• 15 minute posts,  Family Matters,  out out out of the house!

    Disneyland for Joon

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    This past May, Joon turned 14. She’s at that age where it’s hard to get her to come out of her shell. She’s quiet and reserved. Basically, she prefers her own company to ours. It’s annoying but not unusual for teenagers her age.  You could say that we miss the old talkative, lively June who was bubbling with activity. We haven’t seen her in a while… But she came back in FULL FORCE when we took her to DISNEYLAND this last month! Who knew!

    Joon is just a Disney kid!

    Me, not so much. In fact, I consider Disneyland one of the layers of Dante’s Inferno.

    Exhibit A:

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    Covid anyone? I’m kidding. But it is a little hard to take being in small spaces with other people after being in a pandemic for a year. If I didn’t have fear of crowds before, I do have it now. Thankfully, Disneyland does a really good job of piping in fresh-smelling air to these small spaces and on a hot day, it was a bit of a respite from the burning sun.  I can’t really speak to the germ factor but it didn’t *feel* as awful as I expected it to.

    The best part was that there were no long lines like there used to be. I remember going to Disneyland back in the day and being okay with only riding three rides for the whole day. I mean, I wasn’t really okay with it but what could you do. Lines could be two and three hours long!  Ugh.  But not anymore! We went on July 2 and they were still using the reservation system so lines were short! I think the longest line we encountered was 45 minutes for Space Mountain. And as anyone knows, Space Mountain is worth the wait.

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    Space Mountain is my favorite. Payam and Joon went on it multiple times!

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    Joon was so happy. She babbled and sang along to the piped-in music the whole day. It was so good to have her back. Me on the other hand, kind of fizzled out as the day wore on. There’s only so much upbeat jazz music I can handle before I’m dreaming of a pause button and some good zen-out time. So when they rode Pirates of the Caribbean for the 2nd and 3rd time I chose to sit by the lake and imagine it peaceful if only I could turn the music off.

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    It was a long hot exhausting day. But it was a good day.

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    I hardly took any pictures. I’m not sure why. Maybe the magic just isn’t there for me. But I did find the lockers strangely photogenic!

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    Until next time, big guy!

    Funny story: they don’t have trams anymore to pick you up from the parking lot and drop you off at the park entrance. Instead, you have to hoof it through the hot sun for what seems like miles. Payam and I were joking about it with one of the staff members we found along the way and he told us that “The Mouse is taking a break to earn revenue before bringing back the trams.” We thought it was funny how he referred to Disneyland as The Mouse. So we’ll see you next time, Mouse, keep earning that revenue!

     

  • 15 minute posts,  heavy on photos,  Moody Blues,  photography,  place holder posts,  Slow News Day

    And then it was June

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    My summer has been going like these peonies: fast and furious. This month has been in such a great big hurry to make a flashy show and then get the hell over already. I’ve been meaning to blog since May about my trip to visit Susan in Grass Valley, Joon’s birthday, my mom having double knee surgery, and my constant trips back and forth to the desert…but in all the commotion I’ve somehow left my head unscrewed and it’s still swiveling around in circles making me a bit sea sick.

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    But I am still here! I’m busier than ever with work which is great. I’m stuffing in lots of family time and plenty of “hot girl summer” memories but I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to document them. So in the meantime here are some beautiful fleeting peonies.

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    Bursts of joy that make the maximum impact and then float to the floor as fragile whisps of their former selves, kind of like memories.

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    I have a giant print on my wall of some dead peonies fading on my dark scratched wooden table.  I love that print and the longer it hangs there in my dining room the more attached I am to it and to all fading peonies. They are the dark siren of the flower world. I join the masses who sing their praises.

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    So quick, so fleeting, so dramatic. Just like life.

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    I wish I had time to pick up each petal and remember them one by one by one by one. Maybe that’s what the afterlife will be like, just sorting through all the petals of memory. There surely are enough to last forever! Anyway, deep wandering vague thoughts that don’t make much sense. I’m just filling space until I can get back here to properly document things.