Passages
I was writing a post tonight about my recent trip to Southern Utah to celebrate my grandfather’s 90th birthday and about how it exceeded my low expectations by approximately the same distance between Ruby’s hands and the end of the rainbow kite she flew against a cloudless blue sky in the hot desert wind last Wednesday afternoon. I was writing about how we settled easily into vacation mode, taking slow walks to and from the pool where my daughter shared lemonade slushies with her cousins and her uncle and then finally put together all of the things (monkeys! airplanes! rockets!) she’s been learning in her years of on-again/off-again swim lessons.
I was writing about the three generations of women who went into town for pedicures and had the greatest time they’ve ever had together. Ever. I was writing about how cousins and aunts and uncles moved around one another in spirographic circles, moving in and out of conversations, getting familiar with each other after many years apart. I was writing about the heat of 90 birthday candles, about how they make a sheet cake sag, about how they lit up my grandfather’s face as he bent to blow them out.
I was going to write about the belly dancers and my grandfather’s face as he bent to give them money, about his very sweet, very funny speech, about how sometimes things are better in retrospect than they were in the moment, and how I felt a tinge of melancholy at wishing the rosier view had been the reality.
And with my stories, I’d planned to include some pictures. But WordPress—damn-hell WordPress!—won’t let me upload them and it reminded me of the re-design I keep putting off.
I got frustrated, hit command+A and then DE-LETE! So that’s all I got for you. I’m quitting WordPress. Soon. I’m ready for a change anyway. Who’s with me?
Join me on Typepad. Love the autosave feature. I never lose a half-done post, and the pix go up like a breeze.
I use WordPress and it does autosave and it hardly ever has hiccups with the pictures.
But it looks like you want change anyway so go and do what makes you feel right!
Well crap, I was just about to switch to it.
I’ve never had a problem with WordPress. Where do you plan to move? I’d just link the photos from Flickr – no need to upload them to WordPress.
Hey, trouble with the latest upgrades? What error did you get on upload?
When that happens, PLEASE shoot me an email or give me a call.
I do want to make sure things are running right for you.
There’s always FB for the picture of Ruby and the kite. Because that’s one I definitely want to see!
It all sounded wonderful to me, even in the re-erite. I’ll check back for pix and follow wherever…I am lazy and stick with blogger.
Sounds like a lovely visit, even without actual pictorial evidence. My husband’s grandmother turns 100 early September! She has 8 or 9 children, most of whom had 4-10 children themselves. Big family!
A rosier reality. Christalmighty…just reading that made me want to break down like a big baby. I look at BOTH sides of my family of origin and that statement fits what I wish I had. What I struggle for and lose against. Dysfunction on both sides…with few exceptions. Aged parents who, although loving in their own inept way, want to block out or rewrite the years we spent in the same house. I’m not good at pretending or forgetting. When the moments come–like the ones you’ve described–it’s an unexpected balm. Soothing and yet painful, because I know it’s not likely to come around again for awhile.