Collette

My fortieth

Waking from dreams of lengthy lists of desperate children needing adoption… teeth-grinding

Cat slices two of my fingers when I attempt to push her back from a towering stack of shiny wrapped gifts beside my bed… light blood

Puck doesn’t know it’s my birthday and starts barking at me about laundry and other things as Patience and I are leaving to volunteer at the old school… he realizes it after I leave, and feels bad… calls me three times in frustration about his running program while I listen to about nineteen First Graders read, organize shapes, and staple papers… Patience and I are both thoughtfully given gift cards to Barnes & Noble and Starbucks, respectfully, for our help that semester

After ninety minutes of volunteering, Patience and I return where Yali surprises me by having cleaned the living room and Puck walks up to give me a big hug and a “Happy Birthday” before he leaves for the gym… melt

Before lunch, Patience hands me a gift she purchased herself from my wishlist… a chenille throw in chartreuse… I thank her and wrap it around my shoulders… about five minutes later, Oxbear pops an egg with his bare hand and there is raw egg on my new chenille throw

It’s time for Mama to leave (Puck calls within five minutes of departure requesting McD’s before his work shift)… and take an hour at the Art Museum – solo – which is its own kind of interaction between art and the general populace…

The color orange in Medieval church art… before “orange” was called “orange” (it wasn’t its own color until the 16^th century)

“THE HOLIDAY INN FOUND MY PHONE!” a woman calls from across the small gallery, loudly punching numbers into someone else’s (apparently) phone

The bounty of feminine double chins painted into Dutch-German portraits…

Korean pottery subtly repaired with gold lacquer…

“THE CAJUN RADISHES JUST AREN’T SPICY ENOUGH!” a woman laughs to her friends in the main gallery

1980s German paintings in vibrant colors produced from modified squeegees…

Silver squash flower beads in a Diné necklace, an inspiration floated through time via Islamic influences of pomegranates to the Spanish to the Southwest…

“My nose is just so long in the profile picture,” a young woman complains about herself to her friends snapping photos along the catwalk

Tiny gold llama sitting behind glass… age of conquistadors…

Entering the Egyptian gallery, some young man seemingly eager to rescue downtrodden culture from the uninformed mind, loudly explains Egyptian mummies to fellow guests… “THEY WOULD TAKE ONE OF THE BODIES AND BURN IT FOR A CULT”… leave the Egyptian gallery

Stop for soft-baked mini M&M studded sugar cookies from Schnucks on the way back

Walking tacos at home as Oxbear, Yali, and Patience return from The Minifig Shop

Out to the studio for Patience’s final class before the holiday break, toting along gift bags for teachers, including painstaking handwritten thank you notes (her own idea)

Watch the BBC “Ghosts” series finale… really really did not like it at all… really really really did not like…

Nate Bargatze’s Nashville Christmas special makes up for it after the kids are tucked into their bunks for the night…

and even better, Puck presents me with his own gift to me… a C.S. Lewis boxed set

“It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.”

– J.R.R. Tolkien