Testing the boundaries of normal social behaviour

I've laughed more in the past couple days then just about any other time in my life. Well, I take that back, I can remember many many laughing fits...many...but these past couple days with my new wigs has been right up there in the top 10 best and silliest moments of my life. The pink wig and the white lady blabla wig have been part of the collection for a couple weeks now, but there has been some recent additions that are too over the top, too ludicrous to try and describe...although you know me by now, so I'll try my darnedest.
A couple years ago, Ted was a hippy pimp for Halloween. Part of his wonderful ensemble was this giant blondish/greyish scraggly, did I mention huge, wig. I would say it extends a foot in every direction. After putting on dark red lipstick and some gaint earring's, thanks to Gina, I went to work in this wig. Needless to say, there were the looks, the stares, the man running into the wall. It was maybe the hardest I've ever laughed on the inside...and all day long. The next night, Ted put it on and just happened to have the unshaven scraggly beard to match. He could not have looked more like a burn out...cheech would have been proud. As many of you know, Rob has a natural fro and the other day I picked up a matching girl fro wig. So there we were, fro family robinson, out for a night on the town. People were in shock, again with the stares, the awkward side glances and the unabashed gawks. People were much more brazen and vocal...it was after all the mall, at night, which = teeeeeeeeenagers. My favorite moment was when a group of about 10 pre-teen to teen girls saw us come off an escalator. They asked Ted if his fro was real as they giggled away, they then asked me if mine was. I ripped it off my head and said...I can't even remember, but something to the effect of "what do you think?". They screamed in what I think was a combination of horror, fright and silliness. One giant collective scream, unlike I've ever heard before. That scream certainly cleared our meager atmosphere and is now traveling on whatever little particles it can cling to in the time space continuum. I'll never forget the silliness. Ted and Rob were awesome. I, the one one who can keep a straight face no matter what, was a mess all night. I kept having to say things to myself like, "Corrie, you have cancer for Gods sake, stop laughing, life is horrible for you right now!", but nothing could overcome the swells of laughter, the uncontrollable silliness that kept it's presence on my face.

Going to bat II

I totally forgot to mention how a coworker, Kendra, who has gorgeous locks of long, thick, golden (although now red) curls didn't hesitate for one minute to chop it off and make it into a wig for me. That was very touching. I had a similar offer from the long haired guy who flirts with me at our local gas station..I don't know your name dude, but rock on with your selfless self!

Sara Jane

Is the cutest one year old currently on the earth. Just in case any of you were wondering, I though I'd put it out there. I've gone on and on about my own kiddo's, so here's a shout out to Colleen and her gift to humanity. Thanks for reproducing! As I told her when she was trying to conceive, the world needs more people like her to make more people like her. Well done Colleen! I wonder what she'll be doing in 23 years. Hopefully I'll be able to call her up and ask her myself:)

little things

Ted took the family sans Maddy and me to New Hampshire for the day. I can't travel far from civilization these days, so I stayed behind. After work, I picked Maddy up and took her for a walk around Quinsigamond Lake...perfecto! When the rest of the family came home, Charly brought presents in for me and Maddy...soooo sweet. The girls hugged and kissed and loved each other. We went on with our night, got the girls to bed, cleaned up from dinner and all of a sudden it turned into our own time. I came into my bedroom and Charly had tucked the teddy bear she brought me neatly under the covers. That little bear peaking out from the sheets was put there strait from Charly's heart. She knew it would make me smile at some point later when she wouldn't even be around...it did more then that, it did more then I have words for.

cool breeze in the hot summer

All the windows are open and before I have time to enjoy the physical feeling of this break from the hot summer sun, my mind takes me instantly and simultaneously to all the unexpected cool summer breezes of my past. Those mornings on the river in Colorado, so crisp. We would put our wet suits on, climb in to our boats and train all day in the April snow melt of the Rockies. Backpacking trips with Ted in the White mountains, I would always wake up surprised at how chilly it was having sweat so hard the day before while hiking to that perfect spot..sometimes a nook right off the trail...sometimes a bluff overlooking a never seen before valley. The early summer breezes of my childhood when I'd stand on the block at a swim meet waiting for the gun to signal my frigid jump into the pool. Could all these memories be from one life? I feel like I've had many opportunities, many lives, many interpretations of the same phenomenon and they always leave the exact same familiar smile on my ever changing face.

spiders

So I may have vascular tumors growing throughout my body right now, but what really scares me are spiders. I'm more afraid of those eight legged masters of fear then I am of cancer. We used to have spiders all over the exterior of our house. They would wait until night and then creep their way down to lay in ambush near the lighted windows and doors. When you walked in the door, they'd drop on your head. When you'd let the dog in, they'd be in her fur. Every night that I came home after dark I had to face those damn spiders. Sometimes I'd call Ted and have him open the door if he was home first. But then there were those nights...those dreaded nights when I had picked up the kids, gone grocery shopping and come home to an empty house. That meant many many trips through the door at night with bags and kids and other obstacles that made one linger at the door. The spiders. Would drop. On my head. On my shoulders. In the bags. Spiders. I called an exterminator and he sprayed lovely chemicals that made the spiders die. I love that man a little. He doesn't know it, but I would have payed him a million dollars for the relief he gave me. Too bad he can only work his magic on the exterior of houses.

Riding with Robby

Instead of Ted taking his weekly jaunt out to get Robby, I drove out to get him. Partially to have the excuse to listen to some music and have a little time by myself, partially because Maddy's sick and it breaks my heart to hear her call for me knowing that I can't go near her since I'm susceptible to everything and partly because I just love hanging out with the boy. He had no idea that I had just shaved my head and his reaction was priceless. He loves the mini mohawk....I knew he would. I was so upset when I realized that my hair wouldn't last until today, I wanted him to have the first go at it. Oh well, we had fun yesterday all the same.
We took the long way home. Rob put on Dillan and the sky gave us a beautiful setting in which to relax and enjoy the music. I can not overstate how cool I think it is that he lives for the same music I absolutely needed to get through adolescence. Robby and I have always been close, we get each other. On our way home, he was pointing out wisps of fog and clouds that made grey look so alive while I was picking out lyrics that I've had in the back of my mind for well over twenty years, lyrics that make you realize that there are depths to human emotion that have to be extracted and packaged by people like Dillan for people like me and Rob to get the most out of life....and we do!