Category Archives: memories

light the corners of my mind

creative, memories Leave a comment

Doodle

When I feel vaguely creative — when I want to sketch or write, but have nothing specific in mind — these loopy doodles are one of my go-to options.

When I was about ten years old, living in a trailer in Florida with my extended nuclear family, my Mom introduced me to these doodles. Some of my favorite memories of that time are when she and I would retreat to her bedroom to draw, or play chess, or design our “dream house” on graph paper. She’d make a giant loopy doodle on a full sheet of graph paper, then we’d both dive in with colored pencils.

I still enjoy making these doodles so many years later, partly because it’s meditative, but also because it reminds me of those quiet times spent with my Mom.

memories, music, parenthood Leave a comment

U Can’t Touch Ur Mom’s Music

Earlier this month, my son Connor (age 10) was telling me about a funny commercial he’d seen, where someone had cheesy Cheeto fingers and they kept saying, “You can’t touch this.” Even though I hadn’t actually seen the commercial, I knew exactly what he had to be talking about.

So, because I’m that mom, I searched YouTube for the official music video for MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This and made Connor watch it with me. He was actually tapping his foot for most of the song, and didn’t really get bored of it until right before the last verse (“OK, Mom, I get the idea…”). I even showed him the very beginning of Superfreak by Rick James, just to give him a taste of how sampling works, but he was pretty much over the riff by then.

As the icing on the Cake U Can’t Touch, Aaron found an Old Skool Hip Hop karaoke CD at Goodwill this weekend. Looking forward to embarrassing my son with that at some point in the future.

pandemic, year in review Leave a comment

Year In Review: 2020

We’ve all spent the past year living through a global pandemic that’s destined to be at least a footnote in the history books. It’s upended everyone’s sense of normalcy, changed social interactions, wreaked havoc on some sectors of the economy, and cost many their jobs or their lives.

My family has been lucky: our jobs are stable, we’re all healthy, and COVID-19 mainly just means an upheaval to our routines. I’ve been working from home, Connor finished out second grade from home and started third grade with a hybrid of remote and in-person learning, and Aaron spent most of the year working longer hours and adjusting to having us at home during the week.

Even though 2020 was a Very Different Year Indeed, I still kept track of most of the things I usually do, and I certainly couldn’t leave this bizarre year undocumented.

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2019 Year In Review

I’m not sure what it was about 2019 that got me away from writing and photography, but I’m finding that I failed to document a lot of the highlights of the year as they happened. On one hand, I suppose that means I was living life instead of recording it. On the other hand, it means that a lot of notable details got shuffled around under other stuff in my brain.

Mei and Me

So, the year in summary (aka the tl;dr version): I did a lot of sewing. A LOT. My evenings were mostly taken up by sewing and by taking Connor to karate class twice a week. My evenings got even more full once I joined the adult class at the karate school (the teens and adults learn Krav Maga rather than American Freestyle Karate). 

The other major memorable thing about 2019 was my ADHD diagnosis. Getting diagnosed and starting medication was A Big Deal for me, and will likely be something I look back on as a major turning point in my mental health.

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