Just Regular

This week began what I have now realized is months of "regular": no crazy trips planned, lots of work for both Joe and I, the routine of routine. Joe is working long hours, every day. I am trying to plan and manage my next round of consulting gigs. The boys are knee deep in school and the homework load is at its peak. We will hit the barn for a weekend or two still but then Little League begins and we don't see much of the barn until summer (and NYC schools don't start summer until the end of June!). Our weeks usually revolve around our weekends at the barn, and without that target, we are all a bit scattered and a bit out of our element.

The city is cold with none of the "joys of winter" feel that we have upstate. The street vibe feels more formidable and isolating than usual. Everyone seems a little cranky. We have seen little of our city friends and I know we need to start getting some dinners and play dates on the calendar to reconnect. We need to start some serious budgeting if I want to take the summer off again. The apartment is in need of organizing. You'd think that a big house would take more work but keeping 800 sq. ft. functioning for two adults, two kids, and one business is difficult. The lighting is feeling dark (sidenote: the new energy efficient bulbs don't help. The light casts a really bad hue and I feel like i'm in a school auditorium). It is too cold to escape to Central Park, or Chelsea Piers, or outdoor restaurants, and we are tripping over each other (especially because Clarke and most of the 7th grade appears to be grounded right now ).

The family is collectively hunkering down. All in all, I can feel a sort of melancholy creep. Still, it feels good to embrace the routine and know this is the time to tackle tasks, and jobs, and hurdles, and challenges. And then, my friends, we get back to the business of hiking the 46. I guess when you think about it, these months are pretty good mental prep for climbing. Just keep plugging along, trying to embrace the hurdles and enjoy the journey.

The Invasion of the CheeseHeads

I kept meaning to post during our extended break at the barn but with all the strenuous skiing, and eating, and drinking, and napping, you know, a girl just couldn't keep up.
First, our 13th annual Porkies Fest was a tremendous success. There were a few traveling snafus for the group (one involving Homeland Security but we won't get into that) but by Thursday evening, most everyone had arrived and we convened at the Lake Placid Brew Pub. Joe and I had never eaten there before, but a friend was enamored by something called "The Growler" so we couldn't resist. After hugs, and helloes, and quick catch ups on life, it was like family, everyone falling into their familiar roles, complete with on-going story lines and great jokes.

For days 2-4, groups convened, regrouped, and headed off for cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, sledding, shopping, etc. Whiteface was more crowded than I had ever seen it, but we all managed to ski ourselves silly, staying on the upper mountain and finding the lifts less traveled.

Tom, bravely keeping with his role of obsessive compulsive outdoor nut in the group, tackled the entire Jack Rabbit Trail. He seems to think it went quite well but his wife now refers to the trail as the Jack Ass Trail, so draw your own conclusions. Tom and Katrina also brought out the big guns in preparing oven fried chicken and home made macaroni and cheese. Did they think we had all skied the Jack Rabbit that day?

Not to be outdone on the dinner front, Mark and Carter, while caring for a feisty young lass named Maeve, still managed to cook up a pasta feast for the ages and take in some dog sled racing on Mirror Lake. Mark treated us to.... "The Best of Shania Twain?"

Dan and Jill made a great breakfast but will be most remembered and revered for bringing an unwieldy amount of wine that still seemed to have disappeared. We must have been using it in the cooking.....

While we missed Laura and Courtney, we still enjoyed the Half Nelson and Jim managed to push delicious berry pancakes onto everyone's plates and then managed to push all Dan's bachelor buttons. Eric was a participant in the great "Oreo Cookie Robbery" which ended with boys hiding in their beds with squirrel cheeks and black teeth.

Sarah and Jessica brought out some delicious casseroley breakfast thing and also brought out their usual "FiredUpNess" (quoted directly from Joe). They both have an unrivaled talent for "giving the business" to the man folk in the crowd which I particularly enjoy. Thanks Ladies! They also made it to The Waterhole to check out the Saranac Lake male species, but no man was lucky enough to ensnare them in his charm trap. Maybe next year fellas. In the meantime, feel free to send pictures c/o 46er family.

Clarke and Oscar were thrilled to ski with their heroes, Eric, Jim, Dan (aka Big Air Spider Dan) and were proud of their new Black Diamond Prowess.

Joe arrived on the scene just in time to get the trapeze up and running and soon it became a focal point. Of course!

Embarrassingly, I took no pictures of anything other than sitting around eating and drinking but hopefully Jim can add a few to prove we actually left the house.




After the hordes left, we had a few days with Big Air complete with more skiing and some poker and then our final fun left. The rest of the week consisted of Joe sick as a dog on the couch, a few days of work for me, and then....a few more days of skiing!

We were very proud of the Barn for staying in one piece with all systems working. It was like we had always imagined. When Jim starting talking about grand kids at Porkies Fest 25, I became a little scared though.

A New Record

So Team Williams had to go to the barn this weekend come hell or highwater to prepare for the pending Cheesehead onslaught, starting on Wednesday. We wanted to get the kitchen stocked, sheets changed etc. On Friday, 75% of the family had terrible colds. Joe was flying in from California and didn't get home until almost 6pm. I was knee deep in my work project at 7pm and everyone was exhausted. We decided to get to bed early and get on the road at first light. Well.....that didn't happen. We ended up getting to bed much later than anticipated because, well frankly, our children were being highly uncooperative, nay, bad. It was boys behaving badly. Such is life. After the floggings and waterboarding, it was quite late. The next day, we stopped at Joe's dad in New Jersey to pick up a few barn items and before we knew it, we were getting to the barn around 4pm. We arrived, did a bit of work and went to bed. The next day, we sprung into gear as we had to leave by 3pm to arrive back in time for a Sunday night board meeting for Joe. So let's put this in perspective, 5 hour drive, arrive Saturday 4pm and leave Sunday at 3pm. Here's the weird part: it was great. The drive is a non-issue anymore. We have books on tape and the boys veg and listen, or read, or sleep. (this time was Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer). We arrived and the barn was cozy and inviting. The snow was bountiful and the boys played for an hour yesterday and most of the day today. Joe and I were busy beavers in the house but it was fun and relaxed. We had North Country Public Radio on through Garrison Keilor, Riverwalk Jazz and This American Life. We drank tea and stoked the fire. We did not attend any of the Winter Carnival activities - NOT ONE - but that will never happen again. Though certainly not ideal, we decided that 23 hours in the Adirondacks is STILL worth it.

I Should Have Known

It would have been hard for the boys not to start asking questions about the elections, given the level of discourse around them. Clarke, of course, took it all in stride. Interested but pretty passive. Asks a few questions and then he's out. Oscar, on the other hand, I should have been more careful with. As regular readers (and oscar's many fans through the country) know, he is a math whiz and slightly obsessive, compulsive. I believe an insensitive soul may have once referred to him as a "cracked out investment banker". I should have known how he'd react to elections, given how I've seen him analyze Yankees baseball. I ignored the warning signs: the tell tale Jim Lehrer News Hour on when I came into the room, his new home page set to NYTimes.com Election Guide, his insistence on going to the voting booth with Joe. It all became clear to me on Super Tuesday, when he was glued to the TV, with the laptop on his lap, clicking between CNN and NYTimes. He wolfed dinner and did a countdown, New Year's Eve style, to the first poll closing in Georgia. Things devolved from there, as poor Clarke wandered in to comment that Obama was losing Missouri. Oscar practically tackled him yelling, "they haven't even gotten results from St. Louis yet. He's going to surge with the urban vote." Yes, he used the word surge. He had a pencil out and was adding delegates, reading the laws on super delegates, and clicking county by county maps for updates. He was impossible to get to bed, even yelling for updates from his bed. He finally fell asleep and I started dreading the next morning when I'd have to drag him out of bed, exhausted. What was I thinking? 6am the next morning, blurry-eyed Oscar, crawled into my bed demanding, "How did it go in California?"

I am worried that he cares too much. I am worried that we haven't peppered him with enough cynical pragmatism about our country, how he probably knows more about the process than most Americans. Should we have told him that Joe and I are normally laughing at the debates and were members of Kerry Haters for Kerry? He has leapt onto our hope bandwagon and I hope our worried planner can survive the mean streets of politics.

As for us, we are more fired up than ever. Care to donate to Obama? http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/bridgetwi
We are heading up to the barn this weekend to ready the house for the onslaught of Cheeseheads next week. I want to start planning my Saranac Lake fundraiser but not even sure I'll have time in the short weekend. We promise not to ski and be diligent about organizing the house. We promise not to ski and be diligent about organizing the house. We promise not to ski and be diligent about organizing the house.....

Needs No Comment

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.