Wednesday, June 6, 2018

We Never Did Get Our Green Tea Ice Cream

All of the Hartmanns and Jessie and August and Levon and I went to lunch today at an all-you-can-eat sushi place. Although this sounds like a fast ticket to disaster, or at least some gastritis, the food was quite good. Lily and Jason had eaten there before and love the place and Owen and Gibson love sushi and Maggie and August will pretty much eat anything so there we were. Here are some of my grandchildren.

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I had left my phone in my car when I met up with Jessie at her house to ride with her and so could not take pictures but Lily took that one and I like it a great deal. 
The server told us that things might be a little slow today because the health inspector was there. 
Why the presence of the health inspector would slow things down is beyond me but we were warned. We were NOT warned that our server was the only server except for one lady who appeared to be an owner or something who did help out as well. Sort of. 
And yes, it was very, very slow. Which is fine except that with five kids who get impatient things can become a little noisy. But it was fun. Owen really made huge strides in the use of chopsticks and it was sort of amazing to be able to order anything from edamame beans to any number of salads and soups and dumplings and spring rolls and tempura vegetables and tofu and just about anything else you can imagine, not to mention sushi. 
And then to eventually get these things! 
And honestly, the food was good, as I said, and the hot things were hot and the vegetables were fresh.  
It just took such a very, very long time and I felt so bad for the server because the restaurant filled up quickly and things in the kitchen must have gotten crazy too because more than once I saw the poor woman wandering around with a tray full of food going from table to table, trying to find the rightful owners of what she was carrying. 
In fact, at one point, the owner-seeming woman put a plate of sushi in front of us and asked, "Is this your food?" 
We should have noted the sign outside which said, "Help wanted." 
They could amend that to say "Help needed," if they wanted to be more truthful. 

But I enjoyed hanging out with my grands and after lunch Jessie and I hit a thrift store that Hank has been telling us about. It truly was the neatest and most well-arranged thrift store I ever saw. We ended up buying very little. I got a dress for Magnolia and a toy for August. The toy just charmed me. It's a pull toy. A Fisher Price Tiny Teddy Xylophone. It looks like this. 


Ding! Ding! Ding! it says as it is pulled about. August, who really needed a nap, got hold of it and ran around the entire store coming within inches of knocking over displays of plates and glassware but his mama nixed that action. 
August wanted some other horrendous toys- things with lights and horrible musical accompaniment and I would have bought him at least one of them but Jessie said "No," and she is right and she is the mama. The other day when I was with them August tried playing one of his favorite games which is to punch MerMer. First, very, very gently, and then he increases the force of the punches and I tell him, "No, August. We are not playing that. You're hurting Mer." I know the kid is just trying to figure out exactly how far he can go with me before I lose my shit on him and Jessie always has to step in and make him stop. I apologized to her and said, "I'm sorry. I'm just not good at discipling my grandchildren."
She looked at me and said, "You weren't much good at discipling your children, either."
Sigh. 
She is right. 
At least now it's not my job. Thank goodness. 
And later, August told me that I looked pretty in the shirt I was wearing which has sequins on it and a hula-dancing Hawaiian girl. Which is the sweetest thing anyone's said to me in a long time and how can I fuss at a guy who pays me compliments like that?
When we got back to Jessie's house, August decided that he wanted the dress I got for Maggie. 
"But I got this dress for Maggie," I told August. "I can get you another one."
He insisted on at least trying it on so I helped him pull it over his head and he held out the skirt and said, "How you do this?"
And then he proceeded to swish one side of the skirt a little bit and then the other saying, "You work it like this?" As if he'd been presented with a new tool whose use he was unfamiliar with. 
It was about the most adorable thing I've ever seen, and Jessie said she'd make him a dress out of a pillowcase and he agreed that that would work. But if the dress doesn't fit his cousin, I'm giving it to him. 

Speaking of his cousin, here's a picture that Lily sent. 


The accompanying text said, "Now the hot mess princess is yelling at me bc she won't come in the house."

Yep. That's our girl. 
These little people are angel food and devil food and delicious in both forms. 

Maurice's eye is still swollen but she seems more herself today and I am so glad of that. 
And I finished embroidering the dress I made Maggie (I think)



 and also finished watching The Keepers.

Wow. 

Watching it made me realize that although there are so many reasons to watch it, the most important reason may be to see how sexual abuse affects children in ways that can never, ever be erased and that to grow up and stand up and tell the truth about what happened is bravery incarnate, especially when the abuser/molester/rapist was a powerful person whom no one would believe was capable of such things. 
And for the Catholic church to deny those truths is at least as big a sin and as deeply painful and hurtful to the victims and survivors as the molestation itself. 
And that's more than a lot of people can bear. 

Awareness is everything. 

Love...Ms. Moon




19 comments:

  1. I notice how much it means when someone who has walked a scary path speaks out and says "What happened was bullshit. I survived and you can too." I am struck dumb when I witness that bravery.

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    1. Me too, Jill. There are so many who just say, "Well, that happened a long time ago. Get over it."
      And they have no idea.
      No idea.

      Delete
    2. Truth. I know. Maggi with love x

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  2. your day sounds wonderful..........grands in fine form, good food and a good thrift store visit! Trolls aside..........I love and so look forward to reading about your day, every single day. Glad Maurice's eye may be better.....that girl. She is fierce, if not always a wise chooser of feline opponents
    Susan M

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    Replies
    1. Maurice is not wise. You know- I honestly believe that she was abused in her kittenhood. Not by a priest or a father or a mother or an uncle but a human, most likely. And she will never quite get over that no matter how much we love her and show her nothing but gentleness. Another example of how our childhoods never disappear from our lives.

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    2. yes, abuse is abuse....no matter the species. She is lucky to have found you.......and vice versa

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  3. man i just missed the troll. the 'i am an american man' one, right.

    fucker.

    xalainaxx

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    Replies
    1. Yep. I spam-removed him. Let him go. What sadness for that person.

      Delete
  4. It sounds like a great day with family tho a little frustrating at lunch. Having kids present changes everything... I still haven’t mastered chop sticks so good for Owen! The babies are so sweet! I miss Gibson news. Poor Maurice... my Ollie is scared of everything and I’ve had him since he was six weeks. He is now 18 and he came from an abusive home. So little and so impacted by his background. I did nothing today. Sinus headache and hobbling made me stay rather still. Love you!

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    1. I got to see Gibson today and the most important and wonderful thing about that boy is how much he loves to hug. He is absolutely the most physically affectionate grandchild I have. And he never uses an inside voice. He doesn't have one. And he interrupts conversations by saying, "Excuse me!" Ah, he's a beautiful boy!
      I am so sorry you're having such problems. How long do they think you'll have to be in a cast? Or is it just a boot?

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  5. Replies
    1. Oh yes she does. And when she puckers up those little lips to kiss you, you just sort of want to die.

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  6. So much activity!

    In my experience, a neat and well-organized thrift store is not nearly as fun or interesting as a messy, chaotic thrift store.

    I don't understand how all-you-can-eat sushi can even be a thing. Isn't sushi normally quite expensive and precious? Ideally, anyway.

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    Replies
    1. Well, in some ways you are right but when it comes to a shopping experience, this thrift store was hard to beat. Great lighting, good displays, excellent organization. Plus, they had good stuff.
      As to the sushi- one would think, right? And yet, like I said, the food was very good. Did we order raw fish? No. We did not.

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  7. The hot mess princess!

    I am so deeply grateful to have been raised without Catholicism, or any dogma. My country's history is a cruel and horrible one.

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    Replies
    1. Amen. The priest who molested all of these children in The Finders moved to Ireland eventually.
      Are we surprised?

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  8. that August is a hoot. and that Maggie, she is a force to be reckoned with. and the fucking Catholic church...I expect no less from a religion that murdered millions of people in the most horrid way because they wouldn't convert.

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    Replies
    1. Why? Why does anyone believe in the Catholic church? I simply can't fucking understand any of it.

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  9. The Keepers! My mother was friends with the woman who was murdered a week apart from Sister Cathy. They visited a psychic about a week before her death and the psychic looked at her Palm and refused to take her money. When pressed, she disclosed that all she could see in her future was green grass. Her murder haunted my mom. I'm so proud of all the girls who spoke out. I am a Christian.. on my own terms, mostly.. but the Catholic "church" is PURE evil.

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