our place. By the time we got through talking, all the spots were gone. I now didn’t know where we would put down our mats. I remember thinking how wonderful it was to do yoga with my mother. Amy has done yoga with her mother but I have never done yoga with my mother. I savored the feeling. Sometimes it was at the gym in Ogden; sometimes it was at Bryce where Amy and I did yoga at the Winter Festival. Lovely.

SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

We had a nice experience yesterday afternoon. The wind was fierce, the rain hard, the snow heavy but we were totally immersed in the Holmes Creek Stake’s production of Savior of the World at the Bountiful Regional Center. We took 90-year-old Sylvia and 86-year-old Aunt Olive with us. They both got lost during the intermission. Sylvia said not to tell anyone that she thought it was over when the baby Jesus was born so she left. Aunt Olive struggled to go up the ramp. I found her sitting in the dark insisting she would not go down the ramp again because she couldn’t get back up. Our stars hadn’t even shown yet. Brooke played the part of John and all his speaking parts and solo were in the second half. We didn’t even know Isaak had a speaking part. He was articulate and was center of attention for the finale. Brigitte was animated, engrossed, and was on stage the entire time, except when she was changing costumes. We saw Klarissa’s name on the program but never saw her. She’s the little girl who wouldn’t get out on the soccer field when her dad was the coach. She didn’t like them being mean and taking the ball away. She showed up at her piano recital but wouldn’t play. We thought she got stage fright but we just didn’t recognize her in her makeup and robe. She had celebrity status for the congratulatory praise after wards. It was a beautiful powerful production; profound. A wonderful spirit prevailed. We were serene in the glorious peace and safety amid the raging storm outdoors.

Brooke said we probably couldn’t recognize Klarissa in the performance because she didn’t wear her glasses. Why didn’t she wear her glasses? Because the director told her to take them off. She said that angels don’t wear glasses. “Klarissa, how did you keep from falling off the cloud (or the platform as the case may be)?” Amy was incensed. “What kind of a message does that convey to a 9-year old girl? That you aren’t petty when you wear glasses? That glasses make you less than perfect? You can wear makeup but you can’t wear eye glasses? What does that say? How much harm will it do?” Will Klarissa long remember that in order to be pretty and be an angel you have to take off your glasses? Sylvia pointed out that if she had to take them off because they didn’t have glasses in Jesus’ time, Brooke was wearing his wedding ring; and anyway, angels are timeless.