Author: Doris

What Jeremy wants to talk about all the time is his work.  I used to do this terrible thing where at bedtime, I’d ask Jeremy to talk about some work issue and he would get all excited and talk for 20-30 minutes without stopping and I’d gently fall asleep to the rythmn of his voice and the fact that I didn’t understand any of it past the second sentence.  Then he couldn’t go to sleep because he’d be all excited about work.  To be fair, I don’t do this anymore, it’s a little mean and self-serving.

There are only a handful of people in the world who know what Jeremy works on in enough detail for Jeremy to have a truly satisfying conversation about policy.  Jim is one of these people.  OMG, the policy chat over pizza and ice cream – the two of them were happy all evening long.

Drew moved away yesterday.  Vince really wanted to throw a going away party for him.  Twelve hours before he was slated to pull out of his driveway for the last time, Vince hosted a twelve boy party for Drew.  I guess we actually hosted, but it was all his idea.

It was really, really hard to get all the boys to stand still and pose for a good photo.  I tried.

A lot of the time the boys were like this:

I baked a cake for this party.  From scratch.  It was an excellent cake, but I don’t think any of the boys noticed or appreciated the from-scratch-ness of it.  I’m so proud of this cake.  Layers and everything!

Edda was in the Wizard of Oz last night.  I love Camp JCC.  It gives Edda the opportunity to participate in just regular summer fun.  Kara, her inclusion counselor, does a great job of including Edda in the swirl of the action.  I know Edda is having a great summer and it’s all beacuse of Kara’s hard work and attention.

It was an evening performance, Edda was a little overwhelmed – but she pulled it off.  And we all had a great time.

For your viewing pleasure.  Vince’s video masterpiece from computer camp a few weeks ago.  First is the trailer and second is the actual movie.  I just love that all the kids in this movie (except for the dark-haired girl) live within 2 miles of each other and have grown up together.

UCS’s new president:

Jeremy’s work had a Hill reception last night to introduce their new president to “Washington” – a debut of sorts.  The organizer of the event asked if someone could take photos at this event and Jeremy, very cleverly, volunteered me.

Because Nat was still on vacation, I could only do this event if Jeremy took care of Edda so I attended this UCS event without Jeremy.  It had complicated logistics involving a camp pick-up and meeting on the street corner at Union Station and a heavy reliance on Google Maps.  I’m so impressed with Google Maps.  DC was grid-locked with traffic and Google Maps took me in some round-about way avoiding all the accidents and traffic tie ups and major freeways and put me at Union Station in less than an hour.

This is a classic photographic set-up – a set-up which I never find myself in. A dark room, no windows.  People milling around eating finger-food.  It’s pretty hard to make it look interesting in photographs since nothing really interesting is happening.   But I did what I could.

Here’s an important person:

And another important person:

Finally, a few more important people:

Vince and Sophie in a galvanized tub.  Best way to cool off this hot summer.

I am the luckiest.  I’m learning to hold two contradictory feelings in my hand at the same time and have it be OK. I’ve always wanted something to be one thing or another which I’m learning is never really so.  Without Rett Syndrome (unlucky) I would have never met these wonderful women (lucky!).  They are part of my everyday and I’m forever grateful.  Jeremy was kind enough to cook us a delicious dinner – he and Edda were honorary members of girls night in.

One of my favorite things to do is to do something with someone that they love to do.  I’ll do anything at least once if it’s your favorite thing ever.  Genealogy, stamp collecting, hockey games – all of it’s a lot of fun if you are with someone else who loves it to pieces.  Marta loves, loves, loves makeup – so we set up some lights and admired her huge makeup collection and then had her do all our faces.  Makeup is foreign territory for me, I didn’t even wear any makeup at my wedding.

I wish I got a photo of my face (which I loved and Marta told me was an everyday look), but it was late, I was a little tipsy and the photo was forgotten…  Next time.

Dropped off mom at BWI on Saturday.  She did great during the few weeks of PT that she managed to get through here in DC.  Flexion is pretty much full range of motion – as for extension, she’s got only about 10 degrees to go.  Headed to the West Coast.