Notes from ShellyCentral

You know about the road paved with good intentions, right?

how do i keep not updating? i don't know. but i do. i was just about to head to bed. not for sleeping quite yet, but i was going to watch some stuff off the tivo and write in my paper journal a bit and then go to bed. h is going to school super early in the morning and i want to try to wake up to see her off.

today was laundry day. yesterday alan and i cleaned out 3 communal closets that had been a big messy mess for many years. it was fantastic. well it was kinda yucky actually doing it, but gavin it done is fantastic.it made lots of laundry though, so today was laundry day. considerably less yucky, but with lots more folding. there's still a little bit left, but isn't there always?

today was also chilly day. after several days of upper 80s that made me contemplate turning on the ac in march (i didn't), today it was in the upper 50s. brrr. i'll take 80s over 50s anyday. it was also rainy so of course it made me remember great britain. honestly, it doesn't take much to make me think of great britain. but still.

so much has been going on here lately, and i haven't been here to tell you about any of it. that's frustrating to me. my college (and current town) basketball team went to the playoffs. it was a big exciting deal when we won the final 4. we had victory cupcakes and i planned a whole big post that i never made. a couple days later, it was the final game and we got beat. fair and square. it was a few days of craziness between those two games, and it was sad when it was over. i still love my jayhawks though. there's always next year.

here's an ap photo of when we won.

and our downtown that night:

it was crazy, but peaceful. we don't burn furniture or flip over cars or anything. we just like to have a good time. i am too old to go, but my friend elwood went for me. he enjoyed it for the both of us.

also, there has been a rash of spring cleaning, mostly thanks to the eager encouragement of my best boyfriend alan. hallways, closets, the library, the yard. all kinds of stuff. he is excellent and i love having his help. he's good to me and i seriously appreciate it. i am lucky.

oh, and hannah had a grand mal seizure. we were sitting on the floor upstairs, trying to decide if she was going to get better enough to go to school (she was having the type of small seizures that usually fade out) and bam. she went down and sure enough. it's so horrible watching someone have a seizure. especially someone you love as much as you love your kid. i'm sure it sucks to have them to. she loses her memory for a while and has a horrible headache. this time she didn't have the vomiting, but she did do something to her shoulder that's been givin her troubles since. poor kid. i effing hate epilepsy. in case you were wondering.

so there's a little catch up. i really intend to do this on a consistent basis. i do! honest. i guess we'll just have to see how that goes...

I was in love my with town last night.

Yesterday my friend Debra was in town, and we decided to go downtown to try Esquina, a "Nuevo Latino" restaurant where Round Corner Drug used to be. As we approached Mass Street on 9th we saw the giant crowds.

I had forgotten the night after Thanksgiving is the night Santa arrives in Lawrence, via a helicopter. He lands on the roof of a local department store and has to be rescued by the fire department. Then he sets up across the street and sits on his chair while the kdidies line up to tell him their xmas wishes. Oh, and at some point all the xmas lights come on as well.

It was also the last Friday of the month, so it was Final Fridays, a once a month happening where local artists set up galleries in downtown spots and the public is welcome to walk around and check them out.
So downtown was full of happy festive folks. Including carolers dressing in Victorian garb.

Most importantly it was 60 degrees out, at the end of November. It was fantastic. I was in love with my town.

Deb and I had our dinner and weren't so impressed.The food looked great, but I wasn't so impressed with the flavors.

She had to go home then, but it was early, so I picked up the kids and we all went back to downtown and wandered about. It kind of felt like Disney World with the lights and the music and the weather and the happy people all about.

Did I mention I loved it? It was a great night.

Bircham Park has too much water.

Yesterday afternoon, Hannah got some crummy health news at the doctor. We were searching for something fun and/or interesting to do to get our minds off it, so when Danny texted me that a few local parks were closed down because they were flooded, we decided to check one out.

Now I know that's not really very interesting or fun, but it's Lawrence. It's the midwest. You take what you can get. Of course we took some pictures, and even made a little video.

 

Hannah took the above picture. She loved the dead trees sticking out of the water.

In the distance is the river. It was moving pretty fast.

This morning at the Farmer's Market

       

Morning at Clinton Lake

One morning I woke up and was shocked to find it was under a million degrees outside. In fact, it was in the 70s. I grabbed the most adventurous of our dogs, my daughter and we drove out to the local man made but still lovely lake.

As we went around the curve that leads to my favorite parking lot at said lake, I noticed a bunch of odd shapes in a dead tree. I slowed the car down and realized it was 7 vultures, hanging out in a tree. Is it ironic that they're in a dead tree? or is that how they roll? I do not know but i was fascinated.

As we sat there gawking at them, one slowly started to spread it's giant wings. When he was done, another joined in. Then another and another and soon there were 5 giant vultures with their wings spread in a dead tree right in front of me.

 

I figured their wings were spread because they felt a little uneasy with my car sitting there, and me and Hannah gawking at them, so before I was really ready we drove away to the marina parking lot, parked and got out for a pleasant morning stroll.

That's Hannah and Daisy. Daisy had never seen a lake before and I was happy to see her walk right in it. She didn't go any further than that though, and kind of avoided it from them on. I don't think most Lhasas like water. She wouldn't go up on the docks, either.

Farmer's Market Flowers

Remember when I had the lilacs? They smelled so good and so strong, having them beside my bed was heavenly. Now I'm having something like the same thing, but this time it's the peonies. My favorite flower.

Hipstamatic Graveyard Photos

Yesterday Alan and I were out for a drive and found ourselves at the old Oak Hill Cemetery. I jumped out and took some pictures with the Hipstamatic. I shook it each time to get a random lens/film combination. I took 56 photos. These are probably my 9 favorite.