Category Archives: Treasures from the Archives

Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Countdown to 40

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First, a note about the photo.  In it, Chloe was channeling Steve Martin’s “King Tut” video even though she’s never seen it.  As for Sophie, I have no idea what she’s doing, except pulling on her boing-boing curls.

I am turning 40 in a few short days.  I can hardly believe it.  It doesn’t particularly depress me, but it seems like I turned 30 only yesterday.  I was in my first year of law school then and Bill Clinton was in the throes of impeachment.
A lot has certainly happened since then.  Sadly, my father, my grandfather and my grandmother all died.  We lived through 9/11.  On the happy side, we now have two amazing children.  We’ve owned two homes.  I was a lawyer, and then I wasn’t a lawyer anymore.  We’ve survived the Bush years. There are a million other things that have defined these last 10 years for me, and I’ll probably enumerate more of them as the big day approaches.
And as I think about the past 10 years, I can’t help but wonder what the next 10 years will bring. Adolescence for Chloe and Sophie (scream!) and all the associated heartache, and trials and tribulations.  College for Chloe (scream again!).  Boyfriends (shoot me now!).  A new home?  A brother who’s a tenure-track university professor (odds are looking good right now)?  A new car or two?  Peace on earth?  A woman president after Obama’s eight years (and I’m not talking about Sarah “pardon the turkey and slaughter its siblings” Palin)?
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

First Snow?

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Sophie woke up the other morning and started to scream in glee. “Mommy, mommy, mommy!  It’s snowing!  It’s snowing!  I want to go outside, Mommy!”

I didn’t want to burst her bubble, but it was hard to refrain from explaining the meaning of the word ‘flurries.’  I managed to keep my mouth shut, however, and gamely helped her to put on her coat and her boots and her gloves.  
She then spent the next few minutes trying to make snowballs.  Which led to frustration, because let’s face it, it’s hard to make snowballs when there is only one millimeter of snow on the ground.  
The snow disappeared as quickly as it appeared.  But at least I was able to memorialize her happiness in this photo.  
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

A Nice Day

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Chloe and I took the bus into Manhattan today, and walked from the Port Authority down to Chelsea to meet some relatives for brunch and a gallery tour.

We hadn’t been to the city together in a long time – but I really enjoyed being with her today.  Our stroll down 8th Avenue was not the most interesting (unless you like peep shows) walk in the city, but Chloe didn’t complain once, which was extraordinary because we walked over 20 blocks.
She even enjoyed the galleries – although a couple of shows were, unbeknownst to us beforehand, a little risque.  Chloe was particularly shocked by a photograph that depicted a very large woman, with correspondingly large breasts, revealing a little too much skin around her boobs in order to show off a tattoo.  And another artist depicted some nude figures, which made her laugh in the way 7-year olds laugh when they’re confronted with pictures of naked people.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Happy Turkey Day

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Our annual family Thanksgiving at my mom’s place was lovely, as usual.  There were a couple of notable absences, however.  My aunt and uncle, who usually join us for the occasion, were understandably recovering and resting at home after the rollercoaster of my grandmother’s final couple of weeks in Florida.  Their daughter and her husband, who moved to California earlier this year, were also greatly missed.  

For the first time in a long time, this meant that my father’s side of the family was not represented at the table, and the repast wasn’t quite the same.  We all enjoyed lots of laughs this evening with my mother’s sister and her family, and my brother and his wife, but it was definitely a little quieter than usual.
Sophie was out of sorts – we think she may be coming down with a cold.  She didn’t eat anything for dinner, but she did have enough energy to watch countless clips from the “Wizard of Oz” on the computer.  Her new favorite song – “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.”
Chloe discovered the game of Boggle, and had almost all of us playing at one point or another before the big meal.  She lost most of the rounds, but she didn’t mind.  She made up new spellings for words, but she didn’t mind that either.  In fact, it was one of the few games that Chloe didn’t mind losing – and she even said so before we started playing.  
Tomorrow is Black Friday and I’ve never gone shopping on Black Friday. I’m turning 40 in a couple of weeks and feel like I should experience at least one Black Friday before hitting the big milestone.  But I think I’ll skip it – I know my limitations, one of which is patience.  I have none, and I think I’d need a lot of it to survive the throngs.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Drunken Cowgirl Sophie

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This photo says it all.  Drunken cowgirl Sophie.  Not the most flattering picture, but I like it all the same.  She was probably dizzy from running around the house too much.  Either that or she had overdosed on milk.  

We rediscovered these hats when we cleaned out the sunroom, which needs to undergo major repairs because of structural deficiencies.  Tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.  Home ownership sucks.
I am now waiting for the rest of the house to crumble.  To become an archeological ruin, just like the ancient homes of Pompei.  In the meantime, Chloe and Sophie continue to dance around the house, stomping our domicile further into the ground.  
I am trying to look on the bright side of this – at least we’ll have a spanking new sunroom.  New windows.  New electricity.  Insulation for the first time ever.  Whoo hoo!
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

My Chloe

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People always tell me that Chloe looks a lot like me, but until recently I never really saw the resemblance.  Yes, we both have thick hair – but her hair is not as dark as mine.  Her eyes are hazel and mine are deep brown.  Her features, when taken together, reflect a good mix of her mother and father – neither one of us overpowering the other in her reflection.  

But over the weekend, while looking through hundreds of old photos in Nanny’s apartment, I came across an album documenting the young lives of my grandparents’ four grandchildren, including me.  I came face to face with a photo of me, taken when I was about Chloe’s age now.  And maybe it was the angle or the lighting or the pose or some combination of all of those things.  
But I did a double-take when I saw it – because I didn’t recognize me at first, I recognized my dear Chloe.  The nose in that old photo was like Chloe’s nose, the hair like Chloe’s hair.  The expression not too different from one I’ve seen on Chloe’s face time and time again.  It was eerie to see my little girl reflected in that 30+ year-old photo.  
Yet at the same time, it was kind of neat.  I can’t wait to show the picture to her – I think she’ll be mightily surprised.  Will she think it’s cool, or will she be grossed out?   Will she be proud (while she’s still young enough to be proud of her mom) or a little embarrassed that she looks so much like me?  
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

My Last Night at Nanny’s

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It’s very strange to think that after 30 years, I will never be returning to Nanny & Poppy’s apartment – it will be the end of an era tomorrow when I walk down the catwalk at their condo for the last time.  It’s funny how the condo aged with my grandparents over the years.  Even though new retirees have moved in, the vibrancy of the place that I remember from when I was a kid doesn’t exist anymore.  The shuffleboard courts have faded away, the tennis club was shuttered years ago, people no longer crowd by the pool to play cards and discuss where to go for early bird dinner…

We all eulogized Nanny today – my aunt, my mom, my brother and my two cousins – and we did her proud.  We all used vastly different words and memories to describe what she represented to us, and it was quite beautiful.
As we start to sift through the drawers and the closets, finding treasures in piles of old letters and photo albums, we realize that our little Miss Neat hoarded everything – and managed to keep her inability to throw anything away a secret from us all.