JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

We island bloggers, or at least a subset of the whole, did gather together at the Waterfront Concert this past Wednesday. I won’t identify any specific characters in the accompanying photograph, in case anyone might protest, but I will say that representatives of the following blogs or bloggers were present:

Attention Citizens of Earth! (Ed Hager)

Bainbridge Book Moms (Mary Hager)

Busker (Chris Holmes)

Elisabeth Freeman’s Blog

Eric Freeman

Peggy Finds a Friend (Bill Branley)

and of course, Ted and myself and our girls. Kathe Fraga, and family, also enjoyed the concert, from their table with its distinctive candleabra (how I found her).

It was a great concert. Les Femmes d’Enfer once again delivered hot Cajun music for dancing and dining, the kind of tunes that make you want to move even if you can’t understand what they are singing. It is its own language. Musik muss man nicht ubersetzen, to quote Boris Mann on his German podcast (recorded on the way to Gnomedex -wanna know how to say Gnomedex auf Deutsch?!) with Roland Tanglao. These Waterfront Park concerts are one of our favorite island activities. For a 30-second taste of what Wednesday night was like, please see the video clip I posted. This is my first attempt at posting video at all, and thanks to Boris I was inspired to try YouTube. The picture quality seems to be a bit fuzzy on YouTube, but I suppose the lack of clarity only preserves a little mystery.

click here to see video

Near the end of the evening, I was asked the name of the band, so I turned to the multilingual Chris Holmes whom I knew would be able to deliver and translate properly the French for us: The Women from Hell. I had not yet seen his post referring to our daughters as a bevy of exquisitely behaved Filles de Paradis. I remembered enough from my brief study of the language to know that he is quite misled to think our girls behave as if they are from Paradise, but I will let him keep his misconceptions. Chris also speaks Cantonese so perhaps he can begin to teach us some of that language as well.

Hanging out together with the talented women from hell sure was fun! Thanks to everyone who came!

Please forgive me. I feel I have failed at conversation. I apologize that in recent weeks I haven’t kept up with comments and follow-up links as well as I want to do. Here are a number of links I’ve wanted to post for a while. Better late than never, I suppose. I will try to be more prompt and responsive in the future. Thank you for commenting, reading and linking!

In response to my Little House on the Asylum post, Garrett Fitzgerald kindly posted pictures of Laura Ingall Wilder’s home on the banks of Plum Creek – thanks Garrett!

Bainbridge Buzz posted an excellent series on date rape. Detective Anderson’s comments in this piece regarding how rape happens at sleepovers – for girls as young as 8 – reinforced the advice I wrote in this post on preventing sexual abuse. (I also want to commend Steve Gardner of the Bainbridge Islander for his piece on the date rape seminar too – I didn’t know where to find it online to link to it.)

Abigail got her glasses last month, as I had predicted. Already the lenses have been replaced once, after one disappeared on a playground. Thanks to Tamar’s generosity, I discovered Matt’s post on glasses in the classroom. He was kind enough to respond to my post with New Glasses (Part Two). Please go read his excellent blog!

This bumpersticker I posted can be bought here.

Helpful suggestions on my slug post led me to try cups of beer in the garden – success! Dozens and dozens were caught that first night and poured out as exotic escargot for the birds to imbibe. However, I didn’t put the time or money into marinating slugs each night. Too costly. Then again, so were my plants….oops…better luck next year…

This week my eyes have been irritated. I don’t know if it is overuse of my contacts (which are soft, and designed for extended wear) or the allergies Ted has experienced. My glasses are helpful but also create eye strain by the different optics. Earlier this week I made an appointment to see my doctor, but by the time the day came, I felt better. However, 36 hours later, I was unhappy again. When the girls go to bed, I want to close my eyes too. I’ve been sleeping more, but blogging less. I hope to try to remedy this situation soon.

Bring blanket and picnic – and your family! – to the Concert at Waterfront Park Wednesday night, and come hang out with other bloggers! The fun starts at 7 and lasts until 8:30 or so. Get ready to enjoy the Cajun sounds of Les Femmes d’enfer and savor a summer evening.

My family and I have a large yellow blanket. We’ll try to arrive by 7 and stake out some space. Let’s plan to look for each other on the side of the park that is to the right of the stage (the side farther from the ferry dock, closer to the crew shells). If possible, please let me know if you can come. Of course, these plans depend on the cooperation of the weather as well.

I apologize for my late posting. I’ve also tried to reach as many local bloggers as I know through email. If you would like me to email you with future plans for blogger gatherings, please comment below or email me: harrowme AT yahoo.com

Hope everyone has a fun summer evening, whether you come to the concert tonight or enjoy the day somewhere else…!

We spent the day with family at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and I feel both tired and refreshed. My favorite moment came in the Tropical Butterfly House. I wished I could have spent hours there in the mist, in the midst of ferns and flowers, watching the butterflies float around us. One landed on my hand. I stood still, breathless, as if time were extended, until it flew away. This trip to the Center was a celebration of Abigail’s birthday, so she was particularly delighted when one of the large South American Morpho butterflies visted her, perhaps mistaking her red dress for a vibrant flower.

Butterflies appear to be pieces of tissue paper given life, translucent and thin, fragile and free. They are creatures of change and transformation, just as I see my own daughter changing little by little into the woman she will one day be. It will come sooner than I think it will. Another year, another birthday mark another step closer to her freedom. Yet Abigail is already beautiful. As her mother, I feel each day I am watching her learn to fly.

Life is ephemeral, as demonstrated by the butterflies. A case of chrysalis on one side of the room revealed the beginnings while a few motionless bodies in the garden testified to the end. The clock keeps ticking for each creature, counting days until death. In a week where I’ve felt the clock ticking, where I’ve felt the weight of worry and duty, rushing here to there, I stood in silence, refreshed by insects. As they flew from flower to flower, the bright hues of blue, red, yellow alight in the air, I wished I could stop time and stay forever in that moment. It seemed magical. I felt I too was transformed, into another world. And at the same time, I was reminded of another world, another place, of beauty and transformation, where time will stop and stay forever. Although I haven’t listened to this CD for a while, Christine Dente’s song started singing in my mind:

Quiet breeze, twilight in the trees

Bare feet in the grass

Little girl, laughing as she twirls

Fireflies in her hands

She says to me, “I wish this day would never end”

The stars will fall

Can’t catch them all

They’re an echo of heaven

The wind will sigh

And whisper I’m

Living in an echo of heaven

Always calling me on

– Echoes of Heaven, by Christine Dente, Scott Dente and Jimmy Collins, 2002