All posts by Dona

My Prom, Her Prom

Events, Musings, ,

My daughter is going to prom tonight. She’s wearing a lovely dress, classy shoes and an antique Spanish lace shawl. But she’s not happy. She left the house (to go to a friend’s house to dress) ranting how much she hated prom. So, while she acquiesced to try on her dress for me, I won’t get to see her all dressed up for prom.

She’s going to prom with a group of girls she’s known for years and with whom she feels comfortable. She claims that the only reason she’s going to prom is because it is what you do as a senior. Go to prom.

I’d not thought about my prom for a while. I went to prom in my Junior year, but not my Senior year. I went with a guy — Dan. He was a friend. Possibly the best friend I had that year. He liked me. I liked him. As a friend. I’d met Jeremy by this time and didn’t feel comfortable really dating anyone else. I remember not liking prom, but at the time I thought differently. Interesting how time changes memory.

I don’t know if it was considered OK for a group of girls (or guys for that matter) to go to prom alone 1n 1974. I suspect not. At least it never occurred to me to go to prom without a date. I’m glad times have changed though.

So the differences between these two proms, 35 years apart (almost to the day)

Clare bought her dress <———> My mom made mine

Clare’s going with a group of friends <———> I went with one (male) friend

Neither of us looked forward to it.

Tune in later to see of she actually enjoyed it. (Although I suspect that if she doesn’t, she’s not going to lie and say she did)

And yes, I wish I’d been asked to help her find a prom dress. And yes, I wish she were getting dressed here so I could see her before she went and take her picture and act all Momish. But, as I keep on telling myself lately, this is her life. Not mine. (although isn’t there something in the manual on life that allows parents to see their kids in prom clothes? and take photos? And act all proud?)

Senior Project Meme

Blogging,

msmazzola wonders why people blog. She’s conducting informal research on the topic and asks folks to respond by posting their answers to the following questions and then posting a link to their post in her comments. (thanks Bridgett)

1. How long have you been blogging?

I began blogging June 21, 2001.

2. Why did you start blogging?

I was looking for a way to create a journal online — I’d been keeping a journal since I was in 9th grade and wanted a way to journal and make it public. I eventually found Blogger.

3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?

I’ve found a community of people that seem to enjoy reading about my life and I enjoy reading about theirs. It gives me an outlet for my writing. I enjoy writing and having someone else read what I write makes it all the better.

4. How many times a week do you post an entry?

It depends. I average about 2 times a month. I’d like to post more, but real life gets in the way.

5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?

I’ve got at least 75 blogs on my feed reader, but don’t read them all the time. I do, however, make sure I read the 15 or so under the label “friends”. I’ve only ever met one person on my “friends” list, but I feel like I know the others just as well.

6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?

Yes, I try to comment many of on the blogs I read.

7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers?

I do tend to obsess on my stats sometimes, but other times I forget to check. I’m never completely satisfied with my stats, but there are so many blogs out there, it is understandable that mine doesn’t get checked very much. I always love it when I get a new comment though. It kind of validates my writing.

8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote?

I don’t regret much of what I write because I try to not write anything that can hurt. I did have a blog a few years ago that I did write some regretful things. I removed it.

9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?

Yes, I think I am pretty honest about who I am — even in the blog I removed.

10. Do you blog under your real name?

Yes and no. I have a few blogs and some don’t have my real name.

11. Are there topics that you would never blog about?

Yes.

12. What is the theme/topic of your blog?

A couple of my blogs are about everything. One is about birds. One is about accessibility. One is about my trip to Ireland. One is about our favorite recipes.

13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?

Yes, I have several. I blog about what interestes me at the time. Some go nowhere. Some go on and on.

Spec nest?

Birds, ,

[Update 5.25.09] She’s gone and left two eggs in the nest. Husband tossed some balls off the roof and I heard that they landed very close to the nest. I suspect one landed on the nest because one of the eggs has a crack along the side. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

[Update] She’s sitting on the nest now, so hopefully we’ll have a brood. I can just barely see her from the kitchen window. Yay.

Last week I looked out the back window and saw a robin hopping around the back yard carrying what looked like a bunch of white paper in her beak. She hopped across the back yard, flew to a rose of Sharon bush and then onto the branch of the ginkgo tree, all the while holding onto the wad of paper. Then I thought that perhaps she was carrying a white azalea flower instead of paper — it looked the right size and we have a few white azalea bushes in the yard.

Robin with flower
Robin with flower

I posted it on twitter and got a few fun responses.

p1020560
In the rose of Sharon bush

About an hour or so later I looked outside and saw the robin again — she still had the azalea blossom in her beak. This time I saw her fly into the pink azalea bush and I suspected she was building a nest there and this was a new azalea blossom. I looked up robin nests on All About Birds, but saw no mention of robins using flowers to build their nests, although it said they might incorporate paper into their nests sometimes.

p1020564
A nearly hidden robin — look for the white bit. That’s her with her flower.

I posted on twitter again and someone wondered if it was stuck in her throat or maybe she was going to prom.

The next morning Dean mentioned that a robin was hanging out in the bush that kept coming back. He thought she might be building a nest. Sure enough, there she was — this time bringing long bits of grass with her each return trip.

That afternoon I couldn’t stand the suspense. I wanted to see if the nest had white azalea blooms in it. I waited until I was sure the robin was elsewhere and peeked in the far side of the bush — I could barely make out the nest, but it did look like it had some bits of white in it. I tip-toed around to the side nearest the nest and wasn’t disappointed. She had, indeed, used some white flowers to pretty up her nest.

a decorated nest
a decorated nest

I think this is the same robin that built a nest under the eave of the neighbor’s porch but abandoned it the day after Mother’s Day. I hope that she does raise a brood in her decorated nest, but I’m not all that hopeful. She returned the day after I took the photo of the nest, but I’ve not seen her since. Maybe she just likes building nests with no intention of living in them. I’ve heard of spec houses, but never spec nests.

Unfortunately, although the pink azalea bush looked like a great place to build a nest when it was in full flower — it might prove to be a poor choice once the flowers are gone because it is not hidden as well as it could be and is quite low to the ground.

[Apologies for the poor quality of the photographs. I took most of them from inside, through a window.]