Aunting

The best thing about being an aunt is passing on lore and tradition and participating in all the childhood rituals. Also creating new ones! And getting to grant the occasional wish or two. It all makes life bigger.

Nobody celebrates birthdays like kids do! They relish the occasion to the fullest.
The part I didn't notice before was how your birth is an enormous milestone in the lives of those who remember it. I remember a clear sequence of events in tandem with the lives and ages of each kid. I took stock in remembering my first niece's birth, 14 years ago. Too much to squeeze in here, but oh my how I love that girl.

I've just had two kid birthdays in a couple weeks, and of course the time of year for all manner of celebration, we've had a ton of fun. I am still riding the wave of the surgery and had to completely stop everything in my life for that but I have been lucky enough to engage in lots of kid time. And really, is there anything better? Why, just this week I taught the girls to take the top off a glass Coke bottle with a BIC lighter and drilled a hole in a coin for Danny so he could put it on a string and try to use it in vending machines (which of course, it won't). As backup, I taught him how to hypnotize someone by swinging it "back and forth, back and forth" in front of their eyes like they do in movies.

I made Danny's present at my workbench with him in the studio one day this week. I love making stuff with them, just like I loved watching and "helping" Mom & Dad make stuff. If I had been around my aunts I would have loved to have been on the inside of their world too.

I got his cake made and took the frosting to decorate there and when I was too tired, the kids had a ball doing it themselves. Everybody wins!

Oddly, I  can believe it was 7 years ago when Danny came along, and what a long strange trip it's been indeed. Time goes by so much faster now. Next thing you know, it'll have slipped away.
You've got to do everything you can to have fun right now.

Halloween 2012 Review

Halloween 2012 starts, as always in the kitchen. In the McKenna family, things are generally executed spontaneously. One out of 3 costumes were acquired in advance this year, Ellie's Sally costume (thanks to Mimi) and Danny & Cassie's were done on the spot!
Danny wanted to be a Mummy this year, and I've got to hand it to him, the kid has a good sense of the classics. Never has he gone as a cartoon character or anything commonery like that. So his Dad ripped up strips of sheet and I hot glued them onto some sacrificial clothes.
Result, adorable Mummy boy!

Trick or treating in historic downtown Concord was ideally whimsical. Gorgeous old houses decked out in full on Halloween regalia. The perfect slice of Americana. The woman who owns this house is an artist and clearly a Tim Burton fan. She made all these Nightmare Before Christmas props herself, and since Ellie was dressed as Sally from the movie, we had to get picture of her in her natural environment. By the way, I am constantly bowled over by how stunningly, exceptionally gorgeous each of these kids are. Can you even stand it?

Above is a picture of the crew before heading out: Cassie-Witch, Ellie_Sally, Zoe-zombie prom queen? Danny-Mummy!
At the end of the night (or so we thought) we found ourselves in my car, parked right in front of Little Robert's Pub, with Brandi on her way from work to meet us. Danny had to pee "really really bad", so we decided to meet inside for food, drinks, merriment and bathrooms.

E As we were walking in, Ellie said "So a zombie, a mummy and Sally walk into a bar..." Cracked me up! It's not a joke, just an observation on questionable aunting. After she lead Danny to the bathroom, she reported back to me that there were kids in the back sorting through their piles of candy; my aunting was indeed acceptable.

After suffering through some...interesting performances on open mic night we were treated to the superfly musical stylings of Melodies Curse, a rockin' jazz band of young super cool musicians. Ellie being a budding musician herself got to see and hear this cool cat play alto sax. It was entirely bad ass.

Pain from my hip was eclipsed by the overall magic of Halloween with the kids. A good time was had by all! The sad part was when I had to retreat to my car during the trick or treating after walking a long way trying to keep up, I do hate to miss any of the festivities. But as I sat in my car, feeling gypped and dejected about my physical state, my pain was eased by the true magic of Halloween happening all around me. Precious little gremlins milling about, everywhere you look, a balm for the soul.
Another precious day and memory made in the lives of my beloved nieces & nephew. A bargain at any cost.

Halloween Nightmares!

Happy Halloween everybody! Now let me tell you the story of The Costume Nightmare.
It was 1981 or so, the Strawberry Shortcake gang was all the rage for little girls like me. There were dolls and a cartoon. I had a Strawberry Shortcake baby doll with a little Cupid's bow mouth, who would blow you 80s chemical strawberry breath kisses when you squeezed her tummy, I was enthralled.
I was a young student at Charlotte Country Day School, and every year they had a Halloween Parade where the little kids could wear their costumes to school and lower classes were marched in line around the entire sprawling campus, which included grades K-12. In other words, you got to show off your Halloween chops to all the kids, even the big ones who were pretty much grown. It was all very exciting.
                             Here I was dressed up for a school play that same year:

I usually stuck to the classics, witch or ghost, but this year I wanted to go as Strawberry Shortcake, or at the very least, her bff Lemon Meringue girl. I reported to Mom my request, and eventually she went to Morris Costumes and brought home my store bought costume in a bag.

I guess everyone wanted to be her that year and I missed the boat, because Mom came home with...... the Strawberry Shortcake gang's nemesis....Evil Blueberry Pie Man!!!

I was horrified! Not only did I not get to be Strawberry Shortcake or any of her cute little friends, or a witch, or a ghost....I had to be the villain! The Villain, can you imagine my horror? Blueberry Pie Man (I thin his actual name is "Purple Pie Man" or some such). What 5 or 6 year old little girl wants to dress up as a man, let alone big mean ugly Blueberry Pie Man, constantly foiling the heroine's merry plans?

I don't remember why this simple conundrum couldn't be resolved to my liking, the short version is I wound up having to parade my Blueberry Pie Man dressed self all over the entire campus, in front of every class, even the 12th graders! I'll never forget the big kids pointing and laughing at me, "HA-ha! Look at Purple Pie Man over there!" Private school kids are so mean! Okay, to be fair all kids are. But that wrapped private school up for Dusti. I was done, I hated it there, and I only had to stay K-2, thank Gods!
Nevermind that it was a vastly superior education. We got to do ceramics in art class, a dedicated room for fine art, when I was in 1st grade, or that I started learning French when I was 5, or even that I got one on one private tutoring when I was convinced I would never learn to read, or that while I was not a stellar student, once I got to public school in 3rd grade I rocketed to the top of the class, a year ahead of my new classmates; I already knew how to write in cursive a full year before CMS students.
Those jerks laughed and pointed at my accidental Halloween costume; the only thing hiding my pain and shame, a plastic villain mask. There's only so much a little girl can take and I stood all I could stand and I couldn't stands-no-more!
So please, for your kid's sake, by God if he or she wants that good damn cartoon costume you let 'em have it!
Priorities y'all.

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

It's that time of year, graveyard scavenger hunt time! My niece Cassie wanted to host a Halloween sleepover and I was called earlier today and asked if I could chip in with some festivities. I've been thinking about doing like an Easter egg hunt, but with Halloween stuff. I love the idea of going around and finding pretty little items hidden where they don't belong.
This is my favorite cemetery for miles around. I got there around 6 PM to plant the goods for the kids to find.

I had a few skull necklaces to stash. I "hid" things on a beginner level of difficulty to find since we would be in the dark and looking with flashlights.

Some of these graves of from Revolutionary War times!

The sun was just setting as I left.

I bought all the plastic glow in the dark skeletons the Dollar Tree had: 3. These guys were so fun to photograph!

Here is Bran with her tribe, there were 4 other kids there, we had a passel! Kids were everywhere and running around, flashlights bobbing up and down, hunting for the treasure and re-hiding and finding it. Cassie and Danny cleaned house the first few times, but I think the fun was in running around with your own flashlight. Kids are so easy to please.

Ellie was so photogenic, as she is all the time. I can not believe what a stunning fashion plate she is! Well, I can. She's been glamorous since she was being born.

A good time was had by all! We are going to do this every year now. I highly recommend this activity! All it takes is some Halloween treasures, any gyppy kind will do (I spent less than $10) and a flashlight for each kid and a great cemetery, the older the better. Next year we will be better prepared, with paper & crayons to make rubbings from the head stones. Just think of all the possibilities!
Happy Halloweening!

October Days

Today I was back into action! Mostly.
I went to the studio this afternoon and stayed for figure drawing. I was working on some earrings, I left for dinner and stopped by this cemetery that I haven't been to yet. Such a treat.

Cemeteries and power cuts are two of my favorite places, and this is two in one!

I assembled these from AR 15 shells. I am a spent shell junkie and I love working them into things. My sweet uncles smuggled these to me from the Farm this dove season.

At figure drawing, I was the only one working in the medium of Crayola! I had to edit the color out for this to show up, but it was a beautiful blue. I actually really enjoyed working in crayon. No mess, nice texture, cheap, colorful. I think I'm treating myself to a box of 64 next week!

I am tired and sore and looking forward to falling asleep with an icepack, but damn I loved it!
Tomorrow I get to bake my niece's 14th birthday cake and I have a masterpiece in the works! All she knows is it will be part pumpkin poundcake, and the rest is top secret. I'm pretty excited about it...

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy birthday to my awesome Daddy!
Where to begin...
So many things I got from him, my love for the beauty of highways & infrastructure.

He taught me how to draw, fostered and encouraged drawing and all forms of art since before I can even remember.

He taught me to shoot, first recurve bows, then air rifles, from a young age. Here is my nephew Danny, learning from the master at about the same age I was when I started.

He taught me how to use a chisel for the first time when I was in second grade and my bunny "Jeff" died. In one fell swoop he started a lifelong love of woodworking and mourning rituals and monuments when he taught me to make a lap joint wooden cross in the basement (ah, the magical realm of Dad) to put at Jeff's grave.

He also learned me on picking up roadkill and then skin it when we ran across a beautiful red fox when we found one while driving home to The Farm one afternoon. When I picked this one up last spring and brought it home to skin it, it was Dad who's sage tutelage I hearkened back to during the entire process.

I truly feel ill equipped to do justice to the subject of my Dad in writing. If you know me, you're well aware of my deep love and respect for him. He has been so amazing, loving and supportive my whole life, now just as much as when I was little.

Smokejumper, artist, writer, philosopher, outdoorsman, entrepreneur, renaissance man, animal lover, independent thinker, masterful story teller, musician and general bad ass, he is a better Dad than anyone could ever ask for.

There are few things in the world sweeter to me than sharing a tear inducing belly laugh, or a deeply philosophical discussion on spirituality and cosmology with him; either flows just as easily between us as the other.

You know how people always say girls grow up to marry their Dads? Well somebody point me to an equivalent to Dennis Pearson-you can't-they don't makee 'em like that anymore!

Often imitated, never duplicated, my Dad is one of a kind and there aren't enough words to explain why.

Maybe for his birthday next year I will have improved in my writing ability enough to take another crack at it but for now, happy birthday Dad, I love you!

Hip-Hip-Hooray!

Yesterday makes two weeks since my hip surgery. I had to have a total hip replacement, right one first, left one will be on an as yet undetermined date in thr near future. I'm 35...an MS relapse four years ago meant an insane course of Solumedrol for fifteen days in a row (an ordeal which I barely escaped from with my sanity!), which causeed AVN. AVN is a condition where bone dies due to loss of blood supply, in my case brought on by sterroid use. Ugh, I can never find a short enough explanation to suit me!
I revile that person who "overshares" about their "Special Medical Problem". Deliver me.
And with that disclaimer, allow me to tell you about my own, special, medical problem.

The night before I engged in a silly ritual with a Sharpie, giving my sense of humor a say in the matter. You know how you hear those stories of people getting their wrong arm amputated or some such nightmare? This was for my right hip, "not my left one."

Feast your eyes on this magnificent incision. It will heal into a lovely six and one half inch scar, the perfect addition to my four and one half inch elbow scar and my five and one half inch abdomen scar. "Collect all three!"

The surgery was reported to have gone well, with a little trouble stabilizing me in recover that gratefully, I don't remember much of. As usual, general anaesthesia was the worst part of the whole thing and after having been informed of the "new way" of administering some sort of nerve root block to the spine along with a sleep inducing sedative, and all the merits of this much more palatable method, I was roundly dismissed as a candidate for this miraculous new technique due to having MS. The spines of MS havers are not to be disturbed under any but the most dire of circumstances, lest a flare up in symptoms be triggered.
All in all, I spent thirty five and one half hours in the hospital for a total hip replacement before being discharged and set free. Oh how I loved seing the blue sky as I waited for my carriage to pull around!

Oh the trials and tribulations of having your femur cut off and fitted with a cyborg part! Here I was thinking it had been three weeks and then found out it has only been two! Hot damn, I'm doin' alright!
I plan to be back in action as soon as two more weeks. We shall see...Keep your fingers crossed!