Your friendly neighborhood screencap

This is the clipping that made Jack want to jump. Thoughts?

I think:

(1) That not everyone got rescued. Perhaps only Jack and Kate and the person in the casket. Jack said, "I'm sick of lying," which makes me think that their rescue was contingent on them never telling what the island was all about. Jack is crazy with guilt because John warned him. So maybe it's John in the casket, and Jack is devastated because he'd believed that John's "connection" with the island might have represented some possibility of finding the island again, and saving the rest of the group. This would also be significant because of what Sawyer said to Kate: "There will always be somebody for you to go back for." Future Kate doesn't seem to feel that way.

(2) That we are meant to ignore the fact that Walt looks like he is 17.

(3) That Charlie makes no sense. I get that he wanted to fulfill his destiny a la Desmond's flashes, but you think that would change when he realized Naomi and the Boat were not what they all thought, and that he would think for a second, wait for the room to fill with water, and swim out the porthole.

(4) That I would have stopped watching if Sayid had died. (Oh whatever, no I wouldn't have.)

(5) That Jack's father really is dead. New Chief of Surgery didn't say anything when Jack started yelling to "get my father down here"-- he just sort of looked at him with pity. I think they threw that bit in there to make us assume it's a flashback for as long as possible. (Although, I'm not sure why, but I immediately wondered, in the very first scene, if it was in fact the future.)

(6) That there was too much dying. I like this show best when it is frightening and tense but not so violent.

Anyway... I still thought it was the best season finale of any show that has ever been on television. I will miss Charlie, and actually Tom too. I'm curious to see if the rest of the show narrates from the point in time we left off with last night, with the island scenes comprising the new set of flashbacks, or if we will continue to have Island Time as Real Time, with flash-forwards.

So much to think about! So much time to wait (the new season won't start till February, people.)

Half a year

Birth



Two Months



Four Months



Six Months

As crunchy as I wanna be...

Yesterday started with a walk downtown to Abingdon's fantastic farmer's market, which we'd never been to but heard great things about. We walked away with some spinach and some grass-fed ground beef (with instructions to cook it slower and cooler, or it will "taste like rubber," according to the very earnest young man who sold it to us. We'll see how I do.)

So yeah, organic, free-range, hormone- and pesticide-free goods, yadda yadda. But let's be honest: the best part was when we found the guy selling his fresh baked goods and danish. Yum.

Then we spent the afternoon at Trail Days in Damascus, just a few miles from here. Damascus is where the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail intersect, so it's always got a fairly significant hippie/wanderer/vegan presence, but once a year they have this festival to celebrate trail culture, and specifically, to cater to the many thru-hikers (those attempting to hike the entire AT from Georgia to Maine). If you're planning on thru-hiking, I gather, the first big hurdle is to make it to Damascus by Trail Days.

Of course, we arrived by car. Well, most of the way; it was so crowded in town, we had to park pretty darn far away and walk the rest of the way in. Once we got there... mayhem. I'm not sure what I expected but holy crap! It was HUGE. The entire town was full of all kinds of vendors (of camping/hiking gear, t-shirts and other trail memorabilia, incense, candles, something called The Outdoor Bible, and tons of food). Plus, there were at least two very cool free services: free buzzcuts, and free vet checkups for "trail dogs." Awesome.









It was, needless to say, a great spot for people watching. We saw: several people in full-length, tie-dyed unitards; a great many sets of dredlocks;

dudes in kilts;



and babies.



Being on the go meant Lea's nap schedule got all shot to pieces, and then, against all logic (jeez, Lea) she also decided not to sleep last night. Which meant today she was basically comatose. [OK, the commentary is unessential, but I needed a legitimate excuse to post these totally unrelated sleeping-baby pictures. Deal with it.]

Photos aplenty

Mother's Day: One of us was more interested in getting a super-cute mother-daughter photo than the other.


Later, we spent some quality time on the Virginia Creeper Trail, where plenty of cuteness ensued:








In other news, Lea is trying so hard to crawl. Check out the look of concentration

Without whom none of this would be possible

First of all, my mother had excellent fashion sense in 1981. I am loving the shirt. (A V-Neck, even-- something I had to recently convince her to accept back into her wardrobe.)

Right before (or after, I can't remember) Lea was born, my mom's old copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves resurfaced from somewhere in her house, and I got a kick out of reading all the accounts of childbirth circa 1973 or so. I guess having an "focus object" was many women's preferred method of natural pain relief. I think it's called hypnobirthing now, but the basic idea is: early in your pregnancy, pick an object that is interesting to look at. Look at it often, and train your mind to associate that object with power, and strength, and feelings of peace and serenity. Then, during labor, when you look at this object, you will be pain-free. Or something.

Anyway, after I read that section, I found a part called "Parenting Adults", and one mother-- grandmother, now-- said something like this: When my daughter had a baby, I felt affirmed because I felt like she was saying, "What you did, when you had me, was a good thing. Such a good thing, I wanted to do it myself. I accept you, and I welcome becoming more like you."

I wonder sometimes if my mom feels this way now that Lea is here and I am a mother too. I do know that I feel connected to her, and my grandmother and aunts and all the mothers out there, in ways that I never really expected. Like a secret society of the wisest women who ever lived has granted me a sort of probationary membership: I can rise to the challenge of motherhood and become like those wise women, learning to embrace this new part of my identity with grace and humor, or I can allow motherhood to overwhelm me, frustrate me, make me bitter, make me less. I am still being tested in all the fundamentals, of course... and maybe the trick is that it's always going to be fundamentals, just different ones. I'm not sure. I do know that I look forward to Lea walking and talking and pushing boundaries and exploring her world. But at the same time, I am try to never start a sentence with "I can't wait..." Because, as everyone tells me, this part will go warp-speed fast and I don't want it to pass me by while I'm craning my neck to see the next part.

I am so lucky to have a really fantastic example of confidence and creativity and patience in my mom. She's the smartest lady I know and I really can't tell you where I'd be in this whole journey (or any journey, really) without her.

Here's to ya, Mom.

So spooky. So Lost-y.

Brian thinks Jacob looks like Kris Kristofferson.

I know many won't agree with me, but I think this week's Lost was one of the best in a long, long time. Yeah, I know-- they've left a lot of really key mysteries-- the huge foot, Walt, the pilot-eating-creature, Adam and Eve, etc.-- behind, and that stinks. BUT they've come back to a really compelling way to tell the story. Or maybe they just saved all the action for the end of the season. In any case, I was watching this particular scene through my fingers, and I missed the actual Sighting of Jacob. Thought I'd save it here for anyone else who might've. I'll be honest, until Ben got flung into the window, I really thought that we were witnessing him having some kind of schizophrenic breakdown. I still think he was faking the "conversation," and that's why he was so pissed that Locke could actually hear the guy. By the way, did Jacob's little utterance remind anyone (Eric?) of the scene in Independence Day when the alien, speaking through the long-white-haired scientist, says "Release.... Me....."? Similarly spooky. Oh, how I love it.

Shore!

We had our first Big Trip North last week(end). My cousin's wedding was in Cape May Courthouse, NJ (just a few miles inland from Stone Harbor), on Saturday, but Lea and I went up a week ahead of time to hang out in Exton, and Brian joined us late Wednesday night. Then we all drove to NJ on Friday to spend the weekend. It was a huge amount of driving but Lea did really well, all things considered.

Highlights:

Trivia at Brickside-- sooooo 2005. In all the best ways.

Driving around West Chester looking for a store that turned out not to exist except for online orders. Ok, that part sucked but here was the highlight: when I finally cut my losses and decided to go home, I had to turn around under an overpass of 202, which had, nestled underneath, a huge bird's nest, out of which emerged a very large bird. With a snake. Wriggling in its talons. It was awesome.

Sewing! For the first time since junior high home ec, I believe. I made this baby carrier, which took a few days, working a couple hours each day. Not bad at all.



Not the greatest pictures, but you get the idea. The best part is, she can sleep in this thing, which worked out well considering the events of the wedding weekend shot her napping and bedtime schedules all to hell.

We also had so much fun seeing little Alex, son of Scott (my cousin) and Christina. Christina and I shared the same due date (11-11), and both ended up delivering quite late. Alex beat Lea into the world by two days. Let me just say how strange and eerie and wonderful it is to observe another baby who is basically exactly the same age as Lea, and working on the same developmental milestones, and communicating with the same set of expressive abilities.

The babies were quite taken with each other. Particularly each other's feet.




The wedding itself was gorgeous. The ceremony was held in a courtyard at a really pretty B&B, and the reception was just inside the carriage house on the same grounds. Really beautiful.


And what's not to love about getting the kid all dressed up?



The next day, I insisted that we at least walk down to the beach for a minute.


Um. It was windy.